Help moto retro illustrated

[firko]

I haven't got my copy yet so it must be coming this week.....I hope.
I lost all of my heart and bravado when I endoed from my DT1 in 1999. I've never been able to ride anywhere near as fast again. Whereas jumps had never previously bothered me, now anything bigger than my driveway now scares the shitter out of me. I've had far worse crashes before and since that particular one but it's the one that damaged my psyche preventing me from even thinking of racing hard again. It turned me into a big nancy boy chicken.

[Graeme M]

Well, at least you had the trigger to make you chicken. I was born that way! Jumps... whoa. I just cannot ever tell my hand to twist the throttle any harder than a poofteenth off idle when i get to a jump... And yet, it hasn't helped at all in regard to avoiding injury, cos I've had far too many painful ones the past few years.

Maybe I should just take up spectating, reading VMX and Moto Retro, and telling the young uns how fast I used to be...

[vmx42]

Thats what I love about this place, you never know which way the treads are going to go… Always makes for interesting reading.

And Graeme, how do you catch the youngsters to tell 'em how fast you were… they are too quick

Ahhh, the glory of old [older] age.
VMX42

P.S. And Tony, I don't think the V-strom [or whatever it was called] is smaller than a cigarette butt…

[090]

You need to learn how to tuck and roll Graeme!

[Graeme M]

Look, I know this is a thread highjack but that's what I like about forums, the meandering nature of threads.

Tuck and roll... I used to be an expert at this, and managed to avoid injury almost every crash. But lately... It all started on my HL500. In this 4-stroke race I got a burst of testosterone and took off as fast as I could go. For the first half a lap I think I was in the lead and then Roy Gay snuck by. I thought, hey I think I can stay with him. I thought that just moments before for some unknown reason the thing threw me flat on my back and winded me.  What the? No warning, no nothing. Just bang.

Not much later I was on my Husky 500 at ACT and it was a wet race. I was going OK in some race, maybe an Over 35s or something, and as I approached a jump it happened again. Bang. Flat on my back, winded. WTF? Investigation later revealed some lousy little branch just under the mud. As soon as the back wheel hit it the bike just went sideways and highsided me, flat on my back against the jump face.

OK, so those were just unusual crashes, no time to tuck and roll. You'd think from then on things would be fine, but no.

A little later I am racing my 05 YZ125 at the Coopers Gully grasstrack. It's a cold and off the start my specs fogged up and I couldn't see a thing. So, back right off, so far I am in last place. Dimly I can see this little V-shaped gully and I know I am gonna go slow through it, but I am not sure if there are guys behind me, so I go way left. Bang, I'm flat on my face with a sore hand. No warning at all. There was this great big rock just offline that I hit with the front wheel. It was so sudden that my hand was caught between the grip and clutch lever, splitting the bone. OK, that really hurt but good old TwistandShout convinced me I could keep riding if I taped it up.

Sure I can. So, a few races later I reckon I can do that. Into the first corner and some guy goes down. This time, I have the time to tuck and roll, except that the guys bike follows me and ankle taps me as I go over the top. Down I go, whacking the SAME hand. The ambulance guy just shook his head as I lay there moaning...

This is why spending my days reading VMX and Moto Retro and watching vintage motocross just may be the better option!!!

[brent j]

Graeme I know what you mean about the crashes becoming quicker. I remember a crash going something like this.
You feel the bike starting to go, you get a foot down and try to steady things, move the body to one side, try and fight it, you keep on trying to stay upright and even as you fall you manage to get an arm out or tuck and roll then you go down. It all used to happen in slow motion.

Now days I'm riding along (or doing my impersonation of racing) and then I'm laying on the ground and waiting to see what is hurting! I seem to miss out on all the stages in between!
But on the bright side I suppose there's no longer any worry about the embarrassment of falling off, just a sense of relief when I can get up and walk away.

Brent

[GMC]

Yes, injuries can sure slow down productivity, almost as much as buying another bike
A couple of years ago some mates were racing in Viper at Barrabool so I thought I would go along & pit for them. Dave rang me on the Saturday & said bring your riding gear along & ride one of the bikes in some races. I thought nah, don't want to hop on a strange bike (a Maico ) & try to go race pace.
Nup, got too much work on, just cant' afford any injuries at the moment. I'll be fine just videoing some races.
Well, got down their & the rain was coming down sideways so didn't dare get the camera's out of the car.
Helped push the ambulance out of the pits at one stage.
Not long after I fell in the mud & snapped my ankle.
It still all happened in slow motion though

[VMX247]

arrived yesterday-better half stole it off me,probably cause I was on here   
love it
cheers Alison

[Mike]

Mine arrived last week,looks like a great mag.

[firko]

Has anyone got issue #2 of Moto Retro yet? It was supposed to come out in November and here we are almost in March and still zip. I complained like buggery about issue #1 taking so long and got some bullshit story blaming DHL for the mail delays but 3 fu*king months(September-December) to get here is a joke.
Now we have issue#2 also three months late.

Methinks Moto Retro will soon be Moto Deado for the second time. This shits me, you just can't treat subscribers like this in such a tight market, there are plenty of other places for them to spend their subscription money. Issue #1 showed promise but I think it's about to join Mark Thompsons Classic Bike Rider (CBR) in dead magazine hell.

[Graeme M]

On his website Mitch reckons he's fallen behind and it went to the printers late January. He seemed to think it'd be out mid Feb, but there's been no update since. My guess is it's fallen a little behind even that schedule. It looks like it's a wing and a prayer undertaking, possibly more prayer than wing at that. His injuries from that crash put him behind and I don't think he's yet managed to get back on track. I don't have a problem with that sort of thing but he probably could do with letting his subscribers know!

[AjayVMX]

Your next VMX will be out in a week or three...   

[Graeme M]

The difference is that we can live without Moto Retro...

[AjayVMX]

The cheque's in the mail Graeme...  

[All Things 414]