Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

MICK ANDREWS (250 Yamaha) has done it again. He took his fifth victory in the Scottish Six Days Trial, with a loss of 38 marks, to equal the record set by the great Sammy Miller. Mick went into the lead on the third day and gradually forged ahead of his rivals to end up with 11 marks in hand over Dave Thorpe (Bultaco). Thorpe's final score of 49 put him in 2nd place over Montesa's Malcolm Rathmell. The superiority of these three is underlined by the 72-mark loss of 4th-place Charles Coutard (Bultaco), the French ace. Only six marks separated Coutard from 8th-place man Nigel Birkett, who was riding one of the brand-new 325cc Suzuki machines flown in specially for the trial just two days before it started.

FOUR-STROKE Singles seem to be the pet subject of all the "old-timers" of motorcycling. Back when I started riding, they were just about the only thing being made. My first bike was a Jawa two-stroke Twin, but I moved up to a Triumph soon after. I still like the way they work, but I began to get tired of being blown off all the time. True, I have owned BSA and CCM 500 Singles in recent years, but both are motocrossers and I don't ride much motocross these days. . .other than, of course, the Old Timers events. Then I usually ride the oldest, tiredest and slowest AJS

two-stroke in the world. Even they are collectors items now.

A few years ago I built a Metisse with a 350 Ducati overhead-cam Single in it. It was light and pretty fast, handled great and was a good example of the state of the art at the time. The Ducati Metisse weighed about 260 pounds dry, without lights or any kind of road equipment for use in enduros or trail rides where you have to spend a little time on public roads.

When CYCLE WORLD published the two-part feature on building the Dallas Baker/C&J 350 Honda (Nov. and Dec., 1974), my mouth began to water again. I had been riding a reasonably stock 350 Honda; a great bike, but in featherweight trim it weighed a petite 282-lb. Fine on forest and fire roads, but a lot of weight in the rocks. So, you guessed it, Dallas Baker sold another C&J frame.

The engine fit into it like a glove. I used Honda Elsinore forks with an S&W kit from Webco that extends the travel to 8 in. Charlie Curnutt made me a set of rear dampers with almost seven inches of travel. The bike rides like a car, even in the roughest terrain imaginable.

Dallas built the exhaust

system using a Torque Engineering pipe that he bent a little and to which he welded a Bassani muffler and Circle spark arrester/muffler. It still isn’t exceptionally quiet, but it’s legal in the National Forests, and the system is tucked in well out of the way.

Preston Petty supplied the fenders, an I.T. on the rear, a Mudder up front. Malcolm Smith’s alloy handlebars went on; Terry cables are fitted to the stock brackets, but Impact levers replace the fragile stock alloy units. A Honda Elsinore seat is used, and the latest Vesco Skinny-Fat tank tops it off. Pretty it isn’t.

Preston also sent me his newest alloy gas cap, which fits down snugly using an O-ring. It doesn’t leak and is easy to tighten. I kept the stock Honda speedometer/ odometer for enduros and Baja. It’s good to know how far you’ve gone in Baja, and how far you are from your destination, because gasoline pumps are usually far apart.

I’m using a Yamaha gizmo that keeps the speeder cable out of the way and secure. We mounted the headlight using Can-Am brackets because they are lighter and less complicated than the Honda system. C&J built the alloy airbox, and a K&N filter fits in perfectly. McLaughlin Honda furnished a bash plate of thick aluminum.

Stock Honda wheels and hubs were moved from the old bike onto the new. Since they already use D.I.D. rims and are light and strong, I saw no need to change. Also, I wanted to retain the speedodrive front hub.

The finished enduro/trail bike weighs just over 250 pounds, dry. It handles almost like a motocrosser, but rides a lot better. It idles and runs beautifully at low speeds with bags of torque, and it will still buzz. I’m using a 34mm Mikuni carburetor, it has made quite a difference in the pulling power.

Next step will be to go into the engine. . .perhaps increase displacement and flow the head. Adding power to such a perfect package, for me, will make it really ideal. Boy, if I had only had this bike in 1954! My Matchless 500, trimmed to the bone, weighed almost 350 pounds. And it had about the same horsepower as the stock Honda. . .about 34. Man, I’d have been a bullet.