Bikes that have come and gone.

Since I first tried to get the Vegas to Reno show rolling a few years ago I have had a few bikes come and go.  A few winners, and a few I was glad to let go.  First thing you all have to understand is I tend to go for either practical or odd.  Not sure why, but if its a solid runner or if it was just some thing you don't see every day I was into it.  The new 4 strokes are here to stay, but I still love everything about a 2 stroke and even the old tractor 4 strokes.  The new bikes are obviously the way to go if you want to best of the best technology has to offer, but as a hobby racer, I do not have the time or money to rebuild the bike at least twice before this race.

Since the idea of racing the KX500 I have always longed for another desert ready KX5.  I passed on the idea of going this route for 2 reasons.  First, they are getting hard to come by in good shape, and I would really like to find an old retired team green bike and let it loose back into the desert, and secondly I wanted a bike with a plate.  Here in Temecula there are a lot of killer desert riding areas that are closed off to everything that isn't street legal.  With the plate I can do half day or morning training rides and be back for dinner.  I want the seat time but don't want to miss out on local opportunities.

Here is a quick rundown on my bike history.  Each bike made me realize what I really wanted in a bike and what was and was not necessary in a long haul race.  I will just mention the desert bikes and by pass my stints back into motocross.

1989 KTM 500 DXC
This bike has a great reputation in its hay day in Baja and Australia.  At one time this bike had the highest horsepower rating of any production dirt bike, at 64HP.  I got it all Bro'd out and spent a lot of time scraping paint.  It road pretty good but parts are very hard to come by.  I needed something with a reliable parts source.  Wheels, top end parts, all parts seemed very hard and expensive to come by.  If I can every get to the point of having a second fun bike, this will be one I keep in mind.  Outside of maybe the NORRA Mexican 1000, I don't think this would have been a great choice for Vegas to Reno.

This is the potential of what it could have been.

More bikes to come.  Along with ride reports and the opinions and comments of the "Average Joe" racer that I am.