They Called Them Superbikes...

MB5s as pit bikes.

Thanks for this thread and the nice pictures too

What a great and interesting time. You were lucky to be a part of it.
Living in Southern California at the time, it seemed like a SoCal "National" series with most of the top riders being from here. And, so many Americans going to World Grand Prix out of that series.

bump, cause this racing era has alot of good memories.

What a neat thread.

As a lot of you all know, San Jose BMW was very involved in AMA Superbike racing from the early days and what a time it was.

This bike won the last AMA Superbike race, won by a BMW, Louden, new hampshire in 1977 with Harry Klinzman as the pilot.



On the beach at Daytona 1978.



Daytona 1977 (l to r) Helmet Kern/Mgr US Importer, President of BMW Motored AG, Dr. Peter Adams/US Importer of BMW Motorcycles & Chris Hodgson SJBMW



Sears Point (Infineon)



Daytona 1977





1978 Laguna Seca. Lt to right. Ron Lang, Myself, Chris Hodgson, Harry Klinzman




San Jose has raced at Daytona some 30 or 40 times since then.

The last AMA Superbike race at Loudon was 2001. It rained and rider's boycotted. The track was cut from the schedule after that.

Sorry, ment to say, the last AMA Superbike race won by BMW was in '77 at Louden.

It's too bad Baher refused to make any safety changes to the NHIS (at that time) track. I sure miss the national. I''m pretty sure it was Duhamels broken leg that was the last straw that finally doomed the track.

I used to have a video of Bahre, in the pit lane with his helpers, yelling at the top of his lungs at the AMA official, telling him to get the damn bikes out on the wet track. They ran the jet dryers for an hour, drying off the track, and he was pissed. Only the locals gridded up when it started to rain again just before the start. The pros sat back and watched the race.

He spent his money, he wanted the show to go on. No matter what. Next year, Wood/LLRS ran the "National" without the AMA. Flopped.

A great thread guys, awesome!!

I love seeing the names like Harry Mallet and Pierre Des Roaches as growing up in So-Cal during the superbike daze these guys were producing bikes that were thick and trick.

A few years ago Harry Klinzman put together a Big Bore R/90 for me in his garage. Sad to see him living with his mom and going through tough times. He was loads of fun and I remember a Cycle News cover shot of him and a feature story including him living off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the road running Superbikes. After we built the bike we had a wheelie competition on it to break it in. He kicked my ass .

That race was the end of the 'National'. It was Pro Thunder, which really was a deep undercard. I mean the top guys were mostly club champs. Bob Bahre stood up there in the heat of the boycott and offered $25 thousand dollars to the winner of that race. The guy's who imagined themselves as professionals stayed in the garages out of peer shit. What a joke. The truth is that with the exception of maybe 3 riders, they were all grid fillers. None of them ever made their mark as a motorcycle racer.

A local kid by the name of Chris Arbor won that race. He rode his Dad's Duc 748 street bike out of Riverside Kawasaki in Somerville. It was quickly converted for the Pro Thunder opportunity, since his dad was a tuner in the shop. Chris normally rode an R6 in club races.

Maybe 20 starters took the grid. It was one of the most remarkable races I have ever seen in my life. The Arbor kid wanted that $25k and won it going away in driving rain. He crashed 3 times and picked up. It was freakin' awesome! To this day, I love Chris Arbor and I've never even met him. He left the sport after his masterpiece. But he made his mark on me!

I'd like to add that Loudon is a homer's track. The touring pro's hated it because the local nobodies could show them up. The junior teams were quick to hire LRRS notables to ride in place of their regular riders. It was a ringer thing.

The guy who feared nobody was none other then the 'Go Show', Anthony Gobert. He somehow was MIA for everything until qualifying. He showed up in time to ride Q and put his Ducati on the pole!

AMA needs to come back to Loudon.

PS: Mat Mladin owns the track record. It was a 9. The club guys are still about a second off.

Is that you Bob Frank??????? We now return to the original subject matter......

This was from my attempt at Superbike racing back in 1981



1981 CB750F bored/ stroked to 1025cc the max limit then. Pre some of
the factory goodies. (dry sump & close ratio trans)


19" Morris wheel, Brembo brakes, 13" brake rotors (full floating)
Goodyear slicks. I figured if I wasn't fast enough, least I could brake later!!


This was with the dry sump kit installed. You had to fabricate your
own oil tank and no plans provided. This is where I learned about
fluid dynamics!! It held 8qts. We joked it was a total loss system,
just like my ignition!! 34mm Kehin carbs. Oil cooler not on the bike
in this shot due to crack in the inlet fitting.


Bassini pipe, 18" Morris wheel, notice the rear suspension upper mounts
moved forward. the rear frame was cut and raised up about 4" higher
than stock. Pic from just before I sold it. Out of ALL the bikes I've
owned, this is the only one I wish I still had.


Inside the cases, Crower rods, pistons from RC engineering, Crane cams,
Manley valves, springs and shim under bucket. Paying for most of this
out of my pocket the dry clutch kit was just a little to pricey for me.[/quote]

Can you find Bob Frank in this pic?

From an WERA Endurance race at Summit Point WV. Maybe a 3 hour?

Good stuff guys! I used to go see bikes like these race at Road Atlanta back in the day. So cool!

I know it's not a race bike, but as a tribute to Wes Cooley and Pops Yoshimura here's my 1979 GS1000S, I've had it since buying it new in 79. Went totally through it a few years ago, frame up rebuild. You could ride it anywhere as it sits.

Great thread.

Here's some pics from my time at Loudon from 1980-1984.

The only race pic I have scanned. I'll have to scan more and post them up.



Some other action from camping at the track.











S.C.

And is that a familliar Yamaha there in the back?
(Hows the goat? )

This is a picture of the front row before the start of that race. I was working for the rider on the 21 bike, Tom Hull out of Arizona. He finished a distant third having never raced in the rain before...that don't happen in Arizona!



He was having fun down the front straight:




OK, sorry for the hijack and back to the Superbikes!

Turn 8, if I'm not mistaken. Late in its life, there was a wicked pavement crack that the cars opened up, and kept re-opening despite all attempts to repair it. It was at a 30 degree angle to the racing line, would swallow a front tire, didn't see it until you were in it.

Fun.