Dip a Trip to the Strip in my Whip...

[7milesout]

Hello Team Mirage!

I will travel this Friday evening to a drag strip about 100 miles south of my home. I will be taking my (new to me) murdersickle there for "Test N Tune." This trip constitutes the initiation of my L.A.R.D. project. L.A.R.D. = Lard Ass Reduction Drive. It's a combo trip of sorts.

1st - I have a small group of other local fat ass dinosaurs that ride motorcycles. We have a fake M.C., just for fun. There's 2 of us that are original members and 3 "prospects" that are wanting to "join up." I've told them that part of the qualification to joining is to go to the drag strip with the Prez (me) or V. Prez (another guy), enter, and be able to produce evidence of running the track in less than 15 seconds. Pretty easy on a sickle, and not such a difficult time to beat to cause a high enough pressure to cause a prospect to screw something up and get hurt. My bike is going to be in the low 12's. It can run high 11's with a good rider with smaller girth and bigger balls. We shall see what mine runs. I won a murdersickle drag race back about a hundred years (and a hundred pounds) ago.

2nd - The track has a weight scale. As long as it's working, I'm going to put me and the bike on it, just for data. But also because I will go back to the track in another 3 to 6 months. At that later time, hopefully the scale will indicate that my L.A.R.D. project is showing results. And subsequently my E.T. to be reduced. I'll also be weighing myself at home.

Here's where this is pertinent to our forum. I'm going to use The Blueberry as my Heavy Haul Tow Rig to take me to the track. It's hot out there! Especially for lard ass dinosaurs! Last night I was just doing easy crap out in the yard, and was sweating like a hoar in church. I checked the humidity and my app said it was about 65% RH. Had to be wrong. It felt like 100% humidity. I was just doing a bit of spray painting, and setting up a chimpmunk trap. Anywho...

I don't prefer to ride / sweat down there, sweat it out in the pits, drench a river into my helmet (multiple times), then have about a 2 hour ride home. So, I'm going to use the bike hauling utility trailer set up I just created, and keep the miles off the bike. And, if I have a problem with the bike, I break a clutch, blow a trans, whatever, I can still get home. I can carry some camp chairs in the car, all the apparel needed on the track, and roll down there efficiently and in comfort. I put a Condor front wheel chock mount on the utility trailer, and it holds the bike up by itself. I fixtured the chock to where the tongue / landing gear weight with the chock & bike is ~90 pounds, and 87 pounds trailer empty. With the chock minimal strapping is required. The load gate can be kept down. And I moved the center angle iron on the back side of the load gate to the side, and added another angle iron. Now I have 2 angle irons that form a kind of rear tire guide to keep the back tire from hopping to the side if trailering over rough roads. A picture of the setup is below.

I'll have better pictures to post up in here early next week. Plus I'll post my time slip data and fuel economy data in case anyone may be interested. I will be safe, both on the track and on the tow.

[Mark]

Add a hitch to that cycle, and you could probably tow the Mirage!

[7milesout]

The bike does have more displacement, power and torque than the Mirage. Hehehehe.

[7milesout]

Just for giggles - I averaged 28.3 mpg pulling the bike on trailer. That's with running full A/C. I cruised at 65 mph a couple times, and 4-lane split highways. Hilly terrain, hot as blazes, very little steady speed cruizing though.

The next more efficient vehicle would be the GMC Sierra. Under all the same conditions, it might have gotten 17 mpg ... maybe. With full A/C, maybe more like 16.5 mpg. Blue truck is roughly the same, but diesel fuel is quite a bit more expensive. So 28.3 versus 17 is fairly impressive. I think it would do 33 mpg or so if I could cruise the interstate and not have to run the A/C. Speculation.

P.S. - The bike ran in the 12's.

[Mark]

P.S. - The bike ran in the 12's.

Don't use the bike to tow your Mirage!

I take back what I said earlier!

[7milesout]

I'll give a word of advice to do towing like this. I bought a cheapie hitch bar from Wally-World. No problems for buying many things from Wally-World. But this cheapie hitch bar is undersized (height and width), and makes all kinds of noise moving around inside the hitch. It's a quality issue, I didn't buy the wrong one. The noises are quite unsettling. Especially at 65 mph. I guesstimate that the tires on the trailer are not perfectly balanced. And at 65 mph, the tire vibration is getting input to the trailer frame, and passed into the hitch / hitch bar. And makes all kind of racket inside the hitch. I'm going to have to get a mo' bettuh hitch bar.

The noises are, like I said, pretty loud and unsettling. But if you've done this install yourself, and saw how it is bolted right to the underbody, you can understand why the noises are like this. I recommend buying a hitch bar for the Curt hitch, either from Curt or another good manufacturer on Amazon. Just my $0.02 worth.

[Fummins]

I'm still tempted to try towing my side by side with my Mirage but it's around 1700lbs plus whatever a trailer would weigh(around 1000lb). My biggest fear would be stopping in a hurry so trailer brakes would be a thing.

For your rattle how about something like this? https://amzn.to/3PfmiO9

[7milesout]

Oh heeeeell yeah! Never knew such a thing existed. Thanks!

[MightyMirageMpg]

12s is plenty fast, nice.

I'm still tempted to try towing my side by side with my Mirage but it's around 1700lbs plus whatever a trailer would weigh(around 1000lb). My biggest fear would be stopping in a hurry so trailer brakes would be a thingl]

Stopping aside, Ide be worried about tongue weight. The hardware that came with the curt hitch wasn't "that" big, and the mounting point metal isn't very thick. Debate welding some plates on the side of the hitch mount to subframe, or even just welding the seams where the hitch mount meets the chassis

Ive bumper pushed/pulled a few cars short trips, and there was that other guy that bumper towed a little car between states lol the car would probably take the abuse otherwise but that's a risky amount of tongue weight

[Fummins]

Hold my beer