(Editors note: We have a new addition at Superhunky.com, that famous, elusive and enigmatic knower of all things two-stroke, tuner and fabricator E.C. Birt. E.C. comes to us with a lifetime of experience on two stroke design and theory, so E.C. will have his own forum just as soon as we prod the HTML guy we keep in a cage here at the palatial offices of Superhunky.com into coding another forum, so stay tuned! Here's E.C.'s intoduction to all you readers out there.)
Well I’m the 1st born son of an honest to God cowboy in Panhandle of Oklahoma in 1939 that punched cows for $20.00 a month plus house and board, my mother was the cook for 15 plus other hired hands… He was a Bronco Rider and got paid $10.00 a horse to get them ready for others to be able to ride on the side… Because of his size his nickname was Shorty. Don’t think I called him Daddy or Father more then 15 times in my life… He was my buddy and I always called him Shorty.
When I was in the 5th grade I fallowed his footsteps and he had a custom built saddle built for me and I broke Shelton Pony’s for $5.00 for another rancher to get them ready for sale for Kid’s to ride… Yes I was always small in size…As I got older I rode ¼ horses for Rancher’s on the week end jockeying brush meets and they would bet a wad of $20.00’s big enough to choke a Mule on their horse… I got paid, yes your right $5.00 to ride $10.00 if I won… Some weekends I made more $$$$$$$ in a day then my Daddy did in a month.
We had moved to Colorado by the time I was in the 8th grade. By the time I was 15 my interest had turned to cars and hot rods because I knew they would go faster… Horses and a ranch life just weren’t for me any more. Still to small to do heavy work I turned my way to building Hot Rods and Shooting pool for $$$ to get thru high school.
With High School over with in 1958 like a lot of young guys at that time you didn’t have a clue on what to do with my life. So like Hunky I joined the Navy. Problem was I only weighed 98 lbs. You had to hit the scales at 105 to make it when I hit the induction center. They sent me back home and said see you in a week for another try. Old 1st class Sailor said eat lots a bananas before you get back to us… Stuffing myself for a week and a bunch of Bananas the size of a basketball that morning back to the Navy induction center I hit the scales at 106 lbs. Ok Problem with Navy idea I got hurt badly in boot camp. Which led to Hospital and let us cut on your knee and fix it, or take a medical discharge. Had already seen too many guy’s coming out of Hospital with stiff leg. No brainier here, give me the paper work and I’m gone. I walked into here and will walk back out.
I went back to which I knew was bolts and nuts and working in garages and building Hot Rods for fun and $$$$.
The time had come 1962 here in no place USA Colorado no challenge was left for me.
The word then was if you think your fast go to California.
Ok, loaded up my toolbox left and wound up In Southern Calif., El Segundo 1st stop on the Beach.
Did the car thing for the next 4 years.
Some of the guy’s in the shop had Motorcycles and ask me to go with them for a weekend in the Desert and ride with them. Needles to say the first ride on a Dirt Bike I was hooked for this new action. As soon as I got back to Venice’s where I lived then and went shopping for a Dirt Bike.
This led to a new 1965 250cc Greevs Scrambler which after 6 weeks of riding and getting thrown on the ground 18 zillion times I come to realized that at 110 lbs. I just wasn’t man enough to handle it. Sold and bought A Hodaka Ace 90.
It was bad slow. So I took it to a local dealer and told them to make it faster. Didn’t care what the cost was just do it. After 3 weeks wait time picked it up and went to the desert with it and soon knew it was slower then what it was when I took it to them.
Got the bike home and set and looked at it for hours. Thinking real hard to just sell and go back to what I knew with racecars… But knew I had more fun with motorcycles then anything in my back life.
What the hell only three moving parts in this engine. I know I can make it or any of them faster. So I studied all the 2/cycle information I could get my hands on. Ever page I read I could poke holes in what they were saying and said there has to be a better way. So I took what I knew about carburetion, duration, head port design, and all the things that it took to make a V8 faster. Got out my degree wheel and porting tools and went to work.
God gives us all a talent, I just got lucky to be given a brain that thought like an engine and along with that the hands to make what ever it told me to do to get business done.
So here we are in the mid 60’s and building small bikes was my thing to do. The Desert was my dyne and testing grounds with the Hadaka’s…
1966 I bought a house in Lawndale, and was building motorcycles in my garage at night. Still doing the car thing to pay bills.
The garage thing lasted for a couple of years. In 1968 I think it was I opened my first Shop called Precision Cycle in Englewood. By then I had started making a mark in the Motorcycle Racing World with Hodaka 90 and 100cc Bikes, Zundapps 100cc and 125cc, American Eagles powered with Zundapps 125cc engines and Maico 125cc to 501cc Ground Killers. Soon we out grew that small shop and moved to a larger building in Lawndale about 8 blocks from my house. The bigger shop led to more development time and I started building all the pipes for Pabatco the Hodaka importer and working with the R&D department. Next on the list was working with Copper Motors the Maico importer and team bikes. From there it went to Steens Motorcycle shop out in thee Valley with development of there line of bikes which led to The Rickman thing with to Hodaka powered bikes and 125cc Bikes with Zundapps in them. Along with those top of the line bikes of that time DKW with the Sachs engines was part of the group.
From here it leads to me working with Rick Seaman on project bikes and doing some writing for Motocross Action and Cycle News. To say it like it was I had worked myself into 7 days a week 12 to 14 hour days making Racing Faster and better for all racers.
In 1974 I moved my operation to Florida and set up as E.C. Distributing. The reason for the move was the Desert was being taken away from the Desert Riders. Saddle Back Park and Indian Dunes had changed from the first time I had put a wheel on them. Along with the point that Vietnam War was over with and Southern Calif. was changing from something I loved to death to not so neat a place to me.
In Florida up and going WFO I designed the 100cc Reed and 125cc Hondas for Motocross usage and was shipping built E.C. Racers all over the United States. Maico was still my choice of big bikes and had a team of them.
But after awhile the sand and bugs got the best of me and pulling out of West Palm Beach Fla. Was an all day drive to just get out of Florida. Faced with more tow to get to Races from Texas to Canada I moved one more time to Dickson Tennessee in 1977, just one howler away from Nashville. This was God’s country and had gone thru it on my way up North for a race. Now I was in the middle of the Racing World and 8 to 12 hours from any Race coming due.
In the mid 80’s due to the changing in Motorcycle Racing and just looking for another War to fight I got into Karting…
From there that led me to develop racing Carburetors for Karting. Made a deal with Tillotson LTD in Ireland to take over the development and importing my designs of Tillotson carburetors for racing and sending them World Wide.
Cut my finger this morning and it still smells like Blendzall… 2/stork engines was my love life in Motorcycle Racing and with all that I have done with 2/stroke engines of all kinds over the last 45 years I think I can be of a help to you with those little and big things everyone thinks is a Speed Secret.
So here I am, brought out of the pasture with a forum called ASK E.C.
You have nothing to lose, trash my email box ask_e_c@comcast.net. I’m sure I can help you put more fun and pleasure into your motorcycle needs.
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