''66HDFlatTracker

motogrady
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3931
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WV US
Edited Date/Time 1/26/2012 11:21pm





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motogrady
Posts
3931
Joined
1/27/2008
Location
WV US
11/27/2009 6:34am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 7:09pm
Got a chance to get a glimpse of the past last week, thought you guys would like to see.


Friend of mine worked this old racer, trying to buy his stuff, for years. When he died last year,

the Estate sold the whole ball of wax in one fell swoop. Freakin kids. Anyway, there were

4 whole bikes, ready to race, frames, motors and a ton of parts. Everything stamped R.

Sadly, all is for sale. That's one of the reasons I put them up, I might never get the chance to get this close to History again.


Took a few days just to unload and see what was really there........................


From what I hear, those ARR-MACH-EES were the stuff in the mid 60s.

It was the bike that put an end to the BSA Gold Star's rule on the short tracks.

The Sprint came as a 250 at first, only 35 a year were imported till about '67.

Those first ones, which the blue one is, were the CR's. They were 250's, and they came as a kit.

You got a frame, motor, tank and wheels. You picked a dry or wet clutch, 4 or 5 speed, and

a long or short stroke motor. The early ones were the stuff, putting out about 9 more hp

than the 350 CRS which followed. The 350's, the CRS's, were made in batches of 200

to meet the AMA homo rule, '67 to maybe '70. The rules were changed again and opend the doors

for the Ossa's, Pursangs and Cappras to rule the 70's.


To this day, on a short, tight loamy track, the 250 long stroke with it's low end is still a contender

with it's torque and hook up ability. In 1966 you could buy the kit for about $1,500. Today,

that bike will go for somewhere around 15 thousand



motogrady
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11/27/2009 6:41am






imagine, a time and way to have a roadracer, dirttracker and mxer all in one.........
slowvet
Posts
1905
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4/1/2008
Location
San Marcos, CA US
11/27/2009 7:00am
May your friend rest in peace. That is a nice chunk of history.
motogrady
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3931
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Location
WV US
11/27/2009 7:11am
slowvet wrote:
May your friend rest in peace. That is a nice chunk of history.

My bud is still alive, I think the racers name was Russ Paradise. That bike was sold to
the dealer in Florida. Mr. Paradise wanted to sponsor someone on it before he died, but a hard way of living caught up to him. The other bikes, one could see how they changed
frame geometry, suspension, wheels, height and wheelbase at the track. A torch
and welding rods were standard fare in their toolboxes.



ah................when men were...well.........you guys know.........................

The Shop

JPT
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7209
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8/15/2006
Location
Cedar Falls, IA US
11/27/2009 1:23pm
When I think of Harley Sprints I hear that "boink" noise they made every time you backed off the throttle.
11/27/2009 1:36pm Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 7:09pm
That is a cool old bike, but the sprints never "parked" the Goldstar in AMA national competition. The first Sprint was imported from Aermacchi in 1960. The rules for AMA national short tracks limited the bikes to 250cc or less from 1961 until 1973, when the AMA allowed the 360's in ST until '76, then they went back to 250 for many more years.
No Sprints competed against the Goldstars in national ST racing.On anything bigger than a short track, the Sprint would be lucky to see the Goldie's dust trail.Lack of parts to keep the Goldie's running is what led to their demise more than the introduction of the Sprint. The last year for Goldstar production was 1963, before the Sprints ever really started to run good and turn in any good results.
Having owned a couple of Goldstars myself, no 250 or 350 sprint ran like the Goldie.When the 250 Bultaco's became popular in ST starting in '66, the sprint's were on the way out. By 1970, you hardly saw a Sprint or a Goldie at any AMA dirt track races. They were mothballed until the popularity of vintage racing started in the late '80's.
mosslander
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736
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2/1/2009
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Travad SE
11/27/2009 1:51pm
I will give some moore history .
In 1960's Harley Davidson bougt 50% of Aermacchi from Italy that in the beginning was an airplane factory and in1974 Harley buyed the hole company and owned it til 1978 when they sold it to Cagiva in Italy and in 1986 Cagiva bougt Husqvarna mc company wish now owns by BMW so a little bit of Harley's MX bike still lives in the Huskys today becouse of Cagivas development in the Harley's MX bike wish they take over and the redesign of the husky's in the 90's wish was moore Cagiva than Husky and therefor are
todays Husqvarna moore like Aermacchi,Harley,Cagiva,Husky's.
motogrady
Posts
3931
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Location
WV US
11/27/2009 3:28pm
That is a cool old bike, but the sprints never "parked" the Goldstar in AMA national competition. The first Sprint was imported from Aermacchi in 1960...
That is a cool old bike, but the sprints never "parked" the Goldstar in AMA national competition. The first Sprint was imported from Aermacchi in 1960. The rules for AMA national short tracks limited the bikes to 250cc or less from 1961 until 1973, when the AMA allowed the 360's in ST until '76, then they went back to 250 for many more years.
No Sprints competed against the Goldstars in national ST racing.On anything bigger than a short track, the Sprint would be lucky to see the Goldie's dust trail.Lack of parts to keep the Goldie's running is what led to their demise more than the introduction of the Sprint. The last year for Goldstar production was 1963, before the Sprints ever really started to run good and turn in any good results.
Having owned a couple of Goldstars myself, no 250 or 350 sprint ran like the Goldie.When the 250 Bultaco's became popular in ST starting in '66, the sprint's were on the way out. By 1970, you hardly saw a Sprint or a Goldie at any AMA dirt track races. They were mothballed until the popularity of vintage racing started in the late '80's.

Yo project racer..........you talking about this pos?









just kiddin' pracer, both are beautiful bikes.
slowvet
Posts
1905
Joined
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Location
San Marcos, CA US
11/28/2009 6:44am
That is a cool old bike, but the sprints never "parked" the Goldstar in AMA national competition. The first Sprint was imported from Aermacchi in 1960...
That is a cool old bike, but the sprints never "parked" the Goldstar in AMA national competition. The first Sprint was imported from Aermacchi in 1960. The rules for AMA national short tracks limited the bikes to 250cc or less from 1961 until 1973, when the AMA allowed the 360's in ST until '76, then they went back to 250 for many more years.
No Sprints competed against the Goldstars in national ST racing.On anything bigger than a short track, the Sprint would be lucky to see the Goldie's dust trail.Lack of parts to keep the Goldie's running is what led to their demise more than the introduction of the Sprint. The last year for Goldstar production was 1963, before the Sprints ever really started to run good and turn in any good results.
Having owned a couple of Goldstars myself, no 250 or 350 sprint ran like the Goldie.When the 250 Bultaco's became popular in ST starting in '66, the sprint's were on the way out. By 1970, you hardly saw a Sprint or a Goldie at any AMA dirt track races. They were mothballed until the popularity of vintage racing started in the late '80's.
You didnt by chance work on the "Atrium" or the "Monte Carlo Towers" on Bayshore blvd. in Tampa in the early 80s did you?
TGR
Posts
107
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4/7/2008
Location
FR
11/28/2009 12:57pm
motogrady wrote:
[img]http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/10910149/sn/1116442201/name/2009_1022mtfest090164.jpg[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/10910149/sn/511960903/name/2009_1022mtfest090162.jpg[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/10910149/sn/927371163/name/2009_1022mtfest090163.jpg[/img]





Aermacchi/Puki at Laguepie 2008 (France)



rsw511
Posts
8
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4/1/2008
Location
US
12/4/2009 7:55am
There was another limited production Sprint race bike called the ERS. It had full suspension (Ceriani forks) and was a full 350cc, painted orange and black. It was pretty powerful and uncontrollable on a motocross track. Even so, there was a guy from Jacksonville FL named Ron Turner ( I think) who actually used to motocross one of these things at Ocala and Action Park around 1971 or 1972. The guy could really ride and I saw him out in front at Ocala more than once. But he always crashed because that bike was just too much. I also once saw a Sportster powered Rickman at the Dragon Drive-In motocross track in High Springs. That bike belonged to a mechanic at the Daytona H-D shop. Beautifully built but no match for a 360 CZ...
12/4/2009 8:38am
rsw511 wrote:
There was another limited production Sprint race bike called the ERS. It had full suspension (Ceriani forks) and was a full 350cc, painted orange and black...
There was another limited production Sprint race bike called the ERS. It had full suspension (Ceriani forks) and was a full 350cc, painted orange and black. It was pretty powerful and uncontrollable on a motocross track. Even so, there was a guy from Jacksonville FL named Ron Turner ( I think) who actually used to motocross one of these things at Ocala and Action Park around 1971 or 1972. The guy could really ride and I saw him out in front at Ocala more than once. But he always crashed because that bike was just too much. I also once saw a Sportster powered Rickman at the Dragon Drive-In motocross track in High Springs. That bike belonged to a mechanic at the Daytona H-D shop. Beautifully built but no match for a 360 CZ...
Action Park was around in '71-'72 ? I remember North Florida Raceway in Palm Valley, that was run by Pat Ray. Is this the same place?
rsw511
Posts
8
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US
12/5/2009 8:04am
Action Park was on Pecan Park Rd up by the Jacksonville airport, right? It was certainly open in '72 and probably in '71. It was a scary place, really fast and bumpy and right through the woods. One thing I remember about it is that they gave a winner's t-shirt along with the 1st place trophy - not that I ever had one of those shirts... I saw Gordon Bowden (posts here sometimes) on one of those 405 American Eagles really smoke the open class there once. Now where was N Florida Raceway? What kind of track was that?
12/5/2009 11:25am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 7:18pm
North Florida raceway was in the Ponte Vedra / Palm Valley area. They held the first Mini Olympics there, and hosted a few years of the Winter -Am's there as well. They had a nice MX track, with a 1/4 mile limestone flat track in the infield of the moto track, with a little pond in the center of the flat track. Surrounded by miles of palmetto infested woods where they ran the hare scrambles. It was in the middle of nowhere then.
I used to live in Atlantic Beach. Never made it to Action Park. Moved to Tampa in '74. I'd say North Florida was done by '78-'79. You remember a place called Durham's Cycle park, right off Atlantic Blvd., by the St.Johns river / Intercoastal water way?


I guess the reason I never made it to Action Park was the fact that it was a lot further of a drive for my folks than North Florida. They would take me there or Durham's in the morning, drop me off with a five gallon can of gas, my bike, and a cooler, and I would not see them until dark. Suited a 10 year old kid just fine.

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