The 70’s

I can ONLY imagine! 😬

My brother had a few horses over the years and I used to tell him that I was certain his 1 HP ride was trying to kill him in ways that our multi-HP rides were probably not capable of! 
I think horses are AWESOME but they sure do require effort & expense far beyond that of a motorbike! 
Both your pics are great! 😎 👍❗️

The glass work on the Spanish bikes was just gorgeous, and the Phantom deep blue/orange scheme really popped!

It was a fun bike, very light at about 200 pounds, and in those days I could dead lift it.  Quite often loaded it without a ramp.

I can't say it was the most reliable bike, but it was fun.  A bit peaky.  A friend bought a 77 YZ 250 a bit after that was a much easier bike to ride.  Then unfortunately Honda came out with the 78 Cr250, within a year of me buying this and it was pretty obsolete.  Bike development was pretty rapid back then.

The 78-79 CR250s were beasts.  I had one of the first 78s in my area and my results definitely improved because of that bike.

Three years later it was made obsolete by water cooling, single shock, rising-rate suspension, etc.

I had one granddad that trained high dollar quarter horses. All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs level. This was the 70s, so no telling what they were jacked up on, but those horses were routinely pissed off. He'd have me run them. (And shovel stalls, of course.) Scary monsters, they were, to say on top of.

The other granddad was a Honda-Yamaha dealer. Easy choice, but a tough conversation for a 10-year-old... Dad's dad would be like, why would you choose motorcycles over horses? Well, because granddad, when I get bucked off my motorcycle, it's because of something I did. Not something the crazy damn horse did.

No readily at hand photos. Gray tanked XR75. Yamaha Motobike, sharp crank edges ate my ankles on the regular. I repaid it by breaking the frame at the headstock almost as regularly, and bent shock shafts. YZ80B, YZ80C, YZ80D, YZ100E, YZ125F. 

Just hung it up a couple three years ago. And it sucks. Really miss it, and really oughta unload a pristine 2006 YZ125, but I really don't want to. The 450 is already gone.

Yeah. Youth might be wasted on the young, but I made the most of 50-plus years of mine. 

There are two sides to horses. Suicide and homicide.

My brother on his ‘77 RM125 and me on my ‘78 XR75. This riding spot was across highway 78 from Stone Mountain Park, GA. I think that is Stone Mountain above the trees on the left.

75 maybe 76 I would say. The Elsinore didn't come out until 74 and it didn't have moved up shocks and his does.

I still have my first trophy I won on my dad's BSA Goldstar back in 1972.

I got into buying old street bikes and fixing them up and selling them while I lived in Huntington Beach, Ca from 2004 - 2021. I bought a 1964 BSA A65 twin 650 Lightning and made a bobber out of it (that was the rage then). It had a perfect little hole on the top triple clamp to mount something. I thought about it and took off the top of that first trophy and mounted it there. I loved the movie "The Wild One" with Marlon Brando so it was a ode to him as he stole a trophy and strapped it to his handlebars. Before I sold the bike I took it off and put my trophy back together. But it was fun seeing that up in front of me when I rode it.

The 250 did but the 125 not until 74.

All good. I think most people think they came out in 73.

1973

Only the CR250 was released as a 1973 model.

The CR125 hit the dealers in late July/early August 1973 as a 1974 model.  It's a common misconception that they released it as a 73...but they DID NOT.  

The bike in question is either a 74 or 75 CR125 and it looks to be a JB Racer sold by J&B Racing in Mission Viejo, CA.  J&B stood for Jeff Ward and Brad Dutoit (who's Dad Lyle owned Mission Honda).  There were complete bikes available back then from DG, FMF, and J&B that came with all their catalog mods already installed.  This looks like one of them.

EDIT. Since there are some cars in the mix. 

EDIT: How could I leave this baby out? 1972 CT70H.

Mike Hance and I snagged the first two 1974 CR125M Elsies to hit north Texas in late July of 1973

(How? We both put in deposits about 6-8 months ahead of time when we started seeing how successful the Jones brothers were performing on the 250 in the nationals. Honda salesman said, "We don't sell a 125 Elsinore.". Reply, "You will! We want the first two.". Actually Mike and I did not coordinate. It just happened. I was pretty public about my plan at the track.)

By 1974 the 125 gates were full of the silver and green machines.

1979. 

I remember seeing him at the British round of the GP’s that year.

First year an MFG came out with a single shock mx bike. Can still remember the commentator ( Dave Smith RIP) going on about this magical bike all weekend long 🤣.

Got a picture of him at my Dads somewhere doing a pre practice track walk in some super cool Moto Fox track pants wearing a fucking massive cowboy hat. I was 11 and I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d ever seen a real cowboy hat , I thought they only wore them in the movies .

Man those really were the days … 

Thats really cool! 
I bought a 2008 KX450 from Mike Hance in 2009-ish or so! I drove down to D-town from here in the Land 0’ the redneck & met Mike at one of his Buddy’s shop in Dallas and completed our deal after he’d driven up from Houston (I believe?) 
The bike was as advertised & he seemed like a really good guy! 
I rode moto on that KX for two years & sold it to a trail-riding coworker who still owns it to this day! 😎 👍❗️

First single shock linkage bike

Some great times wish we had taken pictures. 

During summer vacation we would fill up the bikes and take a can up with us and ride all day. There was about 8 of us in My neighborhood MD City in Laurel MD and we had a lot of riding right out our back doors. We even went into Mockfield where they held Fort Meade battle exercise's and we were chased out by MP’s a few times.  

We could ride through just about all the green area since there was a tunnel under the Parkway

I oh SO regret that I don’t have any cool pics of myself racing in the early 70’s like many have posted here…but while dear ol’ Mom & Dad were all-in on my brother & I having bikes, they were diametrically opposed to our desire to race! 
(My bro & I never raced until we were old enough to sign ourselves in at the gate! 🥵)

But I’ll go ahead & post this semi-nerdy (ALL-nerdy? 🤔) pic from about 1975 that completely encapsulate EXACTLY how growing up in the 70’s looked! 

10 years old…OKC, just before Christmas break in my folks front yard, on a warm December day, headed to the open fields adjacent to our suburb, where all the kids congregated after school! 
When I was in elementary school practically ever kid I knew had a small trail or mini-bike and we’d change out of the school clothes (unless you wanted to suffer the wrath of Mom for F-in’ up your “good clothes”! 😁) grab a snack, slip on the metal-flake helmet, tough-skin jeans & head out the door, knowing you better be back before the street light came on! 
By the time my own Son was in elementary school, he knew ONE other kid that had a mini-bike & there was NO where close to home where they could ride!

The 70’s were a great time to be alive! 😎 👍❗️