CLASSIC MOTOCROSS IRON: 1966 MATCHLESS 500 G85CS
Less than 150 were produced, and Vic Eastwood, Chris Horsfield and Dave Nicol raced them. Sadly, the G85C was the last Matchless motocross bike
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Less than 150 were produced, and Vic Eastwood, Chris Horsfield and Dave Nicol raced them. Sadly, the G85C was the last Matchless motocross bike
The rotary-valve Maico MC125 was based on the MD125 road racer, but was the victim of bad timing and high pricing
The fact that Broc Glover won the 1985 AMA 500 Championship on this bike was testament to his talent
The Silverpilen was the Swedish version of the Hodaka Ace 100—both were the bikes that spawned a generation of Grand Prix and AMA National stars
Rickman promised Bultaco that they would not import Petite Metisses to the USA and you can guess how that turned out
Husky used its 250cc development program to launch the 1966 Husqvarna 360 Viking. The Open class Husky was based on Torsten Hallman’s 250.
Reliability problems. Spanish metal. Added weight. Not popular. That’s why most El Bandidos ended up in junk yards
After Feets Minert’s Catalina victory, BSA named the Gold Star DBD34 the “Catalina Scrambler” and added the mods that Feets used at the island race
Imported by PABATCO of Hodaka fame—the British Cotton was unique, but not because of its Villiers Starmaker engine
In the 1970s, AJS, Matchless, Norton, Villiers, BSA and Triumph were combined into the Norton-Villiers Group — AJS was saddled with aging Villiers Starmaker engine
CZ’s can be told apart by their distinctive gas tanks — red in the late ’60s & 1970, yellow in 1971-72,steel coffin tank in 1973, and the flat-silver coffin tank in 1974
Total Greeves production in 1954 was 14 motorcycles, but Bert upped that to 17 in ’55 — Greeves didn’t stay small for long
Coopers were made by Moto-Islo in Mexico, but morphed into the only brand ever owned by an AMA National Champion
The only brand owned by an AMA National Champion as opposed to just being raced by a hired gun National Champion
If you wanted to race at Ascot this limited-production Yamaha twin was as race-ready as possible in 1963
Not wishing to lose the Greeves business, Villiers developed the all-new Starmaker engine. It was radically different from previous Villiers engines, but the most notable differences was the two Amal Monobloc carburetors
The door opened for Husqvarna in 1960 with the demise of Monark. This freed up Monark and Lito designer Nils Hedlund to develop a state-of-the-art 500cc motocross machine for Husqvarna
So rare that this is the only one — but in its own way it is really two
In honor of the late Tom White’s upcoming 70th birthday, we present his favorite bike in his museum — the Hungarian-built White Tornado
FB Mondial Motociclistica was founded by Count Giuseppe Boselli in 1948 in Arcore, Italy. The name Mondial is French for “world.”
The “A” was the last of the twin-shock YZ’s—the “B” was the monoshock
Taglioni’s sole Desmodromic valve dirt bike proves that if a duck barks, it’s a motocross bike
The BSA Bantam was a DKW war prize that the Germans had to hand over to the British after WWII
The most obvious motocross connection between Steve McQueen, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill & Senor Bulto
The German-built Sachs/DKW 125 cost $748 in 1971
In 1968, Baby Boomers found a cheap entry into the sport and in the long run the DT1 made the dirt bikes accessible to the masses