Franks KTMs three wheeles on the race track

[phantomtracer]

Thanks for taking time to answer, did you feel the franks bikes were as competitive as the Honda or Kawasaki?
How often did you practice during the week?
It seemed like most pro riders still had full time jobs with the exception of the factory Honda and Kawi guys. What was your routine in order to stay competitive?
Do you know where your old machines ended up?

[ironchop]

.....Funny thing is once upon a time (before I bought it) it was posted up here on the boards as a KTM 3 wheeler. People were bashing it calling it a chopped up Honda (LOL) I knew it was a Franks

Oops!

Whole lot of crow pie got served up on THAT find...hahaha.

That's an awesome "last laugh", OC.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@phantomtracer - For 1983 and 1984 the Franks bikes where as good or better than anything on the track but when Honda came out with the 1985 ATC250R we could tell that was the way to go and my Dad bought two of them as soon as they got released and my Rotax 250 that we picked up in mid 1984 was the last bike we got from Kelvin.

Far as practicing went my Dad owned a large ranch and it was covered in gravel roads that we would blast around on with our three wheelers, where George and i first learned to ride. By early 1984 i had started riding mostly motocross bikes during the week as training on a few tracks we had built around the ranch and i also would race my dirt bike at local races on the off weekends.

I was born in 69 so when most of the three wheeler pro stuff was going on i was still in Jr high and Highschool so my life was mostly school and practicing with a bit of girl chasing on the side.

During the Franks era my Dad handled the buying and selling of the bikes and i do not recall any of the buyers, later after the three wheelers got banned and the factories pulled out of pro quad racing i pretty much walked away from the sport and did not pay much attention to the fate of my old race gear as i was fully into motocross and jet skiing by that point and ATV racing was not longer my focus.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Franks Ktm 495 in action.

Riverside World Championships 1984


Racing a two hour endurance race at Saddleback in 1983, George lapped second place like three times.


George about to pass a slowing Dean Sundalh at the Watsonville Off Road Nations 1983


With a hole shot in Open Class main at the San Jose Flat Track Nationals in 1983 things looked good


Leading the pack at San Jose with #25 Eddie Sanders,#1 Mike Coe,#31 Jimmy White and #15 Marty Hart in tow.


George ahead of Mike Coe, i asked George what happened at this race and he said his tires went away half way thru the 20 lap main and he fell back to forth or fifth as he lost all traction on the slick,blue groove track. You can also see his rear shock reservoir has come loose.


So new we had not yet even had the frame painted and the pipe is still slick and shiny, likely the second or third day we owned the bike.


Feel free to ask questions or add comments.

[onformula1]

I love KTM's!

What was the vibration like on the KTM 495?

Who built the exhaust?

Did you think the Simons forks were better than the Showa/KYB's?

Did you ever try a 11" front wheel on it?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@onformula1 -KTM 495 did not vibrate at all, some of our other bikes like my CR500 powered 85 ATC250R Honda and the Nicholson CR480 vibrated so bad you honestly could not ride them for more than just a few minutes before your hands went numb.

I believe the KTM495 exhaust was made by Kenny Roberts (no, not the road racing legend) who was a well know custom pipe builder out in Corona, CA who could hand weld a cone pipe in about six hours for any bike you brought him. He made many of the pipes for our custom three wheelers and Quads over the years we raced.

Simons forks are better than what Honda and Kawi had in 82,83 and 84 but in 85 the 250r came with good stuff and when i got on my Selvy 200 Honda we had the forks and shock dialed in by Wayne at PEP and that bike was super plush and yet never bottomed so it gave me better traction and i could still hang it out over jumps.

Steve Simons got out of the fork business in mid 1980s when the production rule in motocross forced Honda and everyone to put good forks and shocks on their showroom bikes and his business was no longer in demand. Later Steve would team up with Paul Turner to help invent the first mountain bike forks, the RockShox and made a fortune when he sold his stake in the business.

One thing that really held back our Franks bikes was we retired them before Hoosier released their amazing Tri Trac tires that completely changed ATC racing. Carlisle RA soft compound was what we used 99% of the time on our Franks bikes and while great tires for being a design off a lawn mower they could not hold a candle to soft compound Hoosiers with the correct grooving. We heavily grooved our tires during all the years we raced, it really helped when done right.

Our UDX KTM was the only Franks we had that used the larger 1983/84 Honda style front wheel and it made the front of the bike to tall since the frame was designed to use the shorter 81/82 style Honda type tire. Also we did not have access to the trick 21 inch tall versions that factory Honda guys got and Hoosier had not yet released their front tires.

[Toaster556]

Unrelated to KTMs or trikes, but I gotta ask. Did you get to ride the Franks Roo-link XR80?

Any plans to ride trikes again?

[onformula1]

Thank you for the info.

The KTM motors were well built (Still are) but, I am surprised they didn't vibrate a lot, being aircooled, thanks for clearing that up.

I always thought they had Wheelsmith pipes, but Kenny Roberts builds a awesome pipe.

Funny how some ex racers thought the Hoosiers were the best when then had Ohtsu's and the Ohtsu guys thought the Hoosiers were the best.... Racers.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@Toaster - I got to see a lot of Kelvin's trick motocross bikes but no i never got to ride one. No more riding for me, i broke my back racing motocross in 1992 and have been in a wheelchair since due to a bruise on my spinal cord at chest level.

@Onformula1 - I think you might be correct about the pipe being Wheelsmith, i know Kelvin would have the pipes built and the bikes ready to ride when you picked one up normally. Kenny built a lot of pipes for us so his name was the first thing that popped into my mind.

I was sponsored by Hoosier and got to use their tires all thru 85 and 86 and on the fast TT and Mickey Thompson Grand Prix tracks they where perfect for me. In 1987 i had a short lived support ride thru Team Honda to race their FourTrax along with about six other guys and i got to try out a wide range of Ohtsu tires and i loved the fronts and hated the rears. But i badly broke my wrist in late Feb 1987 on a CR250 riding at my folks house and by the time it healed the 20/20 story had broke and Honda pulled out of all forms of ATC/ATV racing due to lawsuits over three wheelers and fears four wheelers would get banned as well if they kept pushing them as race machines. So bye bye support ride.

[onformula1]

I don't know what to say, I did not know about your injury, I hope for a full recovery for you, Sir. I broke my neck in two places in 1991 in a MX race and I deal with pain every single day, unfortunately these things happen to many people in sports they love. The doctors say they can fuse my whole neck and get rid of the pain, but I have talked to people that have had the procedure performed and they say don't do it, I have learned to put it out of my mind for the most part, I don't take any pain killers and just deal with it. I still ride/race around.

Thank you for answering questions and providing the very rare photos, people in my life just can't understand how important racing is to me, they can't wrap their heads around it, seeing these vintage pictures brings me back to a much simpler time of life.

[atc007]

John, what was your view of team Honda ATC? I have heard/know of,such rotten,underhanded,frankly,,,,, cheating,,,,,it makes me sick that I've spent so much time and money over the years chasing down the stuff I've acquired. I mean ZERO disrespect to any of the Team riders... They did what they were told for the big pay check. Just the fact that Honda was the money behind most of the big races,pre ran the tracks,etc. You had to feel like under dogs everywhere you went! Which isn't a bad thing, but it had to be damn frustrating at times? It has got to make you and your family damn proud,all the competition you gave them over the years! Again, Thank you so much for sharing all of these amazing photos and stories!!

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@atc007 - The Team Honda pits where a very unfriendly place to visit and the team manager Wes McCoy remains my single least favorite person i meet in my years racing ATC/ATVs. I got along well with all the riders, Curtis Sparks built my Nickolson 200 and 200x engines in 82 and 83 he was a great guy and was always nice to us. The Honda riders did not ride dirty and you could trust being six inches away from any of them going into a 70mph turn and know they would not do anything stupid.

The complaints i have besides the bad vibes their management gave off was Honda was stuffing the pockets of Doug Richards who ran the AATVA and he may as well of been a Honda employee. So Honda always got first pick of pit slots, their riders got treated head and shoulders better than everyone else by Doug and Roy Janson and if Wes wanted something banned or changed all he had to do was whisper into Doug's ear, example being when they made me take off the custom aluminum airfoil CT racing made for my Sevly 200 to use at the Porterville national that took a second or two off my lap times. By the time practice was over AATVA had outright banned it because i was gonna win by half a lap if they had not.

All the bad stuff about Honda that was whispered was due to the bad management of Wes McCoy and Bruce Ogilvie being guys who did not wanna play fair and abused the power of Team Honda to always get their way and they stepped on a lot of toes doing so.

I skimmed over Mike Coe's thread and do not disagree with anything he said.

*edited to be a bit less harsh*

[onformula1]

Politics don't belong in sports, but unfortunately they are a huge part of it.

I have witnessed it many times from all manufacturers, Honda was always the worst


Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[atc007]

Thanx John. SAME STORY, different person.It is a shame they couldn't just leave well enough alone and win fair. But Wes wouldn't stand for that. It had to be maddening to be in your position. To have the speed and talent to beat them, but have the deck stacked against you almost minute to minute, them changing the rules. Your Dad must have been VERY upset....I would have been irate. Lol,, You shouldn't have edited lol.....I understand why you did though. Back to the good ol days and much happier subjects! I feel dirty that I even brought that garbage into your thread,but people need to know the truth of how bad it was going up against them. And again,, Like you said, the riders were awesome. Just the honchos at the top pulling the strings that ruined everything. I bet I know the answer to this one. Do you have any "rental car stories"

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@ATC007 - The whole reason my Dad made our bikes white was because he was mad at Honda and did not want them getting any benefit from our racing program after trying to work with them and getting the door slammed in his face, so to say.

While i did not go out of my way to ruin rental cars there was the times Pops rented sports cars for me to have fun in during a couple Mickey Thompson race weekends in 1986 to mess with the other riders heads and because i was obsessed with sports cars when i was 16 and was pestering him to buy me one. Pulling into the pits in a red Ferrari does in fact leave an impression.

We would rent them from a place called Auto Exotica in North LA, the 1985 Ferrari 308gts was like $300 a day and we rented that like three times for the weekend and one time we rented a grey market no smog installed 1986 928 Porsche with the quad valve V8 and no cat exhaust...holy cow did that thing sound awesome and it was only like $120 a day.

Rodney Gentry and i took the Porsche for a cruise during the afternoon downtime at one of the Pomona Mickey Thompson races and we found a empty parking lot and we made sure that 928 returned with a lot less rubber on the tires then it started with.

I am missing a couple photo albums that i think are in my folks storage in Reno, in one of them i have pictures of the Ferrari.