The Spanish industry failed to set the world on fire despite producing some fine bikes, and Ossa went the way of Bultaco and Montesa. The Ossa Phantom with one gallon of fuel weighed in at 96.16kg, according to a Trail and Track magazine test. One of the early targets in the Jenny Craig game was 100kg. Liquid cooling and electric starters add weight too. Forks, for example, have got more parts inside as well as being much larger in diameter. Weight is removed in some places for sure but is added in others. Funny thing is that every year we are told that this new version (insert brand and model of choice) has had its weight reduced, yet the overall weight of dirtbikes has remained pretty much the same for many years. Weight is everything in dirtbikes, less weight means better handling and more speed. They were already competitive, but expensive, machines so the race was soon on between the other factories to produce long-travel designs. Being a small factory, Maico had a certain production flexibility that allowed quick changes and it was partway through 1974 that the Germans moved the shock absorbers forward to increase rear wheel travel, hence the nickname “seventy four and a half” Maico. Making a bike fast or powerful was not too hard, but getting that power to the ground on a rough track was the problem. This particular beast springs to mind because it was the one that started the long-travel revolution, and a revolution it truly was. The 125cc model was the AT2MX and the RT2MX was a 360. Many riders removed the latter and ran pre-mix. The DT2MX came standard with a reed valve, CDI ignition and Autolube.

Most people simply made do with a trailbike that they kitted up themselves as the budget allowed. Previous “motocross” bikes were really just kitted trailbikes fitted with a few “factory” parts like a different exhaust. Notable as the first proper production motocrosser, it was available in Australia as early as 1971 for $975. If you don’t we’ll happily discuss it with any of you over a beer and a campfire somewhere, sometime. So what bikes do we find the most memorable? Read on and see if you agree. Early models featured standard piston-port induction but, in 1972, the DT2 added a reed valve to control the inlet charge. In 1968 $580 bought you a DT1 and for that you got an air-cooled 250cc two-stroke that sported “Autolube” oil injection, a nine-litre tank, 900mm seat height, a 1360mm wheelbase rolling on 19- and 18-inch wheels and tipped the scales at a svelte 105kg. Honda put the world on two wheels with its “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” advertising but it was Yamaha that introduced those people to the joys of a bike that could be ridden to work through the week and bush bashed on weekends. In fact it was the first trailbike out of Japan and partly responsible for the dirtbike boom that followed. It all started with the 1968 Yamaha DT1 Enduro 250 and, despite that word “Enduro” in the name, the DT1 was firmly in the trailbike mould. Most dirtbikes available in the 1960s had been expensive, not widely available and/or not very reliable. Purpose-built dirtbikes were becoming easier to get as the Japanese factories fired up. One direction everyone agreed on was weight reduction and, in the 1970s, the two-strokes were taking over from the bulky thumpers that had dominated in the 1950s and ’60s. The 1961 defection to Suzuki of MZ factory road racer Ernst Degners, taking the technology developed by Walter Kaaden that became the expansion chamber, was a big help in making two-strokes competitive. The result was that, by the ’80s, the shotgun had been replaced with a rifle and all the factories were much more focused and heading in a common direction with model development. This wide-ranging “shotgun” approach to development did help, as workable ideas were developed and bad ones scrapped. Some worked and some didn’t, some lasted and some disappeared and, looking back, that was probably the best thing about some of the ideas … they disappeared. Nobody knew for sure what would or wouldn’t work and many ideas were tried by both the factories and aftermarket accessory manufacturers.

We’ll start with the ’70s because that’s when the magazine started and also because it was a time of great change and experimentation. The good and the bad, the bikes we dreamed of but never had, the bikes we had and wished we still did (or still regret buying), the bikes that brought a major advance in development or maybe just the bikes that impressed us enough in their heyday that we can still clearly remember them in our dotage. Well we here at 45-year-old ADB decided that, after nearly 500 issues, we were in pole position to look back at some memorable bikes. More than one campfire conversation has been preceded by “well I can remember when …” before a bout of reminiscing among older riders.

Style motocross bikes for sale