Cayla Rivas: The Teenage Girl Earning Landspeed Records & Defying Perceptions

“Bonneville doesn’t care if you’re male or female, young or old, it’s all the same salt, it’s all the same record book”

Chasing landspeed records on two-wheels is a monumental undertaking, requiring a superbly coordinated group effort, months ( or more) of preparation, expert mechanical knowhow, dogged determination, and of course, a brave rider at the helm. While the words “landspeed racer” typically conjure up images of 40 or 50-something-year-old guys on stretched forced induction machines, one California teenager is changing that perception, and setting records in the process.

Meet Cayla Rivas, an 18-year-old Fresno-based racer and FIM landspeed record holder. Rivas recently partnered with Royal Enfield to build and campaign a salt flat racer based on the marque’s new 650cc twin platform. Rivas’ goal was to beat out the standing 100.3-mile-per-hour FIM World Record in the 750 Open (OHC) Class.

Crafting A Record Breaker

To transform the stock 650 into a record-breaking racer, Rivas and her team called on renowned engine experts, S&S Cycle, to help squeeze every possible ounce of oomph out of the mid-sized twin. With the power plant sorted, famed UK-based superbike chassis outfit, Harris Performance signed on to fabricate a purpose built (hardtail) frame for Cayla’s racer.

“There’s no textbook for building a Bonneville bike,” explains Cayla’s father, Chris Rivas. “We literally pulled the engine out of one of Royal Enfield’s development bikes and have turned that into a race engine. The heart of the engine still carries back to the street bike but the chassis and everything else we’re using at Bonneville is a pure race Harris design.”

Documenting her journey was Freeride Entertainment, a Seattle-based content studio that’s previously produced slick videos for big-name outfits like Samsung and Redbull. Directed by Jeremy Grant (Freeride’s entertainment director), the short film depicts a condensed version of Rivas and her teams’ week in Utah, comprised of candid quotes from Rivas and the gang played over gorgeous professional quality drone shots and the like, utilizing both cutting-edge 8K Red cameras as well as retro Bolex 16mm film.

Even with a crack team of mechanical gurus on hand, there’s always an element of uncertainty when it comes to chasing triple-digit landspeed records. Every tiny issue is amplified exponentially when at speed, allowing for a very small margin of error. “You know, you build a new bike and you think you’ve done a good job, you think you’ve thought of everything, but you don’t really know until you’ve run it,” stated Harris Performance co-founder, Lester Harris.

Attempting A Record Speed

But despite the unpredictable nature of landspeed racing, Murphy’s Law failed to come into effect, and Rivas and her team achieved success right out of the gate. “Went out for our first run and broke the record first try at 132mph,” Cayla proudly states, holding up her official FIM record slip.

That 132mph speed was just the beginning too. “Once it makes the first run, now you can bring the bike back and that’s when the mechanics and technicians all get to work to get this thing ready to go even faster,” explains Chris Rivas.

And even faster it went. By the end of the week, Cayla and the team broke their own record several times over, eventually leaving Utah with an FIM record of 157.053mph. “When Cayla comes off the salt there will be people that’ll wait for us to congratulate the rider, and she pulls her helmet off and all this hair comes out and their jaws hit the ground, they look at her almost confused,” says Cayla’s father, who first started bringing her to Bonneville when she was just 12-years-old.

Kicking Ass & Taking Names

While the 18-year-old obviously enjoys achieving speed-records (considering she now holds a baker’s dozen of them!), Rivas places a lot of value on what she refers to as “shattering peoples’ expectations”.

“They look at me and think ‘Oh, you’re just an 18-year-old little girl, what could you do?’. I don’t even have to tell them, you just go out and show them on the bike,” says Cayla, adding, “It’s pretty fun to break these old mens’ hearts and take their records.”

God Speed Cayla. God Speed.