6th Annual 2-Stroke Vintage Motorcycle Show, Ft. Meyers FL

[joe fxs fxr]

While visiting my mother in Florida, I came across this event on the AMCA website. I am glad I went and got to relive my childhood, and talk vintage roadracing with a few people

I came around the corner of Stu's Motorcycles and that's when the smiles started:






My first street bike was a 73 RD350. This is as close as there was




Hodaka always had great names

[joe fxs fxr]

A gaggle of RD400s which was the basis of my USCRA Vintage Roadracer








Almost a modern bike, an RZ350 water cooled version

[joe fxs fxr]

I also had a 76 KH500, which was the last version of the H1 triple. This one leaks like an old Harley or BSA, lol








This must have been every H2 in Southwest Florida!

[joe fxs fxr]

Also these two bikes





Close-up of the Suzuki 750 'Water Buffalo"




There were a bunch of dirt bikes too.

[joe fxs fxr]

There were a few really old bikes there

[joe fxs fxr]

This guy rides his regularly, but he says five miles is usually enough, haha






A nice pair of Bultaco's




And this Cafe Racer with a huge 4-LS front brake




A few little fun toys, which Florida apparently lets you register for the road.

[joe fxs fxr]

I spent a while talking with the owners of this bike and the sidecar family.

Keith rides the Yamaha races all across the South, and occasionally comes to New Jersey and Michigan. This bike makes 80HP at the rear wheel and sound amazing. I'll see if I can link a video later.





He is a fan of Valentino Rossi and is an automotive painter for Trans-Am Depot. They make the Trans-Am conversions of modern Camaros, and are on the Discovery Channel.




Tony is the motor guy and he and his wife Lisa race this hot sidecar rig.

[joe fxs fxr]

The highlight of the show is the "2-strokes at 2:00" where everyone who can start their bike does so, and the sound is like a symphony. Here is the first of three videos that I took.


You can hear that Keith's race bike has no flywheels and revs up immediately

[joe fxs fxr]

A few minutes later everyone was running their bikes

[joe fxs fxr]

Here are the old bikes, they are a lot quieter and hard to hear

[Steve Swan]

Thanks for sharing the fun you had! My first bike was a 1965 Yamaha YG1-K Rotary Jet 80. I went through a 2-cycle phase about 15 years ago... What i have left is a pair of Rotary Jet's, a 6k mile all original survivor and another i restored that's sitting beside me as i type this. I also have a 1972 Yamaha LS2, cuter than an angel on a pinhead. i just went for a ride with it this afternoon. Yamaha really was on their game with the 2-cycle bikes of that era, retail and racing.


20230203_164210.jpg
20220801_202444.jpg20230119_175449.jpg .
1965 Rotary Jet 1967 Summer..jpg

[Rubone]

My first new to me bike was a Yamaha Twin Jet 100 I bought and paid for delivering papers after school.

[Steve Swan]

Robbie, a Twin Jet was my 2nd bike; we're in that age group where a lot of us started out on one of these small bikes. How old were you when you bought your Twin Jet?

My 3rd bike was a Bridgestone 175 which i quickly outgrew. i wanted a 350GTR, but wasn't until 2018 i purchased a mildly neglected survivor; although it was quite photogenic, it was a solid 10+ footer. i sold it about a year ago, it just didn't do it for me. I love the flywheel affect of larger displacement 4-cycle twins.

1968 Bridgestone 350GTR.jpg1968 Bridgestone GTR350.jpg

[pisten-bully]

Wow...thanks Joe for the pictures and videos! Great show!

...as a sidebar, in the snowmobile world you can still purchase from a modest selection of 2-choke machines made by the major manufacturers. Ipone oil used to market (maybe they still do) a 2-stroke oil that smelled like strawberries when burned (...that was kind of a stretch in my experience)...but all I could think about in watching those videos and seeing the smoke was the smell! Took me back a few years!

[joe fxs fxr]

Yes, the smell of two-stroke oil is a time machine! I am instantly transported to motocross races with my father and brother when I was a kid.

I premixed Motul brand synthetic oil in my race bike. Even at 32:1 it didn't smoke much, and it smelled sweet.