Anyway, Paul’s dad was buried in the same municipal cemetery as my parents. We were standing around reminiscing about our dads before the service and I said, “Hey, you want to see something hard core? My Dad has a Guzzi on his tombstone.”

Whenever I tell people about my Dad I always say he loved two things — fast cars and motorcycles. If you don’t believe me just look at his tombstone. My Mom picked that out after he died in 2003 because — besides her, my brother, and me — those were the two things he loved most. And when I think about it now I realize just how hard-core he was.

Dad toured all 48 contiguous states on his Moto Guzzi baggers. He was one of those “Iron Butt” guys who liked to do 1,000 miles per day. That may not sound like much to a guy who can cruise 1,000 miles on a modern, air-conditioned Goldwing, but Dad did it on archaic, ’70s-era Guzzis. He loved those bikes, and rode them everywhere until he had a stroke (while riding) and a bad single-vehicle crash in 1992. He still rode a little after that, but not much. And not very far.

Like it says in the “About” section on this site, my first memory of motorcycles was riding on the back of Dad’s Electra Glide at four or five years old, making a 250-mile trek to my grandparents. In the early ’70s Dad switched from Harleys to BMWs. Then he bought a Ducati — a beautiful 900 Darma SS — but somewhere around ’75 or so he discovered Moto Guzzis and fell in love. From that point on Guzzis were all he owned. When he died he had five plus a tractor-trailer storage unit full of parts.

Imagine, if you will, doing 1,000-mile days on one of these with a full fairing, saddle bags, and a small pop-up camping trailer hitched to the back. Many times I watched my Mom and Dad (yes, Mom got into the act too) head off to some rally two or three states away for a camping weekend. If Mom didn’t want to go Dad went by himself, and would stay gone as long as he thought his business could survive without him (which often wasn’t very long.)

Oh, Dad had all the luxuries of the time — radio in the fairing, crude helmet radios, etc. — but the ’70s didn’t really have much in the way of luxury for motorcyclists. Nevertheless, these beautiful, classic bikes took him all over these great United States.

Now Dad had nary a tattoo — didn’t have much use for them unless you were in the Navy or the Merchant Marine — wore a crew-cut most of his life, and went to church on Sundays. He would never have been confused with a character on Sons of Anarchy. But he was a hard-core biker.

The other day I was talking with my business partner Ty. He’s a lawyer and the closest he’s ever been to a motorcycle is when he walks through my shop. He had just watched (again) the TV special “Smartest Guys in the Room” about the Enron debacle. There’s a scene in the show where Fastow and Shilling and some other ersatz bigwigs are out on some adventure ride in the desert jumping their shiny, expensive dirt bike toys off little hills to prove their manhood — like tribal scream therapy for rich guys.

Ty’s comment was something like, “How stupid. Grown men playing action sports trying to prove how tough they are.”

I said, “Hey. Just a minute. I’ve been doing stuff like that my whole life.”

He said, “Yeah, but the difference is I know you’ve been doing it your whole life. You didn’t do it once just to brag about it.”

Thanks. I guess. I’m not sure but I guess he has a point. I’ve been at it my whole life but I haven’t done nearly enough of it the last 20 years. So here’s to you, Dad. I might not get it on my tombstone, but I’m going to do a lot more of it in the future.

Got a great email from motocross historian, CZ aficionado, and all-round good guy Reese Dengler. Reese attended the very first AMA MX National at Washougal, WA in 1980. In honor of the 2010 National he dug through his personal archives and pulled out some great photos. Here’s what Reese had to say:

On the occasion of the 2010 Washougal national I’ve dug thru my old slides and posted a few of my shots, (34), from the first Washougal national in 1980. You can see the shots on this web page,

http://www.ahrmanw.com/Stuff.htm

Some of these shots have never been seen before except by me and a few of my old moto-cross buddies.

There’s some great pics here. There aren’t any captions but if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view the thumbnail page you’ll see a title/description pop-up (this doesn’t work in Firefox.) Click the link above or click the photo to visit Reese’s photo page.

It is targeted at the thousands of foreign manufacturers who ship electronics, toys, clothing, and consumer goods into the US. It is intended to make those companies subject to, and easily accessible by, the US tort system. It also includes any suppliers to those companies – such as companies that make boxes, pallets, packaging materials, straps, plastics, etc.

We, the vintage dirt bikers, are just a little invisible community that will be squashed if this bill passes.

I read an interesting quote today from the folks at Downsize DC, an activist group fighting for smaller government:

Politicians and bureaucrats constantly speak with a forked tongue…

• They claim they’re protecting “the little guy” from “the fat cats,” when in reality…
• The State actually works for the fat cats (though in an unreliable Mafia kind of way).

This is quite perceptive, and is what is actually occurring with H.R.4678. The bureaucrats and politicians push out one more sweeping piece of legislation, under the guise of protecting us, that incidentally crushes the small guys while offering barely a hurdle to the billion-dollar corporations.

Here is a sad, relevant tale of collateral damage under the CPSIA – the story of small-but-growing home business crushed under the weight of legislation which big corporations are now using to browbeat their small suppliers.

To address the reams of similar horror stories that have emerged from CPSIA, H.R.4678 contains provisions for rule-making on the “minimum amount” that triggers the need to register — a process that, ostensibly, will relieve the burden on small businesses. But how will that work? Let’s look at one observer’s analysis — Rick Woldenberg of CPSIA blog:

And consider how this rule might be applied. To determine whether you are above or below the threshold, you must disclose your revenues and volumes to the government for their scrutiny and approval. This is remarkably invasive and is reason enough for many factories to concentrate on sales to South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Who needs this nonsense?

[And if registration is unavoidable, the registration process itself is also tedious and requires the disgorgement of lots of detailed information - which not only will discourage participation but also sets up the foreign manufacturers for liability to the government for "false" statements if they make errors. We have 1500 catalog items, so I can identify with the problems that this kind of requirement might create. It's nothing more than a bureaucratic set-up for regulators to accumulate causes of action to use as they see fit.]

There are people, some of them knowledgeable, who disagree with Woldenberg. But to his point, how else will the US Government or Agency know that you are under its threshold for registration if you don’t disclose all the relevant information?

If you are GMC of Australia, or Sammy Miller Products of the UK, or that guy in Australia who re-pops rubber carb boots and such out of his shed, are you going to hire a solicitor in your country to guide you through this process? Are you going to turn over your books to the US Government? What if you’re Northwest Maico/CZ, or AMS Racing? Are you going to get all your suppliers certified with the government?

What about individuals, can we order something from overseas even if it isn’t imported? Are we then importers? Will the item be allowed through Customs? I do not know the answers to these questions.

What I do know is that if this piece of legislation passes, rule-making or no, it is a potential nightmare for our hobby. The only way we can fight back is to contact our Congressmen now and let them know the serious impact this could have, and that their solution to the problem is inadequate.

This bill has 63 cosponsors ( list available at Thomas.gov) and if your representative is on this list it is critically important you make your views known now, early in the process. If you are importing parts, you should contact your Congressman now.

We are unlikely to get support from any of our organizations. We are too few, too quiet, and too easily dismissed. We must stand up for ourselves, before it is too late.

A couple of years ago the motorcycle industry was caught by surprise when Congress enacted, and then deployed, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) — almost immediately wiping out a $1 billion youth motorcycle and atv industry. Over the ensuing two years the CPSIA proved to be a massive screw job for all sorts of small businesses.

On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed (by voice vote) another piece of legislation that could be equally devastating to the vintage dirt bike scene — the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2010, H.R. 4678. The bill now moves to the larger Ways and Means Committee or perhaps to the floor for a vote.

This act is aimed at forcing foreign manufacturers into the US tort system for liability law suits. Like most laws, that sounds great in a sound byte on the news – force all those big Chinese and Taiwanese companies to be accessible to our thousands of personal injury lawyers.

The truth is that if you’re a vintage dirt bike fan and you buy or use any part that’s made in the UK, China, Taiwan, Australia, or Europe by a small manufacturer you may well find that part is no longer available to you. Those cool CZ parts Bertus brings in from Czechoslovakia? Not gonna happen if this bill passes. Nifty trials parts for your Ty250 or TL125 from Great Britain? Kiss them goodbye. Replica frames from GMC in Australia? Adios, amigo.

To get a little more insight into this bill I called Paul Vitrano, General Counsel for the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), to discuss it.

According to Paul, the MIC currently has no official position on the bill and has not been involved at the draft stage. However, he did offer some comments based on his reading of the bill text and previous experience with the CPSIA.

My first question to Paul was whether this bill was actually as ominous as it seemed, and whether people like me — vintage bike hobbyists — should be concerned. His answer? A definite Yes, with a couple of caveats.

As currently written the bill does not encompass products that are otherwise covered by the Department of Transportation (DOT). What this means is that manufacturers of parts, pieces, and materials that are DOT-approved for street use should not be subject to the new regulations. Essentially the street bike crowd should be relatively safe. But if you’re into performance (non-DOT) parts for vintage road racing you’re vulnerable.

As for us dirt bike guys, almost none of our stuff is DOT-approved. There may be some parts for early dual-purpose bikes, but I’m not aware of anything. Typically, everything that comes in from overseas for dirt bikes is stamped “For Competition Use Only” specifically as a way of avoiding liability. None of this stuff will be allowed through customs unless the manufacturer has  complied with the onerous registration, agency, and disclosure requirements of the bill.

Paul’s second caveat was that the bill does allow for rule-making after passage. He sees this as a good thing, as the main problem with the CPSIA was that limits were set in the law itself, allowing for little or no flexibility on the part of the bureaucrats responsible for implementation.

Specifically, the bill provides for the administrative bureaucrats to determine the minimum size of the manufacturers to be regulated, based on dollar volume, unit volume, and number of incoming shipments. This means there is the potential for certain small businesses to be exempt, but I fail to see any incentive for the bureaucrats to exempt them. Small, cottage businesses in foreign countries don’t have any political representation in this country, and can’t pay lobbyists to fight on their behalf.

I am not any more comfortable with idiot bureaucrats making laws than I am idiot Congressmen but, to Paul’s point, at least that allows for some input by the affected parties — however difficult and expensive that input may be. With CPSIA there was no input mechanism at all and the result was a legal quagmire of historic proportions.

Paul’s closing comment was that there are some benefits to the bill, in terms of making large foreign manufacturers more accountable, but it definitely bears watching and could  pose serious problems to the vintage hobby.

I first became aware of the bill here, at the Learning Resources, Inc. blog. Editor Rick Woldenberg has posted additional commentary on the bill, specifically on the rule-making and minimum size aspects, here.

If you’re interested I have posted a Government Printing Office PDF of the bill, or you can track it at Thomas.gov using HR4678 for your search. (Note: If you open the PDF it may appear to hang for a minute as it goes out to the GPO site to validate authenticity of the document.)

In summary, I think this is going to be another bad piece of legislation and, unless we are very careful and proactive, the vintage dirt bike hobby could take a real beating on this deal. Few, if any, of the vintage parts guys are members of the MIC (as far as I know) and cannot expect to be represented by them. As to whether the AMA or AHRMA will take a position on this, I do not know.  I will keep you updated here as I learn more.

This video was put together by some AZ vintage riders — Bill Ramsey of The Motorcycle Accessory Shop made the video, based on a technique he learned from Mark Smith. I struggle to start my old big-bore CZs, and have repeatedly ripped the buckles off my cool vintage Hi-Point MX boots. Not cool. Maybe this little trick will save my boots, until I crash and have to start it the old-fashioned way. Of course, this only works with bikes that have carburetors.

Disclaimer:

Have a look at my flickr album for a few more photos. Here are a few amateurish video clips.

Weather: The weather was excellent on Friday and most of Saturday. It was partly cloudy and breezy – got hot for about an hour on Friday, and about an hour Saturday morning, but otherwise it was great. Saturday afternoon the rain began to come in. Slight drizzle started about 3:30 or so Sat. The drizzle didn’t go well with the black-clay track surface and made for some slick racing for the last two motos of the day.

Attendance: I don’t have official attendance stats, but the camping areas were pretty full — as full as I’ve seen them in the 4 times I’ve been there. It was good to see so many folks camping and having a good time. The infield and entry-road camping was completely packed. There were still some open areas way in the back, across the train track, but it was really full.

Rider Participation: Rider count was high. 380 pre-entries for Vintage, 238 for Post-Vintage, 9 for Trials, and 102 for Cross-Country. That’s 729 rider entries for the weekend. With many (but far from all) riders running two classes and a few running three or four classes you can figure there were probably close to 200 or better actual individual riders on Saturday.

I do know there were 15 VMX motos on Saturday and, as best I can remember, they all had double gates and all the gates were close to, or in, the double-digits. There was lots of racing going on and it was terrific to see such a turnout for the vintage side of things.

Food: I missed this year’s BBQ, Mudbug, and Band shindig on Friday nite, but heard the food there was higher in both quality and variety than in years past. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always thought the free feed put on by DD and friends was excellent, but word is that this year the brisket was especially good, and the menu included both chicken and catfish to boot.

Also, my man Ronnie Welch kept his smoker going all day long cranking out bratwurst and Cajun Boudin sausage for anyone who happened by. The boudin he cooks up is absolutely killer but I warn you, if you eat too much you’ll remember it on Sunday… and Monday.

Bikes: There were, as usual, some stellar bikes floating around. If you click on the DiamondDons2010 tag you’ll see articles on a couple that were of particular interest to me. Bob McNamara won the Cool Bike award with his super-sano Cheney-framed Norton 750 twin. What a great bike. There were lots of Maicos in the pits, but the majority were PV bikes – ’78 anad later. Lots of early ’80s models, and some very clean ones. But I think the biggest brand contingent in the pits was Bultaco.

There was a giant bus, and equally giant trailer, with about a dozen really clean Bultacos of various sizes and years, all painted in a nice black-and-white theme. They seemed to have a cadre of riders, with some in almost every moto. Chuck Sun rode one of the bikes in his +40 and +50 motos. I wish I had taken a picture of their pit area. It was impressive. Even more impressive was they ran all those Buls all day long without any mechanicals (as far as I could tell.)

Track: The GP-style track looked excellent to me, as a spectator. It got beat up pretty bad over the course of the day and I think they had a few track safety issues in the afternoon. In particular, there were some really deep ruts in a couple of places that caught people off guard and led to some carnage. The second +50 expert moto had a good portion of the field go down on the first lap in the back woods section when riders got caught in a particularly nasty trench that had developed during the day. It would have been smart to have someone back there waving a yellow flag on the first lap to warn riders who hadn’t seen the area since morning.

Racing: Lots and lots of racing. The +40 and +50 Expert class had some great champions and local Texas legends. 2x World Champ Trampass Parker was there, as was 2X National Champ Chuck Sun. Parker was the featured Legend of the weekend. Also on hand was ’70s Texas hotshoe Kirk Spencer and Okalahoma City’s Trey Jorski.

In the first +40 Expert moto Spencer smoked the field despite breaking his tranny on the last lap, which prevented him from riding the second moto. In the second moto Sun chased Parker for the length of the event. In the second moto Parket came off the gate about 5th or 6th but took the lead on the first lap and never looked back.

The Classic 125 Expert had some good racing, with a fast Bultaco and an Elsinore rider swapping positions for 3 laps, until the Bul rider took a fall and let the Elsie get away.

Once the rain started it got sketchy. For the final +50 Exp moto we were standing by the fence in the infield area where riders came around a high-speed sweeper with a big tree at the outside apex, leading to the “hump-jump” over the tunnel. More than one rider looked to be heading for disaster as they lost traction on the slick clay, but everyone managed to keep it together.

There’s a lot going on a DD’s and sometimes the racing takes a back seat, but every moto I watched was a good one.

Word is that Sunday’s rain put a damper on things, with many racers opting out of the second moto. Some of the Expert class second motos reportedly had only one rider on the gate. I’ve been at DD’s in the mud. I rode a mud race there in 2008 and today, two years later, I’m still cleaning that nasty, black mud out of the bike.

Richie V Memorial: Last year Richie Vallandingham — AHRMA #49J — passed away of a heart attack while out riding with his son. Richie had a history of heart trouble and knew the risks that riding entailed, but he wanted to live his life to the fullest. I met Richie on a number of occassions and he was, without question, one of the most genuine and friendly people on the planet. There are very few people that make me think the world is truly poorer for their passing, but Richie was definitely one.

A special Sunday morning Parade Lap was planned as a memorial for Richie at this year’s National, but reports are that there was some miscommunication and disorganization with the memorial, and it didn’t go off quite as planned. Nevertheless, Brad Lackey rode Richie’s #49J CZ around the track in tribute, and Richie’s wife Teresa was there so that all of Richie’s friends could personally offer their memories and stories about RV49J. Godspeed Richie. We still miss you. (photo: 2008 Diamond Don’s. L to R — John Putkey, me, Richie V.)

Injury report: There were the usual bumps and bruises. To my knowledge the only serious injury was to TVRC racer Jeff Hards who suffered a badly-broken leg in his second moto. Jeff got his right foot caught in one of the deep ruts and twisted it off the peg, snapping the bone in his lower leg. He managed to ride back to the pits, but was carted off in the ambulance and was reported to have had surgery on Monday to put some titanium in.

There were quite a few falls, especially once the track got slick, and I saw a few slings and bandages in the pits. Women’s rider Tami Rice suffered a bruised hip when she low-sided in the sweeper. And several riders were slow to get up, needing some attention from the EMTs. But with that many racers on the track it really wasn’t a bad day for injuries.

Summary: As always, DD’s was a blast. The rain dampened things on Sunday, and the disorganization for the RV49J Memorial upset a couple of folks, but otherwise I heard nothing but positive comments. I thought it was the best Riverport National yet. I’ll definitely be back next year.

The wheels are vintage CZ hubs (magnesium) laced to shouldered Akront rims with custom-machined spacers and axles to get the alignment right.  The rear backing plate and chain guide are also custom-fab units. The in-line axle forks are off a ’70s-era Can-Am. Everything about this bike is as sano as I have ever seen.

The exhaust was custom-built by D & D Performance Exhaust of Fort Worth, TX. Like everything else on the bike, it’s a work of art. I believe this was Bob’s first race on the bike. He had a minor teething problem with the ignition after the first moto, but his crew worked on the bike in the pits and got him going for Moto 2, where he took 1st in class.

The bike looked like it was a blast to ride, and seemed to handle the rough Gran Prix-style course with ease. These big, booming 4-strokes from the ’60s just sound different than today’s 450F bikes — different and better. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s my memories of watching John Banks man-handle a big, booming CCM BSA around the Lake Whitney national track in the mid-’70s.

I’m pretty sure it was either Vintage Factory or Classix50MX, both of whom have killer vintage MX photo collections, that posted it. But since I can’t find the thread I don’t know the date or location.

If you know when and where this photo was taken post it in the comments. Thanks.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect the facts. Check the comments for details. :end:

A while back Mitch Boehm of Moto Retro contacted me about some old SL 70 stories. I don’t know if he used any of them or not as I haven’t gotten around to subscribing yet. But here’s one I didn’t send him.

After I “outgrew” my SL 70 I sold it to my younger brother. The top photo on the left is my brother jumping the SL 70 off a hill on some unnamed junior high campus. We were such scofflaws.

Anyway, back in the early ’70s there was a big vacant lot, probably a couple of acres, right off of 5th street and Palmer, just behind the Tyler Junior College campus.  TJC has a big football practice field there now, but back in the day it was just a wooded lot with a creek running through the back.

We made some trails through the lot and, eventually, turned it into an impromptu MX track that we used to ride for hours. It was fun and I did many, many laps there thinking one day I would be Marty Smith. Anyway, after I sold the SL 70 to my brother I traded up to a used 1973 Honda CR125 Elsinore and we’d both go riding there — middle photo on the right  is me riding the 125 on that  lot. That old Elsie was really loud. Looking back it’s amazing we never had any trouble with the police there — at least none that I recall. Must have been some really tolerant neighbors.

One of the problems with open trail riding is there aren’t any rules about which direction to go. We had a more-or-less established direction for the track, but on any given day someone might decide to ride it backwards for a change. On this particular day my brother and I were riding the track. I’m not clear on the exact sequence of events, but I think I had stopped for a breather and David was still riding. Off at the other end of the lot I heard another bike, but couldn’t see who it was.

I could tell they were headed up to the front of the lot, in the opposite direction we normally rode. I couldn’t do anything. I figured whoever it was would see the dust trail, or hear the other bike, or — at least — David would see the other rider and act appropriately. But no.

None of those things happened. Instead, David collided head-on with Brent Berryman Stratton Weems, another local kid who rode a Yamaha YZ 80. I remember a thud, and a “r-i-i-i-i-i-I-I-I-I-I-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-G-G-G-G-G!!!!!” as both of them fell off. I went running up to find my brother down on the ground holding his shoulder with a big lump on top — a sure sign of a broken collarbone.

I can’t remember what happened to Brent Stratton. Seems like he was OK. I was kind of panicked that I was going to have to get my brother home and then get an a$$-chewing for letting him get hurt. I think there was a bunch of twisting front wheels between our knees to try and straighten the forks. Then, according to my brother, I went to a nearby house and got a friend’s Mom to drive us to the hospital.

I vaguely remember the neighbor, but I  really don’t remember that part very clearly. I just remember the head-on crash. The only picture I have of Brent is this one, where he’s riding the SL 70 on the sandlot track back in ’74. And I don’t know if this was before or after the crash. Probably before.

Good times, for sure, despite the occasional trip to the emergency room. No one had to get pins, rods, or screws in their bones, at least not most of the time. I have another story about my own little faux paus riding the Elsie across town, but that’s for another day…