In the 1970’s, motocross racing had become fairly mainstream with several top racers becoming household celebrity names. In this highly competitive era, the big manufacturers poured absurd amounts of funding into race R&D, driving the constant evolution of MXers. Despite the large staff and state of the art facilities that the big mocos possessed, a few talented wrenchers created something that could compete with the Japanese brappers of the era that had been born out of multimillion-dollar budgets. DG Performance started as a tiny aftermarket parts company but would build an impressive name and reputation for itself thanks to the phenomenal performance of its machines in AMA competition in an era when riders like Honda’s two-time Champion Marty Smith, Yamaha’s Bob Hannah, Suzuki’s Billy Grossi, and Kawasaki’s Steve Wise stood in the way of a rider and a title. Team FMF (Flying Machine Factory), T&M Engineering, and CH Industries were also strong aftermarket company privateers competing with DG Performance.
In 1974 Dan Hangsleven and Gary Harlow started DG Performance around the time Honda first released its iconic Elsinore. Harlow – who rode Husky’s in the 60’s – had pretty much stopped riding himself when his son Kevin Harlow started racing both MX and BMW. Harlow owned a crane company when he met Hangsleven at a SoCal Honda shop. The two would start DG Performance out of a small shop in the city of Orange, California. Within 6 months, Harlow would buy out Hangsleven’s 50% stake. At this point the components offered by DG were carburetors and airboxes for the 30mm Mikuni carbs used by 125cc Hondas. Harlow had molds made to make his own air boots and continued expanding DG’s offerings from there.
Initially, a deal was worked out with J&R to build DG exhausts but for unknown reasons DG would drop J&R and begin utilizing the services of the folks over at Cobra. Around six months after Hangsleven’s departure from the company, DG moved into a 3,000 sq-ft space in Anaheim – a marked step up from its previous 1,200 sq-ft shop – and hired a handful of full-time mechanics as well as starting DG’s own tuning and performance shop. DG at this point still wasn’t really on-par with some aftermarket competition like FMF, as Harlow explained: “FMF was our main competition, and well, they were a little ahead of us. Donnie Emler really made some good bikes, and they were faster than ours at the time. Of course I would never admit it back then, but it was true!”
A magazine ad DG used in in 1980.
Harlow began surrounding himself with some talented people including Bob Hannah who had previously been working as a welder building exhaust pipes at J&R but would impress Harlow and Harry Klemm – who was in charge of DG’s R&D at the time – with his skills aboard an MXer, eventually becoming an official DG rider/tester. A 16 year-old Broc Glover had just competed in his first national series, finishing fifth overall his rookie season. DG signed the kid to be its second rider/tester. Then in 1976, the Factory Yamaha team was looking for a new pilot and Harlow suggested Bob to Mel Calloway who was running the racing department for Yamaha at the time. Calloway had some serious reservations about the mostly unknown Bob Hannah, but Harlow told the him that “If things don’t work out, I would pay his wages. So they hired him.” Harlow wouldn’t have to pay Hannah’s wages and Hannah would wear a DG patch for the rest of his career despite moving on to other teams.
1976 was a big year for DG. Harry Klemm would put together a bonafide racer for the AMA’s 125cc National Championship. The bike was built by Klemm from the ground up for future five-time AMA MX National Champion Broc Glover. DG also sold a couple of the same machines to other privateer racers of the era such as Gary Racca and Eddie Davis. The stock 1976 125cc Honda Elsinore was $1,000. The 125cc Team DG version boasted a price of $3,500. Even though very few units were built, there is no official figure of how many DG machines were churned out – estimates made by experts in this area say it’s somewhere between 12-18.
This racer was built around a chromoly aerotube chassis and aluminum swing-arm that was designed by Klemm and created by Pro Fab. Married to the front of the frame were magnesium Marzocchi 35mm forks. The machine had 10” of travel thanks to a canted top shock-mount that featured three adjustable-positions and utilized gas Girling shocks. After a few snafus with the magnesium forks, Klemm opted to start using aluminum units. Broc Glover’s prototype had CR250 triple clamps but the DG machines sold would come with aftermarket triple clamps. In total, the 125cc DG racer weighed in at 174lbs (without fuel). With the various DG components including stage 3 porting, DG radial head, 32mm Mikuni carburetor, DG pipe, and Moto Tek ignition, the DG racer made a cool claimed 32hp.
That year Broc finished in 5th place behind riders like Bob Hannah, Marty Smith, Danny LaPorte, and Steve Wise. DG would have the top privateer bike in ’76 which was its goal upon entering. Broc would jump ship for Yamaha in ’77 where he would go on to win the next three consecutive 125cc Championships. DG seemingly had a knack for discovering extremely promising riders before they became well-known professionals. While DG’s machines undeniably played a role in pilots riding the yellow and blue MXers to victory, the talent and skill of the riders for sure played a vital role in DG’s success in competition.
As the years went on, Harlow would gravitate more towards the marketing side of the business while Harry Klemm – who was also a world class mechanic – and Kenny Boyko would manage the race team. In 1976, DG would start also building BMX bikes as Harlow’s son Kevin was competing in BMX competition in addition to motocross at this point. In 1978 DG moved into an even bigger space 10,000 sq-ft facility, also in Anaheim. By this time DG was selling performance kits, exhaust pipes, swingarms, radial heads, and several other MX components. Thanks to the company’s image and success it was also selling a decent amount of clothing and apparel too.
A DG machine being raced in the ’70’s
In 1982 Harlow would sell the company in response to, in his words: “The motorcycle market taking a dive. The Carter administration had interest rates up real high, and the economy was a mess. I think loans were around 18 to 20 percent, and the economy was in the gutter. Bike sales were non-existent, and the market crashed.” Two guys by the name of Bill and Mark Dooley would purchase the company and have reportedly done quite well with it, supposedly doing close to $100 million in sales in a single year. Harlow now lives in Prescott, Arizona with his wife Sharon where the two stay busy traveling and with various business ventures such as real estate and custom home-building. DG Performance is very much still in business today. The company now sells ATV-related products instead of the MX components it built its name on.
DG is important not just because of its success in racing, but because it was one of the earliest adaptors of the “in house” race team, which used teams to promote companies and their respective aftermarket offerings. DG demonstrated that a few talented and hardworking people are capable of doing some pretty incredible things, even in dimly lit house-hold garages. Examples of these machines are now incredibly rare, though you can find existing bikes that have been fitted with various DG parts as well as DG components a la carte. A fun fact about restoring a DG is that the company used the yellow from the 1976 Corvette model, making it much easier to get for an authentic paint job – but you’re on your own with the blue DG logo and stripe.
This 1975 Honda CR125M Elsinore has been transformed into a DG replica racer, sporting a decent amount of original DG parts. The example has been completely restored from the ground up with it being broken down before the frame was painted yellow, the forks were rebuilt with new seals, and the aluminum lowers were polished and clear-coated. The stock fork caps on this ’75 CR were replaced with DG air caps and some foam fork protecters were fitted to the lowers, furthering the vintage DG look. The swingarm on this bike was bolted to the frame and a supposedly rare NOS Pro-Tec chain guide was installed, as well as a set of Marzocchi rear shocks.
The wheels were hit with a coat of satin black paint and new hubs and spokes were fitted to period-correct rims from ’75. A new aluminum rear sprocket was hand-polished and the engine, in the seller’s words: “Was a fresh build (which) we were able to verify when we installed the DG gold head and found a shiny new piston waiting inside the cylinder.” The seller also stated that all of the engine fasteners had been replaced with quality stainless steel allen-bolts and that the “usually broken countershaft cover” has upgraded via a brand new unit. A new Mikuni carb was attached along with the appropriate billet aluminum intake and larger carb boot. Because the CR Elsinores historically have finicky kick-starters on them, the folks behind this build have used a quality aluminum kick starter that would fit the CR kick shaft after a little bit of machining.
Finally the tank, fenders, and side panels were painted bright DG yellow. The seat was bolted in place with taller seat foam and the seat cover was custom made with the DG logo stenciled on the back. Lastly a NOS DG exhaust was fixed to the HonDG with new springs and all. Though this isn’t an original DG racer, it’s still pretty cool and features a lot of authentic DG parts. The paint and DG logos on the seat and tank definitely add to the quality of this restoration.
You can find this 1975 Honda CR125M Elsinore DG Racer Replica for sale here on Craigslist in Dallas, Texas with a price of $4,999.