Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

. . clealgnecl the fnlme and he. a Jig to produce morel were bolted together. dialed-In and delivered to the Aacot NlItIonel TT with only mlnutee to ..... Rod Time was wasting! The Ascot IT National was only weeb away. I called Terry Knight. "Hey Knight! What about a one·off trick frame to house a 490 Maico motor?" After a lengthy dis· CUIIion, he agreed. Next call was to Maico West. After patiently explaining 'Vatt iss diss doort track' racing to them, I got my hands on an engine and a promise they'd sell as many engines as anybody wanted to buy for dirt track competition. Oh boy. That motor was about 20 ~unds lighter than the lightest 500cc thumper motor. My fmgernails were raining on the floor in anticipation. .other people were getting interested, too. Brian O'Hagen of Buffalo Number Plates, Rocky Cycle, Bryson Baker Distributing, Carlisle Tires and even Grand Prix Plastics, the people who make Champion's, Shell's, Knight's and Harley dirt track fiber· glass were coughing up parts for this ... this darkhorse hot rod. Even Terry Knight's voice was beginning to elevate a little. Knight had built a frame for Rob Muzzy who campaigned a 465cc Yamaha motor in the Junior ranks last year. Ron Yamamoto rode it at Ascot, and I'd had a chance to observe its handling up close. It worked good, even with the "claw for the sky" type honepower the Yamaha was delivering. Knight and I both agreed the frame needed the slightly longer wheelbase due to the Maico's light weight and the unknown power characteristics. We both had visions of giant wheelstands in the cornen at the most unexpected moments. So, he did a beautiful job on a long wheelbase frame. Front forb were next. Ceriani has long been the hot tip for dirt track. Alas, try to find a new pair; they're out of business. Interpart makes Betor forks available, as was written up in the previous article on the Kawasaki 250cc dirt tracker (It's alive and kicking cans as a Pro Novice bilr.e in SoCal) but I erroneously stated Beton were the only new forks currently being made exclusively for dirt track application. Larry Wise of Cosmopolitan Moton called me quickly and set my chain straight. He distributes Marzocchis, the very same forks Harley runs on their XR750 dirt trackers. They are available in two widths and two offsets. They have 5l-2 inches of travel, and had been dialed in by Harley a long time ago. Readily av.ailable, they list for about UOO. I grabbed a set from Knight, who was testing them himself. Knight and I decided to make the Maico project even more different by foregoing the usual hydraulic disc brake setup and build a totally mechanical front and rear disc arrange· ment using off·the shelf Honda com· ponents. As luck would have it, time ran out before the National, and Brian O'Hagen loaned me a set of his Kosman wheels with the Grimeca cylinders and controls. We are going to build and perfect the mechanical brakes, though, and they're going to be cheaper, leak· free and more readily available than anything we've seen so far. S&W shocks went on the back end. Most everybody was running them, and I felt they performed well for the requirements. After endless nights of racing to the . airport to get the parts before the freight terminal closed, I finally had everything I needed except the number plates. Now I was down to the pipe. The stock pipe was malting good horsepower according to the articles, so I wanted to keep the same dimensions but tuck it down low to help the center of gravity. Bill's Pipes came to the rescue. Bill and Randy Blevins measured the pipe to the gnat's hinie and proceeded to wrap the dimensions into a downpipe. Welding and cutting, they watched in horror as the pipe rapidly approached the end of the rear wheel with quite a bit of pipe left to be attached. At midnight, we were running out of time and motorcycle to hang the bazooka pipe onto. At 1:00 a.m., we had to saw off the stinger and go at it again. Ulti- mately, we had a pipe that would see us through tech inspection and our fint National, but it was a pipe whOle position and mounting method would have to be changed later. With nearly everything ftnally to· gether and safety wired, I fired the little beastie up, making myself a wallting·wounded by trying to kickstart it. ("Wrong technique," Maico said........ %'.. 1 said.) It frred right up and proceeded to run dead rich. "Ahhh, the pipe," I said. We must have missed the dimensions. Quick-checIted the dimensions. No problem. Jumped on the car· buretor. We had angled the engine downward to keep the center of gravity low to prevent wheelies. It became dear that the fuel level was now spilling into the main bore. Popped the float bowl and lowered the float level. Primed 'er, fired 'er, ... Whaaam Still rich???? Got on the phone to Maico. Ringring, ring-ring_ It was Saturday, April 4, three hours before the pits opened for my bike's debut at the Ascot IT National, and I remembered Maico was closed Saturdays. Woe. Also, my northern California rider Rod Spencer hadn't been heard from, and I had just been informed that the number plates shipped from Buffalo Number Plates four days previous had 11

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