A sweet MZ250 Racebike!

Andy Writes in.

Love your site ,thought you might like to see some of these.
MZ 250 racing bike as run in the BMZRC, have a look at
bmzrc.org.uk

A one make series running in the uk we celebrate our 25th year this year at Cadwell pk.
cheers Andy.

Fantastic stuff.  Wish we had something like this over here.  Good affordable (or as affordable as racing can be I suppose) fun.

1 972 Yamaha TR3 on the track.... eating everyones LUNCH!!

TZ350 at full song...

I don't think he gets passed once.  That is a well tuned 2 stroke.  

2-stroke Australian Track Day Action..

Wow do I EVER want this bike! 1994 Yamaha TZ250 owned by Kenny Roberts

From the E-bay ADD
1994 Yamaha TZ250 located in California. This bike belongs to Kenny Roberts and was raced by Jimmy Filice in the 1996 European 250cc Championships. Bike has Ohlins Forks and Brembo Brakes. The cylinders and pipes are Bud Aksland. This bike is in very good condition and fast. Sold with no spares, comes with what you see in the pictures. I will be listing more of Kenny Roberts bikes and parts. Keep checking our auctions or check us out on the web. Bike is sold as is no returns, so ask questions before you bid. Worldwide shipping is available. High bidder pays all shipping and crate charges. Payment must be a bank transfer only.

Gary Nixon and the Kawasaki Triple Tracker!

What a freaking machine!  Thanks to "Saint Barry"!

Special request for Information on this Seeley Suzuki TR500

Rob Payne writes in with a special request for info on what I think may be an ultra rare Seeley framed Suzuki.  Can anyone help shed some light on this interesting ride?

He Writes in:
I have recently aquired a factory Seeley framed TR500 I friend has owned for 15 years. I have attached a photo of the bike just to show you.... I am basically in the process of restoring and also sourcing info on how many are left, how many were made, etc etc. I am told a factory cs seeley with original motor (TR 500 - 10077) frame cs 262S MK 3CS107N are very rare.Thanks,
Rob

And in a second message:


I have a bunch of other photos and historical info on the bike. I am trying to contact Colin Seeley and give him the numbers, but cannot find an email for him. I honestly believe, from what I am told and read online, that there are only maybe 3-6 left, if that. Please let me know if you can find any further info or get any feedback.

TZ tracker... Damm.

A Lean and Mean Suzuki Flat Track Machine. T500 Powered.

Telefonica beauty courtesy of Mike "Stu" Stuhler of the must visit Stusshots!

After all the drama with the other blog I'm just now catching up on a lot of great contributions. Mike sent me this a long while back and I almost missed this one in the e-mail fog.  Thank You Mike for the reminder.    Oh and fer cryin out loud make sure to visit him often.  The historic stuff over there is fantastic!

Mike Writes in:
Just came across these shots I took at Mid Ohio back in '05 that I thought you might enjoy as well. The last of the 2 stroke 500's, this was the RGV500 follow-up to KRJR's championship winning mount from the 2000 season.  Unfortunately, this one didn't fair nearly as well with only 1-3rd place podium on the year, 4 dnf's and a final placing of 11th in the championship.  But this doesn't take away from the stunning beauty of this piece,the last year of the 500's before the diesels were ushered in (not that there is anything wrong with the diesels, just not the stunning gp sound as what the 2 stroke era gave us in close to 30 years of top-notch competition.) Suzuki had a traveling 'road show' for the 2005 season that of course included their street and dirt bike line-up, and as a thrown in bonus as I would call it, this stunning piece of racing history on display outside the display tents.  I waited about 15-20 minutes for all of the other people around to clear away (and stop their drooling)
so I could get a couple of clear/clean shots of this $1M+ beauty.  It may not have performed well on the track but the visuals were top notch.  Let alone the craftsmanship put into this 'blue wonder.' You being THE 2 stroke guy, I thought you might enjoy! As always, your stuff looks great and I enjoy my 2-3 trips/day to your sites to keep up with the goodies. Enjoy and keep up the killer work!  And go two smokes!  HA!

God that's nice. Oh what I'd give for a few laps on that...

OMG! ATK 700cc Single!

Here is a very short vid of it running:



Pics:

That's a CR500 piston in there!! Holy Crap!

Barry Sheen 1980 Yamaha Yamaha TZ 500. If I had $60,000 I'd buy this bike.

Ex Barry Sheen Racebike now on E-bay.  And I believe the subject of the very first post on MPOTD blog.

UPDATE: Stupid Question (for me)... What is this? (Answer: It's a KR250 Tandem Twin)

Update:  Thank you Lawrence!  From the Comments:

Lawrence said...

That is a 1981/82 Kawasaki KR250 tandem twin. Here is a great article from Superbike Planet: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/kr250.htm And some more: http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/classic_bikes/kawasaki-kr250-history.php Keep up the good work, Lawrence

Had it in the archive a while and forgot where I got it... An inline twin, dry clutch, belt drive,monoshock rotary valve Kawasaki racebike...  Ummm... I'm stumped.

KTM Roadracer! I don't know anything about it but it's trick!

Cool Reader Ride from "Back in the Day". RD350 "do-it-all" Special!

Ric McKinsey writes in:

Really enjoy your site thought I would contribute a couple of my beautys. 1975 RD350 cafe racer I would switch the rear wheel for one with a slick and add struts and a wheely bar and take it to the strip. ( check the 1970's safety equipment, nothing but blue jeans baby)!

Ric McKinsey
Madera Calif.

Thanks Ric!  I love this sort of stuff.  And man those were some cool boots!

2nd Update from the comments: Konig Racer. Really interesting engine cinfiguration.

Second Update: I've got the smartest readers on the web!

Lawrence wrote in:

A documentary about motor-racer Kim Newcombe, who turned heads in the 70s on a König motorbike he developed and designed himself. He was killed racing in 1973 and posthumously came second in that year's World 500cc Grand Prix. The film mixes interviews and underdog triumph on the track scenes, with Super 8 footage of family life on the circuit, and poignant wife-of-maverick reflections from his widow Janeen. Love, Speed and Loss won best documentary at the 2007 Qantas TV Awards and Air NZ Screen Awards for best documentary, directing, and editing.
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/love-speed-and-loss-2007


Also:
http://www.fasterandfaster.net/2010/01/love-speed-and-loss-remembering-kim.html

Thanks Again!  You guys are the best!

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Update from the comments:
Hi,
it is not a twin engine. It is a 4 cylinder engine. Originally a motorboat engine.
Cheers Uwe

I suspected that it might be but it was hard to be certain from the camera angle. thank you for clearing that up! Makes it all the more interesting!

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A liquid cooled opposed four cylinder with a gear driven, toothed belt rotary valve intake intake setup. Interesting stuff.

Reader Submittal. Wicked Landspeed Kawasaki Triple... and a hell of a trip.

From Travis Lawson:

So I just got done with a 5195 mile, 39 day adventure a few days ago. I rode my barely street legal 2001 XR400R from Durango CO to Portland OR then south to giant redwoods in Nor-Cal. From there to Reno, Las Vegas, all across AZ, NM and back to my home on the TX Gulf Coast. 2400 or so miles were done entirely off road on old obscure routes and Jeep trails.

I spent a couple days in Bonneville for Speed Week and took some great video and a couple of pictures of a really great guy from Woodland Park, CO named David Doubleday. He owns D&S Motorcycle and has campaigned an H2 he built himself at Bonneville for a few years now. This guy is fast! And all things considered he could be even faster with some more tweaking. This is one very fine example of a well built machine. The frame is a modded H2 with an FZR600 swinger, fork, wheels and brakes. The shock took days to set up but for the purpose of doing the "Ton" in a straight line it works great.  I think he told me it came off a Honda CBR. The tank is a Yamaha MX175 and fits very well. By the way this bike is street legal and plated and he does ride it regularly, but I bet it draws quite a crowd just tooling around town with stingers. Check it out!

I can't remember exactly his fastest times but I do know he broke 126 mph in the one mile course.

Later Travis

Reader Ride. Land Speed Record Holding RD400

Mark Atkinson who also sent in this bike included a few pics of a fairly well know bike in the Yamaha 2-stroke circles.

The landspeed bike is mine. Ed Erlenbach built it originally, and has three records with it. The picture I sent you is the bikes first time at the salt flats. I never was able to make a pass under full power as it got hot. I am working on a system to keep it cool right now so next year I hope to break some records. The last time Ed had it on the dyno it made a little more than 100 HP, and it feels like it. It is magical when it comes on the pipe about 10,000 rpm. Unreal! I will send you another pic of some more of my smokers.


Thanks Mark that's outstanding.  I always wondered what happenned to Ed's bike after he got out of the 2-stroke game.

Ha!  Funny to see this pic from Murph!  He's been camped out in Bonneville and posting up a storm over on his blog for a while now.  Great Guy.  Check him out!

1978 YZ400 Landspeed Racer!

That is just bad-ass!

Quick and dirty courtesy of http://www.coconutcustoms.blogspot.com/

Moto GP Honda...

Holy Shit. Pipe Porn doesn't seem to quite do it. I'm speechless...