Posted in a couple areas before I seen this bit - apologies all.
I'm an over 50 guy from Hamilton NZ and just looking to get into the VMX scene.
As a youngster my big brother was a top road racer over here and did a bit of scrambles in the off season. When I was in my early teens I was around quite a few of the good guys like the Boyle brothers, Bill Flowers, Ivan Miller etc. Banged around the farm on a converted AC50 that I pedalled hard enough to brass off a lot of guys on 125s and then on a TS185 before heading stateside with the family as pop was looking for some way to help Petes racing career.
Old man bought a Suzuki dealership in SoCal, but Pete found the GT250 not much competition against the RDs under the US rules. I was always a fan of Suzuki since I read about Robert and seen some old Shell movies with him, DeCoster and company so of course gravitated to that brand even though we sold Bultaco, CZ & DKW. I started racing the SoCal scene as a beginner and and quickly developed skills to let me run with the big dawgs - especially after I go my hands on a RM125S. Did a little pre-production test riding on the RM125M and was pumped when they gave me the S model as the M was slower than my trick TM125. Got some support from US Suzuki and rode the HS class at the 1975 Superbowl where I crashed out of the first moto when leading and kind of wrecked the trick bike they built me, but won the second. Did some pre-production test riding of the full RM series and a lot of tire and pipe testing for different people. Came back here when the family did as while I loved SoCal every time we lived there I wasn't too keen on living there on my own with my closest family up in Michigan.
Back in NZ I had to find a real job as prize money was almost zero and with no industry to test ride for the only work I knew was not available. Never really rode too much here except for a few national qualifiers as I was not overly into the natural terrain tracks and more attuned to the big, fast US tracks. There was no capacity racing the first couple years I was back and used to race the A grade class on a YZ250C, where I was often the first 250 home behind the 500's. Decided I wanted to get serious again and had a couple long talks with Rahier when he was over as I knew him from several meetings in the states when the RA125 was being developed. Arranged to purchase a ride in Europe, but had an industrial accident that retired me for what appeared to be for ever.
Bought an old 88 KX250 in my mid 30's to convert for getting down to a few fishing possies that required several Km of walking it was not too long before it was brought up to standard and I started racing again. I raced for a few years until a big crash in the support class at the nationals when I was 40 put me off work for a month or so. In my 50's now I have been mountainbiking for 8 years and looking to get back on a bike. I figure something from my youth would not encourage me to do things the body can't handle.
When I was back racing I used to cross paths with tmbill and got my tail waxed a few times - looking forward to reacquainting myself with him and a few others from back in the past.
