You couldn’t pay me enough to ride this bike

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I worked with a guy that held several bike records in the 80s. Buster Buckalew is his name. He ran the KZ1000 Kawasaki with a big single turbo hangin off the side and a bike drag radial wider than the 275 60s I had on the Chevelle I owned at the time. I don't remember what he ran, but I do remember he'd drink a 12 pack before he got on the thing. Amazingly, he never had an accident. I believe he ran some 8s at that time, I'm not sure. He was right up there with Vance and Hines at the time. He's still a crazy sumbitch.
 
This is the black one, I also have a blue one, at 13 lbs boost your hands have a problem holding on to the bars. Forget about watching the tack, once spooled, it's shift shift shift.
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Hello All,
Its great to see that Larry is still on top of his game and enjoying the sport that he helped to build along the way.
During the hay days of IDBA, Prostar and then AMA Prostar the colorful cast of bike racers and team owners (and sanctioning body officials) were legendary.
One that sticks out in my mind was the late Elmet Trett.
To see Elmer, Jackie, Gina and Kelly at the track was nothing more then amazing. The family built / prepared bike was a work of engineering art.
You never knew what to expect when he left the line....
Any way Congratulations to Larry and his Team.
I'm sure Jack O’Malley was looking down and smiling after Larry's record braking pass.
Happy Mopar :)
Arron.
 
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RustyRatRod said:
He ran the KZ1000 Kawasaki with a big single turbo hangin off the side
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Geez, I can't imagine. Those KZ1000's were scary fast without a turbo, lol. The KZ900 was no slouch, torque-y little buggers and with that short frame the front wheel spent more time in the air than on the ground..
 
RustyRatRod said:
I worked with a guy that held several bike records in the 80s. Buster Buckalew is his name. He ran the KZ1000 Kawasaki with a big single turbo hangin off the side and a bike drag radial wider than the 275 60s I had on the Chevelle I owned at the time. I don't remember what he ran, but I do remember he'd drink a 12 pack before he got on the thing. Amazingly, he never had an accident. I believe he ran some 8s at that time, I'm not sure. He was right up there with Vance and Hines at the time. He's still a crazy sumbitch.
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I can relate to the killing of a 12er before a Run....
 
Max1196 said:
This is the black one, I also have a blue one, at 13 lbs boost your hands have a problem holding on to the bars. Forget about watching the tack, once spooled, it's shift shift shift.
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Very nice looking bike. Looks like an ATP (American Turbo Pak) conversion. According to my memory, they bought their first GS750 for conversion from Southland Cycle Center in Garden Grove, California, when I was working there, around 1976. It may have been their first turbo conversion. When they were done, I could have bought it back (without the turbo) for a really reasonable price. A couple of years later I was working at Phoenix Kawasaki when the first KZ900/1000 conversions came out. We got an LTD and a Z!R. Boost from the factory was set around 5lbs as I recall and if you set the waste gate any higher (I think you could go to 10lbs) you were supposed to get the crank flywheels welded. We took the LTD (I think; it might have been a regular KZ) out to Beeline raceway in Phoenix to see what it would do. Of course we screwed the waste gate way down, and the heck with welding the crank. I was low man on the totem pole in the shop, so the shop foreman and “ace” mechanic let me know they’d ride it first, me not at all. When we got to the strip they put on a comedy show between themselves of ‘Okay (name withheld) you can ride it first, and “No, (name withheld) you can ride it first”, finally agreeing that I should ride it first since I was the only one of the three who had ever ridden a motorcycle on a dragstrip (my CB750K0 Honda in Oklahoma City at the now long-defunct San-Val Raceway in early 1970, where I had also run my ‘65 Dart GoGo in 1966.) My recollection is that it had no torque to speak of below 4,000rpm, whereupon it came on the powerband all at once. Getting a start, especially with the small stock rear tire, resulted in a bog, turning into tire smoke, and the stock KZ chassis flexing like it had a hinge in the middle. It got real squirrelly at the end of the quarter, when I noticed the front wheel was off the ground going through the traps. When I got back to the pits, the other guys said they’d pass. I made several runs that day, playing with tire pressure, etc, but it was pretty much the same story. All that said, an H2 750 was just as much of a handful with a stock tire. I built one for a guy ported to Denco specs with big carbs and Bill Wirges pipes, among other mods, that would stand straight up at about 65mph. This was long before the killer Suzukis, Kawi’s and Hondas we have today. The quickest bike I ever rode off the line was an RD350 Yamaha modded up with a bunch of trick RZ350 parts and road race slicks. When it came on the pipe, it was all you could do to hang onto the clip-ons and stay on the bike.
 
****, Y'all done Whooped my ***! I thought low 7s in the 8 th, on a 77 Ironhead Sportster was cooking! Oh well, I can always go back to pickin' on the 1000# Garbage Wagon dressers...
 
Funny story at an NHRA race a dozen years ago. The Top Fuel Harleys were running in Vegas then we went to the Stratosphere for dinner. Saw one of the fuel jockey's and team sitting at a table so we went and talked with them. One thing lead to another and we got talking about dangerous things, and my BIL in the Air Force reserve jumping out of airplanes. The jockey said, OH MY GOD, THAT IS NUTS, I WOULD NEVER DO THAT! I said you have got to be kidding me, you go 250 on a nitro bomb where the front tire touches down in the traps and you wouldn't skydive? LOL
 
Noe
HemiSSDart said:
Funny story at an NHRA race a dozen years ago. The Top Fuel Harleys were running in Vegas then we went to the Stratosphere for dinner. Saw one of the fuel jockey's and team sitting at a table so we went and talked with them. One thing lead to another and we got talking about dangerous things, and my BIL in the Air Force reserve jumping out of airplanes. The jockey said, OH MY GOD, THAT IS NUTS, I WOULD NEVER DO THAT! I said you have got to be kidding me, you go 250 on a nitro bomb where the front tire touches down in the traps and you wouldn't skydive? LOL
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Now, THAT, IS , the most I've Laughed in Days! Lol, Way Out Loud!
 
We used to go to the US Nationals every year just to watch Spiderman and his buddies run (well, that was the highlight anyways). I second the notion of Larry McBride being a very nice guy. He would talk to us more than anyone else there. Let my kid sit on the bike for pics, autograph pictures ( my kid had one hanging on his wall for 10 years) and give us old parts. Damn those bikes put on a show !! Never the same after NHRA dropped them. Screw them stupid sounding Harley's, ha-ha-ja !!
 
I'd much rather ride that thing than be couped up in a funny car
 
268 is insane, and I always thought my dad was nuts going low 9’s on his bike in the 80’s
 
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