A true story:
When I was based at Richmond on Sydney’s outer fringes, in the very early 80s, I had a CR250R which I raced. First of the liquid cooled MotoX bikes from Honda. Every weekend a few RAAFy mates with YZ465s and 125s also came out to Dargle or Katoomba MotoX tracks with me, plus a few others I can’t remember now. Weekdays we’d head out to Llandilo forest to practice, Glenda, the wife, and her boys in tow.
One weekend Glenda said it’d be nice if she could ride with me. As luck would have it, a mate who worked for me had a YZ125 for sale for $400, so I snapped it up. A little bit peeky for a newbie but I thought if she kept it short of the powerband she should be alright.
First opportunity I loaded up the CR250 and the YZ125 and headed out to Llandilo. After unloading, Glenda told me I’d have to show her how to ride it. ‘easy’ I said ‘just like riding a bicycle’ and showed her how to operate the clutch, gear lever, throttle and brakes. ‘But I don’t know how to ride a bicycle, I never have’ says she.
OMG, I thought, but undaunted I pressed on. Once Glenda was Familiar with the controls, I got her in the seat and told her to release the clutch slowly and take it easy on the throttle. ‘Just ride slowly and I’ll run alongside and hold the bike up until you get your balance’ says I.
Being only 5’2” there was no way she could reach the ground on it, hell even I couldn’t. That worked real well: Ever tried running flat chat alongside a MotoXer holding it up and yelling instructions, it’s bloody exhausting.
That was the one and only time Glenda tried to ride the YZ, I sold it a couple of weeks later before she had a chance to kill herself. And ME!
The CR was a good bike, much better than the YZ, but the aluminium swing arm wasn't up to scratch. The Katoomba MotoX track had a big drop off, must have been around 15/20', after a while the swingarm cracked around the rear axle plates. Then the big end blew, mustn't have added enough oil, so I stripped it down and replaced it. The mates that used to accompany me gradually got posted out and moved on, and I had no one to practice with so I sold it, then moved back onto my real interest, building roadies.
Racing MotoXers results in a very dirty bike, mud, grease, dirt, that's when I discovered Preen, a laundry prewash spray. Spray it on, let it sit for five minutes, hose it off, all dirt, grime, grease, oil - gone. Marvellous stuff.
When I was based at Richmond on Sydney’s outer fringes, in the very early 80s, I had a CR250R which I raced. First of the liquid cooled MotoX bikes from Honda. Every weekend a few RAAFy mates with YZ465s and 125s also came out to Dargle or Katoomba MotoX tracks with me, plus a few others I can’t remember now. Weekdays we’d head out to Llandilo forest to practice, Glenda, the wife, and her boys in tow.
One weekend Glenda said it’d be nice if she could ride with me. As luck would have it, a mate who worked for me had a YZ125 for sale for $400, so I snapped it up. A little bit peeky for a newbie but I thought if she kept it short of the powerband she should be alright.
First opportunity I loaded up the CR250 and the YZ125 and headed out to Llandilo. After unloading, Glenda told me I’d have to show her how to ride it. ‘easy’ I said ‘just like riding a bicycle’ and showed her how to operate the clutch, gear lever, throttle and brakes. ‘But I don’t know how to ride a bicycle, I never have’ says she.
OMG, I thought, but undaunted I pressed on. Once Glenda was Familiar with the controls, I got her in the seat and told her to release the clutch slowly and take it easy on the throttle. ‘Just ride slowly and I’ll run alongside and hold the bike up until you get your balance’ says I.
Being only 5’2” there was no way she could reach the ground on it, hell even I couldn’t. That worked real well: Ever tried running flat chat alongside a MotoXer holding it up and yelling instructions, it’s bloody exhausting.
That was the one and only time Glenda tried to ride the YZ, I sold it a couple of weeks later before she had a chance to kill herself. And ME!
The CR was a good bike, much better than the YZ, but the aluminium swing arm wasn't up to scratch. The Katoomba MotoX track had a big drop off, must have been around 15/20', after a while the swingarm cracked around the rear axle plates. Then the big end blew, mustn't have added enough oil, so I stripped it down and replaced it. The mates that used to accompany me gradually got posted out and moved on, and I had no one to practice with so I sold it, then moved back onto my real interest, building roadies.
Racing MotoXers results in a very dirty bike, mud, grease, dirt, that's when I discovered Preen, a laundry prewash spray. Spray it on, let it sit for five minutes, hose it off, all dirt, grime, grease, oil - gone. Marvellous stuff.
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