MX fifty years ago.

[xelasnave]

Sorting thru stuff and I found some old photos from my moto cross days so I snapped them on the phone to share here.

What great times they were.
Everything was about the next race. Travelling all over great friends and excitement.
We did not have long travel suspension with about 6 inches in the forks and 3.5 inches for the rear wheel.
You had to be super fit.
I trained every day except for race days or when banged up.
I learnt the importance of preparation and attention to the smallest detail and that work expands to fill the time you allow it...but if you have to race in an hour you can rebuild the motor and make the start.
I hope others here can dig out something to recall fifty years ago.

Alex

[AndyG]

Thanks for sharing Alex,

I still have fond memories of my first bike - an '86 model CR80. Saved dough in the old Commbank "Dollamites" account from 6yrs old to 14yrs old to get it. The little CR took so much abuse. No photos though, we were too broke for getting film developed most times. I'd love a 2stroke CR250 or similar again. Good luck finding one these days :(

[leon]

Ah man, it dose not even look like you, :lol:where are the whiskers :shrug:

Good stuff mate, bugger I bet you could feel that young again, I used to do stuff when i was 30, now i have no hope :sadeyes:

Thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[xelasnave]

Without wiskas I still look the same I dont know why I dont age like other folk☺
Alex

[LewisM]

50 years ago I wasn't even the glimmer in my father's eye, so no half-century pics from me. :lol:

[xelasnave]

https://youtu.be/TPMChmOjrP0

Interesting event

[Tropo-Bob]

50 years ago, I was 13 and listening to Hey Jude or the Harper Valley PTA, Lily the Pink or Those were the Days.

[sharpiel]

Thought you'd found a link to Paramount... And a picture of an early mount...

[LewisM]

HA HA - I actually thought the exact same thing!

[JeniSkunk]

50 years ago, I was a 3 year old in kindergarten.
In old photo albums at her place, Mum still has some photos of me, from those days.
My own memories of that time are fuzzy blurred.

[multiweb]

Alex Knievel. cool.

[xelasnave]

Funny you should say that Marc ...there was a time when I though doing jumps like Knievel would be a good way to make some big bucks.

I could out jump all my mates and so I thought I finally found something that I was good at...I also figured that if the purse was big enough a few broken bones in the event of a bad crash was probably economically justified☺.

The chance of breaking something is not that great.
And really folk come to see you crash.

But I dont know why I never did more than race...great while it lasted.

Alex

[CalvinKlein]

Cool photos Alex. What sort of bike ?
My brother and some of his mates in NZ collect old MX'ers - between them they have purchased / restored many the early 70's Honda MTs and CRs, some Huskys, several Suzuki's etc.

I see you live in Tabulam - I'm been considering heading out that way sometime on my bike to check out Riders Rest to see if it would be suitable for astro weekends. The 21.99 magnitude skies and 160km from Brisbane tick the right boxes but I was wondering about what the grounds would be like (not too much campground lighting) and how many tall trees around. Do you have any insight ?

[sheeny]

Nice Husky Alex.

[xelasnave]

Hi Kelvin
The bike was a Husky 250 cr.
I live in Sydney and Tabulam these days.
The riders rest belongs to a very old mate Bob who I first met in my days in Parramatta.
I dont think you will find any problems with lights there at all and there is a clear hill that would be perfect..have a look on google earth...actually I dont know if Bob still owns the place but even if the owner has changed the hill should still be there.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Thanks Al.
She was a great bike.
The second was better than the first. You had to have a new bike each season☺
It was exceptional in the mud.
You could do feet on the pegs slides and she would go so far over the ground dragged your foot off the pegs.
Undo four bolts and the head and the barrel came off and no head gasket...one ring.
Alex

[JeniSkunk]

Why was a new bike essential each season?

[xelasnave]

In racing everything has to be the best it can be and this years bike or car will be better than last years.

If you were buying a bike for transport there is no issue as its job is transport...a race bikes job is to win and that job is hard enough against equal machinery but if on last years model the job is very difficult.

Each year the motor is a little better and the suspension a little better as the developments made on the factory bikes ( those raced by the factory with all the latest best bits) trickle down to the average racers.

Even with the latest bike one does stuff to make it better...I would drill holes in the brake shoes to reduce weight by a little bit, port and polish the motor, make the intake and exhaust ports just a little larger. ... cut slightly into the top of the piston to promote turbulance in the fuel... when getting new tires and tubes I would go armed with scales to make sure that even though all the same brand I got the lightest in stock...the lighter the bike and more efficient the greater placed to beat others.

Its like astronomy the more attention to detail the better the experience.

My efforts saw me at least third thru the first corner ... I spent so much time in the garage just practising starts..in those days you started with your hand on your helmet and the bike in nuetral...so by practice I could usually leave the line first which is a big deal when there are 35 riders in a start...more chance of placing well and less chance of being hurt in the inevitable first corner pile up.



Anyways who doesnt want the lattest model☺

Alex

[Ric]

Great pictures Alex.

I was an Observed Trials man myself.

competed on a Montessa Cota 247.

[RD400C]

Nice stuff, did you keep a scrap book of any of this era ?
I thought I'd put up a couple of me when I had hair in the late 70's not 50 years ago YET.
BW = RD400 on practice day
Colour = RD250 on race day [green plates]
Cheers
Garth

[tonybarry]

Alex, thanks for the jog trip down memory lane.

Fifty years ago I was ten, Neil was one year away from stepping on the moon, and my dad had a subscription to National Geographic. I was reading about Apollo 8's journey around the moon with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders. (December 1968). I saw their earthrise image and could only dream of being there and being a part of it all.

I was way ahead of my mates at school thanks to those Nat.Geos. I had this tiny window every month to see out into the world of NASA, and it was like a dream - a wonderland. They were making the machines of the future, things that could not be dreamed of in the world I lived in.

My daughter cannot understand how information-poor we were. How much we did not know. How little we could find out. How long it took to learn anything. How easy it was to learn out-of-date stuff because Encyclopaedia Britannica had an article from 1930 as "the latest stuff".

Now we can learn as fast as we want, and in fact our biggest challenge is to sort out tripe from real facts. We have more connection with the rest of the world than ever before; we watch the Ryugu mission in pretty near real-time. It's great to be a part of it.

I appreciate the dirt bike world, though I was never a part of it. I spent my time dreaming of space, but had to settle for being a sparky. Now I have a telescope and can look out at the solar system, and I still dream.

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG

[barx1963]

Nothing to do with motocross and not 50 years ago (I was only 5 50 years ago!!) so 38 years will have to be close enough. The photo was taken at the first ever "Whitehorse Trophy" Archery Tournament that was run by my club back then, Box Hill City Archers. The year was 1980 and I was shooting in Under 18 Boys. We shot an unusual format comp that year, shooting an old English Hereford round which used 5 ring scoring and distances were in yards rather than metres. I was lucky enough to win the section (my second ever win!) and got to shoot on the same target as Carole Toy, who the year before had won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Berlin and went on to represent Australia at the Moscow Olympics later that year after resisting the bucket loads of money the Fraser Government threw around to persuade athletes to boycott. I recently discovered that I still have my old bow in a box that I have carted around for the last 30 odd years.
If you read the article, it has nothing to do with the photo BTW!! The cutting is from the old Progress Press paper in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne.