Owner: Scott Clough
AHRMA racers Kevin Morehouse and Bob Bryson got me involved in vintage
roadracing. I built two Bultacos and two Yamahas for Bryson, and had the
opportunity to travel to several AHRMA races last year. The entire
experience was great, and I was hooked. I had raced with West Coast clubs
and AMA with some success in the 1970s, but had not been involved in
roadracing for many years. I own my own engine building business, Scott
Clough Racing in Burbank, Calif., and have been doing a lot of watercraft,
karts, ATVs and motocrossers, but the vintage roadracing takes me back to my
first love.
Although I still have my 1973 RD350 production racer, I found that I really
enjoyed riding the smaller bikes. The Yamaha CT-1 175 seemed like a good
choice, and I had been impressed with Carl Anderson's version of that bike.
I bought a stock frame, engine and rear end from AHRMA motocrosser Dave
Rymal, and gathered up parts from various sources. I do engines for Doug
Johnson's MotoCarrera in North Hollywood, and he provided a lot of the
needed parts, such as the R-5 front end and RD400 pipe. The bike was built
between Christmas 2003, being completed and racing at the 2004 Sandia
Classic in Albuquerque (below).
I
did the majority of the work and fabrication myself, sending out only the
cylinder boring, aluminum welding, cryo treating and making the fairing. The
engine received my standard porting procedures, I balanced the crankshaft,
undercut the gear dogs,and machined the Webco head to my specs. The frame
was stripped of all unneeded hardware, and I fabricated all the rearset
parts and needed mountings. I used an R-5 tank I had, and made the
fiberglass seat to match. Koni shocks are fitted, the stock swingarm uses
RD400 rod bearings as pivots, and it rolls on shouldered alloy rims and Avon
roadrace tires.
Juggling my time obligations with my customers, and this project, had me
working 2-1/2 months, seven days a week and late at night. I was able to get
to a local kart track to test the bike a week before leaving for Sandia, but
found the ignition I bought on eBay had a bad component. My friends came to
my aid, and I was able to fit a new ignition just before leaving. Since I
have not raced since 1979, I attended the riders' school at Sandia, and was
able to race on Saturday and Sunday. After the huge amount of work I had
done to piece this bike together, and it being untested and me being rusty,
I did not have any great expectations. Therefore, I was beside myself with
joy when the bike worked so well, without any tuning or adjustments needed,
that I was able to holeshot and win both 200 GP races at that event.
Many thanks to AHRMA, SMRI, MotoCarrera, Dave Rymal, Bob Bryson, Dennis
Latimer, Bill Bishop, Ed Scheidler, Steve Lawler, John Atwood, Jet World,
Morse Muffler, Gene Locerno and many others who helped and inspired me on
this project.