IOM TT

[Don Coatney]

When I was young I was invincible. Or at least I thought I was.

 

[Ulu]

Hey, badazz wheelie Don!

[Plymouthy Adams]

When I was young I was invincible. Or at least I thought I was.

 

 

thoughts of invincibility...not with that brain bucket attached...you were somewhat thinking...must have been those Ben Hur sandals influencing you a tad..

[Jeff Balazs]

Wow...Back then a Maico was like an exotic to me. I used to see a few, living on an air force base. the Puch, the Ossa, the Bultacos...The Jawa was one I lusted after. Also the Suzi X6 Hustler which I actually got to ride & shoulda bought for $150.

 

Nowdays I'm sorta dreaming about a KTM...

Well that Maico was about the nicest piece of machinery I ever owned. It was simply amazing in the berms........and what a rocket ship. Coulda used a 5th gear but other than that you couldn't ask for a nicer ride.

I will admit lusting after a 250 Penton though as my first love was cross country desert riding and for the day it was in a class of it's own. Forerunner of KTM.........

 

Jeff

 

Jeff

[Ulu]

I'd sure like to ride a 250 GasGas someday...I dig trials riding and did a lot of practice on my Honda XL350, but that GasGas is really something!

[Ulu]

thoughts of invincibility...not with that brain bucket attached...you were somewhat thinking...must have been those Ben Hur sandals influencing you a tad..

 

Also: Bare legs + scrambler pipes = strange stance, where knees do not clamp the tank, but act as air brakes flying out there in the wind. 

[Don Coatney]

Also: Bare legs + scrambler pipes = strange stance, where knees do not clamp the tank, but act as air brakes flying out there in the wind. 

Not air brakes, air conditioning

[Ulu]

Good save Don.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I guess my baddest dirt bike if you want to call it that was my Honda Elsinore 250..as the typical two stroke...little larger bore....the power when it came on came on hard..you best be serious about riding or it was gonna thump you like nobody's business..sold that bike..getting to be wickedly wild and that would eventually lead to no good...

Edited June 18, 2015 by Plymouthy Adams

[Don Coatney]

I don't recall Honda 2 strokes. Not that I don't believe they were there but I think they were under the radar. I hear the Honda wet dreams are going for big bucks.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Don..they had a big line up of Elsinore two stroke and later they had water cooled two strokers....plus at the same time they made 4 stroke off road and enduro models 

 

I had both an early and a later, both Elsinore and the 125 was a lighter and taller bike...not near the power of the 250 but the lighter factor made up for handling..

 

dirt bikes and street bike are very different..enduro was the best of both...

 

Honda 305 Dreams are nice and very much in demand and command a nice price...the Honda CB1000 6 cylinder was a smooth and powerful bike...overall, Honda is affordable, smooth and extremely dependable...

[Ulu]

Hell that Elsinore practically launched the SoCal dirt bike boom. It was quite a feather in Honda's cap.

[mattimuss]

Maybe with age comes maturity.  Or in my case, a keener sense of mortality!

 

I have ridden some sort of motorcycle since I was 10 years old.  I have had my share of scrapes and bruises, a few crashes, and one that I thank God every day that I was able to walk away from.

 

I can say with certainty that I have ridden close to half a million miles on street bikes, both state side and all over Europe and the Middle East.  I was a Motorcycle Safety Instructor for the Air Force while stationed in Greece.  I have taken all three levels of safety schools - multiple times.

 

I have raced both on the track and the street [yes, I do realize how dumb I was].  My race bikes were Honda CBR900RRs; one a '93 red/white/blue model and the other a '96 red/white/black model with a bunch of Erion Racing performance parts.  I have raced [novice class] at Texas Motor Speedway and Laguna Seca [the corkscrew is "interesting"].  After telling you guys all of this I will say that I gave up riding about two years after moving to Southern California and haven't ridden since [reference mortality statement above].

 

I commuted to work on a 1999 Kawasaki Nomad for my first two years here.  In those two years I had six close calls.  People just do not pay attention to what's going on around them.  I never lane split and always rode a combination of defensive/offensive style.  The last close call was so close I had to sit on the side of the highway for twenty minutes before I calmed down enough to ride the side streets home.  In those twenty minutes I realized that things we not going to get better, and I was playing the odds.  I put the bike on craigslist that night and haven't ridden since.

 

I want to make it clear I am not bad mouthing motorcycles, or riding motorcycles.  There is nothing like it, especially racing them.  The problem is the distracted idiots driving the four wheeled vehicles all around you.  And the distractions seem to get worst with each passing year.

[Jeff Balazs]

Matt;

I couldn't agree more.......that is why I quit riding on the street many years ago. That and I found off road riding far more enjoyable. You get to experience everything which makes motorcycling so much fun out in the desert.

 

IOM has always pushed the edge. Much of the improvements to motorcycling can be traced back to this event and others like it. But the bikes these days are just so much faster than they need to be it makes it all too crazy. I would prefer to see an emphasis placed on very small displacement bikes myself. I find them far more interesting than the superbikes. To me there is just no validity in making bikes that can easily exceed speed limits by 3 or 4 times the limit. I think I would rather see small production commuter bikes get the development.

 

Jeff

[pflaming]

I visited with this biker several days ago I western Kansas. He was riding in a race from Barstow, CA, to, NYC, all bikes were sans shocks. The frames were ridged, no shocks on the front. The only springs were in the seat. He broke a sprocket and was waiting for his wife to arrive with a new one from Lincoln, NE.

[Jeff Balazs]

Paul;

The Isle of Man was one of the main places a lot of the suspension in use today was tested and perfected. Because of the varying surfaces it was and still is one of the most demanding courses in the world to lap. Just imagine what it was like to race there before WW2 when most of the bikes had girder type forks and a hard tail. If you have ever ridden a rigid rear bike with a sprung seat you will be amazed by the speeds the racers were able to maintain.

 

When they finally did develop rear suspension a lot of it was quite odd and often made the bikes handle strange. Plunger types, Anstey links and some of the friction based units gave some relief to the riders but at a price of weight and unreliability. The stuff these guy's have now is light years beyond what any of the racers back then even dreamed of. And it wasn't really all that long ago.

 

Jeff.