The 70’s

Shreveport MX 1978

It’s insane what some of those vintage Schwinns bring these days.

Crazy! Not brag, but I was a proud owner of a Huffy Thunder Road that Santa brought via Richway. Lol

Best times ever. Great pics!

I may have been raised in red dirt oil patch Oklahoma.  But in the 70’s we had really good racing back then.  Saturday night racing under the lights at 59th and Douglas was a blast.

The 70’s was an all around blast, fast cars, good looking girls.  We hunted, fished, raced MX, played sports, drank beer.  Sometimes all in the same weekend.  You name it we did it along with having to go to church lol!

That guy is crazy on that price. I always wanted a green Stingray in the sixties. Never got one. I got a Huffy instead. 55 years later I finally got one. All completely original except the rear tire. Still have it. Paid $350 about 12 years ago.

I was not even thought of in the 70s.....but this thread reminded me of this song lol.

After breaking off numerous “headstocks”, I used the school lathe to make a steel insert - never broke another  

I un-brazed the axel holders out of some bigger forks, cut/filed the forks, re-brazed the axel holders in. Ended up with stronger forks, which were importantly wider and allowed a rear tire in the front. Trickest home made BMX on the block.

Real BMX bikes were only in the rare US magazines  

I bought a subscription to “Minicycle BMX Action” magazine with money earned delivering newspapers  

I didn’t start riding until the 80s but my older bro raced in the 70s, style for dayz 😂

Textbook cross up.

The 70's were great in Australia just as in the States, 1975 I'd blown up my TM125, borrowed Dads TS125, put the TM head, cylinder & pipe on, laid the rear shocks down (with the best chewing-gum stick welding that a 15 year old can do), and went racing.

This is what I made of a Yamaha MotoBike:

1975, if I recall correctly. Might have been '76?

I lived at the base of the Blue Mountains.

So, I had a the escarpment right behind me.

And, I was a Down Hiller by nature. Still am - I regularly put away the crutches, put my walking stick in my CB, put on my Knee Braces, Tape my shoulders,  fit my Thumb and Wrist braces, and, terrorize the kids on the Runs. And, take a minimum of pain killers, after it. Most of the DH runs here that the MTBers use now, are directly related to what I made. 

I Had a MotoBike - it was just so bloody crap.

I Had an RM125. That had the Kayaba Gas Shocks - with something near 4" of travel in themselves.  

I was already making 'things' - I'd started cutting and shutting at around 12. I was 15 /16 at that time.

I worked out a way to convert the 3" (?) travel spring forks, to 6.5" of travel, while Doubling the fork bush depth, and , Making them a Linked Air Fork. I eventually made them into Damper Rod forks, too - as the original steel lower forks certainly were not.

The Cantilever / Monoshock set up, gave me 7 / 7.5" at the rear.

I'd already made the Yamaha frame into a Monoshock, and went to my first BMX race  next to Macquarie University / Marsfield, and, destroyed all the other racers.

 But, that frame was already starting to fail.

So, I had a month until the next race, and I went onwards with my Aluminium Beam (Rectangular Box Section) Frame that I'd been working on.  I'd learned to TIG weld, I machined it all up, and finished it. Well, not quite at this Photos time - I hadn't finished the Full Aluminium Swingarm. That was done the week after the second race, so, I used the OEM steel arm, with my bolt on Alloy Upper Triangle. You can see the Yellow SA  / Chainstays in that picture. 

2nd BMX race = Destroyed the other racers, again. Start straight was a mild Downhill, the rest, went back upwards. I was, Very Bloody Strong in those days. 

The company / people running the races, and importing Mongoose / BMX Products, eventually got me onto the 'Geese', and, got me to start making Hard Tail BMX frames for them - the Quicksilvers. At first, they were blatant copies of Mongoose ( NOT my idea, I hated that sort of rip-off : and they wondered why they eventually lost the distributorship???) then, finally, they adopted my own designs, thank goodness. 

I've still got the frame hanging up, but, when I got onto the 'normal' BMX bikes, it became purely my Local DHer. As the company was the Fox distributor, I fitted a Fox Airshock to it. That and the Kayaba (I remember the shock complete with spring, cost $35 AUD) are  in a cabinet, somewhere near my welding table. Eventually, I converted it to a Sidehack - the Big Beam being perfect for a mount face, and, torsionally resistant. I modified the top shock mounts to be the front 'hack mounts. I've intended to re-do them, and get it fully back together, but, it's yet another project I need to get back to. I 've got the front wheel somewhere, as it was a Wide Hub set up. And, as an aside, 16" Knobbies , that were then the std fitment on XR75s etc, fitted onto 20" BMX wheels - and the front end stuck like the proverbial to a blanket!

Salinas, CA  MX 1979 -YZ125F

The Man and friends. Sears Point, CA

70's mini MX.  All we did was go to school and ride our bikes after school.  Trails everywhere in East Texas.

I picked this up at Barber for something to get around on

 Not a green color guy, but that was a great color as I think back on my youth.

Dirtbikes and Motocross in the 70's in SoCal . . . for sure the Golden Age; I grew up in Palos Verdes and it was so undeveloped we had 3 places we could ride  5 minutes from the garage door. Almost every city in the greater Los Angeles area had the same scenario.

the cost to ride at Indian Dunes was $3.50 for the day and it was sunrise to sunset. There were at least 10 Tracks in the LA area (not counting San Diego)

You could race Wed night at Ascot, Friday night Indian dunes, Irwindale, Lions, (I think costa mesa) more I can't remember. Saturday Saddleback had two 40 or 45 minute moto's and on Sunday Every Track in SoCal had motocross races

 Carlsbad drop off 1978. Saddleback 1975. Saddleback 1977. Saddleback back track 1979.