Thankfully, BAKER Drivetrain’s big, experimental event-spectacular during Sturgis Bike Week, “The BAKER Burnout Drags” held Friday, August 8th in Sturgis was a notable success! Major bleed-over audiences from the Dierks Bentley and Staind bands at the Legendary Buffalo Chip were treated to an extra visual delight of loud, smoky, and chaotic entertainment by some our most prominent bike builders in the industry. The BAKER Burnout Drags was a simple tournament of eight contestants that would race to be the first to a 5th gear burnout, one-on-one at a time – drag race style, that is. The winner of all the heats won the contest.

Rarely before has an audience seen such orchestrated mayhem which summoned their curiosity, and then fervor. The eight custom bike builder contestants (listed below) began the competition with a humble desire to have fun amongst friends. Then instinct, the spirit of competition, and the roar of the crowd (stimulated by a boisterous MC, Rob Bydos, of Parts Unlimited) overcame the participants and the friendly burnout competition turned into a race of reckless abandon. As the over-excited crowd crammed right up against the edges of the burnout cage in an uncontrolled throng only seen in a mosh-pit, they witnessed unruly abuse as tires smoked, clutches fried, transmissions blew, auto-shift systems failed, and expensive paint jobs got knocked to-and-fro within the turbulent burnout cages.

Of course, what is seen as abuse to many products is built into the design of BAKER products. There were no failures in any BAKER Drivetrain products that the majority of the contestants were equipped with. The winning bike had a BAKER 9-pate performance clutch, their standard clutch, and it experienced the fasted shifting and fastest pounding of the day. Though there were many impressive bikes from drag bikes, to power-assisted-shifting bikes, to hot rod baggers and to lightweight bobbers the winning bike was a lightly-modified Harley-Davidson Dyna that Bill Dodge of Bling’s Cycles rode to 1800 miles to Sturgis, won the drag races, and then amazingly rode home on.

Avon Tyres exemplified an affectionate boldness by supporting such an adventurous endeavor. They supported the wild spirit of motorcycling by thanking the contestants for competing by providing them brand new rear tires for bikes that raced. Spectro oils shown support for our scene as well by being a contributing sponsor also.

In the end, chaos and comradery reigned. That’s what we love about bikers. This manifestation is THE sign of success.

THE CONTESTANTS:

61528; Bill Dodge of Bling’s Cycle (Winner!)
61528; Gard Hollinger of LA County Choprods
61528; John Shope of SSinister Choppers
61528; Jerry Covington of Covington’s Cycle City
61528; Eric Gorges of Voodoo Choppers
61528; Jeff Cochran of Sucker Punch Sally
61528; Scott Long of Central Coast Cycles
61528; Brian Klock of Klock Werks