With plentyof suspension movement at eitherend,the Curtis Hondaisatallbike.
CURTIS HONDA
Taylor wasthe promoter behindthe project and he
provideddonor XRs forCurtistouse.AHonda dealer,
Taylor had to supplycompletebikes for theproject
as Honda,perhapsunderstandably,was notkeen on
supplyingmotors tosomeone who could potentially
be acompetitor .This raisedthe askingprice to £1750
plus VAT,but the bikeswere attractive,theyworked
well andTaylor produced someexcellentresults on his.
We nowjump forwardquiteabit to an MX paddock
in Northampton whereTeamCDBwere on hand
andonthe lookout for featurebikes during the
NorthamptonMCC Ltd’s clas sicscramble andwe
spotted thisshinymachine. Now, this couldgetabit
confusing asthere areseveral mentions of people
calledCurtisand not all arerelatedto eachother...
The bikewasbeingraced by GaryCurtis,but itis
owned by his dadRoger Curtis.Also on handwere the
otherbranchofthe Curtisfamily, that of Matchless
star Dave Curtis, whois Roger’sbrother .Inanswering
theobvious questionRoger told me:“No,we’renot
related to Brian Curtis, thoughwe have met him.”This
meeting cameatFarleigh Castle MXsome years ago
whenBrianwas thereand Rogerasked himif he could
verify the machine as oneofhis... there arereplicas
outthere. Brianwent over it withacarefuleyeand
confirmeditasaproper Curtis,somethinghealso said
to uswhenwe sent apictureofthe bike,thoughhe
admitted as hewaslooking atapicturehecouldonly
be 99.9%certain.Thatwasclose enough for us andwe
askedRoger aboutthe bike.
“Therewereafew raisedeyebrows whenIbrought
thebike home,” said Roger, “it wasatotal basket case
andlotsofitmissing,”headded. What heacquired
amountedtoaframe,apair of wheels,forksand an
engineinabox,soyou canunderstandthe raised
eyebrows from thosearound him.However,the dirt
bikeworld is far from fazedbysuchthingsashuge
amounts ofproj ects aremissing and minor parts such
as tank,seat ,mudguards andexhaust areoflittle
matter to thedeterminedenthusiast.
Thestart ing pointfor therestorationwasthe frame
and itwasinremarkably goodcondition andeven
thefinish wasoriginal.This is good becausewelding
doesn’tdoplatingmuch goodand tore-plateaframe
is not something thatshould be undertaken lightly.
Next on the listwasHonda’sXRengine,a500 unit
thathas been gonethrough to exacting standards
withallbushes,bearingsandseals changedfor new.
While theywereatitt he borewas increased from
89mm to 91mm,aWisecopiston wasput inplace and,
to copewiththe bigger bore, thebig endwasreplaced
on the crank sothatthe bottom endwouldn’tbe
punched out.
Didwemention that aswell as goingbigonthe
barrelaMugentunedcylinder head from theJBR
Hondawasfitted too?Wedidn’teh? Well, Roger
happenedonacylinder head fromJohn Banks’
JBR days thatuppedthe powerfromanalrea dy
respectable50bhptonear56bhp.Feeding fuelinto
that tuned head isdonebya40mm Amal mkII, which
withoutafilter would probablysuck passing wildlife
into the inletchoke.
If you’relooking atthe picturesand thinking ‘those
forks look advanced forthe Eighties...’thenyou’d
be right,astheyare much later forks,fitted beca use
Roger’sson Gary wasracing the bikeand wanted
something moremodernon both ends. Sinceour
shoot,the bike has beenreturnedtosomething
sli ghtlycloser toorig inal condition withÖhlins forks
FromtheroughandtumbleoftheMXworldtobicyclesforchildrenwith
dwarfism,BrianCurtis’sjourneyisanunusualone.TheworldofMXorscrambling
intheSixtiesbeckonedfortheyoungCurtisandthesouthwestwasahotbedof
competition.Hemadehismarkonthetracksandhismachinesshowedevidence
ofthoughtintheirmodifications.Atalentedmetalworker,Brianwouldworkfor
someofthebestknownnamesintheMXworldbeforebranchingoutonhisown.
AcontracttoproduceframesfortheHLYamahaprojectoccupiedhistimefora
whileandthenwhenthatwasfinished,achassiskitfortheHondaXR 500 motor
wasnext.Brianestimateshehasdone 10 framesforHondaMXers,acouple,maybe
three,enduroframesandone 250 frame,allfrommigweldedchrome 4130 tube.A
changeofpacecamealongwhenhebegantomakeframesforthethennewBMX
sceneandnowCurtisFramesconcentratesonthecycleworld,withseveralspecial
projects.Checkthewebsitewww.curtisbikes.co.ukonwhichyouwillfindsomeof
Brian’sMXhistorytoo.BRIANCURTIS
on therear ratherthan YSSand 38mm Hondaforkson
the frontinstead of the 50mm Marzocchis.Thewheels
arejust aboutastheywere, havingbeen checkedover
and givennew bearings, buttheyran true andeven
the brake shoeswereokaytoreuse,although new
PirelliMXrubberwent on the rims.
As the bikewas coming together Rogercouldtry to
source the missingbits he stillneededandthere was
astroke of luckwhen he contactedalocalfabricator,
whohad done work on someof theotherbikes in
the Curtis stable. He wasinthe processofemigrating
and winding downhisbusinessbut luckilyhedid the
Curtis exhaustashis lastjob beforedeparting.AUTUMN 2019 | 79