Mid-shift catches between 3rd and 4th and 4th to 5th,

Upper engine ticks, (Valves),

Primary Drive gear noises,

and Fifth Gear Bucking.........

In the wake of all this I couldn't figure out why I was having all these problems with what SHOULD be pretty much a trouble-free bike! Then one day it came to me!

My older brother, when he turned 16 bought a 1967 Yamaha 250 2 cylinder 2 stroke. At that time Yamaha and Honda' were at war with each other Actually the war was just starting. Yamaha was two-strokes and Hondas were four-stroke engines. Neither was a very good motorcycle but the Yamahas were much faster than the Hondas (drag racing anyway). You didn't see neither of them much on the Interstates.

So four years later, when I turned 16, my friends and I followed suit. I bought a NEW Yamaha RD-250  for $650.00. I didn't have it too long before I made some performance modifications to the bike. I replaced the stock exhaust with expansion chambers and trimmed the intake skirts on the pistons just a bit, and I also spent a couple of hours with a razor blade cross-slicing the tread on the rear tire. When you dropped the clutch when the tach was WAY in the red that would help you get off the line faster  .

By the time I came along the WAR between Honda and Yamaha had become a way of life! We loved to ride! But most of all we liked to go out and find somebody on a Honda Dream or one of the newer 350 or 450's and race them.  It was the highlight of the ride. I'm not sure when the term 'Smoked-em' started but I know what it means. I've seen MANY of those old Hondas lost in a cloud of BLUE smoke,. You always took a glance in the mirror's to see if you could still see the guy behind you. We even got good at advertising by making up shirts that said 'Honda Eater' on them. 

Out of all the Honda's that I out ran there is one that I remember the most. I was riding around one summer day in downtown Huntington and this guy on a 450 Honda, this was a big step-up from the dream, pulled up beside me at a red light and ask, "Want to go riding?"  LOL! I said, Sure!" He was kind of following me but at every traffic light he would RACE ahead of me. I wasn't racing him, so he'd let off and let me just putt on by. I was getting itchy to say the lest, but in the daylight and being in town I knew I would get a ticket for drag racing so, I waited. 

I could tell from the putting around that my bike was starting to load up a bit. I knew that by now a little extra 2-cycle oil was building up in those pipes and in the crankcase. I kept working my way to my HOME TURF! Once I got there, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about the law catching me. He kept up his show of 4-stroke power.

I went down through town and up through the park. That road ends up at the foot of what is called 'Fifth Street Hill' with a traffic light at the bottom.  The hill is a good size hill, near a 1/2 mile or more to the top and about a 1/2 mile past the top of the hill was an interstate on-ramp that passed the turn onto the road where I lived on 'Harvey Road' which was my turf. I had a plan! If this joker would follow me to the foot of 'Fifth Street Hill' he was going to get a real surprise. He pulled up beside me at the light; it was red!. The time had come! I had been at this light a million times, sometimes for a race, sometimes just to clear my pipes! This time it was a race. I seen the light change to yellow on the other side; I moved way forward towards the fuel tank.
I started the RPM climb!
The light changed!
I dropped the clutch!
My rear tire broke traction!
Stuff was happening in a hurry!
The bike was pulling at a fast pace as I got back on the seat, flipped the clutch lever, tapped the shifter and tagged second gear. I didn't know where the Honda was yet; I just knew he wasn't in front of me nor could I see him in my peripheral vision and that was a good thing. 'I Had The Hole Shot'. Now I'm in second gear and the bike's tach is again DEEP in the red. Another flip of the lever and a tap on the shifter and I'm in third. From the time I hit the seat and until this point I had been leaning forward and pretty much kissing the tank. Now it's time for that glance in the mirror! MAN THAT WAS PRETTY!!! Nothing but BLUE SMOKE! THICK, BLUE, SMOKE! Nothing! NO One! I knew this guy was going to be tasting YamaLube for a long time. I didn't just smoke him, I FOGGED him BAD!! Man I loved that! I smoked another Honda. That was kind of like another notch on the grip of an outlaw's six-gun. I LOVED to burn a Honda! It was something that you would die to do if that's what it took.
I never, EVER had a Honda out run me!

Now in all my despair with my HONDA! and in all this time it finely came to me just the other day! "Mark, Son, Your past has caught up with you .............???////.....  Wait a minute (brain thinking).."
You see you can't win for ever!!! BUT....//////??".... Nope!  wait!//////.........  surely NOT!! yep! you have been outdone by a HONDA. Fate! I have met my destiny and its wrath is MIGHTY!
So in the wake of defeat,
I must stand tall,
I must take it like a man,
I must knock the dust off,
wipe off the tears,
pickup the pieces,
Then ask myself this,
"Mark, was out running all those Honda's worth it? was covering them in oil worth it?.............."
MarkC