Posts
756
Joined
11/3/2014
Location
Chantilly, VA
US
Edited Date/Time
2/19/2015 10:38am
All, I am officially pulling out of the bike building business, but before I do I am seriously considering building a water-cooled Richter replica 77 RM125. I know at least one other person has built one of these replicas and while I have built many bikes, I have never personally built a replica of anything in the past (all my builds have been my own creations in an effort to improve what the teams built back in the day while keeping the bike true to his heritage or era...for the most part). I have seen many very good attempts at this bike, but really only one seemed to hit the mark (as I see it..sorry if I offend anyone as it was not intentional). So If I build this Richter replica, it will be exact (as best I can build it). I have some of the parts already and I've decided to take the 77 RM I already built and use it as my donor (yes the frame is powered coated yellow, so I will probably get another frame). Below is a picture of the donor bike and before anybody asks, yes I probably will sell the trick parts on the bike on ebay at some point, but as of right now, I have not made a decision to build the Richter bike, I am simply exploring the idea, but because I like challenges and doing things most people would rather pass on, the Richter bike interests me. So far I have the tank, plastic, Simons forks, correct Fox air shocks, sprockets & chain so I have some work ahead of me, but this would be a long term build so I'm in no hurry. Would love to get some insight from others on this build. Mike
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if you move forward with your project, get this book from Amazon, lots of usefull tips & photos of the Motocross Fox team bikes. Even has porting specs from the team bikes.
Thanks for the tip!
Good luck sir!
I have seen numerous attempts at the Chuck/Bob creation. The one that I speak of is the one that got it right, at least IMHO. It is also the one that found a nice comfy new home where many could view it.
Again just my humble opinion.
The Shop
To me the most important part is the tank. It seems like it would be easy to mimic but only one person I know of has done it. When they are wrong it instantly stands out. Are those watercooled heads even around? I've never seen one for sale. Could a good moto machinest like Boucher copy one? If you are going to finish with one project, you picked the perfect bike.
And why stop building bikes? Just slow down . I think I counted you had 4 or 5 bikes built and racing by the time I finished mine.
I always wanted a 77/78 RM. There is something about them being simple but full race bikes that was from a great time of our sport beginning to progress at light speed.
MaxPower,
Truth is I have built about 12 bikes to exacting details and over the years and these endeavors have been very costly. I'm at that point in my life where i want to focus on my riding more before I can't ride anymore (I last raced a full season in 2012 and before that I hadn't been on a motocross track since 2006). I did most of my building between 2006 and 2014. I love the work but I ain't getting any younger (if you know what I mean). I have built 2 new bikes this year (I'm going back to the 250 class on a 83 CR250 and I'm riding the historic class for the first time on a 76 CR125). Last time I rode a 76 or older bike was like 1979 (that was my last year on minis as I was transitioning to 125s). Bottom line is I want to ride so building has to be put aside! My 76 should hopefully give the fastest historic bikes fits (should have the cylinder back in a week or so), but if you notice in the photo below, I'm taking no chances (imulators, fat bars, arched brakes, wide pegs, etc…safety first as these old bikes have me nervious when I look at doubles and 90 foot table tops. If I'm going to do it and I will, I want to at least be sure I have the best equipment under me money can buy…I hate falling :+)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosiphon
Thermosiphon…big word, hell I had to look it up. My background is not as an engineer although I did go to school on the fly for Biometrics with little to no background and graduate (Ha…not that it’s going to help me, but maybe I can use it to convince myself to keep pushing forward on the project). That said, this is definitely going to be a challenge (should I take it on). Having read the definition of Thermosiphon I now understand how it works. I have always wanted a CNC cutting machine (way too expensive), but man would that cut the build time on this cylinder head…it also looks like someone else built a water cooled 77 RM only this bike is a 250…not sure Fox ever made a 250 version of the waterpumper, but it sure does look way too cool. Mike
As with any build, there are a few things I would do differently if I ever built another "replica". This one, along with my Wise replica were originally built to be ridden, but as they progressed I came to the conclusion they would just end up being garage queens for the most part. I did get Steve Wise to spin a few laps on the Honda at the Texas Nationals for parade laps and at least got Richter, Steve Simons, Cliff White and Bob, Geoff and Pete Fox together over the Richter bike for some good conversations.
Pit Row
Wow that is awesome! And thanks for the insight as I'm with you in that if I build this bike it will definitely be a garage queen. Actually it's kind of funny, the 77 I plan to use for this project has never seen dirt since I built it back in 2006. I had the motor rebuilt back in 2009 and have ran it up and down my block a couple of times...almost a waste, but when I think of what I have in the bike and how long it took to source the parts, everything seems to magically fall into prospective. Thanks again for sharing, Mike.
I was thinking about what you said about Fox only racing that bike twice and I have a question and some comments. Do you know why Fox only raced that bike twice? I’m guessing it may have had something to do with the claiming rule as Mickey Boone almost successfully got Hannah’s works OW39 the year before and in 79 John Roeder did successfully get Marty Tripes’ RC250 (which Honda denied was a works bike but years later upon inspection it was determined it was a works bike).
My other thought was that while Thermosiphon works, did they run into overheating issues? I say this because they ran 40 minute moto’s on tracks that really were not all that technical by today’s standards so riders were basically on the pipe wide open most of the time, which to me equals overheating at some point. Plus, when production watercooled bikes were released in 81, they had water pumps and I image the factories had tried Thermosiphon and went with the water pump for reliability even though they could have saved weight without it…would love to hear your thoughts since you probably talked to those guys at the reunion. Thanks, Mike
If you want yours to be really correct, you'll have to find someone capable of shortening the capillary tube on the mechanical Stewart Warner temp gauge...
Sorry to be a million questions or more, but do you know what happened to the bike Pat Richter raced? Normally you hear about bikes like this being in someone collection and they surface for a photo op ever so often, but I have seen no reference of this bike (mind you I am new to the forum...so if you have already answered this question I apologize in advance).
Awesome and what a story you must have.
Thanks for sharing.
Best of luck Mike P. Lover seeing your Fox CR at york. No doubt you'll do a kick ass job.
Thanks for the kind words. I plan to race this bike this year, however I just found out today that the cylinder I was planning on porting has a crack in the liner (not the cylinder on the bike in the photos, I have another). So looks like I'll have to port the cylinder on the bike for the GEM intake I plan on using. Re-sleeving is way to expensive with the radical port work I'm having done so I'm crossing my fingers, but with the right porting and a little luck this bike should run at the front of the pack (at least off the gate..ha...). Hope to see you at the races sometime since we race in and around the same area. Mike
I did, not sure why you did not receive my response. Thanks so much for the photos as they were very helpful. I will post a video when I get the bike up and running. Back in the day porting was done by hand while these days they use computers which can yield much more precise/accurate tooling. So the cylinder should wind out to a healthy top end coupled with the Mototek ignition/34mm carb/billet airbox/DG head, fiber reeds & Moto-X-Fox pipe. If not, I'll pull the motor apart and do some gear grinding (haha). Thanks again, Mike
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