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thump*140

thump*140

Mini Riders Legend
Joined
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Cactus got me thinking... thus posted pics of random old school mx bikes that have shaped motos of today... for good and bad... ha ha...
you young fellas have it soo good these days.. ha ha
Maico 1981 490 Mega... best open class bike ever built... nuff said..
1981_maico_490-1.jpg

1980 Honda CR250 Red Devil...last of the honda twin shock 2fiddies... class...
cr250_1980-1.jpg

Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone... anyone who has ridden one, will be familiar with the below position...
tm400.jpg

yamaha YZ360... sometimes fitted with a decomp lever... not for pussies..
yz360.jpg
 
thump*140 said:
Cactus got me thinking...
Click to expand...

Well cactus will do that, he will always keep you thinking :p

One difference I notice is the overall size of the motor, especially on the Maico the engine looks small and bare without all the hoses etc compared with todays bikes. The bottom end looks as small as a Lifan 125 lol.
 
Last edited:
what about the good old yz490s they dated back a while
yz_490_wheelie.jpg
 
yeah the YZ490 is another favourite of mine... and another motor that stood the test of time in the early to mid eighties YZ's, the same years in the IT490's, and finally it's last hurrah in the 93 WR500, which is still a highly sought after model... The last WR i rode was a monster... worked out in the desert of northern SA, and the boss had a WR that he spent a lot of money on... shaved head, porting, FMF pipe, desert gearing, diet of methanol and avgas depending on which he could get his hands on, lot of suspension work... rode it once and it scared the bejesus out of me, but then 65plus HP in a dirt bike capable of speeds above 170kph will usually do that... ha ha...

And I-Thump, yes, Mr Cactus will keep us thinking... thankfully he also takes a lot of the thinking out of riding minis, for which we are in debt to him. A hero among men, and an asset to the site!!

and the Maico... hard to believe a bottom end that diminutive was capable of reigning in 50HP isnt it?? The big bore Huskies were the same... barrel the size of a football, piston the size of a can of Heinz 97, and a bottom end and gearbox the size of a cigarette packet. lol.
 
I've never owned a Maico ... Just a Z50 ... an Indian MX-76R ... XR75's ... an SC500 ... RM125 ... YZ250 ... XL350 ... TT500 ...

Check out this old classic ... It's a CCM500 Clewstroka ...

ExLesterRowley1974CCM500.jpg


It won the Mr Motocross Open class (If my memory is correct) against the white YZ400's and all the other open class 2 strokes at Amaroo Park ... beating the current Mr Motocross Stephen Gall ... (not sure what year but I was there) ... A guy who looked about 7 foot tall and solidly built won ... he made every other racer in the pits look like kids when he stood next to 'em ... his name was Lester Rowley ... The CCM looked like a mini bike with him on it ... All the other racers were cracking jokes and sniggering at him as if he had no chance whatsoever ... but he wiped the smile off their faces big time ... That bike flogged the lot of 'em ... You'd see him come out thru the turn onto the main straight and hear the worked BSA 500 thumping thru only a few gears as he accelerated ... and he'd go flying over the hi speed jump full bore ... The sound of his bike would fade ... THEN you'd hear an infiltrating sound coming like a swarm of mozzies chasing after him ... You'd be thinking WTF's goin' on 'ere ??? ... as if the rest of the pack had all crashed or something ... it was actually quite funny to watch , lap after lap ... Quite a few skeptics (2 stroke die hards) had egg on their face that day ... and walked out of the meet looking dejected , deflated , and bewildered ... including my 2 mates who were deathly silent all the way home in the car ... I ribbed 'em relentlessly all the way home and for weeks and weeks afterwards ... Their "unbeatable" two stroke heroes got flogged by a guy dressed in '60's riding gear , riding an old style English Scrambler .. LOL ...
 
Cactus Jack said:
Some body has messed Mini Riders up ... I'm not getting edit or quote ... only quick reply right at the bottom of the page ...
Click to expand...

There was some site matainance done last night so it is possible something was missed. I have all the usual buttons but does anyone else have the same problem as cactus?
 
ok, sorry for the double post but yer.

im fairly young, but like a motorcycling encyclopeadea, engins and stuff im good with, understand it all, can make my way around 2 and 4 strokes.

so, i thought that one of the fairly old bikes that made an impact. The Z50 and honda step through stand out. The old yamy TY trials bikes were a stand out. Death trap or not, the honda trikes were too. I think a lot of the early honda bikes were pretty great, like on my 32 year old bike the trike has the same principal, and same design as most of these new-age pit bike engines and crf's.

sorry, just noticed, these bike i have described as more, changing the face of the sport, not beasty, so if you don't like my post just tell us and ill delete it
 
soo whats this position is it what i think it is?


Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone... anyone who has ridden one, will be familiar with the below position...
tm400.jpg
 
wogtaz ryder said:
soo whats this position is it what i think it is?


Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone... anyone who has ridden one, will be familiar with the below position...
tm400.jpg
Click to expand...

ha ha, for anyone who has ridden a TM 400 Cyclone, they were probably THE worst handling bike ever built.. felt like it had a hinge in the middle, and a shocker of a motor... kinda like a highly strung turbo engine... nothing down low, then brace yourself for the spank in the a$$ when it came on the pipe...

and the position referred to above?? i would say it's doggie style, but that would just be a dreadfully bad joke, given the pooch in the pic.... but then the dude on the ground has that miserable look on his bonce, kinda like that dude on you-tube who gets violated by a very confused and clearly frustrated donkey... Bah ha ha ha!!!
 
orion125proseries06 said:
ok, sorry for the double post but yer.

im fairly young, but like a motorcycling encyclopeadea, engins and stuff im good with, understand it all, can make my way around 2 and 4 strokes.

so, i thought that one of the fairly old bikes that made an impact. The Z50 and honda step through stand out. The old yamy TY trials bikes were a stand out. Death trap or not, the honda trikes were too. I think a lot of the early honda bikes were pretty great, like on my 32 year old bike the trike has the same principal, and same design as most of these new-age pit bike engines and crf's.

sorry, just noticed, these bike i have described as more, changing the face of the sport, not beasty, so if you don't like my post just tell us and ill delete it
Click to expand...

nah mate, all good. and you're right, the ATC70's and 90's did influence the sport a lot, and gave a lot of us "older" blokes their first taste of dirt... mine unfortunately, was a Yamaha GT 80 mini enduro... then an MX 80...
Honda_ATC_90_1980.jpg

gt80.jpg

ty175.jpg
 
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