Classic SX Video (must see)

roosty
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roosty
Edited Date/Time 1/27/2012 7:31pm
Holley stylin it out.




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rc4187
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rc4187 10/24/2009 11:46pm
10/24/2009 11:46pm
That was good stuff. Thanks for the post. The track was great.
BAD10
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BAD10 10/24/2009 11:51pm
10/24/2009 11:51pm
Cool. I grew up in the 80's and all those guys were my heros.....great era. But I gotta be honest, and I know I'm gonna get roosted for this, but compared to todays SX riders, the 80's racers look like novices. And the "crossup"? LOL.. Bikes? Tracks? or Riders?
DD410
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DD410 10/25/2009 12:21am
10/25/2009 12:21am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 2:55am
Hahahaha!!!!

Im friends with jim but only time ive seen him ride was at lacr like a year ago on a old yz250. what a nut! he always gives me crap for whipping it. LOL
Hank_Thrill
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Hank_Thrill 10/25/2009 12:37am
10/25/2009 12:37am
Open face helmets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111 YEAH!

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felpro
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felpro 10/25/2009 12:37am
10/25/2009 12:37am
I see it the same. I was thinking about the difference in suspension as they take a beating through the whoops. Now it is so much more clinical. What about Holley's bars ... so far back !! Those guys were flying though, even though it does look like a novice race by today's standards.

How good is the racing though, when the guys running 1st and 2nd are doing different jump sequences ... Awesome !!
Hank_Thrill
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Hank_Thrill 10/25/2009 12:54am
10/25/2009 12:54am Edited Date/Time 4/17/2016 2:55am
BAD10 wrote:
Cool. I grew up in the 80's and all those guys were my heros.....great era. But I gotta be honest, and I know I'm gonna get...
Cool. I grew up in the 80's and all those guys were my heros.....great era. But I gotta be honest, and I know I'm gonna get roosted for this, but compared to todays SX riders, the 80's racers look like novices. And the "crossup"? LOL.. Bikes? Tracks? or Riders?



I have a theory on this:


1) the suspension on those bikes appears to blow! I obviously have never ridden a 1980's bike with factory suspension, but it seems like dialing in a stock set-up from 2000 and on would work better than their "factory" suspension.


2) Track technology was obviously terrible compared today's standards. Those jumps and landings look steep!


3) This is the third and most interesting part to me, and the toughest one to figure out, or prove, is psychological barriers. In a visible way, yes they appear less skilled, but we have to realize they were at the forefront of motocross evolution. Those riders don't have weaker genes than riders today, or less potential. It's just that humans progress each other as a whole.

I'm sure people back then couldn't imagine people going any faster than that. But nobody was there to show them the way. Groups have a big impact on individuals, and if a group sees one person do something, they know it's possible, and the higher percentage of people in that group doing that something, the less likely members of that group will have psychological barriers towards it. It is really interesting, but motocross riders as a whole function as a whole, and progress & evolve as a whole. If a beginner goes to a track and sees 50 people jumping a double in 2009 that would be deemed insane in the 80's, he's going to have better odds of thinking it's easy, vs. a situation where only 2 other people on the track are doing it (especially compounded with what he sees other riders doing on the telvision these days). A perfect example of this is the bubba scrub. I remember Mike LaRocco and RC talking about practicing it back in 2005. Now damn near every amateur does it, which fuels more amateurs to know it's possible...


I'm not trying to sound like a know it all. I'm not, I just like applying social-psychology theories to motocross. This stuff is very fascinating to me.
jemcee
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jemcee 10/25/2009 2:36am
10/25/2009 2:36am
BAD10 wrote:
Cool. I grew up in the 80's and all those guys were my heros.....great era. But I gotta be honest, and I know I'm gonna get...
Cool. I grew up in the 80's and all those guys were my heros.....great era. But I gotta be honest, and I know I'm gonna get roosted for this, but compared to todays SX riders, the 80's racers look like novices. And the "crossup"? LOL.. Bikes? Tracks? or Riders?
yeah i don't know man, i reckon put any of the guys from now on those bikes on that track they wouldn't look a lot different

those tracks weren't made to keep the riders happy with flow plus my brother who rode those bikes tells me the suspension was a horror to set cause the shock would pack up and get really hard or rebound heaps
(i think thats what he used to say, he used to go on a bit ha)
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roosty 10/25/2009 9:17am
10/25/2009 9:17am
The racing was exciting, and a lot funner to watch IMO. That track was badass!!!
Devil1nNj
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Devil1nNj 10/25/2009 9:36am
10/25/2009 9:36am
Cool to see our roots. The fact that they could get those bikes to go that fast is impressive.
So funny though, they look like novice riders for sure, as mentioned above. Another thing that is funny is if you watch Adam C on an 80 he looks like he would smoke these guys and prob lap em! haha It's really cool to see the progression of our sport.

2 things. In the intro they introduced 11 on a Kawi , but, it had red plastics. Was that just an error, or were dif plastics used due to lack of support from kawi?
And did people bash Holley for waving to the crowd on the opening lap, then falling to 3rd so quickly, like so many would today? LOL
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CRF STUFF 10/25/2009 11:10am
10/25/2009 11:10am
He's on Kehoe like a Krishna on an airport traveler!!!
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MX-LIFE. 10/25/2009 11:31am
10/25/2009 11:31am
statefeed&grain wrote:
Tracks were better for spectating/viewing during that era for sure.
For the hell of it some one should get the blueprints out for that track and use them for A1 2010" that looked like a fun track and fast!
BAD10
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BAD10 10/25/2009 11:39am
10/25/2009 11:39am
Devil1nNj wrote:
Cool to see our roots. The fact that they could get those bikes to go that fast is impressive. So funny though, they look like novice...
Cool to see our roots. The fact that they could get those bikes to go that fast is impressive.
So funny though, they look like novice riders for sure, as mentioned above. Another thing that is funny is if you watch Adam C on an 80 he looks like he would smoke these guys and prob lap em! haha It's really cool to see the progression of our sport.

2 things. In the intro they introduced 11 on a Kawi , but, it had red plastics. Was that just an error, or were dif plastics used due to lack of support from kawi?
And did people bash Holley for waving to the crowd on the opening lap, then falling to 3rd so quickly, like so many would today? LOL
Thats Keith Bowen #11. He rode for TUF racing that year and they ran orange plastic and seat covers on their Kawi's
Blackopsrider7 10/25/2009 12:18pm
10/25/2009 12:18pm Edited Date/Time 10/25/2009 12:19pm
There is a video there of Ron Lechien winning San Diego at 16 years old on a bone stock Yamie, he was flying!! Ricky Johnston was a mad man too!! Thanks for posting, down memory lane!!
Camp332
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Camp332 10/25/2009 2:04pm
10/25/2009 2:04pm
Comparing them to today's novice class isn't cool. Those dudes were hanging it out, and I thought Kehoe looked smooth. No doubt that the suspension was crapola!
calimxer91
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calimxer91 10/25/2009 2:34pm
10/25/2009 2:34pm
If someone made some "retro vids " prob make a lot of dough.Hardly ever saw Holley do that stuff.
KX452
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KX452 10/25/2009 3:33pm
10/25/2009 3:33pm
awesome track. They should put todays riders on 1988 model bikes and send them out for retro night this year and see how many of them end up in the hospital trying to use their modern scrubing everything techniques.

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jib-tmb
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jib-tmb 10/25/2009 4:42pm
10/25/2009 4:42pm
Great video. I love watching those old races!
Blackopsrider7 10/25/2009 4:52pm
10/25/2009 4:52pm Edited Date/Time 10/25/2009 4:58pm
Hehehe....on the suspension, oh yeah, leaps and bounds better these days!! I had an 86 CR250, great smooth power, but scary to hang onto!! Honestly a stock bike today is a lot better, but I can't obviously compare to the factory bikes of yesterday!

On the riders looking like novices...well they don't quite look as fancy and fluid as today, but the skill set for being pro still existed, put them on today's bikes and I'm sure they will ride pretty good. That being said, the sport has evolved tons, Novices are a lot faster, intermediates are a lot faster and so are the pros!! I will speak of a topic I now lots about, put a 2nd war P-51 pilot in an F-15, they will be slightly overwhelmed by the complexity of the modern fighter, but that aside, the dog fighting techniques are the same, if anything, the modern fighter helps with automated systems!
queen of spodes 10/25/2009 5:24pm
10/25/2009 5:24pm
Devil1nNj wrote:
Cool to see our roots. The fact that they could get those bikes to go that fast is impressive. So funny though, they look like novice...
Cool to see our roots. The fact that they could get those bikes to go that fast is impressive.
So funny though, they look like novice riders for sure, as mentioned above. Another thing that is funny is if you watch Adam C on an 80 he looks like he would smoke these guys and prob lap em! haha It's really cool to see the progression of our sport.

2 things. In the intro they introduced 11 on a Kawi , but, it had red plastics. Was that just an error, or were dif plastics used due to lack of support from kawi?
And did people bash Holley for waving to the crowd on the opening lap, then falling to 3rd so quickly, like so many would today? LOL
Tuf Racing sold florescent colored plastic for Kawasakis. I guess they had it for other brands too but I remember seeing flo-orange kx's on the track back then. I still have unopened pink plastic for a 90-91 KX125/250.
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JOHN CHOATE 10/25/2009 6:12pm
10/25/2009 6:12pm
Yeah, I also thought they looked like C class riders compared to today. Suspension looked really soft too.
ocscottie
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ocscottie 10/25/2009 8:52pm
10/25/2009 8:52pm
Right on, and ya Amazon has them for real cheap, that was just the 1st link i found.
jmc2
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jmc2 10/25/2009 9:55pm
10/25/2009 9:55pm
Thanks, just bought myself one as well....
JustMX
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JustMX 10/25/2009 10:00pm
10/25/2009 10:00pm
If you watch the one from San Diego you realize how smooth Lechien, Glover, and Bailey were, how hard Ward always tried (and he even manhandled his own bike off the track after he broke) and how wild Johnson was.

Tracks sucked. That one straight where they absolutely hammered into the face of a huge hill was just unreal.

It would be awesome to see those 5 riders on today's tracks and on 450s, but.....

Bailey and Glover going at it on 500's in the outdoors was probably the closest thing to that.
englishman
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englishman 10/25/2009 10:13pm
10/25/2009 10:13pm
I remember racing back then and being as in awe of those guys as I am now of the current bunch.

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