Random 1980s racing pictures

[Jmoozy27]

Your trike looks raked out compared to Mikes 250r. What advantages besides looking badazz did that present?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Our KTM250 had the normal fork rake for a Franks bike so most likely George had a couple to many bowls of pasta that week and it has more rear sag then it should, also he is sitting pretty far back on the seat in that photo so that will squat the rear more then normal.

[onformula1]

John, how many Rotax/Frank's like your do you think are out there?

I count 4.

Do you remember how you came across this trike?

Was it a phone call from Kelvin saying I have a new trick trike or were you down at the shop and see it?

I assume you had it before the Magazine article?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Tony Murphy would have a better idea since Kelvin sourced engine stuff from him, I just know of the used blue one sold with the Quad, the red one from the Dirt Wheels write up and my own. Once we stopped racing the Franks bikes in the winter of 84 i never again saw one being raced, at least in the pro classes.

My Dad and Kelvin had their own thing going as far as bikes went and i was young and did not payed much attention to that stuff, i honestly do not even remember when we picked the Rotax up. My earliest memory of it was us on a access road next to the I-5 by Grapevine tuning the carb the day before a Pomona MT event in mid 84. It must of been very close to when we received the bike as we otherwise would of dealt with the jetting at home (we had a dead straight 1/8 mile long paved driveway that was perfect for bike tuning).

The only difference i notice between mine and the red one from the magazine is mine has a steel rear brake peddle like most all our Franks came with while the one in the Dirt Wheels has a big chunky aluminum rear brake peddle like George's KTM250 had. Not sure if that was a option or just something Kelvin went back and forth on.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Some shots of George and I racing a mudder at our local track in early 82.

Tri Motos locked and loaded.

In the first shot everyone is so nice and clean, i am on the white 103...cant believe that skinny front tire i had was even remotely useful in deep mud. These races would be one 45 minute moto, George likely lapped the field four of five times looking at the line up.





Rare shot of George getting to ride with a normal front tire...and even in knee deep mud he still is using flat track tires on the rear.

Rotax stuffs

Getting started on the front end.

I have yellow and blue paint coming for the fork legs but i still might just leave the forks bare silver, depends on how well they clean up. Ordered a couple different types of wire brushes as the paint that is still left is not budging.

Gonna flush the brake caliper with rubbing alcohol like i did the rear, expecting a lot of grey crud to come out.



I ordered a reprint of the Simons service manual, once i get it ill take the forks apart to clean them and change the oil and ill post some shots of the internals.

Engine was missing the crush washer on the oil drain plug, explains why there was so much oily muck around swing arm and linkage. Got a shiny new one now.

[Orangecnty250r]

Tony Murphy would have a better idea since Kelvin sourced engine stuff from him, I just know of the used blue one sold with the Quad, the red one from the Dirt Wheels write up and my own. Once we stopped racing the Franks bikes in the winter of 84 i never again saw one being raced, at least in the pro classes.

My Dad and Kelvin had their own thing going as far as bikes went and i was young and did not payed much attention to that stuff, i honestly do not even remember when we picked the Rotax up. My earliest memory of it was us on a access road next to the I-5 by Grapevine tuning the carb the day before a Pomona MT event in mid 84. It must of been very close to when we received the bike as we otherwise would of dealt with the jetting at home (we had a dead straight 1/8 mile long paved driveway that was perfect for bike tuning).

The only difference i notice between mine and the red one from the magazine is mine has a steel rear brake peddle like most all our Franks came with while the one in the Dirt Wheels has a big chunky aluminum rear brake peddle like George's KTM250 had. Not sure if that was a option or just something Kelvin went back and forth on.

Which Dirt Wheels article was the red one highlighted in?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@OC250r - My apologies, i was talking about the 3&4 wheel action test of the Orange one that you know about. Had been a while since i last read that write up and i was mistaken on the color and magazine.

[Orangecnty250r]

No worries, I only freaked out that I somehow missed a red and white dual rad model all of these years..haha. I just logged onto the Franks site ...man do I have to update that site now!!!!. The Tiger site could not be anymore out of date as well. I wont redo both sites until I do my reveal this year. I am assuming it is the orange /white one posted on my site. I am not sure if I have seen the full write up. Do you by chance have the article or the date?

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

few pics

George on his 250R at the flat track nats in 82, #81 is Wax on his Team Honda 250. I do not know who know who #56 is. In the middle pic you can see Dean #34 and Coe #23 in the background.




George on his Nicholson XR500 at Sandhill Ranch in mid 82.



some Rotax stuffs

Took the forks apart and was greeted by springs exploding out of the sliders when i took the snap ring out of the air caps because they where under so much pressure. The fork springs have been cut by someone, normally Simons springs are 650mm long with 68 coils while the springs that are in mine are 580mm long with 55 coils.



I suspect, this is just a guess, that these are setup to use springs only with no air and these springs are much heavier springs than the .11kg that normally come in Simon forks.

@OC250R - ill look in my stack of back issues and see if i can find the write up

[onformula1]

John, can you measure the wire diameter and the diameter of the spring, I want to see what the spring rate was changed too.

Was there any preload spacers?

It sounds like a massive amount of preload like the shock, did you measure it?

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

The wire OD is 3.8mm, spring OD is 29.8mm.

It is hard to say how far they poke up above the slider because the rebound spring down in the fork legs pulls the slider down so its like two springs pushing against each other at all times. Kinda funky and i have no clue how i am gonna get them compressed to get those springs back in atm.

First brass brush i got was so soft it was useless so waiting on another to get this last bit of paint off



*edit* There is 2 1/2 inches of spring poking out of the slider when they are fully extended.

[onformula1]

Wow!

So the fork springs are now .23kg/mm (still light without air assist)

If the cap is about 1" when installed you would have 89mm of preload! That is huge.

You said the Simons springs are 650mm long stock so something is wrong (Not you) those specs have to be for the long forks or these forks have been shortened, which is possible if you can pull up on the top out spring, those are typically only about 1" long and are very stiff. They may have put the old fork spring pieces on the damper rod to low them or used different springs. You now have a contractive setup which came around in the mid 90's.

No spacers in there?

Stock they would not have had 159mm of preload, there would not be enough spring travel to work, 25mm is a lot of preload.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

couple more pics

punch it! (yes that is me running last in the fourth pic, it was one of those days)



110 racing is serious business, check out how low his outside footpeg is to the ground.



I think George's interest in desert racing was mainly because the little redhead girl in the center of the photo was at the desert races.




Rotax stuffs

Messing with the forks a bit, cut the springs down a couple inches and i also noticed the springs where eating into the caps so gonna use a rubber spacer and steel washer to help against that.



Tried a few types of brushes with little effect on the remaining paint, don't wanna use chems because of the bare alloy bits so not sure what to do next.



Front tire cleaned up nice but sadly the rears are shot. Still cant makeup my mind what to do about some rear tire. Carlisle turf masters most likely will end up on it as i do not really want 20 year old tires even if they are still new just due to the nature of how rubber ages.

[Joseph Farrow]

110 racing is serious business, check out how low his outside footpeg is to the ground.

Old School Flat Tracker. 70 front forks, raised rear axle carrier, aftermarket frame with lower motor mounts for a lower center of gravity. Before 1981 the 90-110 was all you had. Some wild highly modified machines spawned from the first 10 years of the Honda ATC.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

I just missed out on the 90/110 racing era, my first ride on a ATC was on a 110 in 78 that was on our ranch when we bought it for the irrigation workers to use (i went straight into a wire fence, mad skillz yo).

crossing the line at my very first race, 185s in all its stock glory