April Showers brings May…..motorcycles and racing!

Click Here for the photo gallery.

Hi Everybody!  I know it's been a while since I wrote something and honestly the past few months have been a blur! I'm glad to report I made it out alive from Daytona. I had to visit Florida Hospital and if you have to go that’s the place to go! Daytona was Daytona. Great weather, demo bikes, motorcycle touring and of course the flat track and Daytona 200 rounded out the scene.

Coming back after laying over in Wytheville found us in soupy/foggy weather with temps hovering around 36 degrees.  It started to rain and it did all the way home! We only stopped for gas no food and mushed on  hours later pulling into my driveway.

It's now May and we've had an opportunity to hang out with Bob Davis and the boys n' girls at Western Reserve Motorcycle Track. Last Saturday night was awesome. To me the track conditions were superior to that of the track in Daytona. The races are always punctual and they clicked off 37 races as fast as the next group could get to the starting line. Kudos to the entire staff at Western Reserve Motorcycle Club.

Last year I dabbled with minim road racing for two races because my schedule was jammed. this season I purchased a 2007 Suzuki DR-Z 125 L from Pointview Cycles. I went over everything, jetted the carb, shoed up a pair of BT 45's, safety wired everything and off I went to the races in Circleville, Ohio. Ron Craig acted as my pit crew and I did not finish last. I joked I lost by 100 pounds. Actually 100 pounds and probably 40 years :( It was sooo fun like being a kid again. Driving down the road in a tee shirt and blue jeans pulling my bike on a trailer to do a weekends worth of racing. If you did it before then you know what I am talking about. Here is a link to some of my race photos(                                     )

I'd like to thank Kent Klawon and Brian Conrad for helping out at the races and to the Ohio Mini Road racing league for their generosity and support of the 2013 racing season.

Coming up is my annual Moped Larry ride in New Jersey and I'm trying to get Bif the Bike mechanically ready to go for the Lake Erie loop June 8th.

See you down the road.

If you'll remember two years ago Slugo and I set the Lake Erie Loop record for mopeds circumnavigating Lake Erie's 677 miles in 24 hours and 3 minutes. I'm kind of getting the itch to do it again only this time on a Puch, a Magnum to be exact.

 Two weeks ago I was fortunate to win a bid on eBay for a 1978 Puch Magnum that had been sitting for 20 years. My biking buddy Ron Craig volunteered to drive to Philly and off we went. For those of you not familiar with the new Turnpike incentive system it is as follows;  the further you go the more it cost! Ha,ha about $57.00 in tolls to Philly and back but I think it was worth it.

A couple of days after unloading the bike I pulled the STEEL (that's right quality German made) tank and bought some Evaporust and headed over to Kenny Sampson's for a crash course in tank cleaning and rust inhibitor! It took the better part of three hours to get all the gunk out. I cannot believe how light the tank is now! Anyways the tank is cleaned, rust proofed and ready to go now onto the motor.

Magnums have two power plants and usually one or two levels of horsepower. My Magnum is single speed (versus other models whose power plants are two speed) and it's a 2.0 horsepower rated. Earlier in the year (like May 2012) I purchased a Puch Newport 1.5 horsepower at Moped Larry's ride. This motor I sent to Nick Voight in Wisconsin along with tons of race parts to have Nick do his special brand of MAGIC on the motor. The accompanying pictures will show the detail and care in which Nick is beginning the process of making this Puch motor higher horsepower and dependable enough to bang out the miles running around Lake Erie wide open!

The motor will feature matched crankcases, ported cylinder, reed induction, Stuffed Race crankshaft, lightened internal parts, braced three shoe clutch, 24 mm Mikuni flat side carb and a Techno Boss expansion chamber.

I'm looking to hit 55 miles per hour which would mean no 24 hour run! That would be awesome I've run out of my 5 hour energy drink!

Click Here for a gallery of photos from custom engine builder Nick Voight!