THE  CHANCE OF BURSTING INTO FLAMES!

The fear of Tilson’s bike running out of gas, and the interference of his bike overheating triggered an attempt to refuel much earlier than necessary. Tilson’s tank being practically full caused the refill gas to pour all over Tilson and his overheating bike. Tilson had real worries he might burst into flames, he was now covered with gas and water while fighting ruts and grooves, a wheelie, slippery pegs, a slippery seat, the pacing of the truck next to him, and the urgency of trying to figure out what to do while somehow communicating this without a radio connection to Karl or anyone else, and still dealing with an overheating bike, and intermittent bogging.

52-MILE WHEELIE ENDS WITH LIQUID EVERYWHERE & FRONT FENDER BLOCKING AIR-FLOW TO RADIATOR

To this point, that hadn’t learned the front fender of Tilson’s CAGIVA was blocking air-flow to the radiator and causing the engine to overheat. When the bike was level, there was no issue. On short wheelies, the bike wouldn’t yet overheat, so there never appeared to be an issue until the super-long non-stop wheelies were attempted. Fighting ridiculous levels of interference, when Tilson pulled away from the refuel, his mid-wheelie up-shift attempt slipped and his wheelie immediately ended at 52 miles.

A 100-MILE WHEELIE APPEARED EVEN MORE IMPOSSIBLE, BUT THERE WAS NO QUITTING

THERE WAS NO QUITTING: After a moment of dismay and defeat (even though at this point Tilson had already surpassed the best of any other claimed wheelie record by over 45 miles), a new plan to improvise quickly developed. Kent and Karl rushed to Kmart and bought Tilson new shoes and clothes so he didn’t have to continue being covered in gas and water. Terry Varner, the CAGIVA mechanic took the front fender and front number-plate off, then bent the radiator mounting brackets forward so that once on a wheelie, the radiator would be standing straight-up for air to hit it and cool the water in the radiator (rather than the radiator laying on it’s side once the bike reached the wheelie position). Tilson’s second attempt to be the first person in the world to wheelie over 100 miles on a motorcycle was back on track!

FIGHTING A LEARNING CURVE THROUGHOUT THE 112-MILE WHEELIE

With the mile counters starting back at zero, Guinness officiators still present, and live broadcasters rolling with the ups and downs still hopeful, Tilson was back up on a new wheelie with no option in mind to fall short of a 100-MILES. Though he’d caught a second wind after roughly an hour downtime, he faced more unforeseen challenges...the demanding learning curve of riding without a front fender, which changed the aerodynamics of the bike and therefore drastically changed it’s handling, especially on a wheelie cruising at about 33 mph. Then there was the radiator adjustment causing the radiator to stick straight up in the air blocking Tilson’s view. A 100 mile wheelie was against all odds.

WHAT A FEELING!

Overheating was no longer an issue. Though Tilson didn’t have the advantage of communicating with a pit-crew via helmet radio, he did stash a walkman and wire 80’s style ear buds into his helmet. Most notably inspiring to Tilson during the wheelie was the radio song “What a Feeling,” an upbeat hit that put him in the zone of what he says God inspired him to do long ago.

PLAN B (REFUELING)

The second refuel of the day came about 70 miles into the 112-MILE wheelie. Learning from the earlier refueling mishap, Kent was more cautious not to send too much gas down to Tilson’s bike. It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried to anticipate refueling problems and correct them in advance, it was that they didn’t anticipate what would happen if they refueled too early. On the other hand, they had anticipated removing the gas cap off the stock gas tank during a wheelie would mean gas pouring all over. To avoid that, Tilson and Karl had developed a special CAGIVA gas-tank-cap-refueling-elbow that mounted onto the stock tank during the long-distance wheelies. Doing so eliminated gas from pouring out of the tank when the cap was taken off during a wheelie, however not if overfilled.

DOWNSHIFTING INTO A ONE-HANDED WHEELIE REFUEL

Another custom refueling component was the portable two-gallon metal gas tank with a long PVC pipe extension and flexible rubber hose on each end that had been made. Kent held the portable tank up in the back of Karl’s truck with the boom extending out towards Tilson who while wheelieing would have to unscrew his special gas tank cap, and then without looking left too much, grab the flexible hose with his left hand and set it into the tank for refueling. Once the flex tube was in place, Kent would turn the tank nearly upside-down to send gas down the extension to the bike. On the second refuel Kent gently tilted the tank. Upon refueling, Tilson had to screw the gas cap back on with his left hand during a one-handed wheelie. Making refueling more risky, Tilson had to downshift going into refuels, and upshift coming out. Refueling had to be done at slower speeds, especially with the track as rough as it was. Karl’s focus while pacing for refuels was to reduce distractions as much as possible so that Tilson could concentrate on balancing his wheelie through the relentless obstacles.

SHUMATE’S 112-MILE NON-STOP WHEELIE VICTORY

After refueling at about mile 70, Tilson wheelied on past sunset and into the night. Ascot Park owners gladly fired up their stadium lights. Tilson pressed on becoming the first person to ever wheelie over 100 MILES, a non-stop wheelie lasting 3 hours and 27 minutes and spanning 112 MILES…after a 52 mile wheelie that same day.

A VICTORY OVER BIG MONEY

Karl says Amediato was bent out of shape after Tilson’s Wheelie Wars victory, especially that it occurred on Tilson’s personally designed   CAGIVA wheelie bike —– opposing Domokus’ big-money dirt bike sponsorships. Amediato complained to Ascot Park track owners that they should not have donated the track time to Tilson for the long distance wheelie. Then Amediato claimed professional Ascot track owners did not have a true 1/2 mile oval. But even if that were so, it didn’t matter because aside from refuels, Tilson mostly wheelied around the outside of the track (rather than on the inside). That begs the question, “was Tilson’s barrier-breaking wheelie actually further than 112 miles?”

RUSHED RIVAL ATTEMPTS TO BEST TILSON’S RECORD FAILED

In a rush, Amediato demanded that nobody touch the track, he was going to have Doug Domokus wheelie this track under the same exact conditions within a matter of days. When that happened, Karl says Domokus couldn’t make it through the rough track conditions and only made it about 5 laps, then 7 laps until he finally quit. Alternative facts were reported to Cycle News, that a wiring harness on Domokus’ bike kept breaking, and that he instead went 12 miles. Karl says if that’s true, the track conditions were to blame for breaking the harness. Guinness Book officiators were present waiting for Domokus’ long-distance wheelie that never came. They came back to Ascot Park another day where Domokus allegedly wheelied 51 miles until his “hand went numb.” Domokus conceded to Tilson’s Ascot Park record, left, and never returned to wheelie it.  At some later date Amediato had Domokus at Talladega’s smooth asphalt track where Amediato claimed Domokus exceeded 112 miles. Tilson’s comical response when asked about that claim?: “Russian Interference.” (i.e. Russian subterfuge, pre-Ukraine of course). According to Karl’s 2022 memory of these events, Guinness Book officiators were not present for Talladega, and even if they were, Amediato had lost the 100-MILE wheelie war for his “client” (athlete Doug Domokus). Tilson before hitting the 100-MILE wheelie at Ascot stated, “I’ll compete for that name ‘Wheelie King’, I’ll accept any challenge. Today, I’m out to prove my name and set a world record.” In 2022, Tilson says he wishes Domokus had not died so young, Tilson says he liked Domukus and would have had another guy to wheelie with.