Naval Air Force Base, Virginia Beach, VA 1981
Photo by Art Law
This was during a race. The picture is not faded at the bottom. That's how dusty it was closer to the ground.
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I bought this bike brand new from an amateur hot shoe from western Wisconsin. I
will only refer to him as Jeff J. That may or may not be his real name, but in
all likelihood, it is. This bike had the radiator behind the front number plate,
the headlight look. For a 125, this bike was pretty reliable and very fast for its
time. After a year on an open bike, the 125 seemed like too much gear changing to me.
The light weight was nice, but not as big of a deal back then.
Some of the tracks in 1981 were getting more supercross obstacles, but most of the
tracks were pretty wide open with few, if any, supercross obstacles on them. The extra power of the 250
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and open bikes was often more of advantage than the
lighter weight of a 125, as evidenced by the fastest lap times usually being in the
250A class.
I got the bike back to Virginia in early January. There was this little sand track
just barely past the North Carolina border. We would ride there when are other main
practice track, Golden Eagles, was too muddy. I think it was mid-January when I went
down with the plan to ride Saturday, have a brown bag dinner, sleep in my van, ride
some more Sunday, and then go back to the ship. It got a little colder than what I
was expecting, into the 30s. I had slept in my van when it was in the 30s before.
As long as you were in the sleeping bag with the extra blanket, you were fine, but
the sleeping bag to getting dressed transition was pretty harsh.
Some people who lived near the track (I don't think they were the owners of it) came
out and asked me how I was doing and about the bike. They were a couple, maybe in
their 50s or 60s, and didn't have a problem with the noise of the bike, they were
just wondering who this guy was riding out in the cold. As it turned out, everyone
that I would normally go riding with all pupped out because of the cold (it was
almost 50 that day, the big babies) so I was riding alone. Eventually, I came to
realize that the couple thought I was slightly off in some way because I was out
riding a dirt bike, by myself ,and "in the cold". When I told them that I was
going to sleep in my van, that's when they had to move in for the intervention.
They insisted that I sleep at their house.
She made a big farm style dinner, I got to watch TV in their living room, and then
I slept in a comfortable bed in one of their spare bedrooms. They had never met me
before in their life, but they treated me like a family member. They had adult
children who had moved out, so I think they may have just appreciated the company,
even if he was some insane yankee who was going to sleep outside in the dead of
winter. But that's one of the things that I liked about living in that area.
Southern Hospitality is a real thing. It seemed like it was easier for me to make
friends there than it had been in Minnesota. I'm not sure if I was a novelty or if
people down there were always that friendly to strangers.
Later in the winter, I rode the bike a lot at a local track on naval airbase land
in Virginia Beach run by the Golden Eagles Motorcycle Club. (Editor's note - There
is and has been several motorcycle clubs named Golden Eagles, but this is the only
one that was in that area at that time). They would have outlaw races. I think they
just had the standard four classes, and about 40-60 riders total. It would get
really dusty at the races sometimes, like the times where nature hadn't watered
the track before the race. I got a few trophies there. The experts would be way in
front of me and the novices way behind me, so I usually was riding kind of by myself
and out of the dust.
I raced just a few times in the 125 Intermediate class at the district level and
didn't trophy. I was kind of mid pack. I really wanted to go back to a bigger bike.
Shortly after the district season started, I made "the trade".
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