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I meant to suggest a formula attributed to the late Gil Vaillancourt, who founded Works Performance and built many, many shocks for vintage bikes of different eras. He said that anti-squat characteristics were best if you line up the countershaft center, swingarm pivot, and rear axle in a straight line as your reference: 40% of rear wheel travel should be above this line, 60% below. When the countershaft position is already dictated by existing engine mounts, you will mainly use shock length to dial this in for AHRMA-legal wheel travel; then the Hatta fork should give you a lot of...

Rick Siemen had a piece on used bikes to seek or avoid, since some earlier bikes were still competitive and reliable enough to be a potential bargain way of getting into racing if you found an example that wasn't worn out. Bikes like sidepipe CZs or early square barrel Maico 400s. He mentions the 238 Greenstreak as a strong engine and says the American Eagle version is a real sleeper if you could find one, surprising power and handling. Not many other Big Four Japanese bikes made the grade, maybe the Suzuki 185, and the DT-1 because how to improve...

Nice start to the build. I have an F9 Bighorn road racer and have also played around with some of the F81M stuff so have an interested in these older Kwaka's. Following along.

Fabulous work, and it's great to watch a genuine bike BUILD from the frame up. I am curious about the 238, as I am pretty sure the first MX bike I ever saw was an American Eagle 238, and it seems like a very underrated engine for the time frame. Not curious enough to get one, mind you, but like to see someone building & racing a good one--