Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/148526
CN III ARCHIVES P124 BY LARRY LAWRENCE VINTAGE DREAMS hose involved with vintage racing understand all too well the challenges of finding original parts for their beloved classic machines. Imagine then the dream scenario of not only finding rare and classic racing machines, but ones that come complete with enough spares to keep you on the track for years - all immaculately crated and cataloged. It would be an epic find and that's exactly what former racer, turned vintage team owner Mark Coughlin found when he looked into buying vintage race bikes from former AMA Pro Superbike racer Dr. David Kieffer. Coughlin has worked in racing most of his life. He was a solid club road racer in the 1970s and early 1980s. He went on to become a major player behind the scenes, managing some of the top drivers and helping launch racing series. Today he works as Executive Vice President for sport management giant Octagon's motorsports division. Like many young motorcyclists, Coughlin had thoughts of owning his dream motorcycles, but he was putting all his resources at the time into racing. "We were going to tracks like Loudon, Bridgehampton, Pocono and places like that and camping out," Coughlin says. "We were young kids going racing. There were bikes then that I wanted to have, but couldn't afford. I didn't have any money." Fast forward 30 years. Coughlin saw a blurb on Superbike Planet that said Doc Kieffer was selling some of his bikes and to contact Cliff Nobles if you wanted to know more. "I sent Cliff an email to learn more about what was for sale," Coughlin recalls. "I remembered Doc Kieffer, of course. They sent me this PowerPoint of all these bikes they had. Half of them were gone. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK COUGHLIN T Dr. David Kieffer's former AMA Superbike Honda RC30 has new life again thanks to new owner Mark Coughlin. Here Harry Vanderlinden races the Honda in an AHRMA event at Road America. All of his Ducatis were gone, but he had two [Honda] RC30s, a VFR Superbike this Moriwaki and an ex-Ron Pierce back-up bike that I didn't buy, it was kind of a little before my time." Coughlin went out to meet with Kieffer and he was blown away by what he saw. "He just showed me boxes and boxes of parts that were all well organized," Coughlin said. "I mean I have enough spares that I could run, if I was running the series competitively, a couple of seasons. Spare motors in these nice rolling metal engine stands, wheels out the yin-yang… All his stuff was really well kept. All the motors were made fresh before they put them away. All we had to do was take the carbs and put them in ultrasonic cleaners, put some new batteries and tires on, put new seals on the forks and had the shocks rebuilt. The bikes fired right up." Coughlin ended up with VFR750 and RC30