Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126028
; SEARCH FOR THE III • ~ J E n Great American Motorcycle Day three~====~========================~~ [(ennedy Tlio roughbred'- Better than British? By Lane Campbell It begins almost like a piece out of Sherlock Holmes - with a want ad in the Los Angeles Times that IS like a personal j 01 t in its implica, tions . It reads" "Unlimited opportunity for a creative, artistic engineer with 20 years o f experience in the rese arch and develop- 16 ment o f European o r American motorcycles .. . " It finishe s off with "Stone St. Lands Co ." and a post office box add ress in Sp ence r, West Virg ini a. I find myself breathing heavily, mind racin g - if only I co ul d claim th at much exp erienc e. But the ad is o bvi ously me ant for a better man th an me . I file th e ad away, thinking, "There's a story in this, if it ever gels ." The ide a that somebody co uld b e building a Euro p ean-style motorcycle in craggy West Vir gini a, wh ere population is sp ars e , p er -capit a inco me is low with livin g cos ts to m at ch, an d where several hundred bikers co uld be come a qu asi-independent co m m un ity in .th eir own right - it co nt in ues to n ag at me during th e wh irlwind race coverage season . But the inquiring letter I sent to th e Spencer P.O _ box goes unanswered and th e tr ail go es co ld. Then by purest chance, o ur Art Dire ctor had a m agazine I'd never seen on her desk, a thing ca lle d Flat Track /Ro ad Ra ce out of Ohio somewhere . Naturall y, I began leafing throu gh it absen tly , to see if its editors kne w an ything we d idn 't. Buried somewhere in the middle was a two-incher that said Bill Kennedy, Sr. was go ing to build a series of 750cc and 900cc fo ur stroke vertical twins in Spen cer, West Virginia. Lightning does no t strike twice. The worst of the seasonal grind over, my boss suggests I indulge some of m y . fantasies by taking a swing East to get a look at some mo torcy cle factories . The obvious contacts at Harley-David son and r DV gel quickly; still there's all t ho se nagging unanswe re d ques tio ns about Bill Kennedy, a mystery project, and an outfit called "Stone St . Lands Co." in Spencer, West Virginia. The enigma begins to unravel Bill Kennedy himself is n o m ystery ; his record of fielding fast T ri um phs spea ks for itself, as Gary Van Voorhis writes in answer to my request: " A lt ho ugh running a Triu mph on th e 1 97 5 AM A G ra nd Na tio nal Cham pions hip was som ew hat of a handicap - u nless at a TT - St eve Moreh ead (along with Billy Eves) made believers of a lot of people. Moreh ead, aboard th e Kenn ed y Triumph, f inished fifth in the Atlantic R egion al Expert Championship Series. He also made a good sho wi ng on th e " run as m uch as you can " Ohio circu it, pick ing up a number of wins. Th e Kenn edy engines pr oved t o be high stru ng, bu t it was ma inl y grem lins tha t robbed Moreh ead of wha t should have'been top 10 f inis hes. COLUMB US: Columbus p roved to be a go od track fo r St eve as he won his h eat over th e lik es of R ex Beau cham p and Jim Ziegler; both Harley m ou nted. Th e Nat ional was a [o llour-the-leader affa ir on a narro w groo ve with St eve fi nishing 11 th after his tire apparen tly went away 'in th e final laps. INDY: Th e Kenn edy Triump h pr oved its holding power on th e Indy m ile. Moreh ead staged a side by side se mi du el with Harley -mounted Frank Gillespie and Bob Deiss; tak ing th e win whe n Gillespie crashed on th elast lap. A poor start han dicapped St eve in th e National, but a good charge had him breaking into th e top 10 'just before his battery went dead. .SYRACUSE: While in a three way fight for third on th e 23r d lap of th e Syracuse National, Morehead's rear tire went flat. Until that tim e he had dogged ARTIST'S GUESS (abo ve ) as to t he shape of the Thoroughbred is based on a q uick glimpse of working drawings . Late wo rd confi rms the tilted-forward shocks (but not the air sp rings ) and oil in the f rame. However. the rea l production frame will have full double-downtube cradle inst ead of as shown . Below - if it can be d rawn, it 's likely t h at Kennedy's jig-bo rer can wh ittle it out.