Those trikes belonged to the owner of the museum, Brian Kelleher, and one of the mechanics, Lou Zeller. The photos were taken out on Brian's old property near Canberrra, on Wallaroo Rd via Hall - his property backed directly onto the Murrumbidgee River.
Back in those days, I used to also own a Yamaha trike - the Tri Moto as it was called. All of us from 'The Stable' (Brian' s old Yamaha dealership) used to ride out at his place from time to time - it was just fantastic along the sand banks of the river.......
Here are a stack of photos I dug out tonight - lots of great memories in here .....the first few photos are of my trike down at the long-since gone 'Page Track' - now know as the Belconnen suburb of Florey....
Wheelie at Page
Gettin' sideways to the *Max*.....
More wheelies....
Of course, the inevitable has to happen....
Wheelies down at Surfside Beach, Batemans Bay - 1982.
Dragged behind Brian's Tri-Moto ....
Sand-enema anyone ??
Brian on the gas....
Lou riding shotgun, Rod is the pilot....
More wheelies from the Odyssey.
and some more....
Of course, the inevitable has to happen here as well !!
Not much sympathy for our pilot !
Cameraman (me) getting the action shots...
Last one before I bail ....
Brian heading home for lunch in the 8-wheel 'Argonaut'. Good across water as well !
Serious action - This is Tim's YZ490 trike - it was *fuckin' awesome*
The 490 trike in action - Fairburn Park ACT, 1982
Tim heading the pack - thats Brian on the inside gettin' sideways....
Brian and his Tri-Moto 175. Modified with rear suspension...
One last photo of Tim at speed.
We gave these 3-wheelers a flogging back in the early 80's. One time, a group of us drove all night to Moree, so we could race in a Trike & Odyssey Spectacular that had been arranged by the local Yamaha dealers there.....we had 4 or 5 trikes crammed into a 8x5 trailer !! Behind a 302 XC sedan, it was an *interesting* trip to Moree !!
Tim's YZ490 was an absolute weapon - and it actually cornered OK as well, due to some *serious* modifications to the steering head. The guy driving the Odyssey (Rod) also built a big-banger trike, but he based his on a CR480 !!
This thing was crazy, I rode it a few times, it would not turn at all........My own 175 got heavily modified - a local BMX guru made me a complete swingarm, so we could get 6" of travel at the rear - these things had no rear suspension at all in stock form. I modified the triple clamps and fitted a set of YZ125 forks, so the front end went from 2" of crap travel, to 6" of not-quite-so-crap travel.....also fitted 4" wheel spacers to the rear axle, and flat-track tyres.......made it easy to go around the corners. I also had to remove the steering stops on the steering head - this meant that the steering could now be cranked around to over 110deg, instead of the stock 80deg ! When sliding through corners at max revs, with the rear overtaking the front, you needed all the steering lock you could get !
Motor mods back then included a DG expansion chamber, which also came with h/d clutch springs ! Nice touch.
There you go, a small trip back to the world of 80's triking - thanks to those 2 posters on the wall at Nabiac !
cheers
