LO MEJOR DE JODY'S BOX: EL TIEMPO DE NUESTRAS VIDAS A TRAVÉS DE LAS BICICLETAS DE NUESTRAS VIDAS
Jody on the cover of the September 3, 1974, issue of Cycle News with his Hodaka Super Combat and Super dog.
POR JODY WEISEL
Fo la mayor parte de mi vida, al menos las partes que recuerdo, mi trabajo ha sido probar motocicletas. He montado y competido con máquinas increíbles, basura mediocre y algunos desechos de metal. No guardo rencor contra las bicicletas malas, aunque sí tengo algunas cicatrices. Y de la misma manera, no idealizo las buenas bicicletas. Cuando la gente me pregunta cuál es mi bicicleta favorita, siempre respondo: "La que corro hoy".
"Eso no puede ser cierto", responden, "leí el MXA prueba en esta bicicleta y le diste una crítica mordaz. ¿Cómo podría ser tu bicicleta favorita cuando obviamente te gustaban más las otras marcas?
“¿Alguna vez has escuchado la canción de Stephen Stills que dice: 'Si no puedes estar con la persona que amas, ama a la persona con la que estás'? Desde un punto de vista técnico, cuando llevo meses probando cada bicicleta, sé exactamente qué les pasa a todas. Los ganadores tienen tantos defectos como los perdedores, pero es donde están los defectos que más cuentan. Hoy voy a la línea de salida en esta bicicleta. He hecho ajustes para las cosas que no me gustaban, ya sea mecánica o mentalmente, y planeo montarlo lo mejor que pueda. No siento nostalgia por las motos que no uso hoy. Estoy entusiasmado con las posibilidades de competir con este y, lo más importante, me pagan, gane o pierda ”.
“I LOVED MY 1974 HODAKA 125 SUPER COMBAT, AND WITHOUT WARNING CAN LAUNCH INTO WHIMSICAL REMINISCENCES ABOUT HOW
AWESOME IT WAS, BUT IT REALLY WASN’T.”
We pick and choose the things we want to paint with rose-colored glasses, and send the bad things to the back of our cerebral filing cabinet. Using this system, a “modern bad” is 10 times worse than “1970’s bad.” It’s a self-defense mechanism against the stress of a rapidly changing future. The movies were funnier back then. The girls were prettier. The traffic was lighter and the bikes were better.
Me encantó mi 1974 Hodaka 125 Super Combat, y sin previo aviso puedo lanzarme a recuerdos caprichosos de lo increíble que fue. Pero realmente no fue así. Puede que lo recuerde de esa manera en mi mente, pero como mi Hodaka Super Combat de 1974 se exhibe en un museo de motocicletas, me vuelvo a la realidad cada vez que lo miro.
“How come your Hodaka doesn’t look like a Hodaka?” asks a guy standing next to me on the museum floor before he starts peppering me with questions about the forks, tank, frame and other peculiarities.
To which I answer, “Oh yeah, I took the 32mm stock forks off and replaced them with long-travel, 36mm, Kayaba air forks.”
“Hey! Why does it have Schaeder valves on top of the forks. Air forks weren’t invented in 1974,” he asked.
“What are you writing a book of something? Air forks were popular in 1974, we took the springs out and put air in instead. Yamaha came out with their Speedo and Tach air forks in 1976, but they were just copying what racers were already doing in 1974-’75.”
“Did Hodaka come with the shocks moved that far forward in 1974,” he asked.
“No. The frame has been reconfigured to get more travel, and while I was cutting and welding new shock mounts, I reinforced the weak head tube and swingarm pivot plates. With all the frame changes, I had to fabricate a new aluminum airbox and side plates. Plus, GPS built me an up-pipe to replace the stock down pipe, and it was designed so that the rear of the stinger, which was routed through the upper left side of the airbox, was invisible from the side profile of the bike.”
“Holy cow! That swingarm doesn’t look like a Hodaka swingarm,” he exclaimed as I inched away from him.
“Oh sí, eres muy observador. Ese es un basculante Swenco de 2 pulgadas más largo al que soldaron escudetes para mover los soportes de amortiguación inferiores hacia adelante para que los amortiguadores sean más verticales ”.
“I though that Super Combats were orange, asked the guy two second later,
“Oh sí, tienes razón. El Super Combat vino con un tanque de gasolina de acero naranja, pero era demasiado bulbo y pesado. Hice que Alex Steel construyera un tanque de ataúd de aluminio para él ”.
“Why is the seat so tall. It looks all wrong,” said the guy, who was starting to get on my nerves.
“Oh yeah,” I said, “the seat is very tall because back in 1974, we ran tall seats to act as added suspension travel. It was a Maico thing. Along with the seat, I added new plastic, a chain tensioner, bigger footpegs and different handlebars. That 1974 Super Combat was a great race bike.”
“You must have won a lot of races on it in over the years,” he said.
“Oh no, I only raced it in 1974. I didn’t race it in 1975. In fact, I never raced it again once I got my new 1975 bike. Why would I want to race my old bike when there were new ones on the showroom floor? But it was awesome.”
PUEDE LEER LAS COLUMNAS "JODY'S BOX" EN CADA NÚMERO DE LA REVISTA MOTOCROSS ACTION. RECOGE EL ÚLTIMO NÚMERO HOY ... O MEJOR SUSCRÍBETE HACIENDO CLIC EN EL CUADRO DE SUSCRIPCIÓN A CONTINUACIÓN.
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