By now I was an architect and was working on a townhouse development for the Leviste group in Bicutan. The owner had a couple of bikes rotting in his garage, a Ninja 750 and a Ducati Paso. I started needing the Paso. It had flat tires, a dead battery and was covered with a thick layer of dust. I took the bike in lieu of final payment for the project. I took it completely apart and spent a couple of weeks painting, cleaning and polishing. It came out beautiful, and even took second prize in a bike show.
I enjoyed the Paso's handling and quick steering(16 in. front wheel) but hated its 400 cc power band. Of all the bikes I have ever owned, this one is the only one that made women blush for a ride!
The thing I hated about that bike was the carburetion. It stalled and backfired and I took off the nasty carb (which was identical to the ones on Ford Cortinas, can you imagine?) and got some twin downdraft D'ellortos. They helped although I never got it to stop backfiring completely. I didn't have a lot of money at the time, and one time even went on a 200 mile trip on those nasty old tires. We had just founded Club 200 and nobody wanted me to bring the Ducati. The tires started blistering and I had to use Mightybond (Superglue) to keep the treads on. But it made the whole trip.
As usual on long rides, we were swapping bikes. I rode Julian Goita's brand spanking new 1994 CBR600f2 and he was riding Miguel's German model 92 ZXR750. According to Miguel, a Jeep took a sudden, and quite stupid left turn right in front of Julian, who locked up both tires and T-boned the thing at speed. The bike flew up and then in front of the Jeep, which then plowed it into a pole. Julian did a nice long flight and luckily only broke his upper arm bone and sprained an angle.
I loved that f2, though. The balance, neutral steering, handling, and it's compact size were a whole new world for me. Miguel got the booby prize of riding it home. Later I got new tires and I still have that cracked old Pirelli as a souvenir.
By this time Miguel was riding a 900RR and I needed a high speed sportbike, too. Traded a 900RR straight for the Duck. Of course, a 900RR is a bit more expensive than an old Paso, but current Club 200 president Red Romero at the time had just crashed his RR with just 800 miles on the clock. As you can see, it needed some work.
I took it apart like I've never taken any bike apart before. I ordered a frame from my buddy Tom Novack at Western Honda in Arizona along with basically the complete bodywork and a crankcase. While I was at it I got 1mm over Wiseco pistons. Julius Lim put the engine together again, and did a bit of head work, porting, matching and a 5 angle valve job. And you guys thought the Philippines was just third World.
It took 3 months, but when it was all together, I was really happy. The polished frame was beautiful. I rode it on a few weekend rides and was planing on taking it on a Club 200 ride to Baguio. you know how it is taking long trips. I had a lot of things to get together before I left, and May 6, 1996 at 4AM I was cruising up EDSA when four cars in front of me hit a big oil spill in the road. An Austin Mini Cooper spun and hit a post. The two taxis hit each other and a pickup did a 180 right in front of me. By now my instincts were better than to just brake, so I swerved onto the other side of the road. There really wasn't anywhere to go, and I was going to hit an oncoming bus. I laid it down. Didn't make the trip.
So later that year while I was getting it all together again, I did a bit more hotrodding work on the bike. Got a bank of 39mm flatslides and 49 state cams and an ignition advancer off the internet. I got a Fox shock and the 17" front tire off an f3. I got braided steel brake lines, although I stuck with stock brake pads. I also got some trick folding levers from a Japanese company I discovered in the net called Alterna Racing. ( They actually sent me those levers for free, as long as I got a dealership deal for them here. I forwarded his proposal to Access Plus and they got it going.) Painted it in the new 96 red colors and rode it like that for awhile.
Around this time, there was a real race track opening. the Batangas Racing Circuit (BRC) promised to be a lot of fun, so I decided to finish tricking my bike for full race, since there were only two classes - 250 2 stroke per Marlboro Asia Pacific rules and an open four stroke class that we the riders pressured the organizers into holding. I made molds of the bodywork, chucked what lights remained into a box, along with the stands and all that other street stuff. Gave her an Erion Racing paint job, and didn't ride in the street for a whole year.
Racing was a blast. I did pretty well, and in fact would have been the series champion except that the organizers decided to drop the scores of the worst two races for everyone. They are used to organizing the national motocross series and might do well to see how clubracing works at most racetracks. Dropping races discourages loyalty. Anyway, to read in depth coverage of some of the races, click here. I came in second overall for the year.
Actually, a lot of people were disappointed with how the races were run, between the race officials who told us to "think optimistically" about the gravel on the track after the cars ran instead of sweeping it to the sponsors who took months to pay purses. In a way, I suppose a lot of us might have raced without any cash prizes, but a promise is a promise. The track hasn't had any activity for months, and they already missed this whole dry season. The peso exchange dropped and imported parts are now at least 50% more expensive. I won't be racing with BRC if and when they get things together. when they do reopen for business, I hope they have their funding straightened out, and have better schedules for practice that maximize track time and minimize downtime. Hopefully they learned something from their first season and will keep the sport going somhow.
I put all the street stuff back on the 900RR and sold it. It looked and sounded showroom stock. I never even needed to use the extra stock clutch I ordered. I still have a lot of the performance items for sale, in case you're wondering.
I ordered a VTR1000 Firestorm from Japan. From what I read in the magazines, it was the bike for me. It was silver and the first thing we did when it got here was to remove the baffles from the mufflers. Jun, Ace Soriano's metal worker put them back together again so well you couldn't tell they'd been tampered with, until the bike started up, and then it sounded great. Much nicer than any four.
While we were going over it, we noticed a little pink and green wire going into the speedometer that said SP that didn't seem to do anything. There is another connector like it in the wiring harness that doesn't go anywhere. We figured this must5 be the speed limiter, as fitted to Japanese model bikes. Julius checked it out as well as he could with meters and all that, and we connected it. It sure seemed to have more top end, and my girlfriend said that on our last run it not only went past 180 kph, but the needle spun all the way to 6 o'clock, which is about 220 kph.
Around this time, my friend Joby said he knew a foreigner who wanted to sell a 916. Manila is kind of a small town when it comes to top bikes, and I knew immediately which bike he was talking about. It was a Senna.
The bike had not had a good life so far. The guy, who is 6'5 called it "his little bicycle" and needed some cash. He thought perhaps the little bicycle might kill him and opted to keep his Harley, instead. Now, what had happened to the Senna was that it had been on board a cargo ship en route to Subic Bay when the boat died. The boat stayed out at sea for 2 months with the Senna only partially covered. It didn't look good.
We did a bit of haggling and part of the deal terms was quick cash so I sold my car, took out a bit of a loan, and put the VTR up for sale. I had to ride the poor thing, rusted and stained the last part of the trip home from Paco to Makati and it still seemed strong.
The lower fairing was cracked, and to my horror, the gas tank was filled with a red cloud of rust. 916 tanks are expensive, as you might imagine, but they do have a large hole in the bottom for the fuel pump. Big enough for my hand so I sanded the thing down on the inside by hand with sandpaper. It took a really long time, but when it looked good in all the cracks with a dental mirror and a flashlight, I Kreemed it and crossed my fingers. The rest of the bike was a detailing job from hell. I had to get all new fasteners and paint and recoat just about everything except the big bodywork.
Ever since I heard about the 916 I've wanted one, and now I have one. Even when I bought the 90RR I wanted a 916. It's the dream bike I've always wanted and it's sitting there in my garage. It feels as light and narrow as a 250, is panted in corners, and tons of torque. It does no clutch wheelies. I love it.
Finally I got a buyer for the VTR and I paid off my loan and bought a local KMX125 to commute with. As you might recall, I sold my car to get the 916 and still don't have a car. This is big commitment in Manila, in case you've never been in a tropical monsoon.
Anyway, I heard that fellow racer and bike trader JD Andrews had a GB400 for sale. I went to look at it and needed it. Sold the KMX to my brother and bought it. It needed almost as much cosmetic work as the Senna, but most of the chrome polished up nicely. By total coincidence my brother spotted a mint new fuel tank hanging in Jimmy Chan's place which was great since the original tank was also rusted but doesn't have a big hole like the 916. I painted it US model colors. It's still pretty stock right now, but I got a Mikuni VM 38 from Paul Peczon from his Ascot race bike and I'll be hotrodding the GB just a bit for street use.