Frank Wheeler. Standing a cowlick short of two 2m tall and weighing in at 120kg in his riding clobber, he had an ego to match his barrel-chested bellow and his weight made it difficult to believe he had become a triple Californian desert racing champion. But as a motorcycle development engineer for the Pacific Basin Trading Company, Frank’s constant task was to improve the durability of Hodaka’s line-up of off-road motorcycles.
In 1966, on a 5000km return ride to La Paz that proved to be the forerunner to Mexico’s Baja 1000, Frank and Hodaka marketing manager Marvin Foster proved the durability of the new 90cc Hodaka
