We’ve seen the flyers all over the place, and again at the Born Free 3 event. The West Coast Premier of The Salt Ghost-Return of the Nitro Express was going to be playing at The District. The District is a cool little bar and grill just west of the Circle in Old Towne Orange, CA. The same place, where in 1976 I saw a motorcycle fly through a plate glass window of one of the shops. Not by coincidence, but for the movie The Gumball Rally.
Anyway, back to the Salt Ghost. My baby and I rolled the ’56 Ford down Chapman to watch the show. With Jeff G. Holt’s we were sure to see a bunch off cool old-school choppers and bobbers there, coming in from his latest Street Chopper issue release party. The Orange Plaza was ripe with some old iron. Inside, on the stage in a midst of cool red and blue lights was The Nitro Express. A time trials racer from the late ’60’s to early ’70’s famed at rolling 140+ at El Mirage.
A tale shrouded in a bit of mystery and intrigue. Keith Martin of Big D Cycles in Dallas found the bike at the Bub Speed Trials swap meet in 2005, after a few hours he had the beast running to the amazement of the old man who was selling it. Fast forward a couple of years as the bike was sitting in Keiths shop Wes White from Four Aces prodded Keith to sell it to him in ’09. In comes Tyler Malinky of Lowbrow Customs and the two decide to document the rebuild and get this beast back on the salt where it belongs. I say rebuild. They didn’t tear it apart and repaint and chrome it, but simply built it back to a state where it could race again on the salt. They took it to El Mirage to have it tested and inspected and with a couple of tweaks here and there they were able to get it certified to run on the white stuff at Bonneville.
You have to see the film to learn the rest. A must see for any motorcycle enthusiast. Well shot and edited, a bit of suspense and some laughs as well.
For us, watching it on the monitors throughout the bar among about 200 friends and fans standing about was truly a delight. You can view a trailer HERE. Order the DVD HERE.