Cycle owner talks about speed record
Gregg Dahl’s motorcycle won’t be the flashiest one visitors will see at the Cycles in the City event in downtown Uniontown on Saturday, but it will be the fastest. He set a drag-racing record for street-legal motorcycles in July and then broke his record earlier this month.
His success earned him and his bike, which he built at his shop, GMS Racing Engines in Uniontown, a photo on the bottom half of the cover of American Iron Magazine’s November issue. The cover can be viewed on the magazine’s website AIMAG.COM.
Dahl, a Hopwood resident, said it will be the first time American Iron featured a race bike on its cover.
The magazine owns the American Motorcycle Drag Race All-Gas Series (AMDRAGS) in which Dahl set and broke the speed record.
He set an AMDRAGS record by tearing up a quarter-mile strip in 9.77 seconds traveling at 137 mph at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading in July.
Because AMDRAGS is a new series that started this year, Dahl said all previous street-legal drag racing records were wiped away.
The previous series, Fastest Legal All-Street Harley (FLASH), was folded into AMDRAGS, he said.
After his victory in Reading, Dahl said brought his bike back to his shop off of Pittsburgh Street and made additional improvements because he knew the other competitors would be tuning up their bikes to beat him the next time.
“They weren’t a bunch of lightweights,” Dahl said about the eight racers he faced. “There were present and past world champs in other sanctions. They were all 9-second bikes.”
The next time came Sept. 9-10 at Maryland International Raceway in Budd’s Creek, Md., and Dahl was ready.
He crossed the finish line in 9.40 seconds at a speed of 141 mph.
“It blew their minds. They never saw that coming,” Dahl said. “Everything I did worked. I got lucky this time.”
After revamping his bike to prepare it to defend his record, he said rainy weather prevented him from test-riding it before the race, as he would normally do.
His machine will be set up at the National Road Harley Davidson display at Cycles in the City. National Road Harley and the Cleveland Motorcycle Co. of Mentor, Ohio, are his race sponsors.
Cleveland Motorcycle loaned Dahl several antique motorcycles to display at the event.
One of the antique bikes, a 1916 Indian Power Plus, will be set up in the lobby of the State Theatre Center for the Arts for Friday night’s showing of “Easy Rider” and “The World’s Fastest Indian.”
Like the Indian that Anthony Hopkins races in the later movie, Dahl’s bike was stock when he bought it and modified for racing.
“This bike evolved,” Dahl said. “I had it since 1988. I bought it with 13,000 miles on it.”
It was a Harley Davidson Super Glide with a factory 80-cubic-inch engine, but only the neck, which contains the serial number, and the kickstand remain from the original bike.
“Everything else is either modified or gone,” Dahl said.
The stock motor was replaced with a high-performance 143-cubic-inch S&S power plant and the frame was cut and stretched to accommodate the larger motor.
He hand built the swing arms and many other parts in his shop.
“The heads were raw castings machined from scratch,” Dahl said.
While a number of items, like the speedometer, were removed to make the bike lighter, the new motor is heavier than the original. In the end, he said the race bike weighs about the same as a stock Super Glide.
Unlike pure race bikes, Dahl’s bike has a headlight and taillight so he can ride it on the street.
“People see me riding home with a quart of oil between my legs,” Dahl said. “People relate to street bikes.”
AMDRAGS insists on them.
“It’s got to be a street bike,” Dahl said. “These are real bikes that go up and down the street.”
Before racing begins, race officials make sure all the bikes are suitable for street riding. He said officials check competitors motorcycle licenses and insurances.
Next, they follow the competitors on a test ride. After riding for 15 to 20 miles, all the bikes have to be parked for five minutes, restarted and then driven back, he said.
During those five minutes, the motorcycle engines are hotter than when they are running because there is no airflow to cool them, Dahl explained.
Dahl, whose father and brother are also mechanics, said he started racing cars when he was 16 years old and then began racing motorcycles about 20 years ago.
He opened a machine shop on his father’s property in Hopwood in 1990 and relocated to Varndell Street in Uniontown before moving to his present location four years ago.
Business is booming, he said, noting that he often works late nights on customer’s bikes and engines. He tries to dedicate Saturdays to working on his bikes.
This Saturday’s Cycles in the City will be a day off.
“Just a hang out deal. It’s fun, laid back, ” said Dahl.