bigbadwullf

From a few trips To Colorado:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40vXV...7&feature=plcp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_J02...6&feature=plcp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzqdx...9&feature=plcp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYOwA...8&feature=plcp

BR46

I love it.
I'm going to Ga. in April to ride with my son. Than my son and I are racing a GNCC race in Kentucky

bigbadwullf

Done quite a few GNCCs. They are great. Better yet is an ISDE Qualifier. Best.ride.ever!

qcpmsame 

Any of you guys ride an OMA race yet? I follow them as well as SoCal District 37 desert hare and hounds (Member and licensed Magnum class racer and a RUTS MC member.) I envy y'all with a trail system to ride. Our family's construction company is bidding on the state's first ORV facility for the Blackwater River ORMA. Hopefully the HS will return here. That will rate a new scoot for me and my son. We just sold our YZ's as he is leaving the country for 2 years on a mission assignment. New KTM's will be in order.

Bill

bigbadwullf

Believe it or not the first race I ever did was the infamous Blackwater 100. Dave Coomb's epic race. That was the year Super Hunky(from Dirt Bike magazine fame) made it to the ride. He rode a Maico 760(?). Bored out to the max. Had like 3 gears. What a great experience that was. Hardest race I ever did by far.
Never done a desert race but it sounds like fun. Always wanted to do a Baja race also. I've been in Ensenada at race weekend. Pretty cool sight. Ridden an mtb in Baja but that is stretch. Rode it on cement at an orphanage
Set up the trails for a few organized rides at Loretta Lynn's. Fun place to camp/ride.

big john

I remember reading about that. The big Maico was quite hard to start and Super Hunky (Rick) said it was God's way of saying we shouldn't ride 760cc 2 strokes.
I had a Maico 490 for a few years so I followed those stories. Is the Blackwater 100 a thing of the past?
I met Supe and Wolfman Webb at Indian Dunes one time. They were cool and teased me about my Husqvarna.

qcpmsame 

As an owner of a 73 Maico 400 Radial and former owner of an old 71 400 square barrel I second the starting of the 760. Rick told us that bike beat him to a pulp but had more torque than he ever had experienced. Rick signed my copy of Monkeybutt and i treasure it. I was glad to hear he os doing better after the stroke and cancer. ATK will still sell you a 720, 650 or 600 Maico/Zabel in their frame, custom built.

Our Blackwater, here, will never measure up to the original but at least we will have a trail system to ride for the first time in many years.

bigbadwullf

The Blackwater 100 died in the mid-late 80's? "Environmentalism", the cause. I'd love to have met up with Super Hunky. Have a picture of him walking down the street before the 100, his usual laughing self. What a great guy. He warned us about environmentalism a looooooooong time before it reared it's ugly "land closure" head.
He said that Maico had a Porsche piston in it. I can't imagine riding it in the BW 100. The number of times you get stuck and have to start your bike is amazing. If that thing didn't have a compression release, it killed him to have to kick that thing. I was tired from just kick starting a Suzuki PE 175.

ericm979

I'm pretty sure that Rick wrote that the 760 wasn't that hard to start. I liked how with their big bores Maico put the compression release in just the right spot so the bike would start with it open. It made starting them easy. My 440 was easier to start than my 250 which didn't have the release. Of course if you have to do it 50 times during the event even starting a 125 would get hard by the end of the day. Now if only they'd put as much thought into making a clutch that didn't need the strength of Sampson to pull in more than once.

I'm just about 180 degrees off his politics but I loved "Monkey Butt". The dude could write.

big john

My 490 had the compression release. Wouldn't want to start it without that.
Rick wrote some funny stuff. I liked the one where, in order to discredit a "tree hugger", he took a frog and painted it candy apple red and stuck Christmas tree tinsel in every orifice of it's body and put it where the "tree hugger" would find it and claim it was an endangered species.

Simple stories you could identify with, too. They were starving from riding all day and scraped their last few bucks together for a drive through and when they got the food he put the bag down in the van and accidentally knocked the fuel line off one of the bikes which drizzled gas all over their lunch. Two hours of driving with stomachs empty lay ahead.

qcpmsame 

The 760 Maico had a Mahle piston that was from a Porsche, we try to use them in the vintage Maicos since the Weisco pistons have too much heat growth and seize easily. The Mahle is forged, not cast. This is why Porsche loves them too. The 400, 440, 450, 490 and 501 all had a cylinder side wall compression release for starting. Just pull the release, find T.D.C., open the throttle and boot the scoot to life. Be sure you have tickled the Bing carburetor enough.

If you enjoy Rick's stories he is on line at his own site, he left OffRoad.com and he is writing some columns for Davey Coombs at RacerX.

Bill

bigbadwullf

Glad to see Racer X going Rick's column. I used to belong to a dirt bike discussion board but the owner didn't allow real discussion, especially if backed up by facts . Funny how that is happening all over. Rick is a great guy. Hope he is doing well.
Seems Rick has his own site: https://superhunky.com/index.php . Gonna waste a few hours reading. What legend this man is.