Going to get back into dirt bikin' !

Hi all,
It's been fifteen years since someone stole my street-legal Yamaha IT250 from Patrick AFB property on Christmas Day. I'd brought back the machine with me on my PCS from Alice Springs, Australia where I had been happily riding it everywhere! The Aussie bike had been used for everything including a 15th place overall win in the 1984 Finke Desert race.
It crushed me when someone cut the chain and spirited off with it on December 25th, 1990 and I haven't ever gotten over it.
Now I have three kids, aged nine, seven and five, and the youngest one really really wants to get into dirt riding. Maybe not this upcoming summer, but perhaps when he's six and a half in 2007. I'm thinking of scanning the papers for a used IT490, or checking to see if one of the newer four-stroke machines might fit the bill for myself. The thing that jazzes me though is if I can fit a plate onto the thumper. It's got to have some torque and horsepower though, preferrably in the 225 pound range as well. The best feeling I ever had was hitting deep riverbed sand and having the bike come up on plane, dig itself out and effortlessly sail across the tops of the dunes. I dont know if today's machines can do that now. Can they? If the new street bikes can do what my old IT250 could, I'd be styling. I thought I'd register and start reading up.

I was riding one to two hours every day when living in Alice Springs. I was a single guy in the USAF, and after hours I'd ride wherever and whenever around the outskirts of town. As long as there wasnt a fence in the way, the outback was pretty much fair game. Some of our off-road excursions required us to carry extra fuel and a couple gallons of water: Usually in backpacks or saddle bags that we'd strap onto the backs of our machines. I started with a brand new KLR250 in 1987, but after munching license plate after license plate, I sold it and bought a used Yamaha IT250. We went through that bike, replaced the forks with some used KX250 ones, and redid the top-end of the engine with extensive porting. I bought it from the original owner who had used it exclusively for desert racing in the Finke Desert race. He regularly placed in the top fifty with that machine.


I got the IT in 1988 and didnt look back. We rode regularly (five or six times per week) for 30 months, until I left Australia in April of 1990. We rode desert, dry riverbeds, and mountain trails full of sharp, tire-ripping rocks.

So, when it was time to return to the states, I packed it up with my luggage and shipped it back to Florida to my next assignment. Once it arrived, I registered it and drove it on the street all over Cocoa Beach. There was a nice sand pit riding area just west of Merrit Island where we rode the bikes. Unfortunately my regular riding quit on Christmas Day, 1990 when some ******* cut the safety chain and stole my bike, never to be seen again.

I've never gotten over it. Three months later I left the USAF, and started college. College turned into a full-time job with monster commute, then came kids. Then came house payments, and now, sixteen years later, I am thinking that I've finally got some built-in riding buddies in terms of my youngest son who just turned five years old today.

There does not appear to be any riding areas around here in the Lansing area, but I hope that if I start the search early, we'll find something soon. A riding area one-half hour from here would be perfect. I'd love to re-create my Yamaha IT250, or perhaps even try to build a street-going IT490. Having something that sits on a trailer half the week would be very, very hard.

I'll probably pick up a PW50 for Jason. He's highly motivated: Once I told him that he'd have to be able to ride his bike without help if he really wants a motorcycle, he buckled down and learned to solo within a week. Now he wants a motorcycle " uniform " with pants and shirt to wear on his bicycle. I think the clutchless bike would be good for the 5 1/2 year old, and also be ridable for my seven year old daughter who will probably see little brother doing his thing, then want to try. My oldest boy is too into Pokemon and books, and isnt interested yet. Maybe a few afternoons of sitting in the shade with his book, watching us hoon around the field wil pique his interest. We'll see.

Whatever I get for me needs to have good bottom-end and mid-range, be ridable, yet be able to pull up the wheel on a throttle roll-on in first gear, and with a handlebar yank in second gear. I also want it to be able to NOT wallow in riverbed sand like my old KLR did. It's got to have a plush suspension that rarely bottoms out.

I'm somewhat concerned that I have the memories of a 24 year old, yet now have the body of a 40 year old. When I lost the IT at Patrick AFB in 1990, I was pushing the IT pretty hard on my rides and was really wanting something with additional punch. I wasnt much of a jumper but I enjoyed spraying sand in the corners on a powerslide, and I liked skipping the tops of whoops. I never did work up the courage to jump doubles: The only time I ever tried it could have ended in disaster: It was on a 4-hour enduro that used part of a motocross course, unfortunately on a reverse direction. No one bothered to tell me that the double was RAMP shaped, with one side at a steeper angle than the other. I took the leap of faith and launched myself about 16 feet into the air on lap # 4, hit the second ramp about 3/4 of the way up, and ricocheted off-course and straight into a group of officials who scattered in all directions... It ended with no injuries or crashes, made for some permanent memories for the spectators(and judges I'd imagine), but scared me enough to decide against motocross-style jumping.

However, now I'm 40. 6-foot one, 175 pounds. Same height and weight as when I was 24. Just less hair. I've no idea if my reflexes are the same as before. Certainly I am out of practice. I'm somewhat worried that if I get that IT490 I've always wanted that it'll be too much machine leading to an injury. I'm looking for a 225 to 235 pound machine that is simple to work on and fun to ride. It's got to be able to go slow, yet can go fast when I want to make it go. It's got to be a sub-$2500 machine, too.

That's my story!

Yeah, I've been thinking about the KDX a lot. However there's a special place in my heart for a Yamaha IT490 or a KX500 with lighting kit... Probably'll conk myself in the head with those gnarly displacement machines but you never know.

My eyes are peeled and the wallet is filling up...