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I came across this bike for sale in Riverside. Idk how legit this bike is, seems like Yoshimura did the engine and it has a yosh pipe too, RG3 suspension. I remember Morais and Sipes were on that team in 2006.
If someone likes to rebuild those first 4 stroke that could be an opportunity.
Michael Lapaglia rode for them in ‘06 and was number 138 I believe, pretty sure his amateur number was 31 tho
I always really liked the way the WBR Suzuki's looked.
I heard Ryno still owes his dad some money.
https://youtu.be/88seLwKGddk
That’s true, he was always 31! That would be cool if someone from vital get it, if they are into early 4 strokes.
i would be more into an old race team RM250 lol
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
I remember I felt so cool owning Dylan Lords KX 80 back in the day lol
Whatever happened to universal the clamp (and bar?) company?
My dad bought me the last super mini Mitch Dougherty raced at Loretta’s before moving up to big bikes.
From the anodized hubs to the vented from number plate, the thing was insane….granted I didn’t have the speed/talent to unlock half of its potential, but it didn’t negate the fact I looked cool as hell.
(As an aside I wonder what happened to Mitch. He was a Kawi prospect that kind of faded off into the sunset)
That is a legit team bike, without the A-Kit suspension (we took that off, before turning them back in) Every 6 months we had to turn them in to Hahm Motorsports and get new ones. The idea was the dealer would get back cool race bikes with all the trick goodies on them and sell them for profit. But they got hosed on these bikes, they had a bad reputation and nobody wanted them.
I’m surprised that the graphics are still on it with his #. We were the only ones running the CTI stickers on the frames. That is one of my son’s bikes, he was one of the amateur riders on the team in ‘06. They weren’t known for being a great bike, but those Yosh motors were really fast.
Michael LaPaglia was on the team in ‘05 and maybe early ‘06, I don’t remember. But he had already gotten a national # by then. Micheal was a couple years older and Weston Peick was a year or so younger, but they all 3 ran #31 growing up. (Sometimes in the same classes and one of them would have to change their # that day.)
If you end up buying it, get in touch with me, I may still have 10-20 sets of graphics and some seat covers.
Funny… my son’s first 80 was one of Shane Bess’s race bikes when he went from Varner to R&D. I already knew Mike and Shane, but Shane was one of Stewart’s rivals back then and the bike was MINT.
My kid blew it up twice from keeping his finger on the clutch and cooking the motor. I couldn’t hear it and Mike rebuilt it for me once, then Tool Time did a whole new motor and he blew it up again. I sold it and bought 2 new ‘02 Kawasaki 80’s and he blew them both up.
I had to cut the lever down to a nub just to take off with. Never burned up another clutch in his life… lol
Not sure about Universal, haven’t seen them in awhile. Might’ve been part of the ONE industries deal that went bad.
The bike in pic has RG3 clamps and Renthal handlebars/ sprockets though
Quote
"they had a bad reputation and nobody wanted them. "
LOL
Brothers race team back then had Suzuki's. OMG. Most engines ended up in a milk crate.
Langhammx
Great bike for you to purchase and rebuild to your standards.
Only issue is , i wouldn't touch a 06 kawi or suz for anything for that price. Unless I know the head work has been done .
Almost everyone here knows of the issues .
If the engine was infact done by yosh , it's a great bike. I had an 06 kawi , awesome bike to ride , but took tons of money to make it reliable. Was the best handling 4 stroke 250 ever !
Who knows where that bikes been and what maintenance has been done, since I dropped it off. But it looked brand new and had maybe 40 hours on it with a new CP piston in it. There was an hour meter on it behind the left shroud.
Full Yosh motor was a $4K package for a paying customer. The cams were $1K back then. Headers and mufflers were WBR team spec.
Well I'm sure with the yoshi top end work , this bike is worth considering. I'd love to have one done up again. As I said before , the kawi which was almost identical was one of the best handling bikes I ever owned.
Who’s your son?
https://results.americanmotorcyclist.com/riders/50344-tanner-langham/results/MOTOCROSS/2007
https://llvault.racerxonline.com/rider/tanner-langham/races
Woof those forks look trick! How were the team’s bikes? Easier or harder to be a private team in the early 4-stroke days compared to now?
We had a great deal, our bikes were exactly like the pro bikes for the most part. We didn’t get much input on testing, but we had everything they had.
Ryan Sipes, Ryan Morais and Andrew McFarland were the 250 guys and Michael Byrne was on the 450.
Sean Kranyak (Mike Kranyak’s son), and Justin “Poo” Sipes were also amateurs on the team, along with the team owners son.
Mike was the money guy and the “M” in the San Manuel/ L&M Racing team. He also provided the race shop for WBR, before it moved in-house at Yosh.
Pit Row
Did yosh or WBR do anything to the transmission? Think I remember Mitch at PC paying a lot of money for special transmissions to keep them from breaking. Maybe that was a supercross only thing.
Yeah, I do remember the tranny gears being sent out for some kind of treatment, but they may have had some different gearing for SX, but I really don’t know much about that. Our motors got new pistons every 10 hours, but I’d go 20 on the practice bikes. We never had a bottom end or tranny problem, but we did have a couple pistons let go. All in all, we had good luck with the bikes.
Ohh these were am bikes? Didn’t know the ams got a kit back then, especially the guys that weren’t “up next” to be at factory Suzuki.
Mike LaPaglia?
A while back (13-14 years ago), Universal started selling a lot of their products on the "big auction site-Bay" with stupidly low opening bids. I got about 10 sets of triple clamps, a bunch of transport securing items (a bar for the front of my truck bed and multiple sets of tie downs), and more. I never paid more $10 for anything including shipping. They finally blocked me from buying more triple clamps! After that, product dried up and I never saw them out there again. I remember a problem with the clamps and after 30 seconds of searching I found the info on there problems. No wonder they were so cheap!
https://www.thumpertalk.com/forums/topic/586408-universal-triple-clamp-…
I know they were doing the "cryo" and "REM" treatment at the time. Here is an AI inspired definition:
REM finishing, also known as Isotropic Superfinishing (ISF) or the REM process, is a patented, chemically accelerated surface finishing technique that combines mechanical and chemical processes. It's used to gently finish high-quality parts, such as rotating parts in engines, transmissions, and rear ends.
The combo of both were meant to reduce internal stress and allow for less friction to lessen loads...at least that's the theory!
Eric
LaPaglia was a hot prospect and had a great amateur career. Not sure what kept him from going further than he did. He had the talent and support to keep going, I’m guessing he got burnt out like a lot of them that start too young.
To be honest, the bikes that the Ryan’s were racing, were not much different from the amateur bikes. Motor wise, they were exactly the same. We had 3 bikes with Showa kits on them, 2 kits were from the previous year’s team bikes and I bought a brand new A-kit from Showa for his race bike.
Same. I got a full Universal clamp setup for my 2006 RM125 for like $25. Full clamp with stem, handle bar mounts, etc. Came in a really trick tin case, too.
Universal was doing fire sale stuff on eBay around 2018. I bought tools, handlebars, perch clamps, triple clamps, etc. Was cool how cheap it all was.
Universal had a major recall on their clamps, which is probably the reason for the fire sale and them disappearing.
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/universal-engineering-recalls-clamps-…;
I just became a Lapaglia fan 👍
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