Suzuki's First Sportbike - VJMCL est you t hink the old of fi cers are de sert ing, we are all go ing to re main on the Board of Di rec - tors. This wil l gi ve the club s om e con

Suzuki's First Sportbike The X6 Hustler

Honda Helix-Classic Plastic

Suzuki's First Sportbike

Idiot's Guide toBike Restoration Pt. II

Thirty Yearsof Motorcycling

2 December 2005/January 2006

December-January Contents

President’s Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Editor’s Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Longtime VJMC Member Passes Away. . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Honda’s Plastic Fantastic Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

VJMC Treasurer’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycle Restoration, Part 2 . . . . . . . 10

Bike With No Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Thirty Years of Cycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Suzuki X6 Returns to Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

This is sue’s web pass word is:

shoppingEf fec tive:

12/1/2005

Pres i dentJim Townsend(260) 839-5203, [email protected]

Mag a zine Ed i torJa son Roberts(562) 777-2565, [email protected]

Clas si fied AdvertisingGary Gadd(817) 284-8195, [email protected]

Com mer cial Ad ver tis ing DirectorBob Billa(949) 588-6840, [email protected]

Mem ber shipBill Granade(813) 961-3737, [email protected]

Webmaster/Cover LayoutJa son Bell(972) 245-0634, [email protected]

Mag a zine Lay outDarin Wat son(913) 897-3021, darin914@ya hoo.com

2005 Vin tage Jap a nese Mo tor cy cleClub. All rights re served. No part of this doc -u ment may be re pro duced or trans mit ted inany form with out per mis sion.

The opin ions or views ex pressed in let tersor ar ti cles are those of the au thor and do notnec es sar ily re flect the pol icy of the VJMC.The VJMC ac cepts no li a bil ity for any loss,dam age or claims oc cur ring as a re sult of ad -vise given in this pub li ca tion or for claimsmade by ad ver tis ers of prod ucts or ser vicesin this pub li ca tion.

Mis sion State ment

The Pur pose of this or ga ni za tion is to pro -mote the pres er va tion, res to ra tion and en joy -ment of Vin tage Jap a nese mo tor cy cles(de fined as those greater than 15 years old)and to pro mote the sport of motorcycling and ca ma ra de rie of mo tor cy clists ev ery where.

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December 2005/January 2006 3

From The President: Recent Events, New Field RepsAnd Officers, And The 2006 National Rally

by Jim Townsend

Re cent Events

I sup pose by now you have all re ceived thein vi ta tion to join the “VJEMC.” This wasnot much of a sur prise to the Board of Di rec -tors, since we were threat ened with this pos -si bil ity last spring. Un doubt edly this hasraised many ques tions in your minds. If youwere at the Na tional Rally in Oak Ridge,Ten nes see, you prob a bly learned a lot aboutour work ings and heard a lec ture by JohnDeBeck on our fi nances. For the re cord, themeet ing was tape re corded so we would n’tmiss any im por tant points. Some of you arequite new to the club and may ques tionwhether or not you made a mis take in join -ing us; other long-time mem bers will knowwhy they are still with us. I’d like to set there cord straight.

In this is sue of the mag a zine you will find are port from our trea surer, Tom Kolenko. This is an over view of the past year and not a fullau dited re port, but it will be eas ily un der -stand able for ev ery one. There is no at tempthere to “sugar coat” our fi nances, as one per -son has claimed. If you have any ques tionsabout any item or any thing about this re port,just con tact Tom (phone 770-423-6079,email: [email protected]) andask.

Also, since there have been ques tionsand mis state ments about our meet ing re -cords, you may call or email ScottTimoff (phone: 248-338-9320, email:[email protected]) if you wantstraight an swers.

Since the in vi ta tion to join the VJEMC was mailed, we have con sulted with an at tor ney.He was ap palled that any one would so bla -tantly steal our mail ing list for the spe cificpur pose of de stroy ing the club. How ever,we are de fer ring any ac tion at this time in or -der to as sess the dam age done to the club.

If you were as in censed as many mem berswere, and still have that in vi ta tion, I ask thatyou send it to me, com plete with the en ve -lope. How ever I am sure that by the time you read this most of you will have placed it inthe proper re cep ta cle and no lon ger have it.

New Field Rep re sen ta tives AndOf fi cers

There will be a com plete turn over of of -fi cers this elec tion. None of the four cur -

rent of fi cers are run ning for re-election.Since there is no op po si tion, Pete Boodywill be our new Pres i dent. I know many of you have met Pete and I can as sure you hehas the back ing of the en tire cur rentBoard of Di rec tors. Pete is not only agood friend, but one of the most avid mo -tor cy clists I know and a great or ga nizer to boot! He and the First Vol un teers chap terof the VJMC have spon sored the last 3Na tional Rallies in Oak Ridge. I know theclub will be in good hands. Lest you thinkthe old of fi cers are de sert ing, we are allgo ing to re main on the Board of Di rec -tors. This will give the club some con ti nu -ity and keep us go ing in the rightdi rec tion.

A whole bunch of vol un teers from themem ber ship have be come Field Rep re -sen ta tives and Of fi cers since the last is -sue. You will no tice a new Ed i tor on themast head of the mag a zine this month, Ja -son Rob erts of La Mirada, Cal i for nia. Ifyou have any ar ti cles, pho tos, or any -thing you think should be in the mag a -zine, con tact Ja son (562-777-2565,email: [email protected]). Ourthanks to Ka ren McElhaney who did abang-up job un til her work load at OakRidge Na tional Lab o ra tory got bur den -some.

We also have two new co-Webmasters:Beth Braun from Con nect i cut and SteveBlake will be main tain ing our website. Ja -son Bell, our pre vi ous webmaster, waswork ing 12-hour days in ad di tion to hisclub du ties and just had to quit, but he’s still a mem ber and we thank him for his past ef -forts.

There are a lot of new faces in the ranksof Field Rep re sen ta tives too. Jeff Ecker isthe new Field Rep re sen ta tive from Col o -rado; Bill Moore from Cal i for nia; BrentHurlburt joined us last sum mer and is from Iowa; Bob Lee is the new Rep in Kan sas;Bill Orazio in Lou i si ana (hope he did n’tflood out!); Jack Delaney joins Da vidRicher in Mas sa chu setts; Wil liam Wag neris go ing to try to cor ral folks in Montana;Hal John son is out there in Ne braska husk -ing corn; Da vid Liggon suns him self inNew Mex ico; Randy Mayes is go ing tolead her hus band around in NorthCarolina; Lloyd Blythe joined our ranks inSouth Carolina; Dale Hoyt and RonBouchard will try to con trol all those Yan -kees in Con nect i cut; and last, but not leaston our list is Lisa Dentzau from Roanoke,

Vir ginia. We have had so many new vol -un teers and things have been so hec tic thatI may have missed some one. If so, pleasefor give me and send me an email so I cancor rect my er ror.

Elec tions And By laws

Our By laws are a bit mud dled as far aselec tions are con cerned and we are do ingan al most com plete re-write of them. Wetried to have an elec tion a few years agowith the en tire mem ber ship vot ing, forwhich we re ceived ex actly seven votesfrom over 1,000 mem bers. This is verycum ber some and I can not say for sure justhow we are go ing to change it, but I am ex -pect ing that ul ti mately the Field Reps andBoard of Di rec tors will elect of fi cers. Bythe time you read this, it will have been de -cided. We can change it in the fu ture, if it is not sat is fac tory.

An other no tice able up date will be tochange the def i ni tion of “vin tage” from 15years or older to 20 years or older, andgrand fa ther in bikes made be tween 1985and 1990. Af ter 2010 only bikes 20 yearsold or older will be “vin tage.”

The 2006 Na tional Rally

Plans are well un der way for the 6th

VJMC Na tional Rally near Ca dil lac,Mich i gan. The dates are Au gust 28 toSep tem ber 2, 2006. Dur ing this week (Iam not sure of the ex act dates) there is aride planned to go north over theMackinac Bridge to the up per pen in sulaof Mich i gan, where we will stay over -night. De tails will be com ing to you soon,but plan on set ting aside that week or atthe very least Au gust 31 to Sept 2 for themain rally. I have vis ited the site and canas sure you that it will be one of the bestwe have had. I have trav eled many of thenearby roads and they are fa vor ites ofMich i gan rid ers. Mem bers with dualsport bikes will love the “sea sonal roads,” dirt roads that are not plowed in the win -ter. Scott Timoff and the Mich i gan chap -ter will be spon sor ing the event. By theway, did you know that Mich i gan hasmore mem bers than any other state thanks to Scott’s ef forts?

Next is sue, this col umn will be Pete’s.Thanks for mak ing my term as Pres i dentmost en joy able. It has been a blast!


Well, where to be gin? I guess some back -ground is in or der. I come from a long lineof mo tor cy clists, from my great-grand fa -ther, a bi plane fighter ace who rode inWorld War 1 to my granddad who was amo tor cy cle cop in the 1930s. My dad, whogave me my first ride on the tank of his1968 Honda CL350 Scram bler, bought memy first mo tor cy cle, a Honda QA-50, in1973, and later my first street bike, a 1979Kawasaki KZ400, when I started highschool. Con tinuing the tra di tion, I got myel dest son his first bike, a Yamaha PW50,on his fifth birth day...four years on and he’s ready to move up to a 100cc ma chine.

I feel very priv i leged to serve the VJMCas mag a zine ed i tor. In a way, it is the fru -ition of a long-held dream of mine. As ajour nal ism ma jor in col lege, it was al waysmy goal to work on a mo tor cy cle mag a zine; what moto-nut would n’t want to be paid toride bikes and write per for mance re views?Alas, af ter some real-life ex pe ri ences Ifound the close-knit world of the elitemoto-journalist clique not to my lik ing.And along the way, I found that I re ally en -joyed the older ma chines as well as thenew est/lat est/hot test things.

My first “res to ra tion” was in 1982 when Ipur chased a well-beaten 1974 KawasakiH1 and pro ceeded to trans form it into a cafe racer. Working mostly by trial and (nu mer -ous) er rors, I got the bike up and run ning,but soon my at ten tions drifted to other loves and I sold the H1 for a pit tance, which I re -gret ted later. The seeds of that re gret would

lie dor mant un til 2000, when I spot ted an -other beat-up H1 parked amidst the flashysportbikes on Can nery Row dur ing theWorld Superbike race in Monterey, CA.“Now’s the time,” I thought to my self. “Igotta get one of those.” And as soon as I re -turned home I be gan scour ing theclassifieds for pro ject bikes. It soon be came an ob ses sion, this re new ing pro cess – trans -form ing the old and ne glected ma chinesinto some thing beau ti ful and valu able. Ifound great joy in hunt ing for ob scure parts, bead-blasting cor roded metal, and clear ingclogged car bu re tor pas sages...and ofcourse, the ul ti mate thrill came from fir ingup a ma chine that had been si lent, bro kenand ne glected for years.

So, sev eral years and sev eral thou sanddol lars later, I had my self quite a Kawasakicol lec tion. I had pur chased and re stored allthe old bikes that I’d lusted for as a teen,won sev eral tro phies in vin tage shows, andgen er ally quelled the urge to fin ish what I’d started back in 1982. But un ex pect edly,even more sat is fy ing than see ing five pris -tine Triples parked in my ga rage was thefeel ing of ca ma ra de rie be tween all the newfriends and ac quain tances I met dur ing theres to ra tions and at shows, shar ing a sort ofwarm-fuzzy buzz of mu tual nos tal gia andmoto-love. It’s in ev i ta ble, re ally; no mat terwhere you ride on an old bike, you will at -tract at ten tion and hear lots of sto ries (withthe Triples it’s usu ally “I broke ev ery bonein my body on one of those things!” orsome such). And that’s one of the best as -

pects about the vin tage bik ing, Jap a nese oroth er wise. In these days of deep po lit i caland ideo log i cal di vi sions in our coun try,our love of these old bikes brings to getherfolks who prob a bly would n’t in ter act witheach other, must less be come friends.

As I be gin my stew ard ship of this finepub li ca tion, I first have to tip my hat to for -mer Ed i tor Ka ren Mcelhaney for her greatjob in the last cou ple years; she built thefoun da tion upon which my work will rest,and that’s ap pre ci ated. An other tip goes toout go ing pres i dent Jim Townsend for hisded i ca tion, ex cel lent lead er ship, and tire -less pro mo tion of our club.

Please don’t for get: this is YOUR clubmag a zine! Your ar ti cles, pho tos, and sug -ges tions on what you’d like to see in fu -ture is sues are very im por tant to me. Infact, we could n’t pub lish the mag a zinewith out the con stant in put of club mem -bers. So please – send me your sto ries.Ev ery mem ber has a few – why you ownthe bike you do, what you’ve done to it,what it does for you – and we want to hearthem. Es pe cially wel come are tech tipsand “how-to” sto ries; this knowl edge is a“value-added” fea ture of our mag a zinethat is found no where else in the USpress, and is like gold to peo ple work ingon mo tor cy cle res to ra tions. So, as theysay, keep those cards and let ters (andemails) com ing. We ap pre ci ate ev ery one, and so will the other mem bers!

Ride em, don’t hide em, - Ja son Rob erts

From The Editor: Greetings From The New Guy

Longtime VJMC Member Passes Away

Denise Ratliff

Denise Ann Ratliff, long time VJMC mem ber and sup porter, passed away at 3.45pm on Tues day the 26th of July, 2005 at Fort Sanders Re gionalMed i cal Cen ter, in Knox ville, Ten nes see.

“My wife and I met Denise at a VJMC meet ing,” re calls club mem berAlex Ham il ton, “and we all worked to gether in the First Vol un teersChap ter of VJMC in East Ten nes see as well as at the first An nual Rallyheld in Oak Ridge where Denise greeted al most ev ery Mem ber that at -tended.” An in de pend ent soul, Denise loved to ride her mo tor cy cle andher trike. “Denise was an in te gral part of the VJMC Chap ter, tak ing onmore work than she needed, hold ing cook-outs at her home ei ther be foreor af ter a ride, as sist ing in or ga niz ing the Rally in Oak Ridge, all thewhile work ing as As sis tant Man ager of Bert’s Home town Grill inMadisonville,” Ham il ton says. “She will be missed at the res tau rant andby the many, many peo ple that she helped over the 14 years that she wasthere.”

Denise, you will be missed by us all.


Honda’s Plastic Fantastic Helixby Bill Sil ver

In over 40 years of rid ing two-wheelers, Ihave never owned a “scooter” be fore, al -though a cou ple of my past C(A)100 Cubsprob a bly qual ify. Through the years I haveheard from “older” rid ing bud dies that aHonda He lix was amaz ing thing to ride andvery use ful, too. He lix prices, like ev ery thingelse, have soared in the past few years, withcur rent 2005 re tail pric ing start ing at $5,299,plus tax, ship ping, etc. They were $4,399 in1997! I looked at a black 2001 He lix for salelast year, but it needed a seat and other cos -metic work and it just did n’t in spire me, then.

Scooters are wildly pop u lar here in theKailua Kona, Ha waii area. We don’t havemany “scooter clubs” – it’s just that they arethe cheap est way to get around town. Youwill see re tir ees, stu dents, kids, and la diesbuzz ing around on them. Down by the pier,the lo cal mo tor cy cle rental shop has a fleetof about 20 Honda Ruckus scoot ers. Whenthe cruise ships come into town, the pas sen -gers usu ally rent all of them out in the firstfew hours af ter their ar rival. Of ten groups ofship staff mem bers are seen rid ing in Ruckus squad rons, headed for some ocean ac tiv i ties.

As I write this, in mid-September 2005, thelo cal gas o line prices are around $4 per gal lon, so there is a lot of con cern about fuel econ -omy from all res i dents here. I had been with -out a bike for about a year; af ter my brief stintwith a 2004 VLX 600. I found out the hardway that I am not a “cruiser” kind of guy andmy body does n’t like hang ing out in thebreeze with my feet for ward. Then, a rathervague ad showed up in the lo cal classifieds:Honda He lix, 12k miles, 40 mpg, good con di -tion $1800. I am al ways sus pi cious about adsthat do not state the year of the ma chine and Iwas sure that a He lix got more than 40 mpg. Iwatched the ad for a few days then fi nallycalled the seller. He had bought it from anex-motorcycle dealer in Cal i for nia, did n’tknow much about the scooter and had onlyrid den it a to tal of 700 miles in the past year.In need of some cash to swing a few homeim prove ments, the He lix to him was just aspare trans por ta tion toy, thus the sale.

I went to see it and learned that it was anearly 1986 model, se rial #224 – a first-yearma chine. It still wore its OEM fac tor paint in a lovely pearl white fin ish. They are not badlook ing in that color! Most of the ones I seearound town are red or black, which re allydoes n’t look good on a He lix, in my opin ion.

I did a walk around the bike and checkedthe tires and brakes as much as pos si ble.

The seat was re cov ered in gray vi nyl. Thetires were re place ments, both worn down to the “wear bars.” The mushy han dling feelof this ma chine dur ing my brief test ridewor ried me, but then I found that there wasonly about half the re quired air pres sure inthe tires. That, cou pled with the tire wear,was the cause of the ill han dling. No se ri ous body dam age was ev i dent, al though thebike had ap par ently keeled over on the leftside and broke off the foot loop for the sidestand. We fi nally set tled on a $1600 priceand I rolled it out of the ga rage and out ontothe streets with my wife fol low ing.

It was La bor Day week end and hun dredsof “bik ers” had come out for a long week -end ride and get-together here in Kona. As I headed up the long grade, to wards ourhouse in Kealakekua (el e va tion 1600 ft), itbe gan to driz zle and then rain with more in -ten sity. I was n’t dressed for rain and waswear ing the an cient hel met that came withthe bike as my only pro tec tion. As weheaded up the hill, two “bik ers” passed by,their un-muffled en gines roar ing into thedis tance. I tucked in be hind the lit tle wind -screen of the He lix at full throt tle and let itwind up, hit ting about 55 mph, which was

Top: Bill Sil ver’s 1986 CN250 He lix. Bot tom: A 2005 He lix in Pearl White.


fast enough to stay out of harm’s way onthat sec tion of road. I no ticed that I wasstay ing pretty dry, while the bik ers aheadwere get ting a full face-full of rain di rectlyfrom the heav ens and even more be ingslung up their leather-covered legs as theysplashed through pud dles.

I got a lit tle damper as we slowed go ing intoKainaliu, where a per ma nent traf fic bot tle -neck ex ists. Af ter a cou ple of blocks, wepicked up speed again and my semi-crouched po si tion was work ing well to keep me dry inthe vary ing rain fall. I got home, just ahead ofmy wife in the car and then asked her to giveme a hug. Here ini tial re sponse was “NOWAY,” as she was sure I was drenched justlike the two bik ers who had con tin ued downthe high way. When she touched my shirt shewas amazed that it was al most com pletelydry! Weather pro tec tion on a He lix is veryim pres sive, to say the least.

I spent the fol low ing day tak ing the wheelsoff both ends and re build ing the brake cal i -per, which des per ately needed pads. The lo -cal Honda shop had an air fil ter, tires andfront brake pads in stock, and I was good togo af ter they swapped off the old rub ber forsome thing with real tread depth. They alsohap pened to have a 1986 Honda He lix shopman ual in stock! It was slightly used so theprice was dis counted to $10, a great stroke of luck all the way around.

When I had worked in the Honda shop acou ple of years be fore, I re call Greg, thehead me chanic, mak ing var i ous com mentsabout He lix weak nesses and ser vice chal -lenges. He had owned one for sev eral yearsfor com mut ing to work, 50 miles each way.His ma chine started out as a lightly-crashed bas ket case, but ev ery time a He lix came inthe shop for body work he scrounged somegood bits off and grad u ally re built thewhole ma chine, al though the painted partswere all dif fer ent col ors! He thought highlyof the ma chine, but con fided that there were some main te nance items to watch. The rub -ber in take man i folds bear the weight of agood-sized car bu re tor along with the at -tached air in take sys tem. Af ter awhile heat,vi bra tion, and the weight cause cracks inthe man i fold, re sult ing in back fir ing andhigh idle speeds due to the air leaks.

Greg sug gested that I bring the whole bikein for tires, as the rear wheel re moval was abit of a chore for the av er age per son. Be ingthe in quis i tive, do-it-yourselfer that I am, Iasked Greg a few ques tions about the pro ce -dure and then went about it my self at home.His ad vice was right on the money, of course.Rear wheel re moval re quired tak ing off themuf fler as sem bly, which has an ex haust gas -ket sleeve that usu ally falls apart when re -moved. He also said to re place the clamp bolt

with a stain less steel ver sion, while it wasapart, to ease the chore for the next time. Isprayed Kroil around the bolts and was ableto ease them all out with out dam age.

Af ter the muf fler is re moved, the rear sus -pen sion parts have to come off next. Undothe left rear shock and then tackle a largeself-locking nut that is torqued to about 65-ft lbs. I dis cov ered that ap ply ing the park ingbrake held the rear hub steady, al low ing meto loosen the nut with a 1/2” breaker bar anda deep im pact socket. A flat tire on a He lixwould def i nitely re quire a trip on a tow truck or big pickup truck if you don’t have a largetool box of heavy-duty wrenches and sock ets handy to pull the wheel.

The front wheel was a lit tle more man age -able. The twin-piston front cal i per wasfirmly at tached to the brake ro tor, which was show ing wear and grooves. I whacked it afew times with a plas tic mal let, pulled thean chor bolts and pins and fi nally got it freefrom the cal i per bracket. The brake padswere about 1/16” from go ing metal-to-metalso were prob a bly the orig i nal stock pads. Icare fully pumped out the two pis tons us ingthe mas ter cyl in der and cleaned ev ery thingup in side. The brake fluid looked pretty ter -ri ble and af ter ev ery thing was back to gether, I faced the usual brake bleed chal lenges,which never were re ally suc cess ful. Thebrakes fi nally got some pres sure, but then af -ter a cou ple of le ver squeezes the pres surewould drop about 50% and feel mushy. I fi -nally de cided that a mas ter cyl in der over haul kit was the next thing on the shop ping list(along with a new in take man i fold) andhoped that the bore in the mas ter cyl in derwas still okay, af ter 19 years of ser vice.

Read ing the shop man ual proved to bevery in for ma tive. Honda He lix power trains are pretty com plex and you need sev eralspe cial tools to work on them. The reardriven hub re quires a spe cial 39x41mmspe cial tool for re moval of the nut, whichHonda does n’t sell, even to deal ers. Ap par -ently, they al lo cate them to deal er ships andif they break one, you send it in for a re -place ment. There is a spe cial holder tool for the front drive pul ley that costs about $50and an other large clamp as sem bly that com -presses the spring in the rear pul ley sec tionfor dis as sem bly for a sim i lar price. Ma jorre pairs or ser vice on these scoot ers is not aback yard task, in many cases.

For tu nately, the en gine it self is a straight -for ward, wa ter-cooled, 2-valve, SOHC244cc sin gle, with a sin gle 27mm (30mmon later ver sions) car bu re tor, and over allmain te nance tasks are few. The valves aread justed with ec cen tric shafts and thecamchain ad juster is au to matic. Just as with any mod ern liq uid-cooled mo tor cy cle, you

must mon i tor the cool ant lev els and watchfor any leaks at the wa ter pump, hoses andra di a tor. The elec tric fan is op er ated by ather mo static switch, lo cated in the bot tomof the ra di a tor tank. Change the en gine oilev ery 1,000 miles, keep air in the tires andyou are ready to ride.

Ap par ently, drive belt life is quite long, asGreg said that he had never changed onebe fore. I took the cover off the drive caseand saw some cracks de vel op ing in the base of the tri an gu lar belt sec tions. I am plan -ning to stock up on a new belt and the toolsneeded to re place it. The big re pair bill co -mes when the drive and driven pul leys need over haul ing, with new clutch shoes, rollerkits and other tid bits.

The only ma jor “de fect” on this bike is part of the LCD speed om e ter dis play. There arepro gres sive bars that light up for fuel leveland cool ant tem per a ture lev els. The fuel bars have two blacked out seg ments in the mid dle of the dis play, so you never know ex actlyhow much fuel re mains un til the bot tom barstarts flash ing, in di cat ing that you are run -ning on fumes. A quick check ver i fied thatthe cost of the dis play unit from Honda wasaround $800 and the com plete speed om e teras sem bly was over $1,000 – ouch!

Working on the He lix, I was re minded how much it re sem bled a mod ern ver sion of the250-305cc Dream – just a bit more re finedand with a few things re versed. Both ma -chines were de signed for driver com fort andclean li ness. Both come with 250cc mo torsfed by a sin gle car bu re tor. The front sus pen -sion sys tems on both ma chines fea ture dualshocks; how ever the orig i nal was lead inglink and the He lix is trail ing link de sign. TheHe lix front sus pen sion even makes the samesqueaks as the Dream! I dis man tled one ofthe two front shocks and found that thesprings were rub bing on the damper body,mak ing the same sound that my 1962 CA77made when I owned it for al most five years.

My over all im pres sion of the He lix is thatit is well-built, sturdy, han dles well for ascooter with small tires, gets 60-70mpg and will cruise over 70 mph, all day long.

At 370 lbs, these are sub stan tial pieces ofma chin ery, but their low cen ter of grav ityand cen trally-mounted mo tor give a goodbal ance of agil ity and steadi ness on thehigh way. The He lix is ex tremelysmooth-running on the high way and emitsall the ex haust noise of a small Honda gen -er a tor, even at speed. My wife gets a realkick out of rid ing on it and we have al readybought an af ter mar ket lug gage rack, withthe idea of mount ing a large carry box andbackrest for her so she can cruise in style. Ifyou can’t af ford a Gold Wing, con sider theprac ti cal ity and econ omy of a Honda He lix!


by Tom Kolenko

THE PAST: While I would rather seemag a zine space taken by great pho tos ofneat Jap a nese bikes, I would like to re capevents since I be came trea surer and ex plainsome fu ture paths for this club’s fi nances as I leave this of fice. When I was first electedtrea surer in late 2002, there was less than$5000 in the cof fers and mag a zine print ingbills match ing that amount due ev ery twomonths. Some times, we had to wait for duesto ac cu mu late so we could pay our bills.

As a fis cal con ser va tive, I felt things had tochange. I learned to find the leaks and how say“no” to many peo ple’s re quests for club funds.I can celed the $2500 per year ad ver tise mentsin Walnecks, ve toed club cal en dars af ter thefirst year’s loss, urged all na tional ral lies tobreak even, did n’t re or der $1300 worth of club li cense plates, and did n’t fund lo cal bike showtro phy costs. Pet pro jects that did not serve thema jor ity of the mem ber ship did not getfunded. Dis cus sions with our Board of Di rec -tors over new ven ture fund ing were al waysfruit ful and more ideas to save money were al -ways shared. We adopted a “dis ci pline ofdebt” and started to live within our means.

THE PRESENT: The YTD Trea surer’sover view re port (see box be low) was pre -sented at the 2005 Board of Di rec tors & Fieldrep re sen ta tives meet ing at the Rally in Ten -nes see show ing club fi nances as of Sep tem -ber 2005. It es sen tially states that we arebreak ing even at pro vid ing ser vices at ourcur rent $25 an nual dues fee. Clearly, the six

an nual mag a zine is sues ac count for over 73% of the to tal ex pen di tures and pro vide thegreat est ser vice to our mem bers at large. Itcost ap prox i mately $3 per is sue to get thiscol ored mag a zine out to our mem bers, an -other $2 for mem ber ship card/wel come let ter, leav ing just $5 to cover all other ex penses.

Our mem ber ship drive pro ject that de vel -oped and dis trib uted 15,000 col ored mem ber -ship bro chures over the year cost $2784.Mid-Ohio space rent als were scaled backwhen their costs dou bled and we pur chased 4large dis play can o pies when we found rent als were even more ex pen sive. These can o pieswill be avail able for other events in the fu ture. These ex pen di tures were cleared by the BODaf ter anal y sis and fund ing dis cus sions. BillGranade’s mon i tor ing and anal y sis of ourmem ber ship drive signup rates re sulted inscaled back bro chure dis tri bu tions and seek -ing other growth strat e gies. Di rec tors and Of -fi cers in sur ance was pur chased for the firsttime in this club’s his tory to pro tect these vol -un teers. While our bank bal ance is now over$25,000, we have 3 more 2005 is sues of themag a zine to cover print ing costs.

THE FUTURE: This club will con tinue togrow in size and mem ber ship ser vice needs.But with size co mes com plex ity and new chal -lenges. Gov ern ment com pli ance is sues on of fi -cer bond ing, in de pend ent ac count ing au dits,li a bil ity in sur ance, and IRS re port ing ob li ga -tions will add $5000-$7000 in an nual op er at ingex penses in 2006. Yes, we are large enoughnow to gar ner in ter est from many out side agen -cies and must use club funds to com ply.

Club dues have not in creased in the past 8years while all our ex penses have ramped up over these years. We have got ten away withnot rais ing dues by hav ing a ded i cated cadreof Board mem bers & club of fi cers whoserve long hours as vol un teers of their timeand their re sources. We have not re im bursed of fi cers for travel, tele phone calls, hours atcom puter ter mi nals log ging in club data,etc., and they are the rea son we were able tokeep our over head ex penses so very low.

How long vol un teers sup port the back boneop er a tions of this club with their free la bor isde ter mined by the qual ity and char ac ter ofthese vol un teers and their re place ments.Imag ine pro cess ing the 250 mem ber ships/re -new als per month that Bill Granade han dleswhile build ing & re vis ing the mail ing database for the printer for each is sue. Or serv ingas Ed i tor (for merly Ka ren McElhaney) of our amaz ing 36-page bi monthly mag a zine withdead line pres sures, or work ing as theWebmaster (Ja son Bell), up dat ing our hightraf fic website ….just be cause you want toserve this club. With our growth and the newover head ex penses as so ci ated with new gov -ern ment com pli ance re quire ments, we needto raise the an nual dues for 2006 to $30 topro vide the same level of ser vice we have en -joyed as mem bers. This small $5 in crease isthe first in 8 years and very de pend ent on vol -un teer of fi cers con tin u ing to give their timeand tal ents with out charge. I have en joyed my years as Trea surer and work ing with a fineBoard of Di rec tors lead by Jim Townsendand Pete Boody.

VJMC Treasurer’s Report

Trea surer’s Re port, as of 9-9-05INCOMEPro jected 2005 Dues (@2000 mem bers)1722 @ $25.00 (1 yr) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43050

152 @ $22.50(2 yr) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3283126 @ $21.66 (3 yr) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2729

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49062Com mer cial Ads (YTD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603Re ga lia Sales (Tom)(YTD). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372Bank In ter est (Div i dend De posit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239To tal In come. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50,276EXPENSESMag a zine Print ing

Feb. (1980/1802) (36 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5471Apr. (2067/1843) (32 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4936June (2415/1989) (40 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6402Aug. (2350/2140) (32 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6382Oct. (?) (Pro jected) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6300Dec. (?) (Pro jected) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6300

An tic i pated Ex penses $35,791Mag a zine Lay out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800

Mem ber ship Pro cessing (YTD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4552Mem ber ship Bro chures Print ing (15K) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2144 Mailing Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $640Post age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $245Re ga lia – T-shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $792D & O In sur ance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $450Tro phies & Awards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $308Mid-Ohio Swap Meet Rental + Pic nic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $799Cy cle World Show Ex penses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $168Daytona Show Ex penses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100Can opies (Mid-Ohio) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $843VJMC Rally Ban ners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $305Sup plies (Jim T.). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $77Pro jected To tal Ex penses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $48,014To tal In come. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50,276Pro jected Net In come . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2262

Note: Up com ing ex penses in clude In sur ance , Ac count ing Au -dit, IRS Fil ing $500, and bond ing.


The Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycle Res to ra tion, Part 2by George Ramey

In the April is sue, I re layed the story ofget ting a “free” Honda CL77 Scram blerand my ad ven ture meet ing new friendsalong the way in my quest to re store it tostock. By the end of Part 1, I had es sen tiallycom pleted the en gine as sem bly with helpfrom my new friends, and was wait ing forall the painted and rechromed parts to befin ished for fi nal as sem bly.

The paint ing was done by Russ at Cus tomClas sic Paint Works in Lynnwood, Wash -ing ton, a ten-minute drive from my house. Ihad dropped off all the metal parts to Russfor bead blast ing and paint ing just af terChrist mas. He works on mo tor cy cles only as it’s eas ier to com ply with all the en vi ron -men tal reg u la tions be cause his paint use ismuch less than an auto paint ing place. I re -ceived the first batch of parts back in Feb ru -ary which con sisted of the frame, swing arm, pro tec tor plates and en gine mount bracket.

The res to ra tion is tak ing my place in myrec room which is warmer than my de -tached ga rage. With a one man op er a tion, Icon cluded that it would be eas ier to in stall alight part onto a heavy part so I laid the en -gine on its right side and dropped the frameover it. This was a trial and er ror af fair, re -quir ing that I re move the right side ex hauststuds and the top mo tor mount/con denserbracket. In the end, it worked out OK andwith the bolts loosely in stalled, I righted the bike and fin ished the as sem bly.

The next phase went smoothly, in stall ingthe coils, the swing arm, shocks (af ter mar -ket), steer ing arm, and front shocks. In -stalling the steer ing arm re quired the help ofthe own ers’ mail ing list as my parts cat a logcalled for a to tal of 38 ball bear ings and Ionly had 37. Luckily they are stan dard #8balls so I went out to buy an other, think ingthat one must have got ten away dur ing thedis as sem bly. Af ter slathering grease on theraces, I be gan to in stall them and no ticed that only 18 will fit on the top as the bear ing raceis about 1/16” smaller in di am e ter than thebot tom. For tu nately, the mail ing list folksver i fied 19 balls on the bot tom, 18 top.

Next to in stall were the head light bucket,fend ers, tail light, and han dle bars, whichwere in stalled with out in ci dent. Then ontothe wir ing. My har ness was in re mark ablygood shape and looks al most new af terclean ing up. I routed the har ness based onthe bends that had taken a set af ter al most40 years (should have taken pho tos dur ingdis as sem bly) but I’m not sure I routed itcor rectly. It goes on the right side along the

up per frame rail and bends around the rightside of the steer ing arm be fore en ter ing thehead light shell. I un der stand it may want tocross over the up per frame rail and goaround the left side of the steer ing arm be -fore en ter ing the head light shell but the har -ness’ bends did n’t want to do this so I did n’t force it. The tank does n’t foul the har nessand turn ing the front wheel back and forthdoes not af fect it so that’s how it’s stay ing.

Wheels were next. In the last in stall ment, Imen tioned that the wheel rims were re allyrusty, es pe cially the area that was on the bot -tom sit ting out in the el e ments for years. Ide cided to get new rims and found them oneBay, com plete wheels of course but I nowhad two sets of spokes so I could clean andpol ish and use the best of them. The rims had mi nor sur face rust so off they went for are-chrome job to Queen City Plating. Af terclean ing and pol ish ing the smaller alu mi -

num parts such as the tri ple tree and han dle -bar bits, I de cided to farm out the wheel hubs and brake pan els for pol ish ing since I don’thave a pol ish ing wheel (yet). Jim at Di eter’sCus tom Metal Fin ishing be came my new estfriend (for a price) when I re ceived the partsa week af ter I had mailed him money. Therims came back freshly re-chromed soon af -ter and the spoke lac ing be gan. Never hav ing laced a wheel be fore, I learned to set thespokes so that the last few were n’t trappedun der neath when they needed to be on top of an ad ja cent spoke. I learned this by do ing itwrong many times. The first wheel tookthree hours and a lot of #@*&@%!, whilethe sec ond took less than an hour.

I next made a fee ble at tempt at wheel tru -ing. I made a tru ing stand by mount ing two2x4s up right on a ply wood base. I had cutv-notches in the top of the 2x4s for the axleto sit in and mounted these on a sur face

Top: En gine and frame to gether again af ter many years. Bot tom: Al most there.


plate. I lev elled the axle by in sert ing shimsinto one of the notches. Using a cou ple oftru ing tech niques I had down loaded fromthe Net, I was ready to go. Now pic ture this: re mem ber the scene in the movie “TheMag nif i cent Men In Their Flying Ma -chines” where the Ger man pi lot tried to flywith one hand on the wheel and the otherhold ing a how-to-fly in struc tion man ual?Well, this was my tru ing ex pe ri ence. Istarted of with an 1/8” ra dial and 5/8” lat -eral mis align ment. Af ter an hour I got itdown to 1/16” ra dial and 1/2” lat eral mis -align ment. At that rate I could have the firstwheel done by this fall and maybe the sec -ond done some time in the win ter. At least Itried. I think learn ing how to do this is bestac com plished un der the su per vi sion of anac com plished wheel truer, or at least by ex -er cis ing much more pa tient than I have. Offwent the wheels to Lake City Honda alongwith tubes, tires (Avons from Tires Un lim -ited) and rim strips for a one-stop so lu tion.

Af ter they came back, freshly re-skinned,I in stalled the wheels, chain, chain guard,and at tached the brake ca bles and speedoca ble. She was start ing to look good. You’ll note in the photo the points are miss ing andthere is a ratchet on the crank bolt. Moreabout this in a min ute.

All that was next was to mount the fueltank, fill up with fuel and oil and start it. Tobe pru dent, I though I should at least ad justthe points and do a static time. Using EdMoore’s Spe cial Tuning Rec ipe, I dis cov -ered that the points opened at 30 de grees be -fore the tim ing mark even when ro tated tothe end of the breaker plate slots. Some thingwas dread fully wrong! I be gan a se ries of

e-mails to Bill Sil ver and Ed Moore tode ter mine the prob lem. I e-mailed Bill firstbe cause, if you re call in the first in stall ment,the cam sprocket had had the “per for mancemod” done, in which the weight stops werewelded up to get a 10-degree static ad vancein stead of the nor mal 5 de grees. Bill hadmen tioned this in his En gine Re pair Guidebut had only heard about it, not ac tu ally per -formed it. He sug gested I con tact Ed Mooreand both of us con cluded, along with Bill,that the “per for mance mod” must have beenex tremely ag gres sive to get such a tim inganom aly. I tried en larg ing the points breakerplate to get more ad just ment but quit whenthe slot started into the left breaker points.This got only 20 de grees of ad vance. We allcon cluded that the only fix was to re placethe cam sprocket. Ed had used one and soldit to me for a rea son able cost. He and Billhave been very help ful in these last stages ofas sem bly and kept guid ing me in the rightdi rec tion when I came up with whackoideas.

Af ter I re ceived the re place ment camsprocket from Ed, I re moved en gine fromthe frame and re placed the sprock ets. Af terre as sem bly, I ad justed the points and voila!I was able to ad just the right and left break -ers to spec. Now for start ing...I filled thecrank case with oil and put about a gal lon offuel in the tank and turned on the petcock.Hmm, where’s that fuel leak ing from?Oops, why does n’t the left carb have a bowl drain screw? Tried to find a tem po raryscrew but it seemed to be an odd ball size,6mm too big and 5mm dif fer ent threadpitch than the cur rent 5mm pitch or the oldJIS pitch. Tried plug ging it with a rub ber

plug but could n’t get a good seal. Off to themail ing list again. Dick John son from Gres -ham, Or e gon kindly sent me a drain screw.While I was wait ing for it, I de cided to takethe carbs off and dou ble check the floatheight. Al though they were fine, an in spec -tion of the jets I got from the well knownmaker of carb re build kits in di cated that thejet sizes were in cor rect for my en gine. Theslow run ning jet in the kit was a #30 whereit should have been a #42 (al though theCL77 spec says it should be a #38, both Edand Dick said the CB77 #42 was a betterop tion). Also the kit came with a #130 main jet; a #135 is the more suit able one.

Af ter read ing posts on the vi a bil ity of theaf ter mar ket carb kits and the re sult ing prob -lems they caused, I de cided to or der newjets from West ern Hills Honda. Af ter theirar rival they were in stalled and it was time to at tempt a start. Petcock open, choke on, one kick, two kicks, three kicks – IT’S ALIVE!

A bit of fid dling with the carbs and it wastime for a run around the block. Hmmm,stum bling ac cel er a tion and fuel com ing outof the over flow tubes. I could have sworn Iset the floats cor rectly. I took the carbs offand dis cov ered a leaky float. A fran tic e-mail to West ern Hills Honda and they FedExedme a new float the next day. What ser vice!With the help from the mail ing list I prop erly set the float heights. I pulled the plugs to dis -cover they were wet and black so while I was mull ing over low er ing the jet nee dles, my re -place ment carb re build kits showed up (for aCB77). I com pared the new kits’ nee dles tothe CL77 nee dles in the carbs and found they were thicker, so on Ed Moore’s ad vice I in -stalled the fat ter CB77 nee dles.

Af ter a bit of fid dling and test drives, I have it run ning well enough for short jaunts butam still learn ing by trial and er ror how toprop erly ad just the carbs, and I still need tover ify the charg ing cir cuit. But at least nowit starts eas ily, and I now own the bike Icould n’t af ford al most 40 years ago. It’s also good to have a ma chine I can tin ker with.

Al though it’s been 13 months since Ibrought home a bas ket case (ac tu ally milkcrate cases), join ing the VJMC and its mail -ing list has been the only way I could haveac com plished the CL77’s res ur rec tion.With out the ex ten sive help and pa tiencefrom mem bers will ing to help with mysome times stu pid ques tions and goofy fore -gone con clu sions, I’m not sure I could havecom pleted it alone. Along the way I havemet many new friends (some who, I think,like my VISA card num ber more than me)and mail ing list mem bers and this hasadded to the ful fill ment of this od ys sey. Al -though I still have a bit of fine tun ing to do,

On the road again af ter many years.


Reunion With An Old Friendby Larry Wisse

Back in the mid Sixties, when Viet Namwas rag ing and the mu sic was talkin’ aboutflow ers and peace, life went on as usual inmy small home town in cen tral Ohio. I wasbarely 16 then, just old enough to drive andtear up any thing I got my hands on. I wasyoung and full of it. It was a de press ingtime too, be cause you never knew when thedraft board would give you that call andsend you that let ter. One day dur ing lunchat the high school, some of us farm boyswere out walk ing around brag ging aboutour souped-up straight-six Fords andChevys when sud denly down the street likea streak came this thing called a SoloSuzuki (at least that’s what it said on therider’s hel met and across his back). All Isaw was this mo tor cy cle with a big rac ingstripe down the cen ter, kind of like the elec -tri cal-taped job on my `61 Mer cury Comet,smokin’ and go ing like a mis sile. Thesound was like some thing we’d never heard be fore ei ther, like an 800-pound chain saw.It was a pretty thing too, blue and chrome,growl ing like some sort of wild an i mal. Allof us were stunned. I re mem ber lift ing myjaw off the side walk, think ing WOW! What was that?

We stared at Mr. Solo Suzuki, stopped at a red light in the cen ter of town, not know ingwhat was in store for us. I think to this daythat Mr. Solo Suzuki knew we were watch -ing to see what would hap pen next. Wecould n’t see his face due to the blacked-outface shield of his hel met, and he wore aspace suit as well, which was re ally strange. A mys tery man had in vaded our lit tle townand we were quite anx ious. When the lightturned green he took off and all we couldthink of was a rocket ship. The bike smoked and he went faster then any thing we hadever seen be fore. The sound was in cred i bleas it ech oed through the streets. What ashow it was.

Other sight ings around town were re -ported as well. For days I watched out myclass room win dow to see if the Solo Suzukiguy was out there some where. The alienshad landed and us kids were go ing crazy!One day while in the li brary, we heard thebike take off but there were no win dows tosee out side. We knew that sound, how ever,so we raced out side to see if we could get aglimpse of it again, but all we found weretwo knee-level con trails of blue smoke.One girl in our class ac tu ally fell in lovewith Mr. Solo Suzuki, kind of like what

hap pened when the Bea tles came on thescene.

A cou ple of weeks later, a new Suzukishop opened up in our town. In the frontwin dow was a big poster ad ver tis ing thatwe, too, could be like Solo Suzuki. Theword spread. It was then that I re al ized what we had seen two weeks ear lier was an an -nounce ment that Suzuki was com ing totown. Also in the front win dow was thatpretty blue rocket ship on wheels, called the X6 Hus tler, that we had seen ear lier. Thereit was, right in front of us, and we could n’tget in side the store quick enough. Not onlydid we find the X6 Hus tler, there weremany other bikes of all sizes as well, and ifthey smoked we liked them. For some rea -son, that smoke was the cool est thing. If itdid n’t smoke, we were n’t in ter ested!

Well, af ter about seven months of work -ing ex tra jobs and sav ing my money, I be -came the owner of a brand new blue X6,just like the one Mr. Solo Suzuki rode. I feltlike a lost part of me had now been found.Funny thing though, no girl ever fell in love with me be cause of it! I had more fun onthat bike than I could ever de scribe. TheHarley guys were not im pressed ei ther, es -pe cially when we raced to see who could hit 60 mph first.

Sad to say though, us kids just trashed ourX6s. Some guys bored the cyl in ders out,oth ers chopped the frames. I guess we al -ways as sumed there would be X6s aroundfor the rest of our lives. We were prettycare less too, ig nor ing rou tine main te nanceof the bikes. I sold mine to a guy who justlet it rust in a pig lot. How ever, I al ways re -mem bered my X6 and al ways thought it

was the neat est bike ever made; that is howI felt and still do. I can hon estly say thatsince the day I sold my first one, I have al -ways wanted an other. It was a sad day when I found out that Suzuki dis con tin ued thesale of them here in the states. I would gointo the Suzuki dealer and when I wouldask for a used X6, they would re turn a clue -less look.

Thirty some years later, pe rus ing the in -ternet one day, I did a search for “X6 Hus -tler” upon which I en coun tered the VJMCwebsite. Wow, I said, I’m not alone af terall; there’s other folks out there who feellike I do about vin tage Jap a nese mo tor cy -cles. I saw pic tures of beau ti fully re storedHondas and Kawasakis, parts for sale, andeven some X6 Hus tler-lovers like my self.Well, I was so thrilled to find the VJMC and all these like-minded fans that I joined im -me di ately. I am so glad that the VJMC ex -ists, with a mis sion to keep these won der fulold ma chines alive for the youn ger gen er a -tions to see and ex pe ri ence. Be ing a VJMCmem ber also gave me the help and in spi ra -tion I needed to get out and track down thatpretty blue X6, and find one I did.

I pur chased this X6 in up state In di anafrom a kind gen tle man who had cared for itvery well. It is a 1966 model and as you cansee in the pho tos, it has been well pre -served. As I un der stand, it was pur chasednew there at a lo cal Suzuki shop. It endedup in a fin ished base ment and there it sat for 26 years. The pre vi ous owner then ac quired it and kept it ga raged and in run ning con di -tion for the next few years. It has around9500 miles on it and is a true sur vi vor, allorig i nal; the tool kit, air pump and seat are


still in mint con di tion. I re cently had thebike tuned up to per fec tion – carbs re builtalong with a thor ough in spec tion by HondaMotorsports In Marys ville. Happily, theydid n’t ask for my first born when it cametime to pay the bill! Marty and Doug at theshop re ally know what they are do ing whenit co mes to vin tage mo tor cy cles, and Ihighly rec om mend their ser vice; they canbe reached at (937) 645-4080. The bike’scarbs had slightly warped float bowls, andMarty and Doug lev eled them out so thegas kets would seat prop erly. Now the bikeruns as good as it looks.

I feel re united with a long-lost friend andat the same time I feel like a kid again. Thistime around, how ever, the bike won’t betrashed – it will be ba bied. If it needs breastfeed ing, I’ll do it!

Attention all members: If you move, change ad dresses or change e-mail ad dresses,please no tify the mem ber ship chair as soon as pos si ble. Please address anymembership questions to Bill Granade (see page 2 for contact information).


Bike With No Nameby Bill “Mr. Honda” Sil ver

Hav ing moved to Ha waii in July 2002, Ipretty much gave up most of my parts, bikes and “stuff” re lated to vin tage Hondas. In anim pul sive mo ment, how ever, not long af terwe had ar rived, I bid on an Ebay auc tion for a bike de scribed as be low:

Vin tage Honda Cub (for the Whizz er Fan)Ve hi cle De scrip tionFor all you Whizz er fans out there, here is

one to top all your friends. This is theORIGINAL Honda Cub, the first prod uctHonda ever pro duced. Se rial Num ber10056, mak ing it the 10,056th item toEVER roll off the Honda lines. This modelwas orig i nally sold in 1948, so it was builtsome where in the first three years of pro -duc tion. Comes with the bi cy cle. The en -gine and bike look great to gether.

Ve hi cle Con di tionGood. Some paint ero sion on the gas tank.

Has n’t run in a while, but it’s a 2-stroke, soit should n’t be hard to get run ning again.

The small pho tos showed a 1952-53 “FCub” (Known as the “AKA CUB” in Jap a -nese. “AKA” mean ing “red,” the color ofthe Cub en gine cover) mounted on an un -known bi cy cle chas sis. The en gine as sem -bly is a tiny 50cc, 2-stroke unit, de signed by Soichiro Honda, him self. The com pleteF-Cub was mar keted as “Red en gine withWhite Tank” in Ja pan and was said toevoke the im age of a “bear cub run ningfreely.” Un for tu nately, this bi cy cle framewas NOT the orig i nal Honda chas sis, butlooked like it might have been an oldSchwinn or some thing sim i lar. Nev er the -less, how could I go wrong, right? I de cided to go for the BUY IT NOW! op tion andhoped that it could be shipped in pieces at area son able cost.

Af ter I bought it, I started to ask ques tionsabout the chas sis and the story be hind it.The seller, Matt Clark lived in Oak Park,Mich i gan and found the bike in the back ofhis ga rage rather un ex pect edly. His fa therhad bought the bike about 20 years ago at aga rage sale. Matt had few mem o ries ofwhether the bike came as-is or if it was anen gine kit that was de signed to be at tachedto any bi cy cle. I asked about any mark ingsor se rial num bers any where on the ma -chine, but all he found were the se rial num -bers for the mo tor it self (10056). GivenHonda’s num ber ing sys tem, it could be ei -ther the 56th mo tor or the 10,056th mo torbuilt. Honda be gan pro duc ing the Cub mo -tors in May of 1952 and was knock ing out6,500 of them a month by the end of 1953.

The ini tial ship ping es ti mates for send ingthe bike, as a unit in a crate, were about$700! Ouch! VJMC mem ber Ron Smith isan avid bi cy cle fan and noted that he hadshipped an old bike back to the mid-west forabout $100 boxed at the bike dealer and UPS shipped to the new owner. That seemed likea more rea son able course of ac tion. Here onthe Big Is land we had just had 1600 par tic i -pants in the Kona Ironman com pe ti tion andthey all brought their own bikes from about50 dif fer ent coun tries. Bikes in a boxshould n’t be a big deal, right?

Matt agreed to re move the en gine and tankfrom the frame and take it to a bike shop forship ment. They boxed it and he took the boxto UPS, who turned it down for some rea son, so he went to a pack ag ing store who took itas-is and dou bled the UPS fees (as they do)and shipped it for $255 on UPS 2nd day air.Matt agreed to box and ship the mo tor to mefor no ad di tional fee be cause of the ex cesspack ing store charges, which was very gen -er ous of him. The frame ar rived mi nus oneof the ped als and with a front axle nut miss -ing, both of which prob a bly es caped out of

Top: The rear wheel drive sprocket as sem bly. Bot tom: The en gine and fuel tank.


the hole in the box, which was ev i dent on ar -rival. The poor UPS de liv ery guy ar rived un -no ticed, so be fore I could get him to leavethe box on the first floor so I could put it inthe truck to take to stor age, he had lugged itall the way up to our 3rd floor apart ment!The UPS la bel read 50.1 lbs, just the box and the chas sis! Ouch again!

My lovely wife, Kathryn, helped me carry itback down the stairs again and into the truck,still in the box. I took it down to my stor age fa -cil ity and be gan to un wrap this “pre cious gem” of a frame. As I re moved the parts from in side,I no ticed that they were pretty much tossedinto an empty box with out re gard for safety orse cu rity. The front fork as sem bly was re -

moved, along with the wheel and fender. Ped -als were taken off and that was about it. Thepedal is marked WALO MFG CO, MADE INUSA. There was a head light on the front,which was se cured with a stain less steel hoseclamp. The light as sem bly was markedHYPER Dy namo Lamp and had a wire ter mi -nal on the bot tom, in di cat ing that it was a con -nec tion to a gen er a tor of some kind. I be lievethat it was part of the orig i nal kit, be cause itwas made in Ja pan. The rear re flec tor wasmarked STATOLITE SAE-B63 and that wasabout it for mark ings of any kind. A close lookat the “mo tor” drive chain showed it to be aDID brand. The bi cy cle chain was marked“Czecho slo va kia” in small let ters. The chain

guard was blank and painted white. It re allydid n’t seem to be a match for the bi cy cle, asthe rear mount ing-hole was not a match. Thepaint was black with white strip ing on thefend ers and a V shaped sec tion, like you see on many 50s-60s bi cy cles.

Closer in spec tion of the frame re vealedgreen paint un der the black and red paint.There are no num bers stamped on the back ofthe frame, near the rear axle nor un der thecrank mount ing point ei ther (thus The BikeWith No Name). The rear wheel rim had araised, stepped sec tion to it. Both tires were16” x 1.25”. Matt had re placed the front tirewith a new CS, whereas the “orig i nal” rear tirecar ried a Uniroyal Kobby logo on the side wall.

The rear wheel mo tor drive sprocket as sem -bly is a real work of art. The mount ing adapt -ers con nect ing the sprocket to the rear wheelas sem bly are quite clever. First, a two-pieceal loy cast ing slips in the mid dle of the huband spoke sec tion, one piece at a time. Thereare “ad just ment” screws that come in at a 90an gle to cen ter the adapter onto the rear wheel assy. On the edges of the two semi-circles area num ber of fixed and ad just able holes thatare used in con junc tion with small spoke re -tain ers to at tach the adapter to the spokes di -rectly. Half of the re tain ers are in a fixedlo ca tion, while the oth ers are in a slot ted holesec tion to al low for mount ing on most anysize wheel or spoke con fig u ra tion.

Once the rear adapter is in stalled, cen tered and se cured to the spokes, the 2-piece drivesprocket is in stalled with a se ries of longscrews. There are a se ries of bosses castinto the adapter to lo cate and an chor theouter drive sprocket. Very sim ple, very ad -just able and very clever! No won der thesewere the hit of Ja pan in 1952-53. SoichiroHonda re ceived the cov eted Blue Rib bonMedal award given by the Em peror of Ja -pan for this achieve ment. The Cub mo torwas rated at about .5 PS or a lit tle un der ahalf-horse power and that was all most ofthe pop u la tion re quired to get around inpost-WWII Ja pan.

The en gine and fuel tank ar rived a few dayslater… you can see what it looked like withthe side cover and car bu re tor off on page 12.

The charm wore off quickly af ter hav ing a good look at Mr. Honda’s cre ation, so I putit back on Ebay and sold it to a col lec tor inTexas. Later in the year, it was re ported tohave been seen for sale at a bike meet for a$5k ask ing price. I sent the chas sis to therecycler, never hav ing de ter mined themaker/or i gin of the frame.

So, if you see a small, odd-looking Hondabi cy cle en gine and fuel tank at a yard sale or swap meet, GRAB IT, be cause it is veryrare, not only here in the US, but world -wide.

Top: A fac tory photo of the 1952 F Cub. Bot tom: A later 1953-4 2F ver sion with flat tened out,saddlebag-shaped fuel tank de sign.


Thirty Years of Cyclingby Michael Vachon

While sift ing through ma te rial for a newar ti cle, I de cided to write a ret ro spec tivepiece for the VJMC mag a zine on the last 30years of mo tor cy cles. Why? Be cause I justhap pen to have a 1975 edi tion of Petersen’sMo tor cy cle Buyer’s Guide in my pos ses -sion! It’s fas ci nat ing to thumb through thepages and ex am ine all the 1975 of fer ings,their spec i fi ca tions, and their prices. Com -paring this to a cur rent edi tion of Cy cleWorld 2005 Buyers Guide gives one a trueap pre ci a tion for what vin tage Jap a nese cy -cling is all about. The sig nif i cance of anyvin tage mo tor cy cle is de ter mined not onlyby its age but also by the nu mer ous changes that have oc curred since the orig i nal pro -duc tion of that mo tor cy cle, or mo tor cy clesin gen eral.

Re mem bering what times were like in1975, it would have been hard to imag inejust what the land scape of the motorcyclingworld would look like 30 years hence. Con -sider this: in 1975 the Petersen’s Guide was one of the pri mary re sources for re search -ing a mo tor cy cle pur chase. To day, a wealthof in for ma tion on any new bike is a sim plemouse click away via feed back-type websites, owner’s groups, and man u fac turerweb sites.

My task was con sid er able: how to boildown 30 years worth of in for ma tion andde vel op ments into an ar ti cle of rea son ablesize? Sev eral key el e ments be came ob vi ous af ter care ful con sid er ation, and I man agedto sum the sub ject up into three main top ics: The Players (i.e. mo tor cy cle man u fac tur -ers), styl ing, and tech nol ogy. The land -scape of the cy cling world has changed somuch since 1975. It would be easy to pro -duce an en tire ar ti cle, if not a book, on anyone of these top ics alone.

The Players

In 1975, Petersen’s Guide listed 33 dif fer -ent mo tor cy cle man u fac tur ers. More thanone-third of these pro duced off-road bikes.Off-road mo tor cy cle pro duc tion was at itsheight in that year. Pop u lar ized in filmssuch as the 1971 cult clas sic “On AnySunday”, many cy cle com pa nies builtstump-pulling, two-stroke torque mon stersal most ex clu sively. Early lead ers in his cat -e gory were Ossa, Husqvarna, Montesa, and Bultaco, but the Jap a nese man u fac tur erswere quickly catch ing on and had a largenum ber of their own of fer ings by 1975.

Much as they had done with street bikes,the Big Four (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki,and Yamaha) quickly learned how to buildoff-road bikes that were light, pow er ful,and most im por tantly, in ex pen sive. For ex -am ple, in 1975 a Kawasaki F-11 250 costabout $500 less than a com pa ra ble Bultacomodel. In the same way that the Big Fourhad de voured mar ket share from all theother street mo tor cy cle man u fac tur ers, there source ful Jap a nese had sealed the fates ofmany of the off-road cy cle com pa nies.Hav ing built up their com pa nies based onthe suc cess of their street mod els, the BigFour could af ford to ex per i ment with andex pand their off-road lines.

To day, only a few man u fac tur ers re mainwho fo cus their of fer ings solely in thetwo-wheel, off-road mar ket. For ex am ple,Husqvarna is still with us, now part of theCagiva fam ily which in cludes MV Agusta(an other re born marque). An other sto riedman u fac turer, Montesa, man aged to sur -vive through a spe cial Honda part ner shipthat was cre ated in 1982. Still otheroff-road play ers such as ATK, Gas Gas,and KTM, have since joined the fray.

Many street mo tor cy cle com pa nieslisted in the Petersen’s Guide are stillwith us, in clud ing: Harley-Davidson,Ducati, Moto-Guzzi, and BMW. Oth ers,such as BSA, Can-Am, and Zundapp, arelong gone. Some marques have died andbeen re born: Benelli, Norton, and Tri -umph.

It seems that most of the com pa nies thatman aged to do well of fer a range of mod -els that fit most cur rent tastes and meetthe ex pec ta tions of their cus tom ers.Through di ver sity, mo tor cy cle man u fac -tur ers can sur vive on their suc cess ful of -fer ings while re think ing those mod elsthat don’t fare as well. To ac com plishthis, man u fac tur ers must con tin u ally up -date their prod ucts and re ally fo cus onwhat the pub lic is look ing for in their next mo tor cy cle. Many com pa nies now con -duct fo cus group ses sions, and I am surethey also pay at ten tion to any of the ma jormes sage boards ded i cated to any of theirpar tic u lar mod els.

Styling

Styling de fines each mo tor cy cle’s per son -al ity and al lows it to evoke a cer tain at ti -tude. Styling is also a large in flu ence onyou, the con sumer, be cause let’s face it; if it looks ugly, you aren’t buy ing it! Styling isdef i nitely one of the big gest ar eas of growth

in motorcycling over the past thirty years.Buyers are no lon ger con stricted to just afew cat e go ries or cookie-cutter de signs;there are an in creas ing num ber of styles tochoose from to suit ev ery con ceiv able pur -pose.

Ex am ining the 1975 Petersen’s Buyer’sGuide is a great way to see how far mo tor -cy cle com pa nies have come by of fer ingmore va ri ety across their model ranges. Forex am ple, the only “dresser” in the wholemag a zine is the ven er a ble Harley-Davidson FLH 1200, which came stockwith screened far ing and hard bags. Otherthan a few OEM café-style bikes (BMWR90S, Laverda 750 SFC, and a Norton 850Com mando), the rest of the street bikelineup would eas ily clas sify as na ked orstan dards in to day’s terms.

All the mod els shown sport spoke wheels, chrome fend ers, flat seats, chrome ex haust(with mul ti ple muf flers be ing the norm),and sim ple di rec tional-on-post for turn sig -nals. This was truly the era of what be cameknown as the UJM – Uni ver sal Jap a neseMo tor cy cle.

Honda’s new est of fer ing that year was the 1000cc Gold Wing. Al though quite ca pa ble of fill ing the role of com fort ablelong-distance tourer, it was in tro duced justas all new borns are – na ked. Kawasaki wasthe only Jap a nese man u fac turer thatseemed will ing to tweak their styl ing a bit.When the 900cc Z1 was in tro duced in1973, it sported a body-colored tail piecethat cov ered the tail lamp in ad di tion to theex pected chromed rear fender. This de signhad also been fea tured on ear lier Kawasakitwo-stroke street bikes.

The 1975 Petersen’s Mo tor cy cle Buyer’s Guide.

By 1975, Kawasaki pushed this newer de -sign a bit fur ther on its 400, 500 and 750cctwo-stroke street bikes by de let ing the rearchromed fender en tirely, swap ping it for ablack plas tic fender unit in te grated with alarger tail piece that now housed the taillamp as sem bly (at least in the US mar ket).Surely this was not an earth-shattering de -sign change, but still a styl ing change thatwould carry over in the en su ing thirty-yearspan and show up on many other streetbikes as well.

As far as style cat e go ries go, the of fer ingsavail able to day make those of 1975 seemal most prim i tive. Af ter 30 years of mo tor -cy cle in dus try change and growth, we nowsee niches cov er ing tour ing, sport tour ing,cruiser, heavy cruiser, superbike, anddual-purpose, along with the afore men -tioned na ked street bikes. Never has thecon sumer had so many pur pose-specificstyles of bikes to choose from.

There were also a huge num ber of cy cleac ces so ries avail able by 1975, pro vided bya fast-growing af ter mar ket parts seg ment.My Petersen’s Guide lists many bolt-on ac -ces so ries from travel racks to ex haust sys -tems, made by com pa nies such as Tri ple A,KG, Jar dine, Bates and Whitco. Sure, theaf ter mar ket is still with us, but an in ter est -ing thing has hap pened since 1975: mo tor -cy cle com pa nies caught on to the fact thatcus tom ers wanted cer tain ad di tional equip -ment on their mounts, right off the show -room floor.

A very good ex am ple of this is the HondaGold Wing. When in tro duced in 1975, thiswas billed as a true long-distance tour ingbike. In typ i cal Amer i can fash ion, rid ersde ter mined that if they were go ing on suchlong trips, they needed to bring some cloth -ing, gear, etc. Af ter mar ket com pa nies to the res cue! Al most over night, you could dressup your 1975 Gold Wing with fair ing, hardbags, trunk, and even a ra dio. Honda ob -served all of this and took the next log i calstep–they cre ated their own “out-of-the-box” full dresser. By 1980, you could haveall of the afore men tioned items, color-matched to the bike, right from the fac tory.

Now a days even strip-naked sports bikescan be equipped with nu mer ous add-onsfrom the fac tory. Mo tor cy cle com pa nieswill con tinue to in te grate these and otheradd-ons into their of fer ings wher ever theysee such de mand.

Tech nol ogy

Engines: Looking over the 1975 of fer -ings, one thing that is im me di ately ob vi ousis the pop u lar ity of two-stroke en gines,

Top: A Kawasaki F-11 250 in ac tion. Mid dle: ABridgestone 350GTR. Bot tom: A 1975 YamahaXS 650 Twin.


which were still part of the street bikelineup for sev eral man u fac tur ers. Honda,hav ing tra di tion ally used 4-stroke en ginesal most ex clu sively, listed a few rel a tivelynew two-stroke off-road mod els known asthe ‘M’ se ries. Any Elsinore fans still outthere? Harley-Davidson (un der the AMFum brella) also listed a va ri ety of 250cc andun der mod els that were also two-stroke de -signs. These mod els were de rived fromAermacchi and were an at tempt to cash inon the boom in the off-road cy cle mar ket.

How ever, within a few years, most of theBig Four had phased out their two-strokestreet bikes. Be cause of in creas ing en vi ron -men tal con cerns, street-going two-stroketech nol ogy was aban doned at that time bymost man u fac tur ers, as they could not ef -fec tively meet emis sion stan dards. Thesmok ers did not die off com pletely, how -ever; there are still many off-road bikes that uti lize two-stroke en gines, and nowtwo-stroke tech nol ogy is be ingre-examined by the au to mo tive world as yet an other path to in creased fuel econ omy.

An other en gine tech nol ogy ap pear ing in1975 is the Wan kel, or ro tary en gine. Anair-cooled, sin gle ro tor model with 294ccdis place ment is listed from a com panycalled Her cu les. Suzuki also in tro ducedtheir RE5 500cc model that year, claim ing62hp @ 6200 RPM. These ro tary mod elswere priced above com pa ra ble mod els with four-stroke en gines. The Her cu les listed for $2195, and the Suzuki at $2475. A com pa -ra ble Yamaha XS-500 listed for $1749 anda Honda CB360 could be had for $1224.There was an in ter est ing ar ti cle in thisPetersen’s guide spe cif i cally on the RE5,tout ing the ro tary as the wave of the fu tureand not ing that sev eral other man u fac tur erswere ex per i ment ing with the tech nol ogy.De spite their prom ise, ro tary en gines did n’t make it into the main stream ofmotorcycling. Lack of pub lic ac cep tance,we now know, was one is sue that killed thero tary. The en gine re acted dif fer ently than a reg u lar pis ton en gine, with al most no en -gine brak ing pres ent. Com plex ity and poorfuel econ omy did n’t win many ro tary fans,ei ther.

A few 1975 of fer ings from the Big Foursported new-tech dou ble over head cam[DOHC] cyl in der heads. Kawasakitrumped the Honda CB-750 us ing this type of valve ar range ment when it in tro ducedits 900-Z in 1973. The Petersen’s Guidealso listed the Yamaha XS-500 and theHonda CB 500-T (which was re ally a re -vamped CB450) as hav ing DOHC. Hondahad pre vi ously em ployed DOHC when itde vel oped the CB450, but did not carry the tech nol ogy over into any of their other

large street bikes. In keep ing with theircon ser va tive ways, Honda’s pre vi ously in -dus try-leading CB750 would not be up -dated to DOHC un til 1979. In thefol low ing 30 years, DOHC has be come the norm.

The Suzuki GT750 two stroke tri ple, akathe Wa ter Buf falo, pi o neered liq uid cool ing on its re lease in 1972, and liq uid cool ingtech nol ogy in creased its prom i nence in the1975 model range, no ta bly in the all-newGold Wing. To day, liq uid cool ing is usedby most man u fac tur ers. Even tra di -tion-bound Harley-Davidson runs a ra di a -tor on the V-Rod.

Car bu re tors are the most re cent “oldschool” items to dis ap pear from mod ernbikes, re placed by elec tronic fuel in jec tion(EFI). With the ad vent of in ex pen sive com -put er ized con trol mod ules, it be came pos si -ble to me ter fuel more ef fi ciently andac tu ally cre ate en gine-system map ping onpro grammed chips to max i mize fuel ef fi -ciency and per for mance. These sys tems use in puts such as throt tle po si tion, en gineRPM, ac tual ve hi cle speed, and other crit i -cal el e ments. Within the last 30 years, man -u fac tur ers have also adopted mul ti plein take and/or ex haust valves per cyl in der.By us ing one or both of these tech nol o gies,

Top: A 1956 Colleda 250TT. Bot tom: A 1975 Honda CB750.


it is now pos si ble to squeeze sig nif i cantlymore horse power with out in creased en ginedis place ment, mak ing horse power rat ingsfrom some of those 1975 mod els seem truly ane mic.

Frames: In 1975, most mo tor cy cles werebuilt upon the tra di tional dou ble-down tube frame, with an iden ti cal tube swingarm inthe rear. To day, this is hardly the norm witha huge num ber of vari a tions on frame tech -nol o gies, all em ploy ing var i ous al loys in an at tempt to shave weight. Heavy-dutybox-section alu mi num frames are nowfairly stan dard for most sport bikes, whichare so well in te grated into the de sign it al -most looks like there is no frame at all!

Sus pen sion: Sus pen sions have also bene -fited im mensely from tech no log i cal ad -vances. In 1975 front sus pen sion was the de ri gueur twin-fork setup, and rear sus pen -sion was al most al ways a pair of coil-overdamper shock units. We now have ex oticequip ment such as BMW’s “Duolever”front sus pen sion, and sin gle-sidedswingarms, which can be found on sev eralmarques. Most street and off-road bikesnow em ploy a sin gle-shock rear sus pen -sion. Mod ern de signs hide this mono-shock in front of the rear tire, ei ther cov ered bybody work or even lay ing hor i zon tal un derthe en gine. The re sult ing look is very cleanand fu tur is tic, with the back wheel seem -ingly rest ing on air! For cruis ers, this means that they can fake a hard-tail look while still pro vid ing cush ion ing for the rear wheel.But for that clas sic look, it’s hard to beat apair of coil shocks.

Brakes: By 1975, many larger streetmod els were equipped with front discbrakes, which had been in creas ing in pop u -lar ity since their in tro duc tion on the 1969Honda CB750. Benelli, BMW, Ducati,Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki,Laverda, Norton, Suzuki, Tri umph, andYamaha all of fered mod els that had at leastone front disc brake. Now a days, it is drumbrakes that are the ex cep tion, ap pear ingonly on the rear wheel ofsmaller-displacement cy cles. Disc brakeas sem blies have also evolved from stan -dard sin gle-piston units to multi-piston,race-bred stop pers en hanced (on somebikes) with ABS – ad vances which dove tail nicely with ever-increasing en gine horse -power, pro vid ing an ex tra de gree of safetyfor those who push their ride to the limit.Yet brake tech nol ogy is still evolv ing andhas seen in ter est ing con cepts ap plied and

Top: A Kawasaki 900 Z1. Mid dle: A “na ked”1975 Gold Wing. Bot tom: A 1975 GT380, one ofsev eral two-stroke Suzuki mod els still be ing of -fered 30 years ago.


aban doned – any one re call anti-dive sus -pen sions?

In sum mary, tech nol ogy is prob a bly theone area where true value has been addedfor the mo tor cy cle con sumer. Man u fac -turers are now able to wring out morehorse power from each cc of dis place mentand re duce over all curb weights, thus im -prov ing han dling char ac ter is tics. Gone arethe days of twitchy frames and bikes thatonly trav eled well in a straight line. Notonly do all these ad vance ments add to over -all per for mance, they also mean en hancedsafety. While motorcycling does have in -her ent dan gers, im prove ments in brak ingand han dling al low rid ers to re act quicker to sur prise sit u a tions on the road, thus stay ingsafer and more in con trol.

Con clu sion

Ob serving these three ar eas of prog ressI’ve iden ti fied, it’s in ter est ing to notewhich bikes have be come highly sought af -ter col lect ibles – and even more in trigu ingto try and de ter mine which ones will be -come that next vin tage must-have. Some el -e ments that con trib ute to vin tage value areclear, such as mo tor cy cles that wereall-new, first-year pro duc tion mod els – re -

gard less of their suc cess in the mar ket. Onecould eas ily ar gue that the un suc cess fulmod els are per haps that much more col lect -ible. The Suzuki ro ta ries and Big Fourturbo mod els of the 1980s are a case inpoint. With to day’s va ri ety of mo tor cy clesbe ing pro duced, the age of the UJM seemslike a dis tant mem ory now.

I do have one last ob ser va tion that sort ofthrew off this whole view of mo tor cy cle evo -lu tion, how ever. Re cently I was stand ing in a

lo cal deal er ship that car ried most of the BigFour mod els. Of course they had all of theircruiser mod els lined up in a sin gle long row. Ihap pened to be stand ing a short dis tance from that same row, and look ing down the lengthof the 30 or so var i ous mod els, I re al ized tomy sur prise that their forms were nearly iden -ti cal. Re gard less of dis place ment or man u fac -turer; I could n’t tell a Kawasaki from aYamaha or a Suzuki or a Honda! The morethings change, the more they stay the same.

A Suzuki SV100S.

We man u fac ture fork tubes for Jap a nese Mo tor cy clesfrom the 1950’s to 2005. Ma chined to match O.E.M.,centerless ground, hard-chromed. Guar an teed to fit.Large in ven tory. Stock length, over and un der.


Suzuki X6 Returns to Michiganby Roger Smith

Growing up in De troit, Mich i gan dur ingthe late 1960s, there were two things thatim pacted a teen age boy’s life. One was thestorm cloud of the Viet Nam war and thefact that young men would be re quired toreg is ter for the draft. The other was the on -go ing bat tle be tween the do mes tic automan u fac tur ers, who pro duced huge hemis,409s, and other big-block pow ered mus clecars avail able di rect from the fac tory. It was ar gu ably the pin na cle of the street/stripdrag rac ing era.

Sunoco 260 gas o line was 21 cents per gal -lon, and from Wood ward Av e nue to Tele -graph Road, the streets of De troit werefilled with speed ing, ground-shaking ve hi -cles on warm sum mer nights. Dur ing thissame time pe riod, the Jap a nese were gain -ing a strong hold on the mo tor cy cle mar ket,though the more pow er ful Kawasaki tri plesand Honda fours had yet to ar rive in Amer -ica. Be fore they did, the smaller dis place -ment Jap a nese mo tor cy cles ruled be tween1964 and 1968.

In 1966, the 305cc Honda Super Hawkand the Yamaha Catalina and Big Bearwere joined by a new six-speed 250cc mo -tor cy cle which gave a glimpse of the awe -some per for mance soon to come fromJa pan. Called the Suzuki X-6 Hus tler, itcould be had for only $649! I re mem bersee ing one for the first time in the front win -dow of Vil lage Cy cle in Feb ru ary, 1966.The bike was bright red with lots ofchrome. Af ter con vinc ing my par ents that I“needed” that bike for easy trans por ta tion, I got my wish on my 16th birth day. My X-6was a blast to ride and was it fast. Cy cleWorld mag a zine tested it in their Spring1966 is sue and found that from 0 to 60mph,the Suzuki was faster, by 6 sec onds, thanmuch larger bikes in clud ing the Tri umphTR-6, Honda 450, Harley Sprint, Honda305 Super Hawk, or Yamaha YDS3. “Thehan dling was es pe cially good and the per -for mance was phe nom e nal,” Cy cle Worldwrote. I did n’t need con vinc ing!

The X-6 was my pass port to free dom anden joy ment for three won der ful years, un til I had to go away and serve in the U.S. Army.The bike was sold when I left for the ser vice and over the next 40 years many other mo -tor cy cles would come into my life, but there was al ways a spe cial spot in my heart forthat lit tle Suzuki. So in Jan u ary, 2005, Ijoined the VJMC and then pur chased a nicelook ing 1966 X-6 at an auc tion in Floridadur ing a fam ily win ter trip where we were

hop ing to es cape the snows of Mich i gan.This X-6 was the much rarer ver sion calledthe TC-250 Hus tler. It came with fac toryhigh pipes, skid plate, and was de scribed as

a “scram bler,” sim i lar to the Yamaha BigBear of that era. A few weeks af ter re turn -ing north, the bike was de liv ered to ourhome in Clarkston, Mich i gan. The huge

Top: The au thor in front of his par ent’s house. Bot tom: The en gine of the re stored X6.


Fed eral De liv ery semi-truck pulled up andwith a lit tle ma neu ver ing, out came thebright red Suzuki that I re mem bered frommy youth.

We brought the bike into the ga rage andaf ter ex am in ing it we found sev eral itemsthat needed to be fixed or cor rected.

With the help of Mr. Paul Miller([email protected]), a Suzuki ex -pert and na tional sup plier of1960s-1980s-era Suzuki parts based inKensington, Con nect i cut, and Matt Tate, alo cal col lege stu dent who loves a me chan i -cal chal lenge, the bike was re stored toas-new con di tion. Up grades that were per -formed in cluded a new seat, first-over cyl -in der bor ing with new pis tons, rings, andbear ings, bead-blasted cyl in ders and heads, re built carbs, new ca bles, new bat tery, newhan dle bars, new tires, a pro fes sional 1966Suzuki red paint job per formed in Con nect -i cut, and the re-chroming/re-plating of ev -ery thing from the ex haust pipes to thewheels and spokes. Add to that la -bor-of-love over $600 in mis cel la neousNOS Suzuki parts from Paul, who al wayshad that spe cial or miss ing lit tle part that Icould n’t find any where else. When all thework was com pleted, our Suzuki was justas I re mem bered it back on that snowy dayin 1966 when a 15 year old boy gazed in thewin dow of the Vil lage Cy cle shop in De -troit. The 1966 X6 scram bler, in front of the “Spirit of De troit” statue.


ClassifiedsRe mem ber that a ‘Vin tage Jap a nese’ mo -

tor cy cle is 15 years or older (cut-off for thisyear is 1990!!!) and, of course, Jap a nese.Please be aware that ads may/will be ed itedto con serve space. If you have large busi -ness ads, please con sider tak ing out a com -mer cial ad (Bob Billa, , 949-588-6840 isour Com mer cial Ad ver tis ing Di rec tor).Don’t feel re luc tant to use punc tu a tion andproper case on emailed ads.

Be gin ning with the next is sue (Feb ru ary2006), the con sid er ation of ‘Vin tage’ willbe come 20 years or older.

Be mind ful of pub li ca tion dead lines. Adsare due by the 20th of the month in which anews let ter is is sued for the NEXT news let -ter. For ex am ple, ads for the April 2006News let ter will be due to the ed i tor by Feb -ru ary 20th.

Send all ads to:Gary Gadd3721 Hol land St.Ft. Worth, TX., 76180(817) 284-8195 Or e-mail: [email protected]

For Sale

Bridgestone

1970 Bridgestone Checker. 200cc. This bike is very com plete and orig i nal, has4k miles mo tor, turns over. Good res to -ra tion pro ject. No ti tle, $500 obo. Mark,(513) 464-0008 Ham il ton, Ohio,[email protected]

Hodaka

1973 Hodaka Wom bat 125cc. Black andsil ver, com plete, orig i nal, and in run ningcon di tion. Florida ti tled and street le gal.$950. In cludes some ex tra parts. Pic turescan be seen at http://www.con vo lu -tion.net/wom bat. Jim, (321) 383-4475, East Cen tral Florida, [email protected]

Honda

1966 Honda S90. Red, very orig i nal.$1000. Also have 1967 S90, white, $800.Ask for Steve or Bill. Steve Kasten, (715)446-2225, Hatley, Wis con sin

Honda CB/CL/SL350 pis ton kits. NOS,sizes avail able-2nd, 3rd & 4th. Each kit in -cludes 1 pis ton 1 ring set, 2 c-clips & 1 pis -ton pin. $42 each x 2 + ship ping. I also have

carb kits and pis ton kits. Also carb kits forother Honda, Suz, Kaw & Yam. SteveLloyd, (814) 899-3935, Erie, Penn syl va nia, [email protected]

1971 Honda CL175. Very good orig i nalcon di tion with 5000 miles. Ev ery thingworks, runs great, clear ti tle. $975. MyronOtte, (330) 898-3785, PO Box 69,Southington, Ohio, 44470

1971 Honda CB350. Beau ti fully re stored. $1700. John Yuhn, (248) 634-7533, Holly,Mich i gan

For Honda CB350F, ex hausts. Three ofthe four, lack ing lower left side. New con -di tion in orig i nal boxes. Selling at cost dueto in abil ity to ac quire the fourth pipe. $750US firm, plus ship ping. Dan Proudfoot, To -ronto, Can ada, [email protected].

1976 Honda GL1000. Fully re stored bikeruns very well and is well kept. 16,000 orig -i nal miles. Gio Abuel, +639179041661,Ma nila, Phil ip pines, mdmc_119@ya -hoo.com

1977/78 Honda CR175 Roadracer. Was a pe riod racer from the 70s, cur rently semire stored to dis play con di tion. En gine looks com plete but is not. Very nice bike, beau ti -ful frame and box swing arm, would needvery lit tle to be come turn key racer, hastwo en gines, 125cc & 175cc, email for de -tails. $3,000. Lafaye McCarver, (253)208-5270, Ta coma, Wash ing ton,[email protected]

1982 Honda FT500 road racer. One raceon com plete re build. Con tact me for com -plete list of en gine and frame mods. Thisbike is com plete with spares and ready torace. Asking $2300. Bud Nolting, (913)568-3400, 12110 S. Lone Elm Rd., Olathe,Kan sas, 66061, [email protected]

1983 Honda CB1100F Super Sport. Con -tact me for de tails, pic tures and price. Alsoavail able: 1981 Honda CB-900F SuperSport, as well as other vin tage bikes andparts. Todd Ritter, (231) 773-5442/(231)557-1103, Muskegon, Mich i gan,[email protected]

For 1985 Honda In ter cep tor, en gine andcar bu re tors. Com plete, as sem bled and ingood con di tion. Make of fer. Gaylon Gon -za les, (409) 899-1547/(409) 866-2749,Beau mont, Texas

Kawasaki

1966 Kawasaki W1SS 650cc. This is asin gle carb W1SS model. Very rare and inex cel lent con di tion. It’s all there, looks andruns great. Pics avail able, $5000. DamonGraddy, (818) 222-6704, Los An geles, Cal -i for nia. Window2@char ter.net

Kawasaki Triples. 1972/75 H1 500, 1973S1 250, and 2 1974 S3 400s.These are partsbikes only. No ti tles. Rough con di tion butstill a good source of Ebay rev e nue. I’m outof room and want to con cen trate on myH2s. Must take all. $750. Buddy Cartee,(864) 578-3532, Inman, South Carolina,[email protected]

1975 Kawasaki KH250. 2500 orig. miles,mint con di tion, com pletely orig i nal, rid denre cently, no ti tle but clear own er ship. ToddClements, (828) 606-0302, Hendersonville, North Carolina, clementsplumbing@ya -hoo.com

1977 Kawasaki KE175. I’m look ing for avery se ri ous col lec tor that may want thisbike. I’m quite sure this is the fin est in ex is -tence prob a bly any where. Only 37 miles and has been in stor age this whole time. It is inmu seum qual ity and I have full doc u men ta -tion! Jim Digman, (563) 543-4891, Ga lena,Il li nois, [email protected]

1979 Kawasaki SR650. Rare bike. Orig i -nal owner. Low miles. To tal res to ra tion in -cludes the best of ev ery thing. Chromed out! Have all re ceipts, doc u men ta tion &owner’s man ual. Also have ad di tional orig -i nal parts. Pro fes sional writ ten ap praisal of$8950. $4950 obo to good home! JeffHawkins, (904) 759-0213, Jack son ville,Florida, [email protected]

1980 Kawasaki KZ200. want to sell this cy -cle to hobby bik ers only. Mar shallD’Amazonika, +6285643099339, Jogjakarta,In do ne sia, mar shall_amazonika@ya -hoo.co.uk

1989 Kawasaki EX500. NSR 500 rep lica,strictly a road racer. Very com pet i tive inClubman V-5 and V-6 classes. Mo tor isfresh, ported 3 an gle valve job, degreedcams, Vance and Hines Super Sport pipe,many more trick parts. Dynoed at 63 rearwheel hp. Can email pic tures. Call with any


Classifiedsques tions. Tim, (614) 596-8155, Co lum -bus, Ohio, [email protected]

Rupp

1972 Rupp RMT 80cc. Fuji mo tor, com -plete, chrome needs re plat ing. In cludes asmall dealer parts in ven tory. $895. ClaudeCar rier, (508) 543-0490 days/(508)543-6157 eves (leave msg.), [email protected]

Suzuki

1973 Suzuki TS-250J. Orig i nal, boughtnew in Ja pan in 1972. Runs great, looksgood, pic tures avail able. Has al ways beenga raged. Larry Sitz, (423) 639-5245,Greeneville, Ten nes see, lfsitz@ya hoo.com

1982 Suzuki RM250. In great shape, re -cently re stored, runs great, very fast yetman age able power, great vin tage racer orjust great for play rid ing. Drop me an emailfor pics and more info. Asking $1600. SethWhite, (817) 491-1813, Tro phy Club,Texas, psychosk8r014@ya hoo.com

1988 Suzuki GSX1100F. Was with thedeal er ship un til 1996 when it was first reg -is tered. 32,000 miles. It is in ex tremelygood con di tion and has just passed its MOT test, sus pen sion and brakes over hauled.The en gine is very good and it has a stain -less steel ex haust sys tem. Bill, 01462482111, Letchworth, Herts, United King -dom, [email protected]

Yamaha

1965? Yamaha YDS3. Run ning 250ccCatalina for res to ra tion. Orig i nal paint.Chrome is rusty, small dent in tank, miss ing side cover, clutch slips, seat is non orig i nal,I think from a Big Bear scram bler. 7000+miles, one kick of the for ward kicker andit’s run ning. Asking $750 or best. Must bepicked up here. Dave Mignella, (401) 5680389, Glocester, Rhode Is land, vin [email protected]

1965 Yamaha YM1 305cc. A very niceex am ple of a clas sic. Re stored to its orig i nal con di tion with new paint, re built mo tor etc.runs and looks like new. Damon Graddy,(818) 222-6704, Los An geles, Cal i for nia,window2@char ter.net

1967 Yamaha Twin 180 R1. Runs!! Easyto take a look at in San Carlos. Shifting is

stiff, starts right up and goes. Any trades?Email for pic tures. $375. Har old Hong,(650) 678-7947, San Carlos, Cal i for nia,[email protected]

For 1970 Yamaha CS3c 200cc, left overstuff from resto. Items in clude F&R fend ers with tail light and braces, oil tank withpump and good lines, skid plate, VG seat,F&R brake shoes, F&R foot rests andmount ings, points, con dens ers and manymisc. parts. Email for pho tos of all parts.Lou Demmel, (540) 659-6255, Stafford,Vir ginia, [email protected]

1973 Yamaha RD350, com plete ex ceptno gas tank at this time. 1972 R5 (same asRD 350 ex cept these had front drum brake& no reed valve). Both have been sit ting, so you’ll need to go through them and cleancarbs, new bat ter ies, etc. Paint & chromeare de cent on both. $850 each or buy thepair for $1,000. Claude Car rier, (508)543-0490 days/(508) 543-6157 eves (leavemsg.), [email protected]

1974 Yamaha TX650A. Beau ti fully re -stored. $1900. John Yuhn, (248) 634-7533,Holly, Mich i gan

For 1979/81 Yamaha XS1100, one pair of wheels with disks. Gold spoke al loy. $300plus ship ping. Mi chael F. Shinners, (716)884-6832

1981 Yamaha SR500. Very nice orig i nalsil ver/grey. $1800. Steve Kasten, (715)446-2225, Hatley, Wis con sin

1984 Yamaha RZ350. Clean, $3600.Steve Kasten, (715) 446-2225, Hatley,Wis con sin

Mis cel la neous Items

Met ric stain less fas ten ers for your vin tage Jap a nese mo tor cy cle. Many mod els tochoose from, or cus tom or der! (330)519-4772, www.stainlesscycle.com

Video Tapes. #1: 1966 Honda Fac toryTour, 1964 Suzuki Fac tory Tour, plus 1970Honda’s 1st Daytona 200 miler win, $20.#2: 1959 Green horn Enduro and 1964Jackpine Enduro plus 2 in door short trackson con crete from the 1970s, $20. #3: 1954Tri umph Fac tory Tour and 1958 BSA Fac -tory Tour, $20. Tapes are 1 hour or lon ger.

Price in cludes ship ping. Jim Minnis, 210 S.Mad i son St. Prince ton, In di ana, 47670

I have sev eral mo tor cy cles that I haveparted out or am in the pro cess of part ingout. Some in clude Honda VF750C,360T, CB350, CL350, CB750A,Kawasaki KZ750, KZ400 YamahaQT50, RD250, RD350 and SuzukiGT250, GS850. See my eBay store athttp://stores.ebay.com/jeffs-motorcycle-parts or email me for parts re quests. JeffKann, (920) 730-3898, Appleton, Wis con -sin, [email protected]

Keys for Early 1960s and up Jap a nesebikes. Thou sands of OEM Honda andSuzuki keys. $10 a piece, which in cludesship ping. Thou sands of NOS parts for those old bikes in stock. Just send us what partyou need with the bike model and year, orpref er a bly a part num ber, and we just maybe able to help you out. Queen City Mo tor -cy cle, (877) 648-4355, Clarksville, Ten -nes see, [email protected]

Keys. We sup ply hard to find key blanksfor clas sic ve hi cles! We stock keys for cars, trucks, buses, mo tor cy cles and even someair planes. Visit our web site to browse ourcat a log and or der on line, or to re quest helpfind ing the key you need:http://www.key-men.com Key Men - Keysfor Clas sics, Mon roe, New York,[email protected]

For 1958/85 Honda, Kawasaki, Keys.Over 4000 Gen u ine Honda pre cut andnum bered ab so lutely gen u ine orig i nal keysex actly as they came with new cy cles. Sendcode num ber which is stamped on the faceof your ig ni tion switch or fork lock, latermod els only had the num ber on the key. $5each plus $1 post age for any quan tity, andan ad di tional dol lar for credit card pay mentif de sired. 50% fill rate. I also have 250NOS Kawasaki keys and a few for Suzukis.I can cut du pli cate Suzuki keys for the same price. Barry Sulkin, (310) 398-6406,Culver City, (Los An geles) Cal i for nia,[email protected]

1964/68 bikes. ALL are STOCK, li censed, run ning and in no less than VERY GOODcon di tion...1975 GT 750 Suzuki,1976 RE5Suzuki, 1971 T-350 Suzuki, 1974 CB-350


ClassifiedsFour, 1965 CA77 Dream, 1986 KawasakiKR 250S tan dem twin and a 1978 Honda CB 750A pull ing a Rus sian Ju pi ter side car. Callfor de tails. Hans Bertelsen, (425)254-9424/(425) 306-0518, Se at tle, Wash -ing ton, [email protected]

Wanted:

Honda

1963 Honda Trail 55. Must be in ex cel -lent con di tion. Derek Slonaker,[email protected]

For 1965 Honda C95 Benly 150cc, I amin ter ested in lo cat ing a re stor able frame,wheels and petrol tank. Wilfred Wes tall,(204) 489-2341, Win ni peg, MB, Can ada,[email protected]

For 1966 Honda CS50, need wir ing di a -gram, owner’s man ual, sales bro chure,black front fender (same as S65) andmuf fler for this Jap a nese do mes tic mar -ket im port. All help ap pre ci ated. Tom,(770) 422-3629, At lanta, Geor gia,[email protected]

1966 Honda CA77, look ing for manygood clean used parts or rea son able NOSparts. Parts don’t have to be ‘66 or Dreamas long as long as they will work on bike.Seat cover w/Honda, L/R foot peg rub bers,mir rors/screws into le vers, speed om e terw/face, speedo ca ble, left round 4" casecover w/Honda, chrome crash bars, floorboards, bags, fair ing, lug gage rack or trunk, turn sig nals front/rear and switch, chromeheader pipes, clutch & brake ca bles, plusany thing to dress it up. Randy Ritterbush,

(719) 659-9477, Col o rado Springs, Col o -rado, Teddiebaur@ya hoo.com

For 1967 Honda CB77, in need of any orall of the fol low ing: speedo ca ble, side cover knobs, gear shift link age ad juster nuts, orig i -nal seat bolts. I would like to try a 305Scram bler gear shift arm on my CB77 just tosee how it works. Any thoughts? Willie,(262) 654-5340, [email protected]

For 1968/69 Honda CL450, look ing forthe left side clutch and mir ror perch assy,round re place ment tank badges, com pletetach ca ble with smooth op er a tion and aright mir ror. If you know how to help anov ice ad just the throt tle ca ble play, please call. I need a speedo for a 1964 305-CA77or need mine re built. Chris, (805)801-5635, Atascadero, Cal i for nia,cssn@char ter.net

1974 Honda MR50. I am look ing for 1974 Yamaha YZ A com plete bikes and parts. Iam also look ing for Honda Elsinore MR 50parts as well as com plete bikes. Finally, Iam look ing for Honda ATC 70 and 90trikes and parts.www.vintagemotortoys.com. Kurt Pfender, (952) 473-2920,[email protected]

Kawasaki

For 1969/71 Kawasaki H1, need one tankmounted re flec tor bracket. Con di tion un im -por tant. Gary, (817) 284-8195, Ft. Worth,Texas, [email protected]

1972/75 Kawasaki H2. Looking for orig i -nal bike with orig i nal pipes. VJ, (909)

473-7742, South ern Cal i for nia, twin [email protected]

Suzuki

Mid 1960s Suzuki T20 “Hus tler” in goodrun ning con di tion. Cash buyer. All in qui -ries, leads and re sponses will be an swered.Greg Perigo, (260) 241-3182,[email protected]

For 1965 Suzuki 80cc K10, need carb,brakes, mir ror, tires, tubes, etc for a res to ra -tion. If you have parts and man u als for mybike please give me a call, I may need it.Duaine, (207) 725-0058, Bruswick, Maine, [email protected]

Yamaha

1966/69 Yamaha YL1 or YL1E. Alsolook ing for a mint Honda CB160. Bothbikes must be mint, like new, pe riod (notmint for the year). Pre fer orig i nal, un re -stored. Finders fee for the right bike. Willpay a fair price for an ex cel lent bike. PaulChristner, (941) 726-7109, Florida,[email protected]

For 1972 Yamaha R5, Gas Tank. RicRiccardi, (770) 315-5946, [email protected]

1971/72 Yamaha 60cc. Looking for Pro -ject to Mint Model JT1, JT1L, and JT2MXand with lights. Also buy ing NOS parts forthese bikes. Also look ing for early YZs andMX mod els to col lect and race. Der rickBingaman, (717) 475-0316, Lan cas ter,Penn syl va nia, dbing308@ya hoo.com

Thanks for attending the VJMC National Rally! The magazine staffwishes everyone a happy holiday season. Keep reading in 2006!


Membership ApplicationNew ___________________ Re newal ___________________***************************************************Name: _____________________________________________

Ad dress: ___________________________________________

__________________________________________________

City: _______________________ State: _______________

Zip/Postal Code: _____________ Coun try: _____________

Phone: _____________________________________________

E-mail ad dress: ______________________________________

Pre ferred Make(s): ___________________________________

Pre ferred Model(s): __________________________________

Sig na ture: __________________________________________

Date: ______________________________________________

Mem ber ship op tions:1) Multi-year mem ber ship–$45 for two years; $65

for three years.2) Spousal mem ber ship–$15 per year with no dis count

for multi-year ap pli ca tions. This type of mem ber ship canbe com pleted at any time. The mem ber ship must be for the spouse or part ner of a cur rent mem ber or can be in cludedwith a sign up of a reg u lar mem ber. One mag a zine will bede liv ered to that house hold with both names on the mail -ing la bel. Spousal mem bers will have a mem ber ship cardwith a unique num ber such as 5226A.

Yearly dues: $25 (USD) for North Amer ica; $50 (USD) out -side of North Amer ica. Please send your check or money or -der made out to VJMC along with this ap pli ca tion to:Bill Granade13309 Moran Dr.Tampa FL 33618-3011Thank you!

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Documents

Suzuki's First Sportbike - VJMCL est you t hink the old of fi cers are de sert ing, we are all go ing to re main on the Board of Di rec - tors. This wil l gi ve the club s om e con