Bob leppan biography children

Underneath its thick fiberglass skin is a chrome-moly frame that was fabricated. When it was completed later that year, the Gyronaut X-i was arguably the most advanced land-speed-record motorcycle, featuring an on-board fire-suppression system, pneumatically activated landing gear, and the latest Deist parachute and safety gear to go with its handsome and aerodynamic body shell.

At the Bonneville Salt Flats in August , the machine averaged Its terminal velocity was sufficient to go unchallenged for four years. The sight of the bike being rolled out of the trailer in its fresh circa paint made its rider and former owner, Bob Leppan, more than a bit chuffed. By the time Leppan, his business partner Jim Bruflodt, and the crew from their Detroit Triumph dealership had loaded Gyronaut into their big diesel transporter and were on their way to Utah, they were already down by 20 mph.

The four big Amal GP carburetors previously set up for methanol were now jetted for nitromethane to give about hp. Right off the trailer, running a percent nitro load, Gyronaut fired off consistent qualifying runs above mph. One official run through the USAC speed traps was October 21,, dawned and the Triumph-Detroit crew rolled Gyronaut as far back from the starting line as possible, near to where the salt meets the entrance road.

This meant Leppan had to cross a long stretch of bumpy salt starting out, but with a mph first gear ratio, he wanted to get the best possible run into the measured mile. I closed the throttle and pulled the parachute cord, but the bike was already airborne.

Turns out Bob is Bob Leppan

When the ER doctors told Leppan that his arm would have to be amputated, he demanded to be flown to a Los Angeles hospital—the stretcher mounted across four seats on a commercial flight—where arm-saving surgery was performed 14 hours after the crash. Slowly, Leppan regained partial use of his hand. But despite wanting to build an all-new speed-record bike, the demands of running his dealership and family life took precedent.

The mildly repaired Gyronaut X-i chassis was run one last time at a Michigan dragstrip in then partially disassembled and stored.