The Dumbest thing someone has ever told you about dirt bikes

No bike on earth looked better than that Cr60 back then.

Always on craigslist. 

Factory plastics, they are lighter than stock plastic.

This (Honda) was James Stewart's, factory race bike. 

Apparently I greatly underestimate the awesome power of a 20+ year old 250 2 stroke  

That dirt bikes are bad for the environment when they actually made me appreciate the environment and it's beauty at a young age.

My favorite Jody’s box 

By Jody Weisel 

I’m a motorcycle racer, plain and simple. That’s what I do and it is all I do. A weekend never passes that I don’t race. Injured, tired, busy or slow, I show up 50 times a year. The only people that I hang out with are motorcycle racers. I have the utmost respect for the people who go to the starting line, so I wasn’t surprised when I pulled into the gas station on the way back from Glen Helen last weekend when a guy walked up to the Jodymobile and looked at my bike.

“You race?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said while pumping gas.

“I used to race motocross,” he said in reply. He was a normal looking guy, well dressed,  clean shaven, not young, but not old. I nodded my approval, but kept pumping gas. Then, he started telling me how he used to be a famous racer, but that something terrible had happened the last time he raced and it made him quit.

“What’s your name?” I asked. I wasn’t really all that interested, but I figured that I might have heard of him; after all, I knew pretty much everybody who ever raced in the big-time.

“Randy Slicer,” he answered. “I was on Team Honda. I traveled around the country. Works bike, box van, factory mechanic. The whole ball of wax.”

I’d never heard of him, but it was possible that he had a shop ride or was a local hero in someplace that wasn’t very local. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Ever win any big races? I asked.

“Just Nationals,” he said matter of factly.

“AMA Nationals?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah, but I never won a Grand Prix or Supercross. I always had bad luck at those,” he said.

I knew this guy had never won a National (I’m pretty confident that I remember the names of all the riders who ever won an AMA National) and even though the pump clicked off I couldn’t resist hearing more. “Ever win the National Championship?” I asked.

“That’s a sad story,” he said. “I was in the points lead with one race to go back in 1992. The final 250 National was in Texas. There was a $100,000 bonus on the line. I’d had a good season up to that point, but Bradshaw, Kiedrowski and Ward were only a few points behind me. Whoever won in Texas would be the National Champion.”

“That must have been an intense day of racing?” I said.

“The pressure was incredible,” he replied. “All the Honda big-wigs had flown in from Japan to watch me win. Team Honda had built me a special one-off machine that was more titanium than steel. I holeshot the first moto and won going away. They had this big double jump and I was only guy who could clear it. Unfortunately, Damon, Mike and Jeff finished right behind me. I could still mathematically lose the title if I didn’t win the second moto. Honda had ten mechanics working on my bike, the press was all over me for interviews and the line around my pit was ten feet deep with spectators.”

He continued the story by saying, “At the start of the second moto I passed Bradshaw, Stanton, LaRocco and Ward and pulled away. It was my day. I knew that I’d be on the cover of all the magazines once I won the Championship. I started lapping the backmarkers like a maniac. I think I lapped up to second place…and then it happened. It was the worst thing that could happen to a racer…ever!”

“What was it?” I asked. I was fascinated with his story and wanted to hear how it ended (even though I had been at the final National in 1992 and it was held in Troy, Ohio, and JMB won it).

“On the final lap, with half a lap to go, I starting hearing a funny noise; a rattling sound. I tried to nurse the engine home, but with three corners to go the engine seized. It turned out later that Honda was using an experimental ceramic piston and a piece had flaked off. I had to stand by the side of the track and watch my AMA National Championship go down the drain.”

“That’s really sad,” I said sympathetically. “What did you do then?”

“I was so angry,” he said,” that I pulled the keys out of the ignition and threw them into the crowd.”

It’s a 125, but it’s jetted up to a 250.

A “fouled plug” can be cleaned and reused.

My dad picked me up from school one time when I was in the 5th grade with my RM80 in the bike of the truck and some kid came up to me and told me he could do a backflip. Mind you this was in like 2001 and Carey Hart was the only one who had done it at the time 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 

Need to get him to a national and on pitbits 

FYI-

I use to clean all my spark plugs. B8ES

My dad had a little mini cleaner/blaster that you threaded into and they would look like new. It worked for years while racing in the late 70’s, early 80’s. Saved at least $2.00 a week. 🤣

I put just over 100 hours on the plug in my ‘23 KTM XC300, before changing it. It was definitely ready, but I was always amazed at how clean the bike runs. Some like the TBI and others don’t, but it’s the cleanest running bike I’ve ever owned. 

“With the right work ethic and trainer, anyone can reach the top levels of the sport.”

Talent is 90% of the equation.  Ya either got, or ya don’t.  The last 10% is hard work.  

My high school Cross Country coach once said to me, "Maybe you should quit racing Motocross during the Cross Country season...?" That was pretty dumb of him, I guess. I never ran CC or track again. 

“How hard can it be?  You have a motor.”  🤣😂

To be fair,  sometimes its out of ignorance.  I brought out a buddy with me once, he just wanted to have a beer or two while I rode, get away from the wife for the afternoon,  whatever.

So on the way out we're just chatting about riding and it was the usual,  " but don't you just turn the throttle"?  So I told him he's welcome to take it out and just tool around a bit.  Start unloading and suddenly its becoming real,  "  oh its bigger than it looks when you're riding "  So I fire it up, and once she's warm I start doing the two stroke braaps,  Real crispy cr250.  He sat on it and that was it.  "noooo way man, this thing is nuts"

Sometimes just getting close to one is all it takes.  

Someone once told me that it was possible to backflip one.

 A guy told me I had to put limit straps on the forks and shock otherwise sooner or later they will come apart in the air.

Had an old high school friend go riding with us one day, in the mid-nineties. He asked if any of us "nac". Said he does over the step up at Hurricane Hills. Not one minute into riding, somehow he got out of control and went side saddle into the fence. Told him nacs are supposed to be done in the air. He mumbled something about someone cutting him off, left and never heard from him again.

This. 

"That things cool, how fast does it go?"

 A former local Harley shop owner was trying to say that the cam or intake vale, something like that. Was not adjusted right on a YZ125 after he heard a customer  load their cold bike into their truck. 

 I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't.  

He was always talking about how he built engines and did all the work. But I never saw him do any. I think he just dressed up dirty enough to look like he was working on a bike. And all he did was change the oil and filters on Harleys and BS his way through the rest. Maybe her knew something about those harley engines, But he sure had no clue about a 2 stroke.

 That shop closed down a few years later.

Back when I was in High School, this one kid used to wear his Jersey and Pants to school, with his goggles on his neck. His explanation was he had a race after school, and he needed to wear his gear to save time once school got out so he could make it to the race. I still chuckle thinking about it, and I graduated 17 years ago. 

I too have heard similar a thousand times, a few years ago I became mates with a dude who wasn't exactly a bullshitter but lets say more of an exaggerator, he wasn't into mx, but another mate and I were talking about it around him and he goes "Did I ever tell you guys when I was in England I went to the gym with an ex pro rider? Pretty sure he was a world champ'' My other mate and I shared a look of 'here we go'

Then he goes "Dave was his name Dave Thorpe! You guys know him?" haha I googled a pic of him and he goes yeah that's him haha 

I have a mate that's not at all into mx but says that stuff, mainly cause he knows it riles me up then one day I started talking about how tough the riders are that ride with broken bones and shit.. and he goes 'ooor that proves that the bike does all the work' haha 

Kawasaki was going to re-release a two stroke, Prado was going to be competitive in the USA, Tomac and Nicholetti were retiring, RC was actually good at public speaking, and that the AMA represents us well and is interested in our right to ride.