woodsy

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Over in the "D/S" section of DRN we are having a little discussion on modern D/S bikes.. The question of light weight 250's (Kaw Sherpa) verses heavy weight (XR650L) is being discussed.. Also the question of why Honda doesnt "street legal" the upcoming CR250FX is also at hand. Of course, I chimed in my enjoyment of owning the my KX500 streetbike :) . Another point that I brought up was my "other" Dual Sport bike that has brought my family and I SO much pleasure!! It is a 1984 Yamaha Venture Royale 1200cc and it has made the trip "outwest" with my one of my 4 kids in tow MANY times!! The pic that I am including is one of My daughter Sarah and I taking the "D/S trail section" around the North and South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Believe me, this Yamaha, named Big Girl, (we call her B G for short) has covered some of the most trechorous (sp) terrain imaginable... WHAT A BLAST!!!
Anyway - thought youguys might engoy another side of Woodsy..
 

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2TrakR

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Nice pict Woodsy. Admittedly I was expecting to see you wheeling a GoldWing through some neck deep, yet scenic, river out west with your daughter clinging for dear life in a side car. But this is still a nice pict ;-)

I have a copy of the first CCC Dual Sport ride, from 1968!!! Just imagine the bikes they ran back then! We're talking harleys, street tires and chrome (low) fenders. In the archives, there's a picture from one of the first events with guys on those street bikes riding through the woods making the trail. Neat stuff!

If you've seen the recent thread on advrider.com where guys are scaling mountains with bone stock 1950 harleys you know that Dual Sport is all in the wild eye of the beholder.
 

woodsy

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You know, I had a 1969 Honda SL350 (nick named the USS TANK) back in "the days" (I was 5' 6" and weighed 110 lbs at the time - seriously) that I thought was an AWESOME D/S bike - UNTIL, George Boston (owns Boston Motors in Muskegon) went trail riding with me one day on his Yamaha 350 twin street bike. He would FLY on that puppy in the tight stuff!! The only place I had a real advantage was in behind Mount Garfield (yea, we used to climb the back side of the National Hill Climb hill!!) hill climbing - and that was due to tires (I ran those AWESOME Chin Cheng 760's)!!
You made my point EXACTLY 2TRACKR, the "correct bike" idea is a misnomer, it should be stated "learn to use your bike correctly"...
This next pic is 1964, I am on my "Allstate Dirt Bike" during the Old Fashion days Parade in Fruitport - littel brother in tow.. I still have this old girl's frame in my collection!! I during later 60's the authorities would hold the Parade up for me so I could ride wheelies down mainstreet on my SL350 for the parade watchers - can you imagine that nowadays!! A kid going 40/50 mph on the back whel of his bike with the road packed with people on both sides - sounds like a liability issue to the MAX dont it!~!
 

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MWEISSEN

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Ah the Yamaha RD350 twin? That was my first road bike. I bought it from my brother-in-law to be for $100, didn't run. He's messed with the jetting and siezed it. After a re-bore and rejet, I had a heck of a street bike. That thing was a riot, I put so many miles on that - until one time I was cruising about 70 mph when the clouds opened up after many weeks of no rain. The road instantly turned like ice, and I was two-wheel skidding all over the road. I saved that sucker, to this day don't know how I did. That scared me enough to return to dirt bikes for quite a few years after that! :) I finally sold that RD for a 400% profit.
 

woodsy

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Actually, I think George was riding the predessor of the RD - I think it was closer to a 67 GT350 (I have one in my collection of goodies - it has the rubber tank panels). But yea Mark, those RD's were "bad to the bone"!! The only problem with those suckers is they rode like a 2x4 with wheels - LITERALLY, straight line AWESOME but, REAL spooky in the corners at speed!! I can relate to your senario very well - GLAD YOU MADE IT BUDDIE!! They were AWESOME wheelie machines though (I could pull my buddies 1974 up in 5th with very little effort) and they would give almost ALL 650's fits in a drag race - of course, the Kaw Machers ruled that area!
Woodsy
 

70 marlin

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How about this one. I had a girl friend. That loved to take ME trail riding. On my old 69 Harley-Davidson SS 350! She was 5' nothing weighed in like 90lbs couldn’t even start it. But boy could she twist that throttle. Scared me to death, she’d run the dirt roads wide open in high gear. Ran that old SS till the fuel tank was bone dry. Should of keep that one!
 

CircuitRider

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Ah, the memories...

I took my son to Florida so he could ride the Alligator, and took my 750 Triumph Bonneville for the DS ride.... (2001)

Gotta get a set of high pipes and knobs tho'

My original DS was a 64 BSA 350 Trials Star that my late brother and I rode enduros on in "Buddy" class... (1965)

Also had a Harley Hummer (a 125 2 stroke) in those days before Jr. was born...

Mike Sr.
 

woodsy

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AWESOME GUYS!!! I love "reminising" SOOOO much!!!! How's this one, One of my bud's dads bought a BRAND NEW 69 Suzuki Titan 500. Randy and I "borrowed" it when it was like 2 weeks old and took the thing out to "the furnace town MX track" (awseome little play ground we had, the area was ALL "slag" with SUPER jumps off the slag piles). We cleared one of the bigger jumps on the "pig" with both of us on it :) We came down so hard the breather tubes/carbs came off and we wiped!! We bent the crashbar on the left side about 2 inches back :( Went back to the garage, took a piece of bar stock an bent the bars back into place as best we could... Never got caught!! Good thing too cause his Dad was known VERY well for his temper!!!!
Keepem coming!!!
Woodsy
 

KTM Mike

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I love these threads! 

How about a 74 Honda CB 750 dual sport?  With a big Windjammer Fairing, and hard bags to boot?

My wife and I were out in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, on some road that twisted up one side and down the other side of the range coming into a small town call Ten Sleep Creek.  A super twisty nice mountain road to ride on - scraping pegs all the way!   Ten Sleep Creek was winding along below us giving us tempting views.  A hot and miseable day - we stopped for a break and could  hear the creek nearby - calling out to us to take a quick dip.  We spot  a two track trail running down towards it.  We bried look down it, and it appeared quite passable so we went for it and quickly discovered that two track PLUNGED downward - washed out and torn up and got narrower and narrower - no way to turn around due to how ripped up and narrow the trail was.   The ONLY option was to continue downward.  We continued down about oh 1/2 a mile and found the creek finally, with a larger flater area we could turn the bike around on.

After a quick dip in the COLD water, a nice relaxing break - we head back up to the road. What a trip!  That ole 750 did the trick amazingly well though - found its limits of ground clearance on some larger rocks, discovered that Continental Conti Twins tires dont offer very good off road traction either!  But we eventually made it back up to the top. 

 Boy those were the days!

 
 

MWEISSEN

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Speaking of memories, and changing the subject just a little, tonight I hauled out of the basement hundreds of color slides I did of motocross events back in the 70's. The first box contained pics of my first trip to Red Bud in 1978. I got fantastic shots of Bob Hannah, Rich Eirdstadt (sp?) and all the other famous dudes from back then. What a trip! The neat thing about color slide film is that the colors don't fade, so these things look like they were shot yesterday! I'm thinking of digitizing some of these and posting 'em on DRN, as well as making some photo's with my digital gear.

What is interesting besides the cool old bikes is the transport vehicles in '78 compared to today. Bob Hannah basically worked out of a box van. In one picture, he's helping his mechanic on his "regular" bike, while next to that is a bike they've obviously canibalized for parts. Today, Bob would have at least one huge semi rig and certainly wouldn't dirty his hands by working on his own bike!
 

MWEISSEN

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Just found another rare site from '76 in my slides - pictures of Harley Davidson's short-lived 2 stroke 250 national effort - anybody remember that, and who was number 75 that rode the Harley?
 

V-man

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Mark,
I think the Harley rider was Rex Staton. Did the bike have a set of front forks for the rear? Pretty unique system. The bike was like a RM Suzuki with an italian motor if I remember corectly.
 

INCA

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You guys may walk away from me on the trail, but I'll stay close to you with this. First a quick question Pat - did you mean keeping the bike or the girl? Just curious. I have a picture taken the first weekend of November on the trail to Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The '53 - 74 Harley and I are at about 11,000 feet in a hole beside a large rock. The bike got away from me, it still happens too, on the trail above. It missed the rock and landed in the hole, breaking the shield. The other option was miss the hole also and go on down into the trees. In that case the only way out would have been in pieces come spring. The picture was taken by my two up partner, his first ride on a bike. This I found out after getting back. The year was '54 and if you tried that today and got caught - so long for a while.

Carry on, Ted
 

70 marlin

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Probably a little of both. That old SS was sold for a $100 running strong when the boy's were born, to buy pampers "what a waste" The girl, was a good thing, but she's on hubby #3 going for #4. She does ride a shinny new sportster? Still weighs in at 100lbs dripping wet.
 

woodsy

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Pat, Sounds like a Babe I dated for a while. I was 18/in love and ready to get hitched - what a beauty she was!! Problem is, as soon as summer was gone and the biken fun was done she traded me in for a guy with a snowmobile. Oh well, we still had a blast on the ol SL350 Motosport!! Could she ride (I know what you are thinking Ted!!) :)
Ted: Did you get my E-mail ok? Please mail me back when you have a second so I can file your address!! You will have to remember to bring that pic (of you and the Harley) up here when we go riding this Spring!! I would LOVE to see that one!! If there is anyway you could e-mail it to me I will post it here for all to enjoy!!
Back when my boy (in College now) was a "little buddy" we built a "dirtbike" that we named "sod buster". We bought a 1972 CL350 for $5 (motor was LOCKED solid) and tore it down, nocked the pistons out of it with the handle of a hammer. Here is pic of him and I putting the engine together. In this pic he has just finished hand "honing" the jugs with sandpaper, sanding down the couple rings that were able to salvage and we are putting the topend together :) The thing ran pretty good (ok, smoked pretty bad) and we had a blast on it cause it was OUR bike.. By the way, I welded a set of crossbars way high on the frame for his little feet and put an extra set of bars on the front for him to hold on to. Old "Sod Buster" would wheelie with the best of them three 3 gears - with both of us on him!!! I think I will do another "reply" with a pic of the actual bike - you guys would get a kick out of it..
Woodsy
 

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woodsy

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"Sod Buster" Continued... Here is a pic of the actual bike. The boy on the front is our Pastors son (still cant believe they let him "hang" with such questionable persons..) my son in the middle and your truley is th "pilot" (only way I ride). Notice the detail on "Sod-Buster" - it had an 18 inch front wheel so a HUGE nob was no problem to find and mount, we mounted the chrome front fender "high" to get that modern bike look, look where the front boys feet are setting and you will see the extra "kid pegs" we made, notice the "A-Team" pipe guard (you guys did watch the "A-Team" back then didnt you?). If you also notice, there is a car battery mounted on the rear of the bike, THATS RIGHT, a car battery - the stator had long since fried it self and we didnt bother trying to find another, we simply built a bracket on the back and mounted a car battery up - the bike would run for DAYS off this battery (We actually took the bike up to Baldwin - camped and trail rode this thing!!! I had a 65 tooth rear sprocket laying around so we mounted that up (look at the pic - you can see it!!) and geared it down a little :) :) to make the bike "user friendly" - it topped out at 45 but would ol "Sod Buster" bust sod - it was a tractor!!!
Oh the mems!!! Here is the pic.
 

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MWEISSEN

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V-Man, the picture I found of the Harley was, I believe, the year before the rear forks. I know I also have photo's of the bike you mentioned, but haven't found them yet. I've got two big shoe boxes full of slides from the mid 70's to mid 80's, and most of them are national race pictures. I got so wrapped in looking at them last night it was 12:30am before I realized it!

Marlin, you're right, old photo's would definately be something for Trailfest.
 
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