Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Yamaha540d irttracker, part 1 By SCOTT ROUSS EAU P atience is a virtu e, an d that virtue is often never sweeter than when it seems like you' ve been w ailing for so mething foreve r. That's ho w I felt during the m etamo rp hosis of o ne 1976 Yam aha XTSOO fro m a crusty, has-b een "enduro" bike into a fu ll -b lown fl at t rack racing m ach in e. After tearing th e bi ke do w n, then p u tting th e projec t o n the back burner, ge tti ng the chassis done, then pu tting th e project o n the back burner, having the engine bu ilt, the n putting the projec t o n the... w ell , two yea rs later , here it is. But there is a little mo re to this particular proj ect -bike story than can be see n in the images before you . • '" '" '" ..E ~ N ~ . E i; z 20 A HISTORY LESSO N I think that I wou ld actually have to go a damn sight back in time to unearth the day that the origina l idea for this particular pro ject p opped in to m y h ea d . I rem ember th at it w as w ay back in 1993, w hen I met one of the bes t friends that I' ve eve r had . I was both an as sis tant editor at Cycle Netos and a self-avowed speedway n ut. I followed d irt tra ck rac in g w it h a fai r a mo un t o f passion , th ought it was a cool spo rt, bu t never really figured that I woul d eve r race it. Speedway ruled my worl d . Th en o ne day, ou t of curiosity more than anything else, I answered a w ant ad in Cycle News tha t w as pl ac ed by a club tha t ca lled itse lf the Sou thern California Fiat Track Association . As it turned ou t, the phon e number in the ad belon ged to the pr esident of the clu b, and he lived not more th an 10 m inutes away fro m me, so he invited me over to his house to bench race a nd check ou t h is eq uipment. A few more ph on e calls, and a friendship developed, an d I started goi ng with him to some of the club races that were left o n the sche d ule. After a w hile, I really started to get the itch to try racing. Once he let me rid e one of his bikes during a pra ctice da y at Glen H elen, the h ook was set. Speedway came firs t, however, and 1994 marked my first "serious" sea son of riding on the Southern California circuit. That old flat track gu y dug speedwa y to o, a nd he sig n ed on to be m y mechanic, pa yin g his wa y into the races for that entire season. We d idn't se t th e w orld on fire, bu t we had a gre at tim e. Mean w hil e, we always BS'd abo ut the day that we mi ght ac tua lly go to th e races together as a flat-track team , and as th e speedwa y s eas o n wore on , I d eci d ed tha t all of t h e prepa ratio n required to kee p a good speedway bike look ing and ru nn ing we ll wa sn ' t worth the ac tual amount of tim e spen trid ing it. I d ecid ed to call it a da y at the end of th e ye a r, and I began researching th e possibility of findi ng myself an hon estto-goodness d ir t track bike to ride . If yo u read the Want Ads sec tio n of Cycle News, th en yo u kn ow th at eve n a used dirt tracker can cos t an arm and a leg - of which i had sp ares of neither . Bu t m y friend told me not to despair, cluing me in that the best wa y to go was O. to fin d an old Yamaha TISO He had bu ilt several gre a t di rt tr ack bi kes by ta kin g a stock TI, cu tt ing th e steering head , lengthening the swingarm and so uping up the motor. Inside of.a half m il e, h e sa id , it w ou ld b e a ll a g uy would ev er need to have a good time. It just so happened that I had seen s uch a b ike in th e Cycle News wa rehouse. Sitting off in the corn er was th is ru sty old Yamah a XTSOO. It wasn' t a TI, but it was close enoug h. A pparently it was one of the p lay to ys of th e late Ch uck Clayton, a man whom I never met but to w ho m I will always be gra teful because of th e fact that he founded Cy cle N ew s. After go ing th r ough the proper cha nnels , I wa s told that the possibility existed tha t I coul d take the bike and do so me thing with it, bu t the powers that be would "get ba ck to me." It see me d as thou gh the bike wa s d oom ed to rust away in th e d arkn ess like the Titanic. Fast fo rwa rd to 1996, where I had s pent a n en tire su m me r chas ing th e AMA Grand Nationa l circui t as the "dirt track g uy" for Cycl e News . I had a lso ma naged to ge t in a fair amo u nt of d irt track raci ng on machinery that belon ged to one per son or ano the r. Heck, I even got to ride an XR7S0 on the ha lf mil e at Okla ho ma Ci ty . G ra n te d, it wasn' t a Gra nd Nati on al, but my learn ing curve was still a stee p one, and corne October of th at year I w as a d irt track ju nkie, cru ising through th e pits a t Del Mar, leathers and helmet in han d, hoping that som eone w ou ld loan me a bike for th e After two years of after-hours parts gathering and labor (mixed with long periods of Interruption), ou r project Yamaha d irt trac ker Is finally finished . We think It was worth It. Skip Van Leeuwen Short Track. With th e hel p of one of the loca l ho t s hoes fro m the area , I fo u nd a g uy b y the nam e of Rick Anders, w ho was w illing to loan me a stock-framed XTSOO for the nigh t. I wound u p riding the bike, marvelling at ho w we ll it handled in spite of the fact that it wa s not an aftermarketfra med wond er bike . I cou ld n' t believe how predictable it felt as it slid th rou gh the turns - thi s pa rticu la r exa m pi e exh ibiting a slig ht push , w hich w as the wa y that Anders lik ed to ride it. Aft er finishing 11th in the Pro main event that nig ht, I was as bound and determined as ever to drag out that old XT in the w ar ehouse and get to w ork. BUMBLING AND STUMB LING It d id n't take long for my persistence to pay off, and the au thoriza tion was finally granted to get my pet project roll ing. Looking back on it now, I never rea lized h o w in v ol v ed a d eal it w as ac tua lly go ing to turn out to be . See, building a flat trac k motorcycle, eve n if it is ou t of a stock m ot orcycle, is far removed from th e w ork th a t it takes to, say , m odify you r average motocrosse r, unless w e're talking about works bikes . Parts are not available in kit form, and w hat canno t be bought must be built by hand or with

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