Chris Steward sent me this photo of him racing his factory Yamaha XV920 at what looks like Sears Point. Steward won the Stock Production class of the AMA Battle of the Twins Series in 1982 on this bone stock Yamaha. How stock was Steward’s XV? After he crashed at Sears a corner worker later came up to Yamaha’s Ken Clark and handed him a tool kit. “I think this belongs to your rider on the XV920,” the corner worker explained. It seems that the team hadn’t bothered taking the tool kit from the bike before it was raced. Read more about Steward here.
Chris Steward racing his factory Yamaha XV920 at what looks like Sears Point. Steward won the Stock Production class of the AMA Battle of the Twins Series in 1982. It was so stock that the factory tool kit was still on the bike when he crashed it at Sears. (Chris Steward Collection)
Rider Files 
Larry, From the duct tape(knees), to the chrome exhausts,to the two horns still mounted and the Yamie badge still in place between them, that’s an iconic pic of production club roadracing in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s and the fun with low tech factor that made it…never mind the tool kit discovery in your story! That’s too good but not unusual for the day.
Great site, PLEASE keep the “old” stuff coming, as us “younger” guys need it….
DH
ps: What’s a motorcycle tool kit ? haha
LikeLike
Oh come on Dave you remember those 2 pound bags of scrap metal that they used to put on bike to bring them up to minimum weight.
LikeLike
That’s funny Ed! “Minimum” weight?
Yeah, that was always a problem with ’70’s and early ’80’s sportbikes, they were too light !
New bikes will come with a Laptop computer soon instead of the 2 pound bags of scrap metal tools, as it’s more useful!
LikeLike
Does anyone remember Stuart Cooper 550/680 Vision/Custom frame Vision?
Any word on that bike or what he is up to?
LikeLike
Ya back in the day me and Chris were traviling together that year, also Dave Emde my team mate as we drove all over the country, race to race, chris was making the big bucks riding that 920 yamaha, but he always won!!! boy we had alot of fun that year!
LikeLike
#31, Please report to the scoring tower…..
LikeLike