So I get a phone call a few weeks back, excuse me, not a phone call but communication of the modern age, a Facebook message. Anyway, the message is from my long time friend Rob Buydos. Rob does a bunch of work with Parts Unlimited and Drag Specialties but our friendship goes way back to the day. Well back in those days Rob was selling bikes for Youngstown Harley and I was expanding my little paper magazine across its first state line into Ohio. We became fast friends because of his love for bikes and more importantly to this story, his love of dirt motorcycles. As grown men we both followed supercross and the outdoor nationals but didn’t really compete anymore on any serious level, until Rob came up with the idea of big guys on little bikes. The Pit Bike craze was just starting to show up and with very little encouragement Rob managed to gather a dozen or so nut jobs who would happily snatch up their kids XR70s and PW50s for random outlaw racing. And bother, when I say outlaw, I mean so undercover in the beginning that we had to hold one race and split before the cops came. So here’s how it went down: we’d all agree on which neighborhood the race would be held in, usually one of the racers houses. There would be a three or four drink minimum before you could line up to race, and from there it was balls out, winner take all. Oh, it was a scene man, like you can’t even believe.
Fast forward like ten more years and the Pit Bike thing was off the charts. Before I knew it Rob’s little outlaw series was going on at halftime during the outdoor nationals with the likes of Guy Cooper and several of the top mechanics of the nationally sponsored racers. It was huge, there was no longer a four drink minimum, at least admitted to, and the fun of it all was welcomed but Moto nuts like you would expect it to be.
Now Rob has held these races everywhere, has a great following for it and every once in a while I will get a call to come and join in on the fun. Such was the case last week just before the annual Thunder On The Strip that happens in Geneva Ohio. Our good buddy Trevor Vines was doing freestyle and Rob mentioned he had a full sponsorship ready for me to come and race. Which is code for bring your gear and come and raise hell. Another buddy that helps out with the magazine, John Frew heard about this and had a Pit Bike shipped to him just in time to make the race and we headed to Geneva. It was a killer time as usual, about 30 bikes racing in all different classes and after the awards ceremony we all got to watch Trevor from wherever Vines do his aerial magic on a freestyle ramp out back of the Cove Bar. In the end I scored a neat little medal for second place in my class, in spite being scared off the hole shot by the girl who was racing in my motos…. But that’s another story. So for us here at Cycle Source…. And I think I speak for everyone, we dig motorbikes. You might see us at an AMA Outdoor National, Pit Bike race or just diggin the wind on choppers, but ever night is bike night around here!
Thunder On The Strip is a great event and if you haven’t been to this part of the country it’s a good excuse to make the trip. http://www.thunderonthestrip.com/
