Zach Osbornes KTM 80 restoration

I found this with a Google search. I don't have an X account but I'm able to see it:

https://x.com/zacho_16/status/2012524244312146287

I remember those unicorns back in da day. Never saw one at a local race, only MXA photographs. I really like it when a Pro racer pines over one of old special race bikes. Good listen on Moto:60 show as Zach gushed over the bike and lucking into a guy that restored it for him. 

I raced a kid who had one of these at my very first motocross race in '86. He told me he got it at the KTM shop in Mojave of all places. Hard to believe such a rare bike was available at such a small dealership, but probably all of the KTM shops were like that back then.

I remember seeing them in mxa back in those days. If I recall correctlly, was David Barrett KTMs top minicycle rider back then?

Around FL in that era any size KTMs were super rare and I never saw an 80 in person.

The funny thing about Barrett that I recall was that he didn't really race the big events. Don't recall him at any Golden State races, WMGP, GNC, Ponca, etc...  but his grandpa ran/owned(IIRC) the Mammoth MX track back then, and he showed up, relatively unknown, on a bike nobody had really seen, and kicked the shit out of everyone at Mammoth in '86/'87'ish. It was all Budman could do just to keep his pace when Antunez ruled the mini class.  Kind of like McCormick at Washougal. 

I heard about this on the Moto 60 show. neat. That thing looks old 

Is that kick stand permanently attached? 

There was a time when every MX bike had one...

I hope Zacho has a better security system than a dumb dumb lock.

I built one a couple years ago…I just rebuilt a set of the ‘87 model USD WP forks this fall but haven’t installed them yet.

I saw them in the mags in ‘86-‘90 and thought they were really cool.  Only ever saw one kid show up with one at a race (80 beginner class in Fall of ‘89).  Also remember Scot Hardens kid raced one at the Vegas World Mini around ‘94.

In ‘06 I took a ‘05  85 and found some white plastic and built a retro replica for the Indy Trade Show…it was pretty cool because John Penton and some of the Penton family came and checked it out and told some stories of that first KTM mini in ‘86.  

Funny, but when KTM built their first 65 in the late 90s they used part/molds from the old ‘86 80…I got a 00 65 SX clutch cover and it bolted right on my old 80.

Everyone I knew back then who raced a KTM were all desert racers, so finding one at a shop in Mojave may not be all that out of the ordinary.

No they were bolt on.

I raced one from 86-88. 

My brothers 86 got stolen, so he got a new one in 87 with the upside down forks. I was so pissed that he got that thing. Pretty sure there weren't any others in IL or WI at the time. 

Love that picture!  Pic is a bit blurry but that looks like a Bieffe helmet. All my friends had them. I wanted one so bad.

That what she said

Just wanted to add a random pic of Scott Burnworth ripping a KTM 80 in ‘86

Rod Bush came to a handful of Hare Scrambles in SE Ohio with his Son (I'm assuming) on a KTM 80.  If I had to guess, it was 1992-1994ish.    It was before the teal and white bikes, I remember that for sure.

How old was he? He looks huge on that bike 

Burnworth would have been 23 in 1986. He was on factory Yamaha racing 250sx and 125mx in 86.

There was a small dealer in Birmingham, AL that had one in stock for a long time back in the '86-'87 time frame.  We used to go buy handlebars (seemed like I bent a pair of steel ones every week back then) there and probably premix.  I drooled over it every trip in there.  I think it was Dixie Cycle.