Jack Spitler’s "Double Trouble" 1967 Twin Westbend Bonanza Drag Bike

[KustomKartKid]

I'm not sure how but we made it....even had to borrow a buddy's truck to get there.... loaded in the dark and drove through the night. Got there at 3 am .... Peekster was awake...:doah: that guy is a piece of work.

Had a whirlwind day....most of it is like a blur...you just can't do Windber in a day...too many bikes..too many great people and just not enough time.

By the time I got home last night I had gone over 2 days without sleep...unloaded in the dark....completely spent.
Sunburned..smelling like race fuel. ....blisters on my fingers from pulling those recoils a thousand times. I emptied my pockets and there was machine screws, snap rings, a spark plug...and crumpled up money...like coming home with a mini bike hangover.


But it was all worth it...I have some memories from yesterday that will last a lifetime.

I'll write some more later...I have to return the truck and then sleep some more.

Couple of quick pics....just to prove we made it:

 

[buckeye]

Here's Jack with the badest assesd bike ever.

 

[KustomKartKid]

Just dropped off the truck and was thinking about something I wanted to post before I pass out...

After Jack was re-united with the bike and all the pleasantries exchanged it was time for the big moment...fire up the bike in full race trim for the first time in almost 50 years.

With the crowd gathered around and the anticipation high I sprayed some fuel in the velocity stacks....postioned the recoils..and gave it a good strong pull....nothing...pull again..nothing...more fuel....nothing...no pop, no bark...not even trying.

I had spent so much time on the cosmetics end of the restoration I never bothered trying to run the bike...just ran out of time. I took it for granted that I could get it to run once I got there. My kid and I had gone through both motors and run them on the stand and they were fine....what the hell ?!!

I had that deer caught in the headlights look....I felt like I was letting everyone down including Jack .

I was staring down at the motors and I could feel all eyes on me... I started getting that sinking feeling.

It was right around that time that I felt the power of the OldMiniBikes and the magic of Windber take over...I saw a pair of hands reach in....Brian (Delray) pulled the plug wires... Hent went for the toolbox..Peekster got the plugs out...Boatguy pulled off the kill switches....Chatten.....Glenn Baine..Evil Ed....my son Eric and others all went into action.

It was like it wasn't my bike anymore...it was everybody's bike...and that SOB was gonna start.

Jack Spitler must have felt like it was 1968 again and the pit crew at Kil-Kare Dragway was back in action...

Turns out the kill switches were the cuplprit...when I installed the motors I had wired the kill switches from both motors in parallel to the ground wire at the toggle switch so one wire and one switch would allow spark or kill at the same time.

Somehow (I haven't quite wrapped my brain around it yet)...the little ATOM ignition modules were shorting each other out....you need to run separate kill wires to each motor.

Of course by this time I had washed down the cylinders with fuel and fouled the plugs ....long story short with the help of many friends...some old, some new...we got that bad boy fired up and it was" hi-fives" all around.

I'm pretty sure there may be some video documentation of the whole drama...complete with my perplexed look and cuss words under my breath...we'll wait and see but thanks again to all.

Bed time.....


.

 

[Havasu Dave]

Jack Spitler must have felt like it was 1968 again and the pit crew at Kil-Kare Dragway was back in action.

Outstanding! :thumbsup:

 

[RobertC]

...fire up the bike in full race trim for the first time in almost 50 years....nothing...pull again..nothing...more fuel....nothing...no pop, no bark...not even trying.
.....

It was right around that time that I felt the power of the OldMiniBikes and the magic of Windber take over...I saw a pair of hands reach in....Brian (Delray) pulled the plug wires... Hent went for the toolbox..Peekster got the plugs out...Boatguy pulled off the kill switches....Chatten.....Glenn Baine..Evil Ed....my son Eric and others all went into action.

It was like it wasn't my bike anymore...it was everybody's bike...and that SOB was gonna start.

Jack Spitler must have felt like it was 1968 again and the pit crew at Kil-Kare Dragway was back in action...

Man, that gave me goose bumps ! :smile: !

This hobby of ours, and the folks involved in it are really something special :thumbsup: .

Thanks for the story KK !

 

[tippycanoenm]

great story kk.........:thumbsup:

 

[Neck]

Windber is defiantly on my "Bucket" list! Gerry, you write a MEAN story, problem is, you just don't do it often enough:thumbsup:

 

[CW1999]

Sounded awesome when you guys ran it at Windber.

 

[minibikin']

Gerry, I wasn't too lazy to read that story and you did yourself and everyone proud. Peek looked like an "ex-con" running from the law going across the field hahaha! Great job to everyone getting it running. One sounded good, but when the second West Bend barked into the same merged collector it was just plain viscious!

 

[buckeye]

Hope ya don't mind.
I had the pleasure of visiting with Jack for 20 minutes or so.
He was quite the character back in the day.
When he left home to go out, he always wore a suit and tie.

 

[maverick1]

You look like you made Mr. Spitler's day. His smile says it all. Beautiful build.

 

[toomanytoys]

Very nice bike. I enjoyed getting a chance to see it in person

 

[shelby28]

Great job Gerry the bike looks amazing.:thumbsup:

 

[gumpit]

And to top it off. This bike won "Best in Show" at Windber judged by Jeff Mihalko

 

[buckeye]

So cool for that info!!!!!!!!
Congrats Gerry. Well deserved award!!!:thumbsup:

 

[Arthur Kill]

Interesting story, well written and really cool outcome. Great job KKK.

I'm curious, did Jack ever mention ETs?

What kind of time/mph did the mini do in the 1/4 mile? What's your estimate on what it would run today?

:shrug:

 

[the beekeeper]

What an amazing story and restoration!!!......The quality and attention to detail is outstanding!!......I love it!!!...........Now I want to see some vid of this thing in action!..........:thumbsup:............Tom.

 

[KustomKartKid]

Interesting story, well written and really cool outcome. Great job KKK.

I'm curious, did Jack ever mention ETs?
What kind of time/mph did the mini do in the 1/4 mile? What's your estimate on what it would run today?

:shrug:

Kilkare Dragway was an 1/8th mile back then...not sure if it still is. Jack was going to look back to see if he had any time slips when he got home.


> I really dropped the ball as far as getting it to run up to it's potential. I installed the motors for the first time in the restored bike just a few days ago and ran out of time.

My biggest error was I installed the blue "light" springs in the clutch...they were designed for 2300 rpm engagement....hell the thing idles that high and I soon as I started it the wheel started churning. Also has real tall gears on the jackshaft...20t...it would bog down with the weight of the rider....was like trying to start a dirt bike out in 4th gear. Then I didn't bother to install the woodruff keys in the jackshaft sprockets...I figured hell it's just for show so I just locked down the set screws.....I didn't count on that crazy Peekster wanting to launch it. The sprockets started spinning on the shaft.

There was a couple times where Peek stayed with it for about 100 feet and all of a sudden you could hear the motors hit the power band and it would start to take off but he would run out of room. Boatguy was jumping around like a little kid....he loves those old Westbends.

It really needs a set of clutch springs that come in around 4-5k to let it wind up....maybe smaller jackshaft gears.

I vowed to Peek we would bring it back next year tuned for the kill and won't rest until he can make a pass shooting a 100 ft rooster tail. I'll be sure to invite Jack again he would enjoy it.

.

 

[YOOP]

nice work kk.i was havin' doubts about it being done in time but you pulled it off and it looks like you made jack's day

 

[manchester1]

Finally home. Words cannot describe how fun this show is. It was so nice to see all of my brothers:laugh: and meet some members I never met before. Jack and his wife are the nicest people. Turns out his wife is just like me. I spent a few hours talking to her and jack. When Jack saw the bike first thing saturday morning, I thought he was going to cry. Gerry (KKK) and his son totally did a amazing job on this bike. All of the members that contributed to this bike had there name on a plack. (photo to follow). The plack, bike stand, and plates that KKK had made was amazing:thumbsup::thumbsup: That bike got the best home of its life. It was awesome to see it brought back to life:thumbsup: Also would like to mention that the bike won "BEST OF SHOW" :thumbsup::thumbsup: Congradulations to all that contribitued to this amazing build.