Innehållsförteckning för September/October 2022 från Motorcycle Classics

A young and feisty Gary Nixon first experienced what it’s like to lead the field at Daytona International Speedway during the 1964 200-miler. A fast-moving Harley-Davidson KRTT freight train trailed him and his Triumph onto the famous banking, but Nixon appeared up for the challenge. However, later in the race a slow pit stop cost Nixon the lead, eventually placing him second behind Harley-Davidson’s Roger Reiman and his highballing KRTT. No doubt, the confident redhead from Oklahoma had enjoyed the welcoming view of an empty track sprawled wide open before him and his Triumph. He wanted more of the same, so after finishing second to Reiman he dedicated himself to not only becoming AMA Grand National Champion one day, he also desperately wanted to win the Big One — the…

The dictionary says “Halcyon” means calm, peaceful, tranquil, happy and blissful. Don’t listen to Webster: The Janus Halcyon motorcycles are way more exciting than he would have you believe. The Halcyon 450 is a completely new motorcycle with a vintage look and feel. Janus motorcycles are not restorations or resurrections of brands gone by; they are current production motorcycles that take styling and engineering cues from the past. The name fits the company well; Janus was the Roman god of doors, transitions, the past and the future. Think Vincent, Brough Superior, BMW and old-world hand-built craftsmanship, all wrapped up in a contemporary motorcycle. These motorcycles prompt conversations wherever they go. I led a Janus ride through southern California and Baja a few years ago and people on both sides of…

The old adage “never say never” proved itself to be ever so true when, during the late 1960s, Soichiro Honda once proclaimed: “Honda will never build a 2-stroke motorcycle.” Several years later, the company that Mr. Honda had founded and that was known for its 4-stroke wizardry quietly debuted a new motocross racer powered by … a 2-stroke engine. It was a bike that, for model year 1973, became known as the CR250M Elsinore. Moreover, and since that day, the world of motocross racing has never been the same. Never. Interestingly enough, Honda’s 2-stroke motocross program was a response to three other Japanese motorcycle brands — Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki — staking their own claims in the growing sport of motocross during the 1960s. Suzuki, in particular, began dabbling in…

When scientists first saw a baby woolly mammoth that had been frozen in Canada’s Klondike permafrost for 30,000 years, they must have been ecstatic. That’s about how I felt, too, after discovering the timeworn, 5,100-mile Yamaha YDS2 twin seen here earlier this year. Unbelievably rough, it was also magically original, with only the tires changed and the two-tone black-and-white gas tank repainted, rattle-can style, long ago. Abhorrent to some, such crusty authenticity electrifies me instead, due to the opportunity it presents for real timetraveling. In this case, to 1964, when The Beatles toured the U.S. for the first time, Yogi Berra steered the Yankees to the pennant, and A.J. Foyt scored the lastever Indy 500 win for front-engine roadsters. Context is everything. Regarding classic bikes, I honor the adage that…

STEAMTOWN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA Steamtown National Historic Site is a marvelous destination focused on steam locomotives and rail transportation from 1850 to 1950. Most of us love steam locomotives, no doubt due to their size and mechanical presence, their historical significance, and our early life experiences with Lionel trains. If you have stood near a steam locomotive, you know the power and mechanical mystique they emanate. We never miss opportunities to visit such museums (see Motorcycle Classics May 2020 and September 2021). F. Nelson Blount started Steamtown U.S.A. in New Hampshire in 1964. Blount was a wealthy seafood industry heir who owned 25 vintage steam locomotives. After Blount’s death, the collection moved to Vermont. When the National Park Service developed an interest, competition between Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania…

In the calendar of motorcycle events, The Quail Motorcycle Gathering stands alone. It’s not a Concours d’Elegance, but it’s much more than a rally or a festival — it’s a gathering of the tribes. And for one day in May, a few thousand moto-enthusiasts congregate on the lush green lawns of the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, California, to celebrate their shared passion for motorcycle culture. The 2022 edition should have been the 14th in a series of events that began in 2009, when Gordon McCall organized and hosted the first Quail Motorcycle Gathering to carry on a new tradition of motorcycle celebration that began with the Legend of the Motorcycle events that took place in Half Moon Bay, California, from 2006 to 2008. Thanks to COVID, this…

In 2018, I pitched a Baja ride to Janus Motorcycles, and recognizing a good thing when he saw it, Grant Longenbaugh (then the Janus Director of Marketing) made it happen. Janus arrived in So Cal with a van, a trailer, and three 250cc motorcycles. Our Baja expedition was a blast and the motorcycles performed magnificently. The Janus folks rode Baja with me, we enjoyed the Baja experience, and the bikes never missed a beat. The Bajaenos thought we were on vintage bikes and conversations started wherever we stopped. You can read more about that grand expedition and adventure ride at www.ExhaustNotes.us/Baja. html#Janus. During my recent visit to Goshen, I noticed a photo of another Janus adventure rider, Tim Hullinger, on his Halcyon 250 in Deadhorse, Alaska. I have poked around…

The Pioneer years of American motorcycling from 1901 to 1916 saw almost 300 different manufacturers of varying degrees of financial solvency and technical prowess attempt to carve a place for themselves in this exciting new arena of mechanized personal transportation. To do so, many of them which were little more than parts-bin assembly shops relied on the engines produced by a large engineering company in what is today the outer western suburbs of Chicago, but back then was a quite separate town 40 miles inland from Lake Michigan, the Aurora Automatic Machinery Company (AAM) of Aurora, Illinois. AAM had been founded in 1886 as a machine shop by Alex Levedahl and his associates, and grew swiftly thereafter as a key manufacturer of components for America’s flourishing bicycle industry, offering wheel…

Beeline Moto navigation If you occasionally wish you had turn-by-turn guidance system on your motorcycle but don’t want to mount a smartphone or GPS unit on your classic bike, there’s another option. It’s called Beeline Moto, and although it relies on a smartphone to operate, the phone stays in your pocket while the tiny Beeline unit is on your handlebars. The device communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth and a free Beeline app is used to plan routes and send routing instructions to the Beeline device. The Google Maps-based app is versatile and provides options to avoid highways, gravel roads and tolls, if desired. You can also select between planning a motorcycle route or a bicycle route. Once completed, rides can be named and stored on the phone. You can…

Comstar wheels Q: It has become apparent that I really stepped in it when answering the question about tubeless tires and Comstar wheels (July/August 2022). Several readers wrote in to correct my mistake and I thank you all. Here’s a couple of the responses, all of them correct. — Keith A: In the July/August 2022 issue Rick wrote in asking if he could mount tubeless tires to his 1979 Honda Goldwing. The correct answer is NO NO NO! If the wheel is not stamped TL or Tubeless Tire Applicable, do NOT mount the tire without a tube. The wheel may or may not hold air, but the big issue is that the bead area has to be designed to lock the bead in place. Tubeless rims have a wide flat…

Growing up, Andrew Komurka was a self-professed gearhead fascinated by planes, trains, cars and motorcycles. Because of this fascination, he and his friends watched movies such as Gone in 60 Seconds and Top Gun dozens of times, and they’d often joke and say, “Wouldn’t it be cool to own Eleanor, the Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds, or the Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun?” Then they’d all laugh. Now 29, Andrew lives near Detroit but grew up north of Milwaukee in West Bend, Wisconsin. His dad, Van Komurka, was president of the Wisconsin chapter of the International CBX Owners Association. “My dad gets the credit, or the blame, for introducing me to motorcycles,” Andrew says. “He rides late 1970s and early 1980s Japanese bikes, like Honda CBXs and Suzuki GS1000Gs.”…

“What’s in a name?” wrote old Bill Shakespeare. In the case of Mi-Val, a lot of information and Italissimo but not much attention. Mention Mi-Val motorcycles to most old bike guys and you’ll get a blank stare. Attempt to explain the derivation from Minganti-Valtrompia, (the name of the founder and the location of the factory), and how it later became Metalmeccanica Italiana Valtrompia on Ettore Minganti’s death in 1951, and eyes start to glaze over … But the back-story is a little more interesting than that. Mi-Val motorcycles were produced in Lombardy, Italy, at the old Pietro Beretta arms factory close to Lake Garda in Gordone, Val Trompia, north of Brescia. The company’s first motorcycle was a 125cc 2-stroke single modeled on the ubiquitous DKW RT125 (much like post-World War…

The little Yamaha fell into a burbling idle once I finally found neutral. The HT1 transmission likes to pop right past it, and much prefers first or second. It takes a persuasive and subtle foot to find that passive notch between the gears. I figure it’s because the Yam just likes riding so much — can’t blame the little guy, I do too. I slowly let out the clutch to confirm neutral was selected and kick out the side stand. I reach down to turn off the gas valve, and by the time I looked up, a small crowd is already gathering. The yellow little Yamaha with the funky front end is always crowd favorite wherever it goes. Most males over the age of 45 or so forget their present…

THE COMPREHENSIVE VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE PRICE GUIDE 2022/2023 EDITION Through hundreds of hours of research and data entry, formed by the opinions of dozens of dealers, auctioneers, collectors, and experts in the vintage field, we believe this is the most accurate price guide available for vintage motorcycles. It contains more data than any other guide, as all major marques (and many lesser known marques) are included with data through 2003. Also, you’ll find data for the very early years of marques that go unreported in many other publications. New to the eighteenth edition are several marques that were not covered by previous editions. #11353 $19.95 Members: $17.96 HISTORIC MOTORCYCLES, 1885-1985 Historic Motorcycles 1885-1985 provides the reader with stunning fullcolor photographs of more than 100 of the world’s most beautiful and rare…