Friend in need - SuperHunky needs our help!

[VintageDirt]

Good old guy from the good old days in need. :(

http://racerxill.com/breakingnews/article/5662/rick-super-hunky-siemen-needs-our-help.aspx

I plan to dig deep. I owe Rick more than I can ever comprehend.

 

[dirt bike dave]

Thanks for the heads up, VD.

Good luck to Rick getting through this.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Thanks Wes.

 

[Okiewan]

Done.

 

[Uchytil]

I've been following his situation on the yahoo group (maico). They have spoken highly of you Wes and there are a few ideas (mentioned "there") concerning ways to help him.

 

[VintageDirt]

I've been following his situation on the yahoo group (maico). They have spoken highly of you Wes and there are a few ideas (mentioned "there") concerning ways to help him.

I'm thinking there is another Wes involved because I've never actually met Rick, much less helped him moved. I'm sure the real Wes deserves all the credit.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

That felt really good to pay back some tiny percentage of what he has given me over the years. :cool:

 

[Ol'89r]

Thanks for posting Wes.

Super Hunky has certainly given over and over to the sport. As you know, he was one of the first people to stand up to the enviro-wacko's and has fought for many years against land closures.

Time for us to give back. :cool:

 

[fatcat216]

VintageDirt- Thanks for changing the title bar. :cool:

Could one of you fine gents please offer up a taste of Superhunky history/biography to the kids and newcomers? The little blurb on the site doesn't spell it out.

It's a pretty good bit of dirt lore. You guys lived this stuff. Come on you silver tongued dirt fools. Tell the kids about "the day". Somebody cover his life, somebody else "the Book" and someone else the magazine.

Superhunky is an EXCELLENT fun read.

Oh- and like I said to you some of you guys- only happy to pay back to one of your own a fraction of what I've taken from you guys. All you ever need do is ask. Consider it done. I'm really proud of you guys for helping. You are good folks.

Wishing Rick a speedy recovery.

Pay it forward all.


edit: Since you old coots don't want to educate the youngsters I'll attempt to edit in some info for the kids.

Part One:
_________________________________________________


http://www.vintagemx.us/cgi-bin/largephoto.cgi?C=ANFcn7XRrP9u17EW

Holloway, Mark

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ad # 3126522 June 20, 2008
Written by: Rick Salazar....

Submitted by: Stephen Gautreau....

Dear Friend,

I don't know if you are aware, but our old friend Rick (Super Hunky) Siemen has been facing some serious personal challenges lately.

SH recently found out that he has prostate cancer for the second time, and has been undergoing Chemo therapy. SH is now waiting to find out if the treatment was successful or not. As you may know, Rick has lived in Baja, Mex. for years, but recently had to move back to the US to get his medical treatment. Rick and his wife Tina moved out into the desert of Maricopa, Arizona, however, because Tina had to take a job to help with bills, they have had to move again. This time closer to town, to be near his doctor/hospital, so he could drive himself back and forth. The real estate market being what it is, Rick lost quite a bit of money that was earmarked for retirement and other things due to the moves.

I have been following SH's progress for months thru a friend of mine who is personal friend of SH and lives close to SH. A couple of weekends ago Rick's old friend Wes, (who was also arrested back in the day at the same time as Rick) gathered over a half dozen friends with trucks and trailers along with my friend and a few of the VMX community in AZ. to help move SH. SH being extremely weakened due to the chemo therapy was unable to help very much. My friend said Rick was quite humbled that so many strangers would turn out to help him move. Stephen mentioned to Rick that many in the vintage motorcycle community that had heard of SH's medical plight would like to help, if help would be accepted. SH said he wouldn't be offended or turn down any offers of help.

To be clear, Rick receives medical benefits from the US Navy, however he has lost quite a bit of money in the moves, and at his age, and condition (recent stroke, as well as prostrate cancer) he couldn't really afford to lose that money.

For those of you that grew up in the 'Golden age of Motocross' you may remember Super Hunky as the CZ, and Maico riding older brother that wrote of his adventures. Super Hunky gave us the straight scoop about the newest dirt bikes, which ones were worth the money, and which ones were junk. Rick also told us about waging a legal battle against the BLM and the Sierra Club to preserve riding land here in California. Rick was jailed, and almost bankrupt himself taking on the BLM, fighting to keep the Barstow to Vegas desert race going, for dirt riders everywhere.

The reason I'm writing this letter is that the vintage community has always helped out guys in need, and now Rick Siemen needs our help. It is time to give something back to Rick 'Super Hunky' Siemen for his 35 plus years of giving to us.

There are FIVE ways to help Rick, and each way the money goes right to Rick.

1. Go to his website SuperHunky.com and buy his books, CD's, posters and other collectible items.If you haven't read his book 'Monkey Butt' you ought to.

2. Buy Ricks 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross. (being sold for Rick by a friend) http://www.vintagemx.us/cgi-bin/largephoto.cgi?C=cAXduhE6NovC8UAe

3. I know not everybody has a PayPal account but if you do, a donation can be sent to Rick via https://www.paypal.com/ Simply click on 'Send money to your friends and relatives'. Enter Rick's email address: [email protected] and follow directions.

4. Mail a donation directly to Rick Siemen. (this is his NEW address)

Rick Siemen
36607 West Cosa Blanca St.
Maricopa, AZ. 85238

Mark Holloway
Oceanside, CA

VINTAGEMX.US Preserving Motocross History VINTAGEMX.US

Part Two:
________________________________________________

http://www.superhunky.com/superhunky.htm

Super Hunky:

My Dinner With Super Hunky

(excerpted from Monkey Butt)

My Dinner With Super Hunky

by Brian Halton

It's no secret to CityBike readers that I became smitten with off-road riding over 8 years ago. That love affair literally changed my life. I stopped smoking because of it. I'm in better physical condition because of it, too.

I'll never forget the day I rode back into the pit area at the Pacifica Motorcycle Club's land on a Honda XR250 test bike. Pacifica native Jim Trout had led me around the club course one chilly winter morning, taking me up and down the hills he knew so well, yet that I had never seen. When he led me back twenty minutes later, I was short of breath and soaking wet with perspiration. Dean Sweet walked towards me grinning his famous grin and asked, "Well, Brian, what do you think?"

"I think this is the center of motorcycling that's what I think!" I remember screaming. "It's so violent! I love it!"

From that point on, I was hooked. I began studying how to get better at dirt bike riding. Now, after all those years, I'm not half bad, but the lessons didn't come easy. You want to be a good dirt bike rider, you gotta really try...

Of all the publications that I ferociously devoured in those early years, Rick Seiman's Dirt Bike became my favorite. It had humor. It liked to pick fights. It gave real-world evaluations and stuck to them. It gave tech tips on how to ride through techinical stuff and what you should have in your fanny pack. It was clearly committed to defending our sport against the hysterical rhetoric of the Greens.

People have often asked me what quality CityBike has that a lot of other publications lack, why CityBike survived being repeatedly imitated these last few years. I always answer that question the same way: "We ride a lot. As long as you stay involved, as long as you ride, you will always be in touch with your reader..."

DirtBike magazine under the editorship of Rick "Super Hunky" Seiman had that same quality. "The Hunkster" was out there with you, raging, falling down, breaking things, breaking bones, drinking beer at night and telling tall tales around a campfire.

When I read in Cycle News that he had been ****canned from his job at Dirt Bike for things he'd written about Publisher Roland Hinz, I had to talk to the man myself.

What better idea than to hook up with Rick Seiman on my way back from our Baja ride last May. Rick and his wife, Arlene, live just over the Mexican border near Rosarita Beach. Their lovely home on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean was the setting for this interview.

"Super Hunky," as he is known in dirt bike circles, is a compact figure. Thin-waisted with big biceps and forearms, he greeted me with a firm handshake. Years of competiton weight lifting shows in his build, and I passsed by an array of barbells on my way into his living room. I'd guess he'd be about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a barrel chest and that famous handlebar moustache. Rick told me that he plans to continue to build off-road trucks and compete in four-wheeled racing in Baja. An incredible rig was in progress in the garage. Fittingly, he planned to suspend the Baja off-road racer with motorcycle shock absorbers front and rear.

Rick Sieman set to enjoy a "meal" of desert tortoise. The tortoise took on enormous symbolic significance when environmental groups managed to stop the Barstow-to-Vegas desert race to "save" the animal from the wanton killings that were supposedly taking place each time the race was run. No deaths by dirt bike were ever documented, but the race remains banned. The desert tortoise, meanwhile, continues to decline in population thanks to raven predation and loss of habitat to development. Photo courtesy of Rick Sieman.

Halton: What made Dirt Bike such a success?

"Don't listen to the gloom and doom eco-Nazis. They're just pissed because they see you having fun, and they're such mean spirited jerks that they want to put a stop to your joy..."

Sieman: To me, for a good book (industry word for magazine) to be a success, it has to be one that sells like wildfire, one that people love dearly. Now, perhaps Dirt Bike's graphics weren't modern. Perhaps the writing style was a little loose. All I know is that we wrote for people who liked what we wrote and like the way we said it. We wrote for riders who ride...

I was Mr. Know It All, Rondo Talbot. I would attend these Dirt Bike editorial meetings every week or two and the topic would be thrown out, "Well, what should we do with the magazine?"

I would pontificate about what I thought we should do and was then politely ignored. It's a most uncomfortable position to truly know what your readers want, proffer that advice and be totally ignored.

You've got to understand that I was out there riding virtually every weekend. Riding dirtbikes, racing dirtbikes.

The funny thing is that all I wanted to do was ride. My tastes are as common as pig's tracks. All I wanted to do when I got home from work was go out and sneak in a couple of hours or riding before darkness. I didn't care where, I didn't care what kind of bike. I wanted to go out and thrash around, break a sweat and have a ball. So I realized that if I like this and everybody around me likes this, then that's what were going to do. We're going to give 'em what they like!

Look at the success of Howard Stern! Why does Howard Stern succeed? He's crude. He's lecherous, sure. But Howard Stern knows what people really have on their minds. He understands the needs of the basic grunt.

I understand the needs of the basic dirtbiker. They want to get the hell away from the monotony of their normal life. They want to blow the cobwebs off. Every jump in their mind is thirty feet longer than it was, five feet higher and they want to have these dreams and thoughts carry them through the next workweek. Understand that basic premise and you will understand how a magazine should be.

I was looking at a recent issue of Motocross Journal, which I refer to as Motocross Urinal. I'm sorry. I really don't care that Jeremy McGrath has a problem with his nipple ring irritating him when he's riding. I don't care what food he eats. I don't care what sounds he plays in his luxurious van as he heads down the highway. I could give a rat's ass. That doesn't mean anything to me as a normal, real-world dirt biker.

I'd rather hear what a 53-year-old fireman does to keep his old XR 500 going and where he goes riding. I'd rather hear his opinions. I'd rather spend five hours with that guy drinking a case of beer than one minute reading about the celebrity off road set .

You know what Hell means to me? For me, Hell is not a burning pit full of molten lava. For me, Hell is being forced to work on the staff of People Magazine, turning out bubble-headed, inane puffery!

Halton: You've been a vocal proponents of our right to ride on public land for quite some time, even going to federal court to defend that right. Did the two-stroke ban surprise you?

Sieman: Not at all. In fact, this is only the first step in tightening the screws toward the complete elimination of not only new two-stroke bikes, but all two-stroke bikes, no matter what the year.

You see, one of the agendas written in the 1972 platform of the Sierra Club is... "the elimination of all forms of motorized recreational vehicle activity of any sort on public lands."

I know for a fact that within three years, the Green Sticker plan will have an inclusionary rider added to take the cutoff year back to all motorcycles made after 1990. The tactics are clear, but our so-called industry leaders apparently can't see writing on the wall. Unless something is done, within a decade only emissions-legal four-strokes will be legal for use on public lands, and you can bet your ass that even these will be limited severely.

Doubt it? Take a look at what the outboard motor industry is facing. The cost of a typical small boat motor will increase $1,000 to $3,000 by next year.Snowmobiles are a target. Weedwhackers, lawn mowers, snowblowers... you name it. They're all firmly fixed in the gun sights and the trigger finger is tightening.

Halton: Is that why you moved to Mexico?

Sieman: It's sad to say this, but I moved to Baja to have some freedom. The United States has turned into a virtual nightmare of overregulation. Freedom as we used to know it has virtually disappeared.

Right now, in the small community where I live, I can open up my garage, fire up my KDX200, and go riding out in the hills, with absolutely no hassle. No helicopters are hovering in the sky to write me a ticket. No eco-police are closing land and putting up fences.

Only one rule exists here: Common sense. Don't bother anyone, and they don't bother you. If I'm riding off road and see some cattle or horses, I ease off the throttle and carefully ride around and don't disturb them.

In Mexico, they have a law that makes sense: all roads, paved or dirt, must be open for public use. If I come to a gated fence, I'm expected to close it after I pass through it. This means that you could hop on your dual-purpose bike, and quite literally explore the entire Baja peninsula with no problems, as long as you use your head.

When being accused of "destroying the environment" by riding my bike off-road, I must respond with a hearty, "Bull****!" Think about this for a moment: In the great southwest, the wind blows hard many times during any given year. And when the wind blows, literally millions of tons of sand and dirt are tossed into the air and moved around in a random pattern. Dunes are destroyed and new dunes are created. Sand washes change shape. The character of the landscape alters dramatically almost overnight.

What person in their right mind would say that my bike passing over that same terrain will effect any measurable change? Don't listen to the gloom and doom eco-Nazis. They're just pissed because they see you having fun, and they're such stiff-backed, tight-assed, black-hearted mean spirited jerks that they want to put a stop to your joy. It might sound simplistic, but it all boils down to that.

Life is short. Enjoy it.

Ride! And ride free.

_____________________________

And a link to the Archives of Rick Sieman articles:

http://www.superhunky.com/SuperHunkyLinkIndex.html

 

[fatcat216]

http://www.superhunky.com/Monkey.htm

Super Hunky


MONKEY BUTT!

Rick Sieman 's 640 page book is now in its third printing, and if you're a real dirt biker, this is for you. Read what it's all about:

WARNING! STRAP YOUR HELMET ON BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK! IT'S A WILD RIDE! Outrageous, hard-hitting, hilarious, brutally honest, wildly entertaining and loaded with inside stories about the dirt bike industry, MONKEY BUTT! ch ron icles more than 30 years of this amazing phenomenon. Everything from bench racing and tall tales, to the huge land battles with the Phantom Duck, can be found in these pages.

If you've been a dirt biker at any time in the last quarter-century, you'll find plenty here to make you smile, some stuff to make you mad, and things that will stun you. Want an inside line on who really runs the AMA? It's here. What almost killed the motorcycle industry? The real story is in these pages. Want to get behind the scenes of the tests and stories that you read? MONKEY BUTT! tells the amazing saga of Dirt Bike Magazine, from Day One. “... I'm sure there's a number of things in here that will get both of us in a fair amount of trouble, but this is as close to the truth as you're going to get. - Paul Clipper /Trail Rider “... Finally, a book for those who remember what it used to be like in the Good Olde Days.” - Rondo Talbot/Mr. Know-It-All

“ .... This book is going to rattle a lot of cages, and it's long over-due. “Tom Fiala

“... A ch ron icle of the glory years of dirt riding, MONKEY BUTT! takes you through a time of radical changes, from the early days of crude, ill-handling bikes, to the current generation of high-tech marvels. It's also a behind-the-scenes look at the land use battles, and the motorcycle industry, recounted with humor, honesty, and great insight. You will be educated and entertained, for Rick is a very funny man who tells it like it was.” - Gil Vaillancourt/Works Performance

“ .... You are about to embark on a strange and wonderful journey through the rise and fall of the motorcycle industry, and I can practically guarantee that what you read here will not exactly be what you thought it would be. - Paul Clipper

Rick has a limited number of autographed copies available for $20 plus postage. Go for it!

Back
©Copyright 2008 SuperHunky.com All Rights Reserved

 

[VintageDirt]

Thanks fatcat216. It's not that I don't want to educate, just that I don't want to come off like some kind of cheerleader. People should help if they want and not feel guilty if they don't. Anyways....

So, not to toot my own horn but I am kinda proud of that Super Hunky link index if you "view" "source" you might see why.

Maybe I might post my sappy letter that I wrote years ago, tells how I feel about Rick.

 

[fatcat216]

One more for fun:

Ten Worst Dirt Bikes of All Time

by: Rick Sieman


Pick the Top Ten Worst Dirt Bikes of All Time? Wow! Where does one start? Surely not with the current crop of dirt bikes. You would be hard-pressed to find a genuine lemon among the new iron-but how far back do you go?

After all, before the dirt bike boom (circa 1970), there were a lot of clunkers being foisted off on an unsuspecting public. So, after considerable thinking (about ten minutes) I decided to limit the selection to dirt bikes that I actually tested. This meant that our starting year was 1970. And this makes a great deal of sense, in that the dirt bike boom started in the late '60s.

WHAT MAKES A BAD BIKE?
I feel that a truly bad bike should have few-if any-redeeming values. There have been great-handling bikes with fragile engines and transmissions. There have been powerful machines with less than stellar handling-and then machines with a bit of both.
The real losers, though, are those with more faults than virtues. Machines that will spit you off for no apparent reason. Or bikes that are so dull and listless that you'd rather be riding in a Buick station wagon with the windows rolled up. Then you have dirt bikes that have all the reliability of a candle in a windstorm.

FLAWED WINNERS
Throughout the years, I have fallen in love with flawed-but great-machines. Consider the Maicos of the early and mid-'70s. They required a great deal of prep, set- up and TLC, but when they were dialed in nothing else could run with them. Riders put up with a wimpy primary chain drive, reluctant clutches and bogus ignitions.

Think about the CZs of that same period. Heavy. Crude. Poor shocks. But almost unbreakable.

How about the various Spanish bikes? All built from inferior materials, but they were speedy and handled like magic. Those who took the time to learn how to live with them were rewarded with stunning handling and correct powerbands. Novice riders who bought the Bultacos, Ossas and Montesas of that period ended up pulling out their hair by the handful, promptly sold the strange beasts and then bought reliable Japanese mounts.

Then we had the off-brands: Puch, DKW, AJS, KTM, Penton, Sachs, Greeves, American Eagle, Rickman, Rokon, Harley-Davidson, Steens, Bridgestone, Bronco Apache, Chaparral, Carabela, Cooper, Monark, Zundapp, Yankee and a few others that will probably come to mind later on.

ODDITIES THAT BOGGLE THE MIND!
Some truly strange things have appeared on dirt bikes. Consider the following:

* The Bridgestone Hurricane Scramblers of the late '60s and early '70s had a rotary shift pattern that was bizarre beyond belief! You would shift up through all six gears, then when you hit the shifter one more time it would go back to low gear. Imagine the surprise when the rider was in top gear, all tucked in and howling down a fire road, and snicked the lever one more time, only to be greeted with low gear and 11 million instant rpm!
* Rokon came out with the first automatic trans (actually, a torque converter) with the power delivered via a rubber belt. This beast also had to be started like a lawn mower; you had to pull a stupid rope. When it got hard to start, you would be sucking wind in a hurry. When that torque converter belt got wet, it would slip and smoke like a worm on a barbecue.
* Greeves found out that the kickstarter would not clear the footpeg when starting, so you had to fold up the peg by hand and hook it onto a restraining ring. Nice touch.
* Numerous Euro bikes came with paper filters. When the engine backfired, the premix would saturate the paper and it would pass about the same amount of air as a can of peaches. If you rode through water, your ride was over. Gag, puke, cough, wheeze.
* The IRZ carburetor. It came stock on Ossas and was virtually untunable. This wretched carb had two needles and two completely separate fuel circuits. Taking it apart required the patience of Job and the hands of a brain surgeon. Putting it back together was even worse. Jets were expensive and nearly impossible to find. Some fun.
* Hatta forks. They came stock on various Kawasaki "enduro" bikes. The ads billed them as "101 ways adjustable, unfortunately, none of them were correct. Mr Hatta designed landing gear for bombers during World War II and was quoted as saying, "It's easy to make a suspension for a bomber. It only has to stroke once. A motor cycle is confusing. It has to stroke numerous times."

REAL LOSERS!
When all things are considered, a list of duds is crystal clear. The following is a compilation of dirt bikes that meet all the requirements of what is truly bad. It's based on frightening traits, unreliability, poor handling, mechanical woes, dumb engineering, freaky response and un-fun riding feel.

THE LIST!
10. 1974 HUSKY 450 DESERT MASTER. The head engineer, Reuben Helmen, designed this lost cause at the urging of his cousin- who he promptly disowned. This bike was 35 pounds heavier than previous Huskies, worlds slower, had an awkwardly spaced gearbox and a stupid power curve. It also had ancient Girling shocks that lived to puke seals and forks that had more metal shavings than fork oil in each leg. The exhaust burned your leg, brakes were gruesome and shifting was ugly. It also seeped mung and drool out of every gasket surface. Handling was best described as spooky. The engine pinged like it was running on kerosene and items fell off the bike like they were held on with Scotch tape.

9. 1981 HONDA CR450. Actually, it was a 430. A 430 with a hopelessly spaced four- speed gearbox and a powerband like the tip on an X-Acto blade. It shook the steering head like someone removed the bearings, and tracked like a buffalo on steroids. The front number plate looked like a hangnail, and the suspension was a mass of confused Showa leftovers that didn't like each other. -This bike would get into a high-speed wobble at 38 mph, stalled easily and the odd spacing in the gear box always kept you over-revving the engine or bogging below the power curve.

Oh sure, it had a lot of power, but the power delivery was freaky. It would either hit hard, or hesitate, but you were never sure which would happen. Geared for off-road use, low gear would take you out to 45 mph, while fourth gear might squeak up to 80. Topping off its list of bad habits was that it was hard to start when cold, harder to start if you dropped it and when it got hot, and it tended to foul plugs and ping.

8._ROKON 340. Brought out in the mid'70s, the Rokon was supposed to be the answer for those of us who hated to shift. All versions of the Rokon were very heavy, and loved to plow straight-on ahead, even if you sort of wanted to turn at the time.
To start the big Sachs engine you had to tug at a rope-starter, which took a strong arm and an even stronger patience level. It came poorly jetted, and when it loaded up you would rip half the calluses off your hand before getting things spinning.
We talked about the belt drive earlier, and the less said about this the better. The thing was fast and had disc brakes to slow it down. Sadly, they worked intermittently, and the master cylinder often boiled over, leaving you with a lever that came back to the grip and a corner that rushed up to meet you. Gearing down was impossible with the torque converter, which meant you free- wheeled into turns and down hills. Spooky.

7._YAMAHA SC-500 SCRAMBLER. Another four-speed brute, this 1973-'74 two-stroke single ran hot, detonated fiercely, stalled constantly and seized regularly. After testing the bike, I noted: "It's gray and black; so is a turkey." Brutally fast, the SC-500 was cursed with state-of-the-dark forks and a pair of chromed shocks that would have faded on a busy barroom door. It shook its steering head like a dog coming out of a swimming pool and the rear end hopped around like the frame had a hinge in the middle. All things considered, the only thing this bike did right was not leak around the gas cap.



6. HARLEY-DAVIDSON BAJA 100. H-D brought this little stinker out to capture the small-bore trail bike market that was dominated by Hodaka at the time-the early '70s. They contracted with the Italian Aermacchi factory, which responded with a hopelessly tall, short-wheelbased, underpowered, ill-handling package that nearly defied belief.
Still, H-D put together a desert racing team that started to dominate the trail bike class, so people went out and bought the Bajas in droves, only to find out they weren't buying what was being raced.

The race bikes had everything changed! The stock bikes came with rigid footpegs, no horsepower to speak of, a huge overlay sprocket on the rear wheel that constantly came loose, a tank shaped like a mailbox, a saddle that felt like plywood and a strange metal hook strategically placed to rip your crotch off if you crashed. It also had stupid bars, dumb fat grips from a street bike and a suspension that had more side-to-side travel than up-and-down stroke. I called it "a re-hashed Italian street bike with no redeeming traits." Yes, we promptly lost the H-D ads at the magazine.

5. CZ 250 ENDURO. It was hard to believe that CZ would foist a pile like this mid-'70s bummer off on the public, but they did. Seeing a chance to get a piece of the enduro market, they simply took a late '60s frame, a dated engine, electrics that would have trouble lighting-off an .049" model airplane engine and suspension components that did little more than hold up the bike.

It had rigid footpegs, a huge, bulbous tank, an exhaust that burned the leg, a speedo that didn't work and various bits and pieces that were attached with pure afterthought technology. The first time I fired up our test bike, the horn fell off on the ground. After I rode the bike 100 yards, the battery fell out and the wiring loom melted. In the next 20 minutes, the plug cap came off, the air filter fell off, the muffler cracked and wedged into the rear wheel, the gas cap leaked, both fuel lines cracked, a tire went flat and the throttle stuck wide open.

The feeble engine was also horribly over-geared, the kickstarter would stick on the frame, fork seals weeped like a garden hose and the motor mounts fell out. This mount signaled the beginning of the end for CZ sales in the United States, and rightfully so.

4. YAMAHA YZ490 (MOST YEARS). Yamaha introduced the YZ 490 in 1982, after a solid run with the YZ465. Sadly, the 490 was heavier than the 465, nowhere near as reliable, horribly difficult to start (hot or cold), came with a grim suspension, vibrated enough to bring blisters to your hands and was impossible to jet.

If you jetted it rich enough to keep this dog from seizing, it would blubber, puke, foul plugs and produce no power. If you jetted it to run strong, it would invariably seize. It came with air leaks, a wandering ignition, gimpy motor mounts and the worst case of Yamahop at high speeds since the original DT-1. Yamaha issued a mountain of service bulletins to try to fix the problems. None of them worked.

3. PENTON 125 MUD LARK. In 1973, John Penton was selling some great race and enduro bikes that were being produced by KTM in Austria. However, he was forced to buy a whole load of the Sachs 125B engines in order to get a supply of the "good" engines. So, to get rid of the B engines, John contracted with Wassel, an English fabricator, and they threw together a frame, a set of wretched Betor forks, ginky shocks and a layout that made you feel like you were sitting on the edge of a pinball machine.

John called it the Penton Trials, but not even Batman could have ridden it in a trials event. There was no power at all, the gearbox was spaced oddly and it wouldn't turn without plowing the front end. So, in desperation, John renamed it the Mud Lark, a sort of all-purpose play machine. In fact, it was a no-purchase dirt bike, and will go down in history as one of the few bad business decisions ever made by savvy John Penton.

2. ANY THREE-WHEELER. Yup, the All- Terrain Cycle, or ATC, was introduced by Honda to let people who didn't have the skills to balance a regular two-wheeled bike ride in the dirt. Cute little buggers, the ATCs sold like crazy. Then savvy people started noticing that they handled like a shopping cart loaded with bowling balls with one locked front wheel going down a flight of stairs.

People started doing wonderful things like riding over their own legs and biffing over
the bars when the things got into a high- speed wobble-you know, anything over 20 mph. Suspension on these early three-wheelers? Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero. Just three balloon tires were there to take the impacts.

As the years passed, the ATVs got more and more powerful and they gave them forks and shocks. This let the unstable triangle wallow around, as well as defy the laws of physics when trying to turn. The rest is history. Three-wheelers are no longer being made. However, be warned! They're still out there, wiggling and lurching around the trails and sandpits of America.

1. And the winner (or loser, actually) is:

THE 1971 SUZUKI TM-400R CYCLONE! It weighed 242 pounds, dry, and delivered about 40 hp at 6850 rpm. Sometimes it delivered it at 4400 rpm. At other times, it would deliver it just when you least expected it. You see, the Cyclone had a weird ignition that would go from a starting mode to full advance whenever it felt like it. Even a change in temperature would change the power hit.

Picture this: you're exiting a hard- packed turn in second gear and you roll the throttle on. All of a sudden, the engine lurches into the fat part of the power curve and the rear end leaps out about three feet. The chassis shudders and sends you sailing into the clear blue sky in a nice arc. Moments later, you thump into the ground, painfully, and then a microsecond after that, the Cyclone lands on top of you.

Adding to the bizarre powerband was a set of forks that went rigid on square bumps and rear shocks that faded from anything hotter than headlight glare. Many companies produced endless handling and frame modification kits. None of these things seemed to help much, but the bike cost only $995 brand new and people kept buying them, trying to make them work. They all failed, to one degree or another, to tame the Cyclone.

The legacy of the TM-400 can be summed up in an ad that appeared in a newspaper:

"For sale-1972 Suzuki TM-400. Only ten hours on bike. Possible injury forces sale. $500 or best offer."

*There's some great pics along with each of these items.

to read direct:

http://www.superhunky.com/worstbikes.html

 

[fatcat216]

VintageDirt-

Oh please do! I love sappy stories, and I really have enjoyed reading stories about people who have been involved in this sport while I was unaware of it.

I agree on the helping only if you want. It's a big world and we all have too many needs. But, Superhunky's writing stands in its own right. I can't see why anyone wouldn't fall completely in love with these stories. I think the kids will eat it up, just as I did when an acquaintance on a forum recommended MonkeyButt to me.

I'll check out the source code, if I can figure that out. lol. That's way cool, VD.

Thanks again for being the right kind of people. :cool:

 

[XRpredator]

. . . Maybe I might post my sappy letter that I wrote years ago, tells how I feel about Rick.

I think you should. It's better than the lunch you had with Pancho Villa.

we all owe a lot to that ol' cigar chomper

 

[VintageDirt]

Maybe later, in the mean time...here's the real deal from SH archives

http://wesbaca.com/HarleyDBarticle.html

 

[fatcat216]

Maybe later, in the mean time...here's the real deal from SH archives

http://wesbaca.com/HarleyDBarticle.html

:cool: :cool: :cool:

Great fun! Thanks.

 

[Ol'89r]

Could one of you fine gents please offer up a taste of Superhunky history/biography to the kids and newcomers? The little blurb on the site doesn't spell it out.

It's a pretty good bit of dirt lore. You guys lived this stuff. Come on you silver tongued dirt fools. Tell the kids about "the day". Somebody cover his life, somebody else "the Book" and someone else the magazine.

edit: Since you old coots don't want to educate the youngsters I'll attempt to edit in some info for the kids.

:

fatcat.

It's not about not wanting to educate the youngsters, it's about where to start. As you can see by the links you provided, there is a lot more to Rick Sieman than meets the eye.

I first met him when the eco-wacko's were first trying to close down the desert to off road riding. Here in District 37, we had to ride a desert race called Barstow to Vegas in order
to maintain our point total. I hated Barstow to Vegas since I was a scrambles and TT rider and rode a heavy Triumph 650 twin that was not suited to desert riding. But, if you were in the points chase, you had to ride it.

The eco-wacko's thought we were killing the desert tortoise. I remember going out to Barstow for the start of the race and seeing a whole bunch of army tanks sitting on railroad flat cars on sidings as you drove in to the starting area. A couple of weeks after the race the army would hold tank maneuvers in the same area. But, it wasn't the tank maneuvers that made the nightly news. It was those nasty motorcycle racers that were destroying the turtle population. They even had a clip on 20/20 about it making us out to be the bad guys. Of course, not a word about the tanks.

Rick stood up to the eco-wacko's and the BLM and formed the B to V protest ride. I feel honored to this day to be one of the riders that rode that protest ride. We had several protest rides after that and that was my first taste of what we were up against in regard to land closures. I am still involved in land issues and it was Rick that got me started.

Rick also told it like it was. In his magazine, if he was reviewing a bike that was a POS, he called it a POS. He didn't pull no punches. He didn't bow to the pressure from the OEM's or the aftermarket people. You could believe what he said as gospel. Today the mag's are nothing but advertizements for the OEM's. You can't believe a word of what you read. He also had a very humorous way of telling his storys.

I couldn't possibly tell you all about Rick Sieman. The best way to learn about this very special man is to buy his book and read it.

Thanks for providing the links.

 

[fatcat216]

89r-Probably a little overkill on the links? It's only because there is so much, so well written.

VD- I'm guessing you look better in a cheerleader's outfit than I do, but, since I didn't live this stuff, there is no question of propriety in me being a fanboy, not only of Mr. Sieman, but of you all.

I agree wholeheartedly that the book is a fun fun read. You'll get no quarrel from me on that. (I'd recommend buying it from his site rather than Amazon. At the time I heard of MonkeyButt, I knew nothing at all about Rick Sieman, or any of the above. Just had a title of a book, and not a thing more. I actually bought it on faith. I paid about $25 too much for my copy, unfortunately. Ugh.)

But please let me say this.

You folks who've spent a lifetime living an interesting dirt life bring a rich set of experiences to a "place" in the universe.
If I appear a little greedy wishing to hear more on each of you/Mr.Sieman, I apologize for that. The closest people like myself will ever get to such an interesting life is in books, or reading the stories you tell about yourselves and eachother around the cyber-campfire. I am quite sure Rick would love to know you guys are jawing about the old days, having a laugh, even if he's experienced a bit of misfortune. Maybe especially.

It's about a life well lived. None of us ever gets to appreciate fully, the impact we have on others. It is a rare thing. Usually a glimpse, if we are lucky. Tales are a fitting toast to an EXCEPTIONAL storyteller. :cool:

Thanks Terry, for sharing a touch of your own experiences, even if I did have to bully it out of you. :nener: I know it barely grazes the surface. Ditto VD. I hope you'll share your letter.

Oh!....And pics of yous guys in your cheerleading outfits would be most awesome, too. :rotfl: 89'r- Time to show a little bony old bird-leg flesh... Come on- Make us proud boys. :debil:

 

[Tony Eeds]

Rick came on the scene about the same time I got my first bike.

I am a bit younger than Rick and Terry, et al and I grew up reading the exploites of all in the dirt bike heaven known as California.

Whitey Martino
J.N. Roberts
John McGowan and Kookie

and the many others my coffee starved mind can't conjure up at the moment.

Rick had a way of exposing the truth in a way that nobody could stay pissed at for long. His equipment reviews were the stuff of legend and honest to the point of being brutal. Without him and Dirt Bike, many of us would have wasted far more money than we did on gear.

I credit him with my involvement in the access issues here in Texas. He fought the first good fight and it was an ever evolving saga that we followed like a soap opera in DB. He and the Duck were the first to expose the whackos and the BLM for what they were, are, and will apparently continue to be.

I ask a representative of the Environmental Defense Fund what he thought of the Sierra Club.

His answer ...

He loved them because they made all of the other environmental groups look sane.

Texas Motorized Trails Coalition will be executing a contract with the Environmental Defence Fund and they will be partners in our progress in Ozona at Escondido Draw Recreational Area.

Thanks for the heads up Wes. I saw the post in Off Road that Rick put up about the move, but got distracted adn never read it.

 

[biglou]

I'm a little late to post, but I got my autographed Monkey Butt book a few weeks back. I think everyone who rides or knows someone who rides needs to read this book.

The world needs characters, and Hunky is a character like no other!
Well, 'cept maybe Wes... ;)

 

[m4i2k2e2]

i had never heard of this man before i clicked that link. i seriously just sat here for about an hour and a half reading all or most of these articles and post of this thread. i was just reading his 10 ten worst dirtbikes. that is some funny stuff. im glad to know there is someone out there that had fought and im sure is still fighting those green freaks. all i can say is wow, after reading all that i am very impressed. he has done alot for all of us and i am thankful for that. thank you for all of the reading material and i hope he gets better fast. thanks again.
-mike

 

[Gravity Worx]

I may be new to the forum here,
but definately not new to dirt bikes and the fight against the greenies.
I remember as a kid seeing Super Hunky as well as a few others who really stepped up to lead the fight.
He definately helped shape my opinions/beliefs about how the land should be free to use for us as well as them.

Thoughts and Prayers SH.
To quote another one from the same era, "Quack Quack and don't look back" (you guys under the age of about 40 won't understand that one, but the older ones will.

 

[Ol'89r]

"Quack Quack and don't look back" .

Louis McKey. The Phantom Duck of the Desert. :cool:

 

[Gravity Worx]

^^^
EXACTLY!!!!
Good Man. I was wondering if any one would show their age. lol

 

[curt1656]

I think I'll throw the old :coocoo: some $$ for all the laughs he's given me. Plus that whole pay it forward, karma crap.