WORDS: PATRICK BODDEN AND MITCH BOEHM PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM RILES AND CATHERINE BRENNAN >CLASSIC FILE

From roach to racer in three easy, fun-filled days. (Ha!) We go butt-to-saddle at Daytona with the most notorious and successful roadracing of the 1970s— Yamaha’s TZ750

MEETING THE MONSTER Patrick Bodden: I peer into the back of Russ Bigley’s dingy gray Chevy van and get a face full of carbon-fiber two-stroke silencers. “Impressive,” I think, “this thing’s the business!” After all, here was a seemingly competent example of one of the most leg- endary racing of all time, the bike that struck fear deep in the heart of every manufacturer with large-bore roadracing intentions during the middle and late 1970s. If you had the balls and a decent rac- ing résumé, and wanted a real chance at winning, even big-time, world-class winning, well then, mister, it was a Yamaha TZ750 or nothing.

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You wouldn’t be alone in and-white two-stroke racebike Boehm: Yeah, the TZ was a tion. The Lentz machine is a Formula 40 event, which wondering if maybe the TZ750 that shrieked past the pits at IF YOU HAD beast, but I still wanted to ride long way from something allowed any racebike but was isn’t more than can be man- what seemed to me an unbe- THE BALLS AND or, better yet, race one, ideally Boehm or anyone else would limited to riders aged 40 and aged by mortal man. Plenty of lievable rate of speed; had to be A DECENT at a circuit with an equal mea- consider an acceptable risk on older. people are having such 130 or 140 mph. And the sure of history. Daytona the racetrack. There’s a lot of Bodden: When you’re in thoughts. Reports in the for- sound! Ear-splitting was way RACING seemed perfect, and when work to do, some evident and trouble you turn to your friends. eign press have told of the too tame a descriptor. After the RÉSUMÉ, AND Bigley offered up the chance to some yet to be discovered. And if there aren’t enough of TZ500’s impact in GP racing, session I walked the pits to see ride Kurt Lentz’s bike (which This hadn’t been part of the them, you draft innocent told of the stunned panic with- what sort of animalistic WANTED A Bigley took care of for Lentz), I bargain when Boehm presented bystanders. Heritage Racing in the opposing MV team. Jarno machine was capable of such REAL CHANCE jumped at the chance. me with his latest Daytona partner R.L. Brooks is a long- Saarinen’s death gave MV mind-bending velocity and rack- Bodden: I thought I’d seen scheme a few months earlier. It time friend who’s helped me another 500cc championship, et, and found it cooling menac- AT WINNING, the last of this sort of bike prep was supposed to have been through more than one but the Yamaha’s early perfor- ingly in the pit of Midwest racer EVEN BIG-TIME, back in the ’70s during my days Heritage Relaxed Racing this Motorcyclist vintage-racing time; just show up, look the adventure. He and I make new mances would seem to give it a Robert Wakefield. I approached WORLD-CLASS as an East Coast club racer. Lentz’s TZ again, many years—and many parts—later. We’d put place of pride as the fastest the bike from behind and saw Boehm said, “we’d” just have to bike over, check the tires and 30-plus hours of preparation into this thing by the time we shot friends on the spot—Phil motorcycle in GP roadracing smoke curling slowly from the WINNING, WELL make the best of things. Of spark plugs, and let’s have a go it out on the Daytona infield, and it showed. Ariel and Jenny are DiGiandomenico (whom we’d history. What, then, might it be skinny stinger exhausts. But it THEN, MISTER, course, the Heritage Racing at it. But here it was, take it or Lentz’s daughters, by the way. met briefly a few years before, with more displacement, with was the shredded, half-melted guys have managed the impos- leave it. Might as well get on and father of Jimmy and virtually a pair of the engines rear slick that lazered itself into IT WAS A sible in impossibly short time so with it, I thought. Tommy) and congenial but that made Yamaha’s TZ350 so my gray matter. Having never YAMAHA many times over the years that Boehm: My plan going in, “basically ready to go” when it Because AHRMA didn’t have a unsuspecting TZ750 racer (and formidable during 1973? The seen a warm and recently used Boehm has come to expect this which I communicated ad nau- arrived in Daytona. He’d class for what’s arguably one of Brit) Mark Middleton, to name whole concept is intimidating roadrace tire up close, the sight TZ750 OR as an entirely reasonable seum in the lead-up to Bike spooned a fresh set of sticky the most historic racing just two. enough to have given everyone filled me with genuine awe. I NOTHING. approach to racebike construc- Week, was simpler—and there- Avon vintage tires onto the motorcycles in the world (high- We size up the situation from pause. — Gordon Jennings, remember thinking, “This thing’s tion—never mind we’re dealing fore potentially less angst-gen- bike’s old sand-cast mags, and ly ironic, considering it’s the clues provided by Bigley and Cycle, January 1974 a monster.” with a device, old as it is, capa- erating—than many of our pre- although heavy snowfall in New American Historic Racing our own sleuthing and chart a Bodden: The TZ750 forged Yamaha quite naturally has ble of 170 mph even in less vious vintage-racing adven- Jersey kept him from bumping Motorcycle Association), I course of action. Someone a well-deserved reputation as reservations about selling than top-notch condition. tures. Bigley had told me over the bike off and making sure it planned to run the TZ in the detects excess fork oil on the an unbeatable and unstoppable TZ750s to just anybody with Fact is, racing résumé or not, the winter the TZ would be ran, he told me not to worry. Championship Cup Series’ tubes right away, so Boehm is racer. But I’d been blinded by many a TZ750 fell into less- this bike’s array of shiny new than-expert hands, meaning silencers. Unloaded in the dis- they didn’t have much exquisite mal, soggy environment of our workmanship lavished on them. Daytona pit, the TZ looks tired No matter. The TZ750, like its and shopworn, and inspires lit- smaller brethren before it, was tle confidence. Boehm and I so inherently good and so natu- stand there gazing at it, not rally cooperative that, as long as saying much for fear we’ll come the bike was reasonably well to our senses and go off in bolted together and no one search of margaritas (for him) went crazy with ignition timing and root beer (for me). I break and carburetor jetting, would go the silence first: “Well, Mitchie, like fury and do so for a long we’ve not only got a vintage time. Parts were readily available racer, but vintage workmanship from local dealers and, as long to go with it!” as they were replaced as Mitch Boehm: I see none of Yamaha prescribed, didn’t often the downsides at first. What I Kurt Lentz’s TZ750 as it appeared in 1984, his final year at fail. Many a ratty TZ750—Miles see is a real-deal TZ750, and Daytona and the year following his outstanding sixth-place fin- Baldwin’s and Richard Chambers’ a late-model monoshocker at ish—and first privateer—in the 200-miler. “The only bikes in bikes come to mind—would that. I’d been in awe of front of me were factory and Yamahas,” Lentz told us. allow a motivated and capable Yamaha’s big TZ since the second-echelon privateer to summer of ’76 at Michigan’s upstage the more elegant (read: Grattan Raceway. I’d gone there money and a bag of brave pills. spooked, because they know factory) front-runners. to check out a real roadrace But AMA rules require 200 they don’t have 200 Juniors Bigley had had his hands full with Dale Dahlke, an copies and you can’t expect and Experts who can cope with trying to prep two TZs—Lentz’s RD350/TZ250 mechanic who them to simply warehouse the what it is feared the Yamaha bike and Bigley’s own Spondon- was tuning my XR75 and production left over after Kel will deliver. But there’s nothing framed racer—and the prepa- YZ100 motocrossers while run- Carruthers takes what he to be done now; Yamaha created ration he’d done wasn’t meticu- ning a small bike shop near my needs. All the big fours will be the TZ750 in good faith and lous. It was the rough-and- This is how we spent the three days northern Ohio home. In an early sold, some of them to riders strict conformity with rules ready type that had sufficed all leading up to my race—sitting, bending over practice session my 14-year- whose talents were barely equal long-standing if not necessarily those years ago during the TZ’s and lying down, working all the time. At least it old senses were electro- to last year’s TZ350. That wise. — Gordon Jennings, heyday. Problem was, there had stopped raining. Right: Checking out the TZ’s shocked by a particular red- thought plainly has the AMA Cycle, January 1974 hadn’t been enough prepara- ergonomics early on. “Uh, can we raise these bars a 106 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 few inches?” May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 107 >CLASSIC FILE

Long-suffering Bodden, hard at work just hours before we lit the Not a chance. And the way corrosion. Bigley announces as well as he can with limited of the threats back in our pit, TZ750’s fire for the very first time. Right: Push-starting the things are going, getting any that seals for these things are tools. Everything seems rea- but I don’t care. We’re not beast and hearing its crisp, high-pitched wail bounce off the practice the following day looks extinct. Now what? I notice 5/8 sonably bolted together. We hurting anybody. Maybe scar- grandstands and our pit tent was almost a religious experience iffy at best. Not a good start. cast into the cylinder body and have water in the radiator, oil ing a few people, but we’re not after three straight days of intense toil and angst. Bodden: A Daytona day has opine that an American or in the gearbox and premix in endangering anyone. come and gone. Boehm British seal might work, espe- the tank. Do we have spark? The bike is beginning to look announces quitting time (with cially since it looks ordinary in We have faith. pretty good; Riles even calls it help—via threats—from the every respect. Another tour of Time to start the beast. After photogenic. It’s scuffed and ear-bleed PA system) and herds Daytona parts purveyors pro- a spirited push the TZ comes more than a little shopworn, the crew to the local Mexican duces two likely candidates—a to life in a grand spasm of but it’s getting cleaner by the eatery, the Cancun Lagoon. A seal kit from an auto parts sound and smoke. The smoke hour. Our second Daytona day veritable food fiesta ensues, the store for Lord knows what, and clears, and so does the exhaust is over and it’s back to the first of three consecutive such another for some Harley. I opt note. I let it rip up the pit road. Lagoon for more Mexican food sorties. The fare is acceptable, for the Harley part, and it By God, it feels good and and blue drinks. as are the margaritas (so I works. Close enough. sounds fierce! I turn around Boehm: When the TZ lit off I hear), some of them doctored Photographer Tom Riles is and let it rip again. I’m thrilled, was jacked! It sounded so cool, with what looks like blue toilet sympathetic to our plight, and and so are the guys. The track so crisp, just like the 500cc GP bowl freshener. The more although he seems to believe all Gestapo is less so. I can’t hear bikes I’d seen and heard at everyone drinks, the better this commotion is futile, he him even at the evil PA sys- Laguna back in the day. I knew everyone pronounces the food. records it. He also holds the tem’s 120dB volume, but he’s it’d be a rocket, and couldn’t By evening’s end we could have master cylinder while I hone issuing threats of eviction if I wait to ride it. After all the substituted linoleum for taco legendary corrosion out of it. don’t cease and desist. I hear myths that’d circulated about

wise to at least one problem. it isn’t a garden-variety piece— be a legendary motorcycle, but nounce it fine. shells and Boehm & Co. would We reassemble everything and the big TZ, I’d finally get to see No big deal. Bigley has new it’s of an exotic thread its carburetor linkage—four As the day rolls by I keep have pronounced them mucho in short order have a function- THE TZ COMES what the monster was really seals, so R.L. and Phil D. get pitch/diameter, and much run- individual cables from throttle finding things to do or fix. splendido. ing brake. Trouble is, the pedal TO LIFE IN A like. Problem was, we’d once busy replacing them. As is so ning around reveals that a to carburetors—is becoming a Racebikes are like infinite The next day is a repeat of now contacts one of the again run out of time for prac- often the case with seemingly replacement isn’t to be found in legendary pain in the ass. Get sponges of time and resources. the first, but this time the rear exhaust pipes. We run out of GRAND SPASM tice, and tomorrow was the minor problems, unforeseen all of Daytona. Back at three just right and I run out of All done (or so I think), I step master cylinder is the Daytona adjustment rod trying to fix it, OF SOUND AND Formula 40 race. I was highly snags ground our resolution to DiGiandomenico’s home adjustment on the fourth. Get back, admire how simple it all Gremlin of the Day. According and once again a modified gar- SMOKE. THE pissed—which meant more a halt. The guys aren’t any machine shop, a different-style four more or less OK and, if I looks, and wonder how prepa- to Bigley, all it needs is a good den-variety bolt is substituted margaritas that evening to sooner into the job than they’re bolt has its head turned on the move the cables a bit rein- ration—and replacing a few bleeding. Boehm says bleeding for an OEM part and we’re in SMOKE CLEARS, drown my sorrows. stalled by the Allen bolt holding lathe and a slot sawed into it to stalling the fuel tank, the carbs parts—could possibly take so is unnecessary, as he “never” business. AS DOES THE Bodden: Day three is race one of the fork legs together; substitute for a hex. We’re back go out of sync again. Finally, long. Of course, there are other uses the rear brake. (Funny how We munch Boehm’s worker- day, and we go backward. The its internal hex is no longer in business. A one-hour job when everything seems reason- concerns, such as, would the he manages to return every compensation food—burgers, EXHAUST NOTE. front brake decides to quit hexagonal and the bolt isn’t takes two capable and able, I discover a crack in the bike be safe for Boehm to ride? racebike I build for him with a Milky Ways, sodas and I LET IT RIP UP working. We bleed it, and it responding to wrenches or resourceful technicians an top half of the throttle assem- At this point I’m not sure. seriously blued rear disc. Maybe Gatorade, but no blue drinks— comes back to life, but it isn’t cusswords. It’s off to locales entire day. bly. Bless his heart, old Bigley Boehm: By this point I’m not Cancun Lagoon blue, but and survey our progress. We PIT ROAD. BY ideal. The crew knows we’re with better weapons— Meanwhile, I’m working (working feverishly on his own horribly frustrated. We’d blue just the same.) R.L. and I now have a functioning, non- GOD, IT FEELS running short of time and DiGiandomenico’s nearby through my own misery. TZ) just keeps the parts coming planned to run the bike in run fresh fluid through that leg- leaking fork, proper throttle GOOD AND works with Boehm on control Daytona garage—where Carburetor synchronization, in and offers up a replacement for today’s informal Team Hammer endary magnesium TZ750 mas- action and working front and positioning, all the time cleaning extracting the bolt proves fairly particular, seems either inter- the cracked piece. The new part practice so I could get accus- ter cylinder and can’t get any rear brakes. Paul Thede of Race SOUNDS this and that, checking fasten- easy, even if it means destroy- minable or impossible, I can’t installed, I check carb sync for tomed to it and the revised, pedal. We remove it only to find Tech makes the TZ’s yard-long FIERCE! I’M ers, installing breather hoses ing it in the process. Of course, decide which. This thing might the thousandth time and pro- much-tighter Daytona circuit. a punctured seal and big-time single shock/spring unit work THRILLED. and catch bottles, etc. Then

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Time to grid for the race, which meant big butterflies. Of Kurt Lentz, who raced this bike back in the day, Cycle World’s Kevin Cameron said, “Lentz was the man in one of ABC’s Agony of Defeat videos, fish- tailing through the hay bales at Daytona in ’78 and crashing heavily. He crashed into the pond at Loudon in ’76, breaking his neck. He said later, ‘There I was, under the water and paralyzed. I thought, well, they’ll either get me out or they won’t.’ He was soon riding again. [In 1983] he finished sixth at Daytona and had himself driven around the pits sitting in the side door of his van to show himself to his peo- ple. He survived many heavy crashes and seemed to be one of those guys who just goes faster and faster until they pile. At least one quite nice wife signed off, saying she didn’t want to watch a prolonged suicide. He, like Jimmy Adamo and Kurt Liebmann, was one of racing’s lifers.”

there’s some business with two frantic back and forth, practice of the plug wires. The bike and the Formula 40 race have starts, but reluctantly, and has come and gone. Like all of us, a case of what Kevin Cameron Boehm is not a happy man, and once referred to as the piff, it shows. paff, poofs. Sometimes two- Boehm: At this point I was in strokes do this and then clear a foul mood. We’d missed every up. This doesn’t clear up. lap of practice along with my Back in the pits it’s decided scheduled race. Luckily, CCS the other two wires also need head honcho Kevin Elliott, who to be changed. But now the I’d been hounding every hour for bike won’t start at all. That’s what seemed like days, gave me progress as far as I’m con- the go-ahead to take part in a cerned and I say so, asserting short practice the following the wires needed to be put morning (Sunday) and a back as I remember them Superbike-spec race later that regardless of what the book afternoon with highly modified said. No one listens to me. modern bikes. My goal of actu- Sadly, the Middleton appears, doesn’t say ally riding a legendary Yamaha grand old circuit that was a word to anyone, and reposi- TZ750 in anger wasn’t dead yet. Daytona International Speedway was badly neutered in early ’05 tions the wires just as I said Even so, I worried plenty that to keep Superbike tire temperatures—and speeds—down. The they should have been in the evening at dinner, our third in a second half of the infield is now almost kart-track tight. It’s first place. We push again and row at the now-infamous safer, but feels exactly like what it is: a Band-Aid fix that doesn’t the bike starts. During all this Lagoon. The TZ’s front and rear do justice to the track’s motorcycling history.

110 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 111 >CLASSIC FILE suspension remained way soft wheel horsepower. That doesn’t row, which attracts a crowd. As elatively speaking, the despite dialing in max preload sound like much relative to Bodden blips the TZ’s throttle, RTZ750 is a tiny motorcycle, (the springs were too soft), and today’s 150-horse open- rapid-fire smoke bursts and more like a current 250 than an damping seemed non-existent. classers. But when you’re talk- two-stroke Brrraaaam! sounds open-classer. I’m reminded of Sr. told me a ing about a 346-pound fill the air, and I have the feeling this as I roll down pit lane for month earlier to get up off the machine with famously abrupt ghosts are stirring throughout the first time and enter the seat on the banking, that the power, mean-Alice handling, the Speedway’s towers and track just before Turn 2—the bike was “sure to wobble.” soft, damping-less suspension, garages. It’d been many years International Horseshoe. The Considering the thing was skinny tires and a reputation since that unique four-cylin- cramped seat-to-peg layout capable of 170 mph, this did for extreme wobbles at speed, der/two-stroke sound had rico- makes it really hard to move my not sit well, even with several all on a racetrack I’d not yet cheted off these legendary body around on the bike blue drinks circulating through ridden, I was beginning to grandstands. Speedway through the much-tighter infield, my system. (Who says alcohol question the entire scheme. announcer Richard Chambers, and by the time I accelerate makes you brave?) There was Sunday dawns clear and who’d ridden TZ750s to some onto the back straightaway a more: I barely fit on the bike. bright, and the crew arrives exceptional finishes back in the quarter-mile before the chicane, Seat-to-peg distance was a early to check the bike in antici- day (and who still has his TZ my calves, quads and lower back scant 13 inches, way less than pation of the precious few racer), rides by on his scooter are already cramping. even the sportiest of sport- practice laps I’d been granted. with a knowing smile on his With that the busy, four- bikes, and lifting my feet onto We get the bike through tech face. He tells several old-school cylinder snarl becomes a hard, the pegs while seated was a inspection (raised eyebrows tales over the PA system about hammering shriek and the challenge. My knees hit the fair- galore) and warm it up along pit Kurt Lentz and his TZ, which I’m Yamaha hurls itself at the high

ing sides once I got seated, and about to ride. south banking, its front wheel I wasn’t sure the cutting we’d AHRMA DIDN’T A hard shove gets the almost too light to steer. done to the fiberglass would be HAVE A CLASS Yamaha rolling. You work it up Quicker than memory it claws enough. And what of carb jet- FOR ONE OF to a trot, then hop on sidesad- its way around and flashes out ting? Would it be rich, which dle and bang in the clutch to along the back straightaway, might have the bike loading up THE WORLD’S spin the engine, which responds tach needle surging next to the on the start line? Or would it MOST HISTORIC with a few raspy barks before red pie-slice as your toe twitches run lean, and seize solid exiting settling into a sullen staccato at the shift lever. All the sensa- the chicane, highsiding me into a RACING as you head for the course. At tions are familiar but of a mag- cement wall at 80 or 90 mph? MOTORCYCLES, first you go gently, waiting for nitude that reaches past the And even if all of that stuff the water-temp needle to lift limits of experience. Speed turned out to be workable, how IRONIC off its peg, teasing yourself blurs everything but a narrow difficult would it be to ride CONSIDERING with short bursts of speed. One tunnel ahead. Wind buffets and quickly? Stock TZs—at least IT’S THE full lap, then another half- plucks at your leathers, and a the early twin-shock versions— throttle tour of the infield rash of heat from the radiator made around 90 horsepower. AMERICAN before you let yourself fall into sears your face. — Gordon But Bigley had told me Lentz’s HISTORIC the familiar racing patterns, Jennings, Cycle, January 1974 bike sported radically ported pulling the bike upright and The TZ feels incredibly light cylinders, Lectron carburetors, RACING rolling on throttle as the last and whippy despite the narrow new-generation reed valves and MOTORCYCLE yards of the final infield turn (and low-mount) clip-ons, which modern expansion chambers, flicker past. offer little leverage. The bike the end result being somewhere ASSOCIATION. — Gordon Jennings, Cycle, seems to respond to weight between 120 and 130 rear- January 1974 transfer as much as bar pres-

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I’d always wanted to see what riding the bike that won the eight years running would be like—and I’d finally gotten the chance courtesy of Russ Bigley, Kurt Lentz and a host of friends. After my eight-lap race, Team Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking and Jason DiSalvo came over to check out the bike. Hacking made jokes about the TZ’s skinny fork tubes, while DiSalvo jumped aboard to discover he fit the bike perfectly. All of which made me understand why the thing hurt me so badly.

ward to keep the front wheel from lofting, waiting until you have it aimed before using all the power, bracing yourself for You clamp your knees the bike’s awesome, catapult- against the tank more tightly ing acceleration. And forming temperature before I flogged it. and sneak a finger forward to in your mind is the nagging Both ends feel way soft, but it’s tug at the brake lever, just thought that while sure as hell not a problem at the speeds I’m checking. You never did that somebody has done the right sure entering corners, and I find running. The brakes are posi- before, but you do it now. thing, somebody at Yamaha, I can get fairly aggressive with it tively wooden, but I’m used to Moments later you’re braking what they’ve done just might early on. Midrange power is sur- that. Luckily, the Avon tires for the chicane, downshifting, not be the right thing for you. prising, but I’m taking it easy at warm and scuff quickly, and hauling at the handlebars and — Gordon Jennings, Cycle, first; Bigley told me the engine keep me from worrying about feeling the tires shudder. Then January 1974 was fairly fresh and probably grip—unless the back tire sud- you’re driving hard into the By lap five I’m starting to get needed a few laps to get up to denly gets oiled up, that is. north banking, hunching for- Continued on page 168

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TOM RILES TZ750 Hard Parts Relatively unchanged for years, yet hugely competitive PHOTOGRAPHY: MITCH BOEHM ≠WORDS: WHEELS/BRAKES COCKPIT ENGINE REAR WHEEL/SWINGARM While 1977-/’78-spec mono- Those spindly fork tubes A stock D-model TZ750 The Lentz TZ’s swingarm is shock TZs came with better were part of the reason Kel made 120 horsepower at the an ugly-but-functional brakes than the street-spec Carruthers said, “Everything crank—about 100 at the rear Vesco unit. Many twin- hardware found on early twin- was too flimsy. The first time wheel—via 66.4 x 54mm shock TZs were retrofitted shock TZs, most privateers we tested [in the U.S.] we had bore and stroke (747cc) and with monoshock kits after upgraded to better items. Roberts, [Gene] Romero and 34mm Mikunis feeding reed Roberts showed up with the Lentz’s bike ended up with [Don] Castro riding. I can’t valves. Lentz’s TZ makes OW31 in ’75; production Spondon bits, and though good remember Kenny’s lap times, approximately 25 more versions didn’t appear until enough for the late ’70s, they but Castro and Romero were horsepower via 38mm the D-model bikes in ’77. felt plenty wooden in 2005. like 8 seconds slower. They Lectron carbs, radical cylin- We ran Avon’s race-com- Magnesium Morris wheels are couldn’t ride the bike. It der porting and special pound AM22/23 tires, a light, but when old and brittle scared them because it Swarbrick exhausts. At just 110/80-18 front and a (like these) are prone to disin- wouldn’t handle like they over 300 pounds it was a 150/80-18 rear. They’re tegration. Nice. wanted it to.” handful to ride quickly. superb.

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TOM RILES Russ Bigley’s TZ750 is not like the other ones …

Russ Bigley isn’t just one of America’s most out-of-control TZ750 enthusiasts. He’s also a capable racer who likes his PHOTOGRAPHY: Tee Zeds to be as fast and functional as they are legendary. All of which explains his personal TZ750 racebike, which is, shall Left: Mark we say, vastly different than a standard TZ such as the one I rode. Middleton at His bike is anchored by an ’83-spec Spondon aluminum frame, one of speed aboard only a handful produced by the British chassis specialist. Ed Johnson the hellacious

MITCH BOEHM machine-work and Yoyodyne titanium fasteners are sprinkled hybrid at throughout, while an Öhlins shock and CBR900RR fork keep things Daytona. Bigley steady. Marvic wheels mount Michelin radials, Air Tech bodywork (in T-shirt at far

≠WORDS: provides streamlining and Brembo brakes slow everything down. left) plans to And that’s quite a job considering the bike weighs 308 pounds run his TZ at and makes 144 rear-wheel horsepower thanks in part to custom this summer’s 2-Stroke Extravaganza at BeaveRun Raceway Swarbrick pipes, 41mm Lectron carbs, seven-port YZR500 cylin- on the weekend of July 1–2. And if all goes well there, he and ders and heads and loads of cylinder porting. Mike Himmelsbach plan to try to knock off the superbikes at Bigley and British co-rider Mark Middleton (who runs his own this year’s Willow Springs 200 in the fall. Their plan? A 7- trick TZ in the U.K.) rode the hybrid in CCS’s 200-mile Team gallon fuel tank and low tire wear, which would keep them to just one pit stop. Challenge event at Daytona. And though a stuck carb needle took them out at the race’s halfway point, the duo ran surprisingly quick laps and raised plenty of eyebrows along pit wall. It’s something Bigley’s become quite good at.

118 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 119 Giant-Killer to Giant >CLASSIC FILE A brief history of the Yamaha TZ750 RICH CHENET If you were even fierce 350cc twins. These giant- up finish, ex-250 world champ dated by AMA rules in America, 175 mph at Daytona in ’72. years in GPs, as well as from the GPs of the ’73 season. Like the frames, on street-going mass-pro- remotely interested in killers, as they had come to be (and Yamaha U.S. team manager) as well as those of the British Kawasaki’s H2R—and, later, the business of producing over-the- 500, the TZ750 utilized reed duced models and readily available roadracing back in 1973, known, won regional, national Carruthers traveled to Japan to ACU that had gotten Formula water-cooled KR750—were counter racing machinery, and valves to balance tractability aftermarket accessories. It was you—along with fellow and international races against test the TZ750 prototype. He 750 international racing off to a certainly in the same league. multiplied it. Much is made of the against sheer horsepower. And further presumed this format gave

PHOTOGRAPHY: enthusiasts, bike journalists machines with twice the dis- suggested some changes, most promising start in Europe. But those bikes shredded idea the TZ750 was created in the handling department, the a greater number of factories a and factory engineers placement from the likes of of which were carried out on the There’s no question these tires, weren’t especially cooper- from doubling the engine of the TZ750 would eventually acquire chance at racing success with the everywhere—were , Kawasaki, , spot, then returned to the States machines were exceptionally ative handlers, and showed potent TZ350—just widen the the monoshock rear suspension big machines that had captured awestruck when Yamaha Triumph/BSA and Harley- to heighten excitement—or fear, fast, the water-cooled Suzuki uneven reliability. Never mind crankcases and plug in an extra of the 500. The TZ750 was the public’s imagination by the announced it would field a Davidson. In fact, these TR350s depending where you stood—by TR750 having been the first the four-strokes; they had their crank assembly, cylinder block much more a big GP machine— early ’70s. And it gave racing four-cylinder two-stroke had won the past two Daytona announcing that Yamaha’s new machine to own brands of misery. Two- and cylinder head, so to speak. a purebred racer—than it was spectators a greater number of

PATRICK BODDEN 750-class roadracer. 200-milers, and in 1973 the racer was capable of 182 mph. exceed strokes were the coming thing, As logical, simple and expedient an extrapolation of the smaller machines with which they could You were awestruck—or new water-cooled TZ350 won at To be fair (and historically and one only had to look across as this solution appears, it falls Yamaha production racers. connect on a personal level. shaken to your core if you Daytona with Flying Finn Jarno accurate), Yamaha wasn’t the the Atlantic to the 500cc far short in defining the genesis What’s not clear is how Yamaha had toyed with the idea

≠WORDS: were a competing manu- Saarinen, Kel Carruthers and Jim first to construct 750cc two- Grands Prix to see that. of the TZ750. The TZ750 owes Yamaha got away with this bit of of a street version of the TZ750, facturer—because Yamaha Evans going 1-2-3. So the stroke roadracers. Suzuki and Yamaha upped the ante con- as much, if not more, to its only GP subterfuge. Essentially, one example of which was shown was already dominating announcement of a 750cc ver- Kawasaki had already done so in siderably with the TZ750. It lit- smaller sibling, the Yamaha Yamaha invaded racing—both at the Tokyo show of 1971, but it roadraces all over the sion was a shocker. the form of their street-based erally took the wealth of expe- OW19 500 Grand Prix racer, a AMA and Formula 750—that was put away afterward, never to world with its small-but- A few months after his runner- three-cylinder machines, as man- rience and engineering know- machine on which Saarinen (after was presumed to be based, at be seen again. how accumulated from Daytona) had won the first two least in the area of engines and Perhaps it’s simple—a brilliant

Before he joined Team Honda, was a TZ750-mounted terror. Riding an Erv Kanemoto-built monoshocker for Howard Racing, Spencer nearly won the 1980 Daytona 200 at the age of 18. A burned crank bearing caused by the ingestion of sand when the weather turned ugly took him out of the race with only 10 laps remaining. He’d have been the youngest-ever winner of the 200. Of the TZ, Spencer says this: “Some people were scared of them. They were fast, especially Erv’s bikes, but they had pretty mellow power- bands; they weren’t nearly as peaky as the 250s I rode. I always felt really comfortable on them.” That Easter, Spencer garnered his first international fame when he beat Kenny Roberts and at Brands Hatch at that year’s Match Races. The rest, as they say, is history.

120 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 121 >CLASSIC FILE

FROM ITS INTRO- DUCTION TO AMERICA AT DAYTONA IN ’74 AND A WIN BY GP HERO TO ITS LAST 200 WIN IN ’82 BY KIWI GRAEME CROSBY, THE TZ750 WON EVERY DAYTONA 200.

idea being hard, if not impossi- Daytona in ’74 and a win by with the advent of the D model For those of us who remem- ble, to suppress. The TZ750 GP hero Giacomo Agostini to in ’77, the TZ750 finally ber the TZ750 well, the bike proved as unstoppable politically its last 200 win in ’82 by Kiwi acquired Yamaha’s trademark remains contemporary. Its looks and emotionally with both race Graeme Crosby, the TZ750 monoshock rear suspension. haven’t faded with age. Park a organizers and the public as it won every Daytona 200. From Also gone in ’77 were the four nice example—even one with a was unstoppable by any racer its first year in Formula 750 in flat-sided, failure-prone expan- little race wear—anywhere and riding anything else. The bike ’74 propelling John Dodds to sion chambers, replaced by the bike can still stop onlookers was simply not to be denied on the championship to its last in proper conical-shaped in their tracks. People remem- any basis. And Yamaha, one ’79 carrying Frenchman Patrick exhausts, three positioned ber. There are those who wish way or another, took full Pons, the TZ750 won every under the engine and the fourth to make the history of this fab- advantage of the fact that infi- championship and practically snaking its way upward, across ulous racing machine come nitely more people wanted to every race. Epic battles were and through the frame, exiting alive, who believe that the big see its latest creation on the fought, reputations were rearward just below the seat. Yamaha should be preserved in track than would have pre- forged and champions were Through the years, engine its proper environment, which is ferred to see it go away. made. In particular, Canadian output increased from 90 to to say restored and ridden at Yamaha returned the favor. Steve Baker became America’s 120 horsepower and beyond, high rates of speed in front of Its big, spectacular GP-bred first world roadracing champi- often through the efforts of those who remember it and machine transformed AMA and on by riding a nearly flawless enterprising privateers. All the those who will now be just as Formula 750 racing into big, season in ’77 on his way to while, the Yamaha retained a amazed as we all were in 1973. spectacular affairs that far the Formula 750 crown. reputation for reliability as well How many TZ750s must there exceeded other makers’ entries. The TZ750 accomplished all as blinding speed, so much so be out there waiting for such an In short order, the Ducatis, this with surprisingly few that a few examples found opportunity? Nortons, Triumphs, Moto changes. In the six years of their way into 24-hour Guzzis and even Hondas faded production, from the ’74 endurance racing, their success Those who’d like to see and from the scene, forever relegat- TZ750A to the ’79 TZ750F, cut short primarily by their hear the legendary TZ750 in ed to that bit of motorcycle there were really only two undeniable thirst. Yamaha built action can do so over the week- racing history that predates the changes. Partway through the only about 500 of these fabu- end of July 1–2 at BeaveRun Yamaha TZ750. B model-year engine displace- lous roadracing machines, and Raceway in western To say the big TZ dominated ment grew from 700cc to there were a substantial num- Pennsylvania. Click on is to state the obvious. From its 750cc by enlarging the bore ber of specials built around www.usgpru.com for more introduction to America at from 64.0mm to 66.4mm. And TZ750 engines. information. MC

122 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 123 MEETING THE MONSTER Continued from page 115 into the groove despite my and hammer the throttle. The floundering at the back of the cramping legs. The thing is fast. bike shakes its head under KENNY pack in the process. But then I notice the tempera- power but remains true, and ROBERTS HAD The bike wants to wheelie ture gauge as I head for the tri- I’ve got myself a decent drive. I TOLD ME TO through the gears exiting the oval; it’s gone past 90 degrees can hear the TZ’s raspy infield onto the back straight, Centigrade and is heading for exhaust note bouncing off the GET UP OFF but I’m more worried about 100, which Bigley called the wall of the banking, and it THE SEAT ON the oily mist that seems to be danger zone. I imagine being sounds great. Time to see how rising from around my crotch. I flicked off into Turn 1 as the fast this thing is. Ripping off THE BANKING, sneak a look down at my right engine seizes, so I back off and the east banking a quarter of THAT THE BIKE thigh and knee and find the roll into the pits a lap later, a mile later headed for leather there shiny with petro- thinking unhappily that these start/finish, the bike bottoms WAS “SURE TO chemicals. It’s just the gas/oil might be my only laps till my forcefully on the roller bump at WOBBLE.” mixture backwash through the race later in the day. the banking’s exit and goes CONSIDERING IT carbs and intake system typi- The crew goes over the bike into another speed wobble at cal of most two-stroke race- while I head for the CCS office what must be a buck-fifty. WAS CAPABLE bikes, but I don’t know that— to double-check my race time. Roberts wasn’t kidding. OF 170 MPH, and images of oil-coated rear Two hours later we’re pushing The shimmy’s not bad tires begin playing on the the bike to start/finish and the enough to cause me to back THIS DID NOT insides of my eyelids. Pitching butterflies are swarming. Not off, and I carry Big Speed past SIT WELL, EVEN the bike into the chicane five because I’m worried about start/finish. But I blow the seconds later at 90 or 100 being competitive (I’m gridded entrance to Turn 1, arguably WITH SEVERAL mph takes mammoth faith, but last, and in a class filled with the toughest bend in all of BLUE DRINKS there’s no slide. Guess it’s OK. late-model R1s, GSX-Rs and motor racing. Through the CIRCULATING I try to get ready for the ZX-10s!), but because I want Horseshoe and the rest of the high-velocity shake/shimmy the bike to last, want to make it neutered infield I’m having a THROUGH MY that’s coming through the east back in one piece, want to hell of a time getting any sort SYSTEM. (WHO banking’s G-out, but my atten- bump right up against this of rhythm going; the brakes tion is focused on an almost thing’s ragged edge and see are weak, the bike has little SAYS ALCOHOL unreal level of vibration and what’s there. Dunlop’s race-tire engine braking on decelera- MAKES YOU noise permeating the cockpit. guru Jim Allen walks by and tion, and though I’m riding a It’s way worse than I remem- gives me a thumb’s up, but lot faster now than I had in BRAVE?) ber, so I naturally think some- wonders privately about the practice, I’m lurching all over thing’s gone terribly wrong. bike’s magnesium wheels, which the place—and surely looking What’s happening is that I’m are known to become brittle like an idiot on an old bike riding the bike a lot faster with age and dis- now, and it’s doing what big, integrate at nasty two-stroke racebikes do speed. He keeps at speed. But again, I don’t his concerns to A big obstacle to fast laps was the know this, all of which keeps himself, which is TZ’s way-soft suspension, which let me from nailing Turn 1 again. probably a good the bike run wide exiting corners The temperature gauge again thing. and limited my drive off flirts with the 100-degree C I take it easy at them. Still, ripping mark, but I ignore it. Bigley the start and use around that leg- said to. the first lap to get endary circuit By this time both my feet re-acquainted on that are asleep and buzzing with with the bike. My shrieking pins and needles due to goal is simple: Run motorcy- reduced blood flow caused by the thing as hard cle was a my pretzeled legs, but there’s as I can, and huge too much craziness happening hopefully catch a thrill. to think about them now. I get few backmarkers a bit overzealous exiting the so the race feels Horseshoe, lose the back end like something in a lurid slide and almost run more than a prac- off the track after I get things tice session. The buttoned up. The bike rockets TZ feels reason- toward the tight section of the ably good enter- infield and I nearly overshoot ing the chicane on the right-hander due to my lap one so I carry right hand cramping from extra speed grabbing the brake lever so through the exit hard for so long. I tell myself

168 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 169 MEETING THE MONSTER to relax, but my rapid-fire these things at race speeds for fits perfectly; he says he’d like triot, of Patrick Pons and his breathing fogs my shield and I 200 miles here. Amazing. I TELL MYSELF to try riding it sometime. Allen, win at this very circuit in miss my turn-in point two cor- In the race’s latter stages I TO RELAX, BUT who rode his share of race 1980. I also reminisced about ners later. I can see folks in the manage to put together a cou- laps on big TZs, laughs at the local greats, some champions, grandstand as I rattle by, and I ple of decent laps, and even MY RAPID-FIRE thought. But we all know some not—Chambers, Rich just know they’re laughing their catch a few slower riders— BREATHING DiSalvo would be crazy-fast on Schlachter, Greg Smrz, et al. I asses off. although Team Yamaha’s FOGS MY the thing. reminded myself that, despite I realize I’m tired and riding Jason DiSalvo and Jamie Bodden: I’m relieved after- all the apprehension surround- out of control—and then I get Hacking lap me toward the SHIELD AND I ward, just as I’d been 10 years ing the TZ750’s release, and the crossed flags that signal the end while testing for the AMA MISS MY TURN- earlier when I’d watched despite its mind-boggling race’s halfway point. Still four races the following weekend. Boehm race the Drixton Honda acceleration and top speed, it laps to go? Damn! It’s not so At the checkered flag I pull in IN POINT TWO 500 I’d prepared (the very rea- earned an enviable safety much the power that’s making and collapse onto the TZ’s CORNERS son we were having this 10- record. It may have been the TZ hard to ride; power hits tank as I roll to a stop where year commemoration at fierce, but it wasn’t vicious. hard at 7000 rpm and redlines Bodden is standing. Hacking LATER. I CAN Daytona). I was afraid there Boehm: I’m spent, but at 11,000, so there’s a decent and DiSalvo come over to SEE FOLKS IN might be some problem I didn’t hugely jazzed about the way it spread there. The problem, for check out the bike, as does Jim THE GRAND- know about—and didn’t have all came off. By riding the TZ me at least, is that the engine is Allen, who then tells me of his time to find—lurking deep hard in a real roadrace at so much better than the chas- concerns about the mag STAND AS I within the TZ. I felt a great Daytona, I’d gotten a firsthand sis. The soft suspension, weak wheels. Someone says they RATTLE BY— sense of privilege being able to glimpse into a large portion of brakes and racklike ergos are got me at 168 mph on radar, work on one of the most leg- American roadracing’s history. taking their toll, making me ride which makes me extra happy AND I JUST endary racing motorcycles of Lentz’s TZ wasn’t quite the spasmodically, unable to be the wheels stayed together. KNOW THEY’RE all time. The few moments I monster I expected. But the smooth. Somehow I manage to Hacking breaks us all up with LAUGHING wasn’t preoccupied during that Ten years after our first vintage-racing get-together at Daytona, the ’05 version of the Cardiac Kids experience did show me the relax a bit ripping along the his quip, “My mountain bike’s long weekend, my head was pose with the Bigley/Lentz TZ750 on Sunday afternoon in Daytona’s infield just hours after our monstrous skill and determina- banking, and I wonder briefly got thicker fork tubes than THEIR ASSES filled with images of Agostini, race. Left to right: Shannon Silva, Todd Henning, Yours Truly, R.L. Brooks, Patrick Bodden, Billy tion of the riders who went how riders—especially those that thing!” DiSalvo throws a OFF. Roberts, Johnny Ceccoto, Orazio, Michael Mutter and Mike Sidinsky. Missing are Russ Bigley, Mark Middleton and Phil fast on them back in the day. larger than average—rode leg over the TZ’s saddle and Steve Baker, and, as a compa- DiGiandomenico. My race number—184—came from my racing days. Amazing stuff. MC

170 WWW.MOTORCYCLISTONLINE.COM May 2006 May 2006 MOTORCYCLIST 171