I knew Mike Ross, he from Contra-Costa or Solano County in the Bay Area where he was the head of animal control. He is most likely retired now as he was about 15 years older than me. (I’m 53) I first met him at Sear Point Raceway in 1973 at an AFM road race where he was running 250 and 350 Yamaha GP bikes.
I also know about the bike you are asking about as I knew or met a lot of the people who were involved with it. The frame is a copy of a XR-750 low-boy road racer I remember that Jim Belland who worked at the San Francisco Harley dealer made the frame. The wheels, forks and brakes were Italian. I don’t know or can’t remember who build the engine but the heads, cylinders and crank cases were made by Alan Sputhe and are all out of aluminum. The engine is Sportster based and has no Harley-Davidson parts in it. An unlike a XR1000, It also has two front heads with Del’Oro carburetors on it.
Mike Ross raced it at the Isle of Man, Bonneville, AFM road races and maybe in AMA Battle of the Twins. (I can’t remember if he did) Vance Breese had the twin of Mike’s bike. (He was the one who got the whole project started) One problem I remember about the bike is that it would not idle which made it very hard to ride around slow corners. Mike sold the bike to some Harley guy from the Bay Area who destroyed it in a racing accident at the first road race he ran it in at Sear Point. The bike would not be legal in the MPS class under the current rule book.
Mike was very active in running of the AFM and was on the governing board. He was always very kind with me and I like him very much. I like to think that he would get a kick out of the fact somebody was interested in something he did so long ago.
Marc Roux
