Random 1980s racing pictures

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

The riding area by Bill's Pipes was not a public thing, it was two or three outdoor type tracks up in the Norco hills behind the shop. Bill always had three or four of the newest motocross bikes for pipe development and dyno work and he didnt care if we took them up in the hills for a gas tank or two.

I used to stay in LA for a week or two at a time so that was a great way to pass the days.

[barnett468]

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I apologize if you posted this earlier but did you guys bore an engine out to get 500cc’s or was it an XR 500 engine to start with, and was the engine modified etc?

Did you ever race Desert on anything yourself?


George definitely gets a hero award, because those pucker bushes are hard enough to avoid when going fast on a motorcycle on the start, but with the two rear wheels on a 3 wheeler, they would have had to hit lots of them.

I raced a few Desert races on motorcycles but finally gave it up because I wasn’t smart enough to know when to shut off or how to read the signs/flags, and after flying off a steep embankment while leading one race, and going 5 miles off course during another [after which everyone laughed at me when I finally made it back well after the race had ended], I knew it wasn’t a good idea for me race in the Desert, lol.

There was one District 37 Desert racer that would come to the MX races once in a while, and he always had a beer in his hand before the races . . He would then proceed to demolish the Pro class every time . . I asked why he didn’t race AMA Motocross full time instead of the Dez, and he said he liked racing Desert better.
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[3WW Star-John_Neary]

I never really had a chance to do any desert racing since my Dad and brother saw it was really to much work for a small team of two kids and a Dad before i was old enough to ride that sort of thing. Hauling butt out in the middle of no where with no crowd or ambulance in sight is not my cup of tea so i am happy to of skipped it.

The XR500 was bored and stroked to 560cc but i do not recall much else as it was a bike i never raced.

[barnett468]

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I never really had a chance to do any desert racing since my Dad and brother saw it was really to much work for a small team of two kids and a Dad before i was old enough to ride that sort of thing. Hauling butt out in the middle of no where with no crowd or ambulance in sight is not my cup of tea so i am happy to of skipped it.

Yes but they had the clean up guy take off after the last rider left so he could radio back for the truck if someone fell off and broke something, lol.

My friend broke his leg during a Desert race and rode back because he didn’t want to wait for the truck.

I heard that Dean Sundahl wadded up a trike at high speed during a Desert race too and was a little bit goofy afterwards.

I wonder how Larry Roessler made it all those years without a big crash.

The XR500 was bored and stroked to 560cc but i do not recall much else as it was a bike i never raced.

That must have been a handful . . A shop I worked at sponsored a guy to race Desert on an XL 350 that they stroked it to a 500, and he rode into a mine shaft in the Desert and broke his neck and had to be helicoptered out . . He started racing again after he was better . . I would have stopped.



I see you are in Chico so I was just wondering, did you ever happen to see a clean 1969 orange colored Camaro running around there maybe around 12 years ago?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

some pics

Corona Raceway flat track, George is #26 and #6 is our friend Robin.


First photo is a CRC race at Anaheim stadium, second pic is a chubby kid eye balling you and the last one is our pit at San Jose in 82. You can see George's XR500 and his Selvy 250 Honda as well as my Can-Am 400....in the back ground is my Nicholson 200 that was all day having engine issues. In the blue shirt and white shorts is a very young Rob Selvy trying to help me figure out why my bike would not run past half throttle. We never did solve it in time for the race.


Rotax cylinder waiting for some love.

[oile]

That Rotax cylinder is very interesting never thought it would be opened up so much like that.

[onformula1]

I always loved that engine, when you take the cylinder off will you take some pictures of the ports and see if the cylinder will go on the correct way, I was always curious if the cylinder was modified by Mr. Franks to fit backwards.

Also, would you mind giving us some info on Mr. Franks, demeanor, style, personality, ETC.

I met him when I was very young after seeing articles in the magazines, I remember him as a good sized guy that was a quiet genius, pretty mellow and carrying around a caliper, I am curious if he had a different side or if he was just playing it cool for a couple of guys that just showed up at his shop to say hello, and thank him.

Thank You, Milner

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@onformula1 - From what i remember Kelvin was a quiet, soft spoken guy who loved his work. I never once saw him loss his temper or make a fuss about anything and he was a one man show aside from helper Ricky who did all the welding.

His shop was a modest two bay setup in one of the countless little business parks you see in So Cal and it only had a couple of his own bikes there and one stock and as new condition early 80s XR350R i really, really tried to get my Dad to buy for me with no luck.

I never visited his home so he might of had a garage full of his trick handmade two wheelers but the only ones i saw around his shop where a couple extremely modded XR75s that had custom frames, forks and everything tricked out on them but i never rode one or even saw one of them running.

If Kelvin had one fault it was that he spent to much time at his shop and to little at the race tracks so he was forced to go off others feedback and i think that held him back a bit with staying current. Pretty amazing how much cool stuff he came up with considering he was not just stealing others ideas like everyone else was doing back then since he never went to the tracks to see what others where doing.

Rotax uses a Answer 83 CR250 silencer, time to order some new packing.

[onformula1]

Those Answers were very well built, I can't stand the out silencers with the snap rings.

FMF makes a descent packing kit for like $8 bucks.

A trick I use is wear gloves, wrap it real tight, oversized then run three bands of 1" masking tap around both ends and one in the middle, the tape will just turn to dust.

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[onformula1]

The riding area by Bill's Pipes was not a public thing, it was two or three outdoor type tracks up in the Norco hills behind the shop. Bill always had three or four of the newest motocross bikes for pipe development and dyno work and he didnt care if we took them up in the hills for a gas tank or two.

I used to stay in LA for a week or two at a time so that was a great way to pass the days.

Bill's makes some great pipes, it's nice to see the producing 2 stroke pipes again, they are considering building some older stuff, hopefully some trike stuff as well.

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

George riding practice at a Pomona Micky Thompson race in early 83, because the course was mostly on the infield of a horse racing track once the sun went down the lighting was bad and my Dad could not take photos of the races.

Staging for practice and the races was a total pain in the butt as they made you come early and you would spend 30 minutes sitting out in a field as each class before you had their turn. At night it was worse as the fog would come in and you could get a chill, and if there was a problem (and those stupid stadium trucks ALWAYS had problems) and the tow trucks had to come out expect a extra 15 minutes added onto your time sitting in the field.











Pomona was a fun track that had great dirt but neither George or I managed to win there, lot of top fives but it was hard getting a good start with the short run they had to the first turn without getting all piled up with other people.

The Micky Thompson series in 82-84 would visit Pomona Fairgrounds five or six times during the season but from 1985 onward they started racing in the football stadiums more and Pomona was only used for the final race of the season.

Rotax pic of the day, new carb gaskets and anti froth foamy plus a lite spring (always hated how stiff the spring was).



Between us i would rather use a Keihin PWK

[onformula1]

^ Shouldn't it have a Bing 32mm?...LOL

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Bing carbs worked good, had one on the Can-Am 400 and it never needed to be touched. My 84 KTM125 came with a puke green Dellorto carb that was quite the piece of work.

[onformula1]

One of the best carbs I ever used was a 38mm magnesium Dell'orto carb of a KTM 1994-1995 right before they switched to Keihin's.

Once set-up I could ride from 1000-8000 ft. with no adjustments, unreal carb.

[atc007]

Lol, It's been a LONG time since I was in a Bing . Amazing thread and memories