Hello from the States

[krh428cj]

Hello from Ohio, USA. I thought I'd join up down here and see what you guys are up to. I have a 1981 KX250, a 1973 MX360 and a 1980/81 KX175 project in progress. My two sons and I do the VMX thing together and just have a ball. My oldest son and I restore the bikes (mostly it's my son who turns the wrenches), my youngest races them and I pay for most of it. Our most recent race was at the AMA's Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio Racecourse in Lexington, Ohio. What a great time at a great event. My boy hurt his back and only raced the MX360 (finishing second, vintage open B/C) this year so I loaned my KX250 to a friend and former pro who also finished second in EVO3 after a second moto crash left him far back. Been into motorcycles all of my life but my oldest son got me into vintage motocross about 6 years ago. It's something we do together that all of us love. We also recently bought a 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 hardtop coupe that were going to make a period hot rod out of. It's just something else we're into. If it burns lots of gasoline, is loud, fast, has wheels, disappoints the mothers and wives, and pisses off the neighbors we're into it.

Cheers,
Kevin

[John Orchard]

Welcome Kevin, you sound like you are also badly addicted to this vintage MX scene.  I hope you get some good info from this site, and hope you enjoy contributing  :-)

Regards, John

[krh428cj]

Thanks, John. It seems to be a lively group here.

Yeah, you're right, I've got it bad. I can't ride too much anymore, so I basically finance and source parts for the builds and get my enjoyment out of watching my kids building and racing our bikes. The Kawasaki was my first restoration and I went way overboard restoring it back to pristine showroom condition. Huge mistake. I planned all along to race this bike so I could have saved myself a lot of time and money if I would have put it together as a race bike straight away. It now has a Works shock, Race Tech fork internals, pipe and silencer, and just a bunch of other little things that make it into a great and highly competitive bike. This winter I'm planning on sending it out for porting to a old guy that ported for Kawasaki USA beginning in the late '70's. It makes a lot of power now but I'm sure there's more left in the motor. I think I have a retarded amount of money in it but I don't know for sure because I refuse to keep track. My oldest boy always tells people that it's part of the permanent collection when asked if it's for sale.
I'm doing some research on some pieces for the MX360 for next year as well. I think I may be onto something a flat track friend of mine told me about but I'm not sure it'll work yet. I have to come up with the money to prove it out and then I'll share it. My VMX budget was blown before the season even started this year (again) so it may have to wait a bit. So much tinkering to do and not enough time or money to do it with.

Kevin

[Graeme M]

Good to see you here Kevin, hope you enjoy being part of it all. I love the common thread of so many of our stories - no, not the bikes, that's a given - rather the investment of way more money than is sensible!