It is my great pleasure to announce that I will be piloting (hopefully not crashing) my friend Leon, from Cycle Icons Royal Enfield "
Badger" at the upcoming
ECTA Ohio Mile this September 29th and 30th. The East Coast Timing Association runs Land Speed Racing events on an old runway - we will be running 4 classes both fuel and gas in the partial streamlined and un-faired categories.
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| The Badger in it's original street trim. |
The badger project is the brainchild of Leon Stanley, of Trenton NJ. The original concept was to take an old left over parts bike and hot-rod it for racing, yet make it street legal. In theory you could ride it to the track, race it and ride it home - just like guys did back in the 50's. A cool concept in my opinion, though back in the 50's guys were racing local tracks against other bikes of the same era. In this day and age, in order to compete in a vintage race you may need to travel 800 miles or more if you live on the east coast. Not an easy feat. Reality set in on the Badgers maiden voyage to Ohio. Riding the Enfield out the PA turnpike was grueling. The bikes concept shifted to an all around bike that could be raced in all categories of vintage competition, while remaining a daily rider in the interim.
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| Badger 2.0 ready to flat track. |
No a Royal Enfield is not known for speed. So making the 22hp motor move the 370lb bike a little faster is a challenge in it's self. Leon has found a lot of horse power in the machine by porting and flowing the head, increasing the compression and generally tweaking EVERYTHING that spins.
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| A recent version of the ever evolving Badger. |
It's mission is always changing. The result? A lot of fun.
