Big Red (motorcycle)
Big Red was the machine with which American Don Vesco took the motorcycle land-speed record, 405.25 kilometres per hour (251.81 mph), on September 17, 1970 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
 Big Red at Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum | |
| Manufacturer | Don Vesco |
|---|---|
| Assembly | c. 1969 |
| Successor | "Silver Bird" streamliner |
| Class | Speed record streamliner motorcycle |
| Engine | Two, 350 cc two-stroke, two-cylinder Yamaha motors |
| Frame type | Monocoque body (drop tank) |
| Brakes | Parachute assist |
| Dimensions | L: 5486 mm |
At Bonneville Speed Week in 1969, Vesco took Big Red to a speed of 365 km/h (227 mph). The following year, with the five and a half meter long motorcycle built from an aircraft drop tank, he undertook several more attempts to break the 395.363-kilometre-per-hour (245.667 mph) record set by Robert Leppan in 1966. He succeeded in setting a new record of 405.25 km/h (251.81 mph). A month later, the record was broken again: Cal Rayborn reached an averaged 427.25 kilometres per hour (265.48 mph) in two runs in opposite directions.
The bike is now an exhibit of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.[1][2][3]
References
- Graham Clayton (January 1, 2008), "The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum", Motorcycle Mojo, retrieved 2014-09-15
- Greg Smith (November–December 2005), "The Barber Vintage", Roadrunner
- "El Dorado de la moto: Barber Vintage Museum" [The dreamland of the motorcycle: Barber Vintage Museum], Motociclismo (in Spanish), January 4, 2007
- 1969 - 1970 Don breaks motorcycle landspeed record, Team Vesco, archived from the original on 2014-02-09, retrieved 2014-01-18
- Power, speed and drag, Yamaha (Europe), retrieved 2014-01-19
