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 The Motorcycle as Artby David Russell #832
 Plastics Restorationby Rich Fogel #45
Today we will deal with plastic, the wheels I will look at in a future issue of MR. Plastic can be tackled with more then one option. The easiest way, and one that can end this article right here is to go out and buy NOS parts if you can find them, $$$$$. Or you can buy for some bikes reproductions of varying degrees of quality. For a race bike, almost any repo part will work out OK if you are not that picky. But, for that garage queen, do some homework as there is more then one company producing repo plastic for certain bikes. Some bikes, you will have no choice other then one company. And if you do not like the finish or quality of their product, what can you do? Plastic restoration. 
Everything Happens for a Reasonby Tom Long #20B “And they say everything happens for a reason" I tend to agree. As time passes, and life seemingly gets harder, it never ceases to amaze me how valuable my escape of VMX is. I often wonder if other guys get this much return. Doubtful. This winter I have found myself going into the shop at least four times a day! Can't believe looking at golf clubs is as Zen as a garage full of CZ's' Buls and Ossa's.
It started at a Honda parts counter; I hadn't found a bike yet. So on a whim I decided to stop on the way home and ask the parts guy if he knew of any old MX bikes. He was untypically friendly, and said that he had just sold his Falta bike to a guy named Bruce. He also said that I should try to get in touch with this other guy who he couldn't think of his name. But that he was a Snap-On guy, into CZ's in a major way. That sounded like it shouldn't be to hard to find him. 
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Batten down the hatches! After almost 3 years, the complete DVD of all the best Bob "Hurricane" Hannah stories are here on DVD for the first time! From the classic and groundbreaking TV series "The Motocross Files" comes the complete and "semi-un-edited" DVD that gives you everything you craved from the original TV program because you thought it was too short!
MR Interviews AVDRA's 
Here are a couple of Top Ten lists that will no doubt be controversial.
I started working at a body shop after school when I was 14. I got into tool and die at 18 while doing some car and bike building on the side. I became involved with CNC, EDM and Laser machining. I also spent a couple of years at a race car fabrication shop which produced super modified and modified stock cars as well as working on a crew as a mechanic on the NASCAR Featherlite modified tour in the 1980s.
Vintage Enthusiast
the motor disassembled and, sure enough, there was a lot of missing metal on the gears. I carefully cleaned everything up, packed it away, and made my parts list for Bertus Jawa-CZ.
Recently, while returning home from a business trip, I decided to take the long way home and visit my favorite art museum. One special exhibit at the museum were two collections of drawings and paintings —the first was an expansive collection of Andrew Wyeth watercolors, while the second consisted of a compilation of landscape paintings by a turn of the century painter whose name already escapes me. His art depicted scenes from his travels that included vast forests, rivers, deserts, and American mountains from 100 years ago. The paintings were gorgeous, magnificently-breathtaking pieces of work. Standing in front of a painting representing a hillside farm overlooking a river on a sunny day, I mentally caught my breath and listened to my subconscious exclaim, "This is beautiful. Just like a motorcycle is beautiful." This may sound slightly weird, I realize but at
that moment this thought was a perfect, pristine truth. Both the painting and the motorcycle I had considered were beautiful works of art created by gifted mortals—one painted a century before, the other designed and assembled in Europe decades ago. Both are beautiful to behold, perfect in their design, form and execution.
What are the two most difficult and time consuming jobs to do on your restoration?... I will give you a hint, wheels and plastic restoration.
And the there is the support cast. The people who are equally or more so into VMX. The people who gladly share their enthusiasm. This takes me to my story of how I met two individuals who make VMX a great thing. That would be Jim Diebert and Bruce Rounsaville.
AHRMA |
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 A View From Oz... |
Changing Times
by FIRKO #53
A skinny little bloke from Minnesota once sang that “the times they are ‘a changing”. Although we know different, he could easily have been singing about the way we build our vintage bikes these days. In the twenty odd years that vintage motocross has been around nothing has changed the way we do things like the internet and eBay in particular.
I’m currently building a pretty unique Hindall framed Ducati 250 using a frame and core motor I bought via eBay from East Coast racer Brian O’Connor. The build has been a hoot because it has allowed me to don my Dr Frankenstein stethoscope and build the bike that’s been festering away in my head since I was a kid. eBay has allowed me to build a bike that prior to the internet would never have even been possible down here in my island paradise. As a teenager in sixties Australia I used to scour the American magazines drooling over the exotic frames made by companies like Champion, C&J, Trackmaster and Harry Hindall himself. Sure there were a few British Rickman Metisses, Cheneys and Sprites running around down here but it was the ‘Yank’ stuff that tooted my horn.
From our friends at VMX Magazine
Issue 34!
From Soup to all of you Nuts
by Steve Clark #309D
OVRADD or What’s the Matter With Me?
What the hell is the matter with me?
The answer to that depends on whom you ask, and the context it is asked in.
Ask my ex, and you’ll be there all day and leave convinced that I taught Charles Manson all he knows before she’s done. Ask my boss and you’ll get a very different description of what’s wrong with me. Ask my friends and you’ll get yet a different list.
I asked MYSELF this question recently, after I did a really bad thing.
On a whim, I made the mistake of listing all the vintage bikes I own in a spreadsheet, then totaling the values. WTF? And to make matters worse, when I ambled out to the shed to look at the collection I walked by a 78 Maico 440 I plum forgot to list!
How the hell does someone with no money accumulate such a mess, get so many projects halfway completed, and forget a Maico?
What’s the matter with me?
Mac's Killer Zunny Sprite
 AHRMA race at Diamond Don's Jefferson, Texas - 2002 Brad Lackey, Ron Pomeroy, Dale Hyatt, Debbie (Pomeroy) Hyatt and Jimmy Read the Letter from Debbie (Pomeroy) Hyatt |
VMX Club Profile
Hammer & Tongs
HAMMER & TONGS is the Pacific Northwest's Summer Vintage Motocross Scene. It is more of a scene than a club, which is its primary strength. The sole mission is to KEEP VINTAGE MOTOCROSS CHEAP, EASY AND FUN. And six years in it has become a series that draws very healthy numbers from a loyal base.
BEGINNINGS •
In speaking about Hammer & Tongs, you have to mention VDR, from which it all started. In the Pacific NW there were always two scenes. VDR, ran in the winter, and Ahrma in the summer. VDR was local, and quite unlike regular clubs. You were never required to join, there were minimal rules, no politics at all, and everyone was happy; no politics because it was a monarchy. Of course a democracy is a great for a country, but it is always a mess for a club. A single handed style depends on the man at the top being a reasonable person, and VDR's man Monty Price was just that; reasonable, shrewd, and a man of few words.
A Super Photo of Super Hunky
taking a Super Photo!
Husky Hooker Headers Mystery
by Robert Haag #74Y
I rode Huskys for a few years in the early '70's and got a lot of help with bikes and parts, and a little training with Rolf Tibblin. Husky West also gave me the opportunity of a lifetime and let me tag along with the Team on the summer Inner Am series in '72 though I was only 15 and could only ride a few Sat support races.
Happened to see an add for Hooker Headers expansion chambers from '72 in Cycle Guide as I was going through a box of old magazines, and I finally resolved a puzzle over 35 years old now.
To lay the groundwork, my dad Dave was really into the racing and a great supporter with no pressure but a lot of enthusiasm. He was involved in an accessories company called Pacer, making hop up accessories for early Yamaha Dt'1s, At'1s, and Ct'1s. Also involved were the Jones Family as they were developing the YZ prototypes. I was just a shy quiet squid and couldn't really appreciate Gary's work ethic and speed, as no one could have lived up to the European heroes of the time, but I loved hanging around Don, Gary and Dewayne with all their tall tailed bench racing stories and down home sense of humor. It was really a gift knowing the Jones and through them we met a lot of influential people in the exploding MX scene. A friend of the Jones, Gary Bryson was involved in Pacer and introduced us to the legend ‘50’s Dirt tracker Everett Brashear who was running Husky West, and was instrumental in my later getting Husky's support.
McCookRacing Caption Contest |
 Submit Your Caption and win some cool swag! Click here for details & Entry Form |
Caption Contest WinnerGary Davis is the winner of the Cool Maico Racing Jersey! |
| * -This photo was taken near Woodstock the week of the concert- 
1)The Rock Stars name is: Bob Dylan 2)The winning caption is: The answer my friend--is blowin' in the wind |
Congrats Gary! |
I've Lost My Bearings
Part 1 of 2
by Fritz Guenther #22T
Is it time to replace the engine bearings in that trusty old steed? If so I hope you were the one that scheduled the repairs and not your engine. When your engine does the maintenance scheduling, it’s usually bad news and much more expensive! The goal of this short article is to give you an idea what’s been going on in the bearing world for the last few years, most of its good or even great news but some not so good. Hopefully the information contained here will assist you in choosing the best bearings when it comes time to rebuild your engine.
Technology in every part of our lives has been moving at breakneck speeds, which can be good or bad depending on whom you ask. The good news is it’s been doing the same in the rolling element bearing world as well. The big buzz word in bearings these days seems to be ceramics, pure ceramic bearings, hybrid bearings and bearings that require no lubrication. For most of us in the vintage motocross scene these are nothing more than conversation starters around the garage or over a beer.
Your Momma's Next XT500
Chinese Takeout
by P.J. Read #357
With the benefit of hindsight I must now admit that my first foray into Asian business back in the early days of 1969 was an ill advised disaster. My then financial advisor and motocross team manager for the very defunct Team Ariel, Trent Farlowe had managed to persuade me to investigate the possibility of setting up our own motocross bike production company in the Queens colony of 
Taiwan. Farlowe had been having sordid affair with Lily, the sultry daughter of Shin San Tong founder Ah Fong Tip and being a man who has made a living using sexual dalliances to his advantage, couldn’t let the opportunity slip by.
The VMX Art of Rob Kinsey!
Click here for Details!
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Steve Clark #309D
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Tom Long #20B
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