Remember my story about Jim Giuffra And His AFT Custom Girls? As promised, the custom Honda 750 cc named Kemosabe (means “Faithful Friend”) that the girls built under his supervision is getting salted in Bonneville with 2 of the girls and Jim taking turns to make it go as fast as they can. Jim is so proud of them that he sent me this report.
Cyril, “We started building Kemosabe in Oct. ’09 as a show bike but also to prove that we can ride what we build Most people don’t realize it has a radiator under the seat. We have high performance cam & piston kits for the VT750. We also had Dave Bozzie port & polish the heads..We decided to build the bike to meet the rules of AMA for the BUB Speed Week.
It’s a little more difficult to build a cool looking bike to meet the rules. 2 of the 8 AFT Girls (Sukhee/Shelby) felt confident enough in their riding ability to also ride the bike at speed. On top of that a film crew was filming us from start to finish for a tv show they are working on. The girls had a blast building the bike & it’s cool for me to see all of their skill levels rising. The bike won it’s class at the L.A. Calendar Show & Rats Hole Sturgis. It took 6th Metric at AMD. Now for Bonneville – We rode the bike part of the way to Bonneville so we could test it a little. The bike made it there & ran 7 times plus practice runs off the track with no problems. Best times – Shelby 98.15 Jim 104.14 Sukhee 107.25. Expect 2-3 more of the AFT Girls to be on the salt next year – they’re hooked! Mike Chase came out to photograph the girls for some posters & Horst got some good photography as well. Even though 6 of the girls didn’t ride this year they are extremely proud to see something they created safely compete at Bonneville & win shows. Racing is truly a team endeavor. We’re going to experiment with some different exhaust designs & gearing before next years event. Bonneville is truly a special place & we would like to thank Linnea at BUB for all her help. Her advice to the girls at sign up was ” Ass back, tits on the tank, don’t go fast – get a spank” (she kills me). Now the bike comes apart to de-salt it for Artistry in Iron Las Vegas Sept. 30th – Oct 2nd AFT Customs (pictures H. Roesler)
good job AFT Customs & CREW!
see you next year or sooner.
ray wheeler racing usa
Onya Jim and girls, well done!
Way to go Jim and Girls. Enjoy your time on the salt.
Leave the salt on it! peace
Awesome job AFT team! See you guys out in Vegas at the Artistry in Iron show.
The salt flats were incredible! I imagined it would be fun, but I didn’t imagine how much I love going fast. I was nervous every time, butterflies in my tummy took on new acrobatic skills, but once the green flag waved, it all went away. There is so much to learn, but I did get a glimse of what it’s like to “Fly.”
Congrats Jim! I am so pleased and impressed with your success. Thanks for the update and thank you Cyril for showing us an award winning builder and his team’s metric.
congrats girls, im very proud of you..& after all the incredible stories I heard so far, next year can’t roll around fast enough 🙂
Bonneville was such an amazing experience. I had a blast washing all the incredible bikes race down the salt. It was a proud moment for me to see Kemosabe fly down the salt by Sukhee, Shelby, and Jim. Us A.F.T girls put so much time and effert into Kemosabe. It felt amazing seeing our hard work paid off. I’m hooked for life! Can’t wait for next year. Hopefully one day i can race myself!! Thank you all for your great support. 🙂
This team deserves some very heavy Kudos for every year creating customs from Japanese bikes. It is quite the challenge but this team keeps cranking em out. Jim is an awesome leader and patience to share his talents with his team. Great job and DON’T stop. Looking forward to next years bike. And now that you have had a taste of the salt its addictive isn’t it.
Congratulations to Jim and all the Girls making up the AFT Team ! I`m from Mokelumne Hill, and its nice to see Good people from our little piece of the world make good !
It is addictive – Mike wished you could of made it. I think 2 more girls will join Sukhee & Shelby on the salt next year. They’re stoked! – now if I could just get them to wash the truck & trailer………….!
Great AFT bike project again this year Jim, congradulations!
You and the AFT models do more to promote the sport and industry than anyone I know.
Thanks for always premiering your AFT great bike builds at the LA Calendar Motorcycle Show each July, and letting us feature your builds and bikes on FastDates and in the Iron and Lace Calendars!!