Just put up a really long post but IE crashed so i lost all. try again but this is the shorter version. :'(
So I bought a 74YZ250 a while back and the guy offered me all these old mags, well im not really into magazines, he told me as a teen how he bought them all just to see the mX bikes come out in 73 and 74, complete sets of action dirt, popular cycling, modern cycling , dirt bike. He never missed a mag over 1973/74 there are also 75/76/77 etc in there but some months he must have been busy riding, but anyway thinking i'd like to look at all the ealry YZ stuff anyway and all those pics, AFtermarket parts etc available in the day, might even be a eligibility helper
so i though OK, we agreed on a fair price and he shipped them. Well i just opened this box up today.
Perhaps i should back up a little , when i originally bought the bike from Chris he had told me how he had dreamed of buying a YZ. BAck In 73 all the mags splashed out about the new YZA, in 74 it was in all the race reports and had trick it up columns and so on. Chris worked some jobs, did the summer, weekends and so on till he had saved everything he could - enough for his slice of heaven.
Im sure he went passed that local cycle store a thousand times, nose pressed against the glass, went inside and collected a brochure or 2 to stick up on his bedroom wall, spoke to the sales guy about the day he was coming in to pick one out. Well That day did finally come, when he took his savings, got a check cut and went in there and picked out that special lady, with its showroom factory shine and a swing tag on the bars.
And As i think about his love affair with the bike , i remember how i was with my first BMX bike, i saved like shit for years till i could retire my little chopper and sissy bar bike and go Jumping on my new BMX, for nearly a year i keep that bike at the end of my bed, until one day my mum lost it and made me leave it outside, i said some prity mean things that day and some i still regret to this day, but at 10yrs old that bike was my whole world.
i open this box and thumb through mags, with fantastic old pictures, some really great technical ideas ( there is a beaut here for making a piston pin remover, im glad i did take them from him.) As i dig deeper and deeper back through the years i find my heart skips a little, we all talk about patina and a bikes life, well that stuff really excites me, its like an adopted child turning up on your door with a photo album of all its places its ever been, its baby pictures its life in its hands.
As i take another Mag out i find the original bikes owners manual, with little notes scribbled on the pages, then original dealers sale pad setting out the purchase details and price - signed on the bottom line ( proud as punch i bet, as he bought his bike). Then the original glossy sales brouchure - no doubt so he could show his freinds, then theres a copy of that original cheque ( man he must have worked hard for it and keeping a copy shows how much it meant) and then that day as he wheeled it off the showroom floor he probally smiled as he took off the models swing tag, that hung off the bars and stuck it deep into his pocket. ( yep that's in here too).
The more i see these little details come out this simple little box and reflect on the oppertunity i have been given, i find i have a tear in my eye as i reflect on his journey and i think about my life. I can understand now his pain when he had decided to sell his " kid brother".
Chris told me about the tear in his eye when he dropped the bike off, and in his words how he 'cried like a girl' for days afterwards; realising that he may never see it again, with all those memories coming back over the following days, of all the times they had shared and all the worlds troubles they had been through. I can understand why it had become part of his family, why it was so special to him. I even promised if he ever wanted it back i woud sell it back to him no questions asked.
For Over 35 years it had been ridden and raced by him, it had been his world, it had more than just patina, it had a hearbeat, a pulse and now its story to tell, like around a xmas family get together.
Just Some Old mags in a box, that i was going to pass up has changed everything, its given that bike soul and reminds me why i love these bikes. Its not just about some nice parts and good looks, with more character and heart than some fancy Works bike, this bike has really made my day today.
ITs been a chance to reflect on what lifes all about and all the things that went with it. I can't see someone being in love with a disposable plastic bike of today, making it a part of there life as he did, heck even it surviving for half that, for that matter. But im sure glad i have the chance to spend some time with it and then some day pass it on to someone else who just 'gets it', too.
