The clocks didn’t stop and the world kept turning after Episode 50, so I figured I better get Episode 51 out on time. Bill Snead, my guest on this episode, sounds like a fairly unassuming guy. He goes to work every day and does photography stuff for a university in North Carolina. Only every now and then, he decides he wants to chase a world land speed record – and that, friends and subscribers, is what our discussion is all about.
You can follow Bill on Facebook (Shutterpilot Racing) and I dug up some articles about him on the old internet, too. There’s this one on the Duke website about his trip to Bonneville, and come to think of it, there’s his “Blue Devil of the Week” profile, also on the Duke website.
Bill mentions a couple things during our discussion I wanted to provide links for – the first is Bombar’s Beemers. Funny story: once upon a time when I worked at an independent BMW repair shop almost every day of the week, I answered the shop phone. Turns out is was the folks at Bombar’s calling; one of our vendors had mistakenly sent them a package meant for us. We got it cleared up pretty quickly, but I don’t know if they ever received the parts they were waiting for! Anyway, the other thing Bill mentioned isn’t a thing, it’s a person – Hiro Koiso. You should definitely check out his Bonneville story.
When it comes to the news, well, my conversation with Bill was kind of long, so in the interest of keeping the episode under an hour, there’s only a few news stories this time around. The lead story is the development of a new sub-liter-class superbike from Ducati. They might call it the Panigale V2, we’ll see how that pans out. (The article is in German, so you might have to use internet magic to translate it.) Piggybacking on that is a piece about improving motorcycle sales in Europe, and to further the European theme to this episode’s news is the opening of a KTM museum in Mattighofen, Austria. (Ducati V2 spy photo from Motorrad Magazin.)
Even though I mention Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire in passing, even the electric bike segment is about something happening in Europe: Triumph is teaming up with two government agencies and three other companies to develop their Project TE-1 electric motorcycle. No details on anything about it yet – kwh, mph, range, weight, etc. – and not even any speculation. We might see a prototype in a couple years, we might not. It’s a great reason to stay tuned to Chasing the Horizon, because you know when I find out, you’ll find out!
Speaking of mentioning Harley in passing, here’s the link to the Cheddar interview with Brand President Neil Grimmer I promised you.
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We’ll see you out there somewhere on the road – or off it! Ride safe.