Month: September 2011

KS125 Zundapp. The latest from Metro Racing

The latest from “Donzilla”!  Thanks Don!

Hey Steve;
How about a pretty girl and a 70’s KS125 Zundapp 2 stroke with only 6 miles on it and the bike belongs to NBA superstar Rick Smits?

Ride Fast, take chances,
Don Miller
Metro Racing Inc.
3828 Quaker Lake Road
Brackney,PA 18812
Purveyors of Motorcycle History
www.metroracing.com
toll free 877 746 3876
Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/metroracing

 

Great info about a recent post.

Some great info by “hilslamer” from the comments re-posted here about this unusual Honda MX bike shown in an earlier post.  See info and links below.  Great stuff hilslamer!   Thanks Much!

 

Valentino Ribi worked closely with Suzuki I think, then Honda, and then when Honda wanted Roger DeCoster to ride for them he forced them to set up the Honda with the Ribi fork.

Ribi’s patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=AC8tAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false

While complex, it solves many of the problems(uncontrolled dive during braking, braking forces causing binding during suspension cycling, and also can create a vast array of progressivity in spring and damping rates using a conventional damper – very similar to the linkage common to most motorcycles on the rear in some form or another.

Contrary to another comment, there was a single-shock version of this but the added weight of the linkage and the position of the shock meant it probably wasn’t much of an advantage:

http://moto.mpora.com/images/uploads/features/Ribi-Quad.jpg

Most of these problems are associated with the traditional telescopic fork native to most motorcycles with rare exceptions from Greeves, BMW, Britten, et al. IN any case, it’s cool to see a couple of pictures I’ve never seen of that fork – thanks!

Found a really excellent source of Vintage MX shots.

I’ve been checing out his photos for a while now and today I noticed that the SuzukiJoe  Picassa web albums are  set up with a “some rights reserved” status so folks can share his excellent library (with proper attribution of course so be sure to give him a HatTip if you use his stuff). Here’s just a taste of the full album.   Go check it out!

 

WOW! That’s sweet..

That’s going to hurt..

Check out the front suspension on this beauty!  Can anyone enlighten us?

Nice garage… and cool pic from a Go-Pro

Tom Leeming sent in a this shop photo that he took with his Go-Pro a while back. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a Go-Pro for videos but I was sort of holding off because I didn’t think the still camera was all that hot. I think I stand corrected. I even like the wide angle. Better panaromas and you can always carry a compact for the close-ups.

And that is a hell of a nice quiver there. A custom cafe’s Suzuki Titan. A KTM Adventure, A BMW(RS?), and a wicked GasGas trials bike. Hard to get bored with a collection like that.

UPDATE: The Latest from Travis at Iron Spade Cycles in TX

A fw folks were asking in the comments about the location of Iron Spade Cycles. I found this on a forum:

Hey guys, my name is Travis and I am the sole owner of Iron Spade Cycles here in Port Lavaca TX. I specialize in building cafe racers, street trackers and drag bikes from vintage British and Japanese makes. I tend to build only the bikes I would ride personally so I feel I’ve done most of my clients justice in building the perfect example of their expectations.

Travis Lawson (who’s bikes have been on these pages before) sends in his latest build! Outstanding!

Steve, here are a few pictures I took this morning about a half hour before my client came to pick up his bike. It’s a 1973 Honda CB350F with 5800 original miles on the clocks. It was in pretty rough shape when I started the project back around Christmas of last year, but the end result was worth the wait. Damn near every part on this bike has been touched in some way to make it better. A laundry list of parts were stripped, powder coated and or painted while others were polished or replaced. Rough estimates of weight saved from parts cut off or omitted is about 55lbs. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary to make the bike run, it was removed to save weight. The engine was left basically stock other than the hand made exhaust canister, the Dyna-S ignition and the pod air cleaners. We did bump up the jetting for the increased airflow but that is about it. I know these little bikes can go 100K miles with regular maintenance but any major mods would only hurt the longevity so we stripped her of excess weight instead. Just this morning I stretched her legs and ran up to 105 MPH before shutting her down to take these pictures. Pretty impressive considering I’m 6’2″ and 260lbs. My client is a bit younger, 75 lbs lighter and in much better shape than I am, he should have a ball riding her around the coastal area where he lives.

Anyway I just thought you’d enjoy these pictures. Now I’m back to focusing on another client’s cafe project, a 1979 Kawasaki KZ650 with a Wiseco 810cc big bore kit. Those pictures will be in a few weeks. Talk soon Travis