When's the last time...

Not often for sure. Looks good

Bet most people don't know this. I didn't until I read Wikipedia.

"Pabatco was owned by Shell Oil Company from 1965 to 1978."

What's Kelly Blue Book say?

That's funny you said that. I saw this at my mechanics yesterday, he wants 400 bucks for it.

ATHEIST wrote: you seen ... not mine ......... [b]Rare Vintage 1973 Hodaka Combat Wombat


Selling my 1973 Hodaka. Total rebuild 12/2015 by Hodaka specialist. Complete motor rebuild, new carb., hubs & brakes, new sprocket & chain, all new cables and grips. Preston Petty fenders. Bike runs and looks good. Asking $3800 OBO. These bikes are hard to find. This model was only made for one year. Will consider trade for newer dirt bike[/b]

Sweet. I bought one brand new for $800. Snagged a ring & destroyed the barrel with less than 2hrs on it. No warranty on it of course because it was a race bike. I took the barrel to the race team hq in San Jose & they gave me a ported one along with some tuning tips. It was very fast. Loved it.

May 26th, 2015. It was a nice day, low 70s and I had fish tacos for lunch.

Wow, a trip through the Wayback Machine. Rode a 100 mile enduro in the Pine Barrens in South Jersey on one of those in '74 or so. Eventually dnfed because the pipe blew out of the head. If it was going to break it could have done it in the first 10 miles and not the last 10. LOL

I feel sooooo fortunate to have grown up in the era of Hodaka.

16yr olds today who can't afford to buy a race bike with money from an after school job would laugh at the idea of riding one of these shit boxes.

But everything is relative and in 1972 any 16yr old willing to pump gas or mow lawns after school could buy a Hodaka Super Rat and a $20 Kmart helmet and show up at Saddleback Park on Sunday and be a Motocross racer during the best years the sport ever saw. And people had ever bit the same enjoyment as they would today, probably more.


The 100cc class was huge and really competition back then. If your parents had money you might have a Rickman Micro Mittese chassis with a heavily modified Super Rat motor.

Was it the dirt squirt that was 399 new?

Hodaka had cool ads, like the old dude that rode his road toad on a 500 mile trip.

Had the best names too

Ace 90
Dirt squirt
Combat wombat
Super wombat
Road toad
And of coarse..... thunder dog

What did I miss?

JustMX wrote:

Was it the dirt squirt that was 399 new?

Hodaka had cool ads, like the old dude that rode his road toad on a 500 mile trip.

Had the best names too

Ace 90
Dirt squirt
Combat wombat
Super wombat
Road toad
And of coarse..... thunder dog

What did I miss?

Ace 100 and Super Rat. Yep back in the day when mx bikes had cool names like pursang, stilleto, elsinore, etc.

Super Combat.

Fun thread here, ruined in part by the asshole of photobucket.
http://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Simple-things-the-Hodaka,1245452?exclusive_forum_user=false&page=1

Live me some Hodakas. We always had at least one. My dad, uncles, and their friends had gaggles of them. As a matter of fact, I still have one. Its a Super Rat.

I think I have a couple engines some where.
Are they worth digging out?

1978 Saddleback Park

Man I had a Super Rat and raced in the 100 class in the early 70s. That thing was fast and it made me a good mechanic too. Danny Chandler had a trick Steens/Hodaka and completely waxed everyone in that class. I know, shocker.

My brother had one as a kid. It had a Suzuki piston in it. It ran fine.