Sideways Shakes Reporting In!

Hey ABATE members! It’s been a while since last checking in with you guys. I hope all is well, and you and your family had a wonderful holiday. I have some big news! Coming up the weekend of Feb. 11th is Mama Tried’s motorcycle show, and I’m thrilled to announce that I got invited to show my vintage 1971 Yamaha DT250 flat track build. The bike has been a big project of mine over the past year and a half, and I’m honored to be considered for this event. Renowned builders from across the globe will be descending upon Milwaukee with their hand-crafted bikes in tow and showing off some of the most interesting and artistic bikes out there.

The Mama Tried Show takes place at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom Feb 11th and 12th, and if you’ve never been, it’s a fantastic indoor chopper show with many unique bikes displayed right on the floor of the Eagles Ballroom. The entire building, all 3 floors of the Rave, are open and have vendors and artists located throughout. So, if you have a chance to come check it out, I highly recommend it!

Also! I will be part of the racing action inside the Fiserv Forum for Flatout Friday Indoor Syrup Track Racing that Friday Feb.10th racing my Harley in the Hooligan Class. Don’t miss out on the action!

ABOUT THE BIKE BUILD-

I received the original DT250 bike in a sad state, needing almost everything either replaced or refurbished from the top down. It had one rear shock, no exhaust, and no seat pan, but I got it for a steal.

For this build the wheels needed to be swapped out to fit the larger Dunlop DT4 flat track tires. I sourced the front wheel hub from a 1981 Yamaha XS650 with disc brakes and laced an Excel 2.15×19 rim to it. The rear wheel has the original drum brake hub and is laced to an Excel 3.0×19 rim. To accommodate for the rear tires’ new clearance requirements, the swingarm had to be swapped out for an 86’ Yamaha Radian 600 swingarm, affording it more width and a much tougher stance.

The original front forks were short and needed to be swapped out.  I went with the beefier Yamaha XS650 forks, trees, and stem. This allowed for clearance to fit the wider flat track tire in the front. The fork internals were also updated with RaceTech gold valve cartridge emulators, preload adjusters, and a heavier fork oil. The rear shocks were updated to a taller 14” 360mm gas reservoir shock with preload adjustors.

For the seat, the seat pan was hand rolled to fit the frame and was custom fitted to sit nice and flush behind the vintage tank. I then fitted dense carpet pad for a rigid seat pad and canvas cover.

The bike didn’t come with exhaust and was probably the biggest hurdle to overcome.  Because 2 strokes have expansion chamber requirements, I didn’t feel competent enough to tackle this part myself. After some extensive digging I found a guy in India that specialized in custom one-off expansion pipes and gave him a shout over Facebook. The whole deal made me uneasy because of the communication barrier and lack of ability to track the shipment from across the globe, but once it showed up at my doorstep, I was relieved and pleasantly surprised at the quality of the work. Even so, the neck, exhaust flange, and mounting brackets had to be hand fabricated out of an old 150cc enduro neck flange and some wrought iron fencing turned brackets.

The motor is as I received it, untouched for the most part. The head on this motor had a jake brake port that was plugged and abandoned. I was fortunate enough to source a jake brake from an old hand local flat track pro and installed it on the bars right above the clutch lever. For the uninitiated, a jake brake alters the operation of the engine’s exhaust by opening a port to the combustion chamber. When opened, the engine works as a power-absorbing air compressor. This effect helps settle the bikes’ suspension coming into corners and is highly sought after on the track. Currently I am dealing with some pitted contacts on the points and need to address before the race season starts. I am hoping to upgrade the whole system to a CDI ignition in the very near future.

THE RACE CLASS

For the local Wisconsin AMA District 16, I will be racing this bike in the Vintage+Twins Class this year. This class includes Twin cylinder engines of any displacement, any year, and single cylinder engines that must be 1989 or earlier.

INFO

If you are interested in where to find me racing, you can find my schedule on www.sidewaysshakes.com and/or visit AMA District 16 Flat Track at www.amadistrict16.com

For more information on the Mama Tried Show or Flatout Friday Races visit www.mamatriedshow.com or www.flatoutfriday.com

Go Fast, Turn Left!

Sideways Shakes ~9x