Silverthorne Man Sets Record on 71-Year-Old Triumph at Bonneville

Aspen —82.216 miles per hour. That is the speed Chas Haynes hit on a Tuesday in late August, two weeks before this story broke. He was riding a 71-year-old Triumph Tiger T110 across the Bonneville Salt Flats, a landscape so flat and white it looks less like Utah and more like the moon.

For context, that speed is faster than a Formula 1 car on a straightaway. And the bike? It’s not a modern machine with carbon fiber and computer-assisted fuel injection. It is a vintage motorcycle, modified to meet specific class rules that require pre-1956 engines.

Haynes, a 61-year-old Silverthorne resident, has now set six land speed records. He isn’t a factory racer or a corporate-sponsored athlete. He is a guy who grew up in Europe with a father who worked for the company that owned Harley-Davidson. "There were always motorcycles around me," Haynes told the Vail Daily. "I learned to ride at probably nine or 10 years old."

The path from European childhood to high-speed salt flat racer wasn’t a straight line, though. In 2018, Haynes went to the Salt Flats as a spectator with a friend. He watched others tear across the salt and made a decision that year: he was going to do it.

The next year, 2019, he shipped a motorcycle from Italy to the United States. He found a mechanic who understood those specific bikes. They met at Bonneville. His first attempt? A disaster.

"It seemed quite easy, but when you get out there, with the altitude of the Salt Flats and the conditions, it really was difficult," Haynes wrote.

But they learned. The following year, he brought two bikes — one British, one Italian — and set a record. Since then, he has returned year after year, setting records in various classes each time. He calls it "salt fever."

Here is the logistical reality of this hobby, because it is not cheap or easy. The motorcycles do not live in Silverthorne. They live in Austin, Texas. That is where the mechanic is based. Haynes’ team holds biweekly conference calls to figure out what needs fixing, modifying, and tuning.

When race time comes in August, the bikes are shipped to Utah. Race officials then tear down Haynes’ motorcycle piece by piece. They verify that the engine and frame comply with the specifications for his competition class, the 750 M-VF. Only after that verification can he ride.

The Vail Daily reported that Haynes spends all year preparing, even though the championships are held just once each year. The 2026 American Motorcycle Association’s Land Speed Grand Championship ran from Aug. 23-27. That is a five-day window where the world’s fastest motorcycles on salt converge near the Utah-Nevada border.

Haynes described the experience as "almost like another planet." There are very few places in the world where you can go for seven miles in a perfectly straight line. That is why these races happen there.

For locals, this is a story about time and money spent far from home. Haynes lives in the foothills of Colorado, but his bikes live in Texas, and his records are set in Utah. He is a neighbor who spends his free time on conference calls about engine modifications and shipping logistics for vintage metal.

The practical bottom line? If you want to set a land speed record on a 71-year-old motorcycle, you need a team, a mechanic in another state, and the patience to survive your first disastrous attempt. Haynes did all three. He is now the fastest in his class, and he will be back next year to try for another record.

The salt flats wait. The bikes are already being prepped in Austin.