Publisher's XR Honda FS Racer
      Photos by Tom Davenport

Tom is an ex-racer in Northern California who never could kick the habit of snagging neat iron any time it gets within range and he's got some bucks in his pocket. This one is the latest.

Click on the small images to view large ones. They're 35-40k files and load pretty fast.

About his latest bike, Tom writes:

" Afraid I can't be too informative about this bike just yet. John Kirk built it in the form shown, according to Craig MacLean. I'm not aquainted with John and rumor has it he lives in Idaho these days. Craig raced it a couple years and was AFM Formula Singles Champ on it in '89. He told me "don't change anything". He sold it to Jim Cota, who raced it a while and sold it to Dave Vogel. Dave says he was 2nd by a point and tied for 3rd in FS the last two years. Dave got a 125 Honda R5, which is a purpose built racer and much easier for him to maintain personally. I had not previously seen one of those, and it was indeed an impressive and tidy package.

Dave did not do his own engine building and was a little vague on the details except to say he scattered the motor which came with the bike but, fortunately, the cylinder head survived, though not much else. The box of useable engine parts from the old engine was not very large.

It is a well built special. Will be contacting Engines Only and see if they remember details of the build. I have not started the bike at all so far, as it has no kickstart and I don't have a set of rollers. The pictures were taken on my driveway, which is dirt and connects to a dirt road. I don't think this bike would be any fun at all to start up and run down the driveway! Turning it around could be a major adventure, as it has very little steering lock.

One thing I did do was register it for the street, so once it gets the kickstart on it, I'll give you a report.

The cylinder head has fin extensions welded on by Kenny Augustine and what is said to be a race-only Megacycle cam. The pipe was fab'd by Parra O'Siochain (now living back in Ireland for several years) who probably built the original John Kirk motor. I think the ignition is stock XL600R c. 1983-4.

The pipe has a long, slow taper megaphone and there's a straight extension after the reverse cone which is internally screened and (when the packing is fresh) may quiet it a bit.

I don't know the carb size. It has an early radial valve head with 2 flat slide carbs. The fuel tank is a Dunstall Norton item.

Craig thinks it would still be competitive with a good rider. He should be a decent judge of that and doesn't have an axe to grind in the matter. If it turns out to not be fun and adaptable as a minimalist Saturday morning windy road bike (which is hard to imagine) I'll sell it.

In the meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to have a really good one around to study/copy/play with and so on."

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