| I am a new member and have just started my vintage roadracing career. The
AHRMA experience has been a terrific major motivating factor for me to build a classic
roadracer. Everyone I met involved with AHRMA has been terrific, from the racers like Todd
Henning and Jack Seaver to gentlemen like Jack Tatum. I hope to enjoy many years to come
in the Premier 500 and Formula Vintage classes. I might even build a Sportsman 500 bike
that's itching for some major modifications. 18 months ago I started my bike by buying a
local heap for $100. It was a tattered '72 Honda CB450 without a tank or seat and a down
motor. Today, the only things still stock are the crankshaft and rods with 31,000+ miles
(and now nine races). I mostly built the bike myself and learned to machine, engineer,
weld, paint and imagine while constructing the bike. I own my own commercial real estate investment brokerage business and tried to do as much on my own as time provided, with the help of some key sources like Todd Henning. To keep myself motivated and focused, I kept track of the information given to me or that I collected and found everywhere else (even on the Internet) in a journal. My journal helped saved me from making many possible rookie mistakes while building this racer from scratch. The motor has been heavily modified with the help of several specialists like Henning.
The bike has an international flavor to go along with the CB450's role in the GPs of the
early '70s. I modified the frame by cutting out the center frame rail and inserting an "X" from the swingarm and crossing each other to the outer frame rails to fit between the 34mm carbs. I also re-welded everywhere that metal meets metal, with a little bracing here and there. Most of the parts on the bike were cryogenically frozen before construction just for the hell of it. There are lots of other details, but baisically the front end is from a '72 Suzuki GT750 with Progressive Suspension springs, and the rear is stock with Works Performance shocks. I painted the bike myself using Dupont Chromobase System designed after a Tamiya 1/24th scale model of a Honda CB1000 endurance racer that I built as a kid. So far I have found my homemade concoction to be a runner and have diced with many fast bikes, such as Rusty Lowry's KR750 Harley and J. Carter's G50 Matchless. Together we have gotten as high as sixth at Willow Springs, with my best outing at Mid-Ohio 1998 with eighth and 11th in a packed field of fast racers. My goal is to be in the top 10 in the Premier 500 class at the end of my rookie season. Not bad for never racing before in my 41 years. |
I came out with a very adequate bike
shop as a result with the machinery that I collected during the process.
The
bodywork is from Asa Moyce at Bartel's in Northern Ireland, the bearings made in
Argentina, of course the bike is from Japan, the tach, wheels, tires and oil from England,
clip-ons and levers from Germany, rearsets and hardware from Italy, and engine parts and
service in America, with the