Action Alert! CPSC to develop rules for SxS’s

Action Alert!  Side by Side owners and enthusiasts need to stand up and be heard.  Now I don’t have a huge interest in (ROVs) Side by Sides but here is a link to a preformed response that will be sent to the Office of the Secretary, CPSC. Personalize the message all you want. The Americans for Responsible Recreational Access (ARRA) have made it easy to take just a minute or two to voice your opinion.  Follow this link to the Americans for Responsible Recreational Access (ARRA) Link to personalize your message

Asian 450cc ATVs and motorcycles?

I saw this posted over on a pit bike/mini bike forum that has some forums dedicated to the Asian pit bikes.  There are reports of spy photos of the Asians trying to enter into the lucrative ‘big bike” market, more specifically the 450cc class.  Doing a bit of searching there apparently is a 450cc water cooled ATV out in the midst as well.  Below are some photos lifted from www.planetminis.com.  The motor appears to share some design characteristics with Honda’s Uni-cam design.  Very little info is known at this time, but apparently they have been spotted in Australia of all places.  I bring this here as things like this intrigue me as it appears that the Asians are getting more serious about entering the performance market.  Only time will tell if their designs will be met with good reception.  I personally think its generally good as it gives the consumer more choices as well as more competition.  Its obvious that the Asian market of ATVs and motorcycles will take a while to gain the momentum and recognition, similar to what Japan did/had to do in through the 60’s.  The Asian manufactures (mostly American companies using Asian manufacturing plants) have steadily gained momentum in the mini/pit bike market bringing some pretty high quality stuff at very reasonable prices.  Anyways for your enjoyment here are some photos of what could be coming from Asian in the near future.

 

 

Back to the old stomping grounds

As this holiday weekend approaches a lot of us will be celebrating our freedom to vacation when and where we choose by traveling to that hallowed riding spot that we have some eternal connection with.  For many the reason may be because it is with in a 5 minute drive from the house, a scenic place with good camping or in my case its the place where I grew up riding that WAS less than a 5 minute drive from my house, now that has stretched out to a 6 hour drive.

The place I am talking about is in Harlan County Nebraska at a little place developed by the US Army Corp. of Engineers in the early 80’s.  My memories of this place start back when my dad raced a few hare scrambles put on by a local racer that organizes motocross races in the same area.  The place had nearly perfect terrain for a hare scramble.  The terrain had hills, trees, and mud.  The hare scrambles were always fun to watch, and maybe that was mostly because my dad was in it.  As a matter of fact my dad was always racing on the oldest bike there a 1974 Yamaha SC500. Remember this was in the 80’s!  After a few years of hare scrambles the place would be nearly defunct as in it would be only ridden by locals such as us.  Even big holiday weekends would turn out less than 10 or so riders for the entire weekend.  The trail was never maintained at all during the entire time period that we rode it. 

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Youth ATV/Motorcycle ban, GET INVOLVED!

Show your disgust with the current law! Get involved by following the link below. With out going into great detail a couple of major forums have gotten together and are organizing demonstrations on the steps of every state capitols. Click the link below for information on how to be involved in letting your voice be heard! The future of our sport depends on it.

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=745460

Reflections of machines gone past…

Now I know this is an ATV site but nearly anyone should be able to relate to the following story. Everyone has that one or many machines that bring back a fond memory of the past.

What ever you want to call it, reminiscing, memories or just shameless self promotion. I was vacationing back at my old stomping grounds in Nebraska where I grew up on my folks farm. While I was back there I ended up helping my folks clean up from the ending harvest season which ultimately meant putting all our restored and currently ridden bikes into winter storage, to make room for the farm equipment. This meant moving them from the main shop into a dedicated storage shed. Hold on, maybe I better back this up a bit.

I grew up on a family farm that my folks still farm to this day. My dad and mom rode motorcycles in the 60’s and 70’s so naturally that was one of the hobbies growing up (that and restoring old cars). Being a farmer we never got rid of anything because “you never know when you may need this or that”. Some of my school mates rode as well and in those days we bought bikes for nothing fixed them, rode them, fixed them, rode them and on. The phrase “RAMP IT!” seemed to claim a lot of bikes back then. Usually the night before a ride we had to fix what we broke the weekend before, and many parts were just hard to find. This was before E-Bay so trips to motorcycle boneyards and leads on junk bikes were regular occurrences.

Of course along the way we collected bikes and restored them not really for show, but just for fun and to make reliable drivers out of them. I did this throughout my teens and twenty’s through college. Graduating college and starting a career the bikes of my past got pushed back into storage as I scaled back a bit (student loans can do that you know) I carefully selected only a few bikes that I could store and ride in my new “home”. For these I chose my Kawasaki KX250 for track and trail riding, Gas Gas TXT321 for trials, and KZ400 for commuting (later to be replaced by my Buell XB9SX). This meant I had to put all the rest on hold for the future.

Fast forward to the future (present). I was getting a bit nostalgic and as I pushed the bikes around I decided to get a group photo of all the old bikes from my past. Each bike has its own little story about it, whether it be how I acquired it or some memorable event while riding it. It should be noted that really none of these bikes are worth a fortune, some have historical significance and are collectible for that reason, but most just carry sentimental value. Possibly in future articles I might delve into some of the bikes are tell my story about the bike as well as telling a bit of history about the bike from when it was new.

Feel free to express some of your fond memories of bikes or atvs of your past in the comment area.

click below for videos

Team MGR memories

Team MGR from way back

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Meet the blogger, The Junk Man

I thought I would start my first post on this site as an introduction. I find it somewhat odd that I was chosen to write some articles for the ATV Magazine blog site considering my off-road (as well as on road) weapon of choice comes with two wheels, but apparently some people over at the ATV Magazine forum and the editors think I know something and can apply that knowledge to the sport atv side. As I think about it though its not that far fetched that I, as a motorcycle guy, be selected for a knowledge base for atvs being I have been crew chief and manager of a race team (Team MGR www.myspace.com/teammgr) that has been riding and racing motorcycles and atvs for over 10 years now. Since Team MGR’s inception I have had to adapt myself to wrenching on atvs as well as motorcycles. Along the way I have acquired many tips and tricks that could benefit nearly any atv rider and I hope to pass this along with this blog. Most of my posts will be technical in nature but I may write some opinion based pieces as well as lifestyle pieces.

A little about Team MGR, we ride and race most everything if its related to atvs or motorcycles, everything from local to national televised races, charity events, trail projects and just promoting the sport of offroad riding. Our motto is Repair, Ride, Race and I think that is fitting as this is what we do. We are not pro riders and we just ride and race for the pure fun of it and if our excitement encourages others to join in we know we have done our job.

Following is a short video sort of summing up what Team MGR is all about and briefly shows some of our accomplishments. And don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel for more videos, product tests, and trail reviews.

http://www.youtube.com/mgracing