ABOVE: Hilo Drag Strip
Understandably: They were gunning to race bicycles.
But these, obviously, are no regular bikes. Built on a shoestring as a pandemic diversion for his family, Neill C. Davis Jr. cobbled together these gas-powered bikes from salvaged parts and cannibalized two-stroke engines. Neill, a self-proclaimed speed demon, his son Odin and wife Tanya, who got her first dirt bike at age four, knew their creation was fast. But how fast?
On Hawaii Island, speeds are officially measured at Hilo Drag Strip, a track sanctioned by the International Hot Rod Association. "When they first came to the strip in 2021, everyone laughed. A bicycle with a motor? And they gotta pedal!" recalls veteran moped racer and performance engine builder Darin Akiyama. Luckily, Keith Aguiar of the Hawaii Drag Racing League headquartered at the county-owned facility, is an engine guy. "Retrofitting a bicycle with a chain-saw motor? The ingenuity is fantastic." After consulting the rule book and calling in the vehicle inspector to assure safety compliance, the Davis bike got the green light.
Tanya Davis revs up on Whirlwind, a gas-powered bike built by her husband, Neill C. Davis Jr., at Hilo Drag Strip. The 1970s Schwinn beach cruiser, modded with a seventy-five-cc engine, clocks over fifty-five mph.
"It was July 4 and the strip was packed. I'm at the starting line shaking. I knew nothing!" says Neill. After some quick coaching by drag racing videographer Mike Balbarino of 808 Fuel, the novice pedaled furiously to break inertia and let the bike fly; it clocked fifty mph. The crowd went wild and the Davis family was hooked.
Neill went on to retrofit a vintage Schwinn—christened Whirlwind —with a racing engine donated by Don Butler of Don's Speed Shop, and Tanya, a daredevil with motocross racing in her blood, offered to jockey. "I spent the first two years learning, working my way up. By the 2023 season I knew what to do to compete," she says. Tanya, a clever strategist, started winning dial-in competitions (the winning rider crosses the finish line closest to a predetermined time) against $50,000 motorcycles. "Those guys started getting upset," says Aguiar, "losing to a lady, on a bike—it was kinda funny."
After making modifications to Whirlwind for the 2024 season, Tanya will likely break her 55.82 mph record set in Hilo. And they want more: In September the family will travel to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, where Tanya aims to break the land speed record for a motorized bicycle. "With that setup," predicts Don Butler, "she will legitimately be the fastest person ever at Bonneville on a gas bike."
