1 BSA BULLETIN Newsletter of the BSAOC of Northern California July 2019 Number 403 In this issue: Gene Romero, God Speed RIP The way we were Singles ride Letters Gene Romero tribute Gene Romero AMA hall of fame New Norton 650! Rolling Thunder on an M20 Travels with Shirley Carnival of Speed SLO rally Cachuma rally information Calendar Stories from the industry The Californian Review Maggie BSA California Rally Swap meet Mystery rider Gene Romero
Transcript
1 BSA BULLETIN
Newsletter of the BSAOC of Northern California
July 2019 Number 403
In this issue: Gene Romero, God Speed RIP The way we were Singles ride Letters Gene Romero tribute Gene Romero AMA hall of fame New Norton 650! Rolling Thunder on an M20 Travels with Shirley Carnival of Speed SLO rally Cachuma rally information Calendar Stories from the industry The Californian Review Maggie BSA California Rally Swap meet Mystery rider Gene Romero
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Number 403 July 2019 The BULLETIN of the Northern California BSA Owners’ Club is the forum for the
exchange of information among the members. All material contained within this
newsletter is property of the BSAOCNC unless otherwise stated within the article.
Material is not to be reproduced or copied without the written consent of the
BSAOCNC. If you would like to use an article or picture found in this newsletter
please contact the Editor.
Deadline for submission of material for publication is the 10th of each month. Members are encouraged to submit technical information, ads, letters, photographs, or any other items of potential interest. Photos will be returned only if so requested in advance. Opinions expressed in the BULLETIN are those of the respective contributors, and do not necessarily represent the position of the Club membership or its officers. BOARD OF DIRECTORS John Magri President 415-587-7541 Jim Romain Vice President 707-894-3805 David James Secretary 510-562-6769 Frank Recoder Steve Eorio Michael Gordon Doug Atkins REGALIA SALES Patti Meadows 775-359-8150 LIBRARIAN Randy Reiter 510-222-2546 WEBMASTER David James 510-562-6769 INTER. RALLY DELEGATE Barry Porter 831-464-2867 TREASURER Bill Whalen 707-837-0424 ADVISORS Thomas Stott (Pre-unit C Series Singles) 951-659-2406 Heinz Batterman (Gold Star) 510-339-1776 (M20/21) need volunteer *** - *** - **** Jack Wheeler (Pre-unit Twins) 510-724-1782 James Banke (Unit Singles) 831-335-1422 Jerry Meadows (Unit Twins) 775-359-8150 Bill Whalen (Rocket 3) 707-837-0424 Ray Pallett (Bantam) 510-456-6578 CONTRIBUTORS Maggie Neato (Personals) Write c/o the BULLETIN Claude Baddley Retired Lion tamer Sigmund Fraud Ex-analyst Commander Thaddeus McBragg Video Naval Commander Anne Nonomous Not really sure
Membership: The Northern California BSA Owners’ Club is open to all BSA enthusiasts at $20
per year. Associate membership is $5 per year for additional members in the same household.
Mail to: BSA OWNERS' CLUB, P.O. BOX 594, NOVATO, CA 94948 The address for submitting material for publication in the newsletter is: 17320 Santa Rosa Mine Rd. Perris, Ca. 92570.
Cover: Gene Romero, perhaps one of the greatest racers ever. Back page: Goodbye Gene, one of the greatest gentlemen of our sport.
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The way we were Your humble Editor
In 1970 I had traded my 1966 Suzuki 200 twin for a
BSA Rocket 3 with a “leg out of bed” otherwise known as a
thrown rod. My friend Jack used to call that an electrical prob-
lem, “rod knocked the mag off” he would say. I spent the better
part of a month just dismantling the engine. Taking stock of the
damage I needed a cylinder liner, piston and a pair of valves
(both bent). Also needed a pair of push rods and a new rod and
bearings. It seemed to me at the time that parts were pretty inexpensive but as it turned out the
reason was the volume of parts that machine would consume at the hands of a 19 year old kid. I
was a real novice at this engine building but armed with a service manual and my issue of Cycle
Mechanics magazine I figured I could do it. I gave the crankshaft to the local machine shop along
with the cylinder head and busted cylinder. Orange Engine (local auto machine shop) said they
could do it all and they sort of did. I was left to get the parts they said I needed. The valves
proved to be a problem as none of the local shops had them. I waited in line at Robert M. Law
Triumph for an hour to be told they were back ordered. Not uncommon in those days to wait for
hours in line to get parts. I ended up driving out to the Valley to get a valve and into LA to get
bearings. I went to see Jim Hunter for some other bits who upon hearing I wanted triple parts
lambasted me with words that would make a sailor blush but did produce an unobtainable exhaust
valve. “how much” I asked. “ Ah hell, take the piece of #%&^@# before I toss it in the trash!”
Jim said. He was like that.
When I got the crank back and fitted the new bearings the rods seemed to have a tight
spot when I tried to rotate them on the journal. “Supposed to be like that” the Orange Engine guy
said. So I put it together like that. The guy said they had to “knurl” the guides, what ever that
meant. I was to embarrassed to say I didn’t know but I sure found out! They had put a line of
ridges on the outside diameter of the guides to keep them from falling out of the head. Of course
when they were in the running engine the ridges became little files gently auguring out the guide
holes in the head but that bit of knowledge was still some time in my future. I took a brief 3
months off of the assembly to seek my fortune in the north of Alaska with 2 fellow maniacs but
upon my return set to and finished up the engine. My friend Kim Wilson had accepted the job of
painting the tank and fenders and had filled in the side of the gas tank with a few pounds of
Bondo to get rid of the ugly tank badges and knee pads. The tank was a lovely bulbous gloss
black as were the fenders. I ended up trashing the original forks and wheel for a second hand
Honda disc fork bought at Pop’s salvage on first street in Santa Ana. Then I used plumbers tape
to take up the difference between Honda’s metric steering head bearings and the BSA imperial
size. A local speedway racer made an exhaust system, 3 into 1 by using Honda CB750 header
pipes heated and bent to collect into a piece of 3 inch muffler pipe beat down to fill in the big
gaps and then welded with coat hanger and a torch. The back half of the muffler off a Kawasaki
350 Twin cut in half and hose clamped to the 3 inch pipe completed the exhaust. The stock seat
was given the dumpster treatment also and a “racing” seat made in High School metal shop. No
cover I just sat on the steel with the steel back hump to keep me from sliding off. I made some
horrific rear sets also by cutting the stock footrests and welding them shorter done by the local
muffler shop. I cut down the brake pedal also with the same muffler shop welding that up. The
shift lever was shortened but it was still a long reach even with my size 13 feet.
I got the bike running at 3 AM in my fathers garage in a very respectable part of the
city of Orange. I had to try it out on our cul-de-sac so with the open 3 inch header I blasted
through the gears up and down the street until all dads neighbors’ lights were on and my father
was standing in the middle of the street, hands on his hips and with a look that said more than
words. I was pleased that I had successfully put something together that actually ran. I had many
adventures with that BSA over the year I owned it including a valiant attempt at drag racing. My
Continued page 18
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Letters to the Editor Send to: [email protected] or by mail : 17320 Santa Rosa Mine Rd,
Perris, Ca. 92570
I love the Way We Were column, that's just the way it was. Wow, what a lucky break finding the previous owner of that BSA out in the parking lot of DMV! That has happened to me several times! The previous owner from 10 years ago signed the title in the wrong place and the DMV clerk sends you
away. But wouldn't you know it, no sooner you leave the building, there he
is! The title is signed and back in line. The new signature is a little different because, like, it was a long time ago. And the clerk looks up at you with a knowing smile, "Of course, Mr Getty. Butch Gordo
Thanks for changing the Bulletin mailing address timely; the membership sec didn't so the renewal member card arrived with a USPS forwarding label on it!
Thanks especially for the P11 lore in the latest Bulletin, it's a special interest of mine which you'll immediately see if visiting vintagenet.us/phantom
There was certainly some new info which I'd not previously been privy to about the "here, make this" prototype. There was a lot more creativity going on @ ZDS in those days than we have heard much about.
Re: the Daytona 88's, I somewhere have a clear but not very elucidatory B&W of Clar-ence Czyzs' bike from way back, obtained hand to hand from an unknown source more than a half century ago. I was interested in those bikes in the late 60's and phoned up Clarence's son who worked @ the Pontiac dealer in Riverside at the time. He said it had all been sold off and really had no info at all but I was glad to have pursued it as far as practical. They seem to have also campaigned Parillas.
My interest was related to a bike I had (still do) the only Norotten I'm aware of to ever carry a road race #1 plate in the US - a '56 Domi that Jim Kibblewhite (PM / Precision Machining) built a +.090 99 based engine for. The bike was campaigned by Rich Arians, long ago operator of Vanguard Engineering in San Rafael. Chassis-wise it was under-whelming - SLS front brake and one of those boat anchor Norton rear wheels. He did bag Open GP #1 with it in '64 - a real soft class then. Kilgroe fiberglass, no fairing. The seat was cool - like a 50's Gilera GP bike. And it was fast - had a pair of 30mm delOrto spigot mount carbs on welded up stubs. The engine Kibbie built was the nicest handwork of any Norton I've ever seen, hands down. That got replaced w a 745cc engine but that PM 99 will always be my sentimental fave.
Thanks for the outstanding job you've done as Bulletin Editor - it's clearly the best ever.
Tom Davenport aka Phantom Oiler
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Larry Lawrence | May 26, 2019
Last week, the motorcycle industry lost a legend with the passing of Gene Romero. He was 71.
Romero had a long list of racing accomplishments. Some of the standouts were winning the AMA Grand National Champi-onship in 1970, winning the Daytona 200 in 1975, winning 12 AMA Nationals during his 16-year racing career, being named AMA Most Popular Rider of the Year Award in 1970, and, in that same year, being immortalized in the famous racing documentary mov-ie On Any Sunday. Romero was also inducted into the AMA Motor-cycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
“He’s going to be missed,” said lifelong friend and fellow racer David Al-dana. “I saw him just a month ago at the Trailblazers banquet. He was putting on a good face, but I could tell he wasn’t feeling well. Cheri [Gene’s wife] asked me to talk to him about going to see a doctor, but Gene was pretty stubborn, and maybe he didn’t want to hear what they were going to tell him.
“I talked to him on the phone just a week ago and he’d finally gone in. He told me he had had COPD and that maybe they were going to have to take out one of his lungs. But then his condition got worse, and he went downhill fast. It’s sad we lost him, but I’m glad he didn’t linger in pain for a long time.”
Gene Romero might have passed away, but his memory will long live on. We talked to a number of his fellow competitors and those in the in-dustry who knew him best, and they shared some of their fondest mem-ories of the man they called “Burritto.”
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Gene Romero was one of the best-known motor-cycle racers in the U.S. during late 1960s and ear-ly '70s. Romero won the AMA Grand National Championship in 1970 riding for Triumph. Known as a TT specialist early in his career, Romero be-came a top contender in all forms of Grand Nation-al racing and won nationals on miles, half-miles, road-racing circuits and TT tracks. The biggest win of Romero's career came in the Daytona 200 in 1975. Romero had been racing in the 200 since 1967 and came close to winning in 1970 and again in 1971, when he was the run-nerup. Romero came through with an excellent ride in 1975 aboard a factory Yamaha. He rode for most of the race in fourth. About midway through the race, he began to pour on the speed, passing Giacomo Agostini and Steve Baker and eventually taking the lead when Steve McLaughlin crashed under Romero's relentless pressure. Romero cruised home to victory. It would prove to be his only win in the Daytona 200 in 14 starts. Born on May 22, 1947, in Martinez, California, Romero honed his racing skills on the dirt track and scrambles tracks of the Central Valley of California. He cites Johnny LaManto as a major influence on his desire to race. Romero described LaManto as a hell-raising local legend who lived at a ranch that neighbored his grandfather's ranch near Hollister, California. As an amateur, Romero used his scrambles skills to become a top TT Stee-plechase rider. Not surprisingly, Romero's first pro finish came at the Castle Rock (Washington) TT in July of 1966. His first national win came two years later, again on a TT course, this time in Lincoln, Nebraska, riding a Triumph. Romero won 12 AMA nationals during his 16-year racing career. He became known as one of the first riders to bring sponsorship into the sport from outside the motorcycling industry. One year the famous motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel was Romero's primary sponsor. In 1970 Romero won the prestigious AMA Most Popular Rider of the Year Award. Romero raced motorcycles until 1981. After a short auto racing career, Romero became the manager of Honda's AMA Grand National dirt track racing program from 1982 to 1985. From there, Romero formed a promotions company and is involved in numerous projects from motorcycle racing series to town fairs and festivals.
Gene Romero INDUCTED: 1998
1970 AMA Grand National Champion.
1975 Daytona 200 Winner. Courtesy of the AMA
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Coming to your Norton dealer soon, the new Norton Atlas 650 twins! This is an offshoot of the Norton V-4 using the highest qual-ity components. Price point to compete with the Triumph 1200 Twins. For more information go to:
Your editor and wife along with my friend Terry Ra-chuy and Dominique and Nicole Froesch decided that it was time for a real military escort for the an-nual Rolling Thunder ride this Memorial Day. With the 75th anniversary of the D day invasion com-ing shortly after we hoped that we could spark some memories with my 1941 BSA WM20 and my 1940 Norton 16H. I rode the BSA with my long suffering wife Marla while Terry
rode the Norton with Dom and Nicole Froesch riding sweep on my 2002 Victory (suitable for the Memorial day ride don’t you think?). Both war bikes finished the ride under their own power though the Norton shed its shift lever on the 215 freeway. A ever vigilant Dom managed to pick it up and get us under way again. The M20 was capable of sustained 35mph while the Norton seemed to be low on power but high on smoke so we were passed by a few thousand bikes but all appreciated the turning out of these old warri-
ors. Ed.
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Hi folks, the son of the owner of this 60’s-80’s dealership is looking for information on the business. Anybody out there have anything? Memories of perhaps you bought a bike from Mr. Towers? Contact the editor if you have anything on this dealer.
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2016 Part 3 Don Danmeier
The main attraction for the Island trip was the racing, of course. Another favorite viewing site is the pub at Quarter Bridge, so we spent our time there during the road closure on Monday. We were joined by Bob Smith, Dan Bockmier, and his wife Lorraine. Bob and Dan are guys I ride with on a weekly basis back in California. Bob came over with us for the BSA Rally in 2008 and became so obsessed with the scene that he volunteered for Marshal training the following year and has returned every year since to man his station at Quartet Bridge. He rents a room at Ros’s house and walks down to the pub, so no bike. Dan and Lorraine came primarily because they had tired of hearing us rave about this business so many times. What I particularly like about this location are the sights and sounds of the bikes as they navigate this corner. It isn’t far from the starting line, so they achieve maximum velocity right away, because it’s a downhill launch; after which they hit the bottom of the grade, making a slight left, then accelerating uphill to the crest right at the foot of Ros’s driveway (famously known as “Ago’s Leap” after Giacomo Agos-tini got air under his wheels here on the MV back in 1970). With all that momentum, they run downhill again, downshifting repeatedly, to the sharp right-hander at Quarter Bridge. We stand at the outside of the apex, so the bikes have to aim straight at us when making the turn, and here is where you can separate the men from the boys. These riders are all amateurs, but the younger ones tend to be on relatively new machinery, while the grizzled geezers, more often than not, are running in the classes catering to older bikes. You will see two kinds of corner attack from this vantage point: the ones with front tires squirming under heavy braking when the guy with the big eyeballs inside the helmet real-izes he’s coming in way too hot, subsequently going too wide, then in order to save his
TRAVELS WITH SHIRLEY
Don, Dan and Bob at Quarter Bridge
Continued on page 15
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11th ANNUAL CENTRAL COAST CLASSIC
MOTORCYCLE SHOW
The Central Coast Classic Motorcycle Club was established in 2005. Our goal is to bring people together who enjoy riding, collect-ing, discussing and working on classic motorcycles. Our club to anyone who enjoys classic motorcycles. We have British, German, American, Japanese and Italian motorcycles in our club. A motor-cycle is generally considered a classic when it is 25 years or older or the brand is no longer manufactured.
We usually meet the first Sunday of every month at the Budget Ca-fé, 3121 S. Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo at 11am (about 10 out of 12 months – check calendar each month). Here we enjoy other classic motorcyclist company and the bikes they ride. We discuss a little club business, have a late breakfast or early lunch,
and just have lots of fun and laughs and occasionally have a ride or a visit to a local motorcycle establishment after the meeting.
Regarding the Classic Bike Show or to pre-enter your classic bike contact us
Save the Date for the: 11th ANNUAL CENTRAL COAST CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE SHOW
ass, either slowing too much or bogging down his motor trying to get the hell out of there. The second strategy is to electrify the atmosphere with the holy honking note of the meg-aphone exhaust while still out of sight, gearing down while maintaining a relatively stable rate of rpm, then smoothly gliding around the bend with an absence of fuss on those skinny old-fashioned tires, and winding it out. going through the gears to leave the scene of the crime. My ears are still ringing.
Dinner that night included the six of us at Sir Norman’s in the Sefton Hotel. The meal was superb, the company witty and wonderful and dessert was a knockout. What a per-fect day. That was a good thig, because the following one, while enjoyable, was pretty much a foggy, the overcast affair. Shirley and I traipsed down the Prom, to a small shop where I had another ignition key made, after which we began a search for a headlight bulb, mine having given up. I was surprised to find how difficult that was, what with all the motorcycle activity that takes place there, particularly the vintage event. Just down the hill from our hotel was Padgett’s, a shop that historically sponsored many a race bike: no luck there. So, we rode over to an auto electric shop that I knew of, on the road to Castletown. They have a huge stock of Lucas parts, so I was sure they’d have one. No luck there, either. Since we were well on the way to Murray’s Museum, we stopped for a looksee (it had been a while) and Peter Murray invited us to scribble a memento on one of the guest lists that are tacked to panels that stand near the entrance. He looked but was somewhat taken aback to find that they didn’t have any such bulbs, either. And the place has a whole batch of BSAs sitting on the floor! But he gave us directions to Griffith’s a shop out near the airport. They are (modern) Triumph dealers, and guess what? Zilch. “Try AGR down the road, they do custom bikes, they might be able to help”, I was told. Well, that didn’t pan out, either – they didn’t stock anything for retail, much less bulbs. So, we stopped ty Murray’s again, on the way back to Douglas. I ad-vised him that the referral didn’t work out, at which point he looked over at one of the local hangers-on and shouted, “You, there. Wanker. Pull a bulb from the headlamp of one of those BSAs”, which caused the other hanger-on to complain, “But I thought I was the wanker around here!” That was followed by minor grumbling between the two and argument over who should be the more honored with the insult, popping off a lens and procurement of a bulb, which took both to do. We thanked Peter profusely, and he passed some memento trinkets to Shirley on our way out.
We rode over to St. John’s for lunch. The Vintage Motor Cycle Club was staging a dis-play there on the lawn. Being a card-carrying, paid-up member, I couldn’t resist. I’d also hoped to find a certain marque expert there who I’d corresponded with over the years. He understands and speaks Zenith, and there are precious few who do. But checking with staff at the sit-down luncheon in the big tent that I hadn’t signed up for, I was told that he hadn’t, either. Just my luck. But out on the grass there were some attractive bikes, including a beautiful “touring” version of the Vincent Black Shadow, which had been repatriated from a scooter shop in Japan. The Hesketh factory display was on hand, this time with a bit of regalia on sale, which caused me to drop a few pounds for a classy, unpretentious HESKETH black sweater. After that, we ducked into a café across the road, where I’d left the BSA. To compensate for the somewhat gloomy weather, we topped off our snack with hot chocolate and cookies (“biscuits”).
Back at the hotel, Shirley went in for a nap; I got my tools and Bill went down to the street with me. I took off the headlamp lens, looked inside the bucket and commented to him, “Hey Billy. This loose wire? It should be connected to the headlamp switch.”
Ernie Vigil managed an impressive 5th place in class, and 17th overall at the
NORRA Mexican 1000, after starting the final day in 6th on his near-standard
Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE.
A positive third day saw the American rider move up to 8th place in the Modern
Open bike class having finished day two in 12th after picking up a 54-minute
penalty.
Finishing the 1349-mile race is impressive enough, but considering the compe-
tition was riding a mixture of dedicated off road racers including several Honda
XR650Rs, 5th place on a near-standard road bike is a real accomplishment.
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Stories from the Trailblazers
as told to your editor,
Once while riding the Argus mountains west of Darwin Ca. with Jack Simmons I heard this story. We were sitting around a campfire in the stark wilderness after a day of following old Indian trails as mapped by Dale Sandell some weeks before.
As I recall Jack told of working at Joe Koons BSA in Long Beach. A fellow brought in his BSA B33 to have the prop stand lug welded. Jack leaned the bike over to get a better look at the stand lug and then dropped this welding mask and struck an arc with the shop arc welder. Problem was the bike had a full tank of fuel and the cap leaked so when the bike was leaned over an ever expanding puddle of gas was spreading out beneath it. All that was needed was a spark and the welder supplied that in spades. The gas went up in a huge poof but Jack didn’t hear or notice at first being close by the welder and with the mask down. Joe heard the flash of the fuel and came running around the corner to find the customers bike and jack in flames. Jack jumped back and Joe doused him with the fire extinguisher. The poor fellows bike fell the rest of the way onto it side when Jack jumped up and the flames spread. The rest of the staff rushed over with more extinguish-ers and were just able to put the fellows bike out when the owner walked into the shop. There his bike lay with the seat burned to a crisp and all the cables burned and covered in black soot. The shop was an old wood and brick building and would certainly been a total loss if they staff hadn’t got the fire out. All the poor bike owner kept saying was “All I wanted was my stand fixed” shaking his head. Joe for his part just uttered “ Bad deal, bad deal” as he walked off.
Another tale was of the infamous Jim Hunter. Jim was working at Joe’s shop which also carried Vespa scooters. A fellow had wrecked his Vespa and Joe gave the repair to Hunter. In typical Hunter fashion Jim said “I don’t know anything about no #&$%^#@( scooters!” Joe said to do the best he could so Jim did. When the customer came to pick up the bike he rode away but came right back. “It pulls to the left Mr. Hunter” he said. “ Well” says Jim “ I seen your problem right away. No wonder you crashed! Why your sitting on the seat all wrong. You gotta sit off to the side to make up for the motor all on one side!”
And that is what the happy customer did.
When Hunter was service manager at Norm Reeves Honda A mechanic Sandy was working on a customers Gold Star. The bike had an alloy Lyta gas tank. Sandy be-came frustrated and walked away from the bike, then turned and threw the screwdriver he was holding. It went “thunk” and buried itself to the handle in the beautiful polished alloy tank. All Hunter said was “Alright idiot, now you get to buy the guy a new tank”.
The salesman at Reeves would sell a customer a new A65 BSA and when they returned with complaints the salesman would tell them “Go see Mr. Hunter, he will set it right”. They would innocently go to service where Jim would tell them “Before you say anything them BSA’s vibrate like a paint shaker and leak like a sieve, they blow bulbs and shed parts like a dog sheds hair in summer, now what ya want?” Or that’s how I heard it anyway. Ed.
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first time on the line was amazing, with an incredibly loud bike looking down that 1/4 mile. I
blasted down the track sure I had set a new record. For anyone familiar with Orange County race-
way the right lane had a slight dip about mid track that seemed to be a jump to me. I pulled off
the track and to the shack where the time keeper handed you the time slip for your run. Hmmm
11.7 seconds the slip said. Not to bad I thought and went back to the pit area to show my friends.
As I was reveling in the glory of a record run a fellow on a new Kawasaki 500 with a wheelie bar
came up and without a word snatched the time slip out of my hand and with a flair of disgust
dropped what turned out to be my real time slip on the ground. 14.5 seconds. Not quite so good.
Not as fast as Dan Ostraski’s GTO but about the same as Kim’s 289 Mustang. That BSA saw me
through a move to an apartment in the worst part of Santa Ana and a number of rides courting my
future wife. I rode it to the top of Saddleback Mountain on the dirt even with clipon’s and rear set
controls. Alas I did manage to launch another con rod during a high speed run down the 5 free-
way and so ended up with my room mate Don Wilson and me hauling the BSA up the stairs to
our 2 bedroom apartment and completely dismantling it in the living room. Cleaning parts with
paper towels and some in the kitchen sink I was working on the rear wheel on the carpet in the
front room when Mr. Lindsey, the manager, walked by. He just stepped through the door of our
apartment and sat down. He told me about WW2 and other inconceivable things that he had expe-
rienced in the Merchant Marines. When he was done he just got up and left and never said a word
about the BSA. Don and I waited until late one evening to take the completed BSA back down
the stairs and of the other tenants ever said a word about it.
Trying to drag race the BSA was not a good idea as it turned out so I went down to the
local Kawasaki dealer remembering how I had been spanked by their 3 cylinder 500. But what
was this? They just came out with a 750 3 cylinder that was supposed to be the fastest bike you
could buy, so I did. I offered the BSA as trade in but was rebuffed by the dealer. Advertising it
for sale I was finally approached by a really old guy, he must have been about my age now, who
wanted a bike that would go 150 MPH. He saw that the speedometer went that high so offered to
buy it. A deal was stuck and he had me ride it to a local dinner. We went into the dinner where a
younger lady was working as a waitress. She recognized the old gent and greeted him warmly. He
told her that now he had a motorcycle that would go 150 mph and would she teach him how to
ride it! She was obviously alarmed and protested while he seemed to become a bid agitated at her
perceived rejection. For my part I saw this as a grand opportunity to beat a hasty retreat leaving
the old gent and the young waitress to work out their issues without me.
As it turned out the old fellow sold the bike to my friend Jeff McCoy who used it for a
while until it once again tossed a rod (number 4 in it’s lifetime). He left it by the roadside for the
junkman to collect and that was the end of that poor old BSA. The Kawasaki served me well for
36,000 miles including innumerable trips to OC Raceway and dozens of full throttle launches
with never so much as a hiccup. I sold that bike on and jumped back into the fire with a 1972
Norton Commando that was somewhat more reliable than the BSA but just barely. I bought a $75
Honda to use while the Norton was not running which was fairly often. And so after being newly
married and with only an old motorcycle for transport for me and my new wife what is the first
thing you should buy? Well we bought a new 1974 left over 850 Commando. That bike made it
almost a week before dropping a valve through a piston and Norton was down for the count so no
warrantee. George Genovich of HP International came to my rescue with a used 850 cylinder
head that was in actuality a porous one that had been replaced under an earlier warrantee at Or-
ange County Yamaha where George had worked before opening his own shop. It worked even
though it leaked a bit, and still does 130,000 miles later. I still have the same bike, and the same
wife too. The trials and tribulations of a 130,000 mile Norton are something for another story
though. The Rocket 3 managed to use 3 con rods, 2 cylinder liners, one camshaft , 2 clutch pres-
sure plates, 12 valve guides and 6 valves, 12 lifters and a 3 push rods in the 10,000 miles I man-
aged to get out of it. Like I said, parts were cheap because of the high volume of sales! Ed.
From page 3
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Carnival of Speed on Aug 24-25... TWO DAYS! ALL DISCIPLINES! STREET & DIRT!
Sat Aug 24:
8am - 4pm - Big Willow 2.5 Mile Course
4pm - 6pm - Mini Bike Mayhem
6pm - 11pm - Moto Drag Racing
Sun Aug 25:
8am - 4pm - Streets of Willow
4pm - Dark - Flat Track @ Walt James (They let us back in!)
There will be free camping Fri-Sun & off road moto riding all day for your paid entry. Big party all night Saturday while we watch the maniac’s drag race under the lights at the Big Willow straight-a-way.
Needless to say, this is gonna be one hell of a good time and
tickets will sell out!
There will be vendor & sponsor info coming soon...but if you would like to be a vendor or sponsor and just need to let me know how excited ya are, give me a shout...I love it!
Thank you all for your continued support...
Rock on,
Brady Walker
RAMMING SPEED
CLASSIC TRACK DAY
THE CALIFORNIAN
F.A.D.E.
310-980-7129
www.bradywalker.com
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-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
The 3rd
annual Californian classic motorcycle show took place on May 4th. Coinciding with the 144th running of
the Kentucky Derby, it was a horsepower themed afternoon from ani-mal to machine. Adding to the theme this year was a display of vin-tage Porsches curated by The Professor Run. The weather couldn’t have been better, with sunny skies & a cool breeze that kept the tem-perature on the infield lawn around 75 degrees all day. As vendors set up in the morning, a stream of old bikes paraded into the infield via the Gate 6 tunnel. Thankfully we had a team of LA Cretins MC on hand assisting partici-pants with a push up the tunnel hill and unloading bikes from their vehicles. Once the show opened a steady stream of folks passed through the event all day long. One could speak with experts and check out displays from SoCal vintage clubs, including the BSA Club of SoCal, The SoCal Norton Owners Club, The Velocette Club of North America, The Ariel Owners Club & The Vincent Owners Club. If one was looking to restore a bike, they could speak with Buchanan’s Spoke & Rim about their wheel op-tions, Classic British Spares about parts for their old Triumph, or tooling options with JRC Engineering. If modern Triumphs are your thing, Moto Chop Shop was on hand to dis-cuss performance & customization options. Our friends at Hagerty Vintage Motorcycle Insurance spoke with many people about the best way to protect their two-wheeled in-vestment and Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys reps signed up folks for their BAM road-side assistance program. Alpinestars had a display of their new gear and set up some great shade for the pine wood derby arena. Although not on hand day of, we appreciate the support from our friends at Biltwell and Deus Ex Machina, sponsors of The Californian since day one. Judges determined the best in show for the 10 show categories and winners were announced on stage. Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Californian motorcycle show: BEST IN SHOW: Dave Destler / 1950 Sunbeam S7 Deluxe RESTO PRE-1969: Michael Harper-Smith / 1957 Aeromacchi Chimera RESTO POST-1969: Bruce Fickling / 1972 Norton Commando Fastback SURVIVOR PRE-1969: Todd Cameron / 1916 Harley Davidson JD SURVIVOR POST-1969: Mitsuhiro Kiyonaga / 1969 Harley Davidson FLH CUSTOM PRE-1980: Bruce Fickling / 1974 Rickman Metisse 750 Triump CUSTOM POST-1980: Ralph Nevarez / 19xx Ariel 2x4 RACE INSPIRED: Ryan Talbot / 1957 Norton Manx DAILY DRIVER: Nima Karamati / 1965 BMW R69S Ben Eisenbise, founder of the Professor Run, organized a people’s choice award for the vintage Porsche feature. Over 200 spectator votes were cast to give us this year’s peo-ple’s choice winner, Jung Akkhrawat Aphiwattechin with his 1969 Porsche 911T Coupe. Following the awards ceremony was the “Derby at the Derby” Pinewood Der-
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by. Fifteen cars entered the contest with builders’ ages ranging from four to for-ty. Bracket racing took place on the 32-foot long gravity fed track and the racing was so furious that I didn’t write down the name of the winner! My notes just say car#4…so con-grats buddy! I know it was a child, and not a grownup…and that’s good enough for me. On hand to judge the design portion of the derby was our friends Miguel Galuzzi, Shinya Kimura & Mitsuhisho Kiyonaga. The trio of design legends determined that the snazziest car was built by Parker Floyd, age 7. What we determined is that we need more creativity and mechanical genius coming from the grown ups if they ever wanna compete with the younger crowd. We have a year, so get on it folks!
The afternoon ended with a few cold ones being consumed while we cleaned up and helped some of the old timers load up their bikes. Early signs point to the 4th annual Cali-fornian happening May 2nd, 2020, largely because of the support of San-ta Anita Park. And I must take a mi-nute to express my appreciation for Andrew Arthur & the entire SAP team. Although the track had been under scrutiny for months, the team
always took the time to take care of me, whether it was questions on the phone or bend-ing over backwards to help with logistics. The Californian hopes that the historical park continues to operate for years to come now that Santa Anita has adopted safety reforms that has been applauded by animal rights group, PETA. Thank you all for the support of The Californian…we look forward to more fun in 2020! Brady Walker Founder / Producer The Californian www.thecalifornian.us
My 1971 BSA Lightning has the original Amal carbs which seem to work well, but I sometimes get frustrated with the ticklers be-cause they are so small and diffi-cult to depress, especially with gloves on. So when my beautiful but kinky girlfriend asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said without hesitation, "Tickler exten-sions". But I was surprised when my birthday rolled around and my sweet baby, with a glint in her eye, tied me to the bed and told me to get ready for my special present. As I was lying there in quite a vulnerable state of un-dress, I tried to work out in my mind how removing my shorts and getting tied to the bed had anything even remotely to do with tickler extensions for my Amal carbs. Then she whipped out two peacock feathers attached to four
-foot pieces of bamboo and proceeded to tickle me everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I must admit that we had a pretty good time, but I still get gaso-line all over my gloves whenever I go to start my engine. Maggie, when am I ever going to learn to communicate with women? – TICKLED PINK IN RED-WOOD CITY
Dear Pink Woody:
At the rate you’re going, maybe never. You have to realize that normal peo-ple do not employ the same highly technical vocabulary that bikers do. Con-sider where women are “coming from”, that is, what their perception of reality is. Your girl, being attuned to implications of the sensual sort, will jump to conclusions that you may never have thought of. Such is the nature of the “battle of the sexes”. Different hormones, different biological imperatives, presto, different vocabularies. Stick with the touchy-feelie stuff and you may get through to her. You know, “koochy-koo” instead of “ticklers”. But take off the gloves when you do it.
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Bulletin ads work! Swap Meet, buy-sell-trade Only British motorcycle related items will be listed, with BSA items having priority. Unless otherwise requested, ads will run for three consecutive issues. If you find/sell what you are advertising for during that period, please send the Editor a cancellation notice!
The methods for submitting ads for publication are: Preferred: via Email, [email protected] with any photos in .jpg format
Next Best: Phone 951-943-5886. Good: mail to 17320 Santa Rosa Mine Rd, Perris 92570.
1971 BSA A65 Thunderbolt, Beautiful restoration with black frame. The best BSA 650 ever. $6500.00 Bill @ 951-943-5886 Bike is in Southern Ca. 5/19
For sale : Large collection of professional mechanic's British Bike tools, especially Triumph. Also T. parts, and 68' Cheney 500 dirtbike, 78' T140 (eng. out & disassembled), + nasty little non-working Bultaco Lobito . Eric Rhodes 510 233 4536
This matching numbers Triumph Bonneville T120TT is an early 1967 model with the aubergine and gold tank. Always a Northern California bike, it hasn’t been raced or wrecked or restored or repainted or even ridden very far. It still has ET ignition. With shorty mufflers, a correct-for-1967 taillight, original black license plate and current registra-tion, it’s legally streetable. You may have seen it on the all-Brit rides, and you can drive it home for $14k. John @ (510) 406 8310
For Sale 1964 Triumph Tiger Cub, ridden 360 miles since 100% restoration, in perfect condition, Calif. non-op title. contact Mike Haney for details 760-365-9191 $5000 5/19
For Sale : 1972 BSA 650 Light-ning. Owned since 1993... my go to Brit bike. Chinese tires, Mikuni carbs, bad tach, bad speedo, but it runs, stops, .and currently regis-tered. Has been on many, many rides. Lights work, newer shocks. Around $1800..Sam in Mendo-cino...707 937 1712 6/19
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HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE BSA OWNERS CLUB OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA:
Dave Aldana Earl Bowlby Don Danmeier Dick Mann Bob Raber Jim Rice Jeff Smith Craig Vetter In Memoriam: Kenny Eggers Nick Nicholson Roland Pike Roy Bacon Neil Keen Chuck “Feets” Minert Eddie Dow
BSAOCNC Committees:
NEWSLETTER Bill Getty, Editor 951-940-5411
Don Danmeier 415-898-0330
RIDES Don Danmeier, Chair 415-898-0330
Mike Crick
CALIFORNIA Don Danmeier, Chair 415-898-0330
BSA RALLY David James 510-562-6769
ELECTIONS Ants Uiga (Chairman) 949-466-6404
David James 510-562-6769
MEMBERSHIP Bill Whalen, Chair 707-837-0424
Patti Meadows 775-359-8150
WEB PRESENCE David James, Chair 510-562-6769
Patti Meadows 775-359-8150
Jeff Sunzeri 831-636-3020
Our mystery rider from last month is none other than Richard Voner. Taken about 2001 at the Elsinore Lake Look out Richard was on his Triumph T150.
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More information– https://antiquemotorcycleswapmeet.com/
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God Speed Gene! Thanks to Rider Magazine for the photo God Speed Gene!
