Dirt Bike History 101

^ That looks painful!!

I like this one of Roger DeCoster doing the cross up - yee haw!

I’ve been having so much fun with what I’ve learned so far! I was helping my husband out in the garage last week and was standing next to his KTM and just happened to look at stamping on the KTM's silencer which read: KTM-Krizman. It’s cool to look at a name and understand some of it’s history. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Thanks again everyone for all the contributions. I love this thread and refer to it often. <o></o>

I'll try to get a pic of the building now. Really doesn't look much different than it used to.

Being a former Bultaco owner, do you remember West Valley Sportcycle/Horizons Unlimited on Ventura Blvd? I used to ride my bike down there and put fingerprints on the bikes until they would throw me out of the place My bitch stepmother worked right across the street, and if she would have caught me that far from home on my bike she would beat the shit out of me, so I would hide my bike behind the shop and sneak in to the place hoping I wouldn't be spotted

I LOVE old dirtbikes! Itmay have been mentioned already (havent been thru all 88 pages yet) but if your into old dirt then you have to read "Monkey Butt" by Rick Siemans. One of my all time favourite books!!!

I practically lived there myself. A lot of fast guys used to hang there. I used to drool over the CZ's Buls etc. Do you remember all the used bikes they had for sale? Always something cool. At some point they went out of business and it has been and I still think its a printing shop. Riding your bike from Balboa to Horizons Unlimited shows real committment I thought I was the only crazy kid on a schwinn.

I used to live on Fallbrook and Saticoy so Horizons, Kolbe Honda (used to love to see the Rickmans) and International Yamaha (Canoga Avenue )were on my regular circut of shops.

I would love to see a picture of the mid valley building. If you get a chance.

Actually, I lived in Woodland Hills, Topanga and Dumetz. It wasn't that far, but I was only 8 or 9 years old and like I said, the step monster was a bitch and needed little excuse for an ass whooping. My dad's machine shop (and now my shop) was on the Van Nuys side of town, which is how I knew about Mid Valley. I also remember when they built Kolbe. I used to hang at International and my best friend used to work there. Shoemaker died a couple of years ago.

The old Horizons building is a print shop, and it still has all the same stuff on the interior walls from the Bultaco days.

A friend's dad bought a really bitchin' Husky from Horizons that was reputed to be Mark Blackwell's bike from the 71' season (I think). That thing was far out, lots of handmade pieces, including the fuel tank.

And now more from the Small World Department. I live just a couple of blocks from Fallbrook and Saticoy, Sedan Ave to be exact.

Wow it is a small world. I used to know Larry Shoemaker and his son Mike. They used to live on Strathern Street years ago. Larry became sort of wiz at porting, dyno testing etc. I used to go there alot and check out Hodaka's and Yamaha 125's. I bought one of the very first YZ Mono 125's from International in June of 1975- picked it up the day after I graduated from Canoga Park High School. In fact a friend of mine's girlfirend was the owners daughter so we were there alot.

Bythe way at one time that nieghborhood was full of kids with bikes who either rode or raced moto x. There were guys with bikes on almost every block from Shoup to Woodlake and Saticoy to Roscoe. A great place to grow up. We started one of the first BMX tracks on the corner across the street from what was the Giacapuzzi Dairy. at the corner of Saticoy and Fallbrook. We typically raced Indian Dunes, Muntz and Baymare with periodic trips to Saddleback (Saturday 45 Minute Motos) and Carlsbad. For a quick ride we used to go up behind the Chatsworth Reservoir (Woolsy Canyon). On the weekends we used to hit the Cantina looking for girls.

My parents live down there; one in Woodland Hills one in Calabasis so I get down there once a year for a few days. Usually take a ride throug Box canyon, check out Kolbe Honda etc. and a stop at Mission Burrito.

Well, look me up next time you are in town. I bet we know a few of the same people.

Here's a crappy picture of my 85' CR 250. I'm in the process of restoring an 82' RM 250 now also and should have some pictures soon.

i shoulda found this thread a lot sooner than now.

my 1973 bultaco matador six day.

Mine was a 71 model. My brother and I tried our best but could not kill that bike.

We were playing with mini bikes and the thought of camping in the woods and having a way to ride out was terribly appealing so the mini -bike craze happened in my circle of friends .. what started us buying real bike .....WAS my friend buying a CZ 125 ...The sound of it made us want to cry and it threw mud so gracefully into the air it was almost poetic ...the rest is history .....dirt bike history


I love the smell of the castor oil racing oil ....I cried a thousand tears when they decided it wasn't politcally correct to make or build 2 strokes any more ... even my evenrude is an endangered species ... we may all go the way of the dinosaur but the ruts and tracks of the knobby will be a reminder to future generations that we existed

Hello, I'm new on AVDrider, I live in Bretagne (France), I'm looking pics of Kawi riders during the 70's, 80's, 90's. I've gathered on this thread: http://www.leguidevert.com/_V5/visu_sujet-forum-107487-107487-0-kawi.html if you could help me to enrich it would be really nice, thanks.

As an owner of a Kawasaki, there is some incredible Kawasaki dirt bike history in this thread. Good stuff, but good luck interpreting some of the captions.

Thanks TGR!

Hey ValleyRider, yer famous! Check out page 66 of his thread.

Now if I could just win the lottery....

Hi Valleyrider, I posted these pics on this thread because they are nice, but if you want me to remove, I can do it.

Hello TGR!! Not a problem...

...you should probably get checked for signs of clinical deadness or some other dreaded disease. (hope it hasn't been posted before)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfkoUMQTAU&feature=related

Wow - here's another one I just discovered... it's so f'n old it's from the year before I was born. Some serious dual-sport and dirt action. So long ago that those guys are lucky they didn't encounter a tyrannosaur or something...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-izCQ8ti8zY&feature=related

The hillclimb video brought to mind something my mom mentioned once when I asked about my dear 'ol dad's early motorcycle days in the central valley of California. She said "Oh, after we were married [1939] your dad's friends would all come over with their motorcycles and take the mufflers off and roar up and down the hill behind our house."

Doug

Hi, I desperately seeks to identify the rider #277, this Kawi is a works bike, the year: I think 1976 but I'm not sure. Thanks. PS: it's at the bottom of page 43 : http://www.leguidevert.com/_V5/sujet-forum-107487-107487-0-42.html