TURNIP EATER SPORTSTER

It was in 1969 that Leo Payne’s famous ‘Turnip Eater’ (said to be a reference to the American-made machine eating up British-made brands on the drag strip) set several records, including hitting a top speed of over 201 mph, en route to an average of 196.512. His trap speed of 201 made Payne the first rider in history to push a non-streamliner to over 200 mph.

His bike, which started life a s a 1957 Sportster, was towed up to 70 mph before he fired it up to begin the run. To save weight he used a single-speed transmission, which meant he had to slip the clutch up to about 110 mph. That year he broke the existing class record by a margin of 43 mph.

Payne won numerous titles and set countless records in the often informally sanctioned motorcycle drag races of the 1960s. Payne was noted for his consistency on the drag strip where his runs rarely varied by more than a few hundredths of a second.

He won with single-engine bikes during an era when dual- and even triple-engine dragsters came into vogue. One of Payne’s secrets was shaving a great deal of weight off his Sportster-based dragsters. He eliminated all unneeded parts and removed enough metal to get the normally heavy Harleys down to just over 300 pounds.

He was one of the first motorcycle drag racers to use the burnout method of warming his rear tire. These tire-smoke-filled pre-race rituals often psyched-out his opponents.

Payne was a HD mechanic and a master at building special carburetors to run a nitromethane and gas combination. Payne’s designs helped S&S Cycle launch a successful line of racing carburetors.

Source: AMA Hall of Fame