What you like about your era eg pre 70 , 75 and on wards

[Iain Cameron]

Sorry to the pre 60 and pre65 guys didn't mean to leave you out .
Im stuck in pre 70 and 75 and dabble in 78 as I grew up with this era first bike in 71 , to me they are all different each has a distinctive shape or sound that brings flash backs to the start of my enjoyment of bikes . the more modern bikes I can see their advancement and new tech but its the early pioneers of the sport that ring my bell . Iain

[Graeme M]

It's when you grew up that sets that in place isn't it? My eras are pre 78 and Evo. I appreciate the earlier eras, but really have little interest in anything Pre 75. Or Post 1985. I had a restored TM125 for a while but just couldn't get into it. Back in the day I rode and raced a variety of bikes but mostly Yamaha and Suzuki with a smattering of Honda. Refused to touch Kawasaki after they stiffed me with a dud roadie.

It's long travel twin shock bikes that do it for me. And funnily enough my vintage 'career' has seen me own and ride many of the bikes I really wanted when I was a young bloke but for one reason or another never got to have.

HL500, RM400, CR500 Husky, RM125S, etc. These bikes just look 'right' to me. No safety seats, air cooled engines, twin shocks. Yes please. Here's what I'm talkin about:

[David Lahey]

my first bikes were 1950s bikes that my Dad fixed up in the early 1970s. They were good to learn the basics on, but I aspired to ride the best current bikes of the time. After I started earning money, I did have a great time on my TS185K, a worn-out Alpina, a thrashed and trashed TY175 and then when I was 18, bought my first dream bike brand new - an IT175D. Then in about 1980 along came women, buying houses etc. I did ride current bikes from the 1980s and 1990s and enjoyed the riding, but felt very little attachment to them - they were really just the tools I needed to go trail riding with my friends (IT250K, XR600, WR200).
In the 1990s I started finding the 1970s bikes I had wanted as a kid, and also learning a lot along the way about bikes of that era. All my current ride bikes were made between 1968 and 1981. While I greatly enjoy riding them, I also enjoy watching and hearing my bikes and other bikes of that era being ridden by others.
The noise thing is quite important. The sounds of KT250 straight cut primary gears and the snoring induction noise of the early Sherpa T s with their funnel shaped air box are like beautiful music to me

[Iain Cameron]

Always thought the OSSA had a nice intake sound too , I too did trials for a time Dave mainly the TY's but had the Spanish bug so Bully's , Ossa and Montys most of my trials time was with Manly club but good memories of Denman club . Iain

[Rossvickicampbell]

I'm with Graeme - first bike was a 76 Honda CR125 and finished with an 82 RM250Z - just loved that period and would hate to think how much I spent on magazines watching the bikes change every week!

[William Doe]

For me its Pre 70 to Pre 85 , if i had to choose i would probably pick Pre 78 as my favourite era.

The pre 70 stuff is before my time as a racer ( although my first bike was a Bantam )and as kids in the 60s our parents used to take us to watch scrambling in the weekends on family days out .

Pre 75 bikes (particularly Suzuki TMs ) were the first bikes i took a real interest in and i got a Bantam , followed by a Modified DT 125 and then an RM 125C .

I raced MX , Cross country and Enduros up to 1988 both in the UK and NZ. Short break then started racing MX again and got into vintage ( first vintage meeting 1992 Belgium )

I really like the transitional period from short travel to long travel and the true works bikes from  early 70s to mid 80s .

So many changes happening so fast and to be honest i didn't appreciate it at the time,it was just the norm .The excitement when the new models were released, previews in the magazines, brochures at the dealers , and finally the new model arrives at the dealers and we go down while its uncrated and assembled.

Favourite models from eras TM 125 L , RM 125S , RM B models, 1979 Maicos  KX A5 models , RM 125X , 1983 KX models , 1985 CR500   .

 

[firko]

I own bikes ranging from pre 60 through to Evo but my true favourite division is pre 70. Even though I did most of my racing in the 70-78 period, it was the bikes from the pre 70 era that got me interested in the sport in the first place. Once we got into vintage I restricted my racing to pre 70 on my beloved Maico350 Squarie and DT1 from Hell with a bit of pre 75 in the early days but in the latter years I've nurtured a real love of pre 65 and pre 60 era bikes. This year the only bikes coming out of my shed will be my American dirt track framers (my new passion) and my pre 65 250 racers, the Montaco and Ducati 250. The older I get the older my bikes get. I don't race any more because I'm to old, too fat and too arthritic*....not to mention I just don't want to race but I look frorward to offering my bikes to younger enthusiasts and mates to keep the spirit alive.  * Having said that I'm not racing doesn't mean I'm not riding. I'm looking forward to chucking some skids on my dirt track tackle, including my new Shell 750 Yamaha at Broadford over Easter and having a ride on the grass track at CD11.

[brent j]

Pre 75 because that's what I had back then. I've also worked at owning the same make and model of bike I had hence now having a 73 Suzuki TS90MX and a 74 TM125L. On that basis I may chase up a first model Honda TL125 and 250

I like pre 78 and Evo for the changes in suspension technology, once the discs, linkages and radiators show up I lose interest. Probably because I never owned one

[albrid-3]

In the 60`s watching my brothers race through out the western district and metro meeting, on triumphs, velo`s, cottons, Kawasaki f21m, then Montesa gp 360, Montesa Diablo 250, and as for me, my first bike was a Bantam, then came a Norman scrambler. At club meeting seeing others roll up on AT1 Yammy`s, I thought they where the ants pants, so I started saving my pocket money
and doing odd jobs and bought my first real racer in 1972 it was a Montesa Cappra 125 of Lyall O'Brien Montesa M/c here in Geelong, I just loved that bike, Raced it in 72, when the honda elsinore 125  came on the see that was it. Working full time at 16 year old, did have the cash to buy one, I was riding really well, and luck happen, I got a full sponsorship on the honda, I was over the moon.
Later came the honda 250, Husqvarna Mag,  Race at Calder  Rally cross, Suzuki RM 125 S, Stop racing in 77, girls came along as the do, 79 got sponsored on a Kawasaki KX 125, then that was the end. So I feel my time is from 72 to 79, I do like the pre 70 era, at I have a lot of memories of that period, Modern bikes don`t do a lot for me, they all look the same, but I do like trials.

[FourstrokeForever]

Somehow I got the pre75 bug. I didn't get my first bike until 1977. A mighty 5 speed XR75. I think that is where my love for 4 stroke mx'er originated from. Then again, maybe it's all the mechanical noises and the bark from a 4 stroke thumper that gets my pulse quickening. And the simplicity and elegance of the era really attracts me.
My favourite bike in my stable is my BSA B50. I don't know how or why I got into the pommy thumper, but the first time I saw and heard one at a VMX meeting, I HAD to have one. Now I can't wait to put the 560 kit onto it. Should make it bark a bit more.....
I even have a B44 now. Totally restored to race bike specs. I haven't raced it yet, but I do like looking at it. It's a very handsome bike.
Next favourite is my XL420 '76 works Honda replica. Fantastic pre78 bike that I built from the ground up. There is something very special about building a one off bike with your own hands and ideas. It does everything Honda could of wished for back in the day. Maybe if they used the XL frame instead of persisting with the '76 CR frame, they might of continued with the bikes production.
Then there's my Evo bike. A CR250RZ. The bike is better than new with a debatable front end  that I haven't brought myself to fire in anger yet. I've put my numbers on it and that's as far as it goes. Maybe when all the kafuffle over Evo is settled once and for all, I might take it out for a play.
I do have a 500 thumper project in the wings based on the RZ.....That will be more my cup of tea.
I've got an '84 CR250 that is waiting quietly in the shed for a rebuild/resto. I think my reluctance in hurrying the build stems from not having the kahoonas to race it as I used to when I had a brand newie in 1984. The thought of racing the bike as it should be raced kind of scares me these days. IE, I don't bounce anywhere near as good as I used to 
Pre90 and beyond doesn't do anything for me. Possibly because for the same reasons that I have a reluctance to race pre85, but mostly because in my eyes, they are pretty much a modern bike. I do get a buzz from watching them race on a jump track though.

[Nathan S]

1987 to 94 is my favourite era.

Basically, they were my pre-licence teenage years when I lived and breathed dirt bikes. Read every word I could, rode every chance I could, and always dreamed of owning the latest and greatest (but actually rode twenty year old trail bikes...).

But I love all dirt bikes. I particularly love that people maintain, restore and use things that are way beyond their expected lifespan. Never seemed to be much sense in old dirt bike apartheid to me.

All eras are my era if I want them to be. Having raced everything from Pre-70 to moderns, they all have their ways to make you smile.
I've found great enjoyment and satisfaction in going out of my comfort zone. I remember once saying that I didn't need a YZ125X - but I got one and it's my favourite old bike to ride and it love racing it.