![]() One of the best things about running a motorcycle at the salt flats, as opposed to a car, is that it's very accessible. You can look at all of the current records for the BNI trials in this PDF (motorcycles start at page 22 of 40). Pictured above are the 500cc with Wilhelm Hertz (210 mph) and 50/100/125cc (they had 3 different motors) NSU machines with H.P. For example, the record for 50cc, streamlined, blown, fuel motorcycle was set by NSU at 121.7 mph in 1956, a record that still stands today. There is a speed record for every combination of classes imaginable at Bonneville. (Note: I'm using pictures of bikes at El Mirage I took last month, but the same bikes run at Bonneville) Several times a year though, this ancient lake bed is a motorsports Mecca. A company harvests minerals out of the salt, about where the word Google is on the bottom of that picture, but that is about all the flats are good for besides racing. The area is so salty that nothing grows there, and so arid no one wants to live there. ![]() The salt flats are about 125 miles west of Salt Lake City, UT, 375 miles north of Las Vegas, and 450 miles east of Lake Tahoe. This image from Google overhead spy satellites shows you just how much nothing is out there. For more than 100 years people looking for large, flat areas in which to set speed records in cars and on bikes have flocked to Bonneville. The origin of this unique 30+ square mile area is much older though, stretching back to the Ice Age when an even greater salt lake covered most of what is now Utah. Despite being a desolate, lifeless desert for about 300 days a year, the Bonneville Salt Flats may be one of the most exciting places in the whole state of Utah. ![]()
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