Your Collection: Dad's Collection

March 31, 2009 9:48am

This week's collection comes from Paul and Curtis of Portland, OR. Have something cool to share? Submit a piece from your collection and be entered to win a free Racer X t-shirt. You will be notified via e-mail if you are the winner! Please include your shirt size.

I recently got back from a brief trip to my dad's house. Now, he's been dabbling in MX bikes for the last 40 years or so, and in about the last decade has really managed to get his collection out of the "bike that works" range and into the "I've got so many I'll never ride them all" range. I count ten bikes in his garage, the oldest being from 1970 (I think?) and the newest one being from 1986. There are too many to put in one picture, so I have two.

In the first picture, the purple-tanked one in the foreground is a 1977 Husqvarna 360 that he's made street legal (or, mostly legal.) Beyond that is a 1986 Maico 500, that's his only water-cooled bike, by the way. Behind that is a 1977 Maico 250 with lots of Wheelsmith goodies (pipe, porting, etc.) After that is a 1978 Maico 440, of which only a hundred were ever made. Behind that are two very similar looking bikes. The left one is a 1981 Maico 250, the first Maico with a reed valve, and decked out with an excellent chrome pipe. On the right is an example of the legendary 1981 Maico 490, which has only been ridden three times.

In the second picture, the handlebars in the foreground belong to a Harley-Davidson, though I'm not sure the year or model (sorry Dad!) The furthest one out is the bike I spent five years being ridden about on, a 1979 Husqvarna 390CR. One step closer, we see a Kawasaki 350 "Big Horn," which is fully street legal and takes bumps like a Cadillac. Closer still is a Kawasaki 250 "Green Streak" which is a bike he's wanted since the early '70s, but only got maybe five or six years ago. Actually, except for the '77 Maico, and '79 Husky, all of these bikes were bought in the last ten years or so. On the far left you can see my dad himself, with the front wheel of a little old Yamaha 100 poking out from behind.

And yes, they all run.

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