Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Project bike expected for its firs t race back a fte r a ma jor overhaul. The second moto , the RM and I were leading again, bu t this time my luck finally ran out. The needle-clip inside the carbu retor popped off and left me with an ill-run ning motor. I knew the clip was bad going into the race a nd eve n tho ugh t abo u t replacing it between motos, bu t I chose not to because of the windy and dusty conditions that day at the track. Instead , I hoped it would last five more laps . It didn't. I certainly wasn 't disappointed that I DNF ed the second m ot o, How cou ld I be? To me, just the fac t I go t th e bik e running again Saturday night was the ultim at e. An yth in g a fte r th at w as a bonus: seeing the bike in the back of my truck again, riding it in practice, having my famil y and friends come ou t to the tr a ck and a ctu ally winn in g th e fir st moto. I had nothing to be disappoin ted abou t, except for , perhaps, letting old '82 go to waste in the firs t pl ace. So, I have promis ed n e ver agai n to let it spend the night outside . (Left) DG still makes pipe s for many older Japanese-built dirt bikes. (Above) The folks at Ceet built the seat from scra tc h and even duplicated the RM stenciles. Continued from page15 back in '8 2. After s it ting ou tdoors for 16 years, it certainly wasn't hot anymore, so I asked the folks at Ceet if they could res tore th e sea t back to its o rig ina l configura tion, including th e yellow "RM" stencil on the sides. Th ey said yes , and they certainly lived u p to thei r promise. Blast from the past Sunday morning had come. As usu al, I arrived at the track a little late and scu rried around sorti ng out en tries and all th e u s ual stuff. By th e time th a t I unl oaded the bike, practice had alrea dy started, so I d id n' t have any time d ou ble-checkin g anyt hing on the bike. Tha t had me wo rried, co nsi dering how we had sla pped things together th e night befo re. Th e bike fire d right up, seem ing ly an xi ou s to get b a ck on th e tra ck af ter a ll th o s e y ea r s . W h il e slowly r id in g to t he s tagi ng a rea fo r pra cti ce , I thought to myself, Did I tighten the shift lever? Why, specificall y, the shift lever came to m ind is a m y stery to m e . I though t, Sure, I did - didn' t I? I qui ck ly p eel ed off and headed to a friend's pit to borro w a 10 m m wrenc h . Su re e no ug h , it was loo se. Wh a t else d id I for get to tigh ten , I wondered? I finally rode up to the staging are a. When I went to grab the front brake, the lever came off in my hand . Now I was really worried. I rode ba ck to m y truck, s to le a pivot bolt off a friend 's bike and rode strai ght ou t for practice. By now, I was nervou s that perha ps I had forgo tten to tighten an axle nu t or som ething , bu t I m ana g ed to ge t throu gh the first lap in one p iece. Feeling mor e confide nt, I started to pick up th e pa ce a little bit and wa s simply amazed at how good the bike felt. The motor had tons of usable power and the rear su spension was u nbelievably good. Two laps completed and all was well . The carburetion was spot on , the brakes wo rked well, and it was 1982 all over aga in - just bitchin ' . After the third lap, the checkered flag came ou t signaling the end of practice, and the old RM mad e it, but not more than a few ya rds a fte r pull in g off the tra ck, the back whee l locked up wh en I touched the br ake lever. I looked down to see that the brake arm had fallen off the backin g plat e. I kicked the backin g plate free again and putted back to my truck. I had plenty of tim e befor e my firs t mo to, w hich I used to go over every single nut, bolt and SCre w. By the time I go t to the starting lin e for the first mo to, I fi na lly w as co nfi de n t that th e b ike wou ld hold together. I actuall y had a sma ll cheering section in th e stand s to witness the '8 2's coming out. Mom, wh o hadn't see n me race si nce 1982, was in th e sta nds. So was m v w ife, as w ell as some of ou r neig hbo rhood friends who had nev er been to a motocross race. They became interes ted in the project after seei ng the bike in my garage and started monitoring the RM' s progress. By the time the bike was completed, they wanted to see this one- time pile of rusty metal take a few laps around the track, as d id a cou ple of my longtime racing buddies, who had actu ally banged handlebars a few times with this very sa me bik e back in 1982. The old RM and I picked up pretty mu ch where we left off . We wen t out and won the first moto, and during the course of the five- lap race, the '82 RM never missed a bea t. She performed as I re m emb e red , pump in g ou t tons of po wer· and soa king u p all the bum ps like a soft couch. Between mo tos, I gra bbed a handful of wre nches and began going over the bike again. Just about every nut and bolt ha d co me loose, but th at co uld be But was it worth it? The project itself was a lot of work, at times very fru strating, but, in the end, it was extreme ly rew arding, both mechanically and emotionally. Even thou gh the bik e ha s on e ra ce under its belt in its second coming, I s till have p lenty of work left to do on it, such as finishing off the fro nt wheel. and repl acing many old nuts, bolts, bearings a nd bushings that I was forced to reu se or improvise in the "late-night" hours before the race. How much did it all cost? To be honest , I didn't keep track of every penny - I didn't want to - but I would say that I ha ve approxima tely $1500 worth of parts in to it. I think it was trul y worth it, when you consider I now have a nice old ra ce bike tha t will never re a ll y a pp reciate in va lue bu t that I can s till have jus t as much fun racing as I d id ba ck in its h e y d a y . Yes , I ad mit, I fudged here and there as far as "doi ng things right" in the course of the restoration , but hey, it runs, it loo ks good and I have an excuse to keep wo rking on it. CN Suppliers DG Perlonnance ..........•.................._ _ _ .........•........•..........._ ! . '" '" '" ,.£ ~ N Q; .c E ~ o Z 18 had .m,a.py m ends and acquaintances come to m y rescue during the RM' s restora'tlan. Among them was Mark Mad ore, a full-time autom ob ile mechanic whose hobby is working on his ow n vintage bikes and racing them. He had no business splItting the cases on my bike, as he already had his hands full preppin g a 1980 490 Maico that he had just bought for the Vintage Iron Worl d Championships. He d id it anyway. Mark returned my engine back to me looking better than new and. as it turned out, running better than new, too . All he wa nted in return was a thank-you and to see me finish the project. Then there was Mark Reese from American Suzuki. Manv times, he took time out from his busy schedule to look up part numbers and track down hard-to-find parts. "Anything to see a bike brought back from the dead is worth it to me," he said. "Especially a Suzuki. " We're still trying to find a right side panel. I'm su re Ali, wh o works behind the parts counter at Orange County Suzuki, cringed every time he saw me walk through the front door, but he took care of me in a super-friendly manner. He was a lso very reliable. If he promised me a part would be in on Wednesday, I could count on it bein g in on Wednesday. Perhaps the biggest help of all was Ron Lawson , wh o is the editor o f Dirt Bike magazine. Ron and I hav e been friend s for a lon g time, way before we started working for the magazines. We drove to the races together back in the mid-7 0s and ea rly '80s when we didn't have real lives . More than on ce Ron has felt the handlebars of old '82 digging into his shou lder while we diced for the lead around DeAnza Cycle Park and Corona Raceway. Ron is the kin g of "making d o" with what you' ve got when it comes to emergencies (of which 1had plen ty in the last few da ys befor e the race). He could modify an old CZ piston into a clu tch leve r if he had to, so he was quite handy to hav e around when it came to crunch time. Ron spent man y latenight hou rs in my ga rage makin g things wo rk that shou ldn' t have. Yes, I might hav e restored my bike the hard way and no t the best way, bu t, for me, it wa s the fun (and cheap) way. Even the late nigh ts in the garage we re fun - all because of an old dirt bike and a lot of good friends. .!!!!J.~~~.! ..~~~~. ..~.~~.~.. • 1230 LaLoma Circle Anaheim , CA 92806 17376 Eucalyptus Street Hesperia. CA 92345 800/854-9134 760/244-935.1 .............~..!.~!.~~ .~.~..~!.!P.!.!! .. . 232 N. Sherman Ave. Un it F Corona, CA 92882 Wlseeo Piston .. 7201 Industrial Park Blvd. Mentor. OH 44060 909/340-2555 440/951 ·6600 Fax: 440/951-6606 ceet ........................................................ ~ . 1220 Liberty Way Vista. CA 92083 760/599-0 115 Henthal .................................................................................. 24950 Anza Dr. Valenc ia. CA 91355 800/222-4296 Fax: 661/257-0189 LoA. Sleeve ..................................................................•............... 12051 Rivera Road Santa Fe Springs. CA 90670 562/945-7578 White Brothers .................................................................................. 24845 Co rbit PI. Yorba Linda. CA 92887 714 /692-3404 Fax: 714 /692·3409 ......~.~~~.~~.~~.~.~..~p..!.~.!..~ ..~.~~...... 805 W . Eighth St. Azusa . CA 91702 626/969-4655 Fax: 626/812-0243 ......................~~~~..~~~~.!.p. www.dunloptires.com .

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