History O/T HotRodders Moto Crossers

I know alot of you guys raced Moto X in your past. Post your photos and stories here.

I raced a Brand new KX125 in 1985. We won alot of races on the 125. Half-way thru the season I got on a 250... BAD move. Stayed hurt.

Here's pics.

Kevin
Ooltewah Speed Shop

 

Oh man, you're really starting shit up now!

 

Yeah, maybe... but I know alot of you guys raced these 2 stroke monsters. Gotta love the smell of that Maxim oil mixed with Cam2...

Kevin
Ooltewah Speed Shop

 

Yeah man this is one that is close to my heart. Raced a 79 RM100 and 79 Honda CR250 when I was younger. Had a couple of CR480's and 500's up till recently. Below are 74 DT250 and 78 xl250 that I rode to work last year, restored and sold a 79 YZ250 and an 81 YZ465. I currently have a plated 92 XR600 that I ride both to work and off road and am going to my brothers to put a piston and rings in a RM370 that I gave him for his 40th birthday.

Its funny, somehow I remember these bikes being way better than they are. The truth is you had to drop anchor to stop them, for the most part they had a power band of a light switch and the forks flexed like a wet noodle. The late 70's to mid 80's was a great time to ride!

 

I never really raced officially, but we had a pretty good network of back woods tracks that it could have been considered a little circuit.

Went from a riding a old Z-50 to a '85 CR125. That bike was plain just bad ass when you were 15 years old.

I remember having a hard time keeping the front wheel down between 2nd & 3rd gear when you were on it hard.

Starting messing with it and running Power Mist fuel and it lost a good deal of it's bottom end but would run like a raped ape on the top.

I bought it for $1,600 brand new and sold it for $900 twelve years later. I really miss that bike. It as a great time in my life with my friends.

 

the bassest thin i had was a cr500 man this was a beast we raced it in the early 90s as a super moto bike

 

I had a stripped down bored out IT 250 Yamaha....sold it to buy my kids a Nintendo 64. The sacrifices we make for our kids....

 

I raced a few bikes, last being a '90 CR250.
I still have my very first dirtbikes, 1969 JT1 Yamaha 60, 1974 GTMX80, also still have my Keystone minibike with the TAZ motor in it too I still ride the 60 and chase the kids around, well I try too, they're getting too fast
We bought our house and 5 acres a few years ago. I've had over 1300 Graveltruck loads of fill brought in and I ran a Dozer for about 5 months shaping my yard, of course I built a moto-x track, it sits right near my shop, has huge burms and lots of big jumps. My kids are 5 and 8 and they both ride, my 8yo boy is a nutbar gets huge air on his KTM!

-Shiny

 

Bultacos rule.

 

I tried it, on a KX 125 as well. Man I sucked on a track, I mean really sucked I truly spent more time laying on the track next to or under the bike so I gave up without even doing half a season.
Still rode a lot just for fun, bought a KX250 then a KX500. Damn that 500 had some serious get up and go!! Scared the christ out of me every time I rode it. Taught me I really liked to go fast though. Also had an ancient 76' RM100 that was built from parts, that was my first bike and the seat was at my shoulder height!.

This is another two wheeled sport that I traded in for a road bike though. Had a whole mess of Ducatis, Bevel drive 900SS (Three of em), MHR900, 748, 916 and a super 996 R (Not a production bike, like the SPa), The 996 was a factory built Super Bike that the team owner had put lights on basically! God damn that was nice, everything was carbon fiber, Titanium fasteners and exhaust (termi cans), Senna wheels and a set of Dymag carbon fiber and magnesium
wheels with race slicks for track days.
Sorry for the O/T but I loved that bike.

 

I ended up racing this beast before I came back to my right mind. A KX 500. Total BADASS. Get off this back onto a 125 and you feel like something is wrong with the bike.

Kevin

 

Now we're talkin' - I was a bit jealous of the BMX thread.
I've been into motocross since the early 70's - my first race was in 1976 as a kid on a new RM125 (hand grenade).
Had all sizes and brands of bikes through the years.
Currently riding/racing an '08 KTM 450
Faster now than when I was young (20 years of mountain biking helps), I still ride weekly and at 49 years of age, I can still pull a win in the vet masters class at my favorite track - Marysville, E-Street (deep sand whoops and huge jumps).
Also race some cross-country events once in a while.
Maintaining and re-building all the bikes as a kid was how I learned to work with tools and understand how things work - eventually led to building my car, but motocross is still my #1 passion.

 

HenryJ's right. Bultacos ruled !!! Raced a 200 Pursang in the mid-70's.
Nothing else in the 200c.c. class would even come close. The local track was at Warrior Al. I could sit at the start in neutral,wait till the rubber band start snapped, put it in gear and still be ahead at the 1st jump. Those were the days.

 

Didn't Steve McQueen ride Bultaco's? The owner of my local bike shop back then was a HUGE fan of the Bultacos and had 5 or 6 restored ones on display.
Doc.

 

Raced Bultaco's! Only rode the Open Class starting with a 350 Pursang in 1972 after having play raced in the desert previously. Broke my knee at the Carlsbad 500GP in 75 racing a 360 Pursang with support from Bultaco Western the west coast factory arm. Still have an absolutely Cherry Virgin 73 250 Pursang as well as a 1968 250 Bultaco Metisse and a nice 75 Honda 250 Elsinore.

Race this now in the over 50 class;

 

Bultaco Cemoto. THUMBS UP!! Bought this new 74 Pursang at Clints in Boulder Colorado and raced MX and Flatriver Grand Prix as well as others. Restored it and last raced it at Sully Iowa in 07 vintage MX When in doubt, gas it !!

 

been into bikes as long as I been into cars, raced hare scrambles & gran prix, super fun, been riding trials for 30 years, still do it, always fooling with some kind of vintage bike, at least 12 personal vintage projects currently, wanting to try some vintage motocross when I get the 360 pursang going

 

Never did moto-cross.

I tired hare and hound scrambles (pre moto-cross) on a 250 Matchless and later a BSA 441 Victor. That was a hoot.

Flat tracked for awhile. Various Limeys, a couple of BSA twins, a Norton Manx. Later a 750 Harley on the long track.

But all that is totally off topic for this post so

sorry to hijack, I just wanted to toot my own horn a little.

Carry on.

 

This was on my previous CRF450.
I don't have any recent stuff handy.

 

ive been around moto since about 89. i was managing a motocross shop in socal for 6 years before moving to shit hole joplin mo.

 

Yep was a natural progression for me from BMX. Started on a 80 or 81 CR480, that thing was wild and nearly killed me. Then actualy learnt to ride properly on a trials bike - a Montessa Cota 348.

I switched back to Moto X and rode an 84 RM250 then got serious in 89 with a brand new RM250, that was the year they first went with the skinny tank set up. '90 I had another RM and one of the first Pro Circuit Engines ever in the UK, raced hard - it was my life for many years. Until I found beer cars and girls.

No pics, I have loads but have never scanned any in. Must do that...

To keep it on topic I think a combination of my Moto X past and love of dirt plus my early ford habit makes me do what i currently do, Classic Trials. I trial a stock as a rock '32 5w coupe! Although I know one day I will end up on two wheels again, probably when my son is old enough to ride.

 

Same time I was racing my first RM250 my buddy was racing a KX500, it used to kick back really bad and on a couple of occasions snapped the kick start lever. If you tried to start it without proper boots on it would bust your ankle.

My CR480 was similar, I remember taking some friends who had never riden or even seen a Motocrosser out with us, When I fired the 480 they ran away terrified by the noise. Air Cooled open class bikes rule!

These threads have to stop, they make me feel OLD!

 

I rode and raced for 6 years starting in 2001, then quit riding and focused more on my skateboard career. I still own a few 'lil honda 50's though I miss MX riding my CRF250 dearly and some day i would love to own another one. My race # was 360. Favorite spots to ride were Club Moto in Livermore, Santa Clara fairgrounds MX track, Hollister Hills upper ranch and a bunch of tracks in the LA area. I rode and raced at a few MX Nationals (Washougal, Redbud, Hangtown) and some Supercross tracks ( SF, Anahiem, San Diego) at some Crossover events too, super fun times but very scary.





Riding MX with a buddy back in 2001, who was into hotrods/customs and in the Road Zombies car club, is what actually sparked my interest into these traditional cars and finally stumbling onto the Hamb

I really feel the MX led me towards my passion for traditional hotrods, OT... i think not!
blessings,
cab

 

Bultaco were kewl and one of my first big bikes to ride, also rode a Hodaka, then went mainstream, Honda, yamaha and even a kaw four wheeler. Race some flat track three and fourwheeler and still ride 4 X 4 wheelers today. I remeber in fifth grade i stripped down my dad old Honda cb 160 for the dirt...

 

In early '75,I sold my '72 Arctic Cat EXT racing snowmobile and bought a '74 Husqvarna 250 GP mx'er. Thought I would become the next big American star. In short...

I SUCKED AT IT.

Got smart(?),sold the Husky and bought my first Harley,a '68-9 Sportster hybrid basket case. put that together,rode it for a couple of months until someone liked it more than me but didn't pay for it-yeah,it got nicked.

 

I'm all over this one I've had the motocross bug since a very young age! I grew up riding trails mostly and then started to ride some tracks and enter a few races about 8 years ago. I'm still keeping the 2-Stroke faith alive and haven't gone to the dark side with the thumpers. I also have trouble letting go of my bikes because they carry such fond memories (kinda like cars ya know?!). I've restored a number of my old bikes in recent years.

Here is one of the earliest photos of me on my uncles 1970 Honda QA50


Here's me and my 1990 Yamaha RT100


Here's the RT100 today after a restoration a few years back


Here's my 1991 Kawasaki KX125 with some snow on the ground!


My 1992 Honda CR250. I'd wear a Starter parka because it was so cold! You can also see my first ride in the photo, a lowered Chevy S-10. People thought I was strange to own a lowered "sport truck" in a small mountain town. Definitely not the best mode of transportation in the winter considering that we'd get up to 6 feet of snow at the house


Here's the 92 CR250 after I restored it to be a Jeff Stanton replica


1999 CR250


2003 CR250 (current bike)


Found a 1970 QA50 last year and cleaned it up pretty nice! My uncle also still owns the QA I learned to ride on that I included earlier.

 

Hurricane Hills PA 85 or 86

 

I think 5WBomber was almost pro or some shit like that. He has a few pics of him and his brother riding.

I started with a Rupp Roadster and went to a Honda 125 in early 90's. Great times.

 

QA 50/ that's New School! It's all about the Z50 here baby

 

Yea, the bmx thread had me reminiscing of the racing I did as kid in the '70s on a heavy old takara, but seeing these old air cooled monsters makes me feel like a teen again. My butt is too fat for a motorcross bike anymore, so I got me a honda '05trx450r (last of the kickers)quad to quench the adrenaline thirst 'til I get our wagon done. 4 strokes have come a long way man, love that torque. I blame my cousin for my needing this fix-he still has a mint quadracer 250 that still runs like a champ-and although life gets in the way a little more than it did, we still ride as much as we can. Got a few flat track races coming up to scratch that competition-itch. I was ready for my 1st trip to little sahara this spring, but a freak snow storm postponed it.