Racing? did someone mention racing? Racing is part of my plans for the new year...or shall I call it 'Competition' ? Definitely want to do some flat-tracking, and I've had a hankering to give some vintage trials a try. Eventually a go at the salt-flats. Someday, some pavement racing...but for now, if I get on a dirt track I'll be happy.
A little trip down memory lane...mostly to jog my own memory...
A pic borrowed from the web...waiting in the wings I have a Bultaco Pursang like this one...that with the right tires and gearing, and a lot of practice will make a good tracker.
More pics borrowed from the web...for inspiration...
A B-40 Trials bike
I have a couple basket case B-40's, some day I'd like to see something like this come of them.
A triumph cub set up for trials
Another cub set up for trials
This is my Cub as it was when I purchased it a few summers ago.
It's now apart and waiting patiently....
I have several SL 350's like the one in this bubble gum trading card I purchased at a show a few years ago.
Here's one I bought over 20 years ago, that is ever so slowly going through a transformation into a 'Street bike'. This pic is from then.
"Facebook", reminded me the other day that it has been two years since I snapped this pic...same SL, partway to becoming a street bike/coffee bar-hopper...would like to turn the others into flattrackers for racing...
An old pic of my blue SL 350, that was always faster than the others...have suspicions that the motor had been 'breathed-on' by a previous owner...this is the one that will become a tracker. It will be interesting to see what is inside this one. I traded the camo '68 bug for a BSA B-40 motor that had been freshly rebuilt, and never started. A friend of mine had cut the back end off of the bug and we turned it into a flatbed truck. The new owner ended up losing it, because he left it on a city street un-registered...so it goes...
A pic from the inaugural "DirtQuake US" two years ago. My 'race-bike' for the event...last time I got to slide a few laps around the track at Castlerock raceway in practice... had to disqualify myself 'race-day' because of a clutch that started playing up, and an ancient front tire that was beginning to disintergrate. Had this bike ready to go again this year with a new front hoop and other improvements...but, due to circumstances beyond my control...didn't make it..(a probably drunk woman, decided to total my vehicle and hers out front of my house...so it goes, fortunately no one was killed or injured...but it did put a serious kink in my vacation plans)...looking forward to this summer..some time in June..says SEESEEMotorcoffee, the American sponsor of DirtQuakeUS....maybe this time bringing some bigger bikes...?
More pics from previous blog posts..
This is Tom, the gentleman I bought the Cub from...he has a few more he's restoring.
This is a Rickman Triumph he is also restoring.
The motor from the Rickman and another Cub motor
I ran into Tom at the big British show in San Jose,last year... and he had a few pics to show me...
The Rickman nearly restored, with the frame freshly re-nickeled...
And a shot of Tom racing a Triumph Cub in the sixties...
I did get the stuck piston loose in my Cub's motor, and things really didn't look too bad inside. Luckily there are ample stocks of parts available for Triumph cubs.
And lastly for this post , a look at my new for me 1986 Honda XR 200R, that was purchased with the intention of participating in the Barstow to Vegas Desert run....which also was missed due to circumstances out of my control...to next year... enough tap dancing through the digital memory banks....push the publish button, Pete....
"I've been practicing sleeping" - a great line!
ReplyDeleteAs a friend of mine used to say..."Perfect practice, makes perfect...", He was a perfectionist he was, myself being the amateur that I am...I have to try harder...
Deletelarry, forget all plans of racing, you will only end up with no cash, life-changing injuries, long, lonely, frustrating nights in the shed, lying about where the money's gone, no free time, no friends, no sleep, no vacations, listening to late-night phone-in's, selling a kidney to buy a new rear tyre. take it from someone who's been there. go and buy a nice, late model 600cc sportsbike and go and have some fun, or, no $&£K it, go racing instead......
ReplyDeleteMost of what you say there...is my life already..'cept I still have both kidneys..funny you should mention a 600cc sportbike, seeings as a Kaw 600 is heading to my shed soon...might as well...
Deletewhooa! a kawasaki 600, rode a couple of late models recently, [lad's at work have them, change bikes like their sock's, very, very sharp handling and awesomely fast] don't know if it's me but just can't get used to revving a four-stroke that high? be careful when you get it larry, they are twice the bike we used to ride back in the day......
DeleteThe 600 I'm acquiring is used and from a few years back...it has 'ónly' 100 ponies...yeah, about twice what my old 500 four Honda had in the Seventies.It will probably be a while before I use it...we will see.
Delete