Vintage Motorcycle – Page 2 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

ExNotes Long Term Test: Oxilam LED Headlight Bulb

By Joe Gresh

As you’ll recall from the Oxilam headlight review we published on ExhaustNotes a while back, I loved the thing. It gave a much brighter view at night and the light source was positioned in the correct spot for the reflector on the ZRX1100 Lawsonsaki. Low beam was wide and had a sharp cutoff so as to not blind oncoming drivers, and high beam lit up the dark New Mexico roads nicely.

Unfortunately. the bulb burned out on my bike after only 3000 miles. Considering the original halogen bulb lasted 35,000 miles, 24 years, and was still going strong, I was disappointed.

Taking the bulb apart revealed a neatly constructed circuit board, a cooling fan, heat transferring grease to the large aluminum heat sink, and broken solder connections at the main board/plug connector junction.

The board connections are tiny and I may try to re-solder the connections (there are four of them broken: two on either side of the circuit board) but I don’t hold out much hope.

The Oxilam kit came with two bulbs, and I’ll pop the other one in to see if my failure was just a fluke. I do like the quantity of light produced and riding with a plain old halogen seems dark now.

My new, revised rating on the Oxilam LED headlights is: Don’t buy them just yet. Wait until the second Oxilam has proved itself for 24 years. I’ll be sure to report back here if I’m still alive.

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Shinya Kimura at the Harley Museum

By Joe Berk

Astute readers will remember our post on Shinya Kimura, an artist who works with metal and motorcycles to create motorcycle art. I was both pleased and surprised to see one of his creations at the Harley Museum during our recent Milwaukee content safari.

“Spike,” Mr. Kimura’s custom Knucklehead, was in a Harley museum hall that focused on custom motorcycles, and even before I saw his name, I knew whose work it was.

I believe “Spike” is the very same motorcycle featured in this video:

The Shinya Kimura shop, located in Azusa, California (not far from CSC Motorcycles) is one of the more interesting places I’ve ever visited. I think you would enjoy it, too, although it is not open to the public. I was there on business reasons, and I captured some great photos. If you have a chance, check out our earlier blog.

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The Harley-Davidson Museum

By Joe Berk

I’ve been a motorcycle guy nearly all my life and I’ve owned several motorcycles. Only two of them were Harleys; the first was beautiful but terrible in many ways (a ’79 Electra Glide Classic). The second was beautiful and it was a great machine (a ’92 Heritage Softail). I think Harley’s styling on past models has been awesome. Bottom line? I’m not a Harley fanatic and I’m not a hater. It’s not likely I’d ever buy another Harley, unless I came across a cheap XR-1000 (and that’s probably not in the cards). All that said, I can tell you that the Harley-Davidson Museum is the best motorcycle museum (and maybe the best anything museum) I’ve ever visited (and I’ve visited a lot of them).

First, a bit of logistics about the Museum and our upcoming blogs. We were in Milwaukee specifically to visit the Museum along with a few other Milwaukee highlights. The Harley Museum is too much to take in with just a single visit, and it is definitely too much to cover in a single blog. Our Milwaukee schedule allowed only one Harley Museum visit, but I’ll cover it in three or four blogs. This is the first.

Sticking to the logistics for a moment, the Museum is easy to get to. Plug it into Waze and you’ll drive right up to their front door. There’s plenty of parking, and we snagged a handicap parking spot right at their front door (my handicap tag is the silver lining to a 2009 motorcycle accident). We visited the Museum on a weekday, so it was not too crowded. I’m guessing that’s not the case on the weekends.

Admission is reasonable at $24 per person; for us it was a little less because we qualify for the geezer discount (that knocks it down to $20 per person). Knowing Harley’s customer base, I think a lot of folks get in for $20.

The interior lighting was subdued. Flash photography is allowed, but it’s hard to get decent photos with flash. Nearly everything you see here is with ambient lighting. I had to crank up the Nikon’s ISO, so you may see some graininess in my photos. Mea culpa.

The Museum has three floors, and the building is huge. There are several permanent exhibits and a few special exhibits (ones that change from time to time). The exhibits (both permanent and special) include:

- - Motorcycle Galleries.
  - Mama Tried.
  - Mi Papi.
  - The Engine Room.
  - The Archives.
  - Military Motorcycles.
  - Clubs and Competition.
  - The Tank Wall.
  - Art and Engineering.

Motorcycle Galleries

The Motorcycle Galleries are on the first and second floors, and they dominate the Museum. The Motorcycle Galleries is an appropriate name. The first part is a 180-foot, three-motorcycle-wide display of motorcycles from Harley’s first 50 years, starting with their very first model. The second part features later Harleys.

It was a well assembled exhibit and the motorcycles are beautiful. As I walked the line and took in the motorcycles, I realized I had seen more than a few of these bikes in books. Seeing them in person was special.

Mama Tried

Mama Tried was a custom bike exhibit, containing all sorts of custom Harleys (not the wigged-out choppers you see at the motorcycle shows). I’m not sure what the name (Mama Tried) is supposed to mean, but I thought the exhibit was good. I was liked seeing the Knucklehead customized by Shinya Kimura, whom we’ve written about before.

Mi Papi Has A Motorcycle

You may remember that Joe Gresh wrote an ExNotes review a few years ago about the Spanish language kid’s book, Mi Papi Has A Motorcycle. The book impressed Gresh; apparently, it had the same effect on the Museum staff. There’s an entire hall with large storyboards taken from the book.

The Engine Room

The Engine Room was enlightening. I always found the history and names of Harley engines confusing. VL, UL, flatheads, you know…what do all those designations actually mean? I’m a mechanical engineer and I never could follow it all. The Engine Room made it all clear. We’ll have a future blog on it. This was one of the best parts of the Harley Museum.

The Archives

The Archives were something I’d read about before. An elevator takes you to the third floor. The archives are not open to the public, but you can peer in through a double wire fence. One of Elvis Presley’s motorcycles was near the fence.

Military Motorcycles

The Military Motorcycles exhibit features the Harleys used in World War II and it was the best exhibit of its type I’ve ever seen. This is a topic I’ve been interested in for a l0ng time, going back to before I wrote The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles. There will be a separate blog on this exhibit. It was awesome.

Clubs and Competition

The Clubs and Competition exhibit features a board track with vintage race bikes and projected images of motorcycle racers (and accompanying engine sounds), vintage Harley hill climbers, and Joe Petrali’s land speed record Knucklehead. The Petrali streamliner was awesome.

The Tank Wall

The Tank Wall and the tank exhibits were intriguing. I’ve seen photos of it many times, but to see it in person had more of an impact. To me, the tanks and the engine are what make a Harley. It’s well done. I felt like a kid in a candy store more in this part of the Museum than anywhere else.

Art and Engineering

The Museum has a relatively new Art and Engineering exhibit, which is intended to show how art combines with engineering at Harley-Davidson. I was disappointed, especially because it was one of the main reasons I visited. I felt it was superficial and that it was basically a Harley-Davidson commercial, with almost nothing beyond a very light explanation of how Harley engineering is influenced by art. I get it; they go from sketches to clay mockups to metal, and they select colors along the way. Got it. They use CAD. Got it. Willie G is a wonderful human being, and so was an earlier designer/stylist named Brooks Stevens. Got it. I kind of knew all of that before I got on the airplane to go to Milwaukee (except for the part about Brooks Stevens; that was new to me).

When the motorcycling world discovered Willie G 50 years ago (in the days of the Super Glide, the XLCR Cafe Racer, the Electra Glide Classic, the Low Rider, etc.) there were lots of stories about how Harley went to motorcycle events and studied how riders customized their motorcycles. That was good stuff and those were good creativity inputs, but there was none of that in this exhibit. I was hoping to understand how Harley selected the style and the performance parameters for the new Sportster (a nice-looking motorcycle) and the Pan America (an ugly motorcycle, but all ADV bikes are), and maybe gain some insights into where Harley might go in the future. There was none of that.

I’m probably not a fair judge in this area. I taught engineering for 27 years at Cal Poly Pomona, I’ve had motorcycle engineering assignments related to Harley and other companies, and I wrote a book about engineering creativity. To be fair to Harley, they weren’t targeting retired engineering professors when they created the Art and Engineering exhibit. The exhibit had nice visuals, but for me it was devoid of any meaningful content. That said, we took in nine exhibits at the Harley Museum and only this one didn’t measure up to what I expected. The rest were all outstanding, and 8 out of 9 wins is a pretty good score in anybody’s book.

So there you have it: My Harley-Davidson Museum impressions. Sue and I had a good time. We were there for about three hours, but it would have been easy to spend the entire day. My disappointment in the Art and Engineering exhibit notwithstanding, I strongly recommend that anyone who rides or has even a passing interest in the American icon that is Harley-Davidson visit the Museum. It’s a bucket list destination. I’m glad I went.

At the tail end of our path through the Harley Museum, there’s an area with current model Harleys where you can sit on the bikes and take pictures. A nice guy from the Czech Republic offered to take a picture of Susie and me with my cell phone. It looks good. Our smiles are real.

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ExNotes Review: Doremi Kawasaki Z1 Body Set

By Joe Gresh

Zed has been dormant for a few years. The bike has a running issue that has eluded my best efforts to remedy. But this story isn’t about my mechanical incompetence. This story is about Zed’s gas tank.

Back in the Zed’s Not Dead series I cleaned the tank fairly well using the apple cider vinegar method. The cider/baking soda trick works well but Zed’s tank was looking a little crusty after sitting two years with alcohol laced fuel inside.

I decided to give the tank a second cider session. All went well and the tank was spotless inside. I installed the tank and filled it with fresh gas. Checking the tank for leaks revealed none so I closed up the shed and retired to dream big dreams of fun motorcycle rides to come.

The next morning when I opened the shed a strong odor of gasoline hit my nose. Fuel was everywhere under Zed. The right side tank bottom was soaking wet. Apparently only the paint was covering pinhole rust-through spots. After draining the remaining fuel I ran a wire brush over the bottom of the tank, which revealed a ton of tiny holes.

My initial plan, because I can’t let it go, was to cut out the bottom of the tank, fabricate a new sheet metal piece to fit and then braze the new bottom into the tank. It’s a good plan and it might have worked.

Instead, I went with Plan B: a new set of painted bodywork from Doremi (a Zed parts supplier out of Japan). Doremi is resold by several different companies in the US. I chose Cycles R Us, an eBay seller because they had the correct year and color in stock and their shipping was only $39. Prices for the body set are mostly the same (around $1500 with some outliers at $1700).

I know what you’re thinking: that’s a lot of money for a cheap bastard like me. It killed me to spend the money but used tanks are going for $500 and new, unpainted reproduction tanks are $400. Not to mention a professional paint job on my repaired stuff would probably exceed $1200.

One of the good things about the soaring value of Z1 Kawasaki’s is that you can spend money restoring them with a good chance of getting your investment back (minus your labor)

Enough of the rationalizations: let’s get into the product. Opening the well packaged box from Doremi was breathtaking. The paint is stunning. I cannot find a flaw anywhere and I don’t think the factory Kawasaki paint looked this good back when the bike was new on the showroom floor.

For 1975 Kawasaki’s Z1 had two color choices, a metallic aqua-blue that was pretty and my bike’s color, a dark burgundy that looks almost brown in low light. The color pops deep red metallic when a single photon from the sun strikes the paint surface. The stripes are perfectly applied and I cannot fault the quality of Doremi’s product.

My kit came with new tank badges and a new gas cap, some resellers break these parts out of the kit and sell them separately.

The tank badges are flat when you get them and require gentle bending by hand to fit the curvature of the gas tank. This is kind of a trial and error thing. I got the badges pretty close but they still need a little tweaking near the front. I stopped bending them mostly because I was worried about messing them up.

The gas cap comes loose in another bag. Putting the cap on was pretty easy once the roll pin was test fit into the tank.

The gas cap latch was a little harder to install. The instructions were oddly worded and there are some notches you are supposed to file into the underside of the latch. The photos aren’t super clear and I could find no reason to file notches so I ignored the instructions and did it the way I wanted.

The main issue with the gas cap latch is getting the little torsion spring inside the latch then holding it concentric while the pivot shaft is slid into place. The instructions recommended using a small, flat blade screwdriver, I tried that but it was fumbly and the spring never ended up in the correct location.

The method I settled on was to compress the torsion spring and capture the two ends with a small tube (the interior metal barrel of a wire crimp connector) once you have both ends of the spring under control it’s easy to insert the spring and line it up with the pivot shaft.

The latch’s pivot shaft is sort of a rivet. After it’s in place you have to peen over the end. This is a two-man job as you’ll need to hold a weight against the pivot head on one side while rolling the other end. I’ll get CT to help me with this step.

The new side covers arrived without badges so I used the original badges. The old badges were in fair condition but I suspect the reseller removed the new badges from the Doremi kit.

The new tail section was a bit fiddley in that the bolt holes didn’t quite line up perfectly like the original tail. You reuse the original Kawasaki grommets and spacers with the new tail. Maybe new grommets would be softer and have more give. It took a little aggressive tugging to get all four bolts lined up and in place. I imagine the plastic will take a set in its new position and future fitting will be easier.

Zed’s original paint was in horrible condition, the bike had sat outside for an indeterminate length of time. Talk about patina. I cleaned up the old paint as much as I could but it was tatty and dead. The Doremi body kit transformed the bike: it looks like a new, 1975 Kawasaki Z1-B. The bike is beautiful in the sunlight with the perfectly smooth surfaces changing color as you move about. Damn, this bike looks good.

Is the Doremi body set worth $1500? If your old stuff is rusted, yes. Even if your old stuff is in good shape you’d be hard pressed to find a painter who could lay down a beautiful job like Doremi for $1500. It’s like you’re paying for a paint job and the bodywork is free!

I recommend the Doremi highly. If we had a rating system at exhaustnotes it would get top marks. If you want your Z1 to look like a new bike get the Doremi.

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Inbound!

By Joe Berk

We’ve got a bunch of good stuff coming your way, my friends. I just finished a whirlwind week in New Jersey, we hit some of the Sopranos film locations, I grabbed a bunch of very cool Norton P11 photos, we saw where Bruce Springsteen was setting up for a concert in Asbury Park, I have a review on the new Garmin chronograph about to go live, Mike Huber (aka Mike Nelson) is down there in Indonesia and Thailand becoming one with the sea turtles, I’ve got a review on Ruger Customer Service and my revamped .357 Bisley, Joe Gresh has his Z1 Kawi all dressed up with lots of new places to go, and lots, lots more.

Andrew Capone, Isle of Man impresario and British Motocycle Gear CEO, with an unknown paparazzi reflected in a Norton Scrambler fender at an undisclosed location in New Jersey.

All dressed up with lots of places to go…Joe Gresh and the Z1…the gift that keeps on giving!

How fast is fast? Stay tuned, and we’ll tell you!

Bisley mania! Plinking at 100 yards with a handgun? You bet!

Andrew, Harry (aka “the Norton Whisperer”), and what is unquestionably one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made!

There’s ink, and then there’s Sopranos ink. Oh, do we have a story for you!

You know, we blew right by 1500 blogs some time ago, and I started to wonder if we were going to run out of things to write about. Nope. Not gonna happen. It’s like when one of my geezer buddies told me he didn’t know what to say at a lunch gathering, and another of my geezer friends told him, “Don’t worry…you’ll keep talking until you think of something.”

Stay tuned, my Amigos…

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Speaking of ExhaustNotes…

By Bob Orabona

Well….we’ve been having a little heat wave here in SoCal and I have been hanging around the house too much, so it was time to take the Harley Low Rider out for a little run.

My Low Rider when it was at the dealership in Minneapolis. I bought it about 4 years ago with 4,000 miles on the odometer.

I couldn’t do my usual run around the Palos Verdes peninsula due to the highway being closed to two-wheeled traffic. So I instead went the short way across the peninsula and then through the beach cities where it was nice and cool compared to the rest of Los Angeles.

I got through them all and was coming out of El Segundo and towards the airport and Westchester. On Sepulveda there’s a tunnel that goes under a runway at LAX and we call it, of course, the airport tunnel.

Some guys on bikes think of it as a tunnel and some think of it as a concert hall. Well, I kinda go both ways on that. But every time I get near it, I harken back to a memory of New Year’s Eve in 1972. I was a teenager at the time and my best bud Dave Reimer called me at home and told me he was at a great party in El Segundo. He offered to come by and pick me up (I had no wheels at that time). Dave showed up at my pad on a BSA 650 motorcycle he had borrowed from a friend. I jumped on and we headed out.

As we approached the tunnel from the Westchester side going to El Segundo Dave yelled back to me to hang on. He kicked it down a gear into 3rd and hit the throttle hard. We entered the tunnel going about 60mph and he banged 4th and hit the throttle hard and we were flying. The support columns just turned into a blur. There was a lot of great engine noise too. We came out the other end doing about 110mph!

What a kick! The things you do and get away with when you are young can be amazing. It was a great party and it is a favorite memory.

Today, in honor of my buddy Dave who left us about 15 years ago, I entered the tunnel in 3rd and laid down a little sweet Harley music with lots of throttle. It was about as much as I could get away with considering traffic.

So, Dave, wherever you are just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you.

Thanks, Bob. That’s a great story and we enjoyed reading it. Remind me never to lend my motorcycle to any of your friends!

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A Mecum Vintage Moto Auction!

By Joe Berk

This just in:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mecum’s Monterey Auction to Feature Exceptional Classic Motorcycles
Estimated 100 Classic, Collector and Racing Motorcycles to be Offered August 15-17.

Walworth, Wis. – July 30, 2024 – Bikers, history buffs and lovers of two-wheeled machines will want to make the trip to Monterey, California, for Mecum’s annual auction in the famed peninsula region during this year’s celebrated Car Week. In addition to the high-end selection of 600 classic and collector vehicles set to cross the Mecum auction block at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course Aug. 15-17, Mecum will also present a wide-ranging assemblage of approximately 100 historically significant motorcycles led by a very rare and unique 1957 Triumph Model Twenty-One.

As the nation’s leading seller of vintage, antique and collectible motorcycles and the host of the world’s largest vintage and antique motorcycle auction held annually in Las Vegas each January, Mecum presents motorcycle selections at every one of its many annual auctions held at locations around the country and is proud to bring the best selection of bikes to the Monterey region during Car Week year after year. Notably for motorcycle enthusiasts and collectors, the 2024 auction will boast one of the most impressive Monterey motorcycle lineups to date.

The 1957 Triumph Model Twenty-One (Lot T45), which leads this year’s motorcycle selection, boasts status as the very first unit-construction Triumph twin ever delivered and wears serial identifier H1. It was unveiled to the public in Amsterdam at the 1957 RAI exhibition—an event that dates back to 1893 when it was started as an association for the bicycle industry—as the first motorcycle to wear the “bathtub” rear body covering, meant to protect the bike/rider from the elements and modernize its appearance. Today, the historic machine features a restoration completed by marque specialist Kevin Giles of Pearland, Texas, which was completed in 2022, and it is being offered with its original Dutch registration dated April 5, 1957.

Several motorcycles will also be offered from the personal collection of Brad Lackey, winner of the 1982 500cc World Motocross Championship and American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Hall of Fame Inductee. After retirement from the race track, Lackey excelled in the collecting and restoration of historically significant and race-winning machines, and he’ll be presenting five of his finest at the Monterey auction. The selection ranges from a trio of Bultaco singles to a 1982 Kawasaki SR250 (Lot S145) that is one of only three true factory works motorcycles hand built by Kawasaki in Japan for the U.S. factory race team, and it today boasts a restoration by factory Kawasaki mechanics.

No motorcycle auction would be complete without a Harley-Davidson in the mix, and Monterey has an exceptional one in store: Jimmy “Daredevil” Washburn’s 1932 Harley-Davidson VL Stuntbike (Lot F10.) The famed performer and Evel Knievel of his day purchased this bike new and employed its use throughout his 28-year career.

Consignments are still being accepted for the Mecum Monterey 2024 auction, and bidder registration will remain open through the duration of the event. For more information on Mecum Monterey 2024 and all other scheduled Mecum auctions, visit Mecum.com or call (262) 275-5050.

# # #
Mecum Auctions
Communications Department
Breeann Poland
bpoland@mecum.com

More info on the cars and motorcycles up for auction is available here. It’s worth a click just to see the photos!

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The Yanke Motor Museum

By Joe Berk

Talk about a hidden gem and a great destination: The Yanke Motor Museum in Boise, Idaho is about as good as it gets. There’s precious little information on the Internet about it, but trust me, it’s worth seeing. It’s not widely publicized and you can’t just roll up and visit its treasures; admission is by appointment only. My advice is to make the run to Boise and make the effort to get an appointment. The Yanke Motor Museum contains a world class automobile, motorcycle, tractor, and musical instrument collection.

A 1924 Packard convertible is one of the first vintage cars you encounter upon entering the Yanke Motor Museum.

As you know from reading this blog, I’m a big fan of car and motorcycle museums, and I never heard of the Yanke Motor Museum. It’s the only automotive museum in Idaho, and it never appeared on my radar before. I only came across it because I Googled “motorcycle museums in Boise.” Some of the Internet services won’t tell you that it’s by appointment only, but that’s the deal. Further complicating things, some of the GPS programs get the directions wrong. We used Waze to find the address and it worked.

There is a lot to see at the Yanke Motor Museum. We were lucky: Sue and I had the place to ourselves. We made an appointment and new good buddy Tyler (one of the curators) pulled up just as we entered the parking lot. Tyler was in a silver Subaru WRX, so I liked him right away. He opened the place just for us, and then he had to walk around turning all the lights on (and he flipped a lot of switches to do that). The place is huge.

A 1957 Cadillac. This is a beautiful car. I was 6 years old when it rolled off the assembly line.

I didn’t quite know what to expect because when we entered the main display area (after walking through a collection of musical instruments), I at first saw mostly automobiles. They were impressive and they were plentiful (see the Packard and drop-dead-gorgeous pink Cadillac above), with the odd motorcycle parked here and there. There was a Ural and a couple of Harley dressers, so I asked Tyler if there were more motorcycles. He smiled and pointed me toward another hall. Wow, were there ever! In fact, my back started bothering me lugging my boat-anchor Nikon D810 and 24-120 lens around to get the photos you see here, but it was worth it.

A Ural with a sidecar. Good buddy Dan owns one of these.

Before we got to the main motorcycle hall, we saw several more interesting motorcycles and the odd trike or two. There was a ’37 SS Jag replicar. It was flanked by a stunning cherry red Harley Servi-Car and a custom flathead Ford trike with Offenhauser heads.

A flathead Ford trike. Check out the front brake.

A custom in every sense of the word. The workmanship is stunning.

Offenhauser heads. Offy also made complete 4-cylinder engines. Think decades of Indy 500 dominance.

One last view of the flattie trike. Even the tires are beautiful.

Susie and I were blown away by the classic cars and the multiple motorcycles we encountered at the Yanke Motor Museum, and we hadn’t even made it to the motorcycle room yet. In the main hall, classic motocross and other bikes were scattered among the cars and other vehicles.

I once had a friend who thought a Bultaco was a Mexican food item. No kidding.

There was a flatbed truck with a Harley XLCR Cafe Racer, a vintage Indian Chief, and a vintage Harley.

I could have bought a new ’77 XLCR just like this one for $3,000, but I couldn’t justify spending $3,000 for a motorcycle back then. I don’t know who I thought I had to justify it to.

When we entered the motorcycle room, it was like being a kid in a candy shop. No, wait, I take that back. I used to be a kid in a candy shop six or seven decades ago. This was better. Just about everything imaginable was there if you are looking for cool motorcycles. Desert racers, WW II military Harley 45s, modern bikes, custom bikes, vintage Harleys, vintage Indians, scooters, Whizzers, vintage flat track and flathead Harley race bikes, and more. The Nikon was giving me fits weighing heavily on my lower back, and leaning over to get macro engine shots was getting downright painful, but I didn’t care. Susie had an Advil, I swallowed it, and the photo safari continued. I was on a mission. Anything and everything for our ExNotes readers…that’s our mantra.

In the motorcycle room…check out the Army 45s.

A 1934 74-cubic-inch Harley VLD flathead, another stunning motorcycle.

Harley-Davidson flathead flat track racing motorcycles.

Ah, the patina! Check out the steel shoe!

An Army 45 in decidedly non-Army colors.

The Yanke Motor Museum also contained some cool military stuff, including Jeeps and a few cannons. Cannons!

The same action as a Ruger No. 1. A classic falling block concept.

A custom scope mount for direct fire. This thing must be a hoot to shoot. Folks at the Museum reload for it.

I thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, but when I peeked into an adjoining room I spotted several 37mm and 25mm projectiles in various stages of the reloading process. Imagine that: Reloading for your own cannons! There’s no doubt about it: The folks who own and run the Yanke Motor Museum are our kind people.

Ron and Linda Yanke started the Museum. An extremely successful entrepreneur, Ron is unfortunately no longer with us. The Yanke family started the business empire with a machine shop. Ron Yanke expanded the business holdings to sawmills, an air charter service, a firefighting equipment manufacturer, extensive timberland holdings, several real estate companies, a mechanical contracting firm, a manufactured housing company, and a couple of banks. He was one of three original investors in Micron Technology, the world’s second-largest memory chip manufacturer.

The Yanke Motor Museum is located at 1090 Boeing Street in Boise, Idaho. If you want to get in, here’s the web address that will get you started.

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Laguna Seca 4: AHRMA Wrap Up

By Joe Gresh

Foggy and cold in the morning. I broke down and bought a burrito from the Flag and Wicket down in the paddock. Everything was soaking wet and I didn’t feel like making food. The Rag and Basket has good burritos and they are nearly the same price as a Quart-o-Grease from McDingies.

The Rag and Moose down in the paddock has good eats for not too much money.

I don’t think they can run in the wet fog but the rider’s meeting is on. We will see if they wait a bit.

The trials sections were mostly tight corners in uneven terrain

This never happened historically but I’m letting it go.

When you’re at the track you’ll need to be somewhat self sufficient as the only place nearby is the Toro restaurant and they close early. There a little food store towards Salinas but before the Toro where you can get stuff. Forget going west to Monterey, it’s sort of touristy and unless you’re going to the Aquarium or cannery row it’s a food desert. It could be that I don’t know where to look.

I think it will be a short day today. The fog is still thick, if a bike went off the course you’d never know it.

Foggy conditions delayed the racing for a bit. AHRMA still managed to run a full slate

I wandered over to the trials sections and they were ok, the fog doesn’t bother trials riders as they only need to see a few feet ahead. There was a triple log obstacle that I saw only one guy on a TY175 clear. Everyone else dabbed. The trials was held down in a little valley and the sections led a short way up the sides. Very tight turns and soft sand caught out many competitors.

Two old codgers on two old bikes. Still flogging. Fulton and Roper.

Back on the track the fog cleared and AHRMA ran 14 more multi-class races. You get your money’s worth for sure.

I’ve decided to let the whole historic thing go. What AHRMA really does is provide sanctioned races for orphan motorcycles, both new and old. Even 160-175 Honda twins.

Sunday the campground empties out and the squirrels take over. You’ll need to keep that tent closed or they’ll rob you blind. I like the Sunday night, it’s quiet and you get to be alone for a few hours.

The wind never let up the entire day and I got sort of tired watching so many races. It was dry and around race 12 I decided to load Godzilla in the truck before the plastic bed liner got slippery with dew.

All in, I’ve been here four days and it’s time to break camp and get back home. I highly recommend attending the AHRMA either as a spectator or a competitor. Just bring plenty of water and any food you might like to eat.

I’ll be back next year. Maybe bring the RD350 to see how it runs at sea level.

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Laguna Seca AHRMA Racing 3

By Joe Gresh

I’m in no rush to leave the tent this morning. The wind blew all night long and is still blowing hard. It’s cold and damp. Canvas pops and snaps, the tent inflates and deflates as if it is a breathing thing. I’ll have a second cup of coffee.

The vintage motocross races at Laguna Seca are situated over the hill, towards the north. It’s a natural terrain course just like the tracks these vintage motorcycles ran on way back when. No manufactured hazards like triples or whoops. Any whoops on this track are made by churning knobbies. So of course I love it.

Laguna has more CZs in one place than I’ve ever seen. A bunch of Honda Elsinores and BSA 4-strokes populate the area. Less popular are Yamahas, Kawasakis and Suzukis.

The BSAs were out in force. One of the few 4-strokes that could compete with the 2-strokers…if you had Banks riding it.

Four Elsinore 125s put on a hell of a show. They were swapping the lead back and forth, passing three bikes in a corner only to be re-passed the next corner. It was good, handlebar banging action. I’m going back for more today.

The motocross crowd is a bit looser than the road racers. There is a yellow rope denoting the track that you are not supposed to cross. Nobody pays attention and spectators walk rigs up to the edge of the course to yell encouragement at their buddies.

Just a few of the motocross classes. Something for experts to beginners.

One guy had a train horn attached to a battery powered compressor and when the bikes were stuffed into the corner he would blast the horn inches from the rider’s ears. You don’t get that sort of fun on the pavement over the hill.

Unlike some of the road race bikes, the motocross bikes are historically accurate. These are the bikes that actually raced back then and except for razor sharp fresh knobbies they are in a slightly beat condition.

There are a few 100-point restorations racing but those guys take it easy around the track. The Sunday riders got the same encouragement and horn as the top racers.

Tidy Penton, these were the original KTMs and beautiful bikes. The cylinders were huge square things.

In the evening I hear live music drifting in on the soaking wind, a two stroke bike circles camp and people chatter, sounding like they are right next door. I have to remind myself not to be old. Sure, I want to got to bed at 8:00 p.m. but nobody else does.

Back to the road race side of things. AHRMA is always expanding the definition of historic and they even have classes for modern motorcycles. These classes are well stocked because the bikes are easy to get and keep running. I’d say more than half the field were riding new-ish motorcycles. Our old buddies Walt Fulton and Dave Roper put in another fine showing but I kind of lost them in the multi-class race they were in. So maybe they didn’t do fine.

I’m really enjoying how well Godzilla is running down at sea level. The bike has tons of grunt and runs so smooth with the oxygen levels. Probably the humidity helps also.

I’m off to watch some racing. It’s still windy but I can’t sit in the tent all day. The neighbors will start talking about the weird old man next door.

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