Random 1980s racing pictures

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Homemade Can-Am we had a local welder/machinist friend build for us in mid 1982. Frame is scratch built while the swingarm,shock, rear brake, seat, axle and hubs are all off a 82 250r donor bike. The orange engine is a Can-Am 400 but we also used a Can-Am 250 motor in this bike for a while as well. Fuel tank is off a 1980 CR250 i believe but the seat and tank changed a few times as you can see in the photos.

In many ways this was the prototype of our Franks bikes.



George gets the state of the art Nicholson Selvy 250R and i get the weirdo rolling parts bin bike...thanks Dad..



Pipe is off a Can-Am dirt bike with a few changes to make it fit. Nickolson triple clamp with a second lower clamp welded on as a brace. Simon forks with a very rough looking front brake mount/stay. For what a Frankenstein creation it was the results worked really well on the track and i raced this bike for better part of a year with no DNF's or complaints. Can-Am engine had its short comings but the built proof clutch and gearbox made it a winner for our purposes.



All in all a great bike built from scraps and a bit of steel tubing.

[onformula1]

^ This is sooooo cool! I did not know anything about this trike.

Those Rotax/Bombardier engines were pretty fast, especially with a good port job. They came in a ton of bikes back then.

I race a ATK 406 Patriot (Same engine with porting, modern carb and a few mods) in the mid to late 90's and they were pretty fun!

http://www.classiccanam.com/canam17.htm
http://www.classiccanam.com/canam15.htm
http://www.classiccanam.com/canam16.htm

[El Camexican]

Your photo's and stories just keep getting better. I don't know how many more you have left, but when they run out there are going to be some people on here suffering from serious withdrawal. Until then, please carry on knowing that they are VERY appreciated.

[manbearpig]

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 flexx

I'm familiar with the tubular chromoly swingarms, but not the boxed swingers. the one on George's 500 is just like the swinger on this bike:





those triples are somethin else. Did either of the nicholsons get honda front ends, or did you go straight to the UDX forks? I bet those were night and day compared to the 82R front end... even with springs and a terry kit.

and for good measure... Nick 250R airborne 2013

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@manbearpig - yea my 185s had the tube swing arm, maybe if someone bumps into Nick again they can ask him about the 250r swing arms and the alloy triple clamps as i could be mistaken about them being from him. I just cant think who else we would of gotten them from since there was not a lot of options for swing arms back then and they are not a Westcoast or other known brand as far as i can tell.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Speedway 117 BajaCross 1982

Funny the stuff they used to let us get away with, i am racing in blue jeans. My Nickolson 185s with some motor work done by Curtis Sparks, was my main race bike in till the 200x came out in 83. Ill post some better pics of it later.

The #9 Tri-Moto 175 in the second photo was a cool bike, it had about every hopup you could put on a YT175 including a Pro-Tek rear suspension kit and he was quick on it. I remember him often running top five against the fast 200 class guys of the day with it.


Nice size turn out, George on the #99...he was not a fan of these huge rear tires on the 250 and would often clash with my Dad about trying so much new stuff at the races without agreeing first that it was an improvement.


@manbearpig - You can see the those alloy triple clamps on both bikes, here before we started welding two of the bottom ones together for stiffness. I see them on our bikes from early 82 in till we switched to Franks and i cant for the life of me remember us buying any chassis stuff like that from anyone but Nick...the mystery continues...

[manbearpig]

@manbearpig - yea my 185s had the tube swing arm, maybe if someone bumps into Nick again they can ask him about the 250r swing arms and the alloy triple clamps as i could be mistaken about them being from him. I just cant think who else we would of gotten them from since there was not a lot of options for swing arms back then and they are not a Westcoast or other known brand as far as i can tell.

I'll have my father ask about the triple clamps and swingarms next time they chat. The frame i found had a Westcoast swinger on it when i drug it out of Santa Clarita.

Interesting about the alloy triples. They may have come from one of the shops around Nick's back in those days. Hi Performance ATC was down the street from his shop at one point, but all of the triple clamps ive seen on HPATC conversion bikes were tubular steel. Trick Trike was nearby in Lemon Grove. Johnson's and Danny's Machine Works were out in Santee. And all the shops in between. Plus the many garage machinists doing side work for various shops. More questions than answers... hahah

so did someone break a set of triple clamps and that prompted the welding two together? or were you two just going bigger with heavier machines and that was the natural progression?

[Joseph Farrow]

The aluminum triples almost look like PK Racing.

[barnett468]

@barrnett468 - Sadly i have almost no photos from 1985 or 86 because by then my Dad and retired the camera in favor of stop watches so he figure out where i was gaining or losing time on the track so we could improve on my lines or the bike setup.

You are the #29 Tecate if i am correct, yes?

Big Bear GP
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Corona Raceway
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John, I was just looking at your latest and continuing cool posts and I came across these photos again and it just sank in that for some reason I kept thinking that photo number 3 (which actually shows me in front of you...temporarily) is not Perris Raceway, which might explain why my previous post might have sounded like I had been drinkin, lol . . I guess I didn't see the word Corona just above it earlier . . I don't know any of the other riders though.

From what my fading memory told me, this may have been my first or second race ever on a 3 wheeler unless it was after the Big Bear race.

Anyway, thanks again for posting those and for all the other great photos and stories.

[knappyfeet]

Was the speedway 117 down by Brown field ? I think i saw Metallica play there ! Used to ride Palm Ave too !

Palm Ave.....wow....way back in the day. I about killed myself where sleep train is

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Here is Chubby kid on a 185s to cheer you up after reading the ATC500 thread

My first trip to Saddleback in late 81, no front brake and XR75 forks was not really the hot setup and mistakes were made the day I painted my rear fenders. How badly do you wanna rail that berm in the third photo?


Different week, different front tire. Sandhill Ranch early 82. Note the black XR200 engine, huge improvement over the five speed auto clutch 185 engine. Not sure what i am more pleased about, winning or that i got to use a normal front tire and a front brake...


Front tire roulette continues , first pic is from Saddleback the second is Indian Dunes and the last three are from Carnegie Cyclepark (now Carnegie SVRA).


This is the bike i have the most photos of so stay tuned for more adventures of Chubby kid and his 185.

[MRBIGWHEELZ]

Great thread had to say thanks for spending time sharing photos and stories .....

[Joseph Farrow]

ATC500 Tread.....what ATC500 tread. LOL

The Nick185 and 200's were awesome bikes. They are one of my favorites from the early days. Do you happen to have any of your early bikes or are they all gone.....
For anyone out there I am a serious buyer for a Nicholson 185-200. Bare frame and swing arm to complete bike. Does not matter.
Again thanks for posting. Keep it coming! I have some early pic's....kinda dont want to hijack your tread.

Here is Chubby kid on a 185s to cheer you up after reading the ATC500 thread

My first trip to Saddleback in late 81, no front brake and XR75 forks was not really the hot setup and mistakes were made the day I painted my rear fenders. How badly do you wanna rail that berm in the third photo?


Different week, different front tire. Sandhill Ranch early 82. Note the black XR200 engine, huge improvement over the five speed auto clutch 185 engine. Not sure what i am more pleased about, winning or that i got to use a normal front tire and a front brake...


Front tire roulette continues , first pic is from Saddleback the second is Indian Dunes and the last three are from Carnegie Cyclepark (now Carnegie SVRA).


This is the bike i have the most photos of so stay tuned for more adventures of Chubby kid and his 185.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

No, only bikes i have kept are my Franks Rotax and Kawi road race bike. When the quadracer hype machine took over we sold off most the 3 wheeler stuff pretty quickly to local racers and by mid 87 there was nothing but quads and motocross bikes in my garage and one lonely franks bike pushed into a corner.

[barnett468]

No, only bikes i have kept are my Franks Rotax and Kawi road race bike. When the quadracer hype machine took over we sold off most the 3 wheeler stuff pretty quickly to local racers and by mid 87 there was nothing but quads and motocross bikes in my garage and one lonely franks bike pushed into a corner.

OK, now I want to know about your toad race bike, lol.

Did you ever meet rob muzzy?