Legendary Motocross Bikes [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Great book but it skips the sixties with the exception of one bike. Where are the Husqvarnas, CZs and Maicos (AJS, Bultaco, Greeves, Ossa, Puch, Penton, Sachs, etc) that started the sport in the U.S.?

Terry Good's "Legendary Motocross Bikes" is an exceptional new book devoted to the author's incredible collection of the championship winning motocross specials known as "works bikes." Anyone who spent time around the dirt bike scene back in the 1970s or 1980s knows what a "works bike" is and is familiar with the mystique that surrounded them, but this term is probably obscure to younger motorsports enthusiasts or the general public, so it can do with a bit of explanation...

A "works bike" is a motorcycle that has been specially prepared for competition by the factory or in the English parlance "the works" as in the "Triumph works" or the "BSA works." With motorsports, there has always been the concept of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." Whether on two wheels or four, racing success has always given motorcycle and automobile companies greater prestige and helped them to move product. And, in motorcycle racing, when the factory runs its own racing program, that effort is known as a "works team" to differentiate it from private entrants racing on the same model bike.

A "works bike" was usually based on a showroom model, but the engineers at the factory often use their racing team as a test program, to try out prototypes and new components to see how they work. Factories usually tried to make the motorcycles their works teams used appear as close to the showroom models as possible in order to create the illusion that their famous riders rode a bike that was exactly like the one you could buy. In reality, the motorcycle factories were often just as good at creating illusions as the magician David Copperfield.
"Works bikes" were often full of exotic components that were too light or too expensive to sell to the general public. These factory specials could have special frames, lighter engine castings and internals or upgraded suspension components. In some cases, the special parts would filter down to showroom models, but in others the exotic materials were only intended for one purpose - to win races and cover the factory in glory.

In the 1950s, England's BSA had a factory "works team" that it used to test motorcycles and win "Scrambles" races, which is what the English then called the sport of motocross. The special versions of the "BSA Gold Star bikes that its riders won races on used exotic Reynolds 531 aircraft tubing, improved suspension components and more powerful engines to cut a swath through British competition. As Sweden and then Czechoslovakia became motocross powers, its companies also began to produce more exotic motorcycles for its sponsored riders to use.

In the early 1970s, our author Terry Good, the hero of this tale, began to compete in American motocross competition. He was good enough to become a professional and to compete on the AMA (the American Motorcycle Association because this is a story about men that often need doctors rather than the ones who practice medicine) 125cc National Circuit. This was a great time to be active in American motocross because it was the era that the sport began to grow by leaps and bounds and we went from seeing the European riders dominate every U.S. motocross they entered, to parity and then eventually, American domination. And, Good, like every other young motocross racer developed a fascination with the mystical works bike that the champion riders were mounted on.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the special bikes the hotshot Europeans rode when they came to the states for the Trans-AMA series and other races took on a great mystique. In the beginning the works bikes Americans coveted were lightweight two-stroke Czech CZ's, Swedish Husqvarnas and German Maicos, but as the best European riders, men like Joel Robert, Torsten Hallman and Roger DeCoster signed contracts with the Japanese factories, the European works bikes were replaced in young men's motocross dreams by factory Yamahas, Suzukis, Kawasakis and Hondas.

The Japanese manufacturers were much larger companies than the specialized European motorcycle firms. Each of them sold hundreds of thousands of motorcycles each year and this gave them deeper pockets as well as greater engineering resources than the European companies. The Japanese factory specials became increasingly innovative and exotic and each of them represented an considerable investment. When the factory pilots made an appearance at a local motocross track, it wasn't the famous riders that many of the male spectators wanted to see when they crowded around the pits, but instead to catch a glimpse of the special works bike in an effort to learn what made it so fast.

Terry Good raced for a number of years and obtained his first former works bike in 1978, a three year-old 125 that Pierre Karsmakers and then Bob "Hurricane" Hannah had ridden. Eventually, in 1980, he managed to buy a current Mugen works bike, a highly modified Honda, for $4,000, which was then a lot of money for a 125cc motorcycle. Good married young, had a large family and became a successful businessman, but he always kept his interest in motocross. He ran a successful racing team, imported Mugens and motorcycle components and after he became successful as a trader in the futures market, he began the hard work of tracking down and collecting the most famous works bikes from the 1970s and 1980s. Over the past few decades, Good's obsession with factory race bikes has enabled him to create a collection of one championship mount after another and then each of restoring each of them to their championship-winning condition.

The final step in Terry Good's works bike obsession was to document the collection that he has assembled so that others can enjoy the fruits of his laborious hobby. The result of a years of research, interviews with riders and mechanics and countless photography sessions is the 160 page Factory Motocross Bikes, where he documents each of the bikes in his collection - or at least the ones he had when the book went to print, for he seems to have an insatiable appetite for these factory specials.

The book is softcover and in a "landscape format" that suits its subject. It begins with Sten Ludin's 1961 Monark/Lito, the most prolific race winner in World Championship history and it and each motorcycle has its own chapter, which usually consists of a number of images of the restored bike, some period photographs and a nice recollection by the rider. It would have been interested to have a 1960s Rickman-Metisse or CZ included, but it is Mr. Good's collection, isn't it? The next bike is Swede Torsten Hallman's Yamaha YZ637 from 1971, followed by a 1972 Suzuki RH72 that the great Joel Robert rode and then the Suzuki RN72, a 500cc "Open Class" motocrosser that the legendary Roger DeCoster rode to one of his World Championships. The bikes continue throughout the 1970s and 1980s with more Suzukis, Bob Hannah's Yamaha's, then many exotic Honda works motorcycles, each of them described in detail so that the reader knows what made them special and how they were to ride from the rider's seat.

Through these exotic motorcycles, which were sometimes so special that none of the major components interchanged with a showroom model, you can trace the evolution of the motocrosss bike. The narratives on each motorcycle explain the increasing power of the two-stroke engines, the "lay-down" shocks and the "monoshocks" that revolutionized rear suspension design, the "long travel revolution" where forks and suspensions gave riders the ability to absorb ever greater jumps without slowing down and the introduction of the light-but-stiff one-piece monocoque frame. Each of these developments, which were prototyped on the mystical "works bikes" soon made their way to the production motocross motorcycles. Only the exotic materials like magnesium and titanium and hand-lightened components rarely found their way down to the competition bikes you can buy on the showroom floor.

The book tells the story of these bikes well and if you are one of the late baby-boomers that grew up with these bikes or who read about them in the pages of Cycle or Cycle News, you'll find the story of the development of the first single-shock suspension and the "claiming" of Marty Smith's works bike at Hangtown fascinating. Otherwise, anyone with a technical interest in bikes or racing or an interest in motorcycle history will enjoy the story of Good's collection. It is probably too specialized a book for someone with a casual interest in motorcycling. I would have enjoyed reading about more of the 1960s bikes and an appendix with technical specifications of each bike and their race results, but this would be my only quibbles. Legendary Motocross Bikes was a welcome surprise, an excellent addition to my motorcycle bookshelf

This is a great book. A must have for those of us who love this sport, very well done!! Buy It!