I started Euro Spares in January 1990. I had been using Lucas RITA ignitions on my bikes for about 8 years, and the opportunity arose for me to begin importing/distributing them. I operate the company on a part-time basis. At the end of 1996 I became an international bookmonger, striking a deal with John Bradley to be the North American distributor of his excellent new books "The Racing Motorcycle: a technical guide for constructors, Volumes 1 and 2". I also sold copies of Tony Foale's fine book and software.This was great fun, as I've gotten to chat with many of the motorcycle innovators of the last 30 years when they've called to order a copy of the book.
However, in July 2004 the main component for the Lucas Rita ignitions went out of production, and so did my selling of them. In early August 2007 I depleted my stock of John's books and decided that I wouldn't be ordering more of them. The ever-increasing international freight rates played a big part in this decision and while I still think that everyone interested in the subject of motorcycle chassis design and construction needs copies of John and Tony's books and software, they'll have to go direct to the sources to get them. I'm certainly NOT going to be selling anyone my personal copies!!!
I closed Euro Spares as a business at the end of 2007. It was an interesting 18 years and I've gotten to meet (both over the Internet and in person) many interesting people, some of who have become friends. Do not fear, there are no plans for www.eurospares.com to go away! I have more information to add, and I hope to eventually spruce up the site a little as over the years "it just growed" and now that it is over 1.2 gigabytes in size it could use a bit more organization.
I'm in my late 60s, and until mid 2005 when I retired I was a mild-mannered bureaucrat in a large Federal agency. I've been riding motorcycles since about 1968, starting with a Heathkit minibike, and soon graduating to a 1966 120cc Suzuki trail bike. I started racing motocross in 1971 on my 185cc Suzuki, and then stepped up to a TM400R Suzuki. Having survived that experience I moved on to a 125cc Maico and a 250cc Greeves Griffon. In 1974 I started riding observed trials on a 350cc Bultaco Sherpa T and continued that for several years. I also built my first cafe racer from a 350cc Ducati Sebring and owned my first 500cc Matchless G80CS. After graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1976 I joined the Federal civil service and moved off to the wilds of Louisiana. Upon arrival I bought a Yamaha TT500D, and after several months of dirt riding I decided it was time to start roadracing. I ran my first few races with the Central Road Racing Club on a fairly stock bike, just changing the tires, bars and gearing. Having decided road racing was fun, I bought a Kenny Roberts frame and converted my Yamaha into a roadracer (against the advice of a U.S. Yamaha racing technician).
Since then I raced fairly steadily until several years ago, roadracing with the American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM), American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA), several national BOTT events with the American Motorcylist Association (AMA), and a couple of seasons of Vintage MX and trials with AHRMA. I built my first race frame about 1983, and have run a special-framed Laverda 750 in AFM/AHRMA vintage events. I spend my time attempting to manage what at times seems to be an unwieldy number of project bikes for street, dirt and road race applications, learning to become a better machinist and fabricator, and trying to get around to adding the piles of accumulated photos to this website. I intend to resume competing - - as soon as I can get something running!
I'm a member (or have been a member) of:
My current bikes (and parts thereof) are:
Fred Mork was kind enough to sponsor me for a season in the late 1980s on his 350 Ducati road racer, several races on his CZ 400, and let me race his Garden Gate Manx Norton to a Pre '51 class win at an AHRMA vintage National at Laguna Seca. In 1997 Michael Green at West Coast British let me race his 200 Ducati at Laguna Seca (3rd 250), Harold Parks let me ride his 250 Ducati at some AFM races and the AHRMA Sears Point National and John Burkhard let me VMX his Dick Mann Special BSA 500.. Jim Connelly let me compete on his 348 Montesa Cota and 380 CZ and Stephen Gillen let me have a last race on my CR216 Honda before he sold it. (6th 250). Thanks, Fred, Michael, Jim, John, Stephen and Harold!
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