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/126078
. " 11II 11II = ..:::lI g \.D t"O) ,.....; :I: a: --- .... ~ U ~ . ,.....; :> z l-< :I: 0 -, >- ~ .0 a CD rJ> '0 ~ b :I: u ~ ~ Q Bole in the wall special: a $685, II.97 second 8035'0 road racer from a tiny back room on a dirt alley behi'nd a California bag factory By J ohn Ulrich It isn 't easy to find Specialists Two. Judging from the trick business cards and the performance of the two-strokes built Guest tester Ron Pierce: It seems really fast By Ron Pierce vrr his Yamaha seems rea lly ,fast . but it has na rrow powerband. It pulls very we ll bet wee n 8 ,0 00 and 10,000 rpm , a nd I co u ld squeeze 10,500 out of it. Even with t he street bike transmission . I co u ld feel th e bike accelerating hard . A close ra tio woul d be better, bu t th is five speed stoc k tra nsmission isn't too bad . T Ilt" bike is reall y sta ble. It feels solid . yet it has th e flick -it feeling , You ca n j ust co me up to the turns a nd flick it from side to side , a lmost like a 250 cc GP bike. The from stoc k brake is gra b by, At first . you don't have an ything when you sq ueeze th e lever , th en you get everythi ng a t once . The bra ke gra bs , th e front end di ves. It is more powerful th e harder you sq ueezei t. but th er e js n't a ny rea r brak e . It need s brake work The fork damping needs work . A T Z 250 Yam aha G P bik e fork ' damper woul d drop right in, a nd is a bo u t one in ch longe r . I th ink that woul d do a lot for th e bike , T he sp ri ng rat e needs work , too , W it h the Michelin ti re on the back and th e Dunlop on t he front , the tires work pretty well. Even with its sho rtcomings. the bike is prett y nice. It is defini tel y the best handling bik e I rode at Willow that day. (Pierce also did some la ps on a 500cc Ho nda Cafe b ike a nd a Yoshi mu ra Z·I Super b ike Production racer usually ridden by Wes Cooley, J r .). The th in g is. that as fast as this bike is, it won't be able to co mpete against the Superbikes ridden by a good rider. Beca use , rid ing a big prod uc tio n bik e. t he weight act ually mak es them easier to ride - smoot hs out th e bump , Plus. like th e BMW s and the Kaw asak is raced in Superb ike Producti on accele ra te as ha rd a t 100 mi les per hour as th ey do a t 30 . They ju st see m to never sto p pulling, no ma tter how fast you go. Even on a short , tii(ht tra ck like Laguna Scca o r Loudon , th e bii(ger bikes will win every time, if th ey're r idd e n by good , fast r a cers. But thi s Yamaha . used for cl u b racin g aga inst ot her street bik es. sho u ld be p rett y nice . If I had the time to get used to it , I'm su re I • could go prett y fast on it. by Gary Shumake (who is Specialists Two), you'd think the place would be a nice, sanitary shop with pane glass festooned with thin foil burglar alarm tape, fluorescent lighting, and pipedin music . It isn't. Specialists Two is buried on a dirt alley behind a paper bag factory in the grimy industrial section of North Hollywood, Don't let the inclusion of "H ollywoo d" in the city name fool you . North Hollywood is to the glitter and glory of Sunset Boulevard what North Las Vegas is to the strip. The shop itself is dark . ill -lit , and murky. Pans. motorcycles, and papers clutter up everywhere. The dyno is awash with piles of . . , junk. And in an even more cluttered. darker comer separated from the rest of the mess by plywood walls. Gary Shumake , 25 , lives. The man works and lives on his dirt alley, in his dark. dirty hole in the wall - and produces some of the fastest , most economical two stroke racing and street equipment ever seen in California and the world. Bikes he crafted with his own hands (he has no employees) hold three national drag racing records - two with the American Motorcycle Drag Ra cing Associa tion (AMDRA) with a 326cc Suzuki twin and a 750cc Kawasaki triple and one with th e Independent Drag Bike Association (IO BA) with a 500cc Kawasaki triple. The bike that caught our attention, however, was the Yamaha RD350 rid den by Darryl Lee at local club races in Southern California. Especially the time at Ontario Motor Speedway when Da rryl won the Cafe class overall on h is Yamaha running against everyth ing from Kawasaki 900s to other RDs . Granted , the heavies of modified production racing were not there that particular day. but giving away 550cc is still giving away a lot , and Ontario still has a very. very long straightaway. Gary Shumake started out in business four years ago at the age of 21 , with $1,000 and no clientel, He hasn't exactly hit the big time, but he says that now he has to tum away customers at his one-man shop. and that he 's as busy as he wants to be. " I get very little sleep. It 's a one man business. I have to do two kinds of racing, so my nerves get a little shot. But I like it ." Shumake's loss in sleep is our gain in horsepower. His RD350 is as good a racer as anybody can hope for for under $1 ,700 total investment (if you start out with a new RD350). Consideri ng that RDs can be picked up used for around $500, you could have a race-winning machine for $1100. To test the bike , we went out to Springs Raceway in Willow Rosamond, California with world famous road racer Ron Pierce and not-so-famous road racer Bill Henry. Pierce, an expert , and Henry, an amateur club racer . were suprisingly similar in their evaluations of the bike. As for me . , .the machine destroyed the fear and apprehensions I had nurtured toward Yamaha RD models since the time I raced in the 1974 AFM Six- Hour Production Ra ce at O nt a rio on an old, decrepit RD with Art Friedman as my teammate. That bike had ground and wobbled it 's way into a special place in my heart, and had spit off Art to end our participation in the race . I hated it. This one is different. With Shu m ake's pipes and some rearsets, it doesn't drag a bit of metal in the tightest turns. With Boge-Mulholland shocks and 801120 spri ngs, it doesn't pogo. With a Don Vesco swing arm , it doesn't stand up' like a rearing stallion ,on the start. W ith a Michelin PZ2 rear treaded road ra cing tire and a Dunlop KR73 treaded front road racing tire . it sticks to the track like Elmer's Glue. Even with a narrow powerband, (8 .000 to 10,500 rpm), fork damping needing im provement. and a useless rear brake. the bike is a race-winning weapon. Why? Because it has to run against street bikes. It's a racer. A $685 . 11.97 second Elapsed Time (one-quarter mile standing start , with struts and wheelie bar). racer. • The cost of 11·second RD Specialists Two Pipes, . . , ., " .. , . . . . . $150 Porti ng , . . , , , • . . . . .. 100 Swingarm , , , . , , . 100 Carb mods 20 Coil kit 25 Tires , . . . . .. . . •.. .. ... . 100 Rear sets ,.,..,,,, 50 Shocks, , , , , .. ; ',' , 50 Tach, bars Sprockets Total , .. , , . , , , , . ., . •, , .. , 60 30 $686