Another cycle of life
By Tim Gallagher Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, September 02, 2007
Kent Lohrenz of Sheldon, Iowa, left Friday to race this Buell cycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He hoped to race at 150 miles per hour. (Photo by Tim Gallagher)
SHELDON, Iowa -- Before leaving for Labor Day weekend, Brent Stille had one item of business to do.
"I'm going to the law office to sign my will," he said.
He wasn't joking.
When you spend the holiday traveling on a cycle at 150 miles per hour, an unsigned will is one detail you don't leave undone.
"He'll be a lot safer than he would be driving from Sheldon to Sioux City," said Janet Lohrenz, who might also get to race in the speed week event at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. "Even though you're going that fast, there aren't any deer or rodents or other drivers to worry about on the road."
The road, in fact, is a dried lake bed.
"The salt gets as hard as concrete," said Kent Lohrenz, the man behind this local effort. "It's the hardest, fastest surface on earth."
And it's where this trio will spend the weekend, attempting to set their own personal record by riding the Buell cycle Kent built on the quarter-mile strip. He has spent two years and some $12,000 (no labor included) building this dream.
"And that's at dealer cost," said Kent, who has owned and operated K&J Cycle with Janet for the past 23 years.
Not always a racer
To get at the drag-racing bug that has infected the Lohrenz family, you need to go back four or five decades to the William and Barbara Seivert farm between Sheldon and Ashton, Iowa. That's where Janet was raised. Her father, she said, was crazy about motorcycles. He passed the passion on to her.
She started her career by getting a job at Glen's Sports Center in Sheldon. "I've always loved motorcycles," she said. "That's one reason I got a job at Glen's."
While there, she had to contact a school in Minnesota that offered a program for motorcycle mechanics. Glen's needed a technician. "I wrote a letter to the school up there and asked them to send me an applicant," she said.
Kent Lohrenz, a native of Mountain Lake, Minn., responded and headed to Sheldon for his interview. The two exchanged small talk as Kent waited for his interview. He landed the job and five years later married the receptionist/office manager.
Three years later, they opened their own business and have been at it ever since, buying, trading and selling used cycles and new mopeds. They also repair and sell parts for cycles and ATVs. The business, located on Highway 18 West, employs three.
In addition to introducing Kent to Northwest Iowa, Janet exposed him to the world of cycle racing. She had drag raced in Omaha in the late 1970s.
By the late 1980s, the couple was taking trips to race at Thunder Valley in Marion, S.D., and also in Sioux Falls. They would occasionally hit drag strips in Scribner, Neb., and Humboldt, Iowa.
Kent grabs a copy of an old program and shows his name at the top of the point standings in Sioux Falls in 1987. Janet was a member of his pit crew back then, and his biggest cheerleader.
Their racing fever dissipated in the 1990s. It came back two years ago when Kent decided to rebuild a Buell, which is Harley Davidson's version of a sport bike.
"This Buell, from 1995, is one of the first ones made," he said. Two years ago he bought what he calls a "host bike" to tear apart for this project. He utilized a separate chassis.
The resulting creation is a 105-horsepower cycle that could reach 150 miles per hour. The engine size has increased from 1,200 cc to 1,450 cc, 74 cubic inches to 88.
"We raised the compression ratio from 9.8 to 1 to 12 to 1," he said. "It has a different carburetor, a different exhaust pipe and different cam shaft. I rebuilt the engine totally and machined the engine cases to accept larger cylinders."
But he's yet to drag it in the open. The most he's done is take it around Sheldon.
He has mounted his Buell on the Dynamometer at their shop. The Dynamometer has a 750-pound drum that the bike rotates as a computer spits out diagnostic information. Those readings -- and his mechanic's touch -- have him predicted the 450-pound bike will reach 150 miles per hour.
"This began as a dram and our original idea was to drag race," Kent said. "But we've taken it further."
Stille, a pharmaceutical sales rep by day, is an apprentice at this shop. He has enjoyed his front row seat in the cycle-building process. "I'm learning this all from Kent," he said. "Among master mechanics, he's so highly regarded. Kent learned all of this before the age of computer diagnostics. He goes through all of the science with his mind and hands. It's been a wonderful learning opportunity."
The two men started their 1,200-mile drive to Utah on Friday. Janet flies from Sioux Falls this morning (Sunday) to join them.
At the Bonneville Salt Flats, race organizers will scrutinize every inch of the cycle. They'll also demand that all racers complete various medical tests. They don't want folks racing who have severe asthma or high blood pressure, for example.
One-hundred-sixty cycles have pre-registered for the competition. Racers are coming from all over the U.S. and places like Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and Australia.
Can a racer from little Sheldon, Iowa, win?
"No," Kent said. "There was a Streamliner that went 357 miles per hour last year. It's just fun to be out there with the fastest cycles and three-wheelers in the world. You could say this is our Super Bowl."
The trio is simply happy to be there. And no matter what happens, they plan on returning next year. That is, if daughter Tina agrees.
"If we catch the bug, we'll be going back next year," Kent said. "The only hang-up might be daughter Tina's wedding in October."
Janet said Tina and Adam Brown of Sioux Falls would take their honeymoon a bit earlier. What better place to celebrate than at Bonneville Salt Flats?
"It'd be a great place to spend a honeymoon," said the mother of the bride.
See how they did
See the Journal this week to learn how fast the K&J Buell cycle went over the weekend at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
"I'm going to the law office to sign my will," he said.
He wasn't joking.
When you spend the holiday traveling on a cycle at 150 miles per hour, an unsigned will is one detail you don't leave undone.
"He'll be a lot safer than he would be driving from Sheldon to Sioux City," said Janet Lohrenz, who might also get to race in the speed week event at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. "Even though you're going that fast, there aren't any deer or rodents or other drivers to worry about on the road."
The road, in fact, is a dried lake bed.
"The salt gets as hard as concrete," said Kent Lohrenz, the man behind this local effort. "It's the hardest, fastest surface on earth."
And it's where this trio will spend the weekend, attempting to set their own personal record by riding the Buell cycle Kent built on the quarter-mile strip. He has spent two years and some $12,000 (no labor included) building this dream.
"And that's at dealer cost," said Kent, who has owned and operated K&J Cycle with Janet for the past 23 years.
Not always a racer
To get at the drag-racing bug that has infected the Lohrenz family, you need to go back four or five decades to the William and Barbara Seivert farm between Sheldon and Ashton, Iowa. That's where Janet was raised. Her father, she said, was crazy about motorcycles. He passed the passion on to her.
She started her career by getting a job at Glen's Sports Center in Sheldon. "I've always loved motorcycles," she said. "That's one reason I got a job at Glen's."
While there, she had to contact a school in Minnesota that offered a program for motorcycle mechanics. Glen's needed a technician. "I wrote a letter to the school up there and asked them to send me an applicant," she said.
Kent Lohrenz, a native of Mountain Lake, Minn., responded and headed to Sheldon for his interview. The two exchanged small talk as Kent waited for his interview. He landed the job and five years later married the receptionist/office manager.
Three years later, they opened their own business and have been at it ever since, buying, trading and selling used cycles and new mopeds. They also repair and sell parts for cycles and ATVs. The business, located on Highway 18 West, employs three.
In addition to introducing Kent to Northwest Iowa, Janet exposed him to the world of cycle racing. She had drag raced in Omaha in the late 1970s.
By the late 1980s, the couple was taking trips to race at Thunder Valley in Marion, S.D., and also in Sioux Falls. They would occasionally hit drag strips in Scribner, Neb., and Humboldt, Iowa.
Kent grabs a copy of an old program and shows his name at the top of the point standings in Sioux Falls in 1987. Janet was a member of his pit crew back then, and his biggest cheerleader.
Their racing fever dissipated in the 1990s. It came back two years ago when Kent decided to rebuild a Buell, which is Harley Davidson's version of a sport bike.
"This Buell, from 1995, is one of the first ones made," he said. Two years ago he bought what he calls a "host bike" to tear apart for this project. He utilized a separate chassis.
The resulting creation is a 105-horsepower cycle that could reach 150 miles per hour. The engine size has increased from 1,200 cc to 1,450 cc, 74 cubic inches to 88.
"We raised the compression ratio from 9.8 to 1 to 12 to 1," he said. "It has a different carburetor, a different exhaust pipe and different cam shaft. I rebuilt the engine totally and machined the engine cases to accept larger cylinders."
But he's yet to drag it in the open. The most he's done is take it around Sheldon.
He has mounted his Buell on the Dynamometer at their shop. The Dynamometer has a 750-pound drum that the bike rotates as a computer spits out diagnostic information. Those readings -- and his mechanic's touch -- have him predicted the 450-pound bike will reach 150 miles per hour.
"This began as a dram and our original idea was to drag race," Kent said. "But we've taken it further."
Stille, a pharmaceutical sales rep by day, is an apprentice at this shop. He has enjoyed his front row seat in the cycle-building process. "I'm learning this all from Kent," he said. "Among master mechanics, he's so highly regarded. Kent learned all of this before the age of computer diagnostics. He goes through all of the science with his mind and hands. It's been a wonderful learning opportunity."
The two men started their 1,200-mile drive to Utah on Friday. Janet flies from Sioux Falls this morning (Sunday) to join them.
At the Bonneville Salt Flats, race organizers will scrutinize every inch of the cycle. They'll also demand that all racers complete various medical tests. They don't want folks racing who have severe asthma or high blood pressure, for example.
One-hundred-sixty cycles have pre-registered for the competition. Racers are coming from all over the U.S. and places like Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and Australia.
Can a racer from little Sheldon, Iowa, win?
"No," Kent said. "There was a Streamliner that went 357 miles per hour last year. It's just fun to be out there with the fastest cycles and three-wheelers in the world. You could say this is our Super Bowl."
The trio is simply happy to be there. And no matter what happens, they plan on returning next year. That is, if daughter Tina agrees.
"If we catch the bug, we'll be going back next year," Kent said. "The only hang-up might be daughter Tina's wedding in October."
Janet said Tina and Adam Brown of Sioux Falls would take their honeymoon a bit earlier. What better place to celebrate than at Bonneville Salt Flats?
"It'd be a great place to spend a honeymoon," said the mother of the bride.
See how they did
See the Journal this week to learn how fast the K&J Buell cycle went over the weekend at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
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