2014 Fall Moto Giro

My art director, Bill Burke, arranged this portrait.  Bill Burke photo

This past weekend I went to the USCRA's Fall Giro, based in Tannersville, Pa. in the Poconos.  I ran my '53 Moto Guzzi Airone Sport which, once again, seemed to be the oldest bike in the event.  My friend Laurence Deguillme came with me an rode a Honda CA77 Dream.
We had a spot of bother getting there when my van died 11 miles short of the Delaware Water Gap in N.J.  It seemed like the same symptoms as 5 days and 235 miles before when the van fuel pump failed on the way back from NJMP.  We had the van towed to a service station in Bartonville, Pa., the town next to Tannersville and my brother and sister-in-law came and picked us up.
Sat. morning after the rider's meeting, I rode to the service station to meet the proprietor and explained the history of the van and get them started.  I got back to HQ a little after my start time and started incurring penalty points.  It was a beautiful day and combined quite brilliant fall colors with warm temperatures and a clear sky.  What's not to like?  We had a very good ride to the first check point where I called the service station and found that the fuel pump hadn't died this time, but a hose was kinked which presumable cause the pressure to rise and blow off another hose in the tank.  They were replacing the kinked hose and putting the other hose back on and should have it done before they closed at 1p.
Lunch stop was back at the base hotel and, after checking in and running the agility test, I rode the 6.5 miles down to the service station, loaded the bike in the van and headed back to the hotel to start the afternoon section.  However, I only got a couple of miles when the van died again.  I called the service station back and luckily they hadn't left yet.  The sent a flat bed and towed it back to the shop where the pulled the gas tank out again and found the hose had blown off again.  This time they clamped the press fit hose on, but said they couldn't guarantee it.
All this meant the I didn't ride the afternoon section.  Laurence had bike trouble almost immediately in the morning section and returned to the hotel  He got it fixed enough that he was able to do the afternoon section so, between the two of us, we got the whole day's ride in.

Triumph Cub

Sunday proved to be even warmer (in the 80's), but it seemed like it took longer to warm up.  We had a very good route in the morning, although we took a wrong turn and added 14 miles to the 83 mile morning section.  This mistake was on a really nice road, at least.  I found the afternoon section a bit tedious as in was mostly on State Highways with a lot of traffic and little opportunity for passing.  But, apparently this was because the route had to be changed at the last minute because of police activity in the manhunt for the accuse cop killer.  The Airone didn't miss a beat over the event, though it did spew quite a lot of oil.  Laurence's Ca77 however died again and he came in on the 'sag wagon'.  We loaded  up and headed home with our fingers crossed, but the hose clamp fix seemed to work and we made it back no problem.

Sunday morning pit stop with Bill Burke's NSU Max Special and my Moto Guzzi Airone Sport and Scott Rikert on the right.

Another view of the pit stop with Gino's Cl175 Sloper and Scott's 250 Jawa California

A Yetman CB77, a pretty rare item

A Puch Twingle

John Cooper's trick 250 Motobi with Ceriani road race forks and a 210mm Fontana 4LS front brake

This was the overall winners mount.  Each year he comes with a different tank badge.  It's been Matchless and Ariel, and this year it was Puch.

A 250 Benelli Barracuda 

A mid '60s Moto Morini 150

A beautiful 98cc Gilera

NJMP Lightning

19-21 Sept. I went to the USCRA race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Lightning circuit.  This was a joint effort of myself and Team Obsolete.  Team Obsolete had recently sold a works Bsump triple to Alberto Fernandez, an experienced campaigner who I've know for years racing his Classic '60s Norton Manx in AHRMA events.  The bike is a replica of the bike Dick Mann raced in '73.  It's a BSA in a Wenco frame (American made copies of the Rob North frame), but painted in Triumph colors, as BSA had gone bust by then.

Alberto flew up from his home in Mexico to ride the bike for the first time.  At the same time, Motorcyclist Magazine is doing an article on T/O's Dick Mann G-50 Matchless, which Dick used to win the '62 Laconia National, among others, and the '63 Grand National Championship.  Motorcyclist sent a photographer to take photos for the article.

The Dick Mann Matchless G-50 in the foreground, '56 AJS 7R in the backround

While we were at it, Rob Iannucci decided to bring two freshly rebuilt bikes to run them in and make sure they were race ready.  One was the '54 AJS 7R3, the bike with which Rod Coleman won the '54 Junior TT.  We had taken the bike to the inaugural Classic TT in 2013 and the piston failed on the Lap of Honour due to inadequate fuel quality.  Since then, we had replaced the piston and freshened the top end.  The other bike was a '56 two valve AJS 7R which had had it's crankcases and main and big end bearings replaced.
Initially, Rob didn't want to race any of these AMC singles, just do a few laps of practice on each.  In the end, Rob weakened and I raced all of them.
I also brought my own 250 CRTT H-D Sprint, also with a new piston in it after the last had failed at Summit Point in May.

My '66 H-D Sprint CRTT 250

I had raced on the NJMP Thunderbolt circuit before, but never on the Lightning circuit.  The two circuits are totally different with the Lightning circuit being shorter (1.9 Mi.), simpler, more flowing and faster, with two blind, quick corners.  I got in one practice Fri. afternoon and, while the bike wasn't running great, it still seemed under geared.  I geared it taller for Sat., but it still hesitated some esp. on the front straight.  I went though the fuel system looking for some blockage, but found none.
I was in the first race with F-3 and CB 350 in the first wave and the 250 GP in the second wave.  On the pre grid just before we were let out for our warm-up lap, I noticed my tach cable was loose on the drive.  I tightened it as well as I could by hand.  I got a good start, led the 250s into turn #1, was never passed, and passed several of the first wave bikes.  But, after a couple of laps my tach stopped working and I looked down to find the cable dangling.  And still the hesitation, but not in the two left hand turns, which made me think the problem might be float level height as the remote float is offset to the right of the carb, so left hand turns effectively raise the float height.
Rob then decided that I should race the three valve 7R in the Euro Cup class so I went out with no practice on the bike and 0 miles on the piston, so naturally, I took it easy.  The bike was well over geared too, with IOM gearing.  But, it ran well and I picked up the pace by the end of the race.

Bobby Verhasselt fettles the '54 AJS 7R3 'triple knocker'

Then, I rode the two valve 7R in the Super Masters race.  In addition to having a fresh motor with 0 miles on it, the bike had tires with 0 miles on them, so again, I took it easy.  The gearing was closer on this bike and it had been updated with an AMC gearbox which is much slicker than the original Burman, like on the three valve 7R.  Again, the motor ran well and after a few laps with the tires scrubbed in, I gave it a bit of stick.
Alberto was getting up to speed on the Bsump triple and had a couple of good races, so a good day was had by all, capped off by a great pot luck dinner after the awards.
For Sunday, I raised the float height, changed the main jet, and replaced the spade that connects the drive to the cable that I had lost in Saturdays race.  Unfortunately, Craig Hirko's quick 175 Bridgstone had died in Sat. practice so he wasn't in the race and Steve D'Angelo was hiding from me by changing from his 250 Ducati to his 350 Ducati to run the concurrent 500 GP class, but Doug Donelan thought he might have something for me with his 250 Bultaco.  Another good start and I had the pleasure of passing Steve's 350 Duke before the first lap was over.  My bike ran a little better, but it's still not right and I'm going to have to give some thought to it before running it at Barber in three weeks.
The photographer for Motorcyclist Magazine very much wanted to get action shots on the track of the Dick Mann G-50, but the bike didn't have several nuts and bolts drilled for safety wire and had no belly pan.  We prevailed upon the powers that be to make an exception and, after an extremely through tech inspection, we we're allow to start well behind the 50s and 100s.  We had some trouble starting the bike and when we finally got it started it seemed to be geared extremely tall.  Then, I realize that it didn't have the reverse cam plate in the gearbox and we had started it in 4th, not first gear.  So, down for first and up for up it was.  Rob speculates that the bike was last used in dirt track with the gear lever forward, but now it's facing back for rear set pegs.  Again, I took it easy as, although we rebuilt the motor years ago, it hadn't been run.  In fact, the motor may not have run in 49 years.  And, I was running on very old, unused tires (2.75/3.00 X 19" Avon Speedmaster in front and 3.50 X 19" Avon GP in the rear).  The motor ran great and the more I rode it, the more confidence I got and was able to wick it up a bit  before I pulled off just before the checker flag, so as to not short change the tiddlers.  I only shifted it the wrong way once, going down to 2nd when I meant to go up to 4th.
A very enjoyable and useful weekend until the fuel pump on my van failed as I drove home.  I had to get it towed to a repair place and spend the night in a motel in south Jersey.  And you thought it was all glory.

Randy Hoffman's 1948 Velocette Mk VIII KTT

Randy Hoffman's Vincent Gray Flash mid gearing change

One of the most interesting bikes at the event: Frank Camillieri's 400 CanAm.  Frank will be 76 years old in a couple of weeks and is still very fast and is still fabricating potent race bikes.

Frank made the frame.  

Frank says he took four lbs. off the front rotor, which he can get away with as the bike only weighs 205 lbs.

Frank made his own yokes,Clip-ons, and levers

2014 Quebec GP

5 September, I drove up to Autodrome St. Eustache just west  of Montreal to once again race the '72 TR3 Yamaha of Len Fitch.  Len brought his stable of three solos and a sidecar to sponsor a bunch of us.  Showers started in the afternoon, so the 1/8 mile drag races were canceled Fri. night.  As promised, we awoke Sat. morning to rain.  I don't recall ever riding the St. Eustache road race course in the wet and I spent the two practice session feeling out the traction.  It seemed quite rideable to me and I was surprised by the number of riders who elected not to ride in the Saturday heat races.  Sunday was forecast to be fine, but still, why pass up another chance to crash one's bike?
My first 8 lap heat was for the Period 2 Heavyweight/Middleweight Production race.  I motored past early leader Bill Quail on his SR 500 Yamaha on the back straight and led over all.  On the 3rd or 4th lap, I had quite a slide out of the last corner and that cooled my jets a good deal.  On the last lap, Brian Henderson came by on his CB 500 Honda.  I motored by him on the back straight, but Brian rode around the outside in the last corner and took the overall win with me 2nd O.A. and 1st P2 HW.  Brian rode really well, especially considering that he had started from the pit lane having arrived late for the warmup lap.

Brian Henderson's CB 500 Honda

By the time of my second heat, the 2nd to last race of the day, it had stopped raining a the track had largely dried, though there were still puddles around.  This was the GP race for factory built two stroke race bikes.  It's divided into Modern GP Lightweight (125) and Middleweight (250) and Vintage GP, up to 1989 Lightweight (125 watercooled & 250 aircooled), Middleweight (350), and Heavyweight (351 and above).  Eddy Burnett on his 2002 Honda RS 250 disappeared.  I motored by the modern 125 on the first lap but a couple of laps into it, Paul Gagnon on his '89 RS 125 Honda came by and that's how we finished, the first three winning their respective classes.
Sat. eve, Joe Bar Team, local Quebecois racers and friends, provided food, beer and musical entertainment while the stock car races went on on the oval, which the road race course uses part of.
Sunday was a beautiful day.  The TR3 wouldn't start for the first practice.  Apparently, the fuel tap leaks and the crankcases loaded up with gas over night.  By the time we got it cleared out and new spark plugs installed, we missed the practice session.  I made a point of being first out for the second round of practice and had a good session.

Pregrid for the P2 HW/MW Prod with Bill Quail #711 on my left and Brian Henderson #93 behind me.  Michel Martin Photo

In the P2 HW/MW Prod final, I got a great start and led flag to flag and turned the fastest lap of the race.

Leading in Turn #1 with #560 Peter Hurst Rickman Triumph and #95 Brad Monk XS 650/750 Yamaha following. Michel Martin Photo

The 10 lap GP final was the last race of the day.  Again, Eddy Burnett disappeared.  Chris Hurst, who didn't run the heat race, came by on his Nikko Baker framed TZ 350 Yamaha.  Then, Patrick Gagnon on his RS 125 came by pursuing Chris.  On the penultimate lap, Chris' TZ died and on the last lap, Eddy Burnett lapped me and Patrick, i.e. the whole field.  Eddy is a superb ride with a very fast bike.  His fastest lap was just over 7 seconds faster than my fastest, this with a lap time of under 50 seconds.  I'm not used to getting lapped in a race where I win my class.

Eddy Burnett changing the tires on his 2002 Rs 250 Honda.

Tucking in on Len Fitch's 1972 TR3 Yamaha.  Michel Martin Photo

I love this Michel Martin Photo of the last turn with the sparks coming off the washers that I 'Shoe-Goo' onto my boots.

Some bike one doesn't see too ofter at the races:

A Ural sidecar outfit

A Honda NS 400R three cylinder 2 stroke

A nice original 250 Bultaco Metrella

Another fun and successful weekend in Quebec.  My thanks to Len for letting me ride his well fettled, fast TR3.

Bonneville Vintage GP

I arrived back from the IOM at JFK at 6:30pm Wed., and left JFK for Salt Lake City at 3:55pm Thurs., for AHRMA's 9th annual Bonneville Vintage GP.  I was to race the Mike Bungay/Karl Engellener 350 H-D Sprint and the Gary Roper '51 Velo MAC.  While Walt Fulton III and I had shared the Sprint at Willow Springs and Sonoma Raceway, Mike and Karl had finished a second bike for Walt.

Karl working on 'Walt's' bike, Mike working on 'my' bike with the Gary Roper tuned Velo MAC in the backround

Walt signed up for a half day practice on Fri., and did a couple of sessions on the new bike without problems except that the new fuel tank that Mike had made had a small leak.  Mike switched the tank from the 'old' bike while he sealed the new tank with 'Seal-all'.  Walt was happy with his ride, so I asked him to take 'my' bike out to run it in and check that it was ready to go for Sat.  Having raced at Miller M/S Pk. many times, I didn't feel that I needed extra practice time and thought it might be prudent to give my body another day to recover from the 7 hour time change from the IOM.

The two Sprints are very similar.  Both have frames and swing arms made from the same jigs by Jim Belland.  The fuel tanks, seats, fairings and mudguards are made from the same moulds by Mike.  The motors were built by Karl to the same spec.  'My' motor had just been rebuilt after a bearing failure discovered after winning six races in a row at Willow and Sonoma.  It had a new cyl. liner and piston and rings, new 12mm tappets and bushes, and a re-ground cam.  Where the two bikes differ is in suspension, front brakes and tachometers.  'My' bike has Ceriani forks and 'Walt's' Marzocchi, both reworked by Catalyst Reaction, who supplied the rear shocks for Walt's bike, while mine has Works Performance shocks.  Walt's bike has a 210mm Fontana front brake, mine a 200mm Kawasaki A1R, both four leading shoe.  My bike has a Stack electronic tach, which requires us to carry a fairly substantial battery, while Walt's bike has a mechanical Veglia tach.

Sat. morning, I went out on my old friend, the '51 Velo MAC, first and it was good, then the Sprint which had some clutch slip over 7000 RPM.  That turned out to be a matter of the clutch spring nuts not fully reefed down, and everything was good for the second round of practice.

I had three races in a row later in the day.  Race #8 was my 'bump-up' race of 500 Premiere; race #9 was the Class C foot shift race for the Velo, and race #10 the 350GP.  The six entries in the 500 Premiere Class were gridded in front of the 500GP class in the first wave, with Sportsman 750, Heavyweight novice Production and Sound of Singles 3 in the second wave.  In addition to Walt and myself, were two Minovation Seeley G-50s fetteled by NYC Norton with class point leader Helmi Niederer on one and his friend and mentor Lee Acree on the other.  Lee was a top AMA pro in the late '90s and '00s and is an instructor at the Kevin Schwantz School, which is where he and Helmi met.  This was Lee's first race on a vintage bike.  Ron Melton was on a 500 Manx Norton and Jeff Elings was on a light weight G-50 Matchless.  Ron got the holeshot from the front row with Lee getting to Turn #1 from the second row in front of me.  Lee made a pass on Ron before the end of the first lap and I started dogging Ron.  Ron's bike seemed to be all over the place and, on the third lap, we made contact as I went around him on the outside.  Once I got by him, I'm told that Ron dropped back quickly, clearly dealing with a problem.  Lee pulled steadily ahead and I finished a distant 2nd.  Walt had stopped on the side of the track with a broken shift linkage.  At the end of the cool off lap, I had trouble down shifting, and I mentioned this to Mike as I asked him to check the tire pressures and we moved the transponder to the Velo. 

The four of us in Class C foot shift were gridded in front of the three Class C hand shift Harleys, but behind the Novice Production Lightweight in the second wave, with Sportsman 350 and 250GP in the first wave.  I got a good start and was driving around the outside of a Novice Prod. L.W. CB 350 Honda.  This evidently surprised him and he stood it up and looked at me rather then where he was going and we bumped and both went off the track, but both recovered and got back on the track with Alex McLean getting by on the McKeever ridged 500 OHC Norton.  Alex pulled away and I finished a distant 2nd ahead of Fred Mork on his 500 Norton and Gary Swan on a pre-unit Triumphh and the tank shift Harleys, catching a few of the 250s on the way, finishing 12 overall of the 28 starters.

I hadn't realized there was a bit of a break between races #8 & 9, and I should have been checking out the shift on the Sprint, as Mike and Karl were dealing with the broken shift linkage on Walt's bike, which they got welded and reassembled in time for the start of the 350 GP race.  We were gridded in front of the newer Formula 250 bikes in the first wave with Vintage Superbike Light Weight and Classic 60s in the second wave.

I got a good start from the pole, but then had trouble down shifting for turn #1.  I managed to hold on to the lead for a while but sometimes it wouldn't downshift and I'd be a gear too high, and some times it would go into a false neutral.  Walt came by me, but I was able to get back by him into the lead briefly. The shifting problem became worse and Jim Neuenberg came by on Fred Mork's short stroke 350 Aermacchi followed by Walt.  I decided that I should just leave the bike in 4th gear, reving the snot out of it on the straights and bogging it in the slow corners and try to salvage some points. I carried on like this for more than a lap, then the chain came of the rear sprocket and I coasted into the pits.  I the mean time, Walt got by Jim and won his first vintage race.  

It turned out a nut had fallen off, allowing the bolt that connects the shift arm to shift rod to foul the frame preventing down shifts.  The chain had come off because the safety wire had broken on both sides of the rear axle and the axle nut was gone!  We removed the rear wheel and found nothing wrong and concluded that the only explanation was that the axle nut wasn't tight enough  and vibration and chain pull had caused it to loosen and break the wire.  Mike had a spare nut with him and he and Karl got it all back together and then tightened the nut 'two turns past blue' and wired it with 0.041" wire rather than 0.032".

Sun., I did a good long practice on the Sprint and all seemed good.  After a quick practice on the Velo to make sure nothing had changed there, I took Walt's Sprint out for comparison.  I didn't feel any significant difference in the suspension, but his front brake was definitely better and maybe my bike shifted better, though I didn't miss any gears on his bike.  Walt and I both agreed that my bike vibrates more and I thought that the tachs might be reading differently and should be calibrated to each other.

In Sunday's 500 Premiere race, again Ron got the holeshot and again Lee got by him on the first lap.  But, this time Ron's bike seemed to be handling much better and he smoothly pulled away to leave me finishing third.  Walt finished 4th.

We had a cleaner start for the Class C race and again Alex pulled away to win.  I was circulating a comfortable 2nd when I turned into the 'Attitudes' corner a little late and tried to turn harder/lean more and lost the front end.  I slid unhurt and quickly picked up the bike and got it out of the way.  

Gary Roper and his once beautiful '51 Velo MAC after I slapped it down.  The tight primary and secondary chains made us wonder if the frame was bent, but Gary tells me it was just gravel in the chains.  It's not too bad.

 I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get back to the pits in time for the immediately following 350GP race.  There were several bike pick ups, so I was able to get back in time to make the warm-up lap.

Sat., Paul Germain had seized the motor on his very quick 250 DT1 Yamaha in the 250GP race and had therefore been unable to start the 350GP race.  He installed his spare motor and won Sunday's 250GP race, so I knew he'd be a factor in the 350GP.  And, predictably, he got the holeshot, but I was able  to stuff underneath Paul and Walt in turn #1 to take the lead.  I was a bit annoyed with myself for having thrown away the beautiful Velo unnecessarily.  It seems I have to try to break the lap record every lap regardless of where I stand in a race.  So, I wanted to redeem myself and made an effort and was never headed after turn #1, with my best lap being almost 2 2/3 seconds faster than anyone else in the race..  Walt however, lost the front end in turn #5 and took a tumble.  He was quite sure he broke a rib, but seemed more troubled by not understanding why he fell.  Sometimes it's inexplicable and those are the most troubling.

So, it was a weekend of ups and downs.  Fortunately for me it ended on an up and, unfortunately for Walt, it ended on a down.  I suspect that he will be undeterred; I certainly hope so, because he's a great addition to the team. 

on the other hand, Scott Jennings trashed his beautiful Rob North Rocket III pretty throughly.

Carbs full of dirt

rear wheel askew.  Scott was fine, if a bit depressed.  He just had the frame straightened.

Ken Lighthouse's bad ass pit bike.  Harley Hummer?

Or, is this the most bad ass pit bike; Jeff Scott's GTP Velocette

Fresh from the Salt Flats, which weren't in great shape this year

Cheater Works Shocks on an HRD in the Motorcycle Classics bike show.

2014 Classic TT addendum

Perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most beautiful race bike I saw the the Classic TT was the Eldee 250cc Velo.

'Eldee' stands for Les Diener, who built a 250cc, twin overhead cam Velocette in Australia in the '50s.
After racing for years, Les quit and sold the bike.  With the birth of Classic racing and with Diener's retirement, he decided to recreate that racer.  I happened to meet Les and see the bike when I was on my way from Adelaide to a race at Winton in Victoria in 1985.  We (Graham Besson and Bill Horsman and I) stopped by McNamara Park in Mt. Gambier where another Classic event was taking place.  Now, some New Zealanders have made a replica of the bike and brought it to the Isle of Man for Bill Swallow to race in the 350 Classic TT, which had a prize for the first 250.

Twin cams driven by a train of gears

Bill told me the bike was slow and somewhat heavy for a 250, but I think the fairing and fuel tank are beautiful

Unfortunately, it stripped and mag gear in the race and didn't finish.  You can read the whole story of the bike here:

http://velocetteracing.wordpress.com/the-racing-velocettes/eldee-special/ When the Monday's racing and parade was postponed to Tuesday, we hit a few museums. We saw this Maico roadbike outside the Mannin Museum in Peel.  We then went to Murray's Motorcycle Museum, which used to be on Mt. Snafell at the Bungalow but move to Santon a few years ago.  While much of the collection was sold off for the move, there are still plenty of interesting bikes and tons of photos and memorabilia.  They had examples of four of the bike I own: a 250 and 350 Aermacchi and an earlier version of the Moto Guzzi Airone with hydraulic rear shocks  and a Moto Guzzi Dondolino, this one with full lighting equipment and silencer and 19" wheels.  Mine has 21", front and rear.