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?
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@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.