1st 4 stroke to qualify for a supercross main?

[09.0]

Thanks for the pics. Any idea what year models they are?

Brad, the top 2 pics are of the bike Smett's rode in the world MX GP in 1994. He carried the no.3 from the 1993 season when he rode a Husaberg. In a weird twist he finished 3rd in 1994 on the Vertemati so the bikes would have to be 1994 models. He went back to Husaberg in 1995 and won the championship.

The pic of bike 22 is weird. The swingarm is of a completely different profile. My understanding is that Vertemati/VOR ran the same swingarm all the way through. Also there is a weird pick-up in the stator cover and conventional Marzocchi's forks are fitted in place of USD WP's.
What the hell the other one is, who knows, but I do know that they have a terrible choice in colours!

thanks for the info. Were any bikes sold in these years? I was of the understanding that the blue one I had was the first production model.

[ola_martin]

That would be cool ola. When I spoke to Willie in 01 he said they had been testing a reverse head and EFI....had to hide them from the orange police. Its amazing how many Berger philles are on here....good to see. Its a shame that the 2013's are tarted up oranges. Did anybody buy all those Berger parts on evilbay 6 months ago from Caldicotts?

That bike did and still do exist, it had a enginelayout very similar to the new YZF450, was made in 98/99 it sat in a modified 97/98 frame, was kept away from the oranges in the private garage of one of the R&D engineers, was tested several hundred hours...

[Davey Crocket]

There you go....copied again....its a shame really because those people came from Husky oringinally and they built alot of great bikes over the years.....never scared to think outside the square.

[ola_martin]

[ola_martin]

This is the -98 replica.
We have one at work, it's kind of a replica of the replica. It has a original 98 replica frame, I built a 600 3-speed neutral at the bottom engine for it. Has the WP 50mm fork, SPES eshaust, bluehub wheels, technosel seat etc. Will get photos when I get my computer back.

I had a new replica in 99 (we got one each year) Same spesifications as in the folder, but the goldcoating on the fork and forkbrace was dropped before it was produced, it was a 4 speed beast. Had problems with it snapping the chain, couldn't use o-ring chain as the metal was too hard and brittle, non o-ring was ok as long as changed often.

Got the very first 2000 FC501 the year after, much better bike, went to the factory doors to pick it up, I had already ridden my bike the whole week when we went to the Swedish GP to see the blankets pulled off the new top secret bikes....
That bike broke every week that first half season, and about two weeks after something broke we got a letter from the factory saying that this thing needed to be modified, so they ran testing paralell with production.
Got a new -00 for the last half of the season, with no problems....

[JohnnyO]

The Berg that Johan Boonan rode at Farleigh 2012

[JohnnyO]

Holeshot in the Evo(pre 90) race...

[motomaniac]

Great shots !

[Davey Crocket]

Thats cool JohnnyO.......beats talking about that other crap.....geez I'd love one for pre 90......I wonder how many 501's they made in 89?......now that would be a collectors bike for Vwalter.

[ola_martin]

The Berg that Johan Boonan rode at Farleigh 2012

And thats Ryno Huges on a ProCircuit KX500 behind him, so I guess it was pretty quick of the gate...

[09.0]

Cool shots. Makes you wonder how many are around.

[BAHNZY]

Thanks for the pics, awesome to see the old girl out and running at the pointy end.
Any one have an idea of the rules covering the class that Johan's bike ran in? I ask as that front end looks to be a WP USD unit nothing like what would have ever been fitted in the day.

Regarding early Bergs in general, I haven't seen a pre 1997/98 Berg for sale in Australia for a long time. When I bought my 98 FC600, 2 years ago, I had spent nearly 3 years looking for one. My 99 FC501 pretty fell in my lap, although I had to pay a bomb for it. For my 00 FC501/4 I spent nearly 5 years looking for it and paid too much for a bike that needed a complete restoration. The one advantage in all this time to find a bike is that you can search for and get the bling bits along the way. I was lucky enough to pick up a set of "special"  48mm WP forks, Ohlins shocks, SPES exhaust, HAAS hubs, Akropovic exhaust system, etc along the way for next to nothing cause I wasn't  desperate or specifically looking form them.

[JohnnyO]

The class is Evo which is basically the same as our pre 90 class but they do stretch the rules a bit over there. Maybe it's an old set of factory forks he had and decided to fit them?
I did read a bit about the bike on MXtrax but can't remember the specifics of it now.

[BAHNZY]

Perhaps this how bikes should be advertised. Back in the day they had right

[BAHNZY]

And the bike that the current generation thinks started the 4 stroke era we currently enjoy.