Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left - from left to right) Rick "Restore Me" Dou ghty. Mike " Too Tall " Bell and Paul " Not Tall Enough" Carrulhers with the restored VZ250 tha t Bell raced to victory in the Vintage Iron World Championship. (Right) The author at speed (and we use t he term loosely) on the vz. Continuedfrom page 14 fairly good shape. The last time the bike w as rid den was actually in Baja, so the standard gas tank had bee n swapped for an old Don Vesco Products desert tank. The original tank was in good condition (a nd was fortunately still sitting by the bike in storage), so Doughty had something to work with. To make the bike as visually pleasing as possible, the Vintage Iron crew sand th e ta nk, fenders, etc. dow n to the raw pl astic and then polish them - nearly resto ring the parts to their original lus ter. The YZ's tank gra phics were also replaced with items directly out of the Vintage Iron catalog (perfo ra ted, so they do n' t bu bble and fall off like the originals). While the sea t o n my YZ wasn' t ham m er ed, it had a few small tears . So to make the bik e as perfect as possible, the old seat was replaced wi th a new o ne . Th is process involves ha nd-cutting foam and then laminatin g it to a Vintage Iro n sea t cov er . Back w hen Old Yeller was manufactured, frames were painted rather tha n powder-coa ted. Since powder-coating is tougher and d oes a good job of d ressing up the chassis because of its ability to fill in small abras ions and othe r blemishes that paint w ouldn't hid e, Doughty opts to powder-coat most of his restorations. M y YZ h ad its fra m e, hubs , triple clam ps and all of its othe r painted su rfaces powder -coat ed . "The only tim e that I d on't use powder-coa tin g is if I'm doing a sh ow bike," Do ughty sa id . "The way it la ys in th e cracks along the chass is where two met- als come together, the wa y it lays on top of welding beads, you're going to notice a d ifference. So if you ar e putting the bik e in competition to be jud ged, a good judge is going to se e the di fferen ce between powd er-coating and painting. But if it' s a bike that is go ing to be rid den, regardless of whether it's a British streetbike or a motocross bike, absolutely w e powder-coat them." While most of Doughty' s rest oration projects require him to repl ace th e rims, Old Yeller' s wheels w ere in good en ough condition to keep. The spokes, however. were re placed with heaviergauge stainless-steel spokes. Naturally, my flat old kno bbies were replaced with brand-spanking-new rubber. A n e w Wo rks Connection clu tc h lever replaced th e old unit, a package th a t Dough ty says he lp s reduce the clu tch pull. A side- pull throttle replaced the old assem bly, mainly for sa fety reasons . The old straight-pull unit had the throttle cable hangin g out in fro nt of the nu mber plate, while th e side- pull cleans all that up, making it less likely for the throttle to get hu ng up. Dou ghty also recommends repl acin g o ld -sty le a ir cleaners with new -styl e units, even though yo u can still find the origi na ls. "I w ouldn't put one in a bike I was actually go ing to ride," Dou gh ty said. "The foa m doesn ' t ag e well. Th e shelflife on an ai r filte r isn' t 20 or 25 years. Wh en you start u sin g solv ent to cle a n the o ld air filt ers , th ey tend to b reak d own, and th e las t thing yo u wa n t to d o is sc rew up a m o tor tha t yo u just .I f y o u have a so ft spot in your hea~ for the b ike , ~nd j t' s goil:'g to .make you happy if it's restored and you can nde It again , or Jus t look at It lovingly, th en sure it's worth it. But since nearlv all bik es cos t the sa me to restore, why not p ick one that's worth v, and w ill hav e some val ue wh en you 're finished with it? "It'll cos t the 'same to rest ore a bik e that nobod y wants wh en you' re do ne as it d oes to re st ore a bike th at everyo ne wa n ts w hen yo u ' re done," Dough ty said. "Whe n it comes to racin g bikes, raci ng drives the va lue of the motorcycle. If it's a com pe titive bike. it'll be wo rth money. If it's not a com pe titive bike, you' re throwing good money after ba d ." . Dough ty put togethe r a quick list of bikes that he feels are worthy of restora tion. Again, these recommen dations are m otocross bik es to be ridden or raced . • • • • ..r N j E ~ o . z 16 • • • • • • • Rickm an Met i sse T ri u mph BSA Goldsta r A ny twi n -p ipe CZ 1966-1967 Husky 250/360 1973/1974 Honda CR250 19 7 4 Yamaha VZ250 /360 19 7 4 Husqvarna 250 Mag 19 7 7 -1 9 8 1 Yamaha VZ2 5 0 /400 /465 19 7 6 - 19 7 9 Suzuki RM 2 5 0 / 400 1978- 198 1 M aico 250/400 /440 /490 Any works b ike y ou can get your hands on put S1000 in. We have our own line of air filters for vi rtua lly a ny thi ng o u t there." Sinc e a t the time tha t Doughty did Old Yeller's restoration he didn't have a jig to mak e a 1979 YZ exhaust pipe, he o p ted to replace the original exhaust w ith a DG pipe. "What we look for is a better power sp read, all owing the bi ke to pull from corner to corn er longer without having to shift," Doughty said. "T hat is what we w ere goi ng for there. We also replaced the reeds with Boyesen Reeds and it wa s rejetted slightly to ma ke it a - bit crisper." The end result The motorcycle I'd given Doughty was straight ou t of storage, and it looked the part . It fea tured all the nice little od di ties of a bike tha t had been put to rest wi thout much tho ug ht abou t wha t it would loo k like 20 years later. It emerged from storage with a bit of rust and lots of crud bu ild u p . It w as a motorcycle th at yo u wouldn't look at twice - unless yo u can see past su ch things, as Doughty obviously can . When I loo ked at the bike in its fresh -out-of-storage state, I d idn't see mu ch m ore than a pil e of rubbish . Do ughty, however, th ought it w a s a gem . He' d seen worse, much w orse, and this res toration would be fairly sim ple in comparison. " It w a s in all-t h er e condition a nd that mak es a big differ ence when you go to ge t a rest oration," Doughty sa id. "You ca n ge t a bi ke that is near com p letio n and the las t 10 percent is unobtainab le - and tha t wi ll keep yo u fro m ever finishing the project . It also helped that many of the parts were still available, eit her from th e ma n ufactu rer o r the a fte r ma rket . W e didn't run in to any serious obs ta cles that way." So w hen Do ugh ty unloaded the restored Old Yeller fro m the back of his van a t our offices, he u nloa ded a motorcycle that mad e me rub my eyes in dis belief. Wha t exactly had happened to the pile of cra p I'd given him a few weeks ea rlier? This cou ld n' t be the motorcycle I'd give n him . Suddenly , I started to like the bik e - much mo re tha n I had when! put it awa y for d ead some 18 years earlier . Dou ghty ha d turned an old woman in to a su permodel. Ol d Yeller looked like it ha d just ro lled off a showroom floor. She almost looked too good . Well, . too good to rid e. In fact , after th e bi ke was stored in our wa rehouse for a few weeks, we d ust ed it off an d brough t it u p sta ir s, p ro u d ly d isp laying it in o ur editori al sho w roo m . But Doughty wa nted this bike ridd en , and he was persistent "Bu t Rick, it loo ks 50000 good ." The though t of rid ing in the Vintage Iron World Cha mpions hips w as appealing. Th e idea of havin g former Yama ha factory star Mike Bell ride it only further vali da ted the idea. Why no t have some fun on th e bike w hile also allowing "Too Tall" to ta ke a journey back in time? After all, he 'd won the Superbowl of Motocross on an eerily similar motorcycle back in 1978. So Doughty won out, and the two of us ra ced the bike at Glen H elen. Bell was successful as always, wi nning bo th m o to s i n th e P lus-40 Exper t class. Although my resu lts in th e Evo lu tio n In te rmedia te class were less successful tha n Bell' s, the outcome for both of us was eq ual: We were both hooked . He was su d d enly in th e market to buy an o ld Ya ma ha, a nd I wa s ready to race mine some more. Most importa n tly, w e both left th e faci lity with the same smiles we'd wo rn since we arrived. A nd Doughty was also smi ling. "The pa rt that is most enjoya ble to me now ha s nothin g to do with ma chinery - it has every thing to d o w ith th e people side of it," Dough ty said . " I go t yo u involved in racing yo ur bik e again. Wh en you ge t to be over 40 yea rs of age, yo u get to looking at what yo u' re doing with yo ur life, and trying to find so me sig nifica nce in w ha t yo u' r e d o ing . Rest oring m otorcycles is not that fulfill ing, but ge tting brothers back togethe r an d r a cing to g e th er again , ge t ting frie nd s who used to race together back ou t there, guys th at ma y have just been o n th e couch, o r ha ve fo rgo tten ho w much fun they ha d during that era that th ey w an t to recreate. Being ab le to facilitate th at is the bes t pa rt of my job." Ame n. _ aving Vintag e Iron res tore you r motorcycle isn' t cheap, but neither are ciga rs and fin e w ine. You ge t what y ou p ay fo r, an d taki ng yo u r bik e to Doughty is the perfect solutio n for those who lack eithe r the mo tivati on or the skills to un dertake a res tora tio n on their own, H Ho_ _uch.,. "Ou r average rest oration runs fro m $4500 to $5500 on a two-s tro ke single," Doughty said. "Tha t's usu all y com p rised of $2000 w orth of lab or, $1800 to $2200 worth of pa rts , and then the four Ps - painting, powder-coating, po lishing and plat ing . Those are the ou tside se rvices. Everything else we do here." Ho_lo. . . ? "O ur normal d ura tio n on d oin g a restoration is a w eek to a week and a half," Dou ghty said . "Bu t I don 't w ant people th inking they can stop by he re and drop off a bike and pick it up in a week and a half. Th ey have to ge t in lin e. "We have the bike apart and assessed in a matter of four hours - then w e're rocking and ro lling . In a week, we can d o it." For more info rmation, call Vintage Iro n at 714/694-0066 .

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