October 1971 - From The Saddle
October 1971 - Volume 1, Issue 5
GETTING THE RIGHT BIKE
By Rick Sieman/October 1971/Dirt Bike
Mail-opening time at the magazine office is also a time to sit back and take a coffee break. Most of the letters are from fellow riders and enthusiasts, and range from tech questions to “nice job, you guys” letters, to the following:
Dear sirs,
My name is Conrad Kerr and I'am 15 years old. I consider myself a good rider and I'm interested in enduros and maybe even motocross. I would like and greatly appreciate your advice on what brand of bike to buy. If you would please give me your opinion, I would appreciate it.
Sincerely yours,
Conrad Kerr
Here is a young man about to buy a new bike; he genuinely wants to know what would be the best machine for him to ride. In one short letter, he has asked the toughest question in the motorcycling world.
At the risk of sounding like I'm hedging, all I can say is - if it feels good, do it. I've seen excellent riders get on one of the new super dirt bikes and ride like a drunken land crab. Put this same rider back on his own personal mount, and his riding flows.
Most of the top-flight European machines are far too quick and responsive for an inexperienced rider. He could probably ride much faster on a milder machine. Case in point:
When I first started getting interested in dirt riding in a serious way, the Bultaco Metisse was the hot set-up to have if you really wanted to go fast.
Naturally, I had to have one. I didn't have a whole lot of experience in dirt riding, just the normal couple of years cow-trailing.
All of the local hotshoes at the bike shop assured me that the Bul was indeed the machine to have if I was really serious. What I didn't take into consideration was that they were good riders and I wasn't.
My first ride on the Bul was less than encouraging. The bike had absolutely no low end at all, but when it came on (around 6,500 rpm), all hell broke loose. It had the TT engine and put out a claimed 36 horsepower.
That first day produced about 20 hard falls and three loops over backwards. The power would either come on like gangbusters, or the engine would blubber and die.
A rapid trip back to the dealer got this reply: “You've gotta keep the rpm up. That bike is an all-out racer—you've got to ride like a racer. If you ain't fast, why'd you buy it in the first place? You shoulda got a Matador, instead.”
This did little to help the old ego, so I got very determined to learn how to ride the Bul the right way. Three months later, I had a collection of cuts and bruises that would have killed a herd of water buffaloes, but I still wasn't going any faster.
In the process, I'd spent a small fortune keeping the bike running - yet my riding partners were getting faster than I was, except for that occasional straightaway. Man, that bike would really smoke them in the straightaways. Except for the fact that most straightaways usually have corners at the end, I would have been world champion.
Finally, after eight months, reality: I sold the Bul and got something a little milder, a dual-purpose bike. Call it a trail bike, if you will.
Almost immediately, I started going faster with much more confidence. Corners that used to make my eyes big and round were no longer frightening.
The new, slower bike was much more predictable. The power came on gradually, rather than in one big heart-stopping rush. It didn't handle as well as the Bul, but I learned to live with it - literally.
After having crashed almost every day for eight months, I sure found it nice to go out and ride - and come home in one piece.
There's an old saying: Success breeds success, failure breeds failure. On the Bul, I spent half of my time skidding along on my back, and the other half looking for parts of my anatomy. On the new bike, I actually got some riding in and improved.
Pretty soon, I had caught up with my riding partners and was giving them a run for their money. Riding was fun again, and that's what riding should be.
The point of this is simply that Conrad Kerr and anybody else who is considering a fire breather for a bike, should do some serious thinking and self-evaluation. Don't go out and buy a machine just because you see someone going double quick on it. Right now, I ride a 400cc motocrosser, and I still fall down a lot. I guess we never really learn.
When it gets right down to a specific recommendation, I'll have to be a bit evasive. However, the choice can be narrowed down greatly. An excellent choice for an all-round mount would be a 250cc dual-purpose machine. The Spanish and European mounts have the edge in handling, but the Japanese machines are less expensive to buy and maintain and, in general, have better dealer networks.
Another good rule of thumb: the lighter the machine, the better. If you plan to include racing, buy a machine that has bolt-on speed kits, or that can be modified for a reasonable amount of money.
When you get right down to machine choice, the single best way is to ride as many different ones as possible. When you get that certain “right” feeling on a machine, buy it.
- Rick 