Motoman
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?
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You have one here in Atlanta….
Not me… Never been on a motor cycle, although I think to myself “holy batman, most of the thrill of a bike, a ton more speed and quickness, and none of the effort- I’d probably kill myself.
Grew up riding dirt bikes in the 70s. Huge advantage riding MTB now. Was relatively fearless until a few big MTB crashes.
@therealpeel
Had a mini bike as a kid for about 2 weeks until a neighbor kid tried to remove his lower leg in a crash on it. That pretty much cinched it for me. Riding at 45km/hr through corners in a crit with a styrofoam hat and a bit of Lycra for protection seems WAY safer, ironically.
Not me but my brother in law grew up motocrossing — on vintage bikes, ironically, primarily a CZ. He has fantastic bike handling skills on the road, MTB or BMX. Makes hard stuff look easy.
Any relation to Tracey or Mick?
@Ccos
No motos of any sort for me. My grandfather sold life insurance, so I had the fear of actuarial tables drilled into me. Now, I bomb down descents on my road bike at 80+ km/h. Way safer indeed.
I learn’t to ride motorbikes off road in the late 80s at school. We had a bunch of knackered old bikes a DT200, a Suzuki TS125, etc. The pride and joy was a Maico 500 (could have been a 490). I couldn’t reach the ground and reach the clutch lever (the front brake was a bit bent so that wasn’t so much of a problem). Absolutely fucking frightening evil bastard of a thing but I’d never turn down a chance to ride it.
That off road stuff saved me a good few times when I left school and end up working as a motorbike courier in London.
Every now and then there a little voice that tells me it’d be a good idea to get another one (a bit tamer maybe) but it isn’t too hard to remind myself that motos are responsible for a lot of the scar tissue in my left knee.
Love road machines Brett, English, German or Italian. But never went off road. Riding one or both gives back to cycling. Off road – bike handling, on road – road awareness.
Before I lose it I’d like to make a track day on 1000cc’s… And if there is one event that turns me on like no other it’s the Isle of Man TT!
@Chris
At school? What kind of fun school did you go to, FFS?
@Rob
I was just watching this years Isle of Man TT. jesus, sure death right there. At least in Moto GP when you come off the bike at 160km/hr one slides to a stop, eventually. At Isle of Man, it’s death by house, stone wall, fence, curb, sheep. I’d be dead in a half lap.
For unknowable reasons my father bought a family vespa when I was about fourteen. Needless to say I rode the shiet out of it, crashed it in every sandy corner around. I did some road riding on some nasty 2 cycle rice and oil burner, not enough. I have had the need of a BMW R-series forever but I’m afraid if I ever start on it, I’ll stop pedaling.
Too much of a pussy to get into motocross, again, dead in the first lap.
@Gianni
Isle of Man 160kph is warm up speed, the lap record went this year, I think he averaged over 200kph for the lap!!
@Gianni
It was a boarding school in Scotland. The bike thing was part of the CCF – Combined Cadet Corps. Most schools with a CCF just had Army, Navy and Airforce but we also had the Royal Marines, a pipe band and the motorcycle section. No idea why but I couldn’t turn down the chance of sanctioned wanton destruction of school property.
Hello, Chrissy? Knock knock?
We have a very active motorcycle track rider in our midst, but I guess she hasn’t logged on to see this article yet. I rode a sad old EX500 with some fun mods on the road for a while. Figured I learn on it and then get a real sportbike and do track days. Didn’t work out that way, but it was fun.
I suspect there’s a lot more overlap between MX and MTB than there is between sportbikes and road bikes.
I have done a little bit of Moto, and own a motorbike (which is currently off the road).
Every time a car “doesn’t see me” on my bike I think about investigating if they would respect me more on something like a KTM Duke. I love the MX/Street look they have, and the noise is hard to miss.
Yup. Schoolboy class in the 70’s. Honda SL 100 4 banger battling it out with the Suzukis and Yammies. Ended up banging myself up real good–twice! The last time on a Honda Elsinore. Remember those? Fast. Cracked it in half–along with my right fib and tib. Bought a trials bike after that. Wheelies for miles.
I rode motocross as an adolescent and teenager from the late 70s through mid 80s, same time I was getting serious about road and track cycling. YZ80, YZ125 and finally an IT250 for enduro and cross country. In winter there was ice racing on a frozen lake. Lots of crashes on the motorbikes, but few injuries: dirt’s softer than pavement.
@Chris
Re the CCF I remember the fear that the film “If” created in the Public Schools (which for those who don’t know the UK are actually private schools). We were banned from watching it! It is amazing to think of what was stored in the Armoury of most Public Schools in those days with little security. We used to run around the Quantocks, Dartmoor and Exmoor with fully functional rifles and a bag of blanks.
@Chris
Had a couple of Road bikes and have similar little voices. However, it is the one thing that is a firm and absolute no no with the VMW.
Alas, no background nor current engagement, but it sure does look cool. Off road on a track that is. Any other form is either prohibited or downright (even more that usual) suicidal taking average motorists into account. Still, the combination of rig control and physical accomplishment that comes from pedaling a bike can’t be matched.
On a complete side note: is there any chance the rss feed can be looked at? It has been broken for a while and I like not having to scour the internets in search of updates.
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.
@Teocalli
Happy days, we were well tooled up kids back then, .303 Enfields and Brens then the L98 (a cadet specific single shot version of the SA80)
@ChrissyOne
Great points. I think bike advocacy is great, but until their are true fundamental changes in the way we drive (I doubt this ever happening)- those of us on two wheels need to accept the reality of thinking for them.
Yep. Just repeat this as you ride in traffic:
“Everyone is trying to kill me.”
“Everyone is trying to kill me.”
“Everyone is trying to kill me.”
When approaching a stopped car at a cross street, expect the idiot to pull out in front of you. Have a hand on the brake and be ready to act. Have an exit strategy. Find your primary line, but look for alternatives to avoid danger.
This is part of my (possibly flawed) logic of riding like a bat out of hell like I do on the street. If I’m going faster than everyone else, I’m in control. No one is going to surprise me from behind. I can execute a line around someone before they even know I’m there, alleviating any need for thought or action on their party. Riding aggressively like this has worked for me, and I’ve been commuting in downtown Seattle on moto (and bicycle) for over 20 years.
The worst thing you can do sometimes is just go along with traffic. That’s when I always find myself getting boxed in.
Never having ridden anything more powerful than a 49cc scooter, or being a passenger on a moto, I think I know how the non-sailers felt about the VMG article.
@ChrissyOne
This.
This was also my mantra and philosophy when I worked as a bike messenger. That of course being the only time I was faster than traffic, or could be considered to ride anything like a bat out of hell.
Of course, that aggression didn’t stop me from getting hit by some ——– turning right from the second (not curb) lane as I was going straight through the intersection. Sometimes you’re just going too fast to react to stupidity/carelessness/inattention of drivers.
@Chris
Oh man, Maicos were the ‘want’ bike when we were kids… there was an old abandoned farm up the road from us, and the local hoons made a motocross track around it; it was like a scene from Mad Max (before it came out though) up there, dozens of bikes blasting around. For some kids on their ‘pushys’ it was a surreal, somewhat intimidating scene, but we loved it. A few guys had Maicos, and they were like exotica to us. Pity they were as reliable as an Alfa Romeo though.
I hear you on the ‘frightening’ with those big 2 strokes… my favourite bike was also the most difficult to ride, and terrifying at speed. Mainly due to drum brakes though. My Yammy IT 490 was a true beast, to kickstart it I’d need to get the lever perfectly top-dead-centre and virtually jump down onto it. The kickback if you fucked it up was insane, and could buck you back off the seat (if you were lucky; sometimes I thought I’d broken my ankle!).
It had an Answer ‘silencer’ that added about 4hp and 100Db… the bike didn’t sound like a typical 2 stroke ‘ping p-p-ping ping’ but a deep and menacing ‘bang b-b-bang bang’ while it was idling. It would frighten small children and no doubt annoy the neighbours while I was constantly tinkering with it. So physically big, so fast, so much fun!
Like this one…
@ChrissyOne
Bad. Ass.
Beautiful!!!
Anyone remember Eddie Fiola circa the early Eighties. BMX freestyler that was getting the biggest ‘air’ than anyone else for a time, as I recall. Spent a while resplendent in yellow and nicknamed ‘the flying banana’. He was fucking class!
@therealpeel
Self drive cars are coming, they will change everything, for the better too.
@brett The sound. The smell. Nothing like it. Keep posting pictures of shiny expansion cans like that and I’ll be in trouble. Vintage MX +1 looks cheaper than N+1. £1,200.
I remember one of the lad flipping the Maico from a miss timed gear change going flat out across a field. (We never bothered clutching, just booted it but if your timing was off it would bite back, especially coming down through through the gears). Anyway, we thought he was probably dead or would at the very least lie around for a bit but he was up and running and had the bike up before it cut out, hopped on and took off on his back wheel. Turned out he was a bit concussed and didn’t remember the entire afternoon.
Speaking of kickback, we also had an old East European trials bike, a 350 with a compression lever for starting. That hurt a lot when you got it wrong.
Talking of freestyle and wheels……….
@Teocalli
That must take such massive balls that I’m struggling with the physics of flight on that one!
Was a wanna be moto enduro rider for a bit in the early 80s, around the same time I started cycling with any seriousness. Hurricane was the man then, but as I recall, Johnny O’Mara was the original motocross-mountain bike crossover hero. At first he took up the mountain bike for fitness, but became a successful MTB racer. And he’s still at it as a 50+ Master.
http://racerxonline.com/2006/11/24/where-are-they-now-johnny-omara
http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=50872
fabulous -BH was THE MAN during my formative years. Started with fragging Marty Smith (and everyone else) in Florida, then Nationals. Wouldnt say he was the most ‘elegant’ rider but certainly had buckets of panache. I remember seeing him WFO at the Coliseum approaching the ski jump thru the arches, legs flying and cross body blocked the pillar – ouch. Always 112% at the absolute limit of bike and body. For certain an example of how racing should be done :-)
@Dave R The O-Show shows up regularly at SanDiego MTB races. I know this because whenever he wins, I lose (by a large margin)
@Dave R
@shano92107
Yep, was a bit of a fan of the O Show back then, and when I started mountain biking I saw him in a mag and thought it was pretty cool that he pedalled too.
Danny ‘Magoo’ Chandler seemed like the craziest mofo around when he hit the scene, just flat-out and on the ragged edge, but if he held it together he was the fastest out there (see his wins in the Motocross/Trophee Des Nations in 82). He was freestle before it was even a word. He came to Australia and rode some Supercrosses, which I was lucky enough to witness… was gutted to hear of his tragic accident a year or two later. And even more shocked to hear he died in 2010, just 50. RIP Magoo.
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@brett
And well padded elbows. I’ve heard of knees to the pavement but not of elbows. Impressive.
@Bespoke
The pros get even lower. Here’s Bradl last weekend.
Haven’t read the whole article, skimmed the posts. What is the interweb acronym for that? In English, I think we say, “Strong work, can’t be bothered.”
Anyhow, I started riding a bike in order to get as close as I could to riding a motorcycle when I was too young to drive. I got hooked on Cycling and my father sold the motorbike he bought me when he saw the damage I could inflict on myself under my own power. No need for a motor, he said.
That said, I think a moto – a proper off-road bike – would be the best way to explore gravel routes and I want one for my VMH and one for me. The sale to the VMH is easy on account of her having lived in Africa for two years with only a moto connecting her to the local village.
And I probably wouldn’t kill myself any more quickly than I would otherwise.
Its a statistics play, in the end.
@brett
NO. FUCKING. SHIT.