PERSPECTIVES

PERSPECTIVES Project Procrastination

BY MITCH BOEHM

We got our typical midApril snow here in Salt Lake City the other day, but the weather here is finally changing. And as I spend more and more time in my now-semiorganized garage, a lot of halffinished (or half-baked) projects drift back into focus.

I hear those project ghosts at night through the walls, screaming for someone to hear… “Finish me! Finnniiiiish meeeeeeee!” I’m sure a lot of you hear the same type of wailing.

A biggie is my trio of minibikes, which have been sitting for a while and have surely developed ugly fuelsystem ailments. There’s a red Honda SL70 just like the one I got back in 1971 for Christmas (my first bike); an original 1973 XR75 just like my second bike (and my first racebike); and a tricked-out, red-framed XR I got from noted XR builder Alex Jud of Whittier, Calif.

All three are runners, or were, but the stock XR will likely go into my living room so I can see it on a daily basis. Nothing says early ’70s motocross (to me, anyway) than that first, round-tank XR, and seeing it every day is sure to keep me smiling — and alive — for a while yet. The SL and built XR? They’ll be great as pit bikes and for running around my neighborhood, so getting them running is a priority.

I also need to make a decision on my motocross/off-road plans for the season. I have a stock and quite clean Yamaha YZ450F, but I’m considering something a bit less powerful, mostly because I have a tendency to think I’m 17 (and immortal, and made of rubber) again — and that attitude doesn’t mesh well with this soon-to-be-60-year-old bod.

A Beta 200RR two-stroke looks mighty tempting, as it melds 125-class weight and manueverability with 250cc four-stroke-level power and, of course, that two-stroke sound and smell. I’m planning to borrow champion and AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer who sadly passed away last year, didn’t ride a blue-and-white GS racer until 1981, a year after the GS was discontinued, so the production GS-S isn’t a replica of anything — except maybe a factory Suzuka 8-Hour

Suzuki’s GS1000S has always been my favorite old-school streetbike, and I’ve owned four of them over the years. But once I saw Larry Pearson’s stunning Cooley-rep custom, I knew I had to have one just like it — and now, with some help from friends, the project is back on track. Goosebumps, right?

one from the Beta folks to see how it all works, and if it works for me, the checkbook will likely come out.

The biggie, though, is my customized Suzuki GS1000S, which has been in the works for several years now. That’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but embarrassment is a good motivator.

Suzuki’s GS1000S was a limitededition sportbike available for only two years, 1979 and ’80, and I have owned several. The bike’s stunning blue-and-white livery came from Suzuki’s international roadracing efforts, and its sporty cockpit fairing gave it a distinct Euro/café-racer flavor, but for some reason folks call it the “Wes Cooley Replica,” which is a total misnomer.

Cooley, a two-time AMA Superbike racebike from the late ’70s.

The plan for my GS project is to build a real Wes Cooley replica, which would be a streetbike that mirrors the look of Cooley’s Yoshimura racebike of 1981 — just as my buddy Larry Pearson did with his GS (see photo) several years ago. The blue and white bodywork against the blacked-out engine, wheels and fork legs is simply stunning, and since I already have a good-condition GS-S engine and rolling chassis, and freshly painted blue-and-white bodywork to go on it, I’m halfway there.

Just need to listen more closely to those ghosts…and get my ass in gear.

Mitch Boehm is the editorial director of the AMA

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