Random 1980s racing pictures

[Mickey Dunlap]

I just looked at the one with me talking to George and Chris and to the left in the all white jumper is Phil Cancilla, he made our chain tensioners. I still use his rubber donut to mount tires. lol

[manbearpig]

@manbearpig - As George learned at San Jose on with KTM495 in 83 the bigbore bikes would shred a set of the normal atc tires before a 20 lap main was over so my Dad was searching for way to fix that with the larger mini sprint tires. George never liked the big tires and has at least one bitter memory of them when at the Mint 400 in 82 he was way out front and less than 20 miles from the finish on his Nickolson XR500 when he suffered a broken axle while running the jumbo sized tires
and wheels.

WOW. never really thought of that, but makes perfect sense. today's race courses are more loamy dirt rather than blue groove hard surface so the tires dont get torn up, but i can absolutely see it happening with the 500CC tire spinners. Bummer about the 82 Mint. as i recall, the nick 500's used 81/82 atc185 HD Durablue axles. one tough axle.. until you subject it to 380 miles of Nevada desert.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@Mickey - Yeah Phil and my Dad knew each other from the early days of racing Harley's on the mile flat tracks back in the late 50s and early 60s. We used his chain tensioners on all our early bikes and the tire donut made life so much easier.

@manbearpig - We used Maxtrax (hope i am getting the name right) axles but it was the unsprung weight of the huge wheel and tire combined with miles of wash board bumps that George blames the failure on and far as i know that is the only MaxTrax axle we ever broken or even bent. The knock off hubs you see on some of our earlier bikes are also made by MaxTrax

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

One for the Tiger fans



Flipping thru some old ATVNews clippings and found this photo of a Tiger 125 at the races

[bkm]

I love the Tigers. I will hopefully own one someday.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Jimmy White on his privateer Hondas

Argyll MX Park, 1982



Saddleback 1982, Jimmy is 531, Dean Sundahl #34, Curtis Sparks #43, Chris White #75 (behind Dean),Mark Weixeldorfer #51, Stevie Wright #22, Mike Coe #23, George Neary #99..that is all i can name from memory.



George on his '82 Nickolson Selvy Honda chasing Jimmy on his 83 Bassani powered 250R. Corona Raceway, 1983.

[phantomtracer]

John,

Keep it coming!
This is awesome. I was lucky enough to be at the age to enjoy the explosion of atc's just like you.
I can remember reading about these races, but your photos are adding so much to the story.
Thank you.

[manbearpig]

John, In your search through your photos, if you come across any close ups of George's Nicholson 250R frame, i'd like to see them. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these up. much appreciated. this is mucho fun.

Heres my Nicholson 250R. I've been collecting up parts for about a year to make it shine, but for now its wearing all that nice patina.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@manbearpig - George has a ton of photos of him racing his Nickolson Selvy but not much in the way of shots of it in the pits with the seat and fuel tank off giving a good view of the bike itself. Here are a few of the better ones showing the bike plus some racing shots to motivate when working on your's.

Saddleback Park


Corona Raceway


San Jose Nationals


Fremont Raceway

[manbearpig]

Stellar motivation, Sir. Thank you. Those are absolutely priceless.

Do either of you remember any specs on that bike? Exhaust, Selvy motor specs, swingarm?

[onformula1]

John, In your search through your photos, if you come across any close ups of George's Nicholson 250R frame, i'd like to see them. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these up. much appreciated. this is mucho fun.

Heres my Nicholson 250R. I've been collecting up parts for about a year to make it shine, but for now its wearing all that nice patina.

What brand of head is on the Nicholson 250R? It looks different than the DG on the other trike.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@manbearpig - Custom shorty exhaust by Rob Selvy, do not believe they ever went into public sale. Motor was a 82 250r ported with a 79 Yz250 head milled to run on race fuel. 40mm Lectron carb, Mossbarger reed block, 10mm reed block spacer, red WFO airbox, Fox twinclicker shock, Simons forks.

Motoplat ignition, Brembo front caliper, Front master cylinder off a road bike (not sure the type). MaxTrax knock off hubs, MaxTrax axle, ND spark plug, Hi Point spark plug cap, Tsubaki chain, Carlisle tires. Nickolson triple clamp, steal braided brake lines, Preston Petty number plate, Sundahl Racing fiberglass seat deck.

Swing arm is a Nickolson that has been nickel plated, frame also had a number of frame gussets added including a skidplate.

All i remember atm.

[atc007]

@manbearpig - Custom shorty exhaust by Rob Selvy, do not believe they ever went into public sale. Motor was a 82 250r ported with a 79 Yz250 head milled to run on race fuel. 40mm Lectron carb, Mossbarger reed block, 10mm reed block spacer, red WFO airbox, Fox twinclicker shock, Simons forks.

Motoplat ignition, Brembo front caliper, Front master cylinder off a road bike (not sure the type). MaxTrax knock off hubs, MaxTrax axle, ND spark plug, Hi Point spark plug cap, Tsubaki chain, Carlisle tires. Nickolson triple clamp, steal braided brake lines, Preston Petty number plate, Sundahl Racing fiberglass seat deck.

Swing arm is a Nickolson that has been nickel plated, frame also had a number of frame gussets added including a skidplate.

All i remember atm.

Yeah,,,yeah,,,yeah,,,, Well, what brand of brake fluid was in it!? ... Lol,,, Your memory is absolutely stellar John,,, scary actually!! I have no words for what a privilege this is to have you finally on here. Thanx again!

[manbearpig]

Onformula1 both heads are DG Radial heads. one has a bent bottom fin and the other had the edges of the fins polished


WOW... some really, really trick and exotic stuff there. Your memory is incredible. I've read magazine articles about that motor Rob built using the YZ head. REALLY COOL. Neat to hear about the nicholson swingarm and triple clamps. If you pay him, he will weld it. triples and swingarm werent public offerings. I've got more questions for you than are appropriate for this thread. i dont mean to dilute it much more.

Hope to catch you at one of the so cal events and chat it up.

thank you so much for posting up these pics!

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@manbearpig - Feel free to ask away, one reason i named this thread random is cause i encourage folks to comment and maybe share some old racing pics of their own.

All the Nickolson frames we got came with swing arms as far as i can remember, but he did not sell them separate. If you look at the pics of George's 250r and the XR500 you will notice the lower triple clamp is twice as thick as the upper one...that is because we would have two lower halves welded together because normally they where kinda thin and my Dad worried about flex.

On the XR500 you can see the weld in the center part. They where extremely basic, just some slabs of aluminum in triple clamp shape with nothing fancy for looks or stiffness.