What a fantastic pic of Jay Springstien!

Don Miller of Metro racing fame send in this great picture! Oh and Check out his website at www.metroracing.com Some excellent stuff there too. Don Writes:

Hey cool blog. Just thought you'd enjoy a 2 stroke Flat Tracker to kind of class up the joint, HA! It's my Champion framed Woody Kyle motored Kawasaki Big Horn 350cc with the legendary Jay Springsteen at the controls. Thanks,Don Miller

Time to check in on our friend Sam Simons and some of his latest projects!

First an update on his KX500 "Tracker" Project!
Sam Writes:
Hello again,Steve- I've altered the rear suspension 'dogbones' so the rear height now matches the shortened front forks,and attached the JEMCO to see what the ground clearance result was.....good. The tank is (of all things) a Royal Enfield 350 unit,just stuck on the see what it would look like....I'd be very tempted to use it(with minor mods) if it weren't for the severe clearance feature on it's underside(necessary for the RE cylinder head) which helps expose the KX's frame tube,unfortunately....The rear subframe will require surgery to get it much more horizontal than it is now....tankand seat style are still unknown.....I've found a custom RZ/LC radiator source (in AU) that lookslike it will work,and allow me to use a /traditional/ looking gas tank....whereas,if I use the KX'sradiators,any tank that I use will look terrible because of the reliefs required to clear them... A bit of progress.....






Next Lets take a look at some REALLY tricked out RD Head work he's been doing! Sam writes:

Hi Steve, This idea came from my friend with the RD400 dragbike. The inserts are the commercially available units in various chamber volumes intended for similar use on the Banshee mill. I did up a set of RD heads to accept whatever sizes he chooses. Neat idea.......

VERY neat Idea!! Thanks Again Sam!

Some H2R video action..

FYI Motorcyclist Retro!

A letter from Mitch Bohem of the recently discontinued Motorcyclist Retro that was posted on the Kawasaki Triples board. He writes:

Guys and gals

Thanks so much for the kind words. Yeah, I was bummed when they put it on ice. It was doing really well. Sold nearly 25K right out of the gate (issue one). We're waiting for issue 2 #s, but they're gonna be as good or better.

But now I have an opportunity to do the same concept myself, privately, and I'm going to do it. My plan is to sell single copies and subs directly to readers via my website (info coming soon), and also through selected bike shops around the country. Try looking at The Surfers Journal, the mag and the website. That's their biz model, and it works great.

So what I need is for this entire board to not only send me their email addresses (mcretro@cox.net) so I can tell you when issue one will be available, but to talk up the magazine here and tell folks to subscribe when the time comes - this coming spring. That sort of promo will be the difference between make or break.

Anyway, hope all of you had a great Christmas, and that you're either riding or wrenching on them smokin' triples.

Best regards,

Mitch
Motorcycle Retro
www.motorcycleretro.com
mcretro@cox.net

Beautiful reader ride restoration!

I just received this outstanding reader ride from Ted Guthrie. A beautifully restored Penton 125 Six-Day. While I've never considered myself a true "restorer" of motorcycles (I'm more of a resto-mod kind of guy) I have struggled with enough old bikes to really appreciate the level of effort that goes into a bike like this. The really great part is that it's really done out of love of the bikes. You'd be hard pressed to ever make a good living (much less become wealthy) doing this kind of work. But I'm constantly amazed at the work that I see out there and that people send me. Keep sending them in. It's MUCH appreciated!

Ted Writes:

Hey, great site you've got. Some of the best pics, of terrific variety of bikes, I've ever seen. Attached are some photos of my recently completed 1973 Penton 125 Six-Day. Bike started out as a total junker, which had sat outside for years. It now starts first-kick, and runs perfectly. Incidently, the Steel Tanker you have the pic of, which was taken at the AMA museum, belongs to the original owner - Al Born - and the bike is serial # 003. Yep, it is the third Penton ever built. Al is among the original group of riders, who were hand-picked by John Penton to receive (and race and win and promote) the first ten Penton motorcycles produced.

Ted Guthrie

Historian

Penton Owners Group

An amazing 6 cylinder JAWA. Wow!

Sam Simons sends in a really amazing bike that he came across on the net. What an amazing piece of work. Sam Writes:

Hi Steve, I found this unique example on a Czech website recently,what a piece of work. UK's Allan Millyard has done some impressive Kawasaki multis, but I think this engine overshadows Allan's work because of it's unusual design, and it's relative scarcity of numbers. To me,the major most challenge in building a multi is not adding the cylinders,but instead it's in finalizing the drive train so that the countershaft sprocket remains in proper alignment to the rear wheel. This is where builders have to extend and support the original output shaft, or resort to offsetting the engine or using a jackshaft somehow that mars the appearance of the finished bike. That's what impresses me most about this 6 cyl Jawa,it looks absolutely factory. The builder utilized the engine's left/right hand cylinder design to his advantage,too. Very Well Done!

Well done indeed!

More "Fior"

There's somer real creativity and genius in this RS500. Lots more Fior info HERE.

Yogi20's sweet custom H2

H2R at Daytona a few years ago.

Sweet H2 Special!

I don't even know what it is... UPDATE

From the comments section Alex writes in:

Is a wonderful piece of "art"
buildt by a french chassis specialist, with most unconventional ideas about bike frames.

His name was Fior and he built a "strange" rolling chassis for a yamaha 500 inline four or 250 twins and also for a honda 3 cilinder two stroke engine.

I like very much his ideas and the era when GP machines were absolutely two stroke and a simple "genius" like Fior made a machine to world gp class level :-)

Thank you very much Alex for the information!

Well damm. A 2 stroke I've never heard of..

An IZH soviet block 2-stroke that they still make. Pretty rugged looking mule to boot.

More info Here

More Nice Rickman framed H2's

Really Tight RD400 with FZR600 suspension

Updates to the Blog!!!

This is just a quick not to say that I've finally started doing some site monitoring on this blog and have discovered (much to my surprise) that I'm getting some pretty steady traffic. Well since I've got so mant of you folks tuning in on such a regular basis I've gone ahead and started organizing the place a bit better.

I'm in the process of adding tags to all the posts so you can now go to the right of the page and browse by labels. I will also try and post on a more regular basis. I'd also like to send a shoutout for reader submissions! If you've got a cool old 2-stroke of any Size/Make/Model then send me some pictures and a description. I'd love to show off your rides for you.

If You've got cool pics of a 4-stroke the check out my other Blog over on the right "Motorcycle Picture of the Day" and I'll get them up there for you.

Thanks for checking in and Thank You for Smoking!

TZ700 Tracker... Damm..

KV75

Damm I want one of these.