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Edited Date/Time
9/1/2019 7:16am
Considering going to the barber motorsports vintage days in Oct and looking for a old mx bike to race down there. I know nothing about the old bikes, right before I was born my dad had a 490 maico and I've heard about how bad ass that bike was since I was a kid. I'm sure those aren't cheap in running condition. I'm kind of gravitating towards the late 70's model RM's 250/370. Maybe even a PE250. Just needing suggestions.
Take a look here Marks Vintage
You can also check out Vintage dirt bike buy & sell on Facebook.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264442406742
The Shop
Another thing to consider is what class you plan to race, if it's say a 76-82 class, you'll want to find something that is closer to 82, as most times the suspension and brakes were improved significantly each year or two, like a 1980 YZ465 verus the 1981 YZ465. The 1981 came with a "dual leading" front brake set up. Not that you couldn't slap a 1981 front wheels and backing plate on a 1980, but part swapping can get expensive too.
That's not to say that if you bought a '76, you couldn't beat someone on an '82, as just like modern mx racing, a lot of it boils down to talent.
Do your research, and ask questions before you just shell out your hard earned money for some odd ball roach that has new plastics and a heavy coat of Maxima SC-1 on it!
Good luck!
https://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/mcy/d/puyallup-yamaha-tt500/69527592…
Ps if you want to race a certain class in vintage look up the rules about year, suspension travel, blah blah
In my observation, the Maicos are definitely the high end brand, and the ones I have seen are things of beauty. The Japanese bikes are more common and you can still find them used and abused and ready for restoration. I grew up in the 80s so for me the 80s and 90s bikes are the sweet spot. I did a season on a 1976 RM 125 and was relieved that I made it through without destroying that poor old bike!
Big kudos to AHRMA BTW for finally embracing classes for the late 80s and newer machines!
You're right, but that apparent bad info was passed onto me years ago and I've definitely seen a few 1980 YZ465's that didn't have the dual leading backing plate. Could this have been something were a portion of the YZ465's that were released in late 1979? may have came without them?
At one time I too thought I could get into racing vintage without spending much money. I bought a 1974 Yamaha MX360 that was running for $500, but it continued to be a money pit from the day I took it home til the day I sold it. After several races, there was so much that needed to be sorted out. These are just some of the things that were sorted out and/or purchased along the way: Fork springs and new rear shocks, multiple trans rebuilds, countless top ends, Webco head, Pro-Fab swing arm, new carb, new electronic ignition, wheel rebuilds, brake shoes, gearing, seat foam, seat cover, plastics, etc etc. I must have spent well over $3500 on that $500 Yamaha, but at some point you just stop counting and just know that you've built something that can finish races..most of the time! I eventually cracked the frame and sold it to a friend for $1500 with a spare frame that he would have to transfer everything over to and I chalked it up as an experience.
Moral of the story, buy someone else's "race ready" loss before you end up with a $500 nightmare!
Good luck!
Pit Row
I'll be racing it in our Viper series.
He also has an 83 model CR60 in the same container. I wanted that so bad.
You are interested in a sport that can be reasonable to stupidly expensive. There are still "vintage" bikes around for
a few hundred that run. But and its a big but, they are(probably) going to need freshening of some sort. Tires, chains,
engine seals, carb cleaning and all that. Now, you could buy "barn find" and go racing....but you don't want to dnf.
The point is- vintage racing can be "cheap" but usually isn't. It used to be. Ask around your riding friends, someone
has a few bikes. Offer to rent one, buy a new chain whatever. See if you like the vintage scene. Around here, you can
buy old "modern" bikes for less than most anything "vintage". Plentiful parts and reliable. I'm getting back into racing
with a local vintage club here after a 10 year hiatus. Our club allows up to 2008. I have a 2008 yz250 ready to go.
If you are on a budget, I'd avoid "vintage" racing.
that can mean different things to different folks. Example: there was a 1982 rm250 here locally without a price.
I messaged him-$2500. It was clean and nice. I passed. Another: 1979 250 Maico Magnum: $3500.
Extreme examples? I did call on a 1982 cr480 locally-$500. It looked like it had been sitting in an open field since 1982
with the cylinder off. I passed.
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