When i started racing, production rules were up to 250cc and over 250cc. In the fall of 1971, I bought a Yamaha DS7 250 so I could go production racing the next season. About two weeks after I changed the ownership over, the CMA changed the rule structure to up to 350cc and over. Sigh. So my new ride was obsolete already.
That spring, I was in a Toronto Kawasaki dealership and saw the sales brochure on the new line of triples and bought the first 1972 S2 350 Kawasaki triple in Toronto in March of that year without ever seeing a for-real model in the flesh. The bikes weren’t due in country until April but I had to have one. Tipped it over once or twice and ended up painting it black with hand painted lettering and stripes before writing it off in October at turn 8 at Mosport.
After I crashed my GT380 going 70 MPH in a corner trying to pass my buddies muscle car I sold what was left to my brother, I then got heavily into homebuilt airplanes. I did’nt have a bike again until I was 35. I built this plane in my dad’s garage when I was 21 and flew it for over 500 hours. When I was dating my wife Lynn I convinced her to fly with me to Oshkosh in this little tandem KR2, that was a trip to remember. She even married me after that trip…we almost got run over by the concord! I was more of a nut-bar back then (incredible but true), I use to test fly buddies homebuilts until one guy almost killed me while checking him out in a homebuilt which ended my test-pilot days.
No airplanes in my past but something almost as fast…
TZ700 at Sanair. I couldn’t believe how frigging fast that thing was the first time I opened it up on the straight. TZ350s were mobile chicanes. Honda CR750s were stationary haybales. Despite that, it was fairly tractable with a reasonably wide powerband, definitely not peaky like a TZ250.
Hey Peter - I hear that Oshkosh fly-in is supposed to be pretty cool. Might be a worthy tour destination one summer.
As for similar hair - did you have the sideburns right down the jawline as well?
Wow, that’s cool…a TZ700, can’t even imagine riding that thing. My TZ250 feels nuts!
Oshkosh is well worth the trip and highly recommended…I’ve been at least 12 times! Everything from Spitfires to stealth bombers…very cool. As for the “burns”, nope I had no luck growing facial hair back then. Amazingly, once I lost my hair on top I can pretty much grow hair anywhere now . Sorry about that visual… :mrgreen:
OK Steve, you are winning the cool bike picture award! I got to meet Peter Williams at the new Norton launch dinner in Toronto, he’s quite a guy and amazingly approachable. He asked me what I raced, I told him an old BSA B50 and he knew all the technical details of the motor in my bike…very cool. What else you got sitting in those old photo albums Mr. Bond?
How about this one? The best roadracer there ever was or ever will be, Mr. Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood shortly after he stepped on my foot at Daytona.
I’ll have a look and see what I can find. Back then, most of us took slides and sadly, a lot of mine have disappeared over the years. I had some really good pit shots of Saarinen, Roberts, Romero, Paul Smart, Ago, Rayborn, Carruthers and a bunch more greats from the era but have no idea where they are. I think I loaned the whole carousel out and never got it back.
That’s a great shot Steve…I like the the can with the name “Trash” on it, just in case you had any doubts . Its a very candid picture which are the best. So, how did a guy known for his smooth riding and amazing bike control step on your foot .
A few guys have heard my Hailwood story before but here goes. I was riding in the Novice race at Daytona that year (I think 1971) on my TD1C Yamaha and hanging around the Goodyear garage. I was trying to scrounge some cast-off tires that the fast guys had used in practice because a set of their scrubs would last me almost a full season back home.
I guess Hailwood was using their facilities to change and I was just leaning on the wall when a wiry, hawk-faced individual brushed past and stepped on my foot. “Sorry, mate” he said.
“Yeah pal, whatever. Whydonchawatch… HOLY CRAP IT’S MIKE FREAKING HAILWOOD!!!”
I grabbed my Instamatic and took the shot.
This is my TD1C at Daytona that same year, warming up in the paddock area. My second roadrace ever.
That year, I couldn’t keep the damn thing running. Didn’t finish any practice sessions, was a DNF in the heat race as well and was third alternate for the final. A few guys were “Did Not Starts” for the final and I made the cut in the middle of the back row of the third wave. Eighty starters and I was 79th.
Being my second race, I had no idea what I was doing but the bike kept running and I ended up 33rd after only being lapped once by eventual winner John Long.
George Morin in the middle, I believe this is after clinching #1 plate at Shannonville
Chis Econimaki (sp) interviews Yvon Duhamel at Mosport
A couple of bikes at Mosport
My first street bike (1990 RZ350) i crashed doing a wheelie (wearing shorts and a t-shirt) converted to a race bike.
This is my dad on it, that was his first ever motorcycle roadrace, he only did this one race until racing with the VRRA in 2009.
Thats me the same year we switched from the RZ to an 88 FZR400, my first 4 stroke racebike, and i loved it…
This was poor racing, the bike was mostly stock, and judging by the red Georgia clay on my leathers, this picture was taken the next race weekend after our first trip to Road Atlanta where i tried to win the 30 minute solo race in the first corner, it was a drying track with just a dry race line… (i was not succesful)
Here is some P5 era shots for you, my next race bike after the FZR 400 (and after moving to Georgia), a beauty of a CBR600F2, spray painted red and blue to mimic the harley VR1000 paint job (orange on one side and black on the other). Another wrecked gem we picked up for about 700$, traded a katana slip on and used track body work for whatever usefull street parts that were left. I remember after my first race i came in the pits and told my dad “it feels like the handlebars are crooked to the left side” he said “it’s an optical illusion because the upper bracket is crooked”
When we sold the bike at the end of the season the guy that bought it told us he had changed the tripple clamps because they were “really bent” . I had raced all year with it at one of the fastest tracks in America with crooked triple clamps.
We also never bought a new set of tires all year… i had a lot of fun, mostly trying to get into the top 20 of 50 rider fields on faster F3’s… (including top amateur that year Jamie Hacking)
Here is my bandit 400 (the bike everyone said couldnt beat FZR400’s) this is in 1997 at homestead (after we moved back to florida)
This is one of my favorite pictures off all times, my dad is warming up the bike while i am concentrating on the race. It truly felt like a “team” effort, i barely ever touched the bikes back then , i just handed my dad the tools. As close to a factory rider i’ll ever get I gave my dad a framed copy of this picture for christmas that year, it is still on his garage wall today.
Thats the year that i won my first race, the year everything started to click and i became one of the fast guys
. …sigh.
. Sorry about that visual… :mrgreen:
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