The classic bad ass motorcycle racer thread

Ago!!! :thumbup



Giacomo Agostini.

Nicknamed Ago, with an absolute record of 122 Grand Prix wins and 15 World Championships titles. Of these, 68 wins and 8 titles came in the 500cc class, the rest in the 350cc class.

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Agostini dropped a bombshell on the Grand Prix world when he announced he would never again race at the Isle of Man TT, after the death of his close friend, Gilberto Parlotti during the 1972 TT. He considered the 37 mile circuit unsafe for world championship competition. At the time, the TT was the most prestigious race on the motorcycling calendar. Other top riders joined his boycott of the event and by 1977, the event was struck from the Grand Prix schedule.

Agostini surprised the racing world when he announced that he would leave MV Agusta to ride for Yamaha in 1974 season. On his first outing for the Japanese factory, he won the prestigious Daytona 200, the premiere American motorcycle race. He went on to claim the 1974 350cc World Championship but injuries and mechanical problems kept him from winning the 500cc crown. He rebounded and won the 1975 500cc title, marking the first time a two-stroke machine won the premier class.

The 1975 championship would also be the last world title for the 33-year-old Italian. In 1976, he rode both Yamaha and MV bikes in the 500cc class, yet raced only once in the 350cc to win in Assen. For the challenging Nürburgring, he chose the 500cc MV Agusta and took it to victory, winning the last Grand Prix for both himself, the marque and the last for four-stroke engines in the 500cc class.

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AMA HOF

Met him in 2008 at the LOTM in HMB.
Nice guy.

Wes Cooley

m0t0_ryder said:

Ago!!! :thumbup

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... how cool to meet Mr Agostini! :thumbup
... my novice leathers were a set of
Dainese model Agostini with a label that listed his
world championships ... :laughing





... always love seeing Wes’s Yoshimura Z1 ...
god bless Kawasaki! :gsxrgrl

No longer was it en vogue to ride with a smooth, European style. Cooley came in with rear tire smoking and front wheel in the air, forcing his will upon bikes that weren't made for the racetrack. He changed the face of the new Superbike class. Cooley won two AMA Superbike Championships in 1979 and 1980. He gave Suzuki its first AMA Superbike title in 1979.

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Mr Cooley’s fun AMA HoF:
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=315

... turn one at Sears Point ... :nchantr




... Reg Pridmore, Mike Baldwin, Paul Ritter, Eric Buell and Ron Pierce
at Loudon in 1977 ... Kawasaki, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Ducati and Suzuki ...

Paul Ritter’s fun blog has a bunch of AFM history posts:
https://paulritterblog.wordpress.com





... the California Hot Rod ...



Paul Ritter and Cook Neilson

Paul Ritter's autobiography tells the story of the early days of Superbike racing. Ritter raced a Ducati 750SS and 900SS during the formative days of American Superbike racing.

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I might have asked this before and I'm not sure if it was answered. Who did that helmet design originate with, Spencer or Baldwin?

Jeff Ward kicked ass on everything he touched. Rode that long minibike wheelie in On Any Sunday when he 10 years old. Won AMA MX championships in the 125, 250 and 500cc (first to win all three classes) in addition to Supercross championships. Raced in the original Superbikers as a teenager against against a Who's Who of motorcycle racing. Damn near won the Indy 500 and had three top four finishes at The Brickyard. Returned to motorcycles to win two AMA Supermoto championships and an X-Games Supermoto championship.

Blankpage said:

I might have asked this before and I'm not sure if it was answered. Who did that helmet design originate with, Spencer or Baldwin?

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I actually think it was a US Team Honda standard at the time. I remember in the early 80's all the riders having the same leathers and the same helmet schemes.

Unrelated, I was in Zug, Switzerland, in 2002, and I went into a Honda dealership. In the back of the shop they had one of Mike Baldwin's RS 2 stroke race bikes. I tried to ask how they wound up with it, but they just said it was the owner's.

Johndicezx9 said:

Unrelated, I was in Zug, Switzerland, in 2002,
and I went into a Honda dealership.
In the back of the shop they had one of Mike Baldwin's RS 2 stroke race bikes.
I tried to ask how they wound up with it, but they just said it was the owner's.

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... you never know what a dealer may have on display ... :thumbup
we went into Red Rock Harley-Davidson in Vegas to
kill some time and they turned out to have an awesome
collection of old race bikes ... :ride



According to Mike at RRHD the four cylinder two-stroke in front is
Randy Mamola’s 1980 XR34 M2. Randy came in second
overall in the 1980 500GP World Championship behind Kenny Roberts on this
bike ….

... the four cylinder four-stroke behind it is Grahame Crosby’s
1980 XR69 factory bike that won the 1980 Formula One World Championship.
Mr. Crosby won the IoM Senior TT in 1980 and the Daytona 200 in 1982
and won The Suzuka 8 Hour with Wes Cooley in ‘80.

Mike told me they have full documentation
for these factory race bikes ...



Barry Sheene’s 1976 Suzuki XR11 factory race bike …



The Yamaha race bike displayed Steve Baker‘s number #32 … Steve Baker
won the Daytona 200 in 1977 on a factory Yamaha OW31,
and won the 1977 Formula 750 World Championship,
becoming the first person from the USA to do so.
He was second to Barry Sheene in the 500cc Grand Prix class that year.









Steve Baker’s roadracing career was cut short by a
series of serious broken-bone injuries to his legs …

I best remember him for his appearance in the wonderful movie
“Take it to the Limit” which documented his appearance and dominance
at the famous “Match Races” that took place in the late 1970s …
he won the Loudon National in ‘76 and was injured at Mosport in ‘77 ...

Wardy is no doubt an all time great. What a great Motorsports Career! :thumbup

Watching him come back in his 40's and rock the Sumo racing was inspiring to this OG.

69

The Kentucky Kid was pretty bad ass too. Probably my favorite American racer of the modern era.

Classic Hayden at Sears Point in '01

youtu.be/g_sxjNbP2Bg

Laguna win... Edwards second. Awesome stuff.


youtu.be/meosKxgJhVA

The day Nicky took the Championship in '06

youtu.be/qwk0I6jsDz0

Wow, cool stuff at that dealership....

I remember an article about this collector having some pretty cool history.

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/40-years-superbike-racing-retro-man



The article includes a pretty cool shot from Riverside 1981...


(A lot of classic bad ass in this shot; Pietri, Lawson, Baldwin, Cooley, Rainey....)

Looks like Spencer and Velasco had a pretty hot time...

Johndicezx9 said:

I remember an article about this collector having some pretty cool history.

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/40-years-superbike-racing-retro-man

The article includes a pretty cool shot from Riverside 1981...

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... thanks for the link, what a collection! :thumbup
... the Riverside and Road Atlanta pics are fantastic ...

... was not too familiar with the Honda in the middle of
the front row ... total rabbit-hole, what exquisite
race bikes those endurance machines were ... arty



... the 1980 Wes Cooley/Graeme Crosby
Suzuka-winning GS-based endurance racebike ... :ride

... I’ve been reading Paul Ritter’s blog posts
about the history of the AFM and enjoying
what he has to say about the roll that
people who had been AFM Presidents and racers
played in AMA Superbike racing ... like
Steve McLaughlin ...



... god bless the AFM ... :laughing

SFMCjohn said:

... was not too familiar with the Honda in the middle of
the front row ... total rabbit-hole, what exquisite
race bikes those endurance machines were ... arty

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One of the RCB Bol d'Or bikes from the late 70's/early 80's.

Mary McGee has been a huge inspiration for me - a gal out there doing it when it wasn't "cool" for women to be joining the boys - and she did it with style, grace, and giving them a run for their money :thumbup

Honey Badger said:

Mary McGee has been a huge inspiration for me - a gal out there doing it when it wasn't "cool" for women to be joining the boys - and she did it with style, grace, and giving them a run for their money :thumbup

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:thumbup Awesome!

Kork Ballington was pretty badass back in the late 70's, he captured consecutive double world championships for Kawi...

Honey Badger said:

Mary McGee has been a huge inspiration for me - a gal out there doing it when it wasn't "cool" for women to be joining the boys - and she did it with style, grace, and giving them a run for their money :thumbup

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Johndicezx9 said:

:thumbup Awesome!

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+1! :ride



Mary McGee in 1975 in the Baja 500, solo ... arty


"not cool," indeed ...

A female road racer in the United States was a new phenomenon. McGee was already known to be an expert car racer, but the American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM) wanted to be sure she could also perform on two wheels, so they told her she’d first have to attend a try-out.

She passed the audition and became the first woman to road race and hold a FIM license in the United States – on a 125 Honda CB92 wearing her pink polka-dot helmet. She raced motorcycles from 1960 to 1963. Wes Cooley Sr. was President of AFM during this time. In 1962 Mary had earned enough points in all classes to run the #20 AFM number plate on her bike in 1963. Mary stopped road racing motorcycles in the fall of 1963 when there were coming rule changes for women even though at that point she was the only woman racing; however, these rules did not end up going into effect.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McGee

https://www.motorcyclemojo.com/2013/04/mcgee/

firstbuell said:

some of us OGs here remember his elegant riding,
the boxing shoe 'racing boots', & the
arcing 2-wheel slides round Laguna Seca on the low-RPM flathead KR750

Cal dragged that worn out, obsolete weapon
across the pond (with zero H-D support)
to UK circuits he'd never seen & waxed everybody, repeatedly

his sad & completely unnecessary
demise at a shabby NZ track on a
POS Suzuki was a crushing blow to the sport & all who admired him

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hey Curt,

... would have been awesome to
see Cal Rayborn II race the XRTT ...

... think he was 33 years old at the time ... :nchantr

Flying Fred Merkel

AMA Hall of Fame profile.

AMA Champ, the first World Superbike x 2 and a promoters dream in terms of his good looks and speaking prowess.

I remember one photo that I loved. He was leaned way over in a turn and you could see a "Lunatic Fringe" sticker on the tail of his bike. Great song BTW.


youtu.be/WLGMrJqgJT0

Mick Grant was another of those 70s/80's Brits that was tough as nails...