Ken Maely's
American-built
racer updates
Speedway
.. . has lour valves, a starstudded list 01 codevelopers, and is built in
a tin shed guarded by"
geese
By Lane Campbell
CORONA, CAL. ,JAN , 21
It is done. By the time you read this, Ken
Maely's all-American speedway engine will
have had track time, and maybe even have
garnered its first racing laurels. That's no idle
threat, for U .S. Speed way Cham pion
Mike Bast is so sto ked on this engine,
he's been working day and night , for
free at the Maely ranch hel pi ng with
the fina l fitting a nd development .
This is a story tha t bega n as a hot
rumor over a year ago .
Acting on that rumor, I called
Maely late last winter, and visited his
ranch to see the practice speedway
oval he'd carved into a natural
am hitheatre beh in d his home. He
told me then, "We are building a
speedway engine that is goi ng to be all
"new, all American . It is going to be
designed by racers, for racers; it is
going to use the best of everything.
W hen it's done (and I won't move until
it's right), I will make available, to
racers, a complete package motorcycle, engine, spares, special
tools - if " ny, and a week's intensive
a
training - they'll not only learn how
to ride it, they 'll learn how to field
Windy Briggs, puts 'em together,
strip and maintain it themselves for
$2 ,500 ."
Ken Maely, with the enthusiastic
backing of the motor cycle community,
has reached his dream. The first 25
engi nes are in inventory, being h a nd assembled in Mael y's shop. Noth ing
has changed of the origina l co nce pt,
not even the price. In the process,
Maely has created the closes t thing yet"
ro
an
American
enthus iast
owned/ operated motorcycle factory in
a collection of tin sheds (complete with
squads of honking watch -geese),
reminiscent of the traditional small
Europea n works. '
"Yo u've got to understand, th is is
not my motorcycle ," Maely sa ys.
"Everybody in the in dustry a lmost, has
hel ped with this," He backs th e
stateme nt up with a n impressive list of
names in American moto rcycle racing
who ha ve given freely of themselves
and their know ledge to make th is
engine come together - Bob Milray
who hel ped make the mold patterns,
Irwin Moon who machined the case ha lves on Maely's 24" swing lathe,
Jerry Bra nch who flowed the four,
valve heads and said "Don't even talk
about money, Ken," Tom Sifton,
Ba be DeMay (now . tu ning (or Ken
