What’s the one bike you’ve always lusted after?

Here’s another one - neighbor kid had one and so did my cousin. I used to watch in awe.

A great question! There were so many ridiculous, boneheaded things about our bikes back then. I started riding in 1968. We just didn't know, that's the only explanation. Think about this: the suspension revolution didn't start until '73. Yet, some out of the box thinker in 1959 with a 300lb BSA and a welder could have done it even back then. Answers were right there in front of us and we didn't see it.

Liked this also

I would love to get my first bike back. All my friends got new cr80s and kx80s and my parents couldn't afford one so they got a beat up kdx80 for like $400. I rode the heck out of that bike all over the everglades and loxahatchee with tracks everywhere.

I rode Honda most of my life and in 2015 I was riding a private track weekly and we all got the new bikes of different brands. I rode my buddies 2015 kx450 and it fit like a glove compared to my 15crf450. It sucks when you get on a different bike and instantly go faster than your own bike. He got a 16 kxf and it fealt just like my cramped Honda and didn't really like the ergos. So a 2015 Kxf450 is in my list.
And definitely one of these for the house track.

Every Suzuki that Roger raced.

Marc Velkeneers OW27? Good choice. I remember when that bike was on display at the Telford bike show in its white and red livery and a few other parts. Good times when Hannah hung out with us at Glen Helen in 2002 at the YROC race for the better part of an hour telling us stories including when he had to give his OW back to them to get paid out on his contract that Yamaha stiffed him on when he left for Honda. And then about them destroying it.

For me, it was the 1986 Honda CR 125. That was the bike I wanted during my teenage years. The fact that Micky Dymond won a title on it and Johnny O' killed it at the MXdN on that bike sealed the deal for me.

83 cr60

One of Lechiens factory KX500s

As I understand it, to get optimal power (most power over widest range) with an expansion chamber without a reed valve, power valve or water cooling, a down pipe least compromises the angles/diameters/lengths of the optimal pipe design and is easiest to fit to the existing bike. We take 2T power for granted now, but they were struggling to get it in small bores and 250s, and struggling to make it usable in big bores. If you try to run to run an up pipe through the rider compartment, it clashes with the need for the big cylinder/head finning that reduces power loss, when you are trying to keep the rider compartment narrow. Flattening the body of the chamber to tuck it in better as an up pipe costs a little power, as can the tighter turn of the head pipe around the frame downtube(s).

You can see this dilemma develop on Sachs engined 125/100s when the later ones get the huge finning around 1970; Sachs/DKW and the earlier Pentons cut off a lot of cylinder finning on one side to tuck up pipes in better, and the 72-74 Penton and Rupp chopped a groove through the head finning instead to route the pipe over the top. PIpe dimensions and finning were at odds there.

Yamaha and Husqvarna made do with flattened up pipes, and guess which marques are early reed valve adopters to get wider/higher power output? That's right. You also have to make the engine compartment of the frame taller so you can tuck the pipe in above the cylinder/head if you want to keep the pipe rounder; you have to design around it from the start. To get high peak power and the broadest powerband, a piston port engine requires optimal intake & exhaust resonances, and a downpipe was an easier way to get the latter; I understand it as the reed valve actively making more optimal intake resonance as rpm changes, making it possible to get away with a less optimal exhaust pipe shape. You notice that Suzuki went to up pipes when they went to case reeds.

At the production level, piston-port 125s were obsolete after about 1975, and about 1979 for 250s; they had to give up peak power to get powerband width, or vice versa. A tuner's really well-built one with lots of finning might still hang in at the top level in longer motos for another year or so, but had reached the end of its development. And I believe DG, for example, was putting downpipes on its first-gen monoshock YZ125s just to get better power (and less cost to build a less complex configuration of cones).

Another factor was ground clearance: with short travel, you could run the pipe underneath and still have ground clearance for moto without the seat height/CG being too high. We also didn't have to contend with deep ruts much unless it was a mud race; your downpipe was in more danger from big rocks, and you weren't likely to massively crush the body of your downpipe on the track. 8"-8.5" of travel seems about the limit for trying to get away with a downpipe.

You can see all these issues with modern lowboy expansion chambers, whose power is better without compromising the rider compartment, but whose shape is optimized for power by curling the headpipe and body around way out where they can really get squashed in an accident.

And it was always different for off-road bikes, which needed ground clearance more than optimal power--you see more up pipes on those from the start.

My all time favorite is the 1987 CR250; I also loved the 1984 KX125.

As you can tell by my photo I had a sweet Maico but mt 4 speed Montesa 360 was still my fave!. Loved that bike

I'll never forget my first love...

Dang!

always wanted an aprillia supermotard SVX450 twin,

The KTM SXS 125 Rattray edition was "it" for me growing up, i never owned one because i rode 85s until 09. I would love to restore one someday in the future.

NICE!. Just bought one and restoring it to the pictures. Adding some go-fast in the process, but its gonna be a clean little 80 for sure.

Must have read the Birt Bike magazine test for this bike 100 times. Finally after a long summer of work at 12-years-old My dad rolled in one day with it. I proceeded to nearly loop it 10 minutes later on the asphalt.

Rode all the 80's from the big 4 in the 80's, but never got a chance to ride one of these. I've heard they wernt that great, but I'd like to decide for myself. I've never seen one up for sale.

Ever since my first trip overseas for six days where I saw Flo pink TM 80's screaming around special tests I had to have one. By the time I had enough cake to buy one they weren't pink anymore and the distributor for them wasn't interested in selling the 125en versions so I never did get my hands on one.

Ding ding! We have a winner! I have always wanted this bike.

Yeah - great looking bike.  

years ago, my neighbor brought home a new Bultaco Alpina, I thought it was the most beautiful thing ever made.  

I have sn 72-8 (I think - it's either -7 or -8)
A 608