I was on an open vintage bike that year and I was afraid to open it up on that back straight. No deisire to experience Yamahop at speed.
That's a great bike. Is there a story behind its' build? And how did you come by it?
I knew the bike, sort of. My roadracing buddy Dave 'Ski built it when he was working
for H&H Cycle, 73 or 74. Built it to enduro, it has one of only a couple aluminum
air boxes that C&J built, just for enduro. He didn't get the adjustable head (angle)
as he was already way over his head on the cost. Wish I had that now, I'd turn it
into a vintage flat tracker.
He enduro'ed it a couple years then parked it. Somewhere around 79, he and
I met for the first time at Nelson. Around then another buddy (Mark) bought the C&J
and a spare motor from Dave, intending to trail ride it. Got it apart for repairs then
started roadracing then everything sat. Except he bought another stocker
XL250 for spares.
About '95, Mark moved to a house near mine and I was there talking about a
land speed record run (another story) and I noticed the pile of C&J. I told
him I'd just bought an Elsinore 125, just like the one I had in '73. If he ever
wanted to part with that pile, give me a call first. A couple years later the
pile was mine. Enough for three running motors including a cam that breaks
the rockers first time you rev the thing out. Took a couple of years and
a number of bottles of chardonnay plying 'ski to get info out of him before I was
ready for an assault on AHRMA national racing. Besides picking through the
pile of NOS pistons and powroll cranks (and a cam that I will give to anybody
else that tries to build one so they can have the enjoyment of building a couple
extra motors), the biggest fix to the motor was sending the ignition (alternator)
cover to Iowa where a guy turns the bike, with the addition of an ATC185 cam
end setup, into a points less ignition. First or second kick every time now.
That really fast stuff you don't want to Yamahop on? I live for that. Can't
keep an old roadracer down. And the C&J works SO good on that.