Meeting Wes Cooley

[viperg]

Wow, what a story!! Thanks for sharing this and man alive, how the heck are you ever going to wash your bike again???

I have an extra tank and I am going to carefully clear coat this one.

[Dogma]

Hmmm... What will the solvent in the fresh laid clear do to the marker ink? I imagine you'll do a test first. Let us know what happens.

[GS1150Pilot]

Cooley always seemed a bit more ... human than so many of the other luminaries. Glad to see that he really is. Hell, if he grew his mustache back, he would still look largely the same. I'm super-thrilled he is still a capable rider and that he still enjoys getting out on the track.

[Guest]

I was fortunate enough to get to meet my childhood hero at Mid-Ohio this year. Wes Cooley inspired and help to form my street bike interests when I was a kid. I was 11 years old when I started reading about Cooley in mags of the day. His racing efforts on that 79 blue & white (also red & white) 1000S Superbike gave me big dreams of going fast on Suzuki liter bikes.

For the event, Dad came in from CA to ride my Cooley while I piloted my 82 Katana for the 450 mile weekend. My son trailered my Buffalo to roll around on so we had 3 generations there on Suzukis. We even passed the Suzuki Factory truck about 100 miles out from Mid-O. The driver nearly broke his neck double taking, giving huge thumbs up and grins.

At 47 years old I was like a kid at Christmas. Wes is a super nice guy. He saw me the with my 1000SN in front of the AMA tent, walked right up from 30 feet away to talk to me about the bike. I asked him if he would sign my 1000SN that was actually at Laguna Seca watching him race in 1979 and he took me by the shoulder and said "well of course I will." We talked for a few minutes and then he said he had to get back on schedule. Wes said, "come down to the race bike display tent in a couple of hours and we can hang out." So we did several times throughout the weekend. What a guy!






Here is a photo album of the meeting: https://www.flickr.com/photos/105623...h/28178931882/

He's definitely recognizable from the old days. Too bad he didn't have his 1980s haircut. I'd love to get Wes, Wayne Rainey, and Eddie Lawson together for a photo shoot.

[Charlie G]

[QUOTE=viperg;2310947]lol! You should have seen Cooley cane the 1000S on the Saturday track exhibition laps... at 60 years old the man is still fast. Pretty big shoes for Trevor to fill, maybe he is up to it, ]

Just kidding! Glad he's still got the spark. Great pictures.
cg

[Guest]

I have an extra tank and I am going to carefully clear coat this one.

I bought some clear bra material for the rockers on my Bullitt on eBay. It was like 11.00 for a roll. It's got an adhesive backing, but it's not too strong. You could always get a piece of that cut to cover the signature. Mine's been on over a year and it still looks like new.

[viperg]

Here is the Katana 1000SZ race bike that Cooley raced. Pops did a heck of a job on the rear frame bracing on the big Kat. Cooley said the clip-ons were difficult to get use to compared to the Superbike bars of the 1000S, loosing leverage to muscle the bike around.








The 1982 Red & White endurance race bike actually utilizes a 1978E tank with the side channels.

[dorkburger]

The red bike is one of my favorite historic racebikes.

[Buffalo Bill]

Great photos!
The endurance race bike raises a question. Looks like it runs on battery only, so how would that work for an 8 hour race?

[Sandy]

Great photos!
The endurance race bike raises a question. Looks like it runs on battery only, so how would that work for an 8 hour race?

They just swap them out during pitstops. It only has to supply ignition voltage so they'll easily last as long as a tank of gas or probably much longer.
Great thread. Love these old superbikes and have a Cooley signed by the man himself is pretty special.

[chuck hahn]

Had a buddy that had a Captain America reproduction that he rode to Sturgis. Ran into Peter Fonda and got the tank signed...sadly he never did anything to protect the signature and it eventually was just a memory in photographs

With the pictures and all the other proof, that tank is worth a good chunk now..LOL Ebay retirement account!!!

[Cipher]

spamming jackass and other things that are not mention-able.

[allojohn]

What a great story/experience - life is good.

[viperg]

What a great story/experience - life is good.

Thanks! It just got a little better. An AMA Rep. took a short interview with me before our track laps with Cooley leading on the Red/White 1000S race bike and said she would be doing a short write-up on me and my 1000SN. I had the only 1000S besides Cooley's that was rolling around the complex all weekend.

She just contacted me and said this was up on the AMA website:

http://americanmotorcyclist.com/Racing/Story/attendees-of-ama-vintage-motorcycle-days-take-lap-for-history

[dorkburger]

Nice! Been a couple of good years for you. This, the Kat in the Suzuki corral last year...... Next year you need to wear a GSR shirt....