Marty Hart's 3B Lightning Yz250 three wheeler

[John_Neary]

3B lightning was a hop up shop based in El Cajon, CA that specialized in three wheeler custom performance parts and they built these Yz powered one off bikes for their sponsored riders Marty Hart, Ricky Martin and Stevie Wight to race.

They got everyone's attention when Marty riding his 3B Lightning Yz250 powered machine ended Factory Honda's star rider Dean Sundahl's long running win streak at a Baja Cross event at Speedway 117 and put himself and 3B Lightning the map. The King's reign had come to an end and Marty was a overnight star.

Marty and Stevie soon went onto have a long run as Factory Honda riders while 3B Lightning seemed to vanish by mid 1983.

Some photos i took of Marty's 250 in the pit at Saddleback Park Baja Cross race in 1982.

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*you can see Tommy's factory Honda Nickolson 200 in the foreground*

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217969


This last photo is of Ricky Martin's 200 class bike at the same race, i think the engine is from a IT175. I remember it being fast.

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I do not know the details of why 3B Lightning did not last as a shop but by mid 1983 they seemed to of stopped making a push in the pro racing scene and i stopped seeing their ads in the magazines. Bob "Ace" Williams was a big part of their program and perhaps without him they stopped moving forward but i really don't know for sure.

There is very little info about 3B Lightning and i do not know of any other photos than these. Enjoy :)

[YTZ drew]

Thanks for posting these! I actually just saw a pic of a 3B for the first time not that long ago. Since then I have been thinking about putting together something similar. A friend has an '81 IT250 thats adorned with YZ490 plastic, and I have an extra '85 Tri-Z front end, so I'm thinking about adding a Blaster swingarm and a little fab work...

[Joseph Farrow]

Awesome stuff!
Keep it coming!!!

[Mr. Clean]

John_Neary, thanks a ton for all the racing photos you have been posting lately. There is so much untold history of trike racing, its quite impressive to keep seeing photos and stories from those who lived it back in the mid to early eighties!!

[Keith Salyer]

John thank you for jumping on here and sharing some history. I like seeing clips of the one off stuff from back in the day, and you were the innovator of the exotic trikes :) . George comes to mind for some reason?

[big specht]

It's fun to see all of these one off/ low production bikes that were out there in the early 80s. Was there any husky or bulltaco conversions? There was a lot of motorcycle company's that were around then that are long gone now.

[John_Neary]

Do not remember any Bulltaco powered three wheelers but Tracy Dickson built a very sano Husky conversion but i do not have any photos of it beyond perhaps in a old issue of 3wheeling.

[Dirtcrasher]

Yet ANOTHER "Big Boy" shows us his 3wheeler!! Can it get better than that??

You guys are the best, are idles, hopes and dreams we shared as children but still have to try at 40ish years old!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[Dirtcrasher]

Yet ANOTHER "Big Boy" shows us his 3wheeler!! Can it get better than that??

You guys are the best, are idols, hopes and dreams we shared as children but still have to try at 40ish years old!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[onformula1]

It's fun to see all of these one off/ low production bikes that were out there in the early 80s. Was there any husky or bulltaco conversions? There was a lot of motorcycle company's that were around then that are long gone now.

Bultaco Cemoto was pretty much done by 1982, they were way behind and had financial issues, I have seen a few poorly converted but no race type trikes.

Dickson & Tricky Dicks built Husqvarna's were very trick.

[petesatc]

some cool history thanks for sharing

[CoeShow]

3B lightning was a hop up shop based in El Cajon, CA that specialized in three wheeler custom performance parts and they built these Yz powered one off bikes for their sponsored riders Marty Hart, Ricky Martin and Stevie Wight to race.

They got everyone's attention when Marty riding his 3B Lightning Yz250 powered machine ended Factory Honda's star rider Dean Sundahl's long running win streak at a Baja Cross event at Speedway 117 and put himself and 3B Lightning the map. The King's reign had come to an end and Marty was a overnight star.

Marty and Stevie soon went onto have a long run as Factory Honda riders while 3B Lightning seemed to vanish by mid 1983.

Some photos i took of Marty's 250 in the pit at Saddleback Park Baja Cross race in 1982.

217968
*you can see Tommy's factory Honda Nickolson 200 in the foreground*

217971

217969


This last photo is of Ricky Martin's 200 class bike at the same race, i think the engine is from a IT175. I remember it being fast.

217970

I do not know the details of why 3B Lightning did not last as a shop but by mid 1983 they seemed to of stopped making a push in the pro racing scene and i stopped seeing their ads in the magazines. Bob "Ace" Williams was a big part of their program and perhaps without him they stopped moving forward but i really don't know for sure.

There is very little info about 3B Lightning and i do not know of any other photos than these. Enjoy :)

It’s been a while since I’ve been on the site. I hadn’t seen this post until today. John was correct about the 3B Lightning group being in El Cajon. The 3 B’s were Broc Glover, Billy Talley and Bob “Ace” Williams. The 250 shown in the photos was built and ridden by Ace in numerous events with winning results. It was a little ahead of its time as it was light and fast. Not long after it’s debut, Ace was contracted by Honda as a member of the Team just after Mark Weixeldorfer, Dean Sundahl and Mike Chester. Due to Ace’s proven fabrication skills, he was tasked with building an “open class” Honda powered trike for the 1982 SCORE Riverside race. Little known now and at the time, I was one of 3B’s first sponsored riders on my brother Sams 81 250R. I had become quite close to Ace during this time and when he informed everyone about his Honda sponsorship, he of course could no longer ride or promote the Yamaha. Since Ace and I had become fairly close, he offered the Yamaha 250 to me to race! I was stoked! I know all the stories about how Dean had this long winning streak and so on, but the reality is I had been winning some local races on my brothers 250 when Dean was racing and also when I started racing this very Yamaha 250 machine. I was entered in the Riverside race on the Yamaha in the photos as a 3B sponsored rider but just prior to the Riverside race, Ace had his career ending accident while testing his new Honda 450 open class machine. In all respects, the Honda Ace built was a near mirror image of the Yamaha except with Honda engine and ATC 250R tank and fenders. Since the accident drew significant exposure, all 3B lightning property was for a time brought in and put under lock and key. As such, the machine was unavailable for me to race at Riverside that year. I’m certain I would have won the 250 class and likely the overall as well. As I mentioned, it was ahead of the 250R at that time with regards to power, suspension and weight. I was selected a few months later to also ride for Honda. After the smoke had cleared, Billy Talley made the trike available for Marty Hart to race along with further promotion of smaller displacement trikes for Stevie and Ricky Martin.

[atc007]

Great info Mike. Thanx for sharing. Great run last weekend!!!! You could have just pulled over and let Mac by for the win !! LOL. You looked great out there !

[ctk]

Another great story. Thanks for sharing