the“Tale”of the Dragon · The Board of Directors wishes to thank long time Field Rep Ambrose...

Volume 37 / Number 3JUNE / JULY 2016 • $5

official publicatioN of the ViNtage japaNese motorcycle club of North america, iNc.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

SOS (Save Original Spokes)

1966 Suzuki T20 Restoration

Melvin the Mail Order Bike

Bikes on the Beach 2016

the“Tale”of the Dragon

Features

ViNtagE JapaNEsE MotorcYcLE MagaziNE 3

PRESIDENT’S LETTER: sharing the passion ..............................................................................5

BACK IN THE DAY:Kawasaki then and still / Bob Leonard ......................................... 10

FROM THE EDITOR:riding and sharing Your stories ...................................................... 11

TECH HELP: tech tip #14: tires & tubes ............................................................. 55

EVENTS CORNER ............................................................................ 57

ADVERTISER’S SPOTLIGHT: Moto-services .................................................................................... 58

CLASSIFIEDS .................................................................................... 59

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX ................................................................... 61

Departments

IN THIS ISSUE

On the Cover “The Best Donut Shop” in Pennsylvania provides morning refreshment for (L to R) Buddy, Nick K., Steve, and Nick M.

cover photo:Nick Krusick

Midwestwardthe “Tale” of the Dragon 38

coVer storyPROJECT BIKE:Yamaha it 400

6EVENT:rust & Dust 2016

13EVENT:progressive International Motorcycle shows Highlights14PROJECT BIKE:A Mutual Restoration

21MAINTENANCE & RESTORATION:sossaving original spokes25ODDS & ENDS:the New York Dream

27

PROJECT BIKE:Melvin, the Mail order Bike

47

EVENT:Destination Eustis Bike show & swap Meet

32

EVENT:Bikes on the Beach2016

50ODDS & ENDS:Connecting with VJMc Members at Distant Motorcycle Events53

PROJECT BIKE:1966 suzuki t20 Restoration

36


Official Publication of the VJMCJUNE / JULY 2016

Volume 37, Number 3presiDeNt

tom Kolenko770-427-4820

[email protected]

Michael Fitterling863-632-1981

[email protected] DirectorNadine g. [email protected] aDs

gary gadd817-284-8195

[email protected] Display

aDVertisiNg DirectorBryan Bentley864-923-0559

[email protected] Director

Bill granade813-961-3737

[email protected] of aDDress

please direct these requests to Bill granade:

[email protected] 13309 Moran Drive, tampa, FL 33618

Membership check renewals:1 year - $30 / 2 years - $55 / 3 years - $80

outside North america: 1 year - $50

aDDitioNal copiesin order to minimize unnecessary expens-es to the club, VJMc prints a limited number of each issue of Vintage Japanese Motorcy-cle Magazine. However, we would be glad to accommodate any requests for additional copies from members.

These requests must be submitted before the 15th of the month preceding each issue. For ex-ample: for the Feb/Mar issue requests must be received by January 15.

missioN statemeNt:The purpose of this organization is to promote the preservation, restoration, and enjoyment of vintage Japanese motorcycles (defined here as those 20 years old or older). The VJMC also will promote the sport of motorcycling and camera-derie of motorcyclists everywhere.

© 2016 Vintage Japanese Motorcycle club of North america, an irs-approved Not-for-prof-it 501(c)(7) corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted without permission. All articles copyright by their respective authors.

Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Magazine is pub-lished six times per year, in February, April, June, august, october, and December. the views and opinions expressed in letters or other content are those of the author and do not necessarily represent VJMc policy. the VJMc accepts no lia-bility for any loss, damage, or claims occurring as a result of advice given in this publication or for claims made by advertisers of products or ser-vices in this publication.

Sharing the Passionispent yesterday staffing our VJMC booth at the Mountain

Motorsports Grand Opening in Buford, Georgia, a modern multi-line dealership. It was a last minute decision to attend but quite fun and informative. While I signed up a few new members, many visitors to the booth had not heard about the club, yet they largely fit our membership core of males between forty-five and sixty-five years of age. I quickly brought them up to speed and invited them to join. Clearly, many are look-ing to rekindle fine memories of youth and build new ones on

their vintage rides. The VJMC can make that happen.Each of these booth visitors wanted to talk about their first Japanese bike, which

they described in detail, and said that they would like to find one just like it today. Their clarity was amazing: when they got it, accessories added, trips taken on it, and friends made. I’ll bet many could not describe their first girlfriend in such detail or recall her name, but the motorcycle memories were alive and well. What they were sharing was a lifelong passion for Japanese motorcycles. This club is built on that passion and will grow when we surround ourselves with like-mind-ed individuals, male and female. I urge each member to get involved, share your knowledge by writing articles for this magazine, invite friends to join, and create new motorcycle memories at our rallies and events.

A big thank you to the 840 members who responded to our recent membership survey conducted online by Bryan Bentley and Pete Slatcoff. The following are just some of the findings which confirm our members’ deep motorcycling pas-sion. Over 59% of respondents own five or more vintage bikes with 67% also own-ing modern bikes. Amazingly, 93% perform their own repairs, while 82% have restored at least one motorcycle so far. Interestingly, 66% of the members have purchased goods and services from advertisers in this magazine. Over 68% of respondents sent friends to our advertisers for their restoration and repair needs. Clearly, our members are passionate influencers and regarded as experts in the vintage motorcycling community. Thank you all for responding and sharing your input.

Please be sure and keep your membership email address up to date. We have in-creasingly used email blasts to inform members of events, permit preregistration for events and rallies, and provide state VJMC Field Reps with contact informa-tion. You can change your membership email address using the VJMC website or by contacting our Membership Director, Bill Granade, for help. Our Director of Communications, Bob Kelly, can only get the word out if he has accurate email addresses in our database.

The Board of Directors wishes to thank long time Field Rep Ambrose Knobel, of British Columbia, for his years of service to the VJMC. He has decided to step down due to new demands on his time. I had the privilege of meeting Ambrose at the West Coast Rally, where his knowledge and passion for Japanese iron was infectious. Please welcome our newest Canadian Field Representative, Larry An-derson, in Alberta, who has stepped up to help. It’s great to see the VJMC flag is still flying in western Canada.

I hope everyone is making the most of this riding season. Plan now to attend events like Mid-Ohio Vintage Days; our National Rally at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana; our first time ever Northeast Rally in Gettysburg, Pennsyl-vania; and the Barber Vintage Festival in October. I am looking forward to riding with new and veteran members at these rallies organized by Events Director, Pete Slatcoff. His commitment to online preregistration for rallies has streamlined planning and permitted our event volunteers to also enjoy these great venues. Contact Pete at 850-624-8811 if you need help registering or have questions.

Enough said, it’s time to ride,

Tom KolenkoVJMC [email protected]

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

6 JUNE / JULY 2016


EVENTPROJECT BIKE

Yamaha IT 400

by Mike Bohager / [email protected]

it all started after selling my latest Ya-maha, a 1974 GT 80, to a guy in Mis-

souri. I needed another bike in the sta-ble to rebuild. After several weeks of scanning Craigslist, I found a listing for a basket case 1974 Yamaha IT 400. Well, for starters, Yamaha didn’t make an IT 400 until 1976. I was curious, so I sched-uled a visit with the guy that had placed the ad.

On a late April day, I met Steve, who was into a lot of different hobbies. He had garages full of stuff. However, what I came to see was in a sea con-tainer just past a goldfish pond. As we made our way inside, I passed a Honda step-through (CT 90?) and a few new-er Kawasaki KX bikes. After weaving between the obstacles, we came upon a rolling chassis of an IT 400 and several boxes of parts.

Steve explained that it was a project tossed aside for higher priority things life threw at him, and he was starting to do some house cleaning.

I’ve always wanted a big bore IT and so, with a wishful eye, looked the parts over and exchanged three “Benjamins” to close the deal. My brother and I load-ed up the chassis and parts and headed to my laboratory I call “MBTECH.”

I assessed the boxes of parts and put the frame on my trusty little Sears Craftsman lift and stared for awhile as my mind rushed to mentally configure the bike and I started thinking of what I would need to rebuild her.

The tires were dry-rotted, the engine was in pieces, and the suspension was shot. Not to mention, the plastics had seen much gentler days.

My first order of battle was to get the frame stripped and painted, and new tires for the aluminum rims.

I went online to check some Yama-ha numbers and noticed the bike had

a number that started with “1W6” stamped on several parts. After re-search, this told me that the bike was actually a 1978 Yamaha IT 400E. After removing the wheels, I noticed the mo-no-shock was seized and in need of re-placement. Dollar signs started swirling around my head as I remembered order-ing a new mono-shock from Hyper-Pro for a 1987 Yamaha TT 350 I had—ma-jor “Cha-Ching.” The shock was worth more than the bike! So I quickly realized two things: You need a budget to rebuild and the resources to get the parts. So, between eBay and Bike Bandit, I was able to find everything I needed.

After painting the frame and getting new tires mounted, I delved into the en-gine. The piston was already a “third” over stock, and my local machine shop said the cylinder may need to be sleeved. Upon looking further into the engine, I noticed that the magneto side of the crank shaft had been bent. How this could occur was beyond me. So, there I was, a box with a useless engine.

I scoured eBay and found a complete numbers-matching engine. In disbelief, I processed the order. In the meantime,

I started working on the plastics. They were painted over and scratched fairly badly, but I was grateful that I had ev-erything but the side plates. As many of you know, finding a lot of vintage parts is part luck and part pocket-book.

I sanded the old paint off, prepped it with Prep-Sol, and used a Ford engine blue to provide a close match to the original color. I couldn’t find the orig-inal number plates, so I used some old-school oval ones from Maier.

Next was the torn seat cover. I found, once again on eBay, a new seat cover for the cushion and the pan. I had never re-covered a seat before and didn’t want to pay an upholstery shop to do it. I re-ceived the cover some weeks later and used short sheet metal screws to secure the cover to the seat pan.

When it came to the suspension, I knew the forks needed seals, and the mono-shock was seized. I found both a used shock and new fork seals on eBay. Everyone on eBay was sending the items I ordered fairly quickly, so I didn’t have much down-time while waiting on parts.

While replacing the fork seals, I rec-


ommend using an air-impact driver to unscrew the bottom bolts holding the sliders on. This keeps you from having to put the forks in a vice and trying to undo the bolts. With the fork seals re-placed and mono-shock installed, I as-sembled the forks in the triple tree. The handlebar was bent, so I replaced it with an inexpensive MSR with Scott hand grips. I even went a little further and put aftermarket hand guards on the bike. Next, the tires.

I bought DOT compliant Michelin T63 tires and had a local bike shop mount them for me. I don’t do well mounting tires. While the wheels were off the bike, I put on new brake shoes front and rear. Once the wheels were back on, I started assessing new cables for the bike.

The old cables were rusted and with only a few strands of wire holding them together. I was able to get Motion Pro direct replacement cables off eBay. As far as the front headlight, the bulb was

blown. For whatever reason, the connec-tor to the lighting harness was missing, so I put on a new headlight assembly from Baja Designs. The odometer was also missing, so I installed a speedom-eter off a similar year DT 400.

After I finished painting the fenders and tank, I needed tank decals. I found reproduction decals on eBay. I chose the black and white striped ones, even though the original ones were of the tuning fork design. I just think the rac-ing stripe decals look better and is the classic design everyone associates with the older Yamahas. I put all the plastic on and got a Chase-Harper tool bag for the rear fender to replace the missing stock one.

Then back to the engine. The cylin-der had good compression. So I filled the crankcase with kerosene and hand cranked it over to clean out any gunk. I also put a new clutch in while it was out of the frame. Using a lot of elbow grease

and determination, I got the engine in the frame. Note to self: the engine goes in the frame easier if the rear aluminum support bracket is removed from the bike.

With no carburetor to be found among the parts, I was able to find one on eBay. I disassembled and cleaned it. Not be-ing sure on main jet size, I went to Bike Bandit for the full range of OEM main jets. What I love about Bike Bandit is that they have pictorial views of the original parts diagrams for these old bikes. They come in handy, not just for parts numbers, but for how components are assembled. I also relied heavily on a Clymer manual I bought from a bloke in Britain. Both were life savers.

Finally, on the list was the electrical harness. Bike wiring and electrical have always been my nemesis. Luckily, I had a complete harness, and it was just a mat-ter of following the wiring diagram in the Clymer manual. This is when I real-ized I needed a tail light. I found a newly made one on eBay, coming from Tai-wan. I can’t believe some of these older parts are still being made.

Getting to the final items, I installed the airbox and used a Uni filter. I at-tempted putting the carb to airbox bel-lows on, only to find it non-pliable. I found a new one from Hot Foot Moto. I then realized the intake manifold was dry-rotted and cracked. I used some Seal-All for the cracks as a temporary fix to get the bike running.

The bike started on about the fifth kick. I was elated. I took it out for a road test of about sixty miles and noticed ex-haust leaks and carb issues during the trip. I pulled the spark plug, and it was as black as coal—definitely running too rich. So I put the stock 350 main jet in the carb and ordered an intake mani-fold. I’m glad to see that there are places making new stock items for these old, treasured bikes, but some come at pre-mium prices.

After four months of work and about $1200, I’m happy with my frame up, “drive-quality” restoration. My goal is to get to a VJMC event once I work out the all bugs! Hope you enjoyed reading about my rebuild journey. l

right:before

beloW:the finished

rebuild

10 JUNE / JULY 2016

this is a picture of me and my 1971 Kawasaki, taken in 1972.

I was fifteen at the time and living in Alabama. Back in those days (and maybe still?), fifteen was old enough to get a motorcycle license in Alabama, so I bought this bike brand new for $375.

It was my first transportation, and I always remembered it so fondly that when I got back into motor-cycles over three decades later, the first bike I wanted was this same make and model. I bought two to make one and ended up restoring both of them.

by Bob Leonard / [email protected]

BACK IN THE DAY

Although I’ve put on a pound or two since 1972, in 2011 I rode one of them on the VJMC’s Death Valley Ride and came through it with flying colors! I still have and ride both of them to this day. l

Kawasaki Then and Still


Riding and Sharing Your Stories

by Michael Fitterling / [email protected]

With any luck, by the time you read this I will be on my motorcycle

somewhere high in the Rockies and looking forward to meeting up with our members at Spring Mill State Park on my way back to Florida. I love look-ing at motorcycles at shows, but for me, nothing is better than riding them. Af-ter all, that’s why they were made, both vintage and modern ones.

Speaking of rides, this issue features an ambitious trip aboard four vintage Japanese motorcycles taken by some of our younger members, the way many of us did it “back in the day.” I applaud their can-do and take-it-as-it-comes at-

titudes. It brought back fond memories.Along with the ride report, we’ve

tried in this issue to include a good va-riety of stories, so I hope there is some-thing for everyone—the collectors, the restorers, and the riders. Remember, this magazine is yours! Send in those how-tos, stories of rides, event recaps, and anything having to do with vin-tage Japanese bikes you might think would interest our readers. You don’t have to be a Steinbeck; just send them in to me, and we’ll help you smooth them out. Share your stories so we can keep these issues full of useful, inspira-tional, and informative content for all

our members.On this trip, my mount will be mod-

ern (Old Faithful has to rest some time) so I hope you won’t mind me slipping in line among the vintage bikes to get in on some of those great group rides in southern Indiana. If anyone has been having trouble contacting me, it’s not because I am ignoring you, but WiFi on the road can be pretty iffy, especial-ly some of the places I hope to go. I will catch up on emails in time for putting together the next issue, and I hope to find more exciting stories in my Inbox when I get home to include in upcom-ing issues. l

FROM THE EDITOR


HISTORY

Rust & Dust 2016

by Floyd Finch / [email protected]

EVENT

When I left the house on Saturday, April 2, 2016 it was spitting rain

from a gray overcast sky. Initially this trip was planned as a motorcycle ride, but since the forecast was calling for rain, taking the truck seemed like the thing to do. Of course, it also enabled me to take two bikes, so there was a slight plus to that. The destination for the day was the Cut Rate Soda Fountain in Sumter, South Carolina, approximate-ly an hour away, for the Fourth Annu-al Rust & Dust rat rod car show. Three other members were also on their way from various points around the state.

Upon arrival, I discovered Bryan Bent-ley and Voddy Neal were already there and had everything set up, so I unloaded my bikes and parked them in the display line. There were no motorcycle classes at this show, but they were advertising a motorcycle cruise in, and a few other bikes drifted through as the day went by. In a short time, we were joined by one of our new members, Sean Bunch, who also brought his original, unre-stored 1965 YA6 Yamaha. His YA6 is a 125cc two-stroke with oil injection that he rescued from a barn.

Voddy had brought his pristine Ken-ny Roberts Edition RZ350, another fine two-stroke Yamaha. Mr. Bentley brought a couple of nice Dreams, but the real standout of his collection that he brought to this show was the Fuji Go-Devil that he restored. This is truly a unique little VJM, and if you see it at a show be sure to check it out. As for me, the 1982 Honda Passport made it out of the garage, and since this was a rat rod show, the old ugly rust bucket CB650C of mine had to be there.

Now, why would a group of volunteers from the VJMC want to go to an event like this? To grow the club of course! We must continue to grow and prosper as a

club, and going to events like this are one way to reach out. There are tens of thou-sands of people out there toiling away in garages and sheds trying to bring some vintage Japanese motorcycle or another back to life, and these shows, local fes-tivals, and other motorcycle-friendly but not necessarily motorcycle-orient-ed events are how we reach these peo-ple. They don’t come to our rallies and shows or even know about them.

I met a young man in his late teens or early twenties who was at wits’ end try-ing to rewire an early ,70s DT3 that be-longed to his dad so that he could ride it again. Some other gentleman, who ap-peared to be of the burly “Heavy Duty” biker type, had a few CB750s he was trying to restore to stock and was look-ing for factory correct exhaust systems. These are the people who need this club, and we need them, especially the young-er ones. We actually succeeded in sign-ing up a few members that day and have at every event like this where any of us have ever set up a display and been will-ing to answer a few questions.

In the end, the sun came out and it was a great afternoon. One or two of us even bought a bike or two in Sumter, and we signed up a few members. Life is really good.

Now let me challenge all of you. Find a

local car or bike show, a festival or swap meet; set up a booth, take some copies of the magazine, print out some sign-up forms, and go meet some people and talk to them about old motorcycles. You have nothing to lose and new friends to gain. l

left:Bryan Bentley shows off his Fuji go-Devil

ceNter:people starting to line up bikes at the display line

bottom:Here i am pictured with my suburban assault scrambler

14 JUNE / JULY 2016

Sacramento, CA

Miami, FL

Cleveland, OHaboVe:craig schneider of Dublin, ohio and David pennell of akron, ohio.


Cleveland, OH January 29-31, 2016by Sean Carrigon, Field Representative Coordinator / [email protected]

on January 29-31, the IMS show rolled into the massive IX center in Cleveland. This was my first time attending

an IMS show, so I can’t compare to years past, but it looked to be a success. Large crowds poured through the gates to check out the impressive manufacturers’ displays of new models and vendor offerings. Fans really enjoyed a trip down our memory row of nine beautiful Japanese classics. We were in the “vintage” corner along with a cool display of Penton dirt bikes, including a Wenkel rotary model. In between taking in all the action, fans could take a seat and enjoy a School of Rock mini concert or ride on a full-size indoor ferris wheel.

Our display ranged from Wayne Peters’ eye-catching red and silver high-piped Honda CL90, and bright orange ’71 SL100 on one end, to a stock ’77 Honda GL 1000 (even the tires were original) brought by member Matt Williams of Xe-nia, Ohio. Many folks stopped to spend extra time checking out the gorgeous big bikes in the middle: Craig Schneider’s awesome 1979 CBX; and David Pennell’s stunning Yamaha XS1100. As a Yamaha fan, it was great to see such a beauti-ful XS1100, as these often are in ratty condition. Thank you, Bob Gertson, for bringing two iconic Hondas (CB550k and CB350) to complete our display.

Special thanks to Wayne Peters, who stepped up as the lo-cal member contact to organize our display and handle all the numerous emails and forms with IMS.

Wayne also initiated a contest for two trophies, a people’s choice vote and a judged award. Cleveland member Ray Bay-less’s orange flake ’74 Honda CB750 was the crowd favorite. Voting was close, but the CBX got the most judged points.

And thanks to the following members who volunteered many hours at the club table, signing up new folks or pro-viding information: Chuck Murray, George Mauer, Gerry Goertzen, and Bruce Gordon.

Cleveland area VJMC members have been a part of this show for years, and the fans expect and appreciate it. That tradition rides on.

Miami, FL January 8-10, 2016 by Michael Fitterling, Editor / [email protected]

january 8-10 saw the VJMC camped out at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show in Miami, wedged between

Victory and KTM motorcycles. Our position in between the two main halls meant a lot of traffic flowed past from one side to the other.

Last minute complications meant that there was a scram-ble to get bikes on display. Thanks to Obis and Sharon Brea and Andres and Mary Alice Behrens, in spite of the rush, the VJMC had a rare Honda CB92R and beautifully restored Honda SL100 and CB77 on display beside our booth. Al-most everyone who passed between the two main sections of the show stopped and took a look at the bikes, while many stopped to chat and discuss the club and the advantages of membership.

The event had good attendance and offered, in addition to the manufacturers and after market vendors, entertainment in the form of music and speakers, including Glen Hegstadd, the author of Two Wheels through Terror and One More Day Everywhere, who, as an adventure travel enthusiast, I enjoyed immensely.

A big thanks goes out to Peter Slatcoff and Robert Schroed-er for making the 1200 mile round trip to make this happen along with local, always willing, volunteers Obis and Sharon and Andres and Mary Alice.

Progressive International Motorcycle Shows Highlights

Sacramento, CA November 6-8, 2015by Bob Leonard, VJMC Treasurer / [email protected]

on November 6-8, the Progressive International Motor-cycle Show (IMS) was held in Sacramento at the Cal

Expo Center. This was the first time the IMS visited Sacra-mento and the Club’s first involvement with the IMS in the Bay Area.

During the show, we spent two and a half days talking vin-tage Japanese bikes with literally hundreds of people who were attending the show, signing up a number of new mem-bers in the process. A good time was had by all who attended.

A special thanks to local VJMC member Mark Scott, who not only displayed several of his bikes, but also helped staff the booth for the entire two and a half days.

EVENT


ere and his wife, Christine. They coor-dinated the event with Peter Slatcoff, VJMC National Events Coordinator. Kurt Schneider displayed a 1976 Hon-da Sulfur Goldwing and a 1979 Hon-da CB750F. I displayed a 1973 Honda CB350G and Andrew Mobley displayed a 1986 Yamaha SRX650. Eric Hilder-brant brought a 1976 Honda GL1000L-TD. Dick Hilderbrant showed a 1977 Honda CB750K7, while Mike Nunez displayed his1965 Honda C77.

For many motorcyclists, vintage Jap-anese machines, like those on display, were the kindling to a lifelong love af-fair with motorcycles. If you doubt that,

it was a sunny, but frigid, February day in the Chicagoland area. What’s

a motorcycle junkie to do? How about check out the International Motorcycle Show that takes place each year at the Stephens Convention Center in Rose-mont, Illinois? The show was February 12-14.

In late January, I received an email message from Jack Briere, recently named Field Representative for the VJMC. The message was sent to sev-eral members in the hope that a few of our members would bring their old motorcycles for a display highlighting the VJMC. I was planning on attending the show, anyway, so I figured why not take a bike and hang out at the booth to greet folks at the show?

If you haven’t attended an IMS event, you are missing out on a great time. Many motorcycle manufacturers bring their newest machines for you to ad-mire, and even sit on. Many tour oper-ators, bike rallies, and aftermarket and accessory vendors are present, showing the latest offerings to the market. Vin-tage and custom bikes compete for rec-ognition and prizes. Demonstrations, stunt riders, and live music were avail-able throughout the weekend. What a great place to meet VJMC members and introduce potential members to our club.

We were blessed with a fantastic loca-tion—right next to BMW and Kawasa-ki. You couldn’t walk by their booths without seeing our banners and bikes on display. We also had a table filled with VJMC printed material and logo merchandise. Jack brought several box-es of VJMC kickstand pucks and we gave away 1890 of them. Traffic slowed a bit only on Sunday as the Chicago area received a heavy blanket of snow. Snowy ramps made loading the bikes on Sunday afternoon an adventure.

Members volunteering their time at the VJMC display included: Jack Bri-

just hang out around these old bikes and listen to the conversations of those that walk by them. If you go back enough years, a ,70s or ,80s era Japanese bike was likely their earliest freedom ma-chine.

While talking with visitors, those of us in the booth were able to share parts resources and technical advice, as well as answer questions about the beautiful machines on display.

Illinois is an area that offers great op-portunities for the development of some regional rides and events. The purpose of our exhibit was to meet members, speak to prospective members, and chat

Chicago, IL February 12-14, 2016by David King / [email protected] by Jack Briere and David King

right:Eric, Jack and David

at the progressive 2016 VJMc booth

18 JUNE / JULY 2016

with visitors about the prospect of getting their bikes out and meeting up with us to ride and show the machines we all en-joy. I think you might agree with me; it’s more fun to have your old bike out of your garage than it is to just enjoy it by yourself. We had several members stop by and ask how they could bring their bike to display. Watch your email around the time of the show for the opportunity to participate.

Jack and I had several productive conversations with prin-cipals from dealerships and other interested venues who showed a desire to host our group for an organized ride. We hope to be sharing some news later about some opportunities to get together to ride with fellow VJMC members.

Make sure that your VJMC profile includes a valid email address so you won’t miss out as things progress in your area. A special thanks to Jack Briere for his work at the show and for stepping up to be the Illinois Regional Field Rep for the VJMC.

Phoenix, AZ February 20-21, 2016by Jack Stein, Arizona Field Representative

As the clock struck five o’clock today under the warm Arizo-na late afternoon sun, the curtain drew shut on the 2015-2016 Progressive International Motorcycle Show (IMS) schedule.

The number of vendors supposedly decreased with each show in the circuit. I was told there were half of the num-ber of vendors in Phoenix, the last stop, compared to the first show. Most noticeably absent were the Honda and Yamaha factory displays.

Our booth was a ten by seventy foot black carpet with a black curtain backdrop. The show provided a table and chairs, and as many free passes as we cared for.

We had eight bikes on display. Traffic was heavy in front of our booth, with lots of lookers. We signed up only a half dozen new members, despite our relentless solicitations. One member even wrote a small script of the benefits a member-ship offers.

The local members stepped up and showed significant re-sponsibility, so it wasn’t all on my shoulders. I only spent one whole day there and a few hours at the end.

The show employees on site were pleasant to deal with, in contrast to the main office folks before the event.

As a side note, the two other vintage clubs IMS showed on their website for the Arizona event were both no-shows. The AMCA chapter here withdrew due to a short time frame. I have no idea why the other local vintage club didn’t show up.

Overall, I would rate the Arizona event as a success, al-though I suspect other events may have not turned out with the same results. l


for years my wife has worked third shift. It is not unusual for her to

spend all night dwelling on something. As her fiftieth birthday was rapidly ap-proaching, she came home and told me by no means was I to prepare a celebra-tion for the half-century she has spent on this planet. For a couple of days I enjoyed a sense of relief, until she came home and informed me, “I’ve decided that for my fiftieth birthday I want to go up to the crown of the Statute of Liberty.” You have to love third shift workers.

Now, there is an advantage in mar-rying a slightly older woman. My big Five-O had yet to happen. Since the standard had been set that every wish

aboVe:My Kz400 in 1978

was on the table, I was prepared when she asked what I wanted for my big day.

When growing up, a motorcycle was taboo. My father’s younger brother didn’t make it halfway through his teens while riding one. So it was as likely for me to meet Soichiro Honda or one of the Davidson brothers as it was for my father to ask if I wanted to go 50/50 on a new motorcycle. I must see dead people, because before my head stopped spinning, I was straddling a new brown 1978 Kawasaki KZ200. It was perfect for my fifteen-year-old frame and able to keep double nickel highway speeds, as long as you were not against the wind. That was unlikely in Western Kansas.

The bike was more than cheap trans-portation to and from my summer job. At fifteen, I was now inducted into an unincorporated club of older riders. Saturdays were spent at Dixon Cycle Center, in Scott City, Kansas admiring the new models, looking at must-have

by Bryan Davidson / [email protected]

PROJECT BIKE

A Mutual Restoration

22 JUNE / JULY 2016

clocKWise from top:clean and polish

Loading from dad’s shedready for a second life

grandson’s first ride


accessories, but more than any other thing, learning to speak the language.

Within the year, the KZ200 did its job. I learned the repetition of: back-off throttle, squeeze clutch, shift, release clutch while opening throttle. Most importantly, I learned, by experience, to avoid streets freshly oiled and thick with flesh removing sand. It was time to move up. A slightly used Kawasa-ki KZ400 of the same year caught my eye—red, with highway pegs, a back-rest, and yes! a fairing. O wind, where is thy sting? Doubling the cubic centi-meters made that laughable speed lim-it a past issue. And, believe me or not, we loaded down that small bike for a camping expedition to the Colorado mountains with my thirteen-year-old brother on the back. That bike took me to legion baseball, weekend poker runs, and taught me that girls like bikes, too.

After another year and my frame had grown, my bike was too small. By then, my dad got into the game and bought a “wish-I-still-had-it” ,73 Z1 900. The

twin-banger just couldn’t keep up with the pack, so it was time to move up to a full-dressed 1977 KZ650. The red twin stayed in the family, but was pushed to the end of bike row, only ridden to make sure it would start. It missed the greatest adventure my father and I took together, a celebration for graduating high school: we endured a ten day rain soaking, hail pounding, behind the rock peeing trip to the Grand Canyon. (The only facility in northern Arizona was a large lonely boulder. When Dad emerged, he told me he wasn’t the only one to make mud behind that rock.) Thirty-four years later, we still talk about “that trip.”

I took my KZ650 to college and left the 400 behind. My brother used it as his starter bike, but after a Kawasaki 454 caught his eye, the red twin was again relegated to stand-by status.

Over the next twenty years, the KZ400 bounced between Dad and I until “it” happened: It doesn’t start; I’ll try later. Later never came. It found the

back of the garage and one day rolled into my dad’s shed. And there it sat…and waited…until I turned fifty.

“I want to restore my old 400,” I an-swered my wife. I had her. After a near-ly flawless visit to New York City, there was no way she could say no.

So, six hours later, I was back with my KZ400. A local friend got her running, another gave her a fresh coat of red paint, and I painstakingly (and apolo-getically) polished her to new.

The restoration was reciprocal. Hav-ing sold my KZ1300 some fifteen years earlier, my riding gene had gone dormant. Now I can’t imagine being without a bike and have a garage full of projects to prove it. It’s been about three years since rescuing the red twin. Yes, I have a another large bike to tote my larger frame to work, except on Thursdays.

Throw-Back-Thursday is set aside for my twin. Oh, and when my grandson had the choice of bikes for his first ride? “The red one.” l


EVENT

SOS (Saving Original Spokes)

by Gary Rothwell / photos by Roger Stanley

MAINTENANCE & RESTORATION

the first bike I ever tried to restore was a 1964 Honda Benly. I was six-

ty-two years old, fairly handy with tools, but no mechanic by any means. It was my learning bike, so this article is for amateurs, not master mechanics. The spokes on the Benly were in tough shape, so my first plan (I’m embarrassed here) was to clean them with steel wool and try painting them with chrome paint. That didn’t go well, not even close to well; in fact, they turned out horri-bly and it took a lot of work to get that cheesy paint off. I explored new and custom manufactured spokes and didn’t like either of those options, mainly be-cause of cost and the uncertainty of my actually ever finishing the project.

Deep down, though, there was anoth-er reason I wanted to keep the original spokes. I developed an emotional attach-ment to the Benly. It had a brief life, then after a fatal, failed attempt by the owner to rebuild the motor, was abandoned in a shed for more than forty years. After I got it, I started feeling like I had rescued an old dog from the pound. It was like a living thing that might even have a soul. It seemed wrong to throw away parts whose only fault was being ugly, if there was a way to keep them with the bike.

I ran across information about tin/zinc plating of metal with a small table top kit available from several dealers. I chose Eastwood and set about learn-ing to plate spokes. After successes and failures, I’ve finally settled into a system that works to my satisfaction. Here’s how I do it.

I first use a wire wheel to remove the dirt and corrosion. I wear eye protec-tion and take my time, as I’ve learned that a wire wheel can wreak chaos at amazing speeds. I start with the head, using varying angles to clean around the bend, and then start spinning the

spoke in my fingers as I walk it down the wheel. When I get half way, I turn it around and work down to the threads. The right combination of spinning and moving down the spoke does a nice job, and some might be tempted to just stop there, but don’t; there’s still lots of room for improvement.

The next step is to use the same tech-nique (spinning and going down the spoke) on the buffing wheel. I’m using brown rouge on the wheel, and it seems to work fine. Again, I’m wearing eye protection and taking my time. Repeat-ed dressing of the wheel and adding more compound in light applications makes for much better results. At this point, the spoke looks pretty darn good, and it’s tempting to call it good and start building the wheel, but it’s lacking any type of corrosion protection and will rust very quickly. Newer stainless spokes may be different, but I’ve never owned a bike with stainless spokes, so I just don’t know. Besides, electroplating is actually a lot of fun.

After polishing the spoke, I clean it with grease and wax remover. It’s sur-prising how much junk comes off on the rag. Don’t skip this step.

Now it’s time for actual plating. I use the Eastwood tin/zinc kit that I’ve had for over five years, and all I’ve had to do was buy replacement anodes and change batteries. I went to a Goodwill store and found a plastic cylinder about three inches in diameter and ten inches tall. I use a piece of heavy copper wire soldered to a piece of copper plate and bent into a circle at the bottom. I bent it around an old spoke and then used pliers to make it just a little tight so that when I started a spoke through the hole, it self-thread-ed in the soft copper and ensures a good electrical connection, and the threads remain for the rest of the spokes.

photo 1: starting point

photo 2: cleaning on the wire wheel

photo 3: Buffing on the polishing wheel

1

2

3

26 JUNE / JULY 2016

I’m wearing eye protection, rubber gloves, and have ventilation for this step. I hang the spoke as shown in the picture and let it plate for a minute and thirty seconds. Don’t ask how I arrived at that number, it was just trial and er-ror until it looked about right. Also, that’s about how long it takes me to do the next steps and be ready for the next spoke, so I can do one after another and do quite a few in a reasonable amount of time. You can tell if the plating is hap-pening, as the liquid around the spoke will start to burble (scientific plating term) and foam lightly.

When I take them out of the plating solution, I dry them on a paper shop towel, being careful because the solu-tion is acidic and will burn holes in jeans if you’re not careful. They are dull gray and look kind of like galvanized metal. I then hit them lightly with fine steel wool until they are shiny, then finish with metal polish, and that’s it. I now have a new looking, original spoke that I know will fit the bike and be cor-rect. The only thing left are the nipples. I put them on an old spoke and use the buffing wheel. They shine up very eas-ily. The wire wheel would scar them pretty badly I think. Spinning the nip-ple on the buffing wheel takes only a few seconds, and the result is beautiful.

Now that the spokes are all ready, it’s time to start lacing the wheel. I have a small sign in my shop that reminds me of the cardinal rule of lacing: “inner spokes first.” I’m still working on lac-ing patterns and hope to someday actu-ally lace a whole wheel without having to go back at least once and correct a mistake. I also have a lot to learn about truing the wheel, but each time I do it, it gets a little better.

I should mention here that I only work on small Hondas and am com-fortable using original spokes. I would need to talk to someone knowledgeable before I attempted to use this method on bikes capable of going well over six-ty miles an hour. Maybe some of our readers know about metal fatigue due to neglect and aging and could weigh in here.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention “Morrie, the wheel master,” a legend-ary wheel specialist in the Puget Sound area. He bailed me out when I tried lac-ing the wheels on the Benly and didn’t even know that there were inner and outer spokes. He was very patient with

me and shared his knowledge with enthusiasm and good humor. Peo-ple like Morrie are one of things that makes this such a great hobby. Also, thanks to the folks that put out this helpful, enjoyable magazine. Keep up the good work. l

photo 4: getting ready to plate

photo 5: cleaned and placed in electrolite

photo 6: plate for about 1 1/2 minutes

photo 7: Before and after

photo 8: New rim,old hub,old spokes

4

5 6

7

8


EVENT

The New York Dream

by David Hellard / [email protected]

ODDS & ENDS

When you have a motorcycle web-site and are willing to share your

phone number with people who seem to be legitimate buyers, it is not unusual to get phone calls inquiring about your bikes for sale. Pictured is a beautiful CA160 that I had up for sale in 2004. I had several phone calls from a guy who asked a lot of questions. I answered them the best I could and let him know that he was welcome to come and see the bike and hear it run. A few weeks went by, and I didn’t hear from him, until he called one weekday evening in Decem-ber. By that time, I recognized his voice and knew his name was David. We set a time for him to come on a Saturday, around two o’clock, to see the bike first-hand.

I have a very long driveway so, about noon, I set the bike out in front of my barn and waited. It was a little warmer than usual for December, but I imag-ine the thermometer was straining to hit forty-five degrees, and the day was overcast. Two o’clock came and went, and since I didn’t have a phone number for David, I decided he wasn’t coming. At about 2:30, I was upstairs looking out my window toward the street when I saw a green and white taxi cab back-ing down my driveway to the main street. “Strange,” I thought, “a cab driv-er is lost.” About another thirty seconds went by, and I heard my doorbell ring.

Standing there was a young man about twenty years old, wearing an odd look-ing knit cap that I had seen worn only in pictures of Laplanders herding their reindeer near the Arctic Circle. He in-troduced himself as David, adding that he had come to see the bike. As we walked around the house toward the barn, I noticed that there was no vehi-cle—no car, no truck, no motorcycle ex-cept for my Honda Dream still sitting in front of the barn.

Without giving me time to ask about his lack of a means of transportation, he jumped right into the conversation. “What a great looking motorcycle,” he said, “just like you described it. It is in beautiful condition. Wow, no one where I live has one like this. It will be a real conversation piece. Can you start it up?” I did so and then took it for a spin down the driveway and down the road for about a half mile. When I came back, he was absolutely beaming. He pulled a wad of cash from his pocket. “$950 is what we agreed upon, right?”

“Right,” I said, “but…”“I’ll take it!” he said, handing me the

cash.“Wow, what an easy sale,” I thought.

Then I pondered just a bit about the per-son I was dealing with. Looking around, I said, “Was that your cab that brought you here?”

“Right,” he said, “I was a bit worried that he was having trouble finding you, but when I saw the bike in your drive-way, I knew I was in the right place, so I sent him on his way.”

“How do you intend to get the bike home?” I asked.

“I am going to ride it,” he said, with some authority.

“David,” I said, “the motorcycle doesn’t have a license plate, it isn’t insured, and I am not sure I can find a notary on Sat-urday afternoon. How far is your place? I can load the bike into my pickup truck and take you there.”

“I live in Brooklyn, New York,” he an-swered with a straight face. “I took a Greyhound bus to downtown Colum-bus and then the cab ride out here. It will take me a while, but I can take my time! Don’t worry,” he said. “I have my helmet in this bag.”

I was absolutely dumbfounded. Not only was this an utterly ridiculous plan, but he was not dressed for a long, cold

David and his new Dream in my driveway and then at the bus station on his way back to New York City

ride, and the temperature was dropping by the minute!

I tried to reason further with him. Even though it was a great running bike, I explained that it had forty-year-old original tires and that it was not safe to ride any kind of distance on old tires. This warning did not seem to dissuade him. This was going to be his adven-ture! I told him that, even though it was a great running bike, anything can hap-pen with a piece of equipment that old. “What about the lack of a license plate?” I cautioned. “Without one, you will like-ly be stopped and then be in very big trouble!”


Not to be denied, he said, “I will have a signed title, and you can give me a bill of sale. That should be enough to satisfy the police!”

“Oh my,” I thought, “what a Pilgrim!”Finally, he seemed to agree that riding

it home that day wasn’t going to work. I told him that I could store it for him until he could get it picked up by a car-rier and safely transported to Brook-lyn. That would be the best way to get it there. I could tell that his New York City mentality was not allowing for that much trust. I then explained that there was a store-and-lock about a mile away and that I could load the bike up in my pickup truck and take him over there.

He was skeptical, so I gave him the number of the storage place and let him call them. Satisfied that they were a le-gitimate business, he agreed to let me drive him over there, he rented a stall, and locked up his newly purchased prize.

With key in hand, he came over to me as I sat in my pickup and thanked me. “How far is the bus station?” he asked.

“About ten miles,” I replied, “but I

would be happy to take you there.”“Great,” he said, as he grabbed the

passenger door handle, and then he stopped abruptly. He looked at me and said, “Thanks, but I will call a cab.”

“OK,” I said, thinking this was strange behavior, but in fact he was odd any-way, so no big deal. As he walked away, I started the truck and began to pull away, but then I stopped and turned off the ig-nition and called to him to come back over to the truck. He came over with a puzzled look and asked, “Is there a prob-lem?”

I said, “David, I just have one question before you go. Is the reason you don’t want me to take you back to the bus station because you think I am going to ‘roll you’ and take all of your money and throw you into the river?”

He got a sheepish look on his face, stammered a bit, and said, “Uh, it is probably best that I call a cab.”

“David,” I said, “this is not New York City, and not everyone is out to take you. I have just spent two hours with you after I accepted your money and could have just let you work out your own transpor-

tation problems! You can wait another hour for a suburban cab to make its way out here and spend another thirty dol-lars for a ride to get to the bus station, or you can come with me and make it easy on yourself. Your choice.”

He pondered it for about ten seconds and then hopped into the truck. On the way downtown, he explained that his parents were diplomats and that he had lived in several foreign countries grow-ing up. Now he was living in the big and impersonal New York City, where being taken advantage of seemed to be the normal way of life.

Well, you can see the picture of him on his way into the bus station and back to the Big Apple. I wished him well and headed home. After about two weeks, I checked with the store-and-lock and confirmed that the bike had been picked up. I never heard another word from him. I trust he is zooming around the streets of New York and having a ball. However, I can never shake the thought that maybe the streets of New York City are a lot meaner than the streets of Grove City, Ohio. l

32 JUNE / JULY 2016


march fourth found me on the road, heading to the Destination Eustis Bike Show and Swap meet. It felt weird for me to be driving a truck instead of

riding a bike, but this year I was trying to see if having a booth and selling books would be worthwhile, and hauling a few cases of books required something a little bigger than my CB350.

Arriving at the Lake County Fair Grounds about midday, I found several other VJMC members already hard at work setting up for the bike show portion that the club would be hosting. The Vintage Motorcycle Alliance would be taking care of the outside vendors and swap meet. This arrangement has worked well over the last couple of years, making this event a must-see for many attending Daytona Bike Week, just forty-five minutes away via beautiful and uncrowded country roads.

I joined in hanging banners, as a few bikes started arriving for the show and the process of checking them in got underway. After the club stuff was set up, I took some time to arrange my booth beside the other bike show vendors, before wandering around the grounds looking for shots of interesting stuff for sale in the swap meet area outside.

As afternoon faded into evening the warm weather continued and we were spared the frigid nights we had over the last few times, where sleeping in tents or trailers meant contending with frosty temperatures. Club members gathered in the large bike show building as pizzas arrived to be shared over conversation, jokes, and good-natured ribbing. These get-togethers have to be one of the best benefits to club membership as the camaraderie among VJMC members is always a highlight of our events.

The next day, vintage motorcycles started to show up in earnest, and the VJMC team got them registered and lined up for the show. While bad weather in the Midwest kept a good number of bikes from making it to Florida, the show still had a large quantity of unique bikes, both beautifully restored and in survivor condi-tion. I spent most of my time at my booth, between photography duties among the gathered show bikes and the varied offerings of the swap meet, almost mute, as my voice had disappeared in the night. The voting began by midday, and the floor came alive with spectators, pencils and ballots in hand, wandering among the rows of vintage bikes. Late afternoon saw all involved gathered at the front of the exhibition hall in anticipation of seeing who walked away with top honors. (Please see sidebar on page 35 for results.)

The crowds dispersed after the awards, while VJMC members either walked or drove across the road for another evening of food and fun at Stavros restaurant, which is quickly becoming club members’ favorite eatery in the area. After being fully satisfied with food, drink, and conversation, we all wandered off to our vari-ous accommodations for a final good night’s rest.

Sunday morning brought warm, sunny weather, and doughnuts and coffee cour-tesy of the Vintage Motorcycle Alliance as everyone gathered for the group ride through the surrounding area for the final gathering of the weekend before every-one said goodbye and headed home or on to Daytona Bike Week. l

HISTORY

Destination Eustis Bike Show & Swap Meet


EVENT

top:riders heading out on sunday’s group ride

bottom: Best of show winner, Mike Montague, with his 900z1


best of shoW MIkE MonTAguE 1975 kAwAsAkI 900Z1-B hoNDa1st pLacE JiM atcHisoN 1976 HoNDa cB550F2ND pLacE DaViD HaMMEr 1979 HoNDa cBX

KaWasaKi1st pLacE MicHaEL ENNis 1972 KawasaKi H2 7502ND pLacE JacK wEaVEr 1973 KawasaKi H1

suZuKi1st pLacE DaViD parYzEK 1968 sUzUKi tc305 LarEDo2ND pLacE MiKE LaroE 1968 sUzUKi t500

yamaha1st pLacE JoHN caHVEs 1979 YaMaHa Xs750F2ND pLacE MarK aDaMs 1977 YaMaHa Xs750 2D tripLE

JaPaNese Pre-19691st pLacE Bo BraDsHaw 1967 HoNDa cL125a2ND pLacE gorDoN Bass 1966 HoNDa cL77

competitioN1st pLacE stEVE gaUDiNg 1977 YaMaHa Yz80 FLat tracKEr2ND pLacE KEitH wYNN 1971 HoDaKa acE 100Bt

surViVor1st pLacE oBis BrEa 1976 HoNDa Mt2502ND pLacE NorMaN sMitH 1966 HoNDa cB160

café racer, japaNese1st pLacE toBY JoNEs 1975 HoNDa cB200t2ND pLacE ED coNNor 1971 HoNDa cB450/500t

café racer1st pLacE toBY JoNEs 1965 Bsa LigHtNiNg

miNi/scooter1st pLacE MarK aDaMs 1972 iNDiaN MMsa2ND pLacE tED LaNgLEY 1970 HoNDa Qa50

custom/special1st pLacE KEN wogaMaN 1978 HoNDa gL1000 cUstoM2ND pLacE FLoYD FiNcH 1981 HoNDa cM400E

aMeriCaN ViNtage, Pre-19461st pLacE stEVE KLiEN 1908 tHor MoDEL 72ND plACE sTEvE klIEn 1914 HARlEy-DAvIDson 11-F

americaN ViNtage, 1946+1st pLacE BiLL tripLEtt 1951 wHizzEr sportsMaN2ND pLacE BiLL tripLEtt 1952 wHizzEr aMBassaDor

british1st pLacE MarK BroMELY 1973 triUMpH X75 HUrricaNE2ND pLacE JaMEs sMitH 2010 roYaL ENFiELD MiLitarY rEpLicaeuropeaN1st pLacE MiKE LaroE 1971 MV aUgUsta 400 racE rEpLica2ND pLacE FrED KoLMaN 1974 HErcULEs waNKEL

hoNorable meNtioNroDNEY trEDow 1967 HoNDa cL90 scraMBLErFrED prUDHoMME 1951 iNDiaN BraVE FLat tracKEr

2016 DestiNatioN eustis WiNNers

36 JUNE / JULY 2016

far right:a nice mouse house

Near right:carbs full of varnish

beloW:Finished bike,

December 2015


i grew up riding mini-bikes and mo-torcycles on the farm with my broth-

er and father. Our first mini-bike was a Honda 50, then we graduated to a 90, then a KZ400, and then a Honda Nighthawk 750. We also had snowmo-biles, and three-wheelers. We learned to maintain and repair these “toys,” as well as the farm equipment, from Dad. It was great!

Many years later, a friend of mine had a 1997 Suzuki Savage that needed en-gine work, so I bought it and repaired it. It’s a nice ride, and now it’s a bobber, but that’s another story for a different forum. (It’s not a vintage bike.) As luck would have it, a second friend heard about the Savage and said, “You should have bought my motorcycle; it’s a 1966 Suzuki T20 with 1800 miles.” I looked at a couple of pictures, borrowed a truck from a friend, and bought it in October of 2014.

I was very lucky that it had been stored inside for most of its life, so it was in pretty good shape. The mice that were living in it appreciated the indoor stor-age also! When I got it, the first thing that struck me was the rear tail light. It still had a parking sticker on it from the University of Illinois, dated December 1971!

Although it was in good shape for a fif-ty year old bike, a complete restoration was in order. I disassembled it down to the frame and checked everything. The frame and all painted parts were cleaned and taken to Like New Parts in Pekin, Illinois for powder coating. Har-ley did a great job helping me find the right colors, and the parts looked great when he finished! All of the chrome parts were cleaned and taken to Quality Plating in Sterling, Illinois. Gary did a great job with all of the chrome parts.

Many of the parts were re-usable, but

by Michael Hasselbusch / [email protected]

PROJECT BIKE

1966 Suzuki T20 Restoration

I did replace the handlebars, brake and clutch levers, cables, tail light, petcock, spokes, various rubber pieces, various bolts and nuts, and the seat cover (but keeping all of the old pieces). The wheel bearings, tires, and tubes had already been replaced by the previous owner and checked out fine. The engine was free and had good compression, so I left it alone—not surprising with only 1800 miles on the odometer. All told, it took me about two hundred hours to disas-semble, restore, and reassemble it, plus a few more hours finding parts online.

I finally got it running, about one year after I started the project, in December, 2015, but it wouldn’t idle below 3000 rpm, so I disassembled and cleaned the carbs again. This helped a little, but it still wouldn’t idle. My father-in-law happened to stop by a couple of days later (He’s worked on cars, trucks, and tractors his whole life and is a very good mechanic.) and told me that it just need-ed to run for a while. “Put it on the stand with some Seafoam in the tank and run it for about thirty minutes. It just needs to get some air and fuel through it after all these years.” He was right. The idle

top:initial condition,october 2014

bottom:Various parts showing rust and corrosion

settled down to about 1500 after about thirty minutes, and I took it for its in-augural ride. It ran a little rough, but I was smiling ear to ear! When I got back, it just took a few tweaks on the carbs to get it running like new. l

38 JUNE / JULY 2016

camping across the border in canada


COVER STORY

by Nick Miramontes / [email protected]

photos by Buddy Wilinski / [email protected], Nick Krusick / [email protected], Steve Kowal, and Nick Miramontes

so we’re burning down Queens Highway, and all of a sudden my temperamental CL stops firing on one side. Fearing the worst, I coax her to the side and assess

the situation. It was bad, and worse yet, as I pull the spark plug I notice it had seized to the Heli-Coil—a mess of slag and bad news for a trip already fraught with headache.

Those of you who’ve been there know all about the trials and tribulations of vintage touring. Those who haven’t might like to know the ins-and-outs of our passion, so being a loyal member of the VJMC, I thought I’d share an adventure with everyone.

Motorcycling is a metaphor for life. A close friend of mine always told me this, and it’s not to say I never believed him, but it wasn’t until now that I fully under-stood it. This was the kind of adventure where expectations didn’t match reality. This past year’s venture was definitely an escape, with unimaginable twists and turns.

If ever there was a metaphor for my life, it was to be found on the open road of North America where the joys, sorrows, distractions, and achievements of a thirty-something were found in varied abundance on the stiff vinyl of a vintage Japanese twin.

A little back story for you: I own a 1971 CL 350, having bought it two years ago off Craigslist in Milwaukee, on which I planned a ride back to my home in Los An-geles. 2014 saw my first Midwest tour, what we would come to call “Midwestward,”

the“Tale”of the Dragon

40 JUNE / JULY 2016

Stopping for lunch, we consulted a map and reluctantly decided to chomp some miles by freeway in an effort to make up lost time (mistake).

As we started our assent into the Smokies, I decided to stay behind Steve, my longtime friend who had the 305, the smallest of the bikes, just to make sure he could make the climb (my sec-ond mistake). I had not taken into con-sideration the momentum my own 350 would need as we headed toward the steep incline. Predictably, my old Hon-da started to lose power in the balmy weather, and one of the spark plugs gave out. Now stranded on the freeway, we had to change the plug quickly as traffic whipped past us.

As day three came to a close, time constraints and mechanical issues be-came a worry. Bud’s starter stopped

riding alongside a ’76 Kawasaki KZ400, ’05 Sportster, and a late-model Bonne-ville, ridden by a nephew and two close friends. Sounds simple right? This blog might convince you otherwise: www.eastforksupplyco.com/blogs/midwest-ward.

In 2015, I embarked upon the next tour with the same companions, this time with a fully rebuilt ’65 Honda Superhawk and a second bone-stock ’76 KZ 400 Craigslist find. Our goal: Milwaukee to Tennessee; a Tail of the Dragon adventure covering Canada and the Great Lakes. Along with the personal challenge of rebuilding my CL 350 engine, I also wanted to level the playing field from last year, leaving behind the convenience of “modern” bikes and instead challenging all of us to ride only vintage. We conceived the idea during the cold days of December. Time marched on, and the problems with my beloved CL multiplied in a way that only a fellow hobbyist could under-stand, to the point that our start date of June turned into late July. Since I am the only one who lives out of state, I ar-ranged to ship the bike from Los Ange-les to Milwaukee, where I had only for-ty-eight hours to complete what would turn into a total top-end rebuild.

Life isn’t always about making the smartest decisions, but sometimes making the best of a situation. Prior to leaving, I was also facing an issue that is all too common nowadays; the compa-ny I was with went through restructure. So, now two weeks before I was sched-uled to leave, I found myself without a job. Too late to let life take me down now, I stayed the course and kept to our schedule. I boarded a plane and headed out. It’s not often TSA agents see a valve head in carry-on.

Arriving the following morning, my companions and I worked against the clock, knowing we still had to prep a few things on all the bikes. In typical Midwestward fashion, we did it all with only four hours to sleep before take-off.

Packing up that morning and getting the classic family and friends send off, we were completely uncertain of what

we were about to face. It seemed fitting that about twenty minutes into our trip we witnessed a rear tire blowout from a RV—an ominous start.

Not far into Illinois, something wasn’t quite right with the CL. I let her cool down and noticed she was running lean—time to pull the carbs, check float bowls, and reassemble. This reflected neglect on my part; I really didn’t have ample time to test and ride before we set out. Companions who are both patient and capable are essential to any motor-cycle journey; it can mean the differ-ence between a long stressful trip or an enjoyable one.

Two hours later, we were back on the road in beautiful Indiana, the land of “nothing,” heading directly into a storm. Our clear day turned into a rainy night as we struggled to find camp, and doubling-back to a hotel instead. Hun-gry for local fare, we inquired into Uber but the concierge returned an empty stare; such luxuries hadn’t quite made it there.

Day two started with bike checks and a quick, complimentary breakfast. Indi-ana was like riding on a treadmill with the same tree passing over and over, but it finally gave way to Kentucky and a dry county—no beer while camping, but we’d manage. On day three, we were all a bit grumpy and looking for a few twists in the road to get our adren-aline going and our spirits up. Some locals told us of better routes into the mountains, and we headed south.

aboVe & top right:Days 1 & 2

right & beloW

Freeway breakdown


working, turning his forty year old KZ into a kick-start. Determined to enjoy this trip, regardless, we spent a much needed night of rest in Daniel Boone National Forest. A morning’s dip in Laurel River Lake left us refreshed and prepared to tackle the problems we had yet to solve, after taking the time to skip rocks and goof off a little.

A short distance and a carb issue later, we pulled into a laundromat to get out of the rain and re-jet. By the time our delivery pizza arrived, we decided to look for a motorcycle shop in Knoxville.

We spent the next several hours in a Honda dealership lot dealing with fork oil and electrical and carb issues. This down time and diligence of us parking lot mechanics attracted the best type of people. Locals interested in our la-bors wanted to chat and share advice, and one gentleman in particular told us about a local café, “Time Warp Tea Room,” where we would have to check out their weekly vintage night, which happened to be on this very day—very serendipitous. Closing our parking lot

shop, we were welcomed with open arms, kind words, and a free meal by our fellow enthusiasts at the café, one of whom also found us a place to stay for the night. It’s great how, with an open mind and a positive attitude, things sometimes work out when you least ex-pect it.

The directions we were given were tinged with local flavor, and we set out as the rain and thunder started. We found our way to an incredible farmhouse, where two of the nicest people, Phillip and his son, Ken, were waiting for us in the driveway with their doors open and a beer in hand. It was like meeting old friends. He offered us many options for sleeping, even a room in his own home, however, we elected to sleep in the ga-rage, as there was not room for all four of us to enjoy the comforts of home. The real surprise was when he rolled up his garage door and we feasted our eyes on every tool imaginable, along with the freedom to use whatever we’d like. We stayed up late talking bikes, adventures, and life itself, along with doing some

general maintenance. It was amazing to enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded people. We were very fortunate to have met them, and they really affirmed the old Honda slogan, “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.”

We awoke with the sun and got some last minute tips from our gracious hosts before we headed out to meet the Drag-on. Only a mile later, Buddy snapped his clutch cable. It shouldn’t have been an issue, except that my young com-

aboVe & top:Laurel river Lake

beloW:the time warptea room

right:our motel

for the night

beloW:our hosts

Ken & phill

42 JUNE / JULY 2016

Mountains relaxed some of the feelings we all had been harboring the past few days. Gazing out over the misty forests of the Appalachians, I realized that if we kept our spirits up and stayed to-gether we’d make it, no matter what.

West Virginia greeted us with a se-cluded campground where we munched some local pizza, keeping a sharp look out for bears, as we were warned to do, while we planned the next day’s route to Niagara.

The next day introduced us to quaint Amish farmlands and forgotten steel towns while we navigated back-roads through Ohio and Pennsylvania, areas neglected by time and modernization.

The following morning found us at “the best donut shop” this side of the

aboVe:on the road to the tail of the Dragon

right:riding the tail

beloW:Nick K. documenting our trip

aboVe:Blazing through the appalachian Mountains

Along this road are photographers who snap pictures of bikers as an online attraction. In an effort to locate Buddy, I stopped at each and was surprised to find an image of him along each point, showing that he had actually gone the whole route and passed our checkpoint somehow. Glad that I wasn’t searching for skid-marks, I was never-the-less irked that our companion decided to bypass us without concern, in a way that might be expected from the young-est member of our party.

Now, although our plan was to head north after a quick lunch, we reluctant-ly circled back to return the gas can, knowing we had no time to spare if we were going to make it to Canada.

Sometimes it’s hard to travel with companions, and tensions were high as we headed north without a real game plan. Seeing Steve booming at eighty mph on his ’65 into the Appalachian

panion had left his spare at home.In one last act of kindness, Phill de-

livered a cable to us after we called for directions to the nearest shop.

We headed off. I could tell Bud was nervous about what was a solid jerry rig, I don’t blame him; I would’ve been, too, but he also seemed distracted. Honest-ly, the locals’ warnings about the seri-ousness of this road got to me, as well. We all stopped at the entrance to US 129 at the Tail of the Dragon, and I told them we would meet at Deal’s Gap and that we should all go at our own pace, and most importantly, “Enjoy the ride.”

A short jaunt to where the Tail begins, and I was smiling ear-to-ear, amazed by the tight, big sweeping hairpin turns and challenging grades, the road fully living up to the warnings of the locals. The 350 tackled it incredibly well, and I could see Steve and Nick were blissfully sharing in my sentiment as we waited for the last man at our check point at Deal’s Gap.

Twenty minutes passed with no sign of Bud, so without hesitation, I head-ed back, the old 350 burning hot along this busy road. Having given my fuel situation no thought, I was dismayed to feel the bike sputtering to a halt at about the point we started the Tail, still not having found my fellow compan-ion. Flagging down some passing riders (Canadians are kind to a fault), I was able to hitch a ride on the back of one of their Victory motorcycles in an effort to find a gas station and hoping my oth-er companions would see the note I left on my Honda that simply read, “OUT OF GAS, F@*(! DIDN’T FIND BUD, F@*(! Be right back!” Three miles and a borrowed can of fuel later, the selfless Canadians brought me back to my dry twin, and I set off again.


Mississippi in some old pottery town in Pennsylvania, where our presence gathered the attention of throngs of lo-cals who were enamored by our vintage bikes and the distance we had brought them thus far. One of them, a Viet-nam vet who had revisited a staple of his youth by taking up the hobby upon his return, gifted us with a Honda new old stock points set, surprising all of us with his generosity.

A brief stop at the tourist trap that is Niagara Falls left me a bit frustrated, but once at the water’s edge the falls never disappoint, and after a quick pho-to op, we set our sights on crossing into Canada, where we were to find the bor-der crossing less difficult than what our

research had led us to expect.Entering into Canada as night fell, we

found ourselves without lodging and no cellphone service, making naviga-tion difficult, but the Tim Hortons that dot Canadian roadways always provide a good opportunity for hot cups of cof-fee and information. Eventually, we abandoned our efforts to find a proper place to stay for the night and, instead, took the advice of the locals and bedded down at a nearby stock car track.

Feeling the urgency of our timeta-ble, we burned west through Canada on our way to Michigan, motivated by our nearness to our destination. We had our troubles behind us, having ad-dressed several issues both mechanical and personal and counted ourselves lucky that our over forty-year-old bikes still faithfully ran.

As any professional and hobbyist alike would know, these bikes come with many unknown or unseen re-pairs, fixes, and solutions to problems as they are bought and sold throughout the years. A very common valve repair is a heli-coil, sometimes not easy to

aboVe & left:sightseeing in west Virginia

far right:Donuts and gifts in pennsylvania

left & beloW:a quaint campground in west Virginia

44 JUNE / JULY 2016

spot on worn-in valve heads. Between the long, ever changing landscapes, ex-treme heat and humidity, along with short down times, it should come as no surprise that this old 350 had surpassed its heat tolerance, and it was only a matter of time before the number two plug would seize itself to the heli-coil insert. As I nursed the CL down the Queens highway, I feared this could be the end of a trip marked with too many

Niagara Fallsand other sightsaround canada


starts and stops. Our chances of a quick resolution diminished as it was both a Sunday and a Canadian holiday.

Steve and I headed into town on two running bikes hoping to find a shop that catered to unprepared adventurers such as us. For all of our problems, luck was still on our side, as we had the good fortune of finding an auto parts store that happened to have a plug thread insert kit in stock. Undeterred by the prospect of yet another roadside repair, I struggled to bring new life to this al-ready taxed CL engine.

Despite all of our delays and break-

downs, we had made up enough time that we were only a day behind sched-ule, and Michigan was rapidly ap-proaching. Having no control over the weather, we were forced to find shelter just after the Canadian border; it’s fun-ny how fast hotels book up during a rainstorm. Unfortunately, our plan to tour the scenic wooded roads of Mich-igan’s UP had to be cut short, and we were forced to burn our way directly west to a ferry that would take us across Lake Michigan and into Milwaukee, only to be put on stand-by when we ar-rived at port.

Alas, the final whistle blew, and we all got on, strapped down the bikes, and as we rested topside, finding our worn and weary bodies starting to relax after nine days, the rolling nature of water travel provided a stark contrast to the

Local pit stops in Michiigan

Mileage before and after

46 JUNE / JULY 2016

jarring ride we had experienced.Through sacrifice, good fortune, and determination, we

managed to finish our journey on schedule, despite the set-backs, distractions, and detours along the way, a metaphor for life if there ever was one.

We were over 2,300 miles wiser and had a collective ap-preciation of the time and tribulations spent on the road. A few days after the trip, Buddy revealed the source of his dis-traction. While on the road he got news that his girlfriend was pregnant, and he would be a father—proof that around every turn adventure is waiting.

I thank everyone who made this past year’s trip possible and those who helped us along the way. I encourage any-one interested in doing a motorcycle trip to go for it, and as much as you plan, remember there will always be things that are unpredictable. Embrace them and look forward to the challenges ahead. If you are considering a trip like this, you should understand that these vintage tours don’t just happen. The bike is not going to take you there on its own; it is just as much of a challenge to your own will as it is a challenge to your aging bike. Accept whatever comes along, earning the adventure on the way. This is life; on two legs or two wheels, the comparisons are uncanny, from the mundane of everyday life to the two-week adventures, we all experience it one moment at a time. l


extra CS3-B tank and rack and three-ring binder three days later, and Mike had a chance to go through all the ma-terial in the binder while waiting for the bike to arrive. All the information in the binder and photos showed just how much love had been showered on this little bike, and it was a lot! Melvin, the former owner, really devoted a lot of time and energy to bringing this little bike up to like-new condition, taking it all the way down to the frame to clean and paint every part that needed it, re-placing everything that was worn out or too stained or rusted, and taking pho-tos of all the work being done to make it new again. Everything was document-ed in the photos on a thumb drive that came with the binder and extra parts. The restoration was finished in 2010, and the little CS3-B only had 165 miles on the rebuilt motor since then—Mel-vin had finished the project just in time. He ended up beginning his fight against cancer shortly after finishing the little bike and finally lost the battle in No-vember of 2015.

Toward the end of January, 2016, Mel-vin’s widow finally decided it was time to pass the CS3-B on to someone who would hopefully get as much pleasure

owning it as Melvin had. The photos on the thumb drive showed a smiling Mel-vin on the little bike when he had just ac-quired it, Melvin on it when the rebuild was complete, and another after he in-stalled the ,69 YCS-1 tank and seat—he had a big smile on his face in all three photos. Melvin liked his CS3-B so much that one of the photos was taken of him on it in his house. Thanks, Melvin; your love for this little bike shows, and Mike is proud to ride it and display it and the

Melvin, the Mail Order Bike

by V. Ardis / [email protected]

PROJECT BIKE

mike wasn’t looking for anoth-er bike when this 1971 Yamaha

CS3-B 200 caught his eye on eBay. It was while suffering through a mid-winter cold, that had him feeling particular-ly lousy and confined to home, that he happened to spot this gem while brows-ing one evening. This little bike was list-ed for a really good price, and it only had a couple of bids on it when he stumbled across it. It had been through a complete rebuild by the former owner, who kept a three-ring binder documenting all the work that he had done to this little bike, with receipts and photos of just about everything done to it and every dollar spent on it. From the description posted with the ad, it looked like he had spared no expense in his quest to restore it back to like-new condition, while wearing the tank and seat of a 1969 YCS-1 180. The pictures clearly showed his devo-tion to it, and it also came with a spare CS3-B tank painted to match and a cus-tom-built rear rack. That’s when Mike decided to bid on it—and won it! After two days of sweating while the clock ran down and the auction ended, it was his!

Next came the interesting part—get-ting it shipped from Florida to Wash-ington State. That part turned out to be fairly easy using U-Ship.com, after doing a little reading about how the process worked. He posted his just-pur-chased old motorcycle and the pick-up and drop-off cities and what he wanted to pay, and then waited for the replies to roll in. It turned out that the cost for shipping it clear across the United States was going to be $600, and it was only going to take five days to get to its new home! That was pretty quick and a lot cheaper than driving to get it, so Mike accepted the bid and began waiting for his new, old bike to arrive.

In the meantime, UPS delivered the

clocKWise from top:the binder full of info by Melvin, the previous owner

Mel on the bike

the bike when it arrived

binder in tribute to your memory.Well, it turned out it took a little lon-

ger in shipping than planned. It seems that all the snow that had been falling across the country that winter screwed the plans up more than a little, and shipping ended up taking five days lon-ger than expected. The shipper advised Mike on the delay and all was alright. In the end, the bike detoured thru Los Angeles to get to its new home in the Pa-cific Northwest. Considering all things, it was still a pretty good deal, and the bike was delivered in great condition by Roger Swift Trucking at the rescheduled time and was brought to Mike’s drive-

way as planned. It seemed kinda small in that trailer next to the Harley it had traveled with, but it looked as good as the pictures in the ad on eBay.

Now for a word of warning to all the folks planning on using U-Ship; don’t, I repeat don’t, erase any emails from U-Ship until your item shows up. The confirmation number is in one of those emails and the shipper needs that num-ber to complete the delivery. It turned out Mike had deleted all the emails from U-Ship, thinking it was a done deal, right before the shipper arrived that day

48 JUNE / JULY 2016

left to right:Um, i don’t have the email anymore with the confirmation number

with confirmation number in hand, delivery can proceed

Unloading the new old bike with the driver

with the bike—uh-oh. It was also just about the same time that U-Ship closed for the weekend that the shipper arrived at his house—doh! After some frantic searching and phone calls to U-Ship (that went to the automated after-hours voicemail system) and to the shipping company, Mike was finally able to find on his computer the important email that had the confirmation number for the shipper and was able to complete the transaction and take delivery of his bike. There were a few moments where it looked like the driver was going to have load the bike back into the trailer and drive away with it until that confir-mation number was found.

Then it was time to start it up and go for a ride! That took a little longer, as it had not only gotten dark while settling up with the shipper, but it turned out the battery was dead and the gas smelled bad. Shining a flashlight into the YCS-1 180 gas tank showed the gas was bad, and the tank and carbs needed to be drained. After hooking up a jumper box

to confirm that the little bike had spark and then popping the fuel lines off and rerouting them into a bucket to drain the tank, it was time to put it to bed for the night under the waterproof cover that came in the UPS package of extras items and to wait for tomorrow to get a new battery and gas her up.

The next day, Mike stopped by the lo-cal motorcycle shop and picked up a new battery for his new vintage classic and some fresh high octane gas. After drain-ing the carbs, hooking up the fuel lines, adding gas, and installing the battery, it was time to set the choke and push the starter button and see what would happen—it fired right up and sounded great! Five minutes later I got a text and a photo of his new, old bike running in Mike’s driveway. Forty-five minutes lat-er, Mike was pulling up at my place on his new, old bike with a huge smile on his face—kind of a perma-grin.

He was so pleased with his new bike, he rode it over with no license plate on it! The Florida collector plate didn’t come

with the bike, and in his excitement to test ride it, Mike overlooked that it was missing a license plate. It turned out OK, as he never saw a single police car on his ride over, but he did get a few thumbs-up from passing motorists, and later, one of the people at the licensing office when he transferred the title into his name.

The CS3-B is now in Mike’s MCM (motorcycle museum), proudly on dis-play and sure to be seen at local vin-tage events this spring and summer in the Pacific Northwest. Mike named it “Melvin the Mail Order Bike” to honor the former owner who loved that lit-tle bike in a way I’m sure most of the readers know and understand. If you happen to see this little Yamaha at an event this summer, look for its owner, Mike, wearing his VJMC T-shirt. He should be nearby and would be more than happy to talk about vintage bikes with other vintage Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts and make new friends at the same time. l


50 JUNE / JULY 2016


HISTORY

Bikes on the Beach 2016


EVENT

friday, April 29, offered fine weather for the beautiful ride from central Florida to Panama City for Field Rep Norm

Smith and myself. For those who have not had the privilege of riding it, put Florida’s US 98 as it follows beside the Gulf coast on your bucket list. It is not one to miss. As luck would have it, a few early VJMC arrivals had gotten together for a group ride and we were able to catch up with them at Mex-ico Beach, where they were stopped for lunch at Toucans on the waterfront, and ride the rest of the way into Panama City with them.

Back at Peter Slatcoff ’s place, we all gathered once again on Friday evening for a dinner of barbecue and delicious homemade treats made by Peter’s daughter, Gina. We pulled up two long tables and filled them with smiling faces and laughter as the meal and evening continued.

Up early on Saturday morning, the 30th, the VJMC crew headed over to Ron’s Kawasaki to set up for the day’s event, located on the main highway leading into Panama City Beach and the festivities at the Thunder Beach motorcycle rally that draws thousands from around the country. As the day progressed and the number of show bikes grew, many of the Thunder Beach crowd stopped on their way into town for a look at the vintage bikes lined up beside US 98.

This year, everyone agreed that the selection of bikes was unique, with a wide variety of unusual models and a few very rare bikes. One of only five factory Yamaha flat track racers was featured front and center, having been ridden by the likes of Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson, while unique models from all makers were peppered among the show. About thirty bikes made up the field of competition, all great examples from their eras.

During the show, our members had the chance to talk bikes and about the VJMC to visitors, and a couple were signed up for club membership for multiple years on the spot.

After the awards were handed out to the deserving recip-ients, the crew make quick work of dismantling the show and packing up. Our group had considerably grown by then and it took three tables to hold us all when we returned to Peter’s for pasta and more goodies from Gina. There were members from as far away as Louisiana and central Florida, along with locals from Panama City, Tallahassee, and other panhandle towns in the mix. With everyone full, the con-versation and camaraderie went on well into the evening, augmented by the sound of laughter.

Special thanks go out to our Events Coordinator, Peter

best of shoW DaViD parYzEK 1968 sUzUKi tc305 LarEDo

yamaha1st pLacE JacK praNzaroNE 1973 YaMaHa rt3602ND pLacE gorDoN East 1973 YaMaHa Dt3

KaWasaKi1st pLacE ritcHiE HUFFaKEr 1972 KawasaKi H2 7502ND pLacE JaMEs MooN 1974 KawasaKi H2

suZuKi1st pLacE JaMEs MooN 1976 sUzUKi gt500

hoNDa1st pLacE gEorgE casE 1970 HoNDa cB750K2ND pLacE JacK KYLE 1980 HoNDa cB 750K

JaPaNese Pre-19691st pLacE gorDoN Bass 1964 HoNDa cL722ND pLacE KEN cUMBUs 1967 HoNDa cL90

JaPaNese 1981-19961st pLacE JacK KYLE 1982 HoNDa cB 900F

scooter1st pLacE patsY MEEKs 1996 HoNDa HELiX

competitioN1st pLacE JaY LacEY YaMaHa ow722ND pLacE stEVE gaUDiNg 1977 YaMaHa Yz80

moDerN classic1st pLacE cHarLEs ostarLY 2010 HoNDa rs750

surViVor1st pLacE stEVE gaUDiNg 1972 YaMaHa Ds7

americaN iroN1st plACE DAvID pARyZEk 1967 H-D AERoMACHI spRInT2ND pLacE gorDoN Bass 1947 iNDiaN cHiEF

british1st pLacE craig BoLaND 1970 Bsa tHUNDErBoLt

europeaN1st pLacE JacK Kipp 1950 aDLEr M1002ND pLacE stEVE gaUDiNg 1973, BULtaco sHErpa t

2016 biKes oN the beach shoW WiNNers

Slatcoff, who opened his home to us and organized the event. And many thanks to Ron’s Kawasaki for once more hosting the show. I would also like to thank Norm Smith for his compan-ionship on the long ride to Panama City, over 400 miles from his home. It was a pleasure meeting everyone and making new friendships I know will be rekindled at future events. l

52 JUNE / JULY 2016


in October of 2015, I attended a motorcycle auction around 200 miles southwest of Kansas City. One reason I went was to see a really rare motorcycle, a 1913

Cyclone. There are an estimated three to seven Cyclones which are known to exist, and this bike was alleged to be one of the most original. The bids on the motorcycle got up to $650,000, but that figure did not meet the owner’s reserve. A Cyclone sold for $775,000 at an auction several years ago.

The auction also featured quite a few collectible vintage Japanese motorcycles. A nice ,73 Honda SL175 sold for $1,200, and a really rare 1962 (pre-US import) Ka-wasaki 125 went for $750. Both sold for well under their typical market value. The Kawasaki had “Kawasaki Aircraft” logos on the tank, and the bike was essentially complete. The Honda was so clean that only very minor refurbishing would have been needed to make it a show bike. There were approximately ninety-seven mo-torcycles in the auction, which included around thirty collectible Japanese bikes. All the Japanese motorcycles were vintage, except for a Kawasaki KE100 dirt bike, which was approximately fifteen years old but was essentially a “new” motorcycle. It had around 200 miles on the odometer and sold for $1,000. In all, it was a fun event with around 150 attendees.

Another reason I attended the event was to see how hard it would be to find distant VJMC members outside my regular circle of involvement. I had heard that the auction would include a respectable number of vintage Japanese motorcycles and assumed that there would certainly be other VJMC members in attendance, as well. I wanted to find other club members to see what was going on with VJMC in their areas or with vintage Japanese bikes in general.

Once I entered the building, I approached the table of a large vintage motorcycle club, which was located in a nearby city. I asked the officers stationed at the table if they had any vintage Japanese motorcycle collectors in their club. They did, so I asked if any were VJMC members. They thought that some were, so I asked them to point out who they might be. They could not see any at that time but stated that they would let any members who did arrive know that a VJMC member was want-ing to connect with other VJMC club members. A week later, I spoke with one of that club’s VJMC members on a call relating to another topic. What a small world.

I then began talking to people wearing shirts with Japanese motorcycle logos on them. One of the first people I found, who was wearing a Kawasaki shirt, had been a long term VJMC member. After talking about motorcycles and the VJMC, he renewed his membership. I later saw a couple wearing Honda shirts, who also turned out to be VJMC members. They were Cindy and Wes Anderson from Perryton, Texas. They had actually brought an early Gold Wing to the event to sell. I later ran across Troy Dodge, a VJMC member from Emporia, Kansas. All in all, I came across six VJMC members and signed up two people as either new members or members renewing their VJMC membership. Both Jon Newman and Bob Troxel signed up as VJMC members at the event. Jon is from Flower Mound, Texas and Bob from Haysville, Kansas. I also came across numerous vintage Jap-anese motorcycle enthusiasts who had never heard of the VJMC and a few who had. Another interesting connection was with several students from McPherson

EVENT

Connecting with VJMC Members at Distant Motorcycle Events

ODDS & ENDS

by Mark Bayer, President KCVJMC, Kansas/Missouri Representative / [email protected]

top:a rare, vintage 1913 cycone

bottom:a rare, 1962 Kawasaki 125

54 JUNE / JULY 2016

College in McPherson, Kansas. They were following our Kansas City VJMC club and were working on degrees in motorcycle restoration. McPherson is the only college in the US which of-fers such a degree. Through that con-nection, I was able to get connected with the dean of the school and set up a potentially major “mid-state” VJMC event for 2016.

Finding, meeting, and conversing with VJMC members or just gathering with other vintage Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts can be really fun. Through my attendance at the auction, I was able to talk to at least a dozen people

who were either current VJMC mem-bers or people familiar with the VJMC. I was able to sign up two members and also get an important contact to set up a show for the following year. Through the event I was also able to set up po-tential future connections which could be valuable for VJMC or our Kansas City club. A member of the vintage motorcycle club mentioned in the sec-ond paragraph, asked me if I would be interested in communicating with vintage Japanese motorcycle enthusi-asts for the event in 2016. Certainly I would! Regarding the VJMC members at the event, Cindy and Wes Anderson, Jon Newman, Troy Dodge, Bob Troxel, and myself were able to meet and make a great connection. Hopefully, we will meet again at some future event. And finally, I was able to see a real Cyclone, one of the most valuable and collectible motorcycles known. I think you would agree that a lot was accomplished by seeking out other VJMC members at a distant event. Give it a try. l

clocKWise from top left:wes and cindy anderson

Mike Judy, wes aderson, myself, and John Newman

Bob troxel


by Jim Townsend / [email protected] & Ellis Holman / [email protected]

Tech Tip #14: Tires & Tubes

TECH HELP

ellis: Jim, now that spring has sprung, I’ve had a few folks want to know what they need for their tires. One fel-la brought his CB77 by with the origi-nal Ohatsu tires. Those tires were hard. While originality is good for a trailer queen or a museum piece, it is not so good if you intend to ride the bike on the road. Not only that, most of our bikes use tubes inside the tires. Those tubes age, as well. So it is a really good idea, if you’re going to ride our vintage bikes, to remember that old tires and tubes are not such a good idea. The hard part is deciding what tires to use. It used to be that there were a number of manufac-turers making vintage-pattern tires. If the tire pattern is of no concern, there is a wide choice in what you can run. On the other hand, if you want something that looks more like the tires that orig-inally came with the bike, that’s a little harder. You can still find vintage-pat-tern tires from Cheng Shin, IRC/Inoue, Bridgestone, and others on places like eBay. Beware of those. Even if the tire was stored properly, the tire may not be safe to ride.

jim: Well, Ellis, one thing to be aware of is that Cheng Shin stopped making

motorcycle tires three or four years ago, so all that are on the market are already that old. It is getting almost impossible to find tires with the same size designa-tion, too. Most tire makers have shifted to metric sizes that are not exact equiv-alent to the inch-size tires that most vintage bikes require. Not only that, but they are sized from the rim to the top of the tread. The first number is the width in millimeters, and the second number is the ratio of how tall the tire is. For in-stance a 100/90-18 is roughly equivalent to a 3.25 or 3.50 x 18 tire. A 120/90-18 is about equivalent to a 4.00 x 18 that a lot of older bikes used for rear tires. These are only approximations, though. It may not be possible to get the exact size tire you need.

ellis: Jim, yes, the issue of not being able to find an exact size is a bit of problem. The good news is that there are some new players out there that will enable us to get both closer to the original tire pat-terns and sizes. Heidenau Tires (http://heidenautires.com/vintage-motorcy-cle-tires/) has one of the broadest rang-es of vintage pattern tires I’ve found. For street tires they have: K31, 300-16; K33, 3.50-16 and 3.00-18; K34, 3.25-18,

3.50-18, 2.75-19, 3.00-19, 3.25-19, 3.50-19, 4.00-19; K36, 3.50-18 and 4.00-18. VeeRubber (http://www.veerubber.co.th/2013/?cat=36&cur-cat=motorcy-cle&paged=10) has a range of ribbed front tires. Their VRM-011 comes in 2.50-18, 2.75-18, and 3.25-19 sizes. An-other interesting tire that VeeRubber offers is a copy of the Dunlop TT100: the VRM-081. They also have a series of block style treads: their VRM-013, VRM-014, and VRM-015. Another tough area to find tires of the correct size is the trials-type tire for our on/off road bikes. Heidenau offers a classic pattern trials tire in three sizes: 4.00-18, 3.25-19, and 2.75-21. That covers many of the on/off road bikes. Shinko’s SR241 series trials tires cover some of the smaller bike sizes, 2.75x17 being one that’s a bit hard to find—for the Honda SL100, for example.

Besides getting a good tire on your bike is the need for a good tube. Way back when I was being taught about working on bikes, I was advised to al-ways use a tube slightly smaller than the tire it was being used in. So, for example, if the tire was a 3.00x18, I should use a 2.75x18 tube. That can sometimes be a challenge, too. A lot of manufacturers

56 JUNE / JULY 2016

have been selling tubes that are dual-sized—2.50/2.75x18—so you have to pay attention when selecting a tube for the tire. The slightly smaller tube makes it a little easier to avoid pinch-ing and getting it trapped under the tire bead. jim: Most of my training on bikes was from the school of hard knocks. I never heard of putting in a size smaller tube, but it makes sense, as long as it’s only a small drop, say from 3.5 to 3.25. I have taken out wrinkled tubes that were stressed from being folded.

I don’t think we sometimes place enough emphasis on riding on good rubber. It is easy to think that a few cracks are OK, but when I was much younger a friend who was much old-er was riding an ancient Harley with a sidecar. He loaded it with a couple of his grandsons and went to a race a few miles away. I think the tires were as old as the bike, and the weath-er-checked and worn front tire blew out. The extra weight in the sidecar made the bike veer to the right, and it left the road and hit a telephone pole. The pole went between the bike and the sidecar. He went off the bike to the right and broke both legs backwards around the pole. Needless to say, he never fully recovered.

A blown tire on either end of a bike is no fun. If the back one blows, it makes the bike almost totally uncontrollable. I had a front tire blow when I crossed a very rough railroad crossing and very luckily got it under control fairly easily. If it happens to you, get as much weight off the front by scooting back on the seat and slow down as easily as possible to keep from put-ting weight on the front tire.

If your tires have weather checks and cracks, don’t tempt fate. Riding on those old tires is like playing Russian roulette. Good rubber gives you peace of mind and may extend your life a few years.

ellis: Jim, absolutely; riding a bike on old tires is just asking for trouble! There are some good options out there for new tires and tubes, so nobody needs risk riding on those old tires and tubes.

If you have a topic you want to see covered, just email ei-ther or both of us: [email protected] or [email protected]. l

JUNE 23-25

Hey members! tell us YOUr story!the best way this magazine can accurately reflect what our members are up to is if YoU tELL Us what you’re doing!

the VJMc magazine is only possible through member interaction, and we’ll pay you for it!

we pay $100 for feature stories (typically at least 2 full pages with 4 or more photos).

If your story is selected for publication, you will receive extra copies of the issue in which it appears.

send your stories and high res photos to: [email protected]

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

teXt: • .pdf, .rtf or .doc file formats • include your byline, photocaptions, and credit for the photographer

photos: • high-resolution color pictures (300dpi) • typical file size of a .jpg will be at least 500kb • 1mb - 3mb per image is preferred


by Peter Slatcoff, Vice President, Events Coordinator / [email protected]

Events CornerJUNe 17-19

south Dakota rallyHot springs, sD

JUNe 23-25VJMC National rally

Mitchell, iN

JUlY 8-10 aMa Vintage Days

Lexington, oH

JUlY 28-30VJMC Northeast rally

gettysburg, pa

august 6Midwest regional rally

New century, Ks

september West Coast rally

Location tBD

OCtOber 7-8 barber Vintage Festival

Leeds, aL

OCtOber 13-16 aimexpo

orlando, FL

NOVeMber 4-6 Florida state rally

Location tBD

December17th annual

Florida VJMC Christmas rideBrooksville, FL

upcomiNg eVeNts

EVENTS

in approximately three weeks, we will kick off the 2016 National Rally. The

event will take place at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana from June 23-25.

This year we will have a slight change in our program. For the past several months, we have been working on an update to our venerable VJMC web-site. In lieu of our normal Friday night presentation, the plan is to roll out the new website. We will share the vision behind the redesign and demonstrate its functionality, while highlighting its new features. This will be your opportunity to experience the results first-hand and contribute to future features and func-tionality. The roll out is an event you will not want to miss.

As we move into July we begin with our legacy participation at the AMA Vintage Days from July 8-10. If you find yourself at this event, be sure to visit Jim Townsend and Ellis Holman at the VJMC swap meet booth. For the nostal-gia buffs, the VJMC has been attending this event for more than twenty years. When you see Jim, ask him to share the story of the relationship of the VJMC

and AMA’s Vintage Days. In the infield, Sean Carrigan and his team will host a bike show and the legacy Mid-Ohio cookout. Please offer to help these vol-unteers out—it is always a busy time.

Following Vintage Days is our newest event—the Northeast Rally on July 28-30 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Eisenhower Conference Center will play host to our motorcycle show and three days of social activities. We have a rare opportunity to experience the history of the Battle of Gettysburg and the awe-some sights of the surrounding area.

So, if you plan to attend either rally, you need to pre-register for the event. If you need help registering, for whatever reason, please contact the Event Team at [email protected] or call 850-624-8811. There will be no provision for on-site registration because we will be too busy having fun.

Another topic I would like to share is for those who request event kits, ban-ners, and table covers. Effective May 1, 2016 all requests for banners and table covers should be directed to Sean Carri-gan at [email protected]. He will also provide you with a return shipping label

or a label directing these items to their next location. Please work with Sean as you have with me. Thank You. l

58 JUNE / JULY 2016

ADVERTISER’S SPOTLIGHT

this month’s spotlight is on Mo-to-Services, owned and operated by

Mathew Wiley. Mathew is a graduate of the American Motorcycle Institute and has been riding and repairing mo-torcycles for thirty-five years. Seeing many vintage motorcycles improperly repaired by people without training, experience or equipment has led him to offer solutions. Services include car-buretor rebuilding, brake caliper and master cylinder repair, suspension re-builds, custom steel braided brake lines, and the specialty tools, equipment, and repair parts needed to do a job correctly.

Matt is a dealer for K&L Supply Com-pany and considered their number one end-user source for hard parts, tools, and shop equipment. K&L’s catalog is available on Matt’s website, where you can find all your repair tools for engines, carburetors, electrical systems, chains, brakes, and suspension. They also offer all of your shop equipment including lifts, stands, and specialty tools. You can also find hard parts there such as clutch-es, carburetor kits, intake boots, brake kits, voltage regulators, points and con-densers, and more. However, this is just one part of Moto-Services’ business.

Component rebuilds are also a spe-cialty. With fuel injection being in use for so long, carburetor rebuilding is becoming a lost art at many shops. However, that skill is alive and well at Moto-Services. When carburetors are received in the shop, they are com-pletely disassembled, removed from the rack, soaked in special cleaning solution, then given a complete in-spection. Only the required parts are replaced, with complete costs provided up-front. Completed carbs are “wet” tested, preset for idle and fuel mixture, and returned ready to install. They can also re-jet for you, if you have changed

by Bryan Bentley, Display Ad Director / [email protected]

Moto-Services

Moto-servicesMatthew [email protected]

coNtact iNfo

exhaust or intake, when you tell them what modifications have been made.

Another great service offered is brake caliper and master cylinder rebuilding. Calipers are rebuilt with all new rubber parts, pistons replaced only if needed, and the sliders are cleaned and pol-ished to ensure proper operation. Mas-ter cylinders are also rebuilt, including honing the bore, replacing the oil res-ervoir cup if required, and even paint-ing with a special paint, if requested. This is a great time to consider replac-ing your old brake lines. Steel braided lines are custom made for most any bike, improving brake “feel” and per-formance over stock rubber lines, and

they are built to stock or your custom length request.

Suspension service is available for forks, as well as aftermarket shocks. Mathew has a ton of experience and can recommend what is best for you, help-ing your motorcycle perform the best.

You can call or email Mathew for help with your needs to make your bike per-form better and more safely. l

Mike at work surrounded by various parts for his rebuilds


CLASSIFIEDSplease Note: ads will be run for one issue only. please resubmit via the VJMc website or email if you wish an ad to run longer. also, contact our classified ads Editor, gary gadd, if your post has been fulfilled, again via the VJMc website or email ([email protected]). this will help keep our classified ads as current as possible.

a “Vintage Japanese” motorcycle is 20 years old or older and, of course, Japanese. please be aware that ads may/will be edited to conserve space. 12 lines of print will be free to club members.please be aware of publication deadlines. For an upcoming issue, ads are due by the 20th of the month of the preceeding issue’s release. For ex-ample, ads for the august/september 2016 issue are due June 20.

if you have business related ads, please consider taking out a commercial display ad. contact Bryan Bentley ([email protected]) or me for details and rate information.we can include color photos with your ad. cost is a minimal $10 per pho-to per issue. payment via paypal is available on the VJMc website. For payment by personal check or money order, please address payment to “VJMc” and send to the address below. photo ads will appear in the magazine issue following payment.garY gaDD • 3721 HoLLaND st. • Fort wortH, tX • 76180 / 817.284.8195

for sale

briDgestoNe1967 bridgestone gtr. two rolling chassis, not rusty. one has engine with no carbs. Make offer. Art, 610-838-1238, pennsylvania

hoNDa

For 1962/65 Honda trail C105t, pea shooter exhaust muffler. Also fits the C100 Cub, as well as the c100t. replace your rust-ed or damaged pea shooter with an exhaust made to the original specs. The mounting bracket is the same on all these models. give your bike a great sound and a custom look. stain-less steel, made in america, no rust problems. $270, ships free in the Us. Bob Barron, 740-546-3968, adena, ohio, [email protected]

For 1962/69 Honda Dream 305, misc. parts. Engine, trans-mission, side covers. can email photos. Dennis, 864-608-9747, greenville, south carolina, [email protected]

For 1966/69 Honda Ca/Cb/cl160, new and used parts. Nos fork tube covers. perch-es, levers, engine parts, and covers. Electrics, rear fenders, rechrome parts, cL handlebar assembly. Email me your needs, and i may have them. paul Enz, 321-268-5461, titusville, Florida, [email protected]

1967 Honda Cl77 scrambler. good running condition. Miss-ing the chain guard. $2500. russ, [email protected]

1967 Honda 450. Has Cb style exhaust. all original except seat cover and rear tire. Has the optional sheet metal for 1967/68. i am the second own-er since 1971. Runs and shifts like new. Carbs flushed, no tool kit, 14444 miles on clock. a real gem. photos and full details via snail mail or phone. $5700, will dicker some. r. a. white, 864-457-2293, campobello, south carolina.

1968 Honda Cb450 black bomber. restored, runs and rides as it should. Black and sil-

ver paint. asking $5000. Bryan, 847-922-0349, chicago, illinois, [email protected]

For Honda Cb750, vetter phan-tom Mark iV full fairing. orig-inal. could be easily adapted to other early air cooled fours. Have the hardware; it will need a windshield, which is still available from vetter. pictures emailed upon request. Mar-tin lull, 206-938-5613, seattle, washington, [email protected]

1970 Honda Cb450 K3. this bike is a survivor. only has 13491 miles and is very clean. Looks restored. previous owner stored for 20 plus years. i replaced the clutch, front brake lines, rebuilt the master cylinder and caliper. Also changed the tires and drive chain. Two new tires and 2-into-1 exhaust system. all for one price. asking $2000 obo. color is gold with a white stripe. You can email if you want pics. paul, 586-383-7650, Detroit, Michi-gan area, [email protected]

1970/80 Honda workshop manuals. 50 books, from 1970 through 1980. Most are in origi-nal binders. $35 and up. special price for all. Email for details. robert Brandner, 561-512-9399, Lake park, Florida, [email protected]

1972 Honda Xl250. Disas-sembled, good motor with carb, exhaust. $400. russ, [email protected]

For 1975/79 Honda gl1000 gold Wing, shop manual. with many tech tips from the Classic wing club. also includes 1975

Honda factory parts book. $75 shipped to coNUs. also have seat in like-new condition that will also fit 78/79 models. $250 plus $30 shipping coNUs. Butch Martin, 228-218-3061, sausier, Mississippi, [email protected]

1975 Honda gl1000 gold Wing puzzle. professionally mounted and sealed. appx 36”x24”. was a promotion given out to deal-ers in 1975. it was hanging in a Honda dealer’s office in Charles-ton, south carolina when i got it in 1994. the bike pictured is the actual prototype, not a produc-tion model. Also included with this is a 1976 gL1000 Limited sales brochure. $100 plus actual shipping Conus. Butch Martin, 228-218-3061, sausier, Missis-sippi, [email protected]

1976 Honda Cb750. all original except tank and covers paint. original color. no title. $16k original miles. $2800. Marcelo, 407-729-7408, Marietta, geor-gia, [email protected]

1976 Honda gold Wing gl1000. show quality, original and unre-stored. More info and photos athttps://1976hondagoldwin gl1000.shutterfly.com/pic-tures/10. Don, 859-609-1523, Union, Kentucky, donald [email protected]

60 JUNE / JULY 2016

CLASSIFIEDS

For Honda CbX, Cb1100F, cb900f, cb750f, parts. Large lot of Honda parts. see on www.cb1100f.net . parts are listed under cBXDog LarrY’s parts lIsT #10. Matt, 260-760-6006, Fort wayne, indiana, [email protected]

1982 Honda gl 500 silver Wing. original owner, 16K miles. al-ways garage kept, excellent condition, starts/runs well, ex-tra luggage box, original tool kit, pressure gauge, owner’s manual, plus Honda shop man-ual, maintenance records, good tires, brakes, and battery. plexi-fairing clear windshield, fork mounted. Many pictures avail-able. $2250. Jeff Anderson, 248-622-6341, [email protected]

1983 Honda CX650 turbo, fair-ing in fair condition. no cracks in the fiberglass, however there are scratches on the right side from being laid down. $300 plus shipping. also have a complete parts bike with title. ward, 253-921-2782, seattle, washington, [email protected]

1983 Honda Nighthawk Cb-750sc. Black with chrome ac-cents. All plastics and tank in excellent shape. oEM 4-into-4 exhausts replaced. recent Dun-lop Qualifier raised white letter tires. A number of engine piec-es have been chromed, engine seals were all replaced. recent complete tune up and carb re-build, shock seals, tank spigot. last time ridden on a 2900 mile trip, ran flawlessly. 36000 miles. always stored in heated base-ment over the winters. turnkey, beautiful bike. Frank giudici, 617-816-5237, Bradenton, Flor-ida or abbot, Maine, [email protected]

1984 Honda VF1100C/V65 Magna. original condition, paint not faded, pipes not scuffed. Runs good, 42000 miles. Best reasonable offer. stan Mitchell, south carolina, 864-980-5557

1989 Honda Hawk gt 650cc. show quality, original and un-restored. $5200. info & photos:https ://1989hondahawkg tn650.shutterfly.com/pictures. Don, 859-609-1523, Union, Kentucky, [email protected]

suZuKi1967 suzuki X6 Hustler. High pipes, no rust. Engine is stuck, has incorrect handlebars, has electrical issues. $1100 art, 610-838-1238, pennsylvania

1968 suzuki tC-120. recent ring job. new trials tires. poor paint and tear in seat. comes with spare exhaust, stinger type, and other spares. Might deliver part way. $800. Bill casey, 732-207-6758, Manasquan, New Jersey, [email protected]

1972 suzuki gt550. Has en-gine, frame, swing arm, air in-take parts, carbs, and more. it is also missing many parts. ti-tle included. i can text photos. Dennis, 864-608-9747, green-ville, south carolina, dennis [email protected]

1975 suzuki re5. Blue, com-plete, turns over, has some rust. originally from the chicago area. $2250. art, 610-838-1238, pennsylvania

yamaha1965 Yamaha Ya6 santa barba-ra 125cc. nice original barn find. complete, everything works, stops and starts. Have video of me riding at 50 mph. $1995, trades considered. sean Burch, 803-275-7108, south caroli-na, [email protected]

1967 Yamaha Yr1 grand Prix 350cc. A rare find consider-

ing it still has the original gloss black paint. a blast to ride and it’s quick. Everything is origi-nal. original service book that has absolutely every spec, pro-cedure, etc. Email me for pics. $2000. Joe Block, 605-868-8275, watertown, south Dako-ta, [email protected]

1968 Yamaha Yas1-C 125cc. twin cylinder, high pipe scram-bler. 5K original miles and is 99% original. Excellent condi-tion. Easy AMCA winners Circle bike. $3400 obo. contact me for details and pictures. gary, Utah, [email protected]

1972 Yamaha t100 single. Blue, 894 miles, near new appear-ance. inside of tank is dirty. $1500. art, 610-838-1238, pennsylvania

1976 Yamaha tt500. this is a tt with lights added, not an Xt. i’ve owned it since 1977. Has a mild cam upgrade, white Bros muf-fler. The upper end has been re-newed with piston, rings, valves resurfaced and modified to feed oil to both rocker shafts. great runner, needs a younger owner. $3000. richard Leonard, 517-542-4283, central Lower Mich-igan, [email protected]

1984 Yamaha XJ1100. 20000 miles. Very new looking, near perfect condition. $3300. Art, 610-838-1238, pennsylvania

For 1989 Yamaha FJ1200, parts. All body plastic, tail piece, forks, wheels, oil cooler, 2 seats, han-dle bars, fenders, footpegs, air box, exhaust, etc. will sell as a package or by the piece. Den-ny Lee thrush, 419-568-7403, wapakoneta, ohio, [email protected]

misc. for saleKeys for Honda and Yamaha. contact me via email or check my website, rustyrockets.com, for a list of keys and other items i have. Keys are $12 with free shipping. Joe Lachniet, [email protected]

1968/81 Hondas. 50 Japanese bikes, mostly Hondas, $100 each or will part out. also in-cludes 1978 gold wing engine, front wheel and fender, carb set and manifold, cooling fans, and other gw parts. Deal on whole lot. also 2 Yamaha Big bear scramblers and Yam and Honda mopeds. Lots of seats and side covers. For cB750. gas tanks. For Bridgestone 100/150 seat, very nice, $100. Dream and su-per Hawk frames with attached fenders, electrics, wheels, etc. 1965 Honda Dream engine 150 cc, $100. ask for prices or deal on large or whole lot. Lo-cated near rhinebeck, New York aMc super meet site. this stuff has to go. ken krauer, 845-266-3363, salt point, New York, [email protected]

WaNteD

hoNDaFor 1959/64 Honda Cb92, steering damper plastic knob and a gas tank rubber knee pad. new, reproduction, or used in good condition. steve pearl, 619-843-6393, san Di-ego, california, ntmprls1@ cox.net

1972 Honda Z50 K3. Looking for excellent original bike in candy gold color. would like to find an original paint bike. sean Mor-phew, 562-698-7484, whittier, california, [email protected]

1975/77 Honda Cb400F. Look-ing for a really nice original (preferred) or restored 400F. Bob, 515-554-4016, Urbandale, iowa, [email protected]

KaWasaKi1958/66 Kawasaki Pet b53 m5. seeking a step thru model from the early 60s. Usually ma-

Visit us online!Join or renew @www.vjmc.org

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX


roon/cranberry color with grey leg shields. complete non-run-ners oK. tom, 770-427-4820, atlanta, georgia, [email protected]

1973/76 Kawasaki 900. Looking for an original z1. John stro-bel, 734-709-5448, california, [email protected]

suZuKi1976/77 suzuki gt750. Looking for a or B model in great me-chanical shape. some mods oK, no windjammer. planning on route 66 trip with son. Don’t need a museum piece but want a nice bike. rebuilt and resealed correctly preferred. Bradley otto, 313-550-4271, southeast-ern Michigan, [email protected]

ADVERTISERS APPEARING IN THIS ISSUE:

Acme Zoom (Mule Pack Panniers) ...............................................18

AHRMA .........................................................................................54

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum ........................................28

Buchanan’s Spoke and Rim ..........................................................11

Buzzzzz Rag ..................................................................................46

CMSNL ..........................................................................................64

David Silver Spares .......................................................................63

Diamond Gusset Company ..........................................................46

Dime City Cycles ...........................................................................52

Gasolina Boots .............................................................................54

Hagon Shocks ...............................................................................48

Honda Restoration .......................................................................55

J Wood and Company ..................................................................12

JDV Products/Vessel.....................................................................23

Jess Bikes ......................................................................................18

Johnny’s Vintage Motorcycles .....................................................19

KSM-Hagerty ...............................................................................20

LeMay America’s Car Museum ....................................................19

Marbles Motors ...........................................................................45

MikeXS, Inc. . ................................................................................44

Motorcycle Yamiya 750 ...............................................................16

Moto-Services ..............................................................................21

National Motorcycle Museum .....................................................10

Nor’Easter Blastworx .....................................................................4

NOS Parts Now ............................................................................35

Paul Miller Motorcycles ...............................................................35

Precision Motorcycle Painting .....................................................45

Rick’s Motorsport Electrics, Inc. ..................................................29

RJ Cycle .........................................................................................55

Schmitt Mulhern, LLC ...................................................................24

Spacecoast Plating .......................................................................49

Speed and Sport Yamaha ...............................................................8

Vapor Honing Technologies ................................................... 30-31

Vintage Suspension (Race Tech) ..................................................49

Western Hills Honda ....................................................................46

Workshop Hero ..............................................................................2

Yamaha Powersports Division .....................................................34

misc. WaNteDDealer memorabilia. collector seeks 1950’s-1980’s Japanese dealership items including ban-ners, signs, ashtrays, lighters, hats, clocks, promos, etc. rare, weird, and old is good. tom Ko-lenko, 770-427-4820, atlanta, georgia

Honda CbX 1000cc 6 cyl memo-rabilia for museum and the “cBX Book” I am presently writing. any brochures, adverts, post-ers, owner’s manual, workshop manual, set-up manual, toys/models, old photos, etc. related to the 1979-1972 cBX. also pe-riod aftermarket fairings/body-work. Let me know what you have and how much you need! thanks. ian, 626-444-9358, cal-ifornia, [email protected] l

• NOT ENOUGH VINTAGE RIDES in your area?

• NOT ENOUGH VINTAGE BIKE SHOWS in your area?

• NOT ENOUGH VINTAGE TECHNICAL EVENTS in your area?

• MISSING OUT ON International Motorcycle Showparticipation and other major events in your area?

• MISSING OUT ON weekly or monthly “Vintage Bike Nights” in your area?

• NOT SURE OF the VJMC members in your area or how many are missing the same things?

Our experienced team will provide you with membership listings and MENTORING to get you started. We’ll HELP you with that first invitation all the way though planning and holding your member events. CONTACT any of our Directors

and let them know that you want more from your VJMC. One of our board members will answer your questions and start the process.

www.vjmc.org/officers.shtml

. org

YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU!STEP UP AND BECOME A

VJMC FIELD REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!

SHORT SLEEVE T SHIRTS:• White 100% cotton, printed front & back, Available in sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL .................................................................... $15• Gray 100% cotton, 35th Anniversary shirts, Available in sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL................................................................. $15

POLO SHIRTS:• Black, red, or white embroidered with club name & logo on left chest in 100% cotton• Available in M, L, XL, 2XL

• Available in 4”, 8” 12”

......................................................................................................................................................... $25

HATS• Black or Gray, cotton, baseball style with embroidered club name & logo ................................................................................. $15• Red cotton “TEAM VJMC” embroidered baseball style ............................................................................................................ $15

CLUB MEDALLIONS:• White/black or Black/Gold metal with 1/4” top tab mounting hole ............................................................................................ $10

DRINK KOZEE:• Red foam with white club name & logo screenprinted .......................................................................................................... $1.50

KEYCHAIN:• White soft vinyl with club name & logo screenprinted fastened to chrome ring ......................................................................... $1

VJMC PIN .................................................................................................................................................................................... $7

NEW VJMC CIRCLE DECALS .......................................................................................................................................................4”.......................................................................................................................................................8”.....................................................................................................................................................12”

$3$7

$20

VJMC REGALIA ORDER FORM

You can also order online: VJMC.ORG/STORE

Quantity Item Description Size Price Total

Shipping Charges $

SEND YOUR ORDER TO: Tom Kolenko • 2445 Elmhurst Blvd. • Kennesaw, GA 30152 Questions?: [email protected]

Address:Name:Ship to:

Add shipping and handling costs to your order:• All items sent U.S. Priority Mail with

item and $4 each for additional items for USA only.

• Canadian orders multiply U.S. Mail rate by 1.5 to determine S&H charges.

Enclosed is my check or money order made out to “VJMC” for the total of $

City, State, Zip Code:

the“Tale”of the Dragon · The Board of Directors wishes to thank long time Field Rep Ambrose...

Documents

Transcript of the“Tale”of the Dragon · The Board of Directors wishes to thank long time Field Rep Ambrose...