It's hard to be believe it took so long. But better late than never. In spite of being the dominant European road-racing brand for so many years, Ducatis have always been strangers to the salt. And sightings of desmo V-twins at America's annual festival of speed record attempts on the Bonneville Salt Flats are very rare indeed. But at the 2012 FIM-supported BUB Bonneville Speed Trials in September they finally hit the salt running, with three very different Ducatis successfully chasing AMA Land Speed Records in their respective classes. So, alongside the Ducati 1199 Panigale that ran 202 mph to set a new twin-cylinder Streetbike record (only to be out-sped by Andy Sills' BMW S1000RR, which broke fast lady Leslie Porterfield's previous Honda CBR1000RR mark by 4.5 mph to establish a new outright box-stock Production record at 204.784 mph), and the Now Salt Team's rider Günter Retsch, setting a two-way average speed of 169.063 mph to break the AMA's 1000 APS-BG record (for altered chassis, as in non-production-framed streamliners with forced-induction engines running on pump fuel) with his curvaceous turbocharged Ducati 999-engined streamliner, the most improbable desmodromic speed record so far was set by 43-year-old construction worker Mark Bjorklund, from Bellingham, Washington, on another 999cc desmo V-twin - his much-modified S4RS Monster, a 2007 bike that has now officially become the World's Fastest Monster. A small town on the Pacific Ocean (just a long stone's throw from the Canadian border), Bellingham's prior claim to fame in bike terms was as hometown of former Formula 750 World Champion Steve Baker, whose huge Yamaha dealership dominates the local two-wheeled scene. But now Bjorklund has commandeered local headlines by setting a new 1000cc A-AG AMA record (altered frame, with a normally aspirated engine, running pump gas) at 166.360 mph on the Sodium Distortion team's Ducati S4RS Monster-based special concocted in Bellingham's Super Rat custom shop (Super Rat | Super Rat Motorcycles | Super Rat Clothing | Super Rat Racing). And it all began with a wrecked bike he bought on eBay. For the complete feature, click on the following link to go to this week's edition of Cycle News... Cycle News - November 6, 2012
cant make my mind up about the megacans but an impressive bit of kit that...question though..how the bloody hell do you hang on to a naked bike at those speeds?
So why show a photo of a stock bike Surely should be titled The Worlds Ugliest Ducati Monster :biggrin:
