As I mentioned yesterday, perhaps the best part after a day out riding, is kicking back either on the porch or around the camp fire and sharing stories.
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Obviously because of our age, we have a ton of these to share, mostly good, funny, but sometimes of a serious nature. So today we look back at our early Yamaha days, and the very first TY Trials model. – Of course it was our late friend Harlow, who disclosed how my first ride on the Pre-Production TY 250, at the Yamaha Canada plant in Richmond, resulted in me flipping it over backwards, luckily behind the main building and out of sight of the race dept. – In fact Harlow posted this for everybody to see and hear at the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame – – and now he’s gone I can show you this because I told him at the time “Don’t Go telling everybody about that” – I should also mention, that while the story you are about to read below, is all true. Please remember that I’m just a very, very, small spoke in a very large wheel. ( certainly nothing special)
Here is the print out from that Program. – For those interested in a bit of Outlaw History. ( words by Harlow Rankin and Edited by the Hall of Fame)
Fortunately, my early experiences with my new Yamaha TY 250 demo that followed, were a lot more positive, with a win first time out in Alberta and more later – However things did not end well for this model, as we had a very big high speed crash at the first ever Elkford BC Cross Country race, which I was leading at the time. – This resulted in a concussion and cracked ribs etc – but was worse for the bike as this was just about totaled ( my phone call to the Parts manager for what we needed was priceless) – That was also the last time I ever raced a Trials bike in a Cross Country Race.
Next up we had the new TY 175, ( No pics) – which we used a lot – in fact this was the bike we used to set up that very first Canadian World Championship Trial in Alberta 1975.
Below on the TY Mono seen at Bear creek.
In later years, after a few spent racing Cross Country on the Yamaha IT series – we had one of the new TY mono 350cc – ( not as good as the 250) – and after that the god awful TYZ, which was the end for us with new Yams. – BUT we did pick up a much modified TY 175 for the new Vintage class, and we did OK on that.
After that it was “Wham -Bam- Thankyou-Yam!!!!!!
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So the bottom line is this – I was already 32 years old when I rode my first Trial in Canada, so already a bit “Over the hill” – and had not been on a Competition bike for 12 years. In the UK I was just a reasonable Club rider !
And NOW you know “The rest of the story”
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Answer to the last quiz – Yes Jordi on the Beta – an easy one for most of our bloggers.
Quiz today – guess who on what?
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A great shot of Jon English on a “Proper” Trials section in Scotland
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And finally Birthday Greetings to Bobby Todosychuk who has now been around the sun 71 times – Have a great day Bob.
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