Full Circle racing, LTD’s 1976 DG Team Racer To prepare for a full onslaught to the 1976 A.M.A. 125cc National Motocross Championship the small Southern California aftermarket MX parts manufacturer DG Performance Specialties, under the guidance of Harry Klemm, built a full on DG Team Racer from the ground up. Future 5 time AMA MX National Champion Broc Glover and his father Dick Glover assembled and prepped the 1st copy utilizing all the components supplied through DG and Harry Klemm. There were also a few built for purchase to selected professional racers across the country, such as Washington state’s top 125cc Pros Gary Racca and Eddie Davis. The price for a stock 125cc Honda Elsinore in 1976 was $1,000. The price for a Team DG bike was $3,500 or translated in 2008 money it would be like buying a 2009 Yamaha 250F four stroke MX bike for $26,000. There is no official count of the bikes that DG made, but an accurate guess is between 12 - 18 bikes. DG went into battle to win against the factory teams of Honda with two time Champ Marty Smith, Yamaha with new kid on the block Bob Hannah, Suzuki with Billy Grossi, So-Cal star Danny LaPorte, and Kawasaki with Steve Wise. They also had to face their direct aftermarket performance competitors in Team FMF (Flying Machine Factory) with Warren Reid, T&M Engineering with Bruce MacDougal and CH Industries. The race was on for top racer and for top privateer. Klemm designed a chromemoly aerotube frame and aluminum swing arm that was crafted by Pro-Fab. For the long travel rear suspension they canted the top shock mount with three adjustable positions and used gas Girling shocks for 10of travel. Up front they used exotic Magnesium Marzocchi 35mm forks with 10of front wheel travel. The forks quickly switched over to aluminum models as problems arose on the magnesium units. Broc Glovers prototype had CR250 triple clamps but later bikes were built with aftermarket triple clamps. The Glover prototype had black frame paint but the early racers built by Harry had yellow frames which was reported to be a 1976 Corvette color. The tank was also a custom fiberglass unit painted yellow with the blue DG logo and stripe. The bike in total clocked in at 174 lbs, not including fuel. The usual DG motor equipment was thrown in for a est. 32HP. The equipment included stage III porting, DG radial head, 32mm Mikuni carburetor, DG pipe. To keep the spark strong they used a Moto Tek ignition. Broc’s father Dick did many modifications on the bike throughout the year to further develop the bike for Broc. From a distance you knew what bike you were looking at. Broc finished in 5th place that year behind other first year novices in champion Bob Hannah, veteran Marty Smith, novice Danny LaPorte, and vet Steve Wise. What a group of riders! DG was the top 1976 privateer bike as they had set out to do in the beginning. The next year Yamaha scooped up Broc who went on to win the next three consecutive 125cc Championships. Full Circle bought this bike with only the frame, swing arm, forks, tank and triple clamps from a scrapper. A true Sanford & Son junkyard find. Tom McAllister did the research on the original bikes and began the healing process. Chris Gray took the first movement in tackling the engine. He found a 125cc Elsinore engine and completely rebuilt it to DG specs using a DG head and pipe along with DG porting dimensions and DG carburetor specs. Next up Tom took the frame to be media blasted and then refinished to the specific DG yellow color. Hubs are from a 125 Elsinore which Tom laced together with new Sun rims and stainless steel spokes. Chris worked on remachining the worn swing arm pivot and polished the swing arm and triple clamps. Then came finding the major and minor parts of the bike. The seat base is from a 125 Elsinore and fitted with new foam and seat cover. Handlebars are Pro-Tec Chromoly painted black. The levers are Honda perches with shorty Magura levers. The throttle is from a early Gunnar Gasser model and grips are black Ourys. The front fender is from a 1976 CR 250 and the side panels are from a 125 Elsinore. The rear fender is aftermarket CR125 modified to fit the Profab frame. The side plates were then custom trimmed to the frame. All the plastic was prepared for paint using adhesion promoter, urethane primer, color and clear. A NOS ProTec chain tensioner was sourced and installed.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:07:47 +0000
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