OzVMX Forum
Clubroom => General Discussion => Topic started by: Graeme M on February 07, 2008, 08:17:47 pm
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I was surprised to find a letter from me in the latest Dirt Action magazine. I emailed them last year with some praise and an edited version of the email ended up in the mag. Shannon Warner responded with a suggestion that he and I should swap bikes at the next Amcross so he can see if these vintage bikes are worth talking about.
Now I think that was a bit tongue in cheek, but it got me to thinking. Really, getting a young bloke to ride one of the old bikes probably wouldn't work, especially if they are pretty serious about their riding. So would it be worth doing that at all?
Welll.... maybe. What if I suggested to him that OzVMX could arrange a particularly good vintage MXer to ride at an Amcross round if he was up for it, and he could use that as the basis for a general article about vintage to gauge the interest from their readership? If nothing else it might be an amusing sight.
If he agreed, where would I get a bike from? What bike would be best? Evo? Pre 85? I reckon Evo cos Pre 85 is too modern, and Pre 75 is too old. Is it even worth considering proposing the idea?
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Is it worth proposing the idea? Absolutely!
What bike would be best? Here we go again...
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Perhaps the question is better asked as, is there a well known vintage MX character who lives near enough to the action would have a really nice twin shock motocrosser, preferably red in colour, and who would be up for this idea? Or failing that, is there anyone with a nice CR250/YZ250 of around 1979/80 vintage who'd be interested in seeing their bike flogged by a DA editor, and who'd be 'factory mechanic' for the day?
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no thanks.... :D
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Graeme
Damian Crane would be my pick , and the bike would be Bruce Mcfarlands 79 Honda. (sorry Damo) .
Cooma grass track would be a good even venue .
Damo would definetly give the dude a good old hurry up , and maybe we could suggest a swap of bikes.
ie : each rider on the others bike , two heats.
Rob
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Not a bad suggestion... Cooma would be pretty good, it's usually a fast track and a fair sort of surface. I've gone passably well there in the past on the HL500, but a 250 would love the track.
I'll email DA and see if they are up for it. No names just yet, I'll just suggest the idea.
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I'd be up for it if he was a decent sort of bloke with some sort of respect for the old girl.
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Respect..That's the hard one. At the final meeting at Amaroo I loaned my Maico to ADBs Lachlan Mac so he could experience Amaroo Park on a vintage bike for a proposed piece on the history of the track. At the dummy grid for his first ride I started the bike and passed it over to him thinking all was OK and returned to my officials position. The starter then called the bikes up for the next race and they all took off towards the line, all except dear Lachie. Imagine my horror when, after the dust settled I saw Lachlan revving the shit out of my old bike and trying to bang the bike into gear with the heel of his boot. It'd be bad enough doing it once but he was doing it over and over. Before I could get down to the track a mate who was there taking shots went and explained to him to stop revving the bike and it'd go straight into gear. Lachlan ignored my mate and continued to boot the crap out of my gearbox. Neil my mate immediately grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him off the bike. Lachlan couldn't understand why this had happened and protested, calling my bike a shitbox and vintage bikes "laughable". My mate then jobbed him (ta Neil!). By then I'd arrived and after getting right up the dickhead I picked the Maico up off the ground, kicked it over, clicked it into gear and rode off in disgust.
The end result from that experience is that no journos from the 'straight' dirt bike press will ever ride any of my bikes again. It's your call Magoo but you run the chance of the same thing happening to your bike. Do you want to take the risk mate? ...........btw, I ended up doing the Amaroo piece.
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There's a pretty good article in the latest Transworld MX where Andrew Short (current Honda factory rider) - rides all the CRs from 75 to present day and gives his impression of them all.
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Why not approach AMCN or Two Wheels they have a readership more in line with the 'target market demographic' and more likely to get a 'sensible' journo(if there is such a thing??????)
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A good mate of mine is Editor of Cycle Torque. He's coming to Classic Dirt so maybe he would be a better option. I see Firkos point and unfortunately I think he may be right.
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Huskyrider, I tried to find that piece on the CRs being tested by Andrew Short at Transworld MX but couldn't find it anywhere on the site. Could you give us a guide to finding it please mate?
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I agree, it might be a bit iffy to let these guys loose on a nice vintage bike. I'll still email him and see if anything comes of it, maybe we could instead just see if we can get a few of the lads to rock up for the Cooma event and show em what the old girls have got?
Is it just me, or do the Aussie dirt bike mags seem a bit ummm... well... immature when compared to say RacerX or MXA? Or even ADB from the 70s/80s? They seem to try too hard to appeal to the 12-18 year old audience. I used to think DA was pretty average after Clubby took it over but these days it is a lot better. I actually buy every issue nowadays.
I'd ike to imagine they'd be a bit more respectful than what Firko described...
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After 22 years of being ADBs Odd Job specialist I finally chucked it in last month. The circumstances leading up to my decision don't need to be discussed on an open forum but I have to say that I just can't relate to the mag any more. It's not just ADB or DA, it's the lot of them. Racer X is the only one that I feel speaks to me as an adult. MXA is a sad old rag stuck in a seventies rut and Dirt Bike died as a serious contender years ago. As for the trail riding, supercross and freestyle mags, I couldn't tell you as I'm not in the least interested.
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Firko, I am with you. Still trying to get a few more $ to get VMX, really not too much in other mags.
You never really know who may "jam" the gears on your bike. Really good friend of mine who is actually a year older than I did. About 93-94-my just freshened 74 KTM250 was available to him. He usually rode MX Yammies,and even had a YZ250A-which he never really came to terms with.
Anyway, with no mega $ to get a new clutch basket, my KTM clutch dragged, just chop revs-pop in 2nd and go. He was revving the piss out of it.....1st moto was tough as he didn't get off line-made back to 3rd. 2 nd moto( relaxed club rules back then), I stood by bike and controlled throttle -he took off mid pack -and kicked the crap out of that whole class-went way faster on that KTM than he ever did on the much faster YZA-he just couldn't deal with non Japanese shifting etc.
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i would have done the same thing to lach mac ...you gotta show a bit of respect for other peoples bikes when riding them...as for adb i got my subcription renewal form in the mail last month but after 25 years of reading, its just not the same anymore i chucked it in the bin...dont ask me why it just dont appeal to me anymore for some reason or another..it means that ive gotta wait every three months... not every month... for vmx
Respect..That's the hard one. At the final meeting at Amaroo I loaned my Maico to ADBs Lachlan Mac so he could experience Amaroo Park on a vintage bike for a proposed piece on the history of the track. At the dummy grid for his first ride I started the bike and passed it over to him thinking all was OK and returned to my officials position. The starter then called the bikes up for the next race and they all took off towards the line, all except dear Lachie. Imagine my horror when, after the dust settled I saw Lachlan revving the shit out of my old bike and trying to bang the bike into gear with the heel of his boot. It'd be bad enough doing it once but he was doing it over and over. Before I could get down to the track a mate who was there taking shots went and explained to him to stop revving the bike and it'd go straight into gear. Lachlan ignored my mate and continued to boot the crap out of my gearbox. Neil my mate immediately grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him off the bike. Lachlan couldn't understand why this had happened and protested, calling my bike a shitbox and vintage bikes "laughable". My mate then jobbed him (ta Neil!). By then I'd arrived and after getting right up the dickhead I picked the Maico up off the ground, kicked it over, clicked it into gear and rode off in disgust.
The end result from that experience is that no journos from the 'straight' dirt bike press will ever ride any of my bikes again. It's your call Magoo but you run the chance of the same thing happening to your bike. Do you want to take the risk mate? ...........btw, I ended up doing the Amaroo piece.
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I now subscribe to RacerX - ever since I first came across I have always enjoyed it. It just seems to have good balance of racing, editorial, travel and they definitely show respect to the 'old' times, there seems to be at least one article a month on the 70's or 80's.
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Sorry firko - it was the hardcopy Transworld - pretty sure it's the Feb08 issue (with Mike Alessi on the cover). I saw it in Borders - they usually get an Airmail copy a month ahead of the newsagents. The new ones due so it should be in newsagents any time now.
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I witnessed Lac Mac bashing his boot on Firkos Maicos gear lever at that Amaroo meeting and it really was ugly. These young magazine guys generally think that vintage is a bit of a wank so expecting them to respect a bike that they deem to be an old clunker is a big ask. I wouldn't let any of them near my bikes either.
I don't know what it is about ADB that turns me off. When you compare the production quality, content, photography and number of pages to both Dirt Action and the American opposition, it's a much better product. What it lacks is intelligence and soul. The magazine tends to lower itself to the 12-20 demographic thereby bypassing the more mature reader. In the GE days I felt like I was part of the ADB 'family' but with the current set up it's hard to feel even the slightest bit of that warm and cosy family feel. Despite all of the external glitz and glamour, ADB has no inner soul. The opposition no little better except for Racer X. Publisher Scott Wallenberg is a serious vintage racer and it shows in the balance within the magazine. He has a similar outlook to GE and I tend to think that if Eldridge was alive today, ADB would have taken a similar route to Racer X. MXA is stuck in some sort of Jody Weisel time warp. Has his Jodys Box column ever changed from his dumb Crazy Dave and Jody at the races crap? Pick up a 1980 copy and the current copy and with the exception of the feature bikes, nothing has changed. It's yesterdays hero.
Thank god for VMX. That 'part of the family' feel that was such an attractive facet of GE era ADB is alive and well in VMX. There's a good vibe in VMX that really brings the world vintage family together. Classic Dirt Bike from the UK is attempting to emulate the VMX vibe and while still being way off the standard of VMX is still a good magazine and worth supporting. So, for me these days it's Racer X for my modern touch AMCN for my general news and gossip and VMX and CDB for my old bike fix. The rest have lost me.