Silver Bird was a

motorcycle land-speed record The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires 2 passes ...

setting

streamliner motorcycle A streamlined motorcycle is a motorcycle with a fairing that goes beyond a 'full' or 'dustbin' fairing, to form an aerodynamic shell to minimize drag. This helps attaining higher top speeds, as in the motorcycle land-speed record, or increased e ...

. It was powered by two motors delivering . It was the first motorcycle to set a speed record over , when ridden by

Don Vesco Don Vesco (April 8, 1939 – December 16, 2002) was an American businessman and motorcycle racer who held multiple motorcycle land-speed and wheel-driven land speed records. In his lifetime, he set 18 motorcycle and 6 automobile speed records. ...

at the

Bonneville Speedway Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed recor ...

in 1975.

Construction

The motorcycle was built by Don Vesco and sponsored by

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

. It had two four-cylinder, 694.9 cc reed-valve two-stroke engines from the

Yamaha TZ750 The Yamaha TZ750 is a Production vehicle, series production two-stroke race motorcycle built by Yamaha Motor Company, Yamaha to compete in the Formula 750 class in the 1970s. ''Motorcyclist (magazine), Motorcyclist'' called it "the most notorious a ...

racebike.

Specifications

*Displacement: 1,389.8 cc total *Engine bore and stroke: 64mm×54mm *Dimensions: 21 feet long, 32 inches high *Weight: c.

References

Notes

Sources

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External links