CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
C
anned-Spam, Can't-
Jam... There was no end
to the scorn heaped upon
Canadian motorcycle manu-
facturer Can-Am—a subsidiary
of Canadian industrial giant
Bombardier—near the end of
its short run in the motorcycle
business, during which time it
produced odd but often sur-
prisingly effective motocross
and off-road motorcycles.
Some hard-core off-road fans
might even remember one
of the last Can-Am tests ever
conducted by a motorcycle
magazine. In a 1987 issue of
Dirt Bike magazine, editors
mercilessly slammed Can-
Am's 250cc ASE off-road model,
roasting it via such statements
as "it handles like a Kenmore
fridge loaded with bowling balls,"
"vibrates like a blender," and that
"the front brake is weaker than
an 88-year-old nun." The end
was near.
But back up only a dozen
years into Can-Am's history,
and you'll find a totally different
scene. During a short but intense
period of time, Can-Ams not only
won, but they also dominated
the AMA National Motocross and
Supercross landscape, beat-
ing back the best the Japanese
manufacturers had to offer in
the racing arena if not in outright
production machinery.
P90
DAYS OF CAN-AM
taking over the motocross world,
and it set out to do just that.
Already utilizing the services of
two-time World Motocross Cham-
pion Jeff Smith, who played a
major role in the development of
the first Can-Ams in production,
Can-Am managed to spirit away
two-time AMA 250cc National
Motocross Champion Gary
Jones and a talented, though
as yet unheralded, Connecticut
rider named Jimmy Ellis to form
the basis of its works effort. Later
in the season, Can-Am would
also add the talented Marty
Tripes, who parked his Husqvar-
nas in favor of the white-orange-
Borrowing heavily from its
experience in producing Ski-
Doo and Moto-Ski snowmobiles,
Bombardier's first Can-Ams were
already out of the technological
mainstream when the company
brought the marque online in
1973. Using such weird features
as oil injection and rotary-valve
induction (the forefather of case-
reed induction in that the intake
tract was essentially mounted in
the same place), Can-Ams quickly
gained a reputation as enigmatic
machines that were fast and reli-
able, if a little heavy and quirky-
handling.
But Can-Am had big dreams of
Can-Am's Marty Tripes leads Jimmy Ellis at the AMA National in Delta, Ohio. It
was here where Ellis gave Can-Am its first-ever National MX win.
