Some guys get all the cool stuff.
Take, for example, Jay Leno. The Tonight Show host is a bonafide motorcycle nut, and has more resources than most to feed his addiction. One fix is this Y2K Jet Bike, made by Marine Turbine Technology in Louisiana.
Bernard Juchli, who lives in Burbank, California, and works for Jay at the star's personal garage, had the bike at this year's AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days in Lexington.
Juchli, who's also a vintage roadracer, was taking the bike back to the Louisiana factory for some updates and made a detour to VMD to race himself. When the folks promoting VMD got wind that Juchli had the Jet Bike along, they asked him to do a couple laps to show it off.
It's totally different than anything you've ridden before," Juchli (right) explains. "There's no instant power. It builds slowly. You really have to get it up to 80mph before anything starts to happen. Then, when you cut the throttle, there's no compression braking at all, so it's all brakes."
The Jet Bike uses a C18 Allison helicopter engine. Jay's bike is the second made and the first customer bike out of 18 in existence. Juchli says it's going in to get an electronic update and to have the oil tanks removed and the oil routed to inside the frame.
This is Juchli's first trip to VMD, and he says he's impressed.
"I like the track, and I like VMD," he says. "I race on the West Coast, and we don't have anything like this. This is huge."
Juchli's really looking forward to the swap meet.
"So much stuff is sold on the Internet these days, but it's still good to see something and talk to the guy selling it," he says. "That's the problem with the Internet these days, and with texting. I don't get that at all. You already got a phone in your hands. Just call me."