G. Thorne Staiings jr / Blanchard, OK, UNITED STATES
Posted Jul 05 2007 07:24PM
Reading your "worst 10 bikes" brought back many memories; my first motocross race was at age 12...astride my Dad's 450 Husky Desertmaster. My Penton was down, so Dad offered his bike, and I jumped at the chance. It was a brutal bike: unbeleivable vibration, heavy, slow, you called it right. I got fourth, got hooked, raced Euro bikes thru the 70s. I raced the Desertmaster again a couple of seasons later (my 450 Maico was down), and actually won on it. Still have the blood blistered hand to prove it.
f u / your mom, CO, AFGHANISTAN
Posted Nov 01 2007 11:58AM
your a fag get a life your a wimp
john / hopkins, SC, COLOMBIA
Posted Nov 27 2007 08:39AM
i dont care what is wrong with these bikes i have wanted one sence i was eight years old and now i am fourteen
Posted Oct 28 2008 09:52PM
coulfnt you do a list of a little more current bikes, like 1990 or earlier? or scared of offending advertisers
ian / IRELAND
Posted Jan 04 2009 02:33PM
After a great year with a YZ465 which with an extra head gasket (to improve traction) and a cut and rewelded steering head to get it turning I bought a YZ490 in 1982. Sank all I had to buy new. What a camel. AS above - plus weighed a ton, carried its weight high up, had a low end that broke traction the moment you touched the throttle, dodgy gear spacing and unpredictable handling that would lob you in a bush just as soon as you started to open the throttle without first thinking it through. Lost me a year just as I was getting towards my peak, and in the running for our local championship. Two years later I was out of racing with a badly damaged back...
Tom / Detroit, MI, UNITED STATES
Posted Jul 05 2009 12:18PM
I had a flashback of the Penton Trials bike, with the Sachs 125 radial head 2 stroke single. I actually had something like this bike that had been passed from teenager to teenager in my neighborhood. By the time it was my turn to own it, it was pretty beat but still ran strong. It had a Dalesman frame, the 125B Sachs radial head engine & wide ratio gearbox, and had been fitted with BSA triple clamps, front wheel and forks. The counter torque rod for the rear swing arm was my own high school metal shop creation. I beefed up and modified the Dalesman rear swing arm (to help with chain tension adjustment), threw in a few gussets and added a modified beefy torque rod from an old Suzuki DT (old one kept buckling when rear brakes were applied). This bike was very fast. It had a red, one piece fiberglass fuel tank/seat assembly. My dear mother made me an awesome replacement seat cover. The fiberglass tank had so many cracks in it, that team and product logo stickers just covered the tank to stop the leaks. It was heavy… like an elephant, brakes were thin like tissue, it was unbalanced like a unicycle. It took Hulk-like muscle to ride it in the woods and forget about going over any logs… but it was fast, powerful and the throttle was responsive. I will remember that bike to until the day I die. It totally sucked yet it was awesome. It sucked by my standards today. It was awesome by my standards then. I wish I had a photo of it since no other bike like it on this planet ever existed and never will. I truly miss that flying boat anchor!!!
Tom / Detroit, MI, UNITED STATES
Posted Jul 08 2009 08:47PM
Thanks to Rick, who sent me a photo of a Dalesman Trials, it inspired me to do some homework. Turns out I did have a true Dalesman, but not a Trials... the model I had was called a "Scout". Found a photo of it on cybermotorcycle dot com -- It is the one with the red fiberglass tank! Awesome! Someone else still has one! What a load of crap it was!!! Mine was even missing the headlight and tail light. Never even knew it was supposed to have them! Ah, memories!
Posted Jul 05 2007 07:24PM