Riders

[fomocoguy]

I'm sure you surprised some people on that! I bet it made one hell of a rooster tail for a four wheeler.

The fact that the H2 was so unassuming was the best part. A guy in a new Camaro or Mustang would pull up next to me and I would just smoke em'. It was really great to keep up with a 600R or Ninja 750 and talk to the guys afterwards who just couldn't believe it was that fast. It's the only bike I ever owned that almost put me down coming out of a corner when the power came on and it lit the rear tire, AND pulled the front wheel at the same time. I about soiled my britches.

Honestly is was a lot like the Elsinore. A ton of unrefined power. I've owned faster bikes since, but nothing as mean.

[BobbyFord]

When I was 5 yrs. old, my dad bought me a 7-1/2 hp. West Bend mini bike. I think he was trying to off me while making it appear to be an accident. It was a tiny bike with no suspension and too much power.
My second bike was a 75cc Indian, again primitive suspension and a rolling death trap.
My third bike was a SL125 Honda. My dad stripped all of the street stuff off of it and I rode and crashed the hell out of it at Muntz Cycle Park and Indian Dunes, while attending events where my cousin raced. My cousin raced MX in the Open Pro class. My dad's bike back then was a TM400 Suzuki. What a crazy fast bike. I rode it all over but I could not touch the ground on it and I could not restart it if I stalled it unless I was near a hill.
I guess my dad saw some potential in my riding ability and bought a second-hand 1975 Elsinore 125 from a friend of ours. The bike was too big for me, I couldn't reach the ground and needed a milk crate to get up on it. I eventually grew into it and raced some Beginner and Junior 125 races. The Elsinore was a terrible handling bike and my dad made some suspension changes. He cantilevered the rear shocks and made some changes to the forks with aftermarket performance suspension products. Being an old stock car racer and drag racer, my dad was very experimental with HP modifications and began porting my barrels and installing in-line reed valves. My bikes were always rockets and quickly got the nickname "Holeshot".
My dad also wasn't beyond tweaking the rules a little. He took my Elsinore apart, painted it yellow, put Suzuki emblems on the tank and entered me, for one series, into the 100cc class. It was hard to tell what my bike was, it didn't look anything like any other bike out there; weird forks, cantilevered shocks, aftermarket tank and the word "Honda" ground and polished off of the side case. The engine was a heavily ported, Weisco-pistoned, 6-over 125 with larger modified carburetor and FMF downpipe. The series that I was racing in had Beginner, Junior, Intermediate and Pro classes all on the track at the same time, with the faster classes starting flag staggered first in front of the gate. I was racing in the Intermediate class. Needless to say I annihilated everyone in my class to the first turn and eventually passed all of the Pros. I don't understand how we never got protested.
After that, some local motorcycle shops approached my dad and offered to sponsor me. We sold the Elsinore and my dad bought me the new 1977 RM80 (at 13, I was still small enough to ride mini's). We raced the mini series in the Intermediate class for a year. We toured the western states in the NMA sanctioned World Mini Grand Prix series. I broke my right arm 3 times that year. I crashed in Vegas, got stitches in my face. I somehow got hives at Black Canyon raceway in Arizona and swelled up itchy for the weekend. I crashed at the season finale at Racing World in SoCal and barely finished in the top ten. My mom was going to kill my dad.
It was clear that I was getting too heavy for the 80cc bike. I attracted the attention of some people at U.S. Suzuki and they began giving my dad Suzuki tech info for the factory-sponsored Suzuki race bikes, I had sort of a privateer sponsorship through U.S. Suzuki. Even though my bikes were heavily modified, I had trouble with the lighter weight kids on less modified machines going through the sand sections. We decided to move me up to the 125 class in 1978 with a brand new, sponsor-supplied RM125. I killed them all in 1978. I was racing 6-10 races per week. I would go to far away, non-sanctioned events and run in the Pro class so I could learn how to go faster. When I would come back to my home track, I would toast everyone.
I won just about every race that I entered for about 3 months and one day when I went to sign up, several of the other fathers were there protesting me. I turned Pro that day at the ripe old age of 15 and finished 2nd in my first Pro event. Later that year, I crashed hard and sustained a compression fracture in my #3 cervical vertibrae and also suffered a sever concussion which resulted in amnesia and some permanent memory loss (landed on my chin, open face helmet, 6th gear WFO). My mom was going to kill my dad again.
The sponsor gave us a 1979 RM125 for the next year and the bike was a mechanical nightmare. It was fast when it ran but at times would develope a no-spark condition and quit running. Suzuki gave us every ignition related replacement component, yet the bike would quit running mid race whenever it wanted. Suzuki eventually gave me a brand new motorcycle. I was really frustrated and told my dad that I would never ride that bike again (plus I was getting too heavy for the 125 anyway). I raced at the Los Angeles Coliseum that year in my first Supercross event. I crashed in the first turn and finished in the top ten.
Got a fresh 1980 RM250 for the next season and raced in the 250 Pro class. I was extremely competitive. Broke my left ankle and right knee that year, separated my right clavicle, chipped my right collar bone and got 2 more concussions. After my 2nd knee surgery, the healing process was long and drawn out and eventually led to my retirement from motocross. Mom was finally relieved.

At 22 I bought my Harley. A 1977 FLH Shovelhead. I went through 4 motors in the first couple of years. I also eventually morphed the bike into an EVO powered, FXWG. Next, I bought a 1985 XL600 wheelie machine. What a fun bike that was. I got a bunch of wheelie tickets on that bike and eventually sold it.
The only thing I have now is my 34 yr. old Harley.


Here's some pics of dad's old dragbike.



The dragbike was called The Truth:
Truth, in this case is a Chevrolet V8 mounted in a special two wheeled chassis built for drag strip acceleration. Owner Norm Harrison of Long Beach, California, spent five years in its design and construction, taking pains that Truth should be Beauty as well as Speed.
The engine itself acts as a part of the frame. A specially built 10-quart oil pan is a lower frame member, while a manifold originally intended to mount a supercharger is the upper frame. That manifold now holds a fuel metering system of Norm's design and fabrication, The V-8 is a hot rod engine in anyone's books; a '57 283 block was bored to four inches and fitted with Mickey Thompson 13.5:1 forged pistons and alloy rods set to a Studebaker crank, re-machined to fit the Chevy and give a 3.625-inch stroke.
Total displacement is now 365 cubes. The heads were ported and polished by Jocko's Porting Services and hold lightened stock valves, sprung by Wilcap heavy-duty coils on alloy retainers. A Herbert roller cam times the action.
The complete assembly-less flywheel and clutch which are not used (!) - was balanced by Automotive Electronic Balancing. A Pesco fuel pump was adapted to fit in a Thompson water pump body, these mounted to drive in the normal water pump position. No radiator is used, the block being sealed each run with the coolant self-contained. A Schiefer magneto sparks the alky fuel mix.
Back to that strange lack of flywheel and clutch, the drive system is unique, utilizing a Whitney industrial drive chain of 3/4" pitch and an in-out, single-gear box with a disengaging lever. The rear sprocket turns independently of the rear wheel, originally from an F-86 nose gear, the coupling being made as rpm increases to actuate Harrison-designed torque converter mounted in the rear wheel itself.
The frame stringers that support front and rear wheels are 2024ST aluminum alloy bars, 7/8-inch square, gusseted by alloy plates and bolted together with recessed Allen bolts.
The front forks are from a Vincent Black Lightning.

Best time, 159.07 mph and 9.70 e.t. in 1962

[woods]

Usually sand draggers are pretty well aware what they are going up against. When I first showed up with it, they would come over, look at it and get the "ah crap" look on their face.
Sand drags are 300 feet. It would do it just a hair under 3.5 seconds, so yeah, it moved pretty good.

Yeah, really, the bikes do look slow. I just have known what they are for so long that I never think of them that way.

[woods]

Bobby...that is some cool stuff. I would love to make a pass on that smallblock bike (even at this age).

[BobbyFord]

Bobby...that is some cool stuff. I would love to make a pass on that smallblock bike (even at this age).

Thanks, Woods.
I'd love to run that thing, myself (too much testosterone and not enough brain cells)

[woods]

I have that too. The problem is, as the teststerone decreases, my brain cells don't increase...now I'm just a wimpy dummy.

[cdeal28078]

My folks bought me a Yamaha 60 when I was 12 I think. I rode the heck out of that pore thing. The County cop knew who I was from 1/4 mile away when I was on the neighborhood roads but I would cut through somebodies yard and hit a series of trails and be gone before he could get close. He's show up about 6 pm when my mom got home every time and rat me out and I would get my bike chained up. My dad was a trucker and on the road all of the time but I knew where the extra key to the big ole Master lock was so it didn't slow me down any.
My sister that was 3 years older started wanting to ride her and I wasn't for it so I started chaining up the bike when I was at school. She'd get home about an hour before I did though and when I got home one day the logging chain and hack saw was all that was left where my bike was parked. l0l Talk about mad.
I heard her in a trail near the house and went to stop her. She just kept on coming as I was flagging her down and I barely got out of the way. She went flying off the top of a hill right into the ditch and bent the front tubes back about 3 inches. I had to ride it from then on looking like a backwards chopper./ I am still mad at her about that.
Does this count as a BIKE STORY? I bet not
clint

[woods]

No, that's counts. I was the victim of the chain and lock method a few times myself (more than a few times).

[Whateverman]

here's my scoot,thought you'd get a laugh out of it:


circa 2004-ish 49cc Loncin mini-chopper made in china,4speed w/centrifugal clutch , picked it up off my buddy for a hundy $$ its pretty dam fun to screw around on
it'll do over 40 MPH -which feels pretty bloody quick with yer butt about 7 inches off the road..i've had it up to about 42 on its speedo & my buddy clocked his brother in law (who's a totally insane tall skinny chinese dude) doing 72 kph (44mph) totally wrung out on it in pretty busy traffic with his car
i stripped most of the extra plastic crap (4 fake air cleaners?)and the fake dual exhaust pipe off of it and ditched the (dead) battery cause it looked really mental with all that garbage hangin on it..... and i'm sure the power to weight ratio improved greatly because of it as well
if it had turnsignals i could insure it and ride it legally around here

[woods]

I think it's cool. I just like bikes. I don't know if it's the same in B.C but in a lot of spots here, under 50cc lets you get away with stuff that you can't on bigger cc bikes.

[woods]

Here Bobby...does this look familiar to you?

[BobbyFord]

Here Bobby...does this look familiar to you?

Why, yes it does!
The LAPD calls it "unsafe start". The last one happened on Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, I left the light on the back wheel, when I got into third I looked around to see if anyone was watching....there was a motor cop riding right along side me

[BobbyFord]

I went through a phase when I was a youngster. For some reason, I thought it was important to collect as many as possible...

At first my license was suspended, then revoked and finally cancelled. I had a cop tell me once after pulling me over, that he'd never heard of a "cancelled" license. An "S" code, 4-speed Fastback Mustang is not a wise choice for a high school kid
I did not have a license for 8 years.
In one seven month period, I got 41 tickets. Most were speeding or exibition of speed, 3 were for reckless driving, none involved alcohol. Pop's taught me how to and helped me build fast cars.
Spent a lot of time in juvenile hall, court rooms, county pokey and various impound yards

[michael69]

Bobby.I sure wish my dad had been like yours. I had to sneak my cars to my uncles and get him to help build my cars. Then when word came out I was drag racing and winning money. Dad would sale the car and threaten to bet mine and my uncles ass (his brother). Then I would get another car and we would do it all over again. I guess thats why dad and his brother never got along to this day. But my uncle is still helping.

[woods]

The grass is always greener on that type of deal. My Dad just got his fill of me and kind of ignored everything I did (good or bad). I'm thinking that him flipping out every now and again about my foolishness would not have been a bad thing.