A recent CB160 build by Vicious Cycle – nice!

If you’re hankering for a race-ready CB160 to run in AHRMA or just add to your collection, don’t miss your chance to bring one home following the 3rd Annual Bonneville Vintage GP at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, proudly presented this year by Motorcycle Classics. For the second year in a row, some lucky classic race fan will head home with a fully restored and race-prepped Honda CB160, expertly crafted by the crew at Vicious Cycle in Portland, Ore. And all you gotta do is pony up a paltry $5 for a raffle ticket – or $20 for 5 tickets – for the chance to bring the Vicious CB160 home.

Make no mistake, this will be one sweet bike, as the pic of a recent Vicious Cycle build proves. Working from his shop at 4711 N. Interstate Avenue in Portland, Joe Pethoud and crew have made a well-deserved name for themselves in the West Coast – and increasingly in the national – vintage racing scene. With a special concentration on CB160s running in the AHRMA, OMRRA and WMRRA race series, Vicious Cycle has become ground zero for anyone – make that everyone – interested in racing CB160s.

The CB160 racing craze makes a lot of sense. From 1965 to 1969, Honda made hundreds of thousands of the little twin-cylinder, overhead cam CB160s, making parts and surviving bikes plentiful. They’re light, fast (hey, 80mph on a 160 is fast!), easy to keep up, and hugely competitive in their class (200GP in AHRMA, 250GP in OMRRA, 160 Vintage in WMRRA). Better yet, they’re still relatively cheap, making them an excellent point of entry for anyone interested in vintage racing, and there’s no question the combination of light weight and relatively slow terminal speeds makes them an excellent machine for novice racers. Crashing at 50mph is generally a lot easier on your body than crashing at  100mph, and a bike you can overpower versus one that overpowers you is always a good recipe for success, especially for the novice.

Bonneville Vintage GP organizer Tom Kullen gives credit to AHRMA executive director Cindy Cowell for coming up with the CB160 raffle, but it takes a laundry list of enthusiastic supporters in the guise of parts suppliers, mechanics, machinists and knowledgeable insiders to make it all happen. Vicious Cycle has assumed the role of builder, applying their prodigious talents with all things CB160 to building the raffle bike, but other folk help make it what it is by supplying all the parts to make it a running bike.

You don’t have to be present to win, but we can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to be on hand for the racing action at Miller Motorsports while you take a shot at taking a freshly-built CB160 racer home. Go here for more on the CB160 Raffle and to check out the schedule for the 3^rd Annual Bonneville Vintage GP. See you there! – Richard Backus

CNW's #038 Norton Cafe 

Dolores, Colo.-based Colorado Norton Works (CNW) is planning a limited run of 12 “production” Norton café racers modeled on CNW’s critically acclaimed #038 Café project, which we featured in the March/April 2006 issue of Motorcycle Classics. Up to now, CNW has focused on crafting custom-built Norton Commandos to customer specifications in either 750 or 850 guise. For this project, however, CNW will draft its own specs, giving customers a handful of options but deviating little from its idea of what a “production” #038 Café should be.

“The café we built (#038) is timeless, we’re still getting comments on it and still have lots of new people finding us because of it,” Rambow says. That feedback prompted Rambow’s desire to craft a limited run of bikes based on #038. “We’re going to do this with caution,” Rambow says, “but the idea is based on #038. The big difference is we’re going to build these to CNW specs. We’ll have a build schedule, and I’ll send out information on how each machine will be built, with only a very few options.”

Highlights of the build include a custom frame, a hand-formed aluminum tank, seat, fenders and oil tank crafted by master fabricator Evan Wilcox, a balanced and blueprinted 828cc Commando engine punched out to 879cc, a brand new CNC machined cylinder head, dual disc front brakes, belt drive primary, CNW’s own billet triple trees and -- wait for it -- fuel injection!

“Carburetors are wonderful things, except in our neck of the woods. We’re at 7,500 feet, and I can climb another 2,500 feet right out my door, but then I need to deliver a bike to someone at sea level,” Rambow explains of the decision to go with fuel injection, a technology that frees engines from a host of potential running maladies, including elevation changes. The system was designed by Jim Comstock Engineering out of Pueblo, Colo., and Rambow says they’re in the final stages of fine-tuning the software, with the hardware tested and almost ready for prime time. “We’ve got 5,000 miles on a bike, and mechanically it’s perfect. All he’s doing is tweaking the programming right now.”

Rambow says he plans to start production in the spring of 2009, building three bikes at a time with the final set of three finished in 2010. Unlike previous CNW builds, customers won’t have to supply a donor bike, and the finished machine will be supplied with a clear Colorado title. “This is very exciting,” Rambow says. “When you can build 12 of one machine and still be in an exclusive group, it’s really neat.” So what’s the cost of exclusivity? In this case, $39,500, with a $5,000 deposit required to nail your chance at owning one of these unique machines. Go to CNW’s website for more on their builds and on the #038 Café. – Richard Backus 

Long time BMW enthusiast and restorer Len Kerkhoff tells us he’s going to make a bid for the record books at the Bonneville Salt Flats this September. Running in the vintage 500cc pushrod class, Kerkhoff is preparing a circa 1954 BMW 500cc engine in a period R50/2 frame. Kerkhoff, who used to road and drag race Triumphs, turned to BMWs almost two decades ago when he decided to go fulltime into motorcycle restoration at his Cincinnati, Ohio-based shop, Autobahn Craftwerks.

Len says he’s hoping for a 125mph run to seal his entry into the Bonneville record books. The record in the vintage 500cc class currently stands at 122mph and is held by a mid-1930s Indian Scout. The class allows for flatheads up to 750cc capacity. Len and crew plan trial runs in North Carolina starting June 28, and he figures he’ll have the bike sorted and ready for his planned run at Bonneville Sept. 2-6. Aside from some lightening, Len says the R50/2 frame is mostly stock, with no changes in geometry or wheelbase. Class rules mean the engine has to keep its stock displacement, but don’t limit other modifications. Len says the engine’s been treated to extensive head and crank work to make it breathe freely and spin reliably. All in, he figures the bike will weigh around 300lb when it hits the flats.

Besides the obvious appeal of running at Bonneville, Len's clearly excited about stretching his competitive legs again. “I was more of a road race guy and a lot of drag racing,” Lens says of his earlier days. “But as I got older, I figured I’d leave that kind of stuff to the boys. But I can still go fast straight!” Len says he’s been getting help from BMW and race enthusiasts around the country. “I’m getting everybody on board I can. It costs a lot of money to play, but it’s a lot of fun.”

And help is coming from some unlikely corners: According to Len, the local cops are letting him make a trial run this weekend on a deserted strip of road behind the Proctor and Gamble facility in Cincinnati. Now that sounds like fun. Stay tuned, because we’ll be following Len’s progress as he gets ready for Bonneville, and we’re planning on being there when he gets his chance to make a run for the record. For more pics of Len’s bike, go here. – Richard Backus

Wheels Through Time founder Dale Walksler in the museum "shop."

Wheels Through Time owner and curator Dale Walksler has cancelled the planned auction of 150 vintage motorcycles at the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, N.C. Walksler says he decided to cancel the Sept. 25-27 auction after the successful sale of some of the cars in his collection, including a rare and valuable 1929 Duesenberg Model J. Importantly, this means the 300-plus strong collection of vintage American motorcycles will stay intact.

Further, Walksler tells us he’s a little closer to deciding where the museum will locate. When we first reported on this in late March, Walksler didn’t give any indications as to where the museum might relocate. Then, in a follow up we published in the July/August issue of Motorcycle Classics (in subscribers’ hands now and on newsstands June 17), we reported that Walksler was looking at Arizona as a possible relocation site, mentioning Prescott as a possibility. He still won’t say exactly where he’s heading, but it sounds like it’s definitely going to be somewhere in northern Arizona. “It’s hugely exciting when you think of the potential of the West Coast and the trail through Arizona,” Walksler says of the thought of moving to Arizona. “And it’s only a few hours east of Las Vegas,” he adds, an indication Walksler believes he can only benefit from being closer to major motorsports and entertainment centers.

This is great news for vintage bike fans, because it’s clear Walksler has had a change of heart about breaking up his collection and is now aggressively moving toward keeping the collection together, and getting a new museum up and running. “With six years of experience behind me I can make the next one even better. I would love to be set up a year from now, that would be my goal. If I can have a facility built by July 1, 2009, that would be nine years after we started,” Walksler says. - Richard Backus

Check out the Wheels Through Time collection at www.wheelsthroughtime.com

Japanese Motorcycle Saturday at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum

Two-wheel devotees are invited to the third annual Japanese Motorcycle Saturday at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum on June 7, 2008. Over 400 enthusiasts and nearly 200 Japanese motorcycles of all styles, including new and vintage sport bikes, café racers and touring machine, are expected to gather at the Museum for Japanese Motorcycle Saturday.

And whether visitors ride in on a classic Japanese motorcycle or simply stop by to glimpse machines showcasing decades of design and engineering, Japanese Motorcycle Saturday is sure to please all motorcycling aficionados. Highlights of Japanese Motorcycle Saturday include a non-judged bike show and seminars. Located on the campus of the American Motorcyclist Assoc. in Pickerington, Ohio, a few miles east of Columbus, the Museum is the country’s premier showcase of motorcycling heritage and history. Admission is only $10 and includes access to all museum exhibits, including the new “MotoStars: Celebrities + Motorcycles,” an installation chronicling many of the world’s most well-known enthusiasts.

Japanese Motorcycle Saturday

Where:
Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum
13515 Yarmouth Drive
Pickerington, Ohio 43147

When:
June 7, 2008
10:00AM – 3:00PM

Cost:
$10

Contact:
(614) 856-2222
info@motorcyclemuseum.org
www.motorcyclemuseum.org

(Photo courtesy Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum)