The era of gas tanks made from metal, drum brakes and dual shock absorbers continues to live on.
Vintage MX Alberta, a collection of classic dirt bike enthusiasts who continue to regularly meet and race, brought their classic rides to the area last month.
Club president and Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee Steen Hansen has been at the helm of the club for a year now, although the club itself has been around for longer.
The 78-year-old Hansen, who rides a 1968 BSA, said he became involved because he wanted to help grow vintage motocross racing north of the border.
“I’ve raced a lot of vintage bikes in the United States for many years. It’s very big in there, they have a pre-1965 class, which we really don’t have here,” he said. “We’re trying to, but some of the bikes we have in the GP really don’t belong. They’re too modern.”
For Vintage MX Alberta their threshold to be considered vintage is any bike manufactured before 1990. Despite their loose regulations for vintage classification, a number of members do ride some truly classic bikes from the 1950s and 1960s.
Hansen said the club, which has 50 members from all across the province, tries to have at least six racing events per season. Their most recent race was on May 31 at Barry’s Ultra Motorsports Park (BUMP) in the Busby area, where 32 riders competed.
James Turner brought his classic 1974 rides all the way from Drumheller to participate in the race at BUMP.
“I have a couple ‘franken-bikes’ —they’re built from a whole bunch of different spare parts,” he said. “I’ve been riding and working on old bikes for 35 years. It’s kind of my niche.”
Turner said it’s the nostalgia he likes about the old motocross bikes.
“It’s the stuff I grew up riding and working on. It’s near and dear to my heart,” he said. “My dad would bring home wrecks and put them together. He was a mechanic.
“It’s punishing, it pounds the crap out of your body, but it’s fun.”
Hansen, like Turner, said most members of the group enjoy the process of building and fixing up the old bikes.
“What attracts most people to the old bikes is making it so they run good and look good,” Hansen said.
“People love it, they love the old bikes. Sometimes you see people buy an old piece of scrap and the next time you see them they’ve fixed it all up and changed this and changed that. And there’s a history behind it.”
Calgary resident Jason Christensen also made it up to Busby to race his restored 1965 Jawa 500.
“It’s a different experience,” Christensen said of the classic-bike experience. “I guess having gotten injured on the newer ones, there’s not as much danger with the old bikes.”
Christensen frequents the Edmonton area to ride his vintage Jawa, as well as his 1970 Husqvarna 400 as he says most of the tracks are located in and around the city.
Hansen said the riders have become a close-knit group of people dedicated to fixing and racing old bikes.
“It’s a fun club, and very friendly. It’s really a nice bunch of people.” Hansen said.
“Some people don’t understand how much work it is to fix the bikes, the old bikes, not the modern bikes because they’re all the same, just different colours.
“But building old bikes and building them from scratch, that takes time and money.”
The May 31 event was the group’s first at BUMP. Hansen said he was impressed with the facility and is hopeful to schedule a full weekend event there next summer.
Next up for the classic racers is a two-day event on June 27-28 at Wildrose-Blackfoot Park in Calgary.
Hansen said he’d like to see more vintage motocross enthusiasts and riders join the club and increase membership to over 80 riders.
More information on the club can be found be visiting its website, vmxalberta.ca.
