Legendary bikes...

[NordieBoy]

1979 XR250z.
The first of the XR's.

[Fryin Finn]

I've got the piston from the first XR250 and one from my WR 450 and KLX 450 - but never changed any pistons in my strokers.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Ok, If you had to start up a Dirt Bike museum, what Bikes would you have in it...real Bikes that have made an impression and may be worth hanging on to in the future ? I'm gonna start with the CR250, Yam TT600, XR600 ....mmmm how about the XL250, trail Bikes are included too. CR500 , YZ490 ?

How big of a museum are you going to start... are you going to inclue dual purpose of just MX...

Museum would have them all....

[Armitage Shanks]

Both mate....problem is we talk about these bikes but...do we have them to drape the corridors ?

[oldskool]

Yep, I've owned the TT500, XR500R, XR250R, PE175C, and the PE175X, they are all legends, I've never had anything but legends and I currently ride the XR200R. Another legend. Don't see any reason to change. All these current bikes haven't got anything legendary on them, just newer and poofier, else the basics are the same. If something groundbreaking gets released well that's another legend in the making then.

[Pedrostt500]

Ok here are my choices,
BSA Cub
40s Army Indian,
Cotton Trail
Suzuki TS 250 early 70s
Yamaha DT 250 early 70s
Honda XL 250 sport
kawasaki KT 250,
Suzuki sp 370
one of the italian built Harley Davidson Trail bikes,
Suzuki TM 400
" PE 400, 250, 175
" DR 400 T and an S
um where do we stop.
Check out http//:www.vmx.livewire.gen.nz
Plenty of cool pics of old trail and MX bikes.

[noobi]

the new husaberg FE450 and 570 and groundbreaking with the slanted engine, i dont know about legendary tho

[idleidolidyll]

Ducati Cucciolo in a BSA frame; the beginning of a legend

[idleidolidyll]

the new husaberg FE450 and 570 and groundbreaking with the slanted engine, i dont know about legendary tho

yeah, pretty aint they?

i got impatient and bought the 690smc

maybe next year

[oldskool]

Ok here are my choices,
BSA Cub
40s Army Indian,
Cotton Trail
Suzuki TS 250 early 70s
Yamaha DT 250 early 70s
Honda XL 250 sport
kawasaki KT 250,
Suzuki sp 370
one of the italian built Harley Davidson Trail bikes,
Suzuki TM 400
" PE 400, 250, 175
" DR 400 T and an S
um where do we stop.

Sounds like a wish list rather than speaking from personal experience. BTW the DR's sucked in that era, they handled like dogs and always came out second best to the XR's. The Kwaka KT 250 was an unreliable dog as well, always bogging down before hitting the powerband, um er what powerband?. The Yammy DT250 wasn't even in the running as a worthy legend. Scramblers only really started as a sport in the early 70's so don't know why the post war horses are even in the list.

[motorbyclist]

Both mate....problem is we talk about these bikes but...do we have them to drape the corridors ?

as long as there's a hilly paddock out the back for "comparison rides"

[NordieBoy]

as long as there's a hilly paddock out the back for "comparison rides"

[spookytooth]

the scrariest bike i ever had pull my arms out of there sockets was a Yz 490. Bloody thing had a on-off switch not a throtel

[Pedrostt500]

Sounds like a wish list rather than speaking from personal experience. BTW the DR's sucked in that era, they handled like dogs and always came out second best to the XR's. The Kwaka KT 250 was an unreliable dog as well, always bogging down before hitting the powerband, um er what powerband?. The Yammy DT250 wasn't even in the running as a worthy legend. Scramblers only really started as a sport in the early 70's so don't know why the post war horses are even in the list.

Go back and read the original question, Scramblers with long reach suspension only started around 1973, even what was considered as long reach suspension of the mid 70s to the mid 80s is quiet short by todays standards.
The army Indians of the WW2 era were where alot of the off road racers of the late 40s and early 50s learned their craft, so they are relivant to the story of modern off road riding, yep the Suzuki DR 400 of the late 70s early 80s was a dog in comparison to the honda XL and XR and Yamaha TT and XT of the era, but they along with the SP 370 were Suzukis step into the 4 stroke of road bikes and the DR initial has been around for the last 30 yrs, the Yamaha DT kicked of the IT series and also the YZ, if memory serves me there was also an MX Yamaha scrambler, of the early 70s, even the Mighty old mountain Goat built by motor holdings in wanganui is worth a mention not that it started any great MX breed but because it was the start of the modern farm bikes.
its offten that the first of a particular range was abit of a dog of a bike, but it is the evolution that the bike takes to become the Grey hound of today.
there probably is a book in the Evolution of the off road bike, but you would realy have to start around WW1 to tell the full story.

[pete376403]

Yamaha DT1 250 is widely accepted as the first practical street/trail bike. (With emphasis on practical)