With road racing series like Moto GP, and AMA superbike taking all of the racing glory, motorcycle racing gets all but forgotten. Drag bikes even play second fiddle auto drag racing. Never-the-less motorcycle drag racing is offers a rush unlike any other. A rider straddles what's little more than a monsterous engine attatched to a even more monsterous slick, and rockets down the strip at 250 miles an hour, all while try to keep the front tire on the ground.
Motorcycle drag racing started to get organized after the war in the 1950's and 60's. Riders would modifiy their Harleys, Triumphs, and Nortons for straigh line speed. The sport grew in the 1970's and 80's with big bore superbikes from Japan.
Drag bikes are seperated into two different types stock based and modified. Stock based bikes start off as regular production bikes which are then modified for drag racing, these bikes can get into the 7 second quarter mile bracket. The modified type such as top fuel and funny bikes are fabricated race bikes with tube chassis and are purpose built. These bikes can cover the quarter mile in 5 seconds in speeds exceeding 240 miles per hour.
Some early top fuel bikes
There are several different governing bodies for drag racing. The two biggest are the AMA dragbike series, and the NHRA super stock series. The AMA offeres several different classes, the NHRA offers one class. The NHRA super stock class had historically been dominated by four cyclinder Japanes bikes, but since Harley's involvement in the series with the V Rod,
V twins have become the favored configuration.
Bikes of the NHRA Pro Stock
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