I’ve told this story before… but now that there is video to back it up, I felt like I needed to re-tell it. I met Dan Rose in about 2001 or 2002. At the time, he wanted to sell all his vintage sled stuff off. Between me and Doc Jim and some friends of ours, we put a deal together, and it came back to Minnesota from New York in a huge rental truck.
In the pile of sleds and parts was the 1973 650 Starfire in the video below. Dan had restored it with all NOS parts, except for the motor. Instead of the 650 73 motor, he installed a 75 650 PDC motor. Dan loved to ride, race and show off this sled, and kept a running list of every sleds whose butt he kicked with it. Although having a 650 PDC motor was pretty cool, Dan told me his dream was to restore it as a 73 800cc Starfire. He had a lot of the 800cc motor parts – but they were not in a good enough condition to restore.
When I brought the sled home, Doc took the motor and built his 75 PDC from that. I found an NOS 800 kit, and Doc put that together also.
Check out these videos from Gary Merrit. How fun was it to discover these the night before Christmas and hear a 75 650cc PDC running – just for the thrill of hearing the pipes.