Thought for the day

2strokesteve89

2strokesteve89

ossagp:
My senior year of college he came to a qualifier at Santa Maria. He was riding around the perimeter of the track with his son on a yamaha 80. those little ones that weighed a ton. fouled a plug right near me, one of our bunch walked over with a plug wrench and gave it to him. plug was sand 'whiskered'. i took over another and got a greeting i didnt expect: "you are a long ways from Coalinga, aren't you?" I told him I was a senior at Cal Poly and he reminded me that the last time he saw me he was borrowing a spark plug too. That was almost 3 years and I about choked. It really impressed my roommate who had taken the wrench over to him.

My hometown (coalinga calif) had some great riding and this one fairly long hill that was simply known by many in the valley and beyond as "motorcycle hill". we had one not to far from it called "Dodge hill" . the word from the 30's was that the first four wheeled rig up "dodge" was a Dodge made vehicle. The first vehicle up "motorcycle hill" was a two wheeled bike and likely an Indian. One of the best known motorcycle racers from the United States was a man called "Sprouts" Elder. Called Fresno home and frequented motorcycle hill way back. the area was a popular one for the likes of Lee Marvin and crew, and most anyone that wanted to see something north of the Mojave Desert.
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Ditto What Mike said......everything I've ever heard about the man has been good, RIP Harvey Mushman
 
Rolls

Rolls

ossagp:
My senior year of college he came to a qualifier at Santa Maria. He was riding around the perimeter of the track with his son on a yamaha 80. those little ones that weighed a ton. fouled a plug right near me, one of our bunch walked over with a plug wrench and gave it to him. plug was sand 'whiskered'. i took over another and got a greeting i didnt expect: "you are a long ways from Coalinga, aren't you?" I told him I was a senior at Cal Poly and he reminded me that the last time he saw me he was borrowing a spark plug too. That was almost 3 years and I about choked. It really impressed my roommate who had taken the wrench over to him.

My hometown (coalinga calif) had some great riding and this one fairly long hill that was simply known by many in the valley and beyond as "motorcycle hill". we had one not to far from it called "Dodge hill" . the word from the 30's was that the first four wheeled rig up "dodge" was a Dodge made vehicle. The first vehicle up "motorcycle hill" was a two wheeled bike and likely an Indian. One of the best known motorcycle racers from the United States was a man called "Sprouts" Elder. Called Fresno home and frequented motorcycle hill way back. the area was a popular one for the likes of Lee Marvin and crew, and most anyone that wanted to see something north of the Mojave Desert.
Click to expand...
Great story! A lesson in history. A quick search turned this up on Spouts Elder.
http://www.guskuhn.net/GKuhn/Contemp/Sprouts Elder.htm
A real pioneer.
 
O

ossagp

I was 6 when sprouts took himself to the other side. My freshman year in college I was on my way to a race and stopped in Fresno to drop a gift from my sister to a family friend (If you can believe it, a man called Papa Joe was just getting out of prison. Bookmaker.). Anyway, a girl there asked if I rode the race bikes and then told me about her grandfather. Sprouts Elder. I hadn't heard much about him in early 1970. I knew he was a speedway rider and had come to west Fresno county to race lots of time during the period mentioned in Roll's reference above. I asked a couple of people who would have known him a little bit about him and man did I get some stories. Jerry Fairchild was brought into my question by Ken Maely (google them both if you need to). Fairchild had been part of the the Milne brother's world speedway championship. A co sponsor and a provider of the JAP's they used. (When I met Jerry he still had all the bikes they used and his grandson was using some of the engines in frames that Jerry built for him at places like Costa Mesa.)

Anyway, all that led me back to my new friend with something to talk about. The family friends were of Armenian descent. They jokingly sometimes referred to themselves as "Fresno Indians" since there seemed to be some problems with people from elsewhere even then. Anyway one of his friends was the mother of a woman whose daughter became famous as Cher. Simply Cher. So it was funny to recall said "Cher" singing about being an Indian and finding out what kind.
 
Mihylo33

Mihylo33

ossagp:
I was 6 when sprouts took himself to the other side. My freshman year in college I was on my way to a race and stopped in Fresno to drop a gift from my sister to a family friend (If you can believe it, a man called Papa Joe was just getting out of prison. Bookmaker.). Anyway, a girl there asked if I rode the race bikes and then told me about her grandfather. Sprouts Elder. I hadn't heard much about him in early 1970. I knew he was a speedway rider and had come to west Fresno county to race lots of time during the period mentioned in Roll's reference above. I asked a couple of people who would have known him a little bit about him and man did I get some stories. Jerry Fairchild was brought into my question by Ken Maely (google them both if you need to). Fairchild had been part of the the Milne brother's world speedway championship. A co sponsor and a provider of the JAP's they used. (When I met Jerry he still had all the bikes they used and his grandson was using some of the engines in frames that Jerry built for him at places like Costa Mesa.)

Anyway, all that led me back to my new friend with something to talk about. The family friends were of Armenian descent. They jokingly sometimes referred to themselves as "Fresno Indians" since there seemed to be some problems with people from elsewhere even then. Anyway one of his friends was the mother of a woman whose daughter became famous as Cher. Simply Cher. So it was funny to recall said "Cher" singing about being an Indian and finding out what kind.
Click to expand...


I'm picking up the Oceans 9 and meeting you for beers. Have a nice little sit down with BBQ hog leg and brewskis.
 
O

ossagp

Rolls:
Great story! A lesson in history. A quick search turned this up on Spouts Elder.
http://www.guskuhn.net/GKuhn/Contemp/Sprouts Elder.htm
A real pioneer.
Click to expand...


If you like reading about the earlier racers see if you can find one called "Motorcycle Ace". It is a short bio of Dick Mann after he won his first Grand National Championship. He shows some of the same characteristics that made George Foreman a world champion boxer. The thing they had in common was food. George got into boxing because he said he thought it would be a good way to be able to afford a hamburger at a drivein any time he wanted one. Dick Mann wanted steaks.
 
2strokesteve89

2strokesteve89

If you smash a bunch of congressmen with a piece of heavy equipment and there wasn't a forest for miles, would you be able to hear a bunch of squishy noises and muffled screams?

image.jpg

Let's find out.
 
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