 Project PE175: Part
one
The tuner's report, or how I unintentionally enabled an all-out rookie assault on post-vintage motocross at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days.
By James "Erv" Holter
"Oh man, is that a crack?"
That's what I asked myself as I leaned against the truck bed of
American Motorcyclist's Government Affairs Editor (and world's latest
would-be post-vintage motocrosser) Bill Kresnak (below). I was examining the
right lower motor mount on the PE175 that Krez just bought from a
motivated seller in Westerville, Ohio.
 From where I was standing, I couldn't tell whether the jagged line
surrounding the mounting point on the frame was merely paint deep, or
much more serious. Of course, I could have determined for sure by
physically checking, but probably not without bringing attention to what
was looking increasingly more like a serious flaw in the structural
integrity of Krez's purchase.
And that, I decided, would only spark an
irrelevant dispute that could solve nothing, considering money and a
bill of sale had already changed hands. So, I kept quiet.
I planned to bring up the possibility of the crack later.
After Krez offered the obligatory, "Thanks for the bike; hope to see
you at Vintage Motorcycle Days," we got in his truck and headed toward
my place, where I agreed to let Krez store the PE until he resolves his
current lack of garage space.
Funny thing, though, not only did it slip my mind to mention anything
about the prospective break as we pulled out of Westerville, but I
forgot to take a better look even after we had unloaded the PE and
pushed it back to my shed. And by the next day at work, it was ancient
history in my memory banks.
I didn't remember to investigate the frame until a few days later.
Unfortunately, when I made the trip out to the shed, I discovered that
Krez's PE175 clearly was not quite as sound as the day it floated across
the Pacific. In fact, it wasn't only cracked on the right side. It was
cracked on the left side, as well.
"Bummer."
OK, so my next step was telling Krez. But I had to be careful.
By this point, Krez had built up quite a head of steam, not only in
collecting an impressive hoard of spare parts (did he really need four
exhaust header gaskets?) for a bike he hadn't even ridden yet, but also
in
putting together an entire set of riding gear. It didn't help the matter
that he scored his boots from AMA Director of Communications Bill Wood,
whose gift was the prime motivating factor for Krez to make the biggest
commitment of his venture into post-vintage motocross.
Inspired by those boots -- the final addition to his now complete
gear bag -- Krez decided his coming-out race would be on arguably the
world's premier stage for vintage motorcycle racing:
AMA Vintage Motorcycle
Days, which by this time was just two-and-a-half weeks away. Plus, there
was the little issue of a bet. I'll leave the details of the wager to Krez, but suffice it to say that there now would be considerable
consequences if he didn't complete two motos in VMD's American Historic
Motorcycle Racing Association program.
There was too much at stake to just drop the hammer on the bad news
and risk shattering Krez's well-laid plans.
Of course, one option was to keep my mouth shut. But my conscience
wouldn't allow it. If I kept quiet, I fully expected Murphy's Law to
intervene. Krez would no doubt snap the frame on the first jump and
twist himself and the PE into something resembling an early prototype
from this summer's Transformers movie as he and the old Suzuki rolled
violently along the northern Ohio countryside, merging flesh with
chassis.
No, that clearly wouldn't work. I needed a plan so I could break the
news without breaking Krez's spirit.
"OK, here's what we'll do," I told Krez the next day at work. "You
come by my place and we'll go over the PE. You know, just to make sure
the wheels are solid, filter's oiled, the bearings are greased -- just
prep it for the race, nothing big."
"Alright, man! Sounds great!"
So, that evening we moved the PE from the shed to the garage. It was
a little tight with my dirt bikes, my kids' dirt bikes and my Harley
dresser, but we managed. I cleaned out a work area for the PE and
started removing parts.
"You sure you need to take that off?" Krez asked a couple times as I
spun a T-handle wrench, removing yet another piece of his new-to-him
motorcycle.
"It'll make it easier to get to the linkage so we can grease that," I
kept saying.
Eventually, we got the PE down to the frame, the triple clamps and
the forks. Everything else was neatly arranged in three piles: engine,
carb and assorted bolts on the workbench; wheels, swingarm and linkage
in front of the workbench; body parts and everything else in a pile
alongside my rollaway toolbox. At this point, I figured we had enough
stuff off the bike that when Krez saw the cracks he'd realize there
would be no going back.
I leaned in and pointed at the lower frame rails.
"Hey, what's that?"
Krez put out his cigarette, came back in the garage and stared at the
cracks around the lower motor mounts.
"Oh, maaaan."
"Big deal," I said. "We already have it down to the frame. It'll be
no problem to take it by my dad's this weekend and have him weld it. I'm
going there anyway."
"Uh, OK."
Well, it wasn't a rousing reply, but my plan to get so much stripped
off the bike that the additional step of having the frame sandblasted
and welded would seem relatively minor appeared to have worked. While
Krez seemed a bit suspicious of the current state of a machine that had
to be ready to race in just over a couple weeks, he didn't throw in the
towel on the spot. The possibility was still alive that he'd get up to
VMD, finish two motos and collect on his bet.
Unfortunately, the interim result was that my investment in this
project had just grown from being a temporary landlord for the
motorcycle (and innocent bystander) to assuming the role of mechanic
and, ahem, tuner for Krez's post-vintage motocross effort.
 Hey, if
Erv and
Gary could take on the world, then Krez and I could
stumble to the line for a couple post-vintage motos, right?
For the answer to that, you'll have to wait for Krez's Racer's
Report, which will be forthcoming sometime after VMD this weekend.
In any case, I can promise this: If anything is going to break, it's
not going to be the bike.
© 2007, American Motorcyclist Association
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