Features

Remember When?

Looking Back In Time

By Rick Sieman

Remember when ... the starting line at desert races was full every Sunday? Early 70s in the Mojave.

Blasts From The Past

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember when... the best riders in the world were on CZs, wore Martini jerseys, pudding-bowl helmets and the bikes had un-muffled expansion chambers. Classic Roger DeCoster in the late 60s at the Santa Cruz Inter-Am.

Remember when ... Ronny Nelson was the fastest American on a Montesa. Santa Cruz Inter-Am.

Remember when ... the starting line was full of Honda Scramblers and Bultaco Banditos in the Open Class? Right around 1969, this was what it looked like at Corriganville.

Remember when ... Roger DeCoster shocked the world with the weird Ribi front end on his works Suzuki. The year was 1979.
Remember when & riders used to put their numbers on with electrician. s tape?
Remember & dead  engine starts and the big Maicos always pulling the hole shots?
Remember when ... riders wore leg protection like this? Good  old football knee and shin pads were common until the early . 70s.
Remember when ... Huskies used to utterly dominate in the desert? At the start of the Mint 400 in 1970, a pair of 400 8-speeds get under way. Check out the genuine leathers.
Remember when ... plastic fenders were so new that people did this to them all the time? This plastic was on the first CAN-AM released to the public in 1973.
Remember when ... Preston Petty used to race 125s in all the Baja events and nearly get the overall win? After riding this Deek in 1972, he switched to a 125 Elsinore the next year.
Remember when ... riding gloves cost about six bucks a pair? The glove of choice in the late . 60s was Webco, but by the mid 70s, even Honda was private-labeling their own version of the classic Webcos.
Remember when ... Jimmy Weinert used to brag about beating everyone before a race, and then went out and backed it up with a win? He. s astride a big-bore factory Kawasaki in this 1973 mud event.
Remember when ... open face helmets without visors were the norm? This bedraggled rider blinks away the eyeball grit at the finish line of the 1974 Barstow to Vegas desert classic.
Remember when ... Tony Bell used to draw those great Motocross Cat cartoons in Cycle News? That . hippy. on the left is Bill Kasson, who owns a shop in Texas and still races.
Remember when ... teen-ager Marty Tripes won the first Super Bowl of Motocross at the Coliseum?  He beat Torleif Hansen in the International class, via a three-moto format back in 1972.
Remember when ... European bikes used to dominate the 250 class? At the 1973 US GP in Carlsbad, in the first turn, from left to right: CZ, Bultaco, Ossa, Husky, Maico and another Bul.
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Ah, electrical tape numbers! for my 1st couple of races in 1970, 171, not very artistic, but you gota start someplace.
DANRIDE
I remember some of that. One thing I thought I had been mistaken about was the 3 moto format. I thought I remembered a 3 moto format at the first big race I attended in the early seventies. I saw a lot of big names down in St. Petersburg Florida. Did I remember that wrong or is that the way it was? Hell, I was only 12!
Tharrell
The Super Bowl of Motocross! Damn, how could I forget? I went to that first race in '72. Talk about a memory shock! I plum forgot about that until now, 39 years later! (damn I'm old!) Thanks, Rick!
David Fruhling