CBX VS. HARLEY - Hawaii Raceway Park, 7/9/2003

Hey CBX'ers: Just got back from the strip, bigger crowd than usual for a Wednesday night so didn't get that many runs in, only six or so passes on the CBX…

Good 'ole DragBike Mike was out there early with his FatBoy Harley, he had already unloaded "Porkster" {as he calls his Harley} as I pulled my Toyota truck into the next space to his left. Mike gave me a hard time about getting there early--for most of the last several weeks I haven't gotten to the track until 8 or 9pm, but got there about 6:30 tonight, it was still light out.

Mike's feeling pretty good these days, his new motor in Porkster runs 11.3's all motor, and well into the tens on the Nitrous bottle. He's been wanting to race JOYOF6 ever since he rebuilt the motor, since running against my CBX with his old/tired Milwaukee mill I'd actually beat him a few times in our heads-up match races.

I knew he was ready to race me, so after I unloaded the silver CBX I drained all the extra gas out of the tank, pulled the RC Collins mufflers and ran bare header pipes, mounted the CBX number plate and warmed up the motor while I lubed and adjusted the chain. Mike fires up Porkster and takes a short ride to warm up his motor. After he comes back from his warmup ride we both suit up...we know it's time for the showdown: CBX vs Harley.

We've got mostly an "import" crowd tonight (all Hondas and Acuras and Mazdas and Toyotas, etc), but it is a big turnout for a Wednesday night at the strip, lots of cars in the pits and folks all over...DragBike Mike's Harley, with the big cube motor now and running uncorked as he usually does…his motor really rumbles and all the heads turn as we leave the pits...CBX growling through bare headers as I keep the RPM down following Mike, but the ground-shaking rumble from Mike's big V-Twin and the wail from my CBX six-cylinder are skywriting a new soundtrack for the evening-- it's showtime!

As we enter the staging lanes, we go for "Lane Zero"...aka the Pro Tree here at HRP...this is where all three amber lights on the tree come on at once and .400 is perfect : It is a real reaction game for the launch and a total rush for the rider.

For my JOYOF6 CBX, it is the first burnout of the night, so I make it a long one...I do a real slow ten count as my Bridgestone tire smokes up the sky (after several days of street riding, it takes that long to grind all the junk off my 130/90-18 Spitfire). Next to me, DragBike Mike is melting his Avon pretty good too, so the two of us laid down a pretty solid fog of tire smoke on the cars and bikes waiting in the staging lanes. As our motors rev up and the tires melt down, the crowd is really getting into it and making lots of noise...can't say I blame them, after lots of runs watching import cars make 15-second runs, the loud motors and major league burnouts from Mike and I really get the crowd's attention.

After 10+ seconds of converting solid Bridgestone rubber into smoke, I let go of the front brake and put both feet on the pegs, letting the tiremelt gradually turn into traction. This is the fun part, riding the tailwhip, tire-spinning CBX with my feet up as I exit the burnout box and drive the squealing monster up to the start line. The long burnout and smoking it all the way to the start line will give me max traction...and coupled with the infamous "hookup" factor of the tower lane at Hawaii Raceway Park, I should have all the traction I want, even with that skinny rear rubber.

Mike is in the right lane, aka the "Spectator Lane". He's eager to run, and lites the Pre-Stage bulb only moments after we finish our burnouts....I'm just screeching to a stop a few inches before the starting line, locking both front and rear wheels to stop after getting a little *too* much speed out my bleach box exit. Both DragBike Mike and MadMan JonnyB are at the line now, but my JOYOF6 (Hawaiian License Plate) CBX and I aren't in any rush; we take a moment to settle in. You know why? When running the "Pro" tree, as soon as both lanes have lit up the Stage bulbs, that durn Pro Tree just JUMPS out at ya' so fast! You can get a really lousy (slow reaction) launch if you're not totally ready ahead of time. I'm in the tower lane, which usually means great traction and for bikes, as well as some sudden and startling wheelies on occasion. So I am mentally settling in and am just lighting the Pre-Stage bulb when Mike lites up the *Stage* bulb. Jeez, dude, c'mon! Once both Stage bulbs are lit, we're done, we're gone. This is the important part, and I'm not gonna rush it, I intentionally wait awhile to slow the pace down...waiting until it feels right, and then light the Stage bulb while bringing up the R's up to 8K on that wailing six-cylinder motor as I prepare for launch.

WheeeeBAM! Three lights are on and I'm gone!.

Well, that's what it *felt* like...turns out it was a rather mediocre reaction time on the Pro Tree, only a .598 to Mike's .762. On this tree, a .400 would be perfect; reaction times starting with .5 are poor, but at least in the ballpark. Reaction times starting with .6 are bad, anything slower is dismal. In a nutshell, on this run? JonnyB was napping, DragBike Mike was sound asleep!

But what happened next was the absolute gem of the evening, and one of the highlights of this year's racing. I told Rick I'd make a few runs for him, and this one was the one for RC! I knew I'd primed the tire for maximum bite, and lined up right in the middle of the groove on the left lane. With the CBX motor wailing, I drop the hammer…and as I'm hooking up and leaving the line, the front end starts to climb! Uh oh! The stock CBX is really prone to wheelies, but JOYOF6 has that CB1100F front end and wheel/tire combo…much stouter and heavier than the stock '79 setup. And the forks are "strapped"…basically compressing the forks almost all the way to help launches and prevent wheelies.

But on this run, as badly as I want to beat that Harley, the front end is climbing too fast, too quickly, and I'm forced to grab a little clutch. The front wheel was about 24" off the ground and climbing, but after I clutch it the wheel drops down to a foot or so off the ground before I re-engage the drive train. Yikes, after letting the clutch out, front wheel is climbing again! It gets to that critical lift point almost immediately, that point where you either interrupt the power delivered to the rear wheel or loop it.

So I grab just a teeny bit of clutch this time, and here is where it gets real good: It was one of those "slow motion" events, where I felt like I had all sorts of time to monitor the situation and control the action. I'd been at full throttle ever since launch…totally pegged…just laying down on the tank with my chin over the bars trying to keep my weight as far forward as possible, and using the clutch just to keep the front end mostly pointed down track. The delicate and delightful interlude was that while leaving the motor pegged, the clutch could be used to determine the altitude of the front tire. It felt like there was no rush or hurry to handle this, I had lots of time to figure out how much clutch to feed, and ended up with the front wheel airborne for an extended period.

And the best part yet? After two quick and partial clutch slipping moments: The front end coming up, grab some clutch, front end drops enough so it's not critical…and a few moments later, front end coming up again, grab the clutch again to get the front wheel out of the loop-it danger zone.…by this time, the tire had yet to touch the track, but the third time? I grabbed just enough clutch to take the edge off the climbing wheelie, and after a moment, but the front wheel had happily settled into a cruising altitude a couple of feet off the deck while I've got the carb slides yanked hard against the roof.

So I'm flying down the track with the front wheel at cruising altitude, having slapped a major holeshot on DragBike Mike and his big motored FatBoy and hoping to keep the lead. And things are looking good: The CBX was headed down track at a pretty good rate, Porkster hadn't shown up in my peripheral vision yet, and the front wheel of my CBX was content to apparently just do a "fly by" the quarter mile pavement. But Houston? Umm, we have a problem…we're still in first, and the revs had now climbed well into redline so it was time to shift to 2nd. Uh oh. The front wheel hadn't touched pavement since I left the starting line…and back in the staging lanes, Roger Steiner was next in line with his '81 CBX and had a ringside seat of JOYOF6 carrying the front wheel most of the way down the track…Roger was admonishing me later that racing motorcycles down the drag strip usually required both wheels on the ground, not just one!

But as fun as the launch was, and being in front of DragBike Mike and Porkster so far, it was one of those defining moments…time to shift to 2nd gear in the midst of a hot and loooong wheelie that began at the starting line. The race for pride, glory, and bragging rights was at stake--CBX is out front of the Harley and has a chance at the win. Do I chop the throttle to bring the front wheel down, and then shift? Back off on the gas as a precaution before nicking it into the next gear? The CBX engine is screaming through open headers, already we're at 10,500 rpm and climbing, and the front wheel hasn't kissed the pavement since the starting line….You make the call!

Heck, you ought to know the answer by now, the rush only gets better when you put it all on the line…and yeah, with the motor pegged and front wheel in the air, Jonnyb bangs second gear hard! Burns a bit rubber when I engage the next gear, then she settles in. The amazing thing? Before, during and after the shift she didn't drop or raise the front wheel more than an inch from the original altitude…and other than a polite screech proffered by my banging a new gear at full throttle, our beloved CBX is such a docile sweetheart…handles whatever you ask, and still delivers everything you wanted and then some. JOYOF6 carried the front wheel through most of 2nd gear, then settled down and kept both wheels on the ground for the last half of the race.

And CBX vs Harley? Geez, I wish it was the perfect ending…I had the holeshot, I had the lead…and was ahead of DragBike Mike and his potent Porkster FatBoy…but at the finish line? Big Milwaukee twin got me by a mere .028 at 111.90mph. JOYOF6 was only 108.94mph, but led the entire race except the last few inches. AAUUGH! But carrying that front wheel on air through halftrack? Man, that put a grin on me that lasted the entire night…you can't put a price on that kind of rush, that kind of pleasure. There are so many ways our beloved CBX can enlighten us and bring us joy, it just amazes me that there are more ways to discover every day.

Jon Bratten
Honolulu, Hawaii