Posts
478
Joined
12/15/2013
Location
GB
Goodluckmonkey
7/1/2015 3:48am
7/1/2015 3:48am
Edited Date/Time
7/2/2015 1:07pm
One of the things I really like about this place is that people are into their old dirtbikes for a variety of reasons, and are therefore passionate about different aspects of them.
For me it's all about the ride, re-living my teenage years, and competing on the bike I rode decades ago, but against modern machinery.
Riding Canada Heights last year on the bike I rode as a kid was a promise made with my best mate fulfilled (albeit 2 decades late), and I got all misty eyed waiting for the flag to drop.
I love spannering on the bike and find BFO g the aftermarket parts I couldn't afford as a teen just as much as the time spent in the saddle.
I totally get why some people cherish theirs so much, they don't ride them, and are just happy to stand there with a beer and gaze upon the machine they always lusted after, or that holds dear memories.
Why did you build yours?
For me it's all about the ride, re-living my teenage years, and competing on the bike I rode decades ago, but against modern machinery.
Riding Canada Heights last year on the bike I rode as a kid was a promise made with my best mate fulfilled (albeit 2 decades late), and I got all misty eyed waiting for the flag to drop.
I love spannering on the bike and find BFO g the aftermarket parts I couldn't afford as a teen just as much as the time spent in the saddle.
I totally get why some people cherish theirs so much, they don't ride them, and are just happy to stand there with a beer and gaze upon the machine they always lusted after, or that holds dear memories.
Why did you build yours?
from 1987
pw50
yz125
yz250
yz490
i need a yz 80 they are not ridden just want to have my own show room
Some monkeybikers regard their little bikes as time machines, taking them back to the days of their youth. I rode minibikes when I was young, but they were underpowered compared to this bike I currently own. Sure, it'll never win races or show trophies, but I couldn't care less... when I'm grabbing third gear on a bitchin' dirt road with nothing but scenery all around me, feeling like Steve McQueen as the bike powers through some turn, the last thing on my mind is competitive racing or show trophies, believe me. I'm out there to RIDE, and my little offroad thrasher has just enough power to keep me happy, while working the clutch and shift lever makes me feel as if I'm on a bigger bike. Half the time, I'm laughing my damn fool head off as I sail over some whoops or power through a berm. Yeah, the monkeybike may look goofy to some snooty riders, but most people I've met have instantly taken a liking to this little FrankenBike of mine.
Fucked up as this country is right now, with no end in sight to the criminal machinations of scumbag politicians and their corporate slavemasters, it's getting harder and harder to find true freedom in my life. I find it while sailing small craft, and I find it while monkeybiking in remote or fairly remote venues. It's the only way for this old school local: saddle up and head into the wilderness to escape the human rat-race of so-called "civilization." No ridiculous traffic, no TV or Internet (by choice), no lyin' badge-sportin' greaseballs or robed sodomite pocket judges, no scrub queer D.A.s who ruin lives with their false charges and malicious prosecutions, none of that fucking trash in sight, just good clean wilderness and heaps of wildlife... rabbits and lizards on the trail, big ol' raptors wheeling overhead, a curious hummingbird inspecting my bike as I take a beer break by a patch of wildflowers, all that good $h!t nature has to offer.
You ask why riders like their old dirt bikes? FREEDOM, that's why... freedom in the wilderness, the best kind of all. Racing is great for some riders, but this little FrankenBike of mine will never see a track. It'll see a $h!tload of primo dirt roads in remote areas, and some trails out in places like Lark Canyon in McCain Valley, but my primary mission with this little offroad thrasher is to GET AWAY from all things citified, all competitive events, all rules & regulations, etc., etc. I actually bought the bike to ride up into the Santa Rosa Mountains and get some shots of the Salton Sea, since I sailed the length & breadth of the Salton aboard my 12' Obamanomic Megayacht (MiniFish), and I'm looking forward to pulling that number this winter, along with a bunch of other cool desert expeditions in remote areas. I guess it all boils down to "HOPE & CHANGE"---as I plan these wilderness adventures, I HOPE to escape the miserable clusterf#ck this country has become by CHANGING my GPS coordinates, 10-4???
Enough said... I'm a long-winded bastard when I get started, LOL. Time for another long swig o' cold beer, the proverbial "hair of the dog" after my birthday blowout yesterday. Fifty-three years on this goddam planet, hard to believe I even made it this far, considering that many of my best friends have already died weird untimely deaths in recent years. It's ironic, really, for guys who climbed some gnarly routes and cliffs in the past to die of such relatively tame causes, but that's how it goes in life... nobody knows how the end game will truly play out, despite all precautions. One can cheat Death on occasion, but like a good poker player, he always wins in the end, LOL. We all got it coming too, unless scientists ramp up the cryogenics and cloning scene. Christ, maybe I won't die after all: maybe my frozen head will lead to eventual rebirth... ah, fuck it, the way this country is swirling down the shitter, I don't wanna come back, LOL. Give me a good clean death while sailing or monkeybiking, maybe an "accident" while remote camping (falling down drunk and striking my head on a boulder), and that'll work for me.
I'm outta here, color me gone, ADIOS, PINCHE JOTOS!!! Er... I mean MUCHACHOS!!! LOL.
MXGP, the IOM TT, the NW200, MotoGP. That's my poison.
I like your attitude man, it's all about freedom and getting away from it all.
2 hours a day on the motorway with nobody for company apart from the 3-cylinder wail from my Triumph maintains my sanity, but beating on the 125 (or my 200) is my ultimate therapy.
The Shop
I'm not saying it happens even a fraction of how much I think about it. But it has never gone away
There's a MINT, low hours 87 YZ80 on eBay right now. I had one of those BITD and looking at that bike makes me crazy nostalgic. I remember the night we got it (as a new leftover). We got home after dark, too late to fire it up. We were leaving to go on vacation the next morning and I stayed in the garage just looking at it until about midnight. They made me go upstairs and go to bed. I got up at like 5 am the next morning and ran straight to the garage again, just sitting on and looking at it until we left. The whole week we were at the beach, I don't think I thought about anything but that bike.
When I look at the pics in that ebay listing, its like I am back in the garage.
A few years back I raced my 96 CR500 at a hilly track, my first race in a few years. During the first moto I had become emotional and had to take it easy for a couple laps to recompose. I was thinking this was my favorite scenario in moto x, being on a 500. What a sport this is, it just doesnt compare to anything else!
Call me a wuss but I guarantee you there are many our there who get emotional (in a good way) over this sport! It was my Mike Alessi moment haha.
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