Tyler Bowers, you are a bad a** dude.

Turbojez
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Turbojez
Edited Date/Time 10/9/2019 1:17pm
Jumping what he did on that ancient KX? Crazy. My hat goes off to this man, hope he'll have a great 2020 season!
Seriously I thought the bike is going to break in half if he cased anything. Almost 30 years old bike. I am impressed.
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Maverick313 10/6/2019 7:28am
10/6/2019 7:28am
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
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Dirty Points 10/6/2019 7:30am
10/6/2019 7:30am
Maverick313 wrote:
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big...
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
Was Emig's bike a 3 decade old Craigslist special?
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mwssquad827
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mwssquad827 10/6/2019 7:37am
10/6/2019 7:37am
Maverick313 wrote:
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big...
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
Dirty Points wrote:
Was Emig's bike a 3 decade old Craigslist special?
No but bowers bike isn’t in craigslist Bargin bin shape anymore.. so not a valid arguement.. but it was impressive what he was doing..
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Maverick313 10/6/2019 7:37am
10/6/2019 7:37am
Dirty Points wrote:
Was Emig's bike a 3 decade old Craigslist special?
No. But surely Bowers inspected the frame before he built the bike.

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CSAR FE
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CSAR FE 10/6/2019 7:38am
10/6/2019 7:38am Edited Date/Time 10/6/2019 7:39am
The mounts for the linkage are weak on the KX500, and the engine mounts on the lower frame rails can crack. I’m pretty sure he had his frame gusseted. If you gusset the frame and complete the welds around a lot of the mounting points, it’s pretty unlikely to break.

KX Guru has a pretty good video on the KX500 frame weak points somewhere on YouTube.
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Dirty Points 10/6/2019 7:40am
10/6/2019 7:40am
Maverick313 wrote:
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big...
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
Dirty Points wrote:
Was Emig's bike a 3 decade old Craigslist special?
mwssquad827 wrote:
No but bowers bike isn’t in craigslist Bargin bin shape anymore.. so not a valid arguement.. but it was impressive what he was doing..
Well, I can speak from experience that Kawi frames from that era were comparitively fragile, and I'm certainly no Emig or Bowers.
gerg
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gerg 10/6/2019 5:17pm
10/6/2019 5:17pm
Holy shit that pic is awesome!
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Looby321
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Looby321 10/6/2019 5:21pm
10/6/2019 5:21pm
Let’s put it back on track, Bowers is a bad dude.
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CPR
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CPR 10/7/2019 4:14am
10/7/2019 4:14am
Looby321 wrote:
Let’s put it back on track, Bowers is a bad dude.
No Pastrana is a bad dude.
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KX500
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KX500 10/7/2019 4:23am
10/7/2019 4:23am
The whole event was awesome! But the 500s were the best of it all.

And how cool is it that Bowers built himself a KX500 just because he wanted to?

Really hope the open class is stacked next year.
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dickjackson170 10/7/2019 5:45am
10/7/2019 5:45am
This place is amazing. These guys aren't taking barn finds, hitting them with a layer of WD and hitting the track. I'd be willing to bet this "30 year old bike" was in better better condition than 99% of our machines.
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rsd47
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rsd47 10/7/2019 5:59am
10/7/2019 5:59am
That picture is awesome
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AH387
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AH387 10/7/2019 6:36am
10/7/2019 6:36am
I can't imagine trying to harness the 500cc beasts on a track like that. Those 2 guys made it look easy. Props to them both.
WW444
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WW444 10/7/2019 7:48am
10/7/2019 7:48am
Imagine the arm pump those beast deliver.. And these guys line up 3 times back to back.
early
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early 10/7/2019 7:52am
10/7/2019 7:52am
dickjackson170 wrote:
This place is amazing. These guys aren't taking barn finds, hitting them with a layer of WD and hitting the track. I'd be willing to bet...
This place is amazing. These guys aren't taking barn finds, hitting them with a layer of WD and hitting the track. I'd be willing to bet this "30 year old bike" was in better better condition than 99% of our machines.
Give him a little credit, how many kx500s have you seen on a supercross track? That's a first for me.
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Jeremy Macbeth 10/7/2019 8:33am
10/7/2019 8:33am
CSAR FE wrote:
The mounts for the linkage are weak on the KX500, and the engine mounts on the lower frame rails can crack. I’m pretty sure he had...
The mounts for the linkage are weak on the KX500, and the engine mounts on the lower frame rails can crack. I’m pretty sure he had his frame gusseted. If you gusset the frame and complete the welds around a lot of the mounting points, it’s pretty unlikely to break.

KX Guru has a pretty good video on the KX500 frame weak points somewhere on YouTube.
From the Dirt Bike Magazine write-up on Bower's KX500:

"After the frame and subframe were restored to their original condition, both had gussets welded into key positions throughout, making them just about indestructible. After gusseting, the subframe and main frame were sent to Full Throttle Powder Coating for some neon green love."
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YamaLink
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YamaLink 10/7/2019 5:55pm
10/7/2019 5:55pm
I think Bower's rep and marketability has increased exponentially the past few years as both a fill-in, hard-working privateer and at special events such as this weekend's. Wasn't he the Arenacross kid who took out Danny Smith and others on a regular basis?
Maverick313 10/7/2019 7:17pm
10/7/2019 7:17pm
YamaLink wrote:
I think Bower's rep and marketability has increased exponentially the past few years as both a fill-in, hard-working privateer and at special events such as this...
I think Bower's rep and marketability has increased exponentially the past few years as both a fill-in, hard-working privateer and at special events such as this weekend's. Wasn't he the Arenacross kid who took out Danny Smith and others on a regular basis?
In fairness everyone took someone out on a regular basis in Arenacross.
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Sweetd31
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Sweetd31 10/7/2019 7:34pm
10/7/2019 7:34pm
Maverick313 wrote:
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big...
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
Can one of the old-timers round here give me some insight on this photo. I have seen it a 1,000 times and it still baffles me. I struggle to have any perspective. Where was this, where is his landing, takeoff, etc, is it an illusion?
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Squirrelings 10/7/2019 7:43pm
10/7/2019 7:43pm
Maverick313 wrote:
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big...
I loved the 500 race, but I doubt he had any chance of breaking it in half. It's a MX bike, it can take some big hits. Emig wasn't worried about breaking his 500.
Sweetd31 wrote:
Can one of the old-timers round here give me some insight on this photo. I have seen it a 1,000 times and it still baffles me...
Can one of the old-timers round here give me some insight on this photo. I have seen it a 1,000 times and it still baffles me. I struggle to have any perspective. Where was this, where is his landing, takeoff, etc, is it an illusion?
Jerez Spain 1996 MXdN. Big downhill triple. The race is on YouTube if you want to watch it. McGrath and Lamson were his teammates that year and they all did very well.
toomanykaws
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toomanykaws 10/7/2019 8:10pm
10/7/2019 8:10pm
Perhaps many of the broken KX500 frames, the stock unbalanced engine didn't help. Tyler has 450 suspension that has to help cushion any landing out by a margin. I have a factory reinforced frame. Balanced engine and its pretty smooth. Course not jumping 100 footers either. Hard to beat a 500 for the desert. Like a Caddie.
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lcgordon711 10/8/2019 6:55am
10/8/2019 6:55am
Why did bowers have a fanny pack on, on the starting gate for the second race? It was not on for the 3rd. Was it to keep tools to tighten the rattled bolts coming off?
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DPR250R
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DPR250R 10/8/2019 7:06am
10/8/2019 7:06am
lcgordon711 wrote:
Why did bowers have a fanny pack on, on the starting gate for the second race? It was not on for the 3rd. Was it to...
Why did bowers have a fanny pack on, on the starting gate for the second race? It was not on for the 3rd. Was it to keep tools to tighten the rattled bolts coming off?
Had an extra B8ES in there.
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lcgordon711
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lcgordon711 10/8/2019 7:07am
10/8/2019 7:07am
DPR250R wrote:
Had an extra B8ES in there.
Probably extra room for his balls
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yzvet426
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yzvet426 10/8/2019 7:41am
10/8/2019 7:41am
DPR250R wrote:
Had an extra B8ES in there.
lcgordon711 wrote:
Probably extra room for his balls
Winner of the internets goes to this
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mac3-d
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mac3-d 10/8/2019 8:16am
10/8/2019 8:16am

KW62
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KW62 10/8/2019 9:05am
10/8/2019 9:05am
Just heard on Pulp that Bowers donated his prize money to Broc Glover's Cystic Fibrosis fundraising thus further validating the title of this thread.
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BobbyM
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BobbyM 10/8/2019 12:30pm
10/8/2019 12:30pm
Turbojez wrote:
Jumping what he did on that ancient KX? Crazy. My hat goes off to this man, hope he'll have a great 2020 season! Seriously I thought...
Jumping what he did on that ancient KX? Crazy. My hat goes off to this man, hope he'll have a great 2020 season!
Seriously I thought the bike is going to break in half if he cased anything. Almost 30 years old bike. I am impressed.
Per racer x, the 88 kx500 and the 89 were totally different bikes. The 89 and all the years after were pretty much unchanged sans the upside down fork... which weren't any better than the 89 cartridge fork until later on.
GODZILLA
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GODZILLA 10/8/2019 1:44pm
10/8/2019 1:44pm
Squirrelings wrote:
Jerez Spain 1996 MXdN. Big downhill triple. The race is on YouTube if you want to watch it. McGrath and Lamson were his teammates that year...
Jerez Spain 1996 MXdN. Big downhill triple. The race is on YouTube if you want to watch it. McGrath and Lamson were his teammates that year and they all did very well.
If my memory's good, it's a quad -that was originally designed as a set of downhill doubles.
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GODZILLA
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GODZILLA 10/8/2019 1:51pm
10/8/2019 1:51pm
lcgordon711 wrote:
Why did bowers have a fanny pack on, on the starting gate for the second race? It was not on for the 3rd. Was it to...
Why did bowers have a fanny pack on, on the starting gate for the second race? It was not on for the 3rd. Was it to keep tools to tighten the rattled bolts coming off?
Audio recording system, I'd guess.

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