Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Cool old-school motocross art

CZ aficionado and webmaster over at CZechPoint, Reese Dengler, posted this reminder on the Cousin Weedy Yahoo list:

http://www.petr-trojan.ic.cz/

Check out Petr Trojan's moto-cross art at the web page above. He's added some new prints of some old Czech moto-heros.

Petr has very nice art of motocross, speedway, and rally car racing, including some charcoal renderings of modern MX riders. But I really like his '60s and '70s-era motocross and scrambles work. Very nice. He says he will have prints available soon. I hope he does.

Friday, June 6, 2008

1980s hometown MX book - "Holeshot: How to Go Fast and Win from Start to Finish"

I was reorganizing all my old motorcycle books and magazines today and came across this old book from one of my hometown racers - Kyle Kilgore. Kyle was a couple of years older than me but his brother Kevin and I were in the same HS class. Other than Gary Bailey and Carl Shipman's 1974 "How to Win Motocross" it's one of the few books I owned on racing technique from back in those days.

But Holeshot was a unique book (published 1982 by American Ventures Marketing.) It was all about the mental game. In fact, it's completely about the mental game. The first chapter is titled "Mind Over Motorcycle". I don't know of any other book that ever took this approach to the sport. There's one chapter on basic physical training, circa 1980, but the rest is all about the head game. Other chapters cover looking within yourself, finding internal drive, persistence, mental targeting, and training your mind to win. Looking back, it's cool to see how far ahead this little "nobody" book really was.

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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Are AHRMA ticket prices really too high?

Recently there was some discussion group dialog about the gate fees at AHRMA nationals. The $20/head fee at the Perris national did not sit well with some attendees. I thought it might be instructive to look at comparable prices for other entertainment. Here's what I found:

• The average trail use fee for mountain bikes is $4.
• The average movie ticket price in the US is $7.
• The average dinner at a restaurant is $20 if you don't drink (based on my personal observations around the country.)
• The average MLB ticket price is $25
• The average cost of a SX ticket is $30
• The average concert ticket price is $50.35
• The average US cable bill (in 2004) was $51
• The average NBA ticket price is $51
• The average NFL ticket price is $55

Now I'll be the first to admit the current economy sucks, and the price of everything just keeps going up. It seems like you can't do anything for less than $100. Vintage riding and racing is no exception. But I think we need to back up and realize that's all it is - vintage racing events are feeling the same pinch as everyone else. You're not being gouged. In fact, a full day of classic vintage entertainment for $20 is a much better deal than all the major sports tickets listed above. Too often vintage racers try to keep their wallets in the same bygone era as their bikes. We're not in Oz anymore, Dorothy. Your vintage hobby is still a great deal compared to everything else. You just have to maintain some perspective.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Texas MX in the '70s

Here's another cool site found via Texan Paul Burnett - Rider's Digest. This vintage Texas MX weekly was produced from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s (I think) and followed the MX scene in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. I don't remember ever seeing it, which is odd because '77-'83 were my most active racing years. My '74 Ford Econoline with the straight six and three-speed shuffled me and bikes all over the state to race at Swan MX, Rio Bravo, Burleson, Wolf Creek, Mosier Valley, and Lake Whitney, among others. But it's neat to look back at the race reports from the local tracks I ran as a kid. The site is a bit hard to navigate. It would be nice if the owner could add a "Home" link to each page instead of having to back through all the pages to get to the index. But that's a nit. It's a fun site.

Unbelievable! 30 Years of Hi-Point Boots.

Here's a neat site pointed out by Mike Kincaid - Classic MX Boots. Site owner Jerry Palmer is clearly a boot fanatic. There are six full pages of MX boots, including Hi-Point, Fullbore, and others. Not to mention the thousands of other boots he has stored in his display room. I have no idea what inspires a man to collect such things, but Jerry has an amazing collection. Check it out.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

I'm a neophyte camper but here's a few tricks anyone can use.

I'm not much of a camper. In fact, I haven't camped at all since about 1982 or so. I'm just not into it, at least not as a lifestyle thing. My compulsion about hygiene and taking showers kinda keeps me in hotel rooms.

But with gas prices climbing to European levels, and the mileage in my old Dodge truck hovering just under the 10mpg mark, I can no longer afford to be so picky. If I'm going to make any vintage races this year I'm going to have to be able to camp at least one night because I just can't afford gas plus a hotel in my race budget. Over the winter I began collecting a little camping gear with the idea that I would camp all weekend at the 6th Annual Diamond Don's Riverport AHRMA National. What you see here is a picture of my campsite.

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