Meanwhile at the 'Not ready for prime-time dirt works'....

Rummaging through the bone yard... 

Back to the place where SL's go to die...well maybe rest awhile in this case. Over the past...well more years than I care to remember I've been buying the little guys as I ran into them...

The orange one, an SL 100.. which is fairly complete, I believe has a stuck piston. The grayish looking bike is a 125 that was running and even had a new (at the time it was purchased) battery, and was a good runner...but leaked oil from the head. The incomplete bike has a good motor I believe, but is pretty naked of much else but wheels and suspension...

There is another mostly complete 100, not pictured, that is in undetermined condition. When the sun hits that one just right, you can see through the gas tank...I'm thinking it is going to be mostly a donor bike. 

The bare frame is of an SL 100 that has been in the family since the 70's. it was a '71 I believe, that my brother probably traded a mini-bike or a bicycle or something for. Yeah , about the time the movie 'On Any Sunday' came out, and about the time I was working odd jobs and attending colleges occasionally.

The original owner was what we'd refer to as a 'rich kid', his dad bought him a brand new Honda. The kid thought he was going to build a Drag bike. He took the motor apart, cut the tops of the upper fork tubes about six inches from the top. He managed to lose the wheels and many other parts and then became disinterested in the project...after turning it into a complete basket case. My brother decided to turn it into a 'racer' to replace his hopped up S-90. So with some financial assistance from me...we proceeded to set to. 

Making a long story shorter...I found wheels and fork parts at a local motorcycle wrecking yard (the one that  years later, I'd end up working at)...My brother extended the swingarm a couple inches in his metal shop class at the High School...following a 'hop-up' article in a motorcycle magazine, it ended up with a home grown big bore kit using a modified piston from a 175 twin Honda which gave it really high compression. Carl Cranke (of Penton motorcycle fame) was working at a local shop at the time, and did the machine work to the piston and cylinder. We ordered up a full race cam, and when a three-quarter race cam showed up instead we decided to go with it, which was probably a wiser choice for a dirt machine. It got a set of 'racing' valve springs...modified clutch...carb off a bigger bike...port and polish...racing pipe...all that jazz.  It turned out pretty good and was fast for it's size. 

Eventually it ended up as one of my dirt bikes. And then later still it was torn down, and then carried around through several moves. I still have most of the major parts, and with a little help from the 'bone yard' I should be able to get it together.  

Been checking out the DQUSA hashtag at Instagram, to see what other people are cooking up to bring to DirtQuake USA. Some pretty serious looking machinery...oh well...they need someone to bring up the rear!! Originally I'd thought of bringing a bigger bike, but decided to scale back ambition and be a little more sensible about it. 

For those of you just tuning in, Dirt Quake USA is an inaugural event that will be happening at a real GNC* race track. Castle Rock in Washington state. Sideburn Magazine and See See Motorcycles and coffee are co-hosting this event. It is patterned after the three years running Dirt Quake in merry old England.

*GNC Grand National Championship

    

Since I was last here...I've realized I'm going to have to 'pull it out' as suggested by the fuel tank on the Sideburn Enfield Streettracker...and get my pre-entry pictures in.

The frame of the SL 100 is about 94 and 1/2 percent de-rusted...

Thanks to this 18 volt cordless 'sidewinder', as yanks are known to call handheld angle grinders..

Take that, you derelict motorcycle frame....

I have the next 10 days off from work....time to catch up on blogs, publishing, and reading, and leaving snotty comments and such...  Will be back with more British bikes and European and Japanese as well...

And back to the 350 project...