Talking to your heroes

[TM BILL]

ROGER DEcOSTER, jOEL ROBERTS, Harry Everts,Gaston rahier,jeff Smith,Sammy Miller,Jim Pomeroy,Bad Brad,Super Hunky,Ivan Miller, Geoff Eldridge and Firko

I've heard that Firko character can be a bit of a prima donna. Or maybe I just caught him on a bad day? 

Just dont mention those 7K TM 250s around him 

[lama]

talking to my dad in the uk every week i told him hes my hero !!! [maybe we all should if we get the chance]......

[TM BILL]

talking to my dad in the uk every week i told him hes my hero !!! [maybe we all should if we get the chance]......

it would be a bit arkward as i dont know your dad 

[Curly3]

Mental picture, Firko in a tutu.
Lama, I agree totally, I lost my dad 25 years ago and still wish I could talk to him nearly every day.
Apart from dad I had 2 heroes when I was a kid, one was Billy Macdonald who rode my fathers bikes and  had an off track persona that was just as formidable as he was with a throttle in his hand, I talk to him regularly and he'll be in Syd next week for the BWP reunion.
The other was my brother Carl who took over riding dads bikes from Billy then went on to ride Speedway in the UK for 6 years, he was doing everything I wanted to do when I was old enough but like typical big / little brother relationships he seemed to have no idea I existed, at the time.
We're closer nowa days than we ever were.
If I could meet and talk to my hero tomorrow it would be Billy Connolly, The Big Yin.
No one can say the F word as many times and get away with it like he does.
 

[redrider1]

I have had the opportunity to spend time, both riding and casual chats, with John Hederics over the years through both our association with Honda.
A very quiet guy, but you learn a lot from his actions. A very professional attitude to his desert racing and eveyone associated with him in the industry.

[Lozza]

Got an email from Jan Thiel Just direct and to the point.

[GMC]

I’ve come across a few over the years and have also found them all to be great blokes.
The first notable I guess was meeting Goat Brekker on a trip to the states, while Gall and Dacky were on the plane trip with us it was Goat that picked us up from the airport and we went out to dinner with them all within the first couple of hours of being in the US.

Goat took us out to play Putt Putt golf one night.
He went up to the window to grab the golf balls from the chick at the counter, a good 8 or more from what I could see.
When the girl handed them to him he then took a couple of steps backward and started juggling all of them. We were all blown away, not to mention the workers.
He had a few juggling things at his home but it took a bit of nagging to get him to juggle stuff as he actually seemed a bit shy.

Wasn’t fussed about me wheeling his works bike (genuine, not replica ) out into his yard for an impromptu photo shoot either.

[lukeb1961]

Got an email from Jan Thiel Just direct and to the point.

oooh! The Master himself. Very nice! What wisdom did he impart to you, Grasshopper?

[GMC]

Actually the time I was talking to someone of mx importants,I didn't know it (which is often) 
I had to point him out and ask someone later who he was, then I followed on with some google research on him.  .............  GEOFF BALLARD

Your not alone there Alison, I know of a few stories along those lines.
It would have been back around 1990 and Leisky had just come home for Xmas and someone invited him to a DVMCC presentation night.

I had always admired Leisky, but wasn’t sure what to say to him. I felt unworthy and that my achievements weren’t worth mentioning, and I didn’t want to be blowing wind up his arse either so I was a bit taken back when I noticed one of my trail riding mates Rusty was having a chat to him.

I wandered over  to ‘mingle’ to find that Rusty, who had a road registered CR500 for a trail bike was telling Leisky what a powerful bike the CR500 was and that it took real balls to hang on to these arm wrenching beasts. Me mate was rabbiting on for a bit and Leisky was just nodding politely when he was ‘saved’ by some one calling out for him.

Stunned at what I had just heard I asked Rusty if he knew who he had just been talking to.
“No, why, who was it”
That was No 2 in the world 500 class for 89, Jeff Leisk.
“OHHH NOOOOO he groaned, I thought he looked familiar”
Rusty then slid out the back door never to be seen again for the rest of the night

[Nathan S]

Got an email from Jan Thiel Just direct and to the point.

oooh! The Master himself. Very nice! What wisdom did he impart to you, Grasshopper?

"Do not email me again".

[Nathan S]

I wandered over  to ‘mingle’ to find that Rusty, who had a road registered CR500 for a trail bike was telling Leisky what a powerful bike the CR500 was and that it took real balls to hang on to these arm wrenching beasts. Me mate was rabbiting on for a bit and Leisky was just nodding politely when he was ‘saved’ by some one calling out for him.

At one of the car club pres nights, Dean Herridge was being bored stupid by one of the locals, who was dribbling drunken crap. I went and 'saved' Dean, and he was clearly grateful. Then after a few minutes, I realised I was dribbling drunken crap at him.
That was a weird position for me to be in... 

[Lozza]

Got an email from Jan Thiel Just direct and to the point.

oooh! The Master himself. Very nice! What wisdom did he impart to you, Grasshopper?

He told me I ask very good questions,wisdom ,well the path that leads to over 50HP from a 125 and how they did it and what they (a staff of over 100) would have liked to have developed. One tidbit was that they ran a RSA engine on a dyno without a pipe, result was 17HP so the pipe is responsible for 66% of a 2T engines output.

Have you got a question for Jan Nathan?  

[suzuki43]

Talking to Mark Barnett on Tuesday night this week in the company of my single malt loving mate,was the stand out highlight of my MX life, with daylight second.The man was very friendly and patient, and the fact he was about to go riding with Chad and Byrner at Chads track added an extra dimension to our conversation.

[Hoony]

i met was in the company of Roger Decoster at an organised VIPER night. i was in complete awe of him and very shy, i wanted to say something but buggered if knew what  . too this day i am disappointed that i didn't even try to talk to him. he was very approachable on the night. at least i got a pic to remind me of the night.

Below left to Right.
YZHilly, Roger D, Myself.

[jerry]

Hoony is my hero. Not up himself at all. I've met him a couple of times and always found him polite and approachable. Cheers J