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/126033
on Don Vesco in a rare pose-standing still enough to be photographed in the shop's half-light. Mothers, cu rving brake lineS fro.m , e from the ' ob. Note the sta,nles~ s. No, they don t c~~ops will be TZ with a Vesco n?I~~~ calipers on reve;~,dar:'Morris , Japanese ~e unused tires . I gracefullY down tO.:ra~at. " Artillerv wh~r~t racers will snap up factorY ,,,e t Daytona. exchanged for Goodyears a . By Lane Campbell 16 These days, Do n Vesco is not hard to find (he's usually in his shop from opening to about 3 a.m.); but being a man in the last stages of p reparing five Daytona bikes simultaneously, plus ta king care of normal customer business, he is a har d man to catch standing still ยท (hence the one fuzzy pho t o ). With such illustrious "clients" as multi -champion Ph il Read and defending Daytona 200 win ner Gene Romero, in add ition to SoCal Experts Pat Evans (who part -t imes it in Don's race shop) , Murray Hoffman and Kevin Stafford ; this year has to mark one of Don 's mo st am bit io us efforts. For one thing, five ra cers just about fill up Vesco's race shop, which is jammed into the rear of Don Vesco Yamaha in EI Cajon. The day I visited him, two of the Daytona bikes (Pat 's and Kevin's) were out getting pipes fitted. Yet with Read 's monoshocker on o ne stand, Romero's TZ on another stand, a TZ250 for Canadian Jim Gill stand , and Murray on a third Hoffmans 's part-finished Daytona bike joining a "box stocker" for Germ an sportsman Gerhardt lI uerkerott on t he floor - it was "up against th e wall" to get aro und the shop . The final ru sh is on , and fo r t he first time he's far mi ng o ut the exha ust pipe co nstructi o n o n t he five TZs to Rob Martin's Specialties in Spring Valley . Tucking on e pipe through the frame behind the en gine so the clearance ar ea below can hold three larg e-vo lu me ch am bers instead of four small ones is no simple task. Martin does pretty wo rk, which holds up at least lo ng enough for Step Two, as shop machinist Bob Hartley puts it - " Remove p ipe, beat on severely with hammer " . At t he ti me of the visit, the pipes o n each racer were receiving a series of kn o cks and di ngs to clear vari o us p ar ts o f the chassis an d engine (like the unco vered ignition lower u nit , whe re clearance on th e No. One pipe - t he crossov er one - is super-critical) . It's got to be clo se lik e that, because people like Romero and Read are bo und to drag anything th at sti cks o ut. The pipes th emselves ar e built to Don 's spe cs and eq uippe d with Skyway silencers d o ubl e-walled on to the re ar baffle co ne of the chamber in such a way th at they're not o nly q uie t ( 107 d b ) but well-supported, Pipe mounts are a surprising ly stock ite m - Yamaha 360 /4 00 MX isolatio n mo unts, wh ich Don uses in heavy profusio n . A big preparation job like this o ne tends to clean out the customer-sho p's p arts stock temporarily. With his hands st ill busy , Don co n ti n ues to exp lain in his soft, easygoing manner the man y things it takes to ma ke an out-of-the bo x TZ truly race-read y . Very little had to do with horsepower (which Don would be kee ping under his hat, anyway); rather with rideability and reliability. " We have to cut in the quic k fill s on the tanks, shim the gearboxes so they'll shift better, match the cases and port them . The engine mounts are relieved here in back for no other reason than that it makes it easier to drop th e engine out ... n ylo n ties on the coils keep 'em fro m falling off, big gro und wires from the co ils really help . . . you just study the differences between Romero 's bike and that one o ut of the box; yo u 'll see a few of th e things we have to do ." For an yo ne no t in t im ate wi th th e TZ 750, it takes several lo o ks before th e full extent o f Vesco's preparati o n be gins to dawn . The fo ur t hro t tl e cables get safety-wired at the car b to ps fo r o bvio us re aso ns . Dzus-fastener re cep tacle s tha t adj u st in o r o ut to suit the rider repl ace the stock fairing side mounts, th en nylo n ties are added at bo th sides. "Those mounts te nd to break near the frame, and a dragging fairi ng ca n get you b lack-flagged." A sq uee ze of semi-c ured RTV silicone rub ber be tw een