The Vetter Rickman Connection 1973-76
Tony Salsbury, my new General Manager, came from BSA, which, at the time, was being phased out along with the Rickman product line. With Tony, came Rickman, if we wanted it. I thought that the Rickman Cafe Bikes would be a good fit, but not the off-road bikes and a deal was struck. In March of 1975, wooden crates of beautiful, nickle plated Rickman frame kits for Triumph 650s, Honda 750s and Kawasaki 903s began to trickle into our Rantoul, Illinois warehouse.
In the meantime, I was developing the Mystery Ship and thought I needed to know how to race. After all, how could you design a great handling, world class motorcycle if you did not know how to race?

I bought a used Armacchi 250 road racer thru Cycle News and a brand new Yamaha YZ250 air cooled motocross engine from Yamaha and put them together.

I trucked it to Daytona, practised for a few minutes and placed 5th in the Amateur Class. I had never been on a track before. This was fun.

March 1975 Daytona: Craig Vetter on 250 Yamaha-Armacchi Road Racer
I pulled a Honda 750 Rickman frame out of inventory to begin the Mystery Ship. The idea was to design and make the most wonderful sport-touring motorcycle in the world.

You can see in this picture a little piece of Windjammer windshield in place to guarantee that a stock Windjammer windshield would fit.

I soon realized that such a bike based upon the Rickman frame would be too hard riding machine. About this time Derek Rickman paid a visit from England.
This is how the Mystery Ship began
Derek - who was a World Champion Racer himself - asked me why I was racing the little 250 Armacchi... that a bigger Rickman framed bike would be much easier to ride. Well, he ought to know. If I wanted to give it a try, he would make the special parts I would want, like a double disc fork setup and a longer swing arm. Tom Lester had just made a special set of cast aluminum wheels...
Indianapolis had the closest road race track so I took our Honda-based show bike racing. Derek, of course, was right. The big, solid Rickman was a whole lot easier to ride than the smaller 250 Yamaha.

The next step was to build up a Kawasaki 903 version and race it, too. In those days, The AMA had a class of racing with very loose rules, calling it the "Cafe Class". The rules were so loose that there was no maximum engine size! I sent the Honda 750 and Kawasaki 903 engines to Russ Collins. My instructions were to "Make them as big and powerful as he could but be bulletproof."

Indy May 10-11, 1975: My first race on a Rickman

July 28, 1975, my 32nd birthday:   “Woody Creek” Raceway outside Aspen, Colo. My Rickman Kawasaki was 1100 cc now and plenty fast. I think I got 1st place only once, and that was here at Aspen.

Woody Creek was a tight and twisty course. Russ Collins was good to his word. This bike was fast and never failed. Now the Rickman rotors were not up to the job. I ordered a set of three, iron plasma coated aluminum rotors from Harry Hunt which I loved.

Yes, that is my wife-to-be, Miss Carol in the hat at our last race of the year run at the airport of DFW. DFW was the fastest track I had been on and the very fast Rickman was easily going over 150 mph. At that speed, it was no longer stable. Now the tires were not up to the job.

Probably because I was at more races than anyone else, getting second or third, I had amassed enough points to be named "#1 Midwest Cafe Class Racer” and invited to race at Daytona the next March.

Fortunately, the first shipment of the new V--rated Michelin tires ( good for 150 mph) were on there way. I needed them.
Carol and Craig at Dallas Ft. Worth
March, 1976, Daytona. This was probably the most exotic Rickman in the world. Darryl Bassani had made a special version of his "Quiet Pipe" for me and I left the electric starter in place. If this had been somebody else's bike, I would have been worried.
Daytona, 1976:

I waited until the starter's sign was turned sideways before I pushed the starter button. Everybody else had cooked their engines, revving them at the starting line. I shot out, so fast that I drove off the track on the first corner! I placed 3rd behind Lang Hindle and Mike Baldwin.

150 mph scared me so, after Daytona, I pulled the killer Kawasaki engine out and installed a Ron Grant Suzuki 500 air cooled twin. I was working on very radical air ducting when I crashed at Road Atlanta on my Production RD350.

That was the end of racing for me and the end of Rickman for Vetter. I traded off the RC Kawasaki engine, replacing it with a stocker, restoring my racer to its Daytona condition, figuring I would drive it on the street someday. I never did. In 1998, the bike was donated to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame

Development of the Mystery Ship was to continue on a new and different platform, that of the Vetter AMA 1978 Superbike Championship bike as ridden by Reggie Pridmore.

I sure would have liked to have tried this
31 Years Later: 2007
I have the honor of introducing the Brothers Rickman into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame
2007

My Rickman racer is a part of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum. Today, Robert Simpson, a fellow Rickman enthusiast, is detailing the bike, getting it ready for Vintage Days, 2008 which happens to fall on July 28, my birthday. Thirty three years after that great race at Aspen, we will ride again, God willing.

Page updated Mar 26, 2008
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