What would compel someone who has been between jobs for a month to get up at 3 am, drive 6 hours each way, on dangerously bald tires, to pay for a 45-year-old, derelict motorcycle with credit?
The opportunity to own a slice of a Legend.
I battled with the decision to buy the bike. It felt highly irresponsible even considering it, seeing I was broke. I wanted to sleep on it, the problem was, there was no way I could sleep knowing someone else might get it before me. My pacing caught Katie’s attention. She knows how much it meant to me. “Do it,” were her words of encouragement.
You have to understand, I grew up in a motorcycle-obsessed household. There’s a picture of my father railing his 70s Kawasaki 900 around turn 3 at Summit Point Raceway hanging on the wall of the living room of the house I grew up in. There are probably posters still in the garage of Eddie Lawson(famous 80s motorcycle racer) on a KR250 and a Z1 on the corkscrew of Laguna Seca. Paul Smart’s(Motorcycle racing royalty) Kawasaki factory H2R laid dormant in the shed under the deck for years. I know these are completely obscure references to anyone not familiar with motorcycle road racing. Hopefully, I’m conveying the energy I was born into. Part of that energy was my father’s business of “tuning” two-stroke motorcycle engines. Getting this type of engine to make more horsepower was a dark art back then. This art has almost been completely lost. The EPA restricts the manufacture of these types of engines. What’s the point of leaving a planet for the next generation if they won’t ever get to own a two-stroke?
One of these engines my father built was for a man nicknamed “Fat John.” Fat John was a dirt track racer. Off-track when Fat John wasn’t racing he may or may not have been arrested for selling cocaine. The explanation for this entrepreneurial endeavor was he was saving up for false teeth. Another one of Fat John’s troupes was as a male dancer with the “Chip n’ Whales.” As entertaining as he might sound, those weren’t the most interesting thing about him. Fat John raced a 360cc Bultaco Astro. Due partially to the paint scheme, the Astro is one of the most iconic motorcycles ever made(in my humble opinion).The red top of the fuel tank. The name “Bultaco” in identifiable font, shadowned in yellow bordering. The name sandwiched by black and white dashes like it’s set into a checkered flag on the bottom half of the tank. On top of this, the Spanish moniker has the best logo in the motorcycle world. It’s a yellow thumbs up in a black circle, inside of a larger red circle. Besides being cool from the gate, Bultacos are legendary for being easily controllable when sliding. As a child, I listened to stories of how amazing Bultacos handled. As an adult, I wanted to know if they live up to the legend.thumbs-up
After a decade and a half of wanting one, in early October of 2021, Katie and I drove 6 hours to a hamlet outside of Rochester, New York to buy my own 360cc Bultaco. These motors are harder to find than the proverbial “hen’s teeth.” The Bultaco Astro is still popular in the pits of amateur dirt track racing. With Bultaco effectively going out of business in the 70s, these 360cc motors have all been snapped up to keep these motorcycles racing. I am fortunate to have found it and for as cheap as I did, when I did.
Since July, my father and I have been connecting over the refurbishment of this Bul. We’re reawakening our own slice of the legend.