A first year 1975 rotary-powered Suzuki RE5.

Suzuki RE5 guru Sam Costanzo, often credited for almost single-handedly securing and providing parts, service and technical expertise to fans of Suzuki’s technologically ambitious but ill-fated 1975-1977 rotary-powered RE5, has succumbed to cancer.

Costanzo, founder of Rotary Recycle in Ohio, had sold the business last year to Jess Stockwell, who moved Costanzo’s considerable inventory of RE5 parts from Ohio to Tennessee. Costanzo’s love of rotary machines went beyond the RE5, encompassing the German-built Hercules W-2000, as well. Costanzo was a factory liaison for Suzuki when the RE5 project was first launched. “He knew more about the RE5 than anyone on Earth. He spent the last 40 years producing and supplying parts to keep our beloved bikes on the road. In addition, he was always available to help with advice or technical assistance to anyone who asked. It is without question that he truly loved these bikes and spent the better part of his life keeping them on the road,” Stockwell says.

Our condolences to Sam’s family and to the thousands of friends he made helping them keep their rotary-powered motorcycles on the road. - Richard Backus

Malcolm Smith at speed aboard his 8-speed Husqvarna in the 1971 Baja 1000

One afternoon in the mid-1960s, a man walked into a Southern California motorcycle shop looking for someone to race an unproven motorcycle with a foreign-sounding name. Lucky for that man, he walked into the right shop and found the right racer. Malcolm Smith took Edison Dye's offer, and their partnership would help establish the Husqvarna motorcycle brand as a force in American off-road.

In recognition of Malcolm Smith's contributions to the success of Husqvarna, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and Husqvarna Motorcycles North America are pleased to announce that Smith will serve as Grand Marshal at the 19th annual AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days this July 9-11 in Lexington, Ohio. Husqvarna is the Marque of the Year for 2010 AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days.

"Even today, decades after Malcolm Smith's racing prime, his fan base rivals some of the top names in the sport," said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman. "To anyone who has met him, the reason for that is clear: Malcolm Smith is synonymous with everything positive about motorcycling -- fun, sportsmanship, and excitement. He will serve as an exceptional Grand Marshal at this year's AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days as we celebrate the brand on which he became famous: Husqvarna."

Added Husqvarna National Sales and Marketing Manager Scot Harden: "When it came to honoring a Grand Marshal at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, Malcolm Smith was the obvious choice. We look forward to celebrating the storied history of Husqvarna with Malcolm, as well as a large number of other past Husqvarna legends and champions on July 9-11."

Smith says he's looking forward to meeting fans and enjoying the activities himself at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days.

"I was last at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days three years ago and had a wonderful time," Smith said. "I particularly liked walking around the large field where they sell all the old bike parts, buying a truckload and then figuring out how to get it all back to California. I'm spoiled. I like to ride new bikes, but I really enjoy working on old motorcycles. I work on them every day."

Smith said that he remembers the day he was introduced to Husqvarna motorcycles like it was yesterday.

"When Edison Dye brought me the bike, we laid out a track and some trail that went up into the hills," Smith said. "When I came back from that ride, I said, 'Mr. Dye, you have yourself a rider.' The bike was so far ahead of anything else available at the time, and so reliable."

Following his encounter with Dye, Smith's success and influence wasn't limited to the track. Smith's positive evaluation of those first Husqvarnas also persuaded Dye to become the U.S. Husqvarna importer in 1966. That decision paved the way for Dye to bring in reigning Swedish world motocross champion Torsten Hallman to race the bikes in the United States. Not only did that move further advertise the quality and speed of Husqvarnas and help Dye sell a lot of motorcycles, but it also established the sport of motocross on American soil.

In his role as grand marshal, Smith will participate in numerous fan-friendly activities, from autograph signings to discussions of his history with Husqvarna. This will be a rare and unique opportunity for Smith's thousands of fans to meet and greet the off-road legend.

As a racer, Smith gained fame for his accomplishments in the Baja 1000 and for his gold-medal-winning rides in the International Six Day Enduro competitions, but his notoriety reached well beyond the motorcycling community as the star of the influential 1970s motorcycle movie, "On Any Sunday." The scenes of Smith play-riding with his buddies, which included popular actor Steve McQueen, showed people across the country just how fun motorcycling could be. The movie helped launch an explosion in the popularity of off-road motorcycling in America.

Held at the world-class Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days features vintage and post-vintage competition in motocross, trials, hare scrambles, roadracing and dirt track, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days features North America's largest motorcycle swap meet. Also on tap: educational seminars, bike shows, demo rides of current production bikes, motorcycling seminars, stunt shows, the new product Manufacturers' Midway, and club corrals featuring marque and regional clubs.

Proceeds from AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days benefit the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum. The goal of the AMA Hall of Fame, located on the campus of the American Motorcyclist Association in Pickerington, Ohio, is to honor the distinguished men and women whose competitive spirit, passion, vision and entrepreneurship have played a vital role in shaping the sport, lifestyle and business of motorcycling. For more information, call (614) 856-2222, or visit the Museum's website at MotorcycleMuseum.org.

For more information about AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2009, visit AMAVintageMotorcycleDays.com. For tickets to the event, see MidOhio.com.

Photo credit: www.motocrossactionmag.com

Denis Manning (center) will be a featured guest at the AMA's "Breakfast at Daytona" during Daytona Bike Week 2010. Manning is shown here inspecting the 500hp turbocharged 3-liter V-4 engine that powered the BUB Seven streamliner to a new world record of 367.382mph at Bonneville in 2009.

Always wild and always wonky, Daytona Bike Week is seven-plus days of motorcycle excess rivaled only perhaps by Sturgis. But unlike Sturgis, there’s real racing going on, starting with the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association’s (AHRMA) season opener February 26 at Roebling Road Raceway 200 miles up the coast in Bloomingdale, Ga.

That’s where classic bike fans will want to be, although die-hard street partiers will no doubt join the queue filing into Daytona Beach, Fla., to take in the spectacle that is Daytona Bike Week, as they do every year for the week-long event. The street scene seems to often eclipse the real reason for heading to Daytona Beach – great racing at Roebling Road on Friday and at Daytona International Speedway the following week, including more AHRMA racing, AMA Flat Track racing, Supercross and the grand daddy of them all, the Daytona 200.

There’s plenty else happening, as well, including the annual Daytona Antique and Classic Motorcycle Auction in nearby Deland March 6, hosted by Glenn Bator and Bator Auctions,. Next to MidAmerica's annual Las Vegas auction, the Daytona sale is one of the year’s most anticipated classic motorcycle auction events.

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) will also hold its 22nd Annual Breakfast at Daytona at the Hilton Daytona Beach Resort, this year featuring special guests Chris Carr and Denis Manning, the world’s fastest motorcyclist and, respectively, the builder of the world’s fastest motorcycle, the 500hp BUB Seven, which recorded a two-way average of 367.382mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats last September.

So get your gear together and get ready to head out the door for a week of motorcycle madness, the kind you can only find in Daytona. – Richard Backus

Erwin "Cannonball" Baker aboard an Indian during on of his first cross-country endurance runs in the teens.

Remember those bad late 1970s/early 1980s movies featuring David Carradine and a host of B-grade actors bombing across the U.S. in a madcap coast-to-coast dash? Inspiration for those flicks came from auto editor Brock Yates' Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, a protest against Richard Nixon’s 55mph speed limit. Yates was inspired by the legendary endurance runs of Erwin “Cannonball” Baker, who made his first cross country dash in 1914 aboard an Indian twin. Today, Lonnie Isam, Jr., promoter and owner of Jurassic Racing in Sturgis, S.D., is adding to the Cannonball thread, making final preparations for a coast-to-coast endurance run for pre-1916 motorcycles, the Motorcycle Cannonball.

Unlike Cannonball Baker’s solitary runs, Isam’s September event will see some 70 classic bike fans working their way across the country. Taking off from historic Kitty Hawk, N.C., the 17-day event starts on Friday, September 10 and ends 3,325 miles later on Sunday, September 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. Eligible bikes are limited to machines built before 1916, and so far 38 of the 70 registered participants have said they’ll be riding 1914 or 1915 machines. Oldest registered machines a 1908 Thor and a 1908 Triumph.

Entrants will compete in one of three different classes including single-cylinder single-speed, multi-cylinder single-speed, and single or multi-cylinder with multi-speed machines. Riders will average 208 miles a day over the 16 days of riding, although there will be one 300-mile day and the start and finish days will be short days. Single-cylinder single-speed machines are expected to take the longest to finish, with the later multis expected to make the best time.

Course master John Classen has mapped out a route that avoids Interstate highways where possible, with only 100 miles mapped for the entire trip, all of it west of Albuquerque. In March, Classen will personally drive the shore-to-shore course for the Motorcycle Cannonball in the first of two pre-run trips to produce precise driving instructions for entrants and to smooth out any wrinkles along the way.

This is decidedly not a race, but an endurance run, which is an appropriate stance given the age of the competing machines. Fast as they may have seemed in their day, and in fact some of them were very fast at least for short bursts, there were few machines built in the early teens capable of sustaining speeds much over 40mph for any kind of duration with any kind of reliability. That said, we’re sure more than a few riders will be feeling their competitive oats.

Although the Motorcycle Cannonball is named after Baker, who set 143 driving records from 1910 through the 1930s, the top prize in the event, the Wyman Cup trophy, is named for George Wyman, who set the first trans-continental record in 1903 riding a single-cylinder California motorcycle.

The Wyman Cup will go to the best time of the single-speed, single-cylinder class, the class of machine that Wyman rode. The trophy is being crafted by renowned motorsports artist and sculpture Jeff Decker, who is sculpting a large bronze cup featuring George Wyman and his 1903 California. Decker promises the cup will be a one of a kind masterpiece, and knowing his work, we’re sure it will be.

Michael Lichter, best known for his Harley-Davidson and motorcycle lifestyle pics but also an extremely accomplished commercial photographer, will document the entire transcontinental trip.

Isam says that registration for the Motorcycle Cannonball is closed, with 70 official paid entrants and a small waiting list of riders who may be added later. Regardless, we’re hoping to catch up with riders during a planned rest day September 17 in Hot Springs, Ark., to see how they’re faring roughly half-way into the run. That should tell us a lot about how the western leg might go, although the potential for more extreme winds and higher temperatures will increase as they go west, ensuring a challenging ride. We’ll post more as we know it, in the meantime, you can keep abreast of developments at The Motorcycle Cannonball rally website. – Richard Backus