He sure inspired me to want to be a good Trials rider. I love that Trials era when everything went forward non stop and Bultacos were the order of the day!
Unfortunately life got in the way of my practice over the decades.
I was just getting the hang of it when the rules changed to stop and back up...
Some riders have found old twin shockers to be much more fun than the modern water cooled wonders. I like the simplicity of them and the keep on going no stopping riding style.
I am pretty sure that if Trials remained twin shock and no stop I would have become a very very good rider in that venue.
My motivation lost story includes becoming sick of the local Trials scene in Canada. Whenever I was living or working back in my Canadian residence, I would just go to the local riding area in the middle of the week and ride alone. Now I feel that I know every nook and cranny of the one riding area. Whenever I went out of the country, I always seemed to be in a place that there was no Trials riding going on.
Nothing wrong with getting sick of something. Maybe give it a break and then come back and try it from a different angle. ie twinshock or a different bike? I like variety in the game of life so I have a tendency to rotate into and out of other things such as Olympic and Powerlifting, different martial arts systems, road bikes, dirt bikes, cycling, changing jobs, trying out new sports, take up new areas of training and study, living in other countries, reading different categories of books, long hair, short hair, bald, clean shaven, beard. Change girlfriends once in while, be careful after they become wives, changing them gets expenses and dips into the Trials budget!
Whatever you do in the game of life, keep it interesting and inspiring for you. Show up at a Trial dressed as a balerina, it could give you a competetive advantage. I did that once at a martial arts tournament, I cleaned up my division, my opponents couldn't stop laughing!! Thanks to Dennis Rodman for that inspiration!
With another quick search can't seem to find the big bore kit info. Do you order a complete bike from the factory, or do you buy parts and have the engine torn apart and bored out etc. If its bore out kit, will it work with the 125? What does it cost?
I wonder if they will ever produce a 225 air cooled setup?
That looks like Micks Works 360 Yamaha. I think from 77?
Definetly not a DT-175 swingarm.
I used to hate the Japanese companies back then. For making spectacular works bikes, and having nothing like them available to the public.
Especially Eddie Lejunes works Honda 360! The production bikes weren't even modifiable into anything close to the works bikes. remember also Marlan Whaley's Works 300 Honda, so trick, and so light, and so unavailable.
Unfortunately I unloaded the TL-250. Kicking myself for that too. I miss it, it was in such great shape too.
Although it was in excellent condition, I found getting spares and information on better parts a real pain.
Please post those pics here! Your description is like something I had seen similar to the highly modified TL-250's so long ago. They were a great ride, totally different from the stock machine!
A Darwin Award is a tongue-in-cheek "honor" given to people who supposedly improve the human gene pool as part of the natural-selection process by accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves during a foolish or careless mistake. Named after pioneering evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin.
Examples
Examples of Darwin award winners would be: Juggling active hand grenades (Croatia, 2001),[4] jumping out of a plane to film skydivers while forgetting to wear a parachute oneself (USA, 1987),[5] trying to get enough light to look down a gun barrel using a cigarette lighter (USA, 1996),[6] using a lighter to illuminate a fuel tank to make sure it contains nothing flammable (Brazil, 2003),[7] and the man who had sexual intercourse with a vacuum cleaner (USA, 2000).[8]
Northcutt's Darwin Awards site gives "Honorable Mentions" to people who manage to survive their misadventures with their reproductive capacity intact. One notable example is Lawnchair Larry, who attached helium balloons to a lawn chair and floated way too far above Long Beach, California, in July 1982.
In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.
CALIFORNIA...
A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran," -- accidentally jogged off a 100-foot-high cliff on his daily run.
NORTH CAROLINA...
Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beach-goers said Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand.
People on the beach on the outer banks, used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.
CALIFORNIA...
Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA, as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth(to keep his hands free) rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.
DELAWARE...
Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in Selbyvill, Del, as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.
HONOURABLE MENTION:
NEW JERSEY...
Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover township, NJ, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, when a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up in their car. While driving around 2 AM, the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but apparently failed to notice the window was closed.
RUNNER UP:
WASHINGTON...
TACOMA, WA.........Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM.
Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. One end of the cable was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy river water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. "All I can say" said Bingham, "is that God was watching out for me on that night. There's just no other explanation for it."
Bingham's foot was never located.
AND THE WINNER: FROM G-E-R-M-A-N-Y is....
Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop!
Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him" said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated."
Sure helps keep my faith in humanity
Then again enough people voted for George to make him President. Twice?
I'll chime in that the 200s are great. I had a Gas Gas 200 Pro, and it's the best of the 125 and 270 worlds. It has the needed grunt down low for all but the heaviest riders, but can be spun up without feeling like you're going to get out of control. I can actually go up bigger steps on a 200 than a 270/280/300 because I can be more confidently aggressive with the motor.
I think the popularity issue is a testosterone thing. For some testicular-based reason, the average basher thinks he's World Championship material and he needs to ride what the top guys ride. If you ride with your brain, rather than your family jewels, you will make the right decision.
I agree.
The 200's are hard to come by, at least when I used to live on the Wet Coast of Canada. Strange they aren't promoted more. When I get settled in and think about riding again I will be considering a 200 series somethng if I go two stroke, unlesss something good is available in four stroke 200 to 250.
"I'd rather live like there is a God and find out there isnt, than to live like there isnt a God and find out there is!"
I see it this way: Lucifer was symbolic of a rebelious teenager that didn't like the old fart (Gods) rules.
Now thinking of Heaven vs. Hell, I think I would give Hell serious consideration:
Lets face it, its warmer in Hell, the music is better, (they get all the good bands) and the hot women. In Hell, people know how to party! They are much less inhibited and like to have a good time! The food is hot and spicy too.
In Heaven, its cold and boring. Everybody is afraid to do something wrong, it's very restrictive, no one wants to p*** off the Almighty. I think God is this old guy having a mid-life crisis with a big ego problem in need of much therapy. Must be a creepy family, always watching us, and sending his son to die in an inhumane way.
Who do you get to hang out with in heaven? A bunch of priests who molested your children. The Taliban who are looking for a bunch of virgins (they get the frigid Nuns). Death row inmates who convert at the last minute. Televangelists. Used car salesmen. Torquemada, Vlad the Impaler, and the crusader armies. You also get those pushy annoying judgemental nosey neighbors that have been trying to convert your family including the dog and cat. Oh great, here come those Jehovahs Witnesses again....
In Heaven its cold, the music is boring and highly restricted. Harps? Can we wear some color other than white please? Nope? Where can I get a Beer in this place? Whats for lunch, I'm hungry.
The Budhists and Hindus are lucky, they get to reincarnate. Hey I come back as a cow, whats that sign? Huh? They are gong to turn me into a Big Mac Patty? I guess I should have been reincarnated in India, I make big mistake when I immigrate to America... Ow! Why did that cowboy just burn my ass with a red hot metal iron?
Valhalla could have been fun, like thanksgiving at my relatives every day. Fighting all day and throwing food at each other all night.
Those that are offended by the Darwins suggestion that we all have evolved from Apes, please take a close look at how the world is run and how people around us act. I agree that this is a very offensive theory, for the Apes!
Best to just believe that after you are dead, that's it, game over. There is no afterlife. Make the best while you are alive, here and now.
Evel Knievel Dies
in USA Trials
Posted
I wonder if Harley Davidson will come out with a bike or series of bikes in his honor?