Personal archives?

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Would have been nice if I had kept some of that stuff.... Barely hung on to anything at all. Oh well.

Speaking about saving anything, my nephew remembered a video and I told him I wiped the drives. So I had a savvy techy retrieve some of those videos and I found this one. I more made it to save the music and let it repeat on my computer while I write a tormentor.

I'm peppered on a few endurance bikes, but drag racing in high school with the X6, drag racing the H2, then road race it, the Honda is next. I flipped bike after bike each year. Suz was back door. Triumph was maybe the last backdoor ride? There was never a dual front end on a US import 2-valve head. That front end was only on the 4-valver. Of all the bikes, the Tri was the best handling bike of the rotating fleet. I'm walking the bike [in the other video] and they ragged on me about the foot pegs. I had to change them out like I did the XR. I cased the XR and backed off. Saw a wheel and took off again. I was not chasing points and didn't want to crash.

I dropped out of Superbike, jumped into BOTT with the Triumph in open production, ended the ride in BOTT Box Stock. Old Sears Point, I get another front row start, but on the outside row with the XR cocked at about 10-11 o'clock and the rest are at 12. Flag drops, I hit the dirt and pass the last row of open pro. I now lead my last race for a few laps, knew I was retiring that day and came in second. End of spending money on the addiction.

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I remember hearing that song when I was about 7.

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Wow, cool video Hub! I really like Sears Point. Congrats on recovering the memories!

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Thanks guys. I wish I could tell you some juicy stories but I think I'll have to die with them. Too many people are still alive. I think I'm coming down with ZZ Top Syndrome. It's closing time tick tock does time fly. You have things you heard off to the side of a conversation or told to you, right?

I hung at a gas station where the car guys who frequent this asphalt track and use the 1/8 mile for drags. So I overheard someone mention I could 'cut a light.' That was my first taste of racing with the X6. Looking back at the hole-shots, DR helps like DT helps with RR. So they heard this X6 was winning and hired a gun to come get me. I was 180 plus, 6'2'', and another X6 shows up and he's like 4'11''. Power to wait, there's more...

... Little did I know the background I was up against. I had no clue at the time. All I had was the mindset and what little hp I brought. First time I won a trophy I started to find little kids and hand it to them. The H2 won 10 of 11 races [for the season] but one. So it was more an unofficial B/S class with no championship trophy.

Green [H2] was I and I did not add that photo of me sitting up learning RR as you go. The Honda in the garage was next. That's the in the wind video. What I recall was a Santa Barbara college student filming this for his graduation project. When I watched it that one and only time, I don't remember pushing the bike, nor being the bottom feeder. That year I won that club's 750 championship. Won in the other club the following year and that 750 class.

We were packing from a place we had and found these trophies in a box. We'd stop at a pizza place on the way home a lot and the guy knew my background. So here I am, just so happens, I open the trunk, randomly picked one out, and it was the first championship trophy and gave it to him. I know what I did so that's all that counts.

So as not to steer from the thread title, I never got to the point of knowing what I know now line wise. It was smooth first, speed second. I kind of had it reversed. For me it was, the will to win first, speed second. No mind over matter, you bet it matters.

The Chevron photo: Now we are with the other club and the big boys show up. On the Honda, I thought I was going fast and taking this tight line. Cook Nielson gives me the old Chevron and still had asphalt to pass me. Funny now, but I caught a ride on a strange steering bike and tossed it. I asked for a ride on the Chevron bike, but probably blew the ride with that crash that same day or who knows? Now I catch a ride on the Z1 in a 4-hr. I remember thinking, first time I'm on a bike with HP... is this what they have? So the payback was doing the old Cook to the Chevron.

Imagine you are a kid trying to get your foot in the door. You want to wrench where there is drag or road racing, who cares, fun is fun. The door opens and here you are, at the race track, running with a bike stand back to the pits. This guy stops this bike, motions me to get on. Full circle, I'm still in the pits.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F73%2F5a%2F3c%2F735a3c1e54122e4585dcdf26683efc94.png&f=1&nofb=1

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I was 180 plus, 6'2''

That's what I was at 18. If I had the chance to race, I would have made it my life too but as time went on, 180 lbs was just a memory. I remember people in high school telling me they got too big to race motor cross anymore. Of course, then we have John McGuinness and he didn't look like a lightweight.

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I sooo enjoy these pic and videos..'72, after my second divorce , and for 7 or 8 yr , I worked real hard, drank what ever was available and raced wherever I could . Your vids jar loose a memory or 2 . I never really cared about winning or the competition as much as I did teh LEGAL aspects of wide open throttle and teh speed that goes with it . One day in 77 got two tickets four hours apart . "112mph and going away" really said that, and I slowed down later that day and got a 70 in a 55..
I try to remember just the good ones ...

* I may have already posted this stuff :) ^

I sooo enjoy these pic and videos..'72, after my second divorce , and for 7 or 8 yr , I worked real hard, drank what ever was available and raced wherever I could . Your vids jar loose a memory or 2 . I never really cared about winning or the competition as much as I did teh LEGAL aspects of wide open throttle and teh speed that goes with it . One day in 77 got two tickets four hours apart . "112mph and going away" really said that, and I slowed down later that day and got a 70 in a 55..
I try to remember just the good ones ...

* I may have already posted this stuff :) ^

PS...
I still like to go fast and have yet to reach to seperate goals .

Well, knowing your age keeps me riding. The itch is forever here as well. Speaking about jarring a memory, hated Sears in the beginning, then took care of business at the carousel and loved the track much later. But Riverside was my favorite. The jarring keeps coming so what popped in my head was being put on the front row on the 25 bike. So the tuner the dealer hired, he's told if you remove the head steady on the Triumph you make more HP. Too many stories on that Triumph. Anyway...

That was more a shakedown test at a club race. What's loc-tite? Flag drops, I win the race. Maybe a lap or two at the end, I'm hearing something. I look down and see the barrel and head move up and down off the engine case. I nurse it home once I see it, and didn't think to stop. Shit, it kept running so it's win at all costs.

I hunt down some freelance writer for the weekly cycle rag. I tell her I have a story for her. She says I blew the field away and that's no story. I said, you don't think a cylinder going up and down is not a winning story? No, and she blows me off. Needless to say the head steady went back on and zero problems after that.

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Again 1977 and I was pretty heavy into drag racing at Oroville

L:iving close by ( Northern California), I had gone to SoCal to help brother in law with a commercial job.. I get a call Thursday nite from Oroville riding buddy.. It seems some guy from Sacramento was saying he was coming up to Oroville to teach me a lesson or two . Guys were saying that I HAD to get home, so jumped on a plane Friday nite and made teh weekend race.. The guy never showed . Few weeks later on a none race weekend.. Three of us are over in teh Napa valley just riding..

We are cruising over Mt St Helena when a Z1 blasts by the three of us..I motioned for one of the others to go get him and they both pointed back to me :) So off I went I caught him before we got out of teh twisties and let him know I was there.. For the next ten miles we raced every combination of straight line you could think of , standing start, rolling , did no matter, he could not beat me ..We pulled in to Calistoga for BS and a drink.. My friends came rolling in and one of them took me aside and told me THAT was big mouth LOL.. Nice guy but that z1 just could not beat my H2 ..It was a great afternoon.

* Last updated by: chrly on 8/7/2021 @ 1:20 PM *

Geez time flies. Never want to go back. 14 is the new 2-smoke'em.

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What great stories. Is that Pat Zajack on the left? LOL. You were chasing people down on the curves with solid struts on the back? Whew, I tried those on a 1972 CB500F and they were brutal. Great stuff...

Nope Not Pat :)

When your first bike is this in the 60s , it takes a while to learn about suspension LOL

The pic of the three of us tho, was at the Oroville dragstrip which is why you see struts..;)

* Last updated by: chrly on 8/8/2021 @ 8:41 AM *

Wow, awesome history! I need to get to the track more..

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One of these will work. Kruz, couldn't find that tire post with the pressures and profile surface looking like 'a lake 's surface with a breeze on it'... this is the surface profile that is now the new deal, not all full gumball like the edge used to look like.

Say 22 ~ 29 psi is this lake look somewhere in this number. I'd be hot off the tires and run 29 and go from there either up or down. I'd start heading down a pound. If you jump to pounds to see a faster change, start writing down pounds to profile so you don't go back there.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPafB688EpTfS8f3bdJWrho2aUwKmI1ng7ECOmV

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