Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

This Just Could Be the Next -P·hose· One ~entY·five engines see m to be favorites for cradlin g in the spo rts man race r's one-of f chassis. Perhaps beca use handling reallv matters when power IS down . by Kent Nicholls T he serious m oto cr o ss rider has two options open to him when it c omes ti me to buy a n ew weapon for his sport. One : he can purchase one of the many fine European or Japanese m o tocro sse rs on the market that are built to fit the wants and whims of what the factories consider the "average man" or, two : he can buy a tri ck frame and componen ts and build up a more personal machine . This is about one o f those tri ck fr ames. The Costella Special package includes a 28 lb . one inch 0 .0. 41 30 Chrome Mol ybdemum steel double down tube cradle type fram e and swing arm with eight in ch es of ground cle arance. It has a fib erglass tank and a four-inch thick progressive d en sit y fo am se at with a fiberglass b ase. The tank is a two petcock bolt-on Photos by Cliff Good in an d Nicholls affair that we ighs in rig ht aro un d t hree and one hal f p o unds. The frame is laid out in such a way that a person could draw a line through the cen te rs of the rear axle, the swing arm bolt (w hic h by the way, rides on aluminu m bushings), th e countershaft , the crank and the front axle. The Costella we tes ted has a 125 DKW ~iII with a reed valve. For running gear, It has Moto Bela hubs and eight gauge spokes. The front tire is a 3.0 0 X 21 Nitto rid in g on a WM·2 Akront rim . A WM-4 Akront and a 3.50 X 18 Nitto round off the driving end. The bump absorbing ch o res on the . scooter are carried b y mid-size Cerianis on th e front and five-in ch (ap p ro xim ate) Curnutts on th e rear', Th e car b u re to r-b o un d air grit grabber IS made b y K&N and lives in a No te heavy gusse tting at steering head on downtubes . still air box. The rider's feet ride on a pair of robust fo ld ing se rra ted pegs with no re tu rn springs. Throw in a pair of Costella's one and one half p o und Chrome Moly bars, som e Magura levers and that completes th e 165-pound 125. The fi~t day we had the little ni p per, we took It to Es cape Country wh ere Mom Nature had j ust got done d'umping a whole load of wa t er. Mud everywhere. The Costella handles great in the mud. U n li k e some su pe r light we ight m otorcycles, it wasn't a ffe cted by the slime . Dial it on, point in the general direction y o u w ant to go and that 's the way il goes. Then it happened. The piston coc ked in th e bore , caugh t a rin g m the exhaust port at around 8 000 RPM and th e result was a very lunched piston and sleeve. The mangled mess was taken to T-R In d ust ries in Buena Park where so me first rate major surgery was performed in the form of a new sleeve an d so me finger p orts for the reed . The reasse mbled, even faster Costella Special spent Ch ristmas being flail ed around the m o t o cr o ss t rack at CN's Se cret T esting Gro unds in Arizona. The motocross courses in Arizona are by far th e rough est (al th o ugh good) in the whole wide world and th e Costella was up to th e tas k. It goes in a very strai gh t lin e on whoop-de.doos . Du e to the low se at. h eight o f 29 in ch es and inherent fra m.e geometry , th e co rnering is, very possibly, the b est I' ve e xperienced in a m o to cro sser . Avi atin.g the fron t wh eel is easy but not too easy. It co mes up to a certain p o int an d n o farther which I b elieve is due to th e m ach in e's 5 3-in ch wh eelbase. FIi~k the m o t o rcycle sideways, twist the WIck and th e resulting slid e is ,"cry stable an d controllable. 'Eve n wi th th e absence of a full flo at ing rear b ra ke wh eelh o p is al most null. J ack Costell~ p u ts full floatin g b ra kes on most of his f~es but d ue t o the DK\V engine cham la yout, h e co uld n' t o n this one. One c o m plain t I had with the machine was that the p egs ar e so low that they can hit the ground on rough " fee t up" sweepers when t h e s uspension co mpresses. The Costella is so m uch fun to ride that one tends to over d o it as was th e c,,:"e one Sunday when I started racin g WIth a guy on a 4 0 0 o n a very tight course. On a steep uphill th e Sachs engine decided to shed all th e teeth on the big p rimary d rive gear... en d o f the test. As you m ay o r m a y n o t h ave no ticed, I liked the Costella Special. I was also im pressed with the way J ack Costella builds his frames. He b uilds them around your engine an d c.o~ponen~ :os a one-off machine, (Very limited edition) . He d eci d es o n the proper fork angl e b y wa tching the b uy er ride. Mr. Costella uses both TI G an d MIG electric welding te chniques an d rushes over nothing to insure that everything is precise - as it should be And friends, you don't pay too d early fo r all th is, somewh ere be tween $325 and $450 dependin g o n individual components , etc. It's a shame th a t this scooter had a worn o u t engine be cause it was one of the few flaws the motorcycle has. But it was worn out in this frame which should a t tes t t o its durahility as it showed no stress signs at aiL The Costella ~pecial m a y be th e very next phase. In your motocross racin g evolution, no matter what displacemen t y o u favo r. The Era of the Trick Frame Is Definitely Here FRAMING ~~i9~~ .., , • 28 Ibs. ee. ase . • • . . • . •.. . .. . . . . .. • . . .. . . .. .. .. , .....••.. .. •.• 53 Inc hes ~ate ~la l .... ... . . •.. " ...... . . .. . . • 1 inch 1.0 . Chro me Mol y steel (4 130 ) p '!sh m9s . . • • . . . • . . • . . . . . . . . . .. .. . • ... . ...... . . .. • . . .. . • Aluminum S ~lce Fro m $325 t o $450 (U.s.A.) Oze ~ n9lne . . . . .. . . . . • . . . , . . . . . .. ....... . ..... .... •.. • . .. .Any S ize bta inab le f ro m ., . . . . . . ... . . .•. . . .... . . . . . . . ... . .. . .. _ J ack Costella 24 1 G regg Dr ive Lo s Gatos , Cal if. "95030 . Costella·framed DKW eng ine and running gear. .'" . It) e, M :;; .,; '" .g lL ~ w Z ~ o t

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