I don't want to slow down the loading of the page, so I haven't included any thumbnail photos, but I've included a description and file size of each photo that is available.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: I'm retaining copyright to the photos that I've taken, though I don't mind people using them on their sites as long as I get attribution as the photographer (and a link to my site would be nice too). Copyright to photos taken by other people are retained by their respective copyright holders. I've attempted to abide by the "fair use" clause in the copyright laws. I've given attribution where available to the source of any photos that I didn't take. There are some photos from different publications, and while some of these publications are still in business others aren't. I'm not deriving any monetary benefit from these photos (in fact, it costs me to have them loaded on my ISP's server), and I have sincere doubts that my providing photos from publications of 25-40 years ago (especially defunct publications) is denying income to anyone. All photos are offered as a service to interested members of the motorcycling public. However, should someone who retains copyright to any photo that appears here object to the photo being made available, I'll remove the link to the photo upon request.
Here is a list (in order of appearance) of links to the different section. Please keep in mind that there is some cross-over between sections, so it might pay to look at everything just in case my method of classifying the photos doesn't quite match up with the way you would have divided them.
Craftsmen and Innovators
Dirt Bikes
Other Stuff
Categories of photos on the second graphics page:
Road and Roadracing Motorcycles
My Honda F-150 frame This is the first frame I designed and built. We tried to get a Formula Ford-style roadrace class started in the mid 80's based on the 100/125cc Honda 4 stroke single. Rules for that class are posted elsewhere on the site. 56K jpeg file
My Honda 216cc road racer on the frame fixture This is the second frame I designed and built. It is a Seeley MKIV style frame for my 216cc (175cc based) Honda 250 GP vintage racer. 16K jpeg file
The Honda 216cc road racer at Laguna Seca This picture was taken at the 216's first race at a Laguna Seca national. I didn't have the fairing mounted at that race. 90K jpeg file
My Honda 216cc road racer with fairing This picture was taken at Sears Point. 54K jpeg file
My Laverda SF2 750cc road racer at Las Vegas I first raced the SF2 in the stock frame, with 16"x3.5" front and 18" x 3.5" rear Astralite wheels. A Buell aluminum core front rotor and a Hunt plasma-sprayed aluminum rear rotor were gripped by Gold-line Brembo calipers. The 2-1 high pipe is was also used on the later special-framed bikes. This version of the engine, when put on the dyno, was putting out about 50 bhp. Photo circa 1987. 56K jpeg file
My Laverda 750cc road racer at Sears Point No, this isn't a hyperthyroid Super Hawk! This is the fourth version of the Laverda frame I designed and built, and the first that made it to the track. I built the frame and swing arm, tank, exhaust, sheet-metal triple clamps, etc. 330 pounds dry, 74 bhp @ 8000 rpm. 29K jpeg file
A detail of the front disc carrier and caliper hanger on my Laverda road racer Note the 25mm hollow front axle. The disc carrier is scheduled for some additional metal removal. 28K jpeg file
Laverda disc center Here are two shots of the disc center I made for the Laverda race bike. I'm going to take some more weight out of it before next season. 28kb jpeg file
Two pictures of the sheet-metal triple clamps. These shots show the parts to the triple clamps, a completed clamp, and the fixture I built them on. 54K jpeg file
The MK3 version of my Laverda 750cc road racer I built this version of the frame when I was going to race the Laverda in the Twins class instead of vintage. The frame design predated the similar-looking Ducati Mostro by 2 or 3 years. The photo was taken at night in my garage, so the colors are a bit odd. 43K jpeg file
A detail shot of the MK3 version of my Laverda 750cc road racer This photo is of the steering head area of the frame when it was on the frame fixture. Note the extreme triangulation in the photo (8 tubes supporting the steering head). 75K jpeg file
A picture of me and my Cagiva 650 Alazurra road racer in the pit area at Sears Point. I moved the motor foward 1.5", steepened the rake to 26 degrees, put on 1000 Moto Guzzi triple clamps to reduce the trail, lengthened the swing arm, and braced the frame. Craig built the head pipes, and I hydroformed the megaphone 37K jpeg file
A side view of the Alazurra at Sears Point. 68K jpeg file
Dual caliper brake This photo shows the dual caliper/single rotor front brake I made on my TT500 road racer. I built this in the early 1980s. The two calipers were equivelant to a 4 piston Brembo. 72K jpeg file
A not very sharp instamatic picture of me on the very stock TT500 at my first road race at Oak Hill (Henderson TX) in 1978. 56K jpeg file
Side views of the KR framed TT500 with Yamaha 4 shoe front brake, with and without Dunstall tank. Circa 1979/80. 75K jpeg file
I was pleased to hear from Jean François Vicente in France, the current owner of the Kenny Roberts' framed TT500 roadracer I built in the late 1970s. JFV runs a shop that specializes in the TT/SR/XT bikes from Yamaha. You can reach him at : jfvicente@wanadoo.fr
Chuck McAvoy Chuck was AFM 600 Superstreet champ one year on his Dick Mann-framed 500 Honda single. We teamed together on my Yamaha single (shown here) for one of the Budweiser-sponsored 4 hour races at Sears Point. The exhaust valve adjusting screw backed out after a couple of hours and punched a hole through the rocker cover. 48kb jpeg file
An air-cooled 510 Husqvarna road racer I built this bike around 1991. I purchased the Astralite wheels, aerodynamic seat, and leading link fork from Craig Hanson. 54K jpeg file
The Husqvarna on the frame fixture This is a shot of the Husqvarna frame while it was still under construction. 55K jpeg file
My Ducati 350 cafe racer This was my first major project bike. I had the frame nickel-plated, and installed a Yamaha TA250 4ls front brake and Vic Camp bodywork with a Seeley aluminum fender. The motor had a hot cam, 34mm Mikuni, and mild port job. The bike was sold some years ago to a fellow in the greater Los Angeles area. 28K jpeg file
My Ducati 350 cafe racer Two more shots of my 350. 60K jpeg file
125 Honda vintage MX frame Here are three photos of a Sportsman 125 Honda minithumper frame I'm building for vintage MX. Tubes are being added in the top photos, and the bottom shows it mocked up with an engine and forks/wheel. I took the top of a Rickman MK4 and the diagonal frame member of a Seeley MK4, and connected them together. Seems period to me. 156K jpeg file
A heavily modified CL160 frame - side view I started to make a CL160 frame more dirtworthy for AHRMAs Premier Lightweight MX class, as when I put 7" travel MX forks and a 21" front wheel on it looked like a chopper. By the time I'd trimmed back the stock frame and relocated the steering head I decided that what was left might not qualify for the "stock frame with period modifications" rule. 46K jpeg file
A heavily modified CL160 frame - rear quarter view This picture isn't very good, but you can make out the triangular aluminum plates I was using to attach the rocker cover mounts to the frame, and the supports I added in to the outside of the swing arm pivot. 43K jpeg file
One of my many project bikes is my Kawasaki KT250 trials bike. A few weeks ago I built a new exhaust for it, with the hopes that a longer head pipe would enhance the low-end power and a new silencer would quiet it down. All the KT250s I've heard seem to have a lot of clanging and banging going on in the empty central portion of the exhaust. I replaced that with an accessory absorption silencer. I had a friend ride it who said that he thought the pipe did improve things, but the main thing I can notice is that it is a little quieter with the extra silencer. Here are the photos I took as I was building the exhaust - so if you've ever wondered how you might go about doing a project like this these photos should give you a good idea.
The stock exhaust is a 1.75" OD header pipe going into a sort of flattened expansion chamber, and thence to a secondary muffler/spark arrestor mounted behind the right hand rear damper.
With the way the Kawasaki ran the two downtubes I had to drop the pipe down and then to the side to get enough clearance with the front fender at full bump. I then brought it back up and over to the cylinder center line before heading to the back edge of the cylinder. I had serious thoughts about removing the bottom frame rails, squeezing the stock downtubes closer together and farther back towards the engine, but restrained myself. I decided that if I was going to do that I'd be better off just building a whole new frame from scratch, and doing it all the way I'd want it to be.
In Smith and Morrison's "Scientific Design of Exhaust and Intake Systems" (third edition) I found a design for a mechanical baffle silencer on page 129 that looked like it wouldn't be too hard to build. I wanted to avoid fiberglass packing as it either blows out or gets saturated with two-stroke spooge, and either way has to be repacked periodically.
The muffler was about 10" of the off-cuts of the 1.75" U-bends welded together. I then cut a two .250" wide slots 180 degrees apart down most of the length of the 10" tube. I then welded two half cones over the slots, so that the cone got bigger the closer it got to the front of the tube. The cone stopped about .25" from the front bulkhead. The far end of the tube was welded to a bulkhead that was solid in the middle where the tube was welded, but had some holes/slots at the top and bottom. After this was a short chamber, about 1-2" long, with another bulkhead with a 1" ID hole in the middle of it. That hole had a 1" OD tube leading back to the secondary muffler. The bulkheads were approx 3.5" tall by 2.5" wide - similar to many of the modern aftermarket silencers. I then wrapped some 20 or 22g sheet steel around the assy to close it off, and welded everything up.
This sees the exhaust coming into the tube, forced to reverse at the far end, exiting through the slots into the angled cone sections, reversing again at the front bulkhead and expanding as it goes to the second bulkhead, contracting a bit while going through the second bulkhead into the small chamber, and then out through the 1" tube.
M&S say that the slots with the cone cause the wave going in one direction to interfere with the wave going the other way, and the reversals and small chamber also help to break up the sound waves.
Sadly, after a day's work that muffler seemed no quieter than the stock pipe. In fact, the thin steel skin would "ring", making the noise even more objectionable. I could damp that ringing by grabbing the silencer with my hand and squeezing on the sides. I suppose I could have done something similar with some welded in cross tubes, but since the rest of the noise didn't seem much different from stock, I decided not to bother.
Bummer.
Plan B was to take a S. Miller Bultaco silencer that I'd bought ( it was a modern style, not the nice 70s fabricated aluminum unit with beading etc) and welded it on in place of the silencer I'd made.
The bike was definitely quieter as far as the clanging/banging in the exhaust, so that was counted as a plus for the project.
I rode in a trial on the Saturday after finishing it and frankly I couldn't tell a lot of difference. Since I'd ridden a trial just two weeks before I'd hoped that I'd have a good enough memory for the power delivery but it appears I just am not terribly sensitive (as a rider).
I did get my friend Craig (he's riding his TL250 on the 2 line now, while I'm still floundering on the 3 line) to take it out for about 20 minutes after the event. He'd ridden it briefly at the last trial, and came back and said he thought it was noticeably improved on the low end power, and felt it was a worthwhile modification.
I guess I was hoping that the exhaust would transform the KT's power int that of a 350 Bultaco or 348 Montesa, which may have been a bit overly optimistic of me.
This should give people a good idea of what goes into building a pipe from U-bends. It really isn't too hard - you just have to cut and file a bit, and have a good selection of various radii bends. The only part that was made on a lathe was the ring that goes into the exhaust port on the end of the head pipe. I hope you found this reasonably instructive and interesting.
One of my many projects is a 250 MotoBi (Benelli) horizontal single for AHRMA Premier Lightweight MX. The class requires an original period frame, but period modifications are allowed. It quickly became obvious that one of the period modifications had to be moving the steering head up and forward, as a 21" front wheel on the stock frame bottoms out on the rocker cover before the forks bottom out. I cut off the stock steering head, cleaned it up, and relocated it at the stock head angle. I decided to also extend the stock swing arm (though I may try my hand at making a replacement part out of larger, period tubing). The rear subframe needs to be higher too, so as to avoid making a superstructure to mount the scrambles seat 5-6" above the existing seat location. Look elsewhere in the MotoBi section for pictures of the Maltry scrambles conversion.
In August 2000 I got my first American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM) roadrace outing in a couple of years. The bike was my Kawasaki 1989 EX250 former streetbike. To prep it for the track I built an aluminum tank, dual megaphone exhausts with SuperTrapp discs for some silencing, a fiberglass H-D XR750 "Big Butt" seat, mounted Kei'hin 33mm CR smoothbore carbs, and built clip-ons and plates to relocate the footrests up and back. Oh yes, I also converted it to twin rear dampers from the stock Kawasaki mono-damper setup. I boxed in and gussetted the stock swing arm, added new damper mounts (and deleted the old ones) and also swapped over to bronze bearings from the stock needle bearings. I acquitted myself with honor if not distinction (beating about 25% of the grids in 250SB and F500Twins classes). The plates boxing in the swing arm were domed on my English wheel (pics of that elsewhere on the site). Here are some photos:
Here's a scan of a conceptual drawing I did for a Suzuki GS450 race frame. The LL forks are lacking the dampers (in case you wondered).
Here are some pictures I took of bikes my friend and mentor Craig Hanson, (Hanson Racing Technology, Chico CA) designed and built. The pictures cover the last two decades.
Here is a shot of a Suzuki Katana that he was modifying for road racing for a customer:
Here are some shots of Marc Roux's XL250 Honda single road racer built by Craig in the mid-1980s. Craig modified a Jim Lee TD2/3 frame for Marc. The chassis featuares: Kawasaki KR250RR forks, Astralite wheels, mechanical anti dive linkage on the front brake, pro squat linkage on the rear brake, pannier fuel tank alongside the engine and very aerodynamic fairing (HD XR750 variant) with Craig's own design of aero seat. The engine was extensively dyno developed by Craig and has a long con rod, special intake manifold, etc etc. With a (too small) 36mm Dell'Orto carb the engine put out 36 rear wheel bhp on Craig's dyno.
The first pictures show three views of the bike, followed by some detail shots. To show how proper streamlining incorporates/hides the rider John Sweeney, publisher of "Sport Twin News" assumes the position.
Sheet metal triple clamp Craig Hanson built these clamps for a KZ550 Kawasaki race bike. 17kb jpeg file
Here are some pictures of Steve Wurm's Ducati 900SL. Craig designed and built the 2-1 exhaust system (with exhaust sucker attached to the crankcase breather) to complement the extensive cylinder head porting, 41mm Kei'hin FCR carbs, and blue-printed engine (cams were 8 and 12 degrees out, pistons were reversed from the factory, squish bands were much too wide, and the ignition ended up retarded from the stock position).
Craig told Steve that the K&N airfilter on the stock airbox would be too restrictive, and that it would be good to run the velocity stacks into the air box. I figured out how to do the latter (no pictures of this at present) and Steve worked out how to attach two additional 12" long K&N air filters to the stock air box.
Craig Hanson's BMW 750 road racer Craig designed and built this 750cc R65-engined BMW for a customer who planned to race AMA BOTT. 45K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Ducati 750 road racer. 31K jpeg file
Another shot of Craig Hanson's Ducati 750 road racer. 65K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Honda XL420 road racer Craig designed and built the bike, including the leading link forks and 420cc long rod XL350 engine. 31K jpeg file
Leading link fork detail photo Craig designed and built the leading link forks on his 440cc XL350 road racer. 26K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's 600 Kawasaki road racer Craig designed and built this bike around a KZ550 Kawasaki motor bored to 600cc in the mid 1980s. In the background you can see the leading link forks for the bike, and to the left is the back of Craig's watercooled TA125 Yamaha road racer. 72K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Harley Davidson 1300 road racer Craig designed and began building this 1300cc Sputhe top end Sportster road racer. The people supplying the engine and money decided it didn't look sufficiently "Harley" to them, and cancelled the project. That is Craig in the background. 73K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Suzuki 50 road racer Craig designed and built this 50cc Suzuki road race chassis. The chassis later had a C200 Honda 90 installed for the Vetter Mileage competitions. The bike had Campagnolo wheels and discs. Craig made twin piston calipers by mounting single piston hydraulic brake calipers from a computer tape drive back to back. The Seeley chassis in the back later had a BSA Gold Star installed in it. 69K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's de Dion rear suspension Honda ATC70 racer - side and rear view Craig designed and built this little 3 wheeler for a customer's son to race. It features motorcycle front forks and a de Dion independent rear suspension chassis. 61k jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Honda XL350 dirt bike Craig designed and built the bike to take an XL350 engine. I think he intended to have the airfilters in the frame back bone area, and the fuel tank under the seat. 28K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's Formula 150 road racer Craig designed and built the bike to take the CB100/125 engine for a class we tried to start in the mid 80s. Two photos - with and without bodywork. Note the aero seat. The sheet of aluminum under the windscreen in the upper photo was being formed into a fairing bellypan. Craig's TL250 trials bike is in the background of the lower picture. 123K jpeg file
Van Tech framed 150cc Honda road racer Craig installed a 150cc CB125 motor in this Van Tech chassis. Our guess is that the frame was originally designed to take a 125cc Yamaha twin or perhaps a Hodaka. 58K jpeg file
Craig Hanson's special framed watercooled TA125 I just found out that this bike was designed and built by Craig's friend Michael Lewis, and Craig later bought it from Michael. Note the fuel tank under the seat, Astralite wheels, and reversed Jack Machin watercooled top end. Craig had the patterns for casting the Machin top end. 62K jpeg file
Hoyt's website: http://batwings.freeyellow.com/best.html
Here is some info from Hoyt on bump steer
Suzuki DR 370 swing arm A lightweight and strong tubular steel fabrication.
Ollie McKagen's four-stroke rotary valve head These three photos show the general parts in use - it looks to me like Ollie built the head to go on a small Honda four-stroke single. One photo shows the insides of the upper and lower head sections, and another shows the outsides of the same parts. The photo with Ollie's hand in it shows the head with the rotary valve in place. I'll add details here as I get them from Ollie. 32kb jpeg file
Ollie's alternative front-end Honda dirt bike Ollie holds a US patent on this variant of the dual A-arm front suspension. This is his small Honda single dirtbike (200cc). He also has a 350 Honda dirt thumper with another variant of his design. 66K jpeg file
Ollie's telescopic front-end Honda dirt bike This is a triangulated space frame that Ollie built for a 200cc Honda single, retaining the old-fashioned telescopic forks. That's Mrs. and Miss McKagen in the background of one of the photos. 43K jpeg file
More shots of Ollie's alternative front-end Honda dirt bike This is the prototype of his link front end, with the 200cc Honda engine installed. 38K jpeg file
Ollie's second prototype front-end This is a detail of the front end and steering linkage. 19K jpeg file
Tony's website:http://www.tonyfoale.com
Tony Foale has recently added some pictures of the Suzuki and Yamaha 750 two stroke race bikes he built to his website. Check them (and all the other interesting stuff) out when you get a chance.
Two Tony Foale-framed 250cc roadracers
Tony found these recently. The 250 Yamaha was made for Robin Drury and had a set of the lightweight LL forks like Tony used on his Aermacchi. The other bike has a Terry Shepard-tuned 250 Suzuki engine.
Some more photos from Tony Foale:
Here is another photo from Tony Foale's archives. In his words: "I thought you might be interested in the attached pic, it's of the 3rd or 4th frame that I ever did, for my own BMW. Much simpler than Krauser's later effort. I used it on the road for about 100,000 miles, and I used to ride it to race meetings, remove lights, add numbers and have a whale of a time and then ride it back home, sometimes 500 miles away. The racing weight was about 300lbs. and it used to surprise a lot of people. It was slower than a Manx Norton but left them on acceleration out of corners".
This photo supplied by Tony Foale shows his frame for TZ250 Yamaha roadracers.
Here are some of Tony's Q-series bikes. Note the similarities between the QR1 and the James Parker RA/TZ racer of 8 or so years later.
Here's a picture that Tony sent me of a set of modern girder forks that he made for a customer. In Tony's word's : "The girder forks I made because someone asked for them. At first I refused to make them, because I didn't see any advantages. Then I started thinking about it and decided to give it a try. They were good. Much better than teles., just as stiff but maybe lighter than leading link. You also get more flexibility over "vertical" wheel movement geometry."
The QL (Quantum Leap) models
The first picture is of Tony and his BMW twin testbed, fitted with the QL alternative front steering/suspension system. Note the use of the AP circumferential disc brake and the upright placement of the handlebar grips.
On later QLs Tony replaced the entire chassis with one of his own design and construction.
The later Q2 Suzuki used a different main chassis - a box section steel sheet fabrication, somewhat like the "Omega" frame used on the Yamaha GTS1000, but with the open part of the frame facing up instead of down. I wonder if the designers at Yamaha had seen a picture of Tony's bike?
Tony's only trip to the U.S. was to help Thomas Englebach with a proof-of-concept prototype FF bike. Tom fitted the bike with one of Tony's QL front ends. The "chassis" was basically a "bathtub" made from fibreglass covered foam with plywood bulkheads at each end.
It isn't commonly known, but Tony has also built some advanced chassis road race sidecars. This one is powered by a 1000cc Kawasaki four stroke engine.
Tony's big-twin Guzzi.
Tony built this Guzzi chassis for Dick Wood, owner of Moto Mecca in England, beginning work in 1982 Tony built one of his spine frames for the Guzzi, and "floated" the rear drive box to counter the shaft-jacking common to Guzzis and BMWs. There is a partial shot of the unfinished bike in Tony and Vic Willoughby's book "Motorcycle Chassis Design", but these photos from Perfomance Bikes show the completed bike in full color.
You may notice some similarities between Tony's frame design and that which later appeared on John Wittner's Guzzi race bike (and then developed into the current Guzzi Daytona/Sport chassis). Tony's frame uses a round spine tube instead of a rectangular tube, and has what I and others consider a superior sheet metal fabrication for the swing arm side plates instead of the bent aluminum plates that Wittner used. When I mentioned to Tony how similar the frames were he told me that Wittner, upon hearing about the Guzzi frame Tony was building, came to visit him with the alleged intention to order a couple of frames. Wittner took lots of pictures, asked lots of questions and went away and built his own frame. I know I've never seen any word of acknowledgement by Wittner for the, shall we say, "inspiration" for his "revolutionary" frame. I'm all for copying any good idea I can find, but I'm more than happy to credit the original source of the idea. I guess not everyone is willing to do that.
Tony was kind enough to provide these pictures of his very special Aermacchi single road racer. The first 3 photos are details of the watercooled DOHC top end he built for the bike (along with a titanium connecting rod and magnesium piston). The final shot is the bike at speed on the Isle of Man where it was speed trapped at ~138 mph. The bike had a leading link fork, cantilever monoshock rear suspension, triangulated space frame, and weighed under 200 pounds! The graphics files range from 18-45K in size
Tony's steering geometry test-bed BMW twin This is the Hossack/Fior-style front end Tony attached to his BMW when doing his experiments on the effects of various combinations of rake and trail. This photo, less the lines showing the rake and trail, appears in Tony and Vic's book. If you see a copy of the book, buy it, as it is out of print and much in demand by the cognoscenti. 28K jpeg file
Here's a batch of pictures I just found that Tony Foale sent me some time ago. Pictures are copyright by Tony unless the caption on the picture indicates another source:
Here is a picture of the 250cc starting grid at an Australian GP in the early 1960s. #6 is Kel Carruthers on a works Honda 4, and #68 on a Greeves is Mr. A. Foale. Photo supplied by Tony Foale. Australian GP grid 92K jpeg file
Another picture from Tony Foale (28 Feb 81 Motociclisimo) shows he and Ron Gardner (of Gardner Carburettor fame) posing with the stillborn Rudge 500cc single. This bike had a Weslake speedway engine and one of Tony's chassis. 500 Rudge prototype 83K jpeg file
Besides having been a successful GP sidecar race team, Rudi and Dane Rowe Kurth must be quite nice people, as they provided me with these pictures of various vehicles that Rudi has constructed through the years and the accompanying text. Many of the photos have German subtitles attached. Rudi currently makes a line of composite framed bicycles, and I've set up a page for the CAT bicycles on my site ( Rudi and Dane Kurth's CAT bicycles page).
Frank built frames for the Yetman company as well as on his own.
Frank Camillieri sent me photos of two roadrace frames he made in the early 1970s. The complete bike is a 500 Triumph (which he has just put back on the track with USCRA) and the bare frame is for a Ducati single. The Ducati frame has a somewhat Rickman MK4 pattern to the tubing runs, with dual downtubes. Frank is the person who built the frame for Kevin Cameron's 350cc Kawasaki Big Horn road racer that was written up in "Cycle" magazine in the early 1970s.
Julian Farnham of AND in Livermore CA is an AFM racer with a burning desire to be a motorcycle manufacturer. In early December 2000 he set up a booth at the Long Beach motorcycle show to display some of the bikes he'd developed. There are his RZ350 engined bike with Foale-style FFE (funny front end), frames he has designed to take various middleweight parallel twins (EX500 in this case) and his own wheels etc. He's been BUSY! There are some more pictures of the 350 on the second graphics page - I'll have to consolidate Julian's stuff in the Craftsmen and Innovators section.
For more information contact andbike@pacbell.net
Julian Farnam designed and built this bike with alternative front end and had it on display at some Sears Point AFM races in 1996. The front end design appears similar to the RADD front end.
Here are some more photos of Julian's creation - a Yamaha twin with a RADD/Foale-style front end. I took these photos at an AFM race at Thunderhill this year (1997). The bike still needs some more suspension tuning, but Julian is very pleased with it so far.
A*N*D EX500 and FFE RZ350 "at the show"
Julian has moved on from his FFE RZ350 project and has designed a replacement frame and swing arm for the Kawasaki EX500 engine. He's running two bikes in AFM this season with good results. Here's some pics Julian sent me of the bikes and his booth at the recent motorcycle show in Los Angeles. The forks are from a GSXR Suzuki.
Julian Farnham has moved on from his FFE RZ350 project and has designed a replacement frame and swing arm for the Kawasaki EX500 engine. He's running two bikes in AFM this season with good results. Here's some pics Julian sent me of the bikes and his booth at the recent motorcycle show in Los Angeles. The forks are from a GSXR Suzuki.
The Mule HD883 Dirt Tracker
Richard Pollock mule@home.com sent me these photos and told me: " I have a small garage business building dirttrack style streetbikes using brand new 5-speed Sportster motors.In the past 5 years I've built about 30.I thought you might be interested in seeing a frame of my own design for an AMA Supertracker for dirttrack to be raced this year (if I ever finish it !). I've incorporated many small design "tidbits" from everything I've seen in the last 35 years. It has a few advantages that traditional dirttrack bikes don't have : Stiffer,higher oil capacity,top end can be removed in the frame with room to spare,motor can be dropped really easy,the right side frame tube is actually the breather box (and Harleys need lots of breathing), gull-wing swing arm for exhaust clearance and stiffer swing arm pivot area. I haven't weighed it yet, but I'm hoping it's lighter as well.
In November 2001 Chris Cosentino of Team Incomplete sent me some CAD renderings of his "Rotacular" race bike. The bike has had several track outings but is still in shakedown mode. Chris is quite pleased with it so far.
Some years ago I sold a copy of John Bradley's book to Barry Watkins. I remembered Barry had written several articles on building light weight motocross bikes with readily available parts, and asked him for permission to put his articles on my website. He graciously approved that, and here is his first article which appeared in the October and November 1971 issues of Cycle Guide magazine There is an "epilogue" article which I've not yet found in my stack of magazines, but when I do I'll add it here. This first article is on turning a DT1 Yamaha 250 into a sub-200 pound "Lightweight Weapon". I blame Barry for my having 3 different weight measuring devices in my garage!
Here are the rest of the Barry Watkins articles I have: the remaining parts of the Yamaha AZ "Lightweight Weapon" (the first parts appear below) (from the 02/72 Cycle Guide), his article on building a light Cheney TM400 Suzuki (12/73 Cycle Guide), and an article on getting a stock-framed Yamaha RT2MX below 200 pounds (10/72 Cycle World). Enjoy!
Here's a monocoque on an Ossa trials bike at the 1974 Scottish Six Days Trial. Motorcycle Sport, June 1974: Monocoque Ossa trials 16K jpeg file
Byron Woodruff has built a very nice Hodaka 100 trials special.
Wasp/Jawa trials special This Wasp-framed 420cc Jawa trials bike had Ceriani forks and weighed in at 210 pounds. Photo from the 19 May 71 Motor Cycle. 65K jpeg file
The Saracen Hodaka A prototype trail/trials bike from the English Saracen firm. I don't think this made it into production before they ceased trading in the 1970s. 56K jpeg file
Norton 500T trials bike I snapped this shot at Sears Point. The bike seemed to be only on display, and not run in the AHRMA vintage trial. 41K jpeg file
The Ken Ives' S90 Honda trials special This Honda dealer also made some 175cc Honda twin trials specials (pictures elsewhere on the page). Modifications to the S90 include: shortening of the frame, a wider swing arm, altered foot rests and controls, extra steering lock, 2.75" x 19" front and 3.50" x 18" tires, a high exhaust and a bash plate. Ready to run the bike was 176 pounds. The 19" front wheel was easily deflected, and a 21" front wheel and modifications to allow more fork travel were planned. Perhaps a new fuel tank that isn't quite as protuberant at the back would be a good idea too! Photo from a 6 bike comparison in the 11 Dec 65 Motor Cycling. 36K jpeg file
After two seasons running a 90cc Honda trials special, English dealer Ken Ives built a CD175 engined CB160 trials bike. Low compression, lower gearing, upgraded forks, trials spec wheel diameters and tires made a nice trials bike. Photos from 07 Feb 68 Motor Cycle.
175cc Yamaha trials special UK bike dealer commissioned a special frame to build this CT-1 Yamaha-based trials bike. The picture is from the 2 Dec 1970 issue of "Motor Cycle". 58kb jpeg file
Kawasaki F7 trials special I just remembered that I had this picture that Scott Barrie sent me of a 175cc Kawasaki-engined trials special. The frame is a modified stocker. The file size is a bit large, but it is a nice looking bike. 123kb jpeg file
Zundapp trials bike Here's a picture of Gustav Franke on his works two-stroke 250cc Zundapp trials bike. The picture is from the 24 Jan 1968 issue of "Motor Cycle". 74kb jpeg file
Here is a color shot of the 1968 250cc Zundapp works trials bike.
Gaunt Suzuki trials bike Here's a picture of Peter Gaunt's 128cc Suzuki trials bike. Based on the Suzuki dual range 3-speed transmission 118cc single, this bike used wheels from an 80cc , fuel tank from a 50cc and front fork from a 200cc Suzuki. Weight with steel rims was 172 pounds. Someone should build one of these for AHRMA vintage trials. The picture is from the 24 Jan 1968 issue of "Motor Cycle". 104kb jpeg file
After much searching I finally found a photo of Peter Gaunt's 350 Ducati trials bike. Gaunt was a works rider for a number of factories, and built many interesting trials specials. Photo from the 10 February 1971 issue of Motor Cycle.
A 350 or 500cc AJS trials bike I took this shot at the AHRMA national trials at Donner Ski Ranch 59K jpeg file
A 500cc AJS trials bike I think I took this shot at one of the Dick Mann Dirt Day events 67K jpeg file
Greeves and CZ trials bikes I took this picture at one of Dick Mann's Sandhill Ranch events. I think the Greeves is a 250cc Anglian, and the CZ trials bike is probably a 175 37K jpeg file
CCM 350 Trials This is a picture from MCN of the then new CCM trials bike. 62K jpeg file
CCM 350 Trials This picture is from a factory brochure. 30K jpeg file
Walwin BSA Trials This bike uses a Walwin aluminum frame. 51K jpeg file
BSA 350 Trials This bike uses a 350cc B40 motor in a B25 frame that has been shortened vertically about 3 inches. The bitza cost the owner 150 Pounds to build. 52K jpeg file
Three photos of Moto Guzzi single (Stornello based) trials bikes
90cc Grapevine Trials This picture is shows the Grapvine Trials bike, designed and built by Bill Grapevine, one of the leading proponents of observed trials in the USA in the 1950/60s. The companion photo is Bill Stewart, 1966 US Observed Trials Champion. He is on a Greeves. 157K jpeg file
One of my many project bikes is my Kawasaki KT250 trials bike. A few weeks ago I built a new exhaust for it, with the hopes that a longer head pipe would enhance the low-end power and a new silencer would quiet it down. All the KT250s I've heard seem to have a lot of clanging and banging going on in the empty central portion of the exhaust. I replaced that with an accessory absorption silencer. I had a friend ride it who said that he thought the pipe did improve things, but the main thing I can notice is that it is a little quieter with the extra silencer. Here are the photos I took as I was building the exhaust - so if you've ever wondered how you might go about doing a project like this these photos should give you a good idea.
The stock exhaust is a 1.75" OD header pipe going into a sort of flattened expansion chamber, and thence to a secondary muffler/spark arrestor mounted behind the right hand rear damper.
With the way the Kawasaki ran the two downtubes I had to drop the pipe down and then to the side to get enough clearance with the front fender at full bump. I then brought it back up and over to the cylinder center line before heading to the back edge of the cylinder. I had serious thoughts about removing the bottom frame rails, squeezing the stock downtubes closer together and farther back towards the engine, but restrained myself. I decided that if I was going to do that I'd be better off just building a whole new frame from scratch, and doing it all the way I'd want it to be.
In Smith and Morrison's "Scientific Design of Exhaust and Intake Systems" (third edition) I found a design for a mechanical baffle silencer on page 129 that looked like it wouldn't be too hard to build. I wanted to avoid fiberglass packing as it either blows out or gets saturated with two-stroke spooge, and either way has to be repacked periodically.
The muffler was about 10" of the off-cuts of the 1.75" U-bends welded together. I then cut a two .250" wide slots 180 degrees apart down most of the length of the 10" tube. I then welded two half cones over the slots, so that the cone got bigger the closer it got to the front of the tube. The cone stopped about .25" from the front bulkhead. The far end of the tube was welded to a bulkhead that was solid in the middle where the tube was welded, but had some holes/slots at the top and bottom. After this was a short chamber, about 1-2" long, with another bulkhead with a 1" ID hole in the middle of it. That hole had a 1" OD tube leading back to the secondary muffler. The bulkheads were approx 3.5" tall by 2.5" wide - similar to many of the modern aftermarket silencers. I then wrapped some 20 or 22g sheet steel around the assy to close it off, and welded everything up.
This sees the exhaust coming into the tube, forced to reverse at the far end, exiting through the slots into the angled cone sections, reversing again at the front bulkhead and expanding as it goes to the second bulkhead, contracting a bit while going through the second bulkhead into the small chamber, and then out through the 1" tube.
M&S say that the slots with the cone cause the wave going in one direction to interfere with the wave going the other way, and the reversals and small chamber also help to break up the sound waves.
Sadly, after a day's work that muffler seemed no quieter than the stock pipe. In fact, the thin steel skin would "ring", making the noise even more objectionable. I could damp that ringing by grabbing the silencer with my hand and squeezing on the sides. I suppose I could have done something similar with some welded in cross tubes, but since the rest of the noise didn't seem much different from stock, I decided not to bother.
Bummer.
Plan B was to take a S. Miller Bultaco silencer that I'd bought ( it was a modern style, not the nice 70s fabricated aluminum unit with beading etc) and welded it on in place of the silencer I'd made.
The bike was definitely quieter as far as the clanging/banging in the exhaust, so that was counted as a plus for the project.
I rode in a trial on the Saturday after finishing it and frankly I couldn't tell a lot of difference. Since I'd ridden a trial just two weeks before I'd hoped that I'd have a good enough memory for the power delivery but it appears I just am not terribly sensitive (as a rider).
I did get my friend Craig (he's riding his TL250 on the 2 line now, while I'm still floundering on the 3 line) to take it out for about 20 minutes after the event. He'd ridden it briefly at the last trial, and came back and said he thought it was noticeably improved on the low end power, and felt it was a worthwhile modification.
I guess I was hoping that the exhaust would transform the KT's power int that of a 350 Bultaco or 348 Montesa, which may have been a bit overly optimistic of me.
This should give people a good idea of what goes into building a pipe from U-bends. It really isn't too hard - you just have to cut and file a bit, and have a good selection of various radii bends. The only part that was made on a lathe was the ring that goes into the exhaust port on the end of the head pipe. I hope you found this reasonably instructive and interesting.
One of my projects is to build a vintage trials bike (AHRMA Modern Classic) using a Yamaha XT/TT500 engine. Here are some spreadsheet graphs I did comparing dyno horsepower, torque, stock gearing ratios and gearing ratios if all bikes are given a 35:1 first gear. You'll note there is a Yamaha 400MX shown - the numbers for that fell readily to hand so I included it. The "series" on the gearing charts represent the gear - series 1 is first gear.
John French recently sent me these picktures of his new bike. He told me: " I just completed this Bill Grapevine framed, Triumph Cub powered trials bike. It uses Bultaco forks and wheels, hardtail rear, and a 66 Mountain Cub bottom end with earlier topend components. I made the tanks and airbox, modified the exhaust bits, (Sammy Miller pipe, Matchless muffler) completed these and lots of other little bits with the very capable and sage knowledge help of Don Wilcox, master fabricator and Don Wrenn, friendliest welder on the planet. It uses a new 922 Amal concentric, ARD electronic magneto, the "R" cam, and a 9:1 piston, .040 over. With the timing set at 30 degrees BTDC it is smooth and soft at slow speeds and not prone to stalling, but still has a nice rip when you pull the trigger. I weighed the bike yesterday ready to ride, full of fluids. That's 3 pints of fuel and 2.5 pts of oil. 160 lbs. That's about 5 lbs heavier than the Hodaka and Fuji powered versions of the GRM hardtail. "
Rick Bley was kind enough to share these photos from his site. My understanding is the Bickford frame for the Honda TL250 was made in Northern California to Bultaco Sherpa T specifications. Rick got the photos from Mike Fenner who puts on a lot of the West Coast vintage trials events.
Here is another batch of wonderful photos scanned from my favorite UK magazine Off Road Review. Publisher Deryk Wylde has just converted the magazine to a hard-bound quarterly and renamed it The Competition Motorcycle Reference Library. Why haven't you gotten your subscription yet?
Paul Brodie builds Aermacchi race bikes in the Pacific NW and supplied me these photos from his http://www.italiansingle.com website. How's this for a moderately modern Aermacchi thumper dirt bike? He first built it with the DKW LL fork but swapped to Honda forks after having some cylinder head clearance problems.
This Kawasaki 350 Bighorn in a Boyd & Stellings frame was one of Bob Braverman's projects at Cycle Rider magazine. Note the steering head angle is adjustable, and the swing arm is an aluminum fabrication that was heat treated after welding. The bike used the stock wheels and forks and weighed 233 pounds with an empty fuel tank. Cycle Rider, July and October 1973
Rupp 125 MX
Robert Enders Jr was kind enough to send me some photos of this uncommon bike. Robert also told me about the bike, saying
" I purchased the bike new from a dealer in Linglestown (Harrisburg), Pa in either 1971 or 1972. I can't quite remember. I had only seen 2 other RMX's while I was racing and they were both 125's from the Allentown, Pa area. Rupp built this model in both a 100cc and 125cc version. For their day they were very fast and competitive with all the major Japanese bikes of it's era. It's a shame the company went out of business shortly thereafter. I think they had the right idea when they built this thing...combine the best the world had to offer into one simple well designed motorcycle. In a pure drag race, I could eat any Elsinore, YZ or RM that tried me.
This ain't no minibike!!!
Some specs:
Model Rupp RMX 125
Engine: Sachs 125/6B; 54mm bore and stroke; 10:1 compression ratio; 21.8 HP/8,800 RPM; Capacitive Discharge (Motoplat) ignition-breakerless w/ integral lighting coil; 6 speed constant mesh transmission. Large still air volume air box with washable foam element.
Chassis: Double loop Chrome Moly tubing; 31 degree caster; overall length: 81.7"; overall width: 35"; overall height: 45"; wheel base: 54.5"; ground clearance: 9.5"; seat height: 32"; dry weight: 198 lbs.
Aluminum conical hubs w/ drum brakes; Akront alloy rims and Carlisle Aggressor tires; 3.00 x 21 on front; 3.50 x 18 on rear.
All Magura controls: levers and throttle.
Compare it to a Penton?? They sure are styled alike. The Rupp gas tank could be a sister to the Penton 6 days Enduro...same engine. I don't know...no one can seem to tell me if the Rupp design was a copy or if John Penton had something to do with it. I think both companies were on the same track when they built them. If the Rupp had a weak link it was the brakes and spokes. I ended up relacing both wheels with steel spokes and tying them with wire to keep them from breaking. Problem taken care of. Brakes still don't match the Japanese bikes (installed a compression release).
I never had the privilege to ride a Penton but I sure spent many hours on the Rupp. I must have liked, I still have it (at least today). I really hate to part with it...but I need the space in my shed for the newest projects. As you can see from the photos, I installed lights for trail riding after I (and the bike) retired from racing. Believe it or not I actually flat tracked this thing for almost 2 years. Just had to fit a 19" front wheel and a Penton down sweep expansion chamber. The bike was plenty fast, the rider wasn't near fast enough!!!
Photos from the Sittendorf, Austria vintage scramble, held in April 2001. There were 58 starters. These photos by Helmut Haas were supplied by Gerhard Wohlheim
This is the first production Eric Cheney Yamaha TT500 scrambler. Photo from the 25 February 1978 Motor Cycle Week. An article I have says that Cheney reduced the weight of a engine (not the one shown) to about 75 pounds. He eliminated 1 or 2 gear pairs and made many detail changes. Cheney Yamaha thumper 23K jpeg file
Three more shots of Wasps from the 23 Jul 66 Motor Cycling.
Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes (builder of Lance Reventlow' Scarabs, Pete Brock's Samauri, and the first Chaparrals for Jim Hall) also built some motorbikes. Here are two shots of their 450 Honda engined desert bike. Photos are from the 06/68 Cycle World.
The frame used 4130 steel and all tubes but steering head and swingarm 1.25" x .049" wall, and the swing arm was 1.375" x .095" wall. Engine and shock absorber mounting plates were of .125" sheet. Wet weight - 328 pounds. Engine - 4 speed Honda 450 with 40mm DCOE Weber carb.
Cheney 450 Ducati scrambler This photo is from Mick Woolett's column in the 06/70 Motorcyclist magazine, but I've seen the same picture in several publications. No details on the bike were given. 40K jpeg file
A Velocette 500 scrambler Photo courtesy of someone I can't recall. Since it has a K&N filter it should be fairly recent 93K jpeg file
A Cheney Suzuki 250 A short article from the 22 May 68 Motor Cycle on the Cheney framed dual exhaust-port Suzuki 250. 108K jpeg file
Here's a bike you could get lots of cheap engine parts for now that the Iron Curtain has come down. The 20 Dec 67 issue of "Motor Cycle" had an article on a Dutch scrambler using a 500cc Trabant two-stroke twin engine. The first bike was built in a BSA frame, and a Metisse-framed bike was in progress. The builder was Joop Kruisinga, from Gouda, Holland. The bike had some success, and was MUCH lighter than a pre-unit 500 Triumph engined bike.
Wasp MX sidecar From the 23 Jul 66 Motor Cycling 49K jpeg file
World Champion Dave Bickers practicing his mono-wheeling Photo from a Shell Oils ad in the 17 Jul 65 Motor Cycling 80K jpeg file
The next three pictures are of a semi-vintage dirt bike. My friend Larry Orlick (see the picture at the bottom of the page with him and Ing. Taglioni) is a fan of the Ducati 450 R/T, and actually tries to ride his R/Ts in the dirt. After becoming tired of being beaten to a pulp (he solved the end-swapping problem by lengthening the swing arm) he decided to try and put a 450 motor into a more modern frame. He bought a complete 125 Husqvarna of about 1984 vintage to provide the chassis. Unfortunately, the Husky doesn't match up too well with the Ducati engine. The Husky exhaust port exits to the left, so the front down tube is offset to the right, directly in the path of the Ducati exhaust. Also, when the engine is raised to where it needs to go (another 1.5" or so in these pictures) the carburettor has problems clearing the frame tubes. I told Larry that if he is interested in pursuing the project I'd give him a hand building a new main frame (along the lines that I've been thinking of using for my 560cc Rotax dirt thumper) that would take the Husky forks/swing arm/rear dampers/seat. We'll see if he decides to mess with the project any more in the future.
Joe Bolger's Yamaguchi 50 Scrambler Well known East Coast inventor and dirt bike racer Joe Bolger turned his hand to making this lightweight scrambler. The Yamaguchi eventually grew up to be a Hodaka. The article is from the 08/63 Cycle World 80K jpeg file
1963 Aermacchi 250 scrambler This photograph appeared in Carlo Perelli's article on the 38th Milan Motorcycle Show in the 02/64 Cycle World. In the 04/64 issue of the magazine some details were provided. The price of the bike was 520,000 lira, and the bike was a replica of the machines used by Italian champion Lanfranco Angelini (later a works rider for Moto Parilla). The bike uses a long stroke 4 speed 250 engine with a claimed 25 bhp at 9000 rpm. Wheelbase is 55", wheels are 21" and 19", and weight is 297 pounds. 33K jpeg file
Joel Robert and a twin-pipe CZ This great action shot of Robert is from an article by Cris lavery in the 04/67 Cycle World 65K jpeg file
CZ400MX This is a shot of me on Fred Mork's CZ400 at an early Steamboat Springs AHRMA MX 38K jpeg file
A 500cc Matchless Metisse MX Another bike at the Dick Mann event. 78K jpeg file
A 500cc Matchless Advertisement A full-page G80CS ad from 1965. 125K jpeg file
A 500cc Matchless in a special frame This bike (at the Dick Mann event) was owned by one of the owners of Richmond Recycle. 58K jpeg file
Matchless G50 MX Fred Mork had temporary custody of this G50 MXer built by Dick Mann for Team Obsolete. 31K jpeg file
Parilla 250 This is a picture of Fred Mork's Wildcat Scrambler 71K jpeg file
Supplied by Peter Oort is this brochure of the Werner Maltry scrambles conversion. It is a big file, but shows lots of details:
Maltry 250 scrambler brochure 441K jpeg file
And thanks to Chris Rein in Germany, here is a translation of the brochure into English (with some of his editorial comments):
Scrambler 250 ccm Motobi - the superior and most simple 4-stroke - 1 cylinder, 4-stroke OHV-engine - stroke x bore 57 x 74 245 ccm - crank with 6 bearings (sounds a little much, no?) - 25 hp at rear wheel - dry weight 98 kg - engine characteristics can be altered to suit track with a few "turns of a hand" - choice of 19" or 21" front wheel with large 180 mm brake - 18 x 4.00" rear wheel (I guess they mean tire...) - special forks, damping adjustable in 4 settings, travel 165 mm - rear swingarm with 3 time adjustable shocks - low centre of gravity - thus very easy to ride - wheel base 1390 mm - choice of short ratio or long ratio gearbox - large choice of final drive ratios with 6 gearbox sprockets and 5 wheel sprockets - price (from Zurich) net 3000,- swiss francs
Duane Cannon sent me this picture asking for help identifying it. The bike is an XL350 Honda in a Cheney (UK) frame.
Here are some shots of a vertical-cylinder CB175 Honda vintage MX bike. It looks like the engine is in a CR125 chassis. I've misplaced the owner's info.
Here are some shots of a Parilla Wildcat scrambler supplied by Scott Potter. The bike belongs to his brother Richard, is located in southern California and as of 17 January 1999 is for sale. Richard can be reached at 714.774.4607 (home) or 714.220.0822 work.
Bjorn Stumer sent me scans of several pictures recently. The first is a mid-1960s Moto Guzzi 125cc Regolarita. The other is a 1969/70 Gilera 125cc Regolarita Corsa (the grey bike). The blue 125cc Gilera Regolarita Frigerio is a special version prepared by Sgr Frigerio.
Giorgio in Italy sent me these photos of his 1967 Regolarita Corsa 125cc Laverda and a 1968 ISDT 125cc Laverda, including an action shot from the San Pelligrino event in 1968.
Chris Butler built his own line of trials bikes, and did fiberglass work for himself and a number of the English manufacturers (and later built ocean-going race yachts). Here's a shot from a 12/66 Cycle World magazine of a Butler that wasn't a trials bike:
Here are two vintage Hodaka advertisments:
Small dirt bikes can be trick! A 1970 Villa 50cc ISDT bike A Morini two-stroke engine is used. 60kb jpeg file
Now that I've got a 150 Laverda vintage MX project, here are the pictures I've accumulated of various 125/150 Laverda thumpettes:
Laverda 125 Trail (or Trail RS) An 11/66 picture I found in the Ainsco and Parker Laverda book - attributed to Cycle World - 41K jpg file
Laverda 125 Regolarita Corsa The limited production competition ISDT model. This picture from Carlo Perelli's "Report from Italy" in the 04/68 Cycle World - 43K jpg file
Marnix van der Schalk sent me some more pictures of Laverda 125 Regolarita Corsa works bikes:.
Giorgio in Italy sent me these photos of his 1967 Regolarita Corsa 125cc Laverda and a 1968 ISDT 125cc Laverda, including an action shot from the San Pelligrino event in 1968.
Gilera 125/175 Regolarita Competizione The limited production competition ISDT model. 5 speeds, 11.5 and 14 bhp, 220 pounds, 18" and 19" wheels. This picture from Carlo Perelli's "Report from Italy" in the 09/68 Cycle World - 43K jpg file
This picture was sent to me by Lucio Arosio who says the photo is by Walter Arosio. This is a Zundapp 175cc at the 1973 Valli Bergamasche ISDT-type event. A recent email informess me the photo shows a special factory GS175. Only two or three of these prototypes were made. The photo shows Eduard Weber from Cologne.
Malcom Roe is trying to organize some grass track events in California, and he sent me these photos of his Antig Bultacos. Check out his website for grasstrack and speedway bikes at http://www.xtremesport.org
Did you ever see a dirt track bevel Ducati twin? Here's one that was built by Eddie Wilbanks (see his 750cc Yamaha Vision roadracer elsewhere in the graphics section): Eddie Wilbanks Dirt Track 750 Ducati 59K jpeg file
Last night I got a message from Dan up in Washington state. He'd gotten a custom Ducati narrow case single frame with some other Ducati single parts he'd bought, and he was wondering if I had any idea what it might be.
Luckily for him, I knew exactly what it was. I got out my copy of the 1968 Motorcycle Sport Book (issue 3), turned to the "Chassis Revolution" article by Bob Greene, and there were pictures of the Jim and Bob Strode narrow-case single race frame.
I love it when stuff like this surfaces!
I've got the 3 photos that Dan sent me of the frame as he received it, as well as the photos and caption from the MSB. Dan is going to try and contact the Strodes, and has promised to tell me what he finds out. And as usual, I've asked him to inquire if they might have more photos for the website.
Dan has a website from which he sells Ducati parts at http://home.earthlink.net/~maxnwatson/
One of the Chassis list folks sent these photos of a Viper-framed dirt tracker purchased by a friend of his. I can recall seeing photos in magazines circa the 1980s/early 1990s, but no other details come to mind. If anyone can supply more information on the Viper frames I'll add it hear and forward it to Gerald.
This photo is of a rigid rear-end dirt track Aermacchi single frame. I don't recall who sent it to me.
Here's a couple of off-road Harley-Davidson/Aermacchi singles. I believe these photos are from factory literature:
Hagon Maico grass tracker The first Maico-engined Hagon was sent to his Netherlands distributor, former world champ road racer Hugh Anderson. 21 Feb 68 Motor Cycle. 49K jpeg file
Jon Jacobson sent me these two pictures of rigid-rear end MotoBi dirt track frames. His information indicates the frames were built by Eraldo Ferracci when he first came to the United States. Notice the motor mounts on the "lowboy" frame have been repositioned to lower the engine by 3 or so inches.
Stan Millard (HP by Stan) sent me these photos of his BSA B50 flat tracker. He built the frame in 1979 from 1018 mild steel tube and updated the swingarm in 1985 to a Kawasaki GPz 750 unit. He says the bike is the last BSA in US racing history to earn its rider (Brian Kromroy, shown with the bike) Junior advancement points (in 1989).
The bike is 510.7cc, has a lightened crankshaft with a 1/2" longer Carrillo connecting rod, + .040" Arias Porsche 911 piston, titanium intake valve from a Buick V6 and a titanium exhaust valve from a 350 Chevrolet. The cam is a Megacycle 541x4, the carb is a 41mm Mikuni flat slide and he has a reed valve in the crankcase breather.
I found some photos I took at one of the Dick Mann Dirt Day events:
Here are two photos of my late model Norton oil pump equipped G80CS Matchless right after I got it. I sold the twin tank that came on the bike, and I think I'll keep the leather-covered Bates desert seat. This has been another of my long term projects, but it has been in my thoughts of late.
This section went up 03 July 2002
I recently dug out a bunch of pre-1970 magazines and went through scanning ads for various marques that interested me (or ads that just amused me). For your enjoyment I present them here. I had to juggle file size and readablity, so my apoligies if some are a bit hard to read. Try downloading the file and opening it in a graphics program that will let you zoom in on it.
The Cotton and Pabatco ads are shown because Pabatco was the importer of Hodaka motorcycles. Some of the ads are just slight variations of other ads, but I included them anyway. Not all months had an ad, and I may have missed a few months where the magazine was AWOL. I hope these might be of some use to peo
