Fred, here is a friend up in Alaska......

[George-CT]

I guess I can't really complain about our snow here this year. Look at the different layers here in Alaska. For the most part, if dry road, he rides year round... From those layers of snow, I don't see much riding between Oct and March. He has both of these up on another site I hang out at. All bike guys and gals. The second picture goes full size, wish the first one did. We are looking at a few warm days here this week, I will be out on the road. Spent most of this week getting our dirt track ready. We have a race April 13. We doese it up this week and set up our track. My son and a bunch of guys road it today so we can work around the don't like parts. That last picture is the lay out of it as of today. I had y sun take the GPS with him on the bike so I could get and overhead of view of some changes we might make. This monster mile, as we call it is very technical. Lots of jumps, big steep ones. You are pretty much always setting up for a jump and picking lines. One of those jumps on the long straight away by the bleaches, is 105 feet, and not a lot of room to brake for the next corner so in short order there are major braking bumps to deal with. Once you land and are on the brakes your dragging dirt with you, hence the brake bumps.... Geo-CT

 

[Larry (IL)]

n/t

 

[ojm bc]

n/t

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

I wonder how long it takes to melt, all summer? You do not have much time to get that track ready, lots of mud from the snow and Ice? I kinda think folks down here fail to realize that some places do not have year long riding...we just do not have the cold, ice and snow weather experience. Thanks for posting that layered snow picture, very unusual. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Rob/Windsor Ont.]

n/t

 

[Ron J]

n/t

 

[George-CT]

expected. We had a lot of wind the last 2 weeks and it really dried it up a lot we put in over the years a lot of drainage around the track to get the water away. I'll post some pictures once we start racing. Pretty nice track when its all dressed up for racing. We average about 600 racers for opening day and around 2000 spectators. We are non profit and give the majority of the money to charity, like Hospital, Schools, Fire Department, Ambulance Services, which we use a lot of, Lions Club. All of us enjoy dirt riding, many still race in the vintage class with the old stuff we had back then. I still run and old Bultaco I had. With 2 herniated disc, I no longer ride hard, just a few rides around. We are more supercross then motocross the ways its set up, if you can't jump, its not the track to compete at, yet if you can ride here you can ride anywhere. We have a lot of the Pros that live in New England that ride here still and have input on what would be pretty trick for the riders. Doug Henry, John Dowd, Keith Johnson, Mike Treadwell, Tony Larouso etc.....Fun to watch them tear it up. Some were there this week as we where pushing the dirt around to make new jumps.... As we get to old, most seem to get the big cruisers and ride the roads hanging on to the last of their youth. I know it helps me come down from what I really enjoyed to a different level of riding. 4 weeks ago we had a snowmobile race on the track....Weather is going the other way fast now, with 50's predicted for most of the week in day time. I can hear my cruiser out there in the barn thrashing around, Hey I'm in here, lets ride....
And we shall, this week...... Geo

 

[George-CT]

had and old Cushman out in his garage that was there for along time. He told me if I could get it running, it was mine. I did and it was mine. I rode that for along time. I was about 12 years old and kept it out in the woods so my parents would not know. Later I got a Zundap from a local Navy guy at the Groton Sub base....Fun bike, 250cc and that got me hooked on flat tracking. Soon after I got a deal on Harley dirt tracker, and then on into Yamaha's, a old Greeves, a Penton. Finally, around 1968 I moved into Bultaco's. I had 3 of them, A prusang, great bike for its time, a Matador, my favorite for all around dirt and woods, and a ElBandito, junk, zero handling, but lot of power. Also had a lot of Triumphs, that we used for dirt track, hill climbs, even enduros, like the 500cc Trophy single. Wish I still had that unit, heavy for woods but still a fun ride. I still see some for ice racing around. Now its pretty much Yamaha, Honda, Kawie, Suzuki, KTM at the dirt tracks. Some where in between all that we had a million basket jobs that someone took apart and never put back together again that we got for free or almost free. We would build them up, sell them, or give them away, we taught a lot of kids to ride on them old clunkers. A few still have them. Which Yamaha did ya have. I had a nice little 125 the build for awhile, really a nice bike, then a lot of 250's we destroyed on the track. Good bikes then and now. I used to strip the brakes off the Yamahas and put them on my Bultacos as the Bulls brakes really were useless. My only brake on my Matador for 100 mile enduros, was a compression release I had milled into the head so it would stop.....Once they got wet, the brakes never came back on them. Yamaha brakes were great. Fun times, great memories..... Do you still ride? Geo

 

[Royal]

n/t

 

[ojm bc]

...I don't recall the name of the Yamaha,but I think it was used for hunting,had a rifle rack or similler on it.I always got ribbed about it,my school mates all had more powerfull bikes.I still admire the Triumph's and remember a lot of BSA during the 70's.I also had one of those Sears 90CC Ducati type bikes,was reliable.I ran engine to the ground,then made one bike out of two beaters.Are you a car fan,too bad about Boyd Coddington passing away.I like his tv hot rod show. bye

 

[ojm bc]

n/t

 

[George-CT]

and little heat deflectors on the exhaust pipe. Can't remember what it was called. They were not fast but they would get you thru the woods and back. I've seen them from time to time on Ebay. Seems like one had 2 sprokes on it and you could move the chain to either one for off road or on road.

I forgot all about the BSA's. I had the 500 Rocket, with the blue paint job and chrome tank. I had a red one also I drive for along time. A buddy of mine bought it from me and headed up to Laconia NH for bike week. He was drinking big time and got messed up real bad on it. His wife still blames it on me, and I was not even with them. It was a rainy week and he was in a camp somewhere. We rode the bikes up later in the week. No rooms left anywhere, so we set up our tent under a bridge overpass. A cop came a few times and asked us to leave. about the 3rd or 4th time he said if I come back and your here, you go to jail. Ahhhhh, how much is jail...$15.00 son. We were waiting for him with our gear packed when he came back. That was a warm room, breakfast in the AM and really no court, just a lady collecting the 15 bucks for being a vagrant. I've been called worst....

I remember those Sears bikes also but the one I pick up was a Punch I think. 2 cycle, went good, but like you experience with the 90cc yamaha, we got the same laughs on the Allstate....

OH yeah I like the cars also. I saw that on Boyd Coddington. He was a great car builder, old school to the core. He got taken out way to early. I wonder if they will carry on in his name or just close up. I like the old stuff and hit a lot of car shows in the summer. I kind of got into Corvettes with my son as a hobby over the last 10 years so play with them. I have a 92 right now all tricked out, but have had a lot of them. Most came off of EBAY. Let me see what I have for pictures of them........
My 92 that I drive now, my 79, my sons 84 and 89 and my 60 vette with my buddy Gene looking on. He is a Mustang nut........

I like the toys....been selling them off in the last few years. Time to condense down some.

Lately I spend more time with the road bike than the vette, so thinking of selling it also..... Then again, I have my eye on another T-bucket..... Me thinks when i go to that car show in the sky, my kids will have a lot of stuff to get rid of....

George-CT

 

[ojm bc]

we have a few oldies in the family,a 55 TBird(i think 55) and a early model Jenson Intercepter 454.But unfortunetly my older brother is a bit too ill to really enjoy them.My favourite ride was my 74 vette 350 T roof.One of my brothers had a GTO 396? not sure ,he blew 3 engines on it.Man the good old days,bit boring now.

 

[George-CT]

Sharp looking cars. The toys with engines are fun, but fuel cost are taking the usability out of them. Most are hard on fuel.....I guess thats why my migration back to road bikes. You can use them like you want and not go broke....

Geo