Falling in – and out of love with motocross

In this Readers’ Tales piece from Old Bike Mart, Dave Massey recounts his experiences in scrambles and motocross, from riding a CZ380 and Montesas in North Wales to later Honda CR models in East Anglia. He describes the tracks he rode, the machines he used, and why his enthusiasm for the sport ultimately declined.

Early Years in North Wales

As a young man living in Conwy, North Wales (I am now 71) I joined the Conwy and District Motorcycle Club and ended up being the Secretary for five years or so, helping to organise the Dragon Rally for my sins.

The club also ran a ‘scramble’ event once a year (now, of course, motocross), and after some time I decided that this was worth pursuing.

I started to work in a motorcycle shop in Colwyn Bay, which was run by a family, and bought a CZ380 from one of the sons who had given up the sport after badly breaking his leg using this machine in a scramble.

I spent a long time rebuilding this bike and laying down the rear spring/damper units for more travel, which was a common thing to do at the time. It did prove very difficult to start, however, even with its twin plug head, and I would often result in cadging a push start from other competitors in the paddock. I used this machine for my first season and became hooked on the sport.

Montesa Years

I then swapped the CZ for a 250 Montesa which was also previously used by one of the sons. As it turned out, this machine was the best of all the bikes I ran, as it was light, powerful enough, not too tall and was easy to start.

However, I then upgraded to a 360 Montesa, which was obviously more powerful, on the basis that if the course or conditions were particularly challenging, more power could get you more easily out of trouble. However the bike was considerably taller which was something of a disadvantage for someone of small stature like myself.

Tracks and Conditions

There were several tracks in North Wales and the one I used most was in Nantwich. There were others in Denbigh, on the Wirral (which was run on clay land and was a nightmare in wet conditions) and one in Pott Shrigly. This last one had one incredibly steep hill and would be run in either direction for a particular meeting. Riding up the hill was difficult enough in wet conditions, but riding down it in such weather was the stuff of nightmares, with the potential for ending up in a heap at the bottom at the foremost in my mind.

One very muddy meeting at Nantwich, I was really struggling just to keep going, using my philosophy of avoiding wheelspin to maintain grip, when a (non-competing) friend called me over and told me that I needed to spin the rear wheel in a low gear to centrifuge mud off the tyre, and also to provide a valuable gyroscopic stability. So obvious with hindsight, but what valuable advice!

One of my motocross mates then gained some sponsorship from a motorcycle shop in Rhyl, but it appeared to me that he then stopped enjoying the sport, as if he failed to get good results he would lose his sponsorship. To me, who would never win a race, it was all about enjoying the challenge and just riding as well as you could, observing the changing conditions of the course as the race went on.

Move to East Anglia and Karting

At this point my life took a whole new direction as I left North Wales and moved to East Anglia to become the Technical Author for Lotus Cars. I then became interested in karting (210 National class using Villiers engine and 4-speed transmission), but that is a whole different story.

Return to Motocross and Honda CR Models

After some time I decided to resume my enjoyment of motocross and bought an Honda CR480 air-cooled bike, then an air cooled CR500 and finally a CR500 water-cooled bike with shortened forks which had been used for sand racing. I sent the forks back to the folk who had shortened them for conversion back to motocross spec.

This machine was such a devil to start that I phoned the vendor for advice. He told me to open the fuel tap and lay the bike down for 30 seconds to flood the carburettor and then to give it one almighty kick. Well, that worked fine in the paddock, but after a fall in a wet meeting… This bike also had an alarming tendency to ‘run away’ on pre-ignition when hitting the stop button had no effect and the bike was running at full throttle! It was a case of turn off the fuel and head for a steep bank in high gear and try to stall the engine.

East Anglia Tracks and All-Track Era

The tracks I now used included Lyng, Marks Tey and Ramsden Heath. The Marks Tey track included a jump over a small river with a take-off ramp made from railway sleepers. This was simple enough, but if your engine failed on the ramp, then you and your bike would then end up in the river!

This was the start of all-track, introducing the USA-led concept of artificial ‘jumps’ which provided the more flamboyant riders an opportunity to show off in various manners all irrelevant to racing. More to the point, it introduced the possibility of serious injury to a rider falling, or, worse still, a fallen rider being landed on by another rider who could do nothing to avoid them having once taken off. A good friend and fellow competitor disappeared for a while, and when I questioned his absence later, he explained that he had landed on a fallen rider whose back was then broken, and it took some time to for my friend to come to terms with this.

The Final Incident

As this type of track became more and more popular, my enthusiasm for the sport began to decline. Ultimately it all came to a head at Lyng, which included a very long and steep downhill slope with an abrupt flat landing area. Most of the quick riders would ‘jump’ all the way down and rely on the remarkable suspension to absorb the landing impact. I was not that brave and tended to roll down the hill and, just before the bottom, give it some throttle to pick up the front wheel to avoid nose diving.

However, on one occasion this failed, and I went over the handlebars onto my back, only to see another bike about to land on me. I managed to dive out of the way just in time, but that could have been the end of everything, literally.

I had huge enjoyment over the years with motocross, but that was the end for me, and after that I only did enduros and some trials events.

Original article appeared in Old Bike Mart. To subscribe, click here: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/old-bike-mart