-40%

1973 Hodaka Bullfrog - 2-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

$ 6.84

Availability: 25 in stock
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

    Description

    1973 Hodaka Bullfrog - 2-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
    Original, vintage magazine article
    Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
    Condition: Good
    THE
    BULLFROG
    A One-Off Trialer
    From The Hodaka
    Enthusiasts At Pabatco
    WE ARE ALL dreamers—hope-
    less romantics caught-up in a
    two-wheeled vice. “It grips you
    like some kind of sinin’, it turns you
    from foe to friend. It seems it has
    been since the beginnin’, it seems it will
    be till the end.” Just like Joe Parkhurst
    with his 125cc Zundapp 1SDT Replica
    mounted in the rafters of his living
    room, we all suffer from the same
    neurosis: the kamikaze syndrome.
    I caught the fever A.H. (After
    Honda), in the spring of 1967. A rela-
    tively late case, I had a lot to catch up
    on. How do you make yourself aware of
    70 years of history in a short time?
    Read. I bought and thoroughly read
    every magazine, book and newspaper I
    could find on motorcycles. The first
    magazine 1 ever purchased was the April
    1967 “Special Trials” issue of CYCLE
    WORLD magazine. After reading the
    information contained therein I pur-
    chased my first motorcycle, a 1966
    Cotton 250 Trials.
    Motorcycles have been my life since
    that time. After becoming fairly profi-
    cient, on the local level, at the art of
    trials riding and owning several
    machines, my interest spread to all
    aspects of motorcycling. But one’s first
    love is always the strongest and trials is
    my love.
    Inwardly, the devout enthusiast
    always hopes to build his own “one-off
    special,” the expression of his love for
    the intangible thing that he refers to as
    “the sport.” Few of us enjoy the oppor-
    tunity to realize this elusive dream. Buy
    a special? It’s just not the same. It’s the
    involvement that we seek, seeing our
    ideas, our brain-child materialize. Every
    true enthusiast will do it once, love it
    for what it is, and curse it for what it
    put him through. So it is with the
    Bullfrog, one man’s dream that is finally
    a reality.
    The Bullfrog was easy to conjure up,
    but 90 percent of the physical act of
    making it happen belongs to Curt Alex-
    ander. Curt works in the Engineering
    Department at Pacific Basin Trading
    Company and owns one of the finest
    machine shops anywhere. He is, to put
    it mildly, a perfectionist. His tools and
    shop are immaculate, his vertical milling
    machine is 1 3 years old and the table
    bears one small blemish. Eat off the
    floor? Probably. Being a motorcycle
    fanatic himself makes things easy. He
    knows trials, motocross, frame geome-
    try, porting and the rest. He knows what
    is possible and what is not, and is
    probably one of the world’s greatest
    motorcycle machinists.
    The details of the Bullfrog are not
    complex—just the simple application of
    proven parts with a flair of the unusual
    coupled with functionality. The tires are
    3.00-21 and 4.00-18 Dunlop 2-ply trials
    front and rear respectively. The front
    rim is a shoulderless alloy Akront
    “Turismo.” The front hub and disc unit
    is a Campanoglo. The disc brake caliper
    is a very simple, mechanically actuated
    unit borrowed from a snowmobile. The
    entire front wheel assembly including
    brake calipers weighs 18.9 lb. The alloy
    (6061-T6) bracket floats on the lower
    fork leg fender mounting lugs. The front
    fender stay is an appropriately modified
    Hodaka 100-B. Both fenders are acces-
    sory alloy. The fork legs are standard
    Hodaka 100-B+ items. The new Yamaha
    AT2-MX alloy forks would have been
    used, but proved to weigh only 5 oz.
    each leg less than the Hodaka units. For
    the expense and the hassle of the disc
    brake mount they were passed over.
    The frame is from a Saracen 125
    Trials machine. This particular unit is
    very light and has proven to be the most
    successful small bore trials iron (placing
    9th in the 1971 Scottish Six Days
    Trial). English born, this machine is an
    excellent handler but lacks in the
    engine/transmission area. To maintain
    the original steering geometry the origi-
    nal R.E.H. fork clamps, complete with
    tapered roller bearing, were retained.
    Special bushings were turned to adapt
    them to the smaller diameter Hodaka
    fork legs. While the original R.E.H. fork
    units are lighter, they tend to perma-
    nently flex on occasion and the damp-
    ing system is virtually non-existent.
    They just sort of go up and down.
    The original engine mounts were cut
    and ground away. Original nickel plate
    looks nice but is a bummer to weld to
    and looks quite shoddy once carved
    upon so the frame and swinging arm
    were thoroughly sandblasted. The frame...
    12661-7302-08