EC Birt- Precision Cycle?

GIwasB4
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4/20/2010 8:55pm Edited Date/Time 3/5/2021 8:22pm
No one mentions E.C., ever had, or ride one of his motors?
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4/21/2010 2:02am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 10:17pm
Saw a lot of his stuff run. He was based in the south east for a while in the mid '70's. Had a neighbor friend who worked with him for a while. He picked up on a lot of two stroke engine technology from E.C. Birt. Dave went on to tune for Kippy Pierce and Monte McCoy using knowledge gained from E.C. to help make them two of the top riders in Florida.

Mickey and Rudy Haines also used E.C. built bikes in their mini cycle days. Birt's stuff was always fast.
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4/21/2010 5:02am
Saw a lot of his stuff run. He was based in the south east for a while in the mid '70's. Had a neighbor friend who...
Saw a lot of his stuff run. He was based in the south east for a while in the mid '70's. Had a neighbor friend who worked with him for a while. He picked up on a lot of two stroke engine technology from E.C. Birt. Dave went on to tune for Kippy Pierce and Monte McCoy using knowledge gained from E.C. to help make them two of the top riders in Florida.

Mickey and Rudy Haines also used E.C. built bikes in their mini cycle days. Birt's stuff was always fast.
x2 ,,
EC Birt, was on the level of FMF and DG at the time, i remember a few other people using his stuff,, but there were a few other,,"Expert tuners". at the time, in fla. Steve Martin sr of Cycle Springs Yamaha,,, was one he did Steve Martin and Ronnie Tichoners bike among others,, they had these stickers, from a dry cleaning store,, that said "martinized" lol sounds funny but, he definatly knew his stuff and i got to ride Rocky Brunettes yz175 a few times, and it made me want a 250 lol, it was that fast.


but the last i heard about EC Birt was ,he went to work at a Suzuki dealer in ,, Dickson , Tn.,, then it went out of business, about 8-10 yrs ago.
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BVS40FL
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4/21/2010 5:18am
He also did a lot of Karting motors and carbs here in Fla.
Not sure of the years but a friend of mine used to race Karts and
bought some stuff from him.
He turned his business over to someone later when he retired.
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newmann
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4/21/2010 10:44am Edited Date/Time 4/21/2010 11:00am
E.C. Birt. "keeps ya' puttin ". Had an experimental cylinder /head project of his for a 78 YZ100. Extra fins welded all over it and major port mods. Had his name and date engraved on it. Tom Benolkin scanned and posted some E.C. articles over on Motonews a couple years ago.
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The Shop

krazee1
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4/21/2010 8:33pm
I have a complete full EC Birt YZ50...It is amazing all the stuff he did to the motor on this thing...It has a yz125 reed cage machined to fit and extra fins welded to the cylinder and head...tons of head work and the piston has some of the most crazy work done to it I have ever seen. The crank has been machined and the carb is a huge 34mm mikuni. It has a fox shock with thor swingarm and terry kitted front forks. I even have the "keeps ya puttin" seat cover to go with it. I wish I knew who's bike it was back in the day, because I'm sure the kid that had this thing must have been fast as hell. Now If I could just find time to restore it!
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Oldskool
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4/21/2010 10:58pm
krazee1 wrote:
I have a complete full EC Birt YZ50...It is amazing all the stuff he did to the motor on this thing...It has a yz125 reed cage...
I have a complete full EC Birt YZ50...It is amazing all the stuff he did to the motor on this thing...It has a yz125 reed cage machined to fit and extra fins welded to the cylinder and head...tons of head work and the piston has some of the most crazy work done to it I have ever seen. The crank has been machined and the carb is a huge 34mm mikuni. It has a fox shock with thor swingarm and terry kitted front forks. I even have the "keeps ya puttin" seat cover to go with it. I wish I knew who's bike it was back in the day, because I'm sure the kid that had this thing must have been fast as hell. Now If I could just find time to restore it!
Pics please. Sounds awsome!
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GIwasB4
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4/22/2010 4:02am
I second that request, post a photo please.
krazee1
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4/22/2010 5:26am
krazee1 wrote:
I have a complete full EC Birt YZ50...It is amazing all the stuff he did to the motor on this thing...It has a yz125 reed cage...
I have a complete full EC Birt YZ50...It is amazing all the stuff he did to the motor on this thing...It has a yz125 reed cage machined to fit and extra fins welded to the cylinder and head...tons of head work and the piston has some of the most crazy work done to it I have ever seen. The crank has been machined and the carb is a huge 34mm mikuni. It has a fox shock with thor swingarm and terry kitted front forks. I even have the "keeps ya puttin" seat cover to go with it. I wish I knew who's bike it was back in the day, because I'm sure the kid that had this thing must have been fast as hell. Now If I could just find time to restore it!
Oldskool wrote:
Pics please. Sounds awsome!
Its a pile of parts in a box right nowSad . But, its all there. I will try and get some pics of the parts pile up here soon.
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david631
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6/10/2010 10:45pm
E.C.Birt owned Precision Cycle in Lawndale, ca. weird little dude. kinda like if Phil Spector ported cylinders. his shop jersey's were cool. the "P" for Precision was a big micrometer. saw a lot of those jersey's in the 70's. the 125's out of Precision did'nt scream, they howled. he used reed valves a lot. I think he was the 1st. to put one a 125 elsinore. Chuck Lunde's bike. I'm pretty sure it also had a Bing carb. who know's why. Birt use to put mikuni's on Sach's but used a Bing on a honda. well, I'm done.
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CR500Rider
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6/11/2010 10:31am
Ridden one? No, but I raced against several of his 100cc bikes. Sat around with E.C. several times at various NMA races, mostly in Tuscaloosa. The Phil Spector comparison is dead on. Panama Jack comes to mind for some reason as well. E.C. Birt had the coolest goatee ever!
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wownd out
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6/16/2010 6:02pm Edited Date/Time 6/19/2010 6:51pm
Mini Elsinore is right R&D Rudy and Dean Dickenson, took the mini's by storm late 70's and 80's, they were truely works mini's i had them i know!
Original 44
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6/18/2010 5:41am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 11:27pm
Here is an article I found that was written about the EC Birt YZ-80.

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GIwasB4
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6/18/2010 9:30am
That was excellent!
Thanks for sharing.
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rhaagusa
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2/9/2016 12:18pm
Little known dirt bike trivia: FMF Donny Emler got his start working at Precision Cycle in Lawndale. Saw Jeff Wright flying at Saddleback on a Rickman Zundapp with EC motor so we had our American Eagle Zundapp done there. They used Suzuki kit pipes. Met Don there and a couple years later ended up doing porting for him for the next 20 years. Yes the jerseys (hidden under chest protector, can just see top of P) were cool and Chuck Lunde wore one to Old So Cal Pros Reunion a couple years back

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newmann
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2/9/2016 1:48pm Edited Date/Time 2/9/2016 1:49pm
rhaagusa wrote:
Little known dirt bike trivia: FMF Donny Emler got his start working at Precision Cycle in Lawndale. Saw Jeff Wright flying at Saddleback on a Rickman...
Little known dirt bike trivia: FMF Donny Emler got his start working at Precision Cycle in Lawndale. Saw Jeff Wright flying at Saddleback on a Rickman Zundapp with EC motor so we had our American Eagle Zundapp done there. They used Suzuki kit pipes. Met Don there and a couple years later ended up doing porting for him for the next 20 years. Yes the jerseys (hidden under chest protector, can just see top of P) were cool and Chuck Lunde wore one to Old So Cal Pros Reunion a couple years back

Would be cool of you to give a little insight on the 74 CR125 FMF boost ported cylinders and setting them up with the window in the piston. Did you always use the single L ring Wiseco's for that or did you ever use the standard dual ring pistons as well? I have a few of them in 100 and 125cc configurations to go on Mini Elsinores and Package Racer projects. Would love to hear some words of wisdom.

Seems to be the in thing these days for people to butcher the FMF logo on the bottom of cobbed up cylinders and sell them on Ebay as FMF originals. Buyers beware, especially from the guy in Florida with multiple seller names.
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dadofagun
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After reading some of the posts here, I thought I'd share this little story. In the winter of 81, Dad was getting all our ducks in a row for the 82 season. I was still on pee wee's, and had one year of eligibility left. We were on YZingers (I just really showed my age....) and the little bike had only been on the market for 1 year. We desperately needed a mod bike, and since it was so new, virtually nobody offered anything for them yet. We had seen a JR.50 EC had built, and it was borderline frightening! The little kid that had was scared to death of it, so you can probably figure out who my old man placed a call to. Well, EC scared my Dad to death with his ideas! I was only 7, and he had ideas to put various parts from here and here on a then $300 pee wee. The money didn't scare Dad, his plans did! He wanted to put a carb of a RM 125 on it, and a few other wild ideas, plus convert it to chain drive! While we didn't doubt that it would work, Dad was scared to own a 1of 1 bike in case something broke. And back then, I broke a lot of shit!! I never met the man, but he did have some very creative ideas on how to make things fast!!! Oh yeah, we ended up going with a bike built by Ron Densford, with engine done by Ted. Man it was quick!!!
rhaagusa
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2/9/2016 7:45pm
Hello Newmann, That was a fun time. We hogged out a lot of material and it felt good making big changes and people really getting their moneys worth. Would be happy to tell everything but sorry to say I really can't remember. Have to give all the credit to Don. I was really just a tech and ported to his specs. I raced Huskys and was kind of in my own world, not that interested except to make my money and go about training and racing, and hanging out with my girlfriend :-)
As I remember Don did the pistons or probably farmed them out to be machined, so I didn't even see them much, not that they were hidden. A good guy to check with might be Dave Miller (Mano).
Occasionally someone sends me a sighting of a Haag Bros/ FMF cylinder, but hadn't heard of counterfeits.
Best regards, Robert Haag
newmann
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2/10/2016 6:32am
Thanks for the reply! Funny that today all us Elsinore nuts foam at the mouth over this stuff yet at the time it was just a regular job. I have a few examples of your work and will post up some pics soon myself.
yzvet426
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2/10/2016 7:57am
One of the guys racing here has this EC Birt YZ 100. Very trick bike. Extra length welded on to the fins, trickness everwhere













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riv187
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2/10/2016 8:30am Edited Date/Time 2/10/2016 8:35am










I have a EC Birt RM125 engine. I bought it from TX years back to use in my LOP bike while that motor was apart. Was told it was a local pro there's. It has the welded on fins of a WR3 and the strangest porting inside. It's on stock bore,,and has slots milled on cylinder wall leading up to main transfer port.This would increase the flow of it,and reduce some ring friction I suppose. Reed cage is 3 pedal,not Suzukis 2.(?)!. Engine does run very strong. I raced it that summer in 2000 against modern 125s flat tracking and finished 2nd.It proved itself against the 'new' stuff on the long straights where hp was king. I pulled te motor and it's shelved for now. Hate to wear out the stock bore and then have to bore it and loose the milled transfer slots he did.I later acquired another chassis to build around the engine with the PDI swingarm,and PDI pipe,metal tank too. Another project in waiting... EC never got the publicity of ones he mentored,,and moved on to Karting engines,,but he was a innovator.
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rhaagusa
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2/10/2016 10:50am
Very cool to get this thread going again!
I hope I didn't sound ungrateful (though I probably was......). Porting at FMF, starting as junior in HS was a dream job. Don paid us extremely well and we made our own hours. He was a great owner boss and always fun to work for and be around. I just meant I was more into the mx racer dream than being an engine builder. Probably took the racing too seriously and eventually lost the fun.
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rhaagusa
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2/10/2016 10:52am
And thanks for the link about EC. I was just going to ask if anyone knew of his whereabouts. A great loss he had a huge impact in my and many others lives.
Blessings to him and his family. Godspeed!
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AHRMA361
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2/10/2016 11:37am
riv187 wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2016/02/10/123361/s1200_DSCF0010.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2016/02/10/123362/s1200_lop_012.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2016/02/10/123364/s1200_lop_010.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2016/02/10/123365/s1200_old_second_half_1159.jpg[/img] I have a EC Birt RM125 engine. I bought it from TX years back to use in my LOP bike while that...










I have a EC Birt RM125 engine. I bought it from TX years back to use in my LOP bike while that motor was apart. Was told it was a local pro there's. It has the welded on fins of a WR3 and the strangest porting inside. It's on stock bore,,and has slots milled on cylinder wall leading up to main transfer port.This would increase the flow of it,and reduce some ring friction I suppose. Reed cage is 3 pedal,not Suzukis 2.(?)!. Engine does run very strong. I raced it that summer in 2000 against modern 125s flat tracking and finished 2nd.It proved itself against the 'new' stuff on the long straights where hp was king. I pulled te motor and it's shelved for now. Hate to wear out the stock bore and then have to bore it and loose the milled transfer slots he did.I later acquired another chassis to build around the engine with the PDI swingarm,and PDI pipe,metal tank too. Another project in waiting... EC never got the publicity of ones he mentored,,and moved on to Karting engines,,but he was a innovator.
That's really cool Brian! If you know of any LOP or PDI arms for my 78 RM125C anywhere, pass the info along!

I am not sure who did the work on my current '74 Honda CR125 cylinder but it has those milled transfers in it to run with the reed setup.

@rhaagusa - Years back I had a ported CR125 cylinder that had HAAG & HAAG engraved on the bottom of the lowest fin. I was a bit dubious if it was original or not. Did you ever engrave that on the cylinders you ported?
newmann
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2/10/2016 12:59pm
AHRMA361 wrote:
That's really cool Brian! If you know of any LOP or PDI arms for my 78 RM125C anywhere, pass the info along! I am not sure...
That's really cool Brian! If you know of any LOP or PDI arms for my 78 RM125C anywhere, pass the info along!

I am not sure who did the work on my current '74 Honda CR125 cylinder but it has those milled transfers in it to run with the reed setup.

@rhaagusa - Years back I had a ported CR125 cylinder that had HAAG & HAAG engraved on the bottom of the lowest fin. I was a bit dubious if it was original or not. Did you ever engrave that on the cylinders you ported?
Haag & Haag, Haag Bros, FMF and a month /year date seem to be common sights on originals.

Some of the fakes I have seen coming from Sinister Cycles and his other Ebay names out of Florida had a very poorly scripted FMF logo on them and really shitty looking botch job porting. He sells other replica pieces like DG air boxes and poor quality fake FMF finned fork legs for the early CR125's. He will run his own auctions up and then offer you a second chance at his inflated price saying the original bidder didn't pay.
AHRMA361
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2/10/2016 2:32pm
newmann wrote:
Haag & Haag, Haag Bros, FMF and a month /year date seem to be common sights on originals. Some of the fakes I have seen coming...
Haag & Haag, Haag Bros, FMF and a month /year date seem to be common sights on originals.

Some of the fakes I have seen coming from Sinister Cycles and his other Ebay names out of Florida had a very poorly scripted FMF logo on them and really shitty looking botch job porting. He sells other replica pieces like DG air boxes and poor quality fake FMF finned fork legs for the early CR125's. He will run his own auctions up and then offer you a second chance at his inflated price saying the original bidder didn't pay.
The cylinder I am talking about I got back in the mid-late '90's so doubtful it came from the shyster you mentioned.

Just interested if Robert marked his cylinders that way.

It came from a guy out in Riverside in a deal with a DG swingarm and radial head.
newmann
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2/10/2016 3:00pm
AHRMA361 wrote:
The cylinder I am talking about I got back in the mid-late '90's so doubtful it came from the shyster you mentioned. Just interested if Robert...
The cylinder I am talking about I got back in the mid-late '90's so doubtful it came from the shyster you mentioned.

Just interested if Robert marked his cylinders that way.

It came from a guy out in Riverside in a deal with a DG swingarm and radial head.
Mid to late 90's, Riverside....hmmmmm, you were moving in on my source it seems!Laughing Good times and lots of good parts still available back then.
rhaagusa
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2/12/2016 7:24am
Had this question in the back of my mind for a couple days now. I think in the early years we used an electric engraving tool and did write Haag & Haag with a thin line etched look. Later we went to bold FMF using a carbide bit in the air tool. There may have been a couple variations imbetween. So is the writing very thin lined? If so then I think it's authentic.
rhaagusa
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2/12/2016 7:28am


early 70's Precision Cycle jersey. Rider unidentified, maybe Ron DeSoto

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