Pete and Laz

Pete and Laz
Yeah, Pete it's rough...but it's a runner.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Some of the bikes for the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride/ Sacramento edition...




A nicely done Yamaha 750 Triple shaft drive


Nice 61 BMW and sidecar


1965 Honda S 90


1974 Harley Shovelhead custom


A Honda CB 500 T heads up a row of bikes..


!971 CB 175 Honda twin


The coolest guy at Starbucks, on his police model Moto Guzzi 750 


A couple with their 2017 Triumph Bonneville


Jeep tire on that Shovelhead


A Model A car tire, on the front of the Shovelhead

"Not a Trumph" Yamaha 650 



Shasta and Denis pulling up on Café bikes


Honda CB 550 four


Moto Guzzi


and last but not least, a Puch Moped

A smattering of the bikes signed up for the ride...will post pics from the ride later this month....it will be interesting to see what other kinds of bikes show up.






















Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Distinguished Gentleman's Ride 2016 Sacramento (Yeah, I know...but it is for a good cause...)

                                    
                                     My suit for the ride.....$1.99


                                   The XR 200 is street legal....


                                 
                                 Or my DirtQuake US "racer" with a quicky Café make over...

                                  Stay tuned....it ought to be amusing...

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Racing, on the cheap...?


Well...not really...nothing inexpensive about racing, or bigger street bikes...but a fella can dream. My racing will be on the dirt...flat tracking and eventually I'd like to do some Vintage Trials. As much as I'd like to try my hand at some Vintage road racing...for the foreseeable future it's not happening.

a Yamaha 650 motor I picked up at a swap meet recently...It would be nice in a classic flattracker...or, settled into a spare unit construction Triumph chassis I have...which would rile up the purists...


Some goodies from the last local swap meet...some good Unit Triumph parts, the fork shrouds for a BSA...been looking for those...the Yamaha 650 parts on the right were an absolute bargain at $25.00, not everyone is out to gouge you these days...







One of the "Hooligan" Sportsters at Dirtquake US from this year...


A street Sportster motor I have that could be a good candidate for a Hooligan racer...
This motor has all the perfomance upgrades, just needs the handling upgrades...alloy rims, good  shocks, dirt track tires, fork mods, flat track tank and seat...oh...two grand should cover it (if I do the work...) As I reread this...more like 3,000-3,500, and I do the work.

I have a 250 Bultaco that would make a nice flat tracker...it too will need flat track wheels and tires...

When I say racing here, I'm talking about "run whatcha brung" events at first...later getting into local sanctioned AMA stuff. Speaking of "run whatcha brung", went to this event....


The main attraction is the local Speedway race bikes......and they did a "Hooligan" oriented race.






Some of the Speedway Bikes

As it turned out four bikes showed up for the Hooligan race....the winner was a guy I know, Pete Demas, who raced his fathers old Sportster that he had quickly converted into a racer...( it's a work in progress...)


Pete used to roadrace...he last raced an XR 1200 on the pavement. He beat out a Ducatti Scrambler, another Sportster, and a guy on a Harley Chopper....and collected a trophy and $200.00


It's a rough and tumble kind of a bike...like I said a work in progress...cobbled together quickly to get into the race.


Pete looking good for the fans...


Detail of Pete's Pops old Sportster 883...



I  first met Ken Heuser in the 70's when I was wrenching at a motorcycle shop in Folsom. The old "Small World" thing going on... He and my old boss at the shop I worked at in Folsom were in the Air Force together.  Ken was stationed in Japan in the fifties at the same time my Air Force father and his family were...about 1959...My father and Ken probably crossed paths out on the flight line a time or two... Ken's been racing for 70 years.







Think I will go out with this pic of the track....being primarily a Speedway track it's smaller than a quarter mile track....guessing maybe a fifth of a mile...?


Been having a hard time blogging with the way my present computer is set up...that and the slow connections I'm using...was going to post some videos, maybe add some later... Scattered as this post seems to me...gonna hit the button, and send it on it's way.....






















Saturday, August 13, 2016

DirtQuake US part 3?


looking a bit like a "Cafe" seat...this was a doodle of a "Hotshoe" I never got around to making, before DitquakeUS3...as I said in the last post...it didn't matter as I really never went fast enough to warrant one.  Part 3? Well a bit of time has passed and realizing I'd not summed things up here we go.


A shot of Mt.Shasta...from a roadside rest area in Northern California...from the return trip.

The rest are random shots not posted yet, as I mentioned in one of the earlier posts...being busy with traveling and pre-race prep and racing...I didn't take many shots.


There is a partially dismantled bike packed in there with the rest of our gear...next time I think a  trailer would make things easier, or a van?



This is a shot of "Marvin the Martian"....my other traveling companion...or should I say Mascot?


A shot of Norman's truck... of  " Motorcycho" magazine. The Champ is his pit bike, the mini-bike his racer for the mini-bike class... he is from "canaduh", ya know...


Some great Hungarian grub we had in Oregon...


My Crewchief Rick, entertaining me with his guitar...


Knew there was no backing out when this arrived via e-mail...


a short video of the general scene, this was during an impromptu "bike show"...

To sum up, it was a lot of fun...and looking forward to doing it all again next year...

A shot of the large hay barn? where two bands played at the after race festivities...



In a motel on the return trip, enjoying a read of a magazine Norm gave me for some 350 Honda chopper parts I gave him....

Next time a post about some upcoming street and race projects....


84 Kawa Turbo750...needs a lot of TLC...














Tuesday, June 28, 2016

DirtQuake USA 2016...Part Two...


Back tracking a bit...(still fighting that "Bully" photo application that is trying to make my life miserable... day before taking off for Washington state I had to perform a clutch swap on my little Honda...fortunately I had a donor parts engine that was seized up, but contained a practically new clutch assembly to replace the rusted up one in the bike.


For a moment or two while still in Oregon looking for that State Park, we were a bit lost. After seeing a giant Golden Eagle and many deer...and driving past more Christmas tree farms than we knew existed....we came to "Triumph Corners", where as our friend "The Interplanetary recluse" pointed out..(in another part of the web...).any turn was a winner.

Not a winner...is the "Bully" program that came with my current computer, I mentioned a few times in the previous post. I think the answer will be buying a new digital camera (which I was due for anyway...) and installing the photo  program that comes with it...anything has to be better than what I'm dealing with here...enough of that....let's see where it will let me go from here.


I may have posted this already....a shot of the Cowlitz river that passes near the race track at Castle Rock.


On a morning hike along the river the morning after we arrived, came across a sign (could of sworn I'd snapped a pic of it...oh well.) that said that the area was in the process of being restored to a more natural state. When Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, it sent all kinds of debris down this waterway. There were huge log jams, and tons of ash, and mud. Gary of Sideburn Magazine said that even the race track was enveloped in the mess. Engineers have been dredging the river of debris for years, and dumping it upon an area that was once a beautiful natural area. They are now working on restoring these natural areas. I was unaware of the history of the effect of  the St Helen's eruption on the local area the first time I came through 2 years ago at the first DirtQuake US. 


There are lots of Hollyhocks along the river trail..(my new favorite flower)

While hiking along the trails I noticed what look like bike tracks, and eventually we came across an area where river dredging debris had been dumped in hills and mounds, one area looking like a crater full of ashy sand, or was it sandy ash? Knobby tire prints all around, so evidently it appeared to be ok to ride in this area. So after taking care of a few little jobs left on the bike, I spent some time dirt biking and "race-tuning" the bike for it's track time. This part of Oregon reminds me of Northern California 40 years ago...when no one cared about kids on dirt bikes....


Decorated the bike with some Toria Jaymes stickers, she is the artist that did the artwork for posters and shirts for this event. Brightened up the drab flat black paint...

Rode the bike around over a few days to charge up the new battery...it was running really well...not bad for what was a fifty dollar parts bike. One area that was a bit concerning was the suspension...ended up putting a couple equal length sockets in the fork tubes... with some oil, which stiffened that end up. All we could do with the rear was jack the preload on the rear shocks to the stiffest setting, which actually made a big improvement....  bike was ready, wasn't so sure about myself at that point.  It was good to get out on the trails with it, and slip and slide around a bit. The old reflexes were still there it seemed...even did some wheelies...haha!

With futzing around with the clutchpack before we left California, I didn't get around to welding up a "steel shoe" or "hot shoe" for my left boot...no matter with the low power of this bike getting too sideways on the track probably wasn't going to be a problem.


Another water fall video, since I've now located them and have figured out how to post them...maybe?


Castle Rock Raceway is a quarter mile track...not quite as intimidating as a mile or half mile track...but the pros manage to get enough speed up with their higher powered bikes. My biggest fear wasn't the speed I might attain, or even sliding out...it was the fear of getting hit by another rider. I had motocross armor...a full face helmet, and motocross boots. After playing around on the river trails I felt better about attempting the race. I had actually played around on this track two years ago with the same bike. Other than that, it has probably been close to 20 years since I'd gotten sideways on bigger more powerful dirtbikes.


Another track side shot...to be honest I didn't take a lot of photos...being busy with my bike and all.


This fellow who goes by the handle "Buck Harness", was one of my competitors in the "Inappropiate Streetbike class". A 60 cc Yamaha moped you say....sure, with a 125 cc motocross motor stuffed in the engine bay...He worked hard to get it going, even replacing the crank seals in the campgrounds, and tried to get the jetting sorted with what he had available. I believe he made it through the practice and first rounds of eliminations, only to seize up in the second round...oh well, he had fun trying. 


Some pictures of some of the more serious race bikes and pro bikes follow..............


A nice Triumph


Don't F up, again it says....

XR 750


A serious looking Triumph


My Crewchief Rick, checking out some "Hooligan class" racers...a Sportster , and one of the new water cooled 750 Harleys.


A better view of the Harley XG 750 Street based flattracker. Its water cooled and has over head cams and four valve heads. Harley is now developing them for racing.


 2 more Sportster based Hooligan racers.


The Roland Sand's Indian Scouts, again. Indian is going to produce a racing version of this motor.


Found out I'd be racing against this KTM.... a two wheel drive version, with some wild graphics. (yes I was passed by this one as it lapped me...) all for fun now...


Think we'll go out with a video ....and call this the end of Part two....be back with a third and final installment for this post. This may or not be some Pro 450 class racers, I believe that is what it is. Gives you an idea of how quickly they get around a quarter mile track.

Oh yes, I have a link to Sideburn Magazines sideblog, over there to the right side of your screen....over there somewhere....click on it, Gary just posted some pics of he Chopper class race, and has posted many other pics from the event....