Percentages of MX bikes on the start line

[DJRacing]

The good old line of "back in the day" what was the percentages of different brands of bike on the start line? I was just looking at the number of postings in the 'marques' and was wondering if the postings numbers' are close to what would be a percentage of what bikes would be on the start line? I know... yeah TV is boring tonight... and I cant do anything to my project... so I was just stareing aimlessly at OZVMX talk when I started taking notice of the amounts of postings of each bike manufacturer and started wondering if those numbers reflected the amount of different MX bikes that would make up a race field?
Shit I need a beer or a engine to work on

[090]

i will blow your theory out of the water straight up. Suzuki guys talk alot about trailys to start with so there can be no comparison made....oh and alot more things go wrong with them hence more to post

[DJRacing]

Tut tut 090, I didnt say winners, but would there have been nearly twice as many Zooks on the line as Hondas and half again for Kawasakis?

[090]

I remember in the 80's you were hard pressed to see a Kawasaki on the line, never two...unless it was a national event.Mainly rm's and yz's for sure,and a few cr's. A local had a ktm mid 80's and i saw 2 maico 490's in '81 but they weren't competitive riders. This was in SE qld. There were probably a few more different makes on the start line but i was a bit narrow minded in my youth,unless it was a jap bike ...not interested.  (Now that i am older and wiser i KNOW there are TWO good brands)

[oz555ktm]

In N.S.W I think go with the Class Eg

pre 70   Bultaco then  yamaha

pre 75   Bultaco/ Maico /Honda all about the same numbers

pre 78   Maico/bultaco /Handa /Yamaha and Husky

Evo       Husky by a long way then Honda/Yamaha and Suzuki

Pre 85   Suzuki Then Yamaha &Honda

I am sad to say Not too many KTMs  !!!! 
 
 Why Just did not sell big numbers Cost too much $$$$

[brent j]

DJ I remember startlines being yellow and silver in the early seventies in Wgton then going really silver in about 73. Yellow still had good numbers, I have to say that though as I was a Suzuki kid.
Never saw green in those days.

Brent

[VMX247]

fast forward to 2012 VMX and things have certainly change in the last few years,seeing alot more Honda and Maico in the pre85 with splash of white yamaha's pushing ahead...
Go to a pre75 classed events and still have the big line up of British and Euro.

Suppose the imports have a stronger influence now on the pre90..

anymore imput from your part of the woods ?

[David Lahey]

I've got very fond memories of MX in the pre-75 era and am wondering why no-one has even mentioned CZs?
For pre-75 era before Honda released the CR125 I would have put them in this order for popularity (all classes) but none hugely more popular than anything else:
Bultaco
Yamaha
Suzuki
CZ
Maico

Then the Honda Elsinore 125 came out and it was:
Honda
then the rest way behind

Then the RMs were released and soon it was:
Suzuki
then the rest way behind

[asasin]

mid 70s nz , yellow or white and lots of them we had 3 classes of 30 125s in our province alone at its peak but we did not have juniors so a few (myself included ) were quite young riders in senior classes I was 13 it taught us the hard way !!   . Hondas and KX very rare . one guy had a husky and we all thought it was uber cool

[IT490K1983]

Late 70's early 80's in Northern Tasmania, lots of white and blue Yams, a healthy dose of red bikes, a fair amount of yellow bikes, with the green bikes being quite rare. One nutter (local speedster) had gone out and brought a spanking new 1981 KTM 495 MX. Was offered a ride as a wet behind the ears 16 year old learner. Promptly frightened the s*#t out of myself but can say that that one spin on an exotic (at the time) bike had a long lasting effect. It was enough to cause me to trawl a good bit of Australia over a long period of time looking for one as a project. As a 40 something motorcycle enthusiast I can still so clearly remember the "rides" that some of my diehard big bore loving mates had. For a sparsely populated country area it had more than its fair share of petrol heads with big brute bikes. Any amount of YZ 490's, a healthy number of IT 490's, YZ and IT 400's & 465's, CR 450's and 480's, RM 465's, the occasional PE 400, the odd rare KX 420 and a lot of XR 350's and 500's and then of course came the XR and TT 600's. Anyone that owned a bike under 350 cc was considered either a learner, a chicken or a girl. Oh the memories.

[Marc.com]

mid 70s nz , yellow or white and lots of them we had 3 classes of 30 125s in our province alone at its peak but we did not have juniors so a few (myself included ) were quite young riders in senior classes I was 13 it taught us the hard way !!   . Hondas and KX very rare . one guy had a husky and we all thought it was uber cool

New Zealand had really strong Suzuki importer so from memory after the mid 70s it was just a sea of TMs and RMs, few YZs and Hondas 3rd. However, just to add another twist, a lot of Kiwi MX meetings ran an Enduro class back in the day and then you saw a bit more variety like KDXs, XRs etc.

Most of the winning seemed be done on Suzukis.

[EML]

Interesting side here is that the write up on the SWM in the VMX mag states how many came into the country and how few there were compared to the Japanese makes but when it came to the finishers list, how many were on that list. Quite a high finishing rate there-or so it says. Probably a fair comment.
My recollections are similar to that of 090, when Honda brought out the CRs they led the pack sales wise and on the track though I recall some very quick guys on RHs. Then when the TM and RMS came out they were everywhere. Very few CRs (red) or KXs and even just a few YZs. Though the mini classes may heve been the opposite. Only scarce ammount of Euro stuff but what there were they were riddin by very quick cashed up importers or wholesalers or their reps.