Your Collection: DeCoster Memorabilia
Sunday, May 13, 2012 | 6:00 AM
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PrintThis weeks collection comes to us from Mike Barker.
This autographed CZ brochure, circa 1966 or '67, features a great shot of a very young Roger DeCoster. I think I got it at Milne Bros. in Pasadena CA, when we would ride our bicycles to all the local dealers and grab any literature we could. I tracked Roger down at the Budds Creek USGP in 1999 and had him sign it. Even "The Man" was impressed with the then 30-plus year old brochure. Old Schoolers enjoy!
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CZmark is gonna love this,.. I have a Roger DeCoster autographed suzuki jersey, The jersey was not worn by roger, but his autograph is on it. sealed in a bag.
You are right on that one joemoto. CZmark will like this for sure. I have a Team Green kawy hat that Jeff Ward, Billy Liles and Kent Howerton autographed for me. I wasn't as wise as you were. I thought it was cool and wore it for a long time. Now the writing has faded considerably. Wish I would have sealed it in a bag too. I have all of the tickets and wristbands from all the Spring Creek nationals. I was looking at the 1983 ticket yesterday. It's made out of stiff paper and has a piece of wire to attach it to your clothes. That year, at Spring Creek anyway, most of the riders were protesting the AMA I'm pretty sure it was, and didn't show. Billy Grossi won the event, as I recall, and the only other rider I can even remember was Tommy Benolkin. But I still remember how much faster these guys were compared to anyone we had seen ride there before. The next year everything was fixed and the real Spring Creek rounds became the awesome events they are today.
that's cool! my dad was a Suzuki dealer in the 70's and 80's, he has a picture of himself with Roger, shaking hands in front of a '76 RM125 at a dealer show, I'll have to find it, the hair and clothes are classic. we had a video machine and only had a few tapes for it, one showed a special on Roger's career, on Suzuki anyways, we watched it over and over. the most memorable thing to me(as a young kid) was a slow motion crash on a mid 70's RM with like 2" of travel, it had bionic man sound effects(during the crash) anyone remember that?
86 was my first year to visit Spring Creek, went back in 87 and in 88 snuck into the picts to see Cooper after the race. Decoster posed with Guy, Jana my wife and I...it is now an 8x10 framed in my moto shed...guess I need to take it and have him sign it ....Roger is a class act ...just as Spring Creek is ...aahhh the great outdoors....
Decoster is a class act, moto owes him a big THANK YOU for all he has done. From being a world champion to managing championship teams to his work in the shop behind the scenes. Roger is MOTO thru and thru..he is the reason I became a Suzuki guy. In 1970 bought a TC 90 took the lights off and went straight to the pasture and made an mx track. After that ....first MX bike was a 74 TM 125..which I sold to get a 76 RM125A.. which I sold to get a RM 250C2 which I sold to get a 80 RM 400 ...which I sold to get a 82 RM125 Full Floater also had a 82 RM465 at the time ..next up couple Honda CR 250 (83-88) then moved to Kawasaki KX 250 (94 95 98) bac to Suzuki with a 01 RM 250 after a 03 Gas Gas 250MX I find my self back on an 08 RMZ 250 which I ride on the same track in the same pasture 42 years later...dang Decoster cost me alot of money ...but I have had more fun ...
@BD25 My first real bike (not minibike) was a TC Suzuki 90 also. I was 9 years old and rode it in second gear for a year until my feet could reach the pegs. My neighbor had a yellow one and mine was orange. Remember how the blue paint would show through when the top coat would wear off. I remember taking the front fender off and putting a fork brace and a down pipe on it, also trimming the rotory valve. Those are my best childhood memories, the good ole days!
Suzuki sold alot of the 90's..they made a TS 90 Honcho that was a 5 speed tranny and a low front fender, my buddy had a orange one ..the TC 90 had a 4 speed hi low transmission and a up mounted front fender...mine was green...before I got the TM I wanted a TS 185 Sierra or TS 250 Savage but I got the TS125 Duster....they had such cool nick names ...lol
Hey yellowrider207, I think I may remember the tape you are talking about. Was the race Roger crashed in a rainy, mudder and cold? He crashed after landing from a jump, got racked up a bit and quite wet. They had camera and audio on him in the pits afterwards a bit, ect. I remember the slow-mo of him crashing. We watched on a video machine at Newark Suzuki Center in Newark Ohio in the mid 70's on the show room floor. It was awe inspiring because we rarely saw pro races in person or on TV. We just got to read about in magazines. Back when you'd finally get to go to a pro race, then had to wait 2-3 months to read about it in your favorite magizine! Wow, those were the days.
@BD25 your right, I had the TS and I remember the TC 4hi 4 low.
First Suzuki shop I went in was in Concordia, Ks June of 1970 at 12 yrs old. I saw the 50 Guancho...had a cool low pipe like the mx bikes ..lol ..that was it for me I was hooked...read motorcycle mags and saved my money that summer. In August for my 13th birthday, my Gramps purchased me that TC 90 for $400....
Love it. I raced a '72 CZ 400 in '73-'74, and as my dad said, it had 'soul'. Love Roger too. I saw him race at the Houston Trans-Am in 1971 and (I think) again in 1972. THE MAN!
@yellowrider207 I saw that video at my local suzuki dealer in Bakersfield , Ca. in the mid 70's. We would watch it over and over. I was 14 or 15. I was lucky enough to see DeCoster race 5 times. 78, 79 & 80 at the USGP in Carlsbad, and 77 & 78 at the Sears Point Trans- AMA, (Sonoma, Ca.). Ah the good old days! At sears point 77 he crashed in practice right in front of us. Back then you could stand right at the side of the track.
TS/TC 90.... they made a 100cc "race kit" for them. I remember helping a buddy put one on. I think it included a low pipe. Made a LOT more noise& a little more power. Made a very decent dirt-tracker/scrambles bike, but we were starting to go MX and...... well, no. Hodaka had the Super Rat out by then & there was no way.