It's funny, but when I first got into VMX it was all a sort of memory trip. I was like a kid in a shop all excited and looking at everything with fresh eyes. Hooee, lookit that old Maico. Haven't seen one of those in years! That sort of thing. The whole scene in the late 90s was very much a sort of down home, clubby thing. Races were a bit less than serious with guys in flannies on ratty old Xls as well as a few serious guys. The common thread though was that it was fun. Memory lane alright, but fun.
Now after being involved for what, 13 years or so, I am all nostalgic for the old days of vintage! That is no slur on anyone or anything, it's just me. I'm not especially excited anymore to see an old CR125, I don't go to many races and the ones I do go to often seem too serious. It's just me, but all I really want to do is goof around on an old dirt bike.
I remember my vintage club in the early days - they sent out a regular newsletter. A real one. With articles and funny stuff and so on. Their website was fun - it was up to date, showed the pointscore, had some humour and made me feel part of the scene.
Does any club still do that?
OzVMX is like that too. In the early days there weren't many of us and we were all a bit wide eyed. Now there's a LOT of people on here with all the various personalities etc. BUT... the wide eyedness seems to have gone some. There is a certain jadedness, maybe even cynicism.
My take? It's just the way of it. It's hard to retain the sparkle because time moves on. It did for the 60s/70s, and it has now done so for OzVMX.
So I am going to get all nostalgic about the nostalgia and start a website to remember the days when we remembered vintage motocross...
PS... the best fun on a vintage dirtbike I've had in ages happened on saturday morning at CD8. I took my IT175G out for its first decent ride since I built it and had a bloody ripper time flogging around the enduro loop. If only it could have been 20km long! I'm over racing - I'm going back to my roots and do more goofing off on old dirtbikes. Might even buy me a TT500 and learn to chuck wheelies again.