A BIT ABOUT OUR PREZ, JAY MENDOZA
At 4 years of age, Jays mom's brother, uncle Bob, handed him a Cox .020
PeeWee nailed to a board, running. That was it, he was instantly hooked on
everything about these wonderful little 2-strokes, the smell of the castor
and nitro, the high pitched whine..everything. Next came summers on the lake
and fiddling with antique outboards like a Muncie OB-1A Neptune 2hp engine
that ran on 16:1! These times also included some wood chopping and he
quickly learned to operate McCulloch chain saws. By this time he was saving
allowance and buying his first controline Cox .049 Piper Cub, which was
destroyed on the 1st flight, as was the Stuka his uncle gave him for
christmas. This did not stop Jay, most kids quit at this point, so he would
spend the rest of the Christmas holidays rounding up engines off crashed
planes at the school yard and built balsa wood planes to put the engines on.
They flew much better, well you could fly them, and were cheap to
build.....but it took patience. Back then, even without video games and TV,
patience was a virtue. By age 10, Jays Dad had purchase a small Go-Kart from
the neighbors, whose kid got too fat to ride in it. He blew up at least 2
Briggs&Stratton edger motors before buying an AH-61(6.1 cubic inches=
100cc...oh yeah!) Tecumseh. This engine was from Steve Rigg's dads Dart Go
Kart, and had twin Tillotsons, hand cut windows in the piston skirt for
booster ports that were added to the back of the cylinder by way of cutting
and JB weld epoxy, a pair of 8 petal octagon pyramid fiberglass reeds on a
JEM manifold, a JEM megaphone, lightened flywheel and custom shrouding. It
used to snap off the woodruff key on the flywheel regurlarly if you revved it
too quickly. Next came a McCulloch 91B, then a West Bend 820( 125cc) and a
parade of other engines like Clintons and Parillas. At the same time Jay was
building and flying larger controline planes using .35 cu in. Foxes and
McCoys on Ringmasters, Shoestrings and such. He was known as the one flip
start guy because of his manner with engines. By his teens, he still was
tinkering with engines, but his dad got a V8 351 Cleveland in a '69 Cougar,
and they did a head job on it....gee those 2 strokes seemed so simple by
comparison. In high school he wrenched on his 67 Karmann Ghia and came to know
more about VWs than he cares to admit to. Jay worked weekends at a gas station
so on breaks he walked next door to Cal Suzuki of Orange and drooled over the
Adventurer GT185, the Hustler GT380 and it's big brother the Indy GT550, and
the flagship(which was too big for him) the LeMans GT750 water buffalo. By
the time he got out of the army in 1978, he had 2 of 5 Sebrings he was to own,
and along with a Titan, he eventually had every bike in the range except the
Indy and LeMans. Next came a 1976RD400C...Jay was enamored with
Yamahas slim light package. Here was a bike that felt and looked even
smaller than the GT250 Hustler, but was so much faster and handled like a
dream. It was not a cruiser, but it was quite and powerful. He sold all the
GTs and the RD to get the RZ350NC in 1985, which he sold for an engagement
ring in 1990. He has since owned every model of Yamaha twins in the RD range
with the exception of an RD350, 125, and 60.
Jay has been an invalueable asset to the internets two-stroke community for the past few years,
and formed the 'Hooligans' club in April 2000. We are now over 60 members strong internationally.
Thanks Jay! You're the best!
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