Textbook Bob 'Hurricane' Hannah circa 1977
Before Tomac and Ned, before LeMond and Big Mig, there was Bob Hannah. For a young lad obsessed with motorcycles as well as bicycles, the ‘Hurricane’ was the epitome of style on a bike. His bright yellow Yamaha YZs and matching head-to-toe kit set the bar and inspired me to emulate not only his style on the bike, but off it too. If only I could sport those long, flowing blonde locks now…
Motocross in the 70s and 80s was somewhat how mountain biking in the 90s was. The technology stepped up rapidly, with suspension travel and shock design developments allowing the bikes to corner as well as go like a bat out of hell on the straights. From my first bike, a YZ80B (yellow of course) with its twin coil shocks, drum brakes and steel frame tank to my last one, a Kawasaki KDX250 with Uni-Trak suspension, alloy frame and disc brakes, the difference in performance was more night and day than the 10 or 15 years it actually was. The same could even be said with road bike technology from as recently as the late 90s/early 2000s.
Just as Tomac brought style, flair and function to mountain biking with his fast and flowy riding, skin suits, disc wheels and custom painted helmets, so too did Hannah with plastic boots, body armour and his own range of kit and products. And like Tomac, he could back it up on the track. Every photo in every mag I saw, he just looked fantastic; head always in the perfect position, leg extended in the berms, a bit of turn bar over the jumps. I’d try and ride my YZ and my 20″ Dragster the same way.
Today, there’s a lot of crossover between moto athletes and mountain biking and BMX. The moto helps develop confidence at speed and in the air for most of the top downhillers, and the fitness that comes from pedalling is embraced by many motocross stars. My formative years on two wheels were shaped by a healthy mix of the two, and while I haven’t kicked over a two-stroke for a long time, the skills learned and the parallels between infernal combustion power and legs and lungs still resonates. But mainly it’s just cool to look back at photos of a golden era.
How many here have a moto background, or still ride?
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/Hannah/”/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Love those photos. I've never been on a motorcycle of any sort, but definitely a cool story and set of pics.
My cycling pal raced motocross when he was younger. Now he stockpiles awesome bikes, road, mtn. cross.
Oh, and he has three Ducatis, one being some new special edition that is insanely light and fast, the numbers/data are lost on me since I know nothing about those bikes.
There is really nothing more majestic than a YMCA in flight.
May I be the first to say, WTF is this?
Forgive the green vest, I was working.
And we mustn't forget the man, the master, the patron saint of road racing, King Kenny.
Thanks so much for the photos, Brett. I hadn't seen a lot of that since I was a kid!
@PeakInTwoYears
Actually, I'm finding that there is a lot of overlap. I feel that road biking and sport bikes are almost the perfect cross-training synergy, in fact. Leaning the bike over like that requires massive strength in the quads, which road biking has given me. I'm not the fastest rider, but I have more endurance than most so as the day goes on I'm still running fast when a lot of the other guys are packing up.
Track racing on the crotch rocket, on the other hand, makes you trust your tires in cornering and braking, and that makes me a better descender and allows me to carry more corner speed on the Canny.
@ChrissyOne
Well, there it is, then. The quad-strength thing makes sense. And, now that I think about it, the last time I got on a motorcycle, after a long time off of them and after spending a couple of years back on the bike, the moto felt so solid by comparison that I was /sigh/ tempted to ride it rather too fast.
The whole "getting drivers to see me" thing is really a losing battle, BTW. You can't depend on that. I don't even think of drivers as sentient beings that can hear or see. When I'm riding in traffic, I imagine I'm rafting down whitewater rapids, surrounded by 2-ton logs that could roll over on me at any second. You have to do all their thinking for them because they're all asleep or on their effing phones. If you ride with that in mind, you'll do fine. If you depend on your 'loud pipes' or some other nonsense to make your presence known, then good luck to you.
After some casual XC MTB in the 90s, I got into motorcycles in 2008. From a clunker cafe racer, to track riding in an R6, I found myself getting into dirt biking and supermoto. I am back on a bicycle (Fondriest X-Status), and all that motorcycling at speed really taught me bike handling, HARD braking and raised my tolerance to sketchiness. After doing it at 80+mph, rubbing elbows at 30mph is nothing.