Missoula distiller's Bonneville speed record proves short-lived

PETER FRIESEN peter.friesen@missoulian.com Aug 31, 2018

The victory was short but sweet for Ryan Montgomery. ... Just days after he broke a record at the Bonneville Salt Flats Motorcycle Speed Trials Aug. 26, Montgomery’s record was broken by the only other racer in his class.

“I had figured that might happen,” said Montgomery, who with his wife Jenny owns Montgomery Distillery. “I got to be the record holder for about 72 hours and that’s good enough for me.”

Montgomery, who was racing a motorcycle he restored and that ran on “heads” from the vodka distilling process, broke the previous track record of 97 mph going 114 mph.
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Montgomery’s class is made up of motorcycles running between 650cc and 750cc, running on alternative fuel, rather than the gasoline provided by the Bonneville Speed Trials. ... Dennis Weinhold, the other entrant in Montgomery’s class, had a 1974 Honda CB750 bike that had almost 100cc on Sudden Wisdom’s 654. That gave Weinhold the speed to get his motorcycle up to 140 mph.
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Sudden Wisdom: Vodka-fueled motorcycle heads from Missoula to Bonneville Speed Trials

PETER FRIESEN peter.friesen@missoulian.com Aug 26, 2018
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Ryan Montgomery and Colin Cornberg push the bike from Cornberg's shop last week to load it on a trailer bound first for Missoula, then the Bonneville Salt Flats near Salt Lake City. Montgomery intends to race the bike several times during four days of competition.

KURT WILSON, Missoulia



Distillers at Montgomery saved up about 10 gallons of "heads" since winter to run the bike. The fuel, like Montgomery's spirits, comes from grain grown on Montgomery's father's farm near Lewistown.

KURT WILSON, Missoulian

Clear for takeoff: Distiller's vodka-fueled motorcycle sets land-speed record

Raise a glass to Missoula couple's ingenuity

Tony Markovich Sept. 7th 2018 at 12:15PM

It's been used in the movies a million times: A character takes a swig of the hard stuff, pours it all over a room, flicks a flame, and sets the scene ablaze. Regardless of whether the logistics of such an event are plausible, the idea is that ethanol from the grain alcohol is flammable. The owners of Missoula, Montana-based Montgomery Distillery took this premise and put it to work by using vodka to fuel the combustion engine on a backyard-built 1980 Yamaha racing motorcycle that set a land-speed record.

The Missoulian newspaper reported that Ryan Montgomery and his wife, Jenny, take ethanol from the "heads" off Quicksilver Vodka ("heads" are leftovers from distilling that are too impure to drink) and use the stuff to run an old XS650 bike. And not just for a ride around town. The Montgomerys used this bike to set a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The motorcycle was categorized at Bonneville as an alternate-fuel-powered 650cc-750cc partially modified motorcycle from 1980 or older, for which the record was slightly slower than 98 mph. The Montgomerys hit 114 mph, according to the Montana Standard.

Montgomery had never raced or built a speed motorcycle before, but some simple tweaks allowed him to get the bike safely running and driving. According to the Missoulian, he has a cutoff switch attached to a wristband like on a jet ski. He wrapped the fuel line in fireproof material, wired bolts on the front fork and drain plugs on the bottom of the engine, and removed the front brake to save weight. (Plenty of room to slow down on the salt flats.) ... "It's a little scary," Ryan Montgomery told the Missoulian. "And it's a little scary doing it on a bike you built yourself." ... Most important, he re-jetted the carb to allow more fuel flow, because the bike drinks the vodka twice as quickly as traditional gasoline. The fuel burns clear, he says, and smells slightly fruity.
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