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Photo: Cindy Good
About me
I first got
interested in motocross in 1971. I rode in the trails with
my Dad that year on a Yamaha HS1 90cc twin. After reading
magazines for a year about Gary Jones, Joel Robert and Roger
DeCoster, I finally entered my first motocross race on
Memorial day 1972 at Oscoda Michigan. It is the roughest track I
have ever ridden on to this day. Mike Hartwig was there,
the Wilson's from K&W cycle, it was a dream come true just to
race. I got 15th overall in the 250 class on a Yamaha 175 enduro with a
Webco expansion chamber on it. I was hooked. I then sold
the 175 and saved up and bought a Yamaha DT2 MX. Around
that same time a guy by the name of Barry Watkins with the help
of Don Jones, was writing
articles in Cycle Guide magazine about making your 250 MX light
weight, similar to the factory Yamaha YZ's that the Jones
brothers were riding, and you could buy a lot of the parts
from Jones Motocross in Walnut California. I was making a $1.90
an hour as a construction laborer in West Bloomfield Michigan, I saved up every penny
I made and
bought every item the Jones' sold. I did everything I could
to make my 1972 DT2 MX Yamaha exactly like Gary Jones' YZ. From that point on I
was enamored with works bikes. I would take my motorcycle
magazines to school and read all about the YZ Yamahas and works
Suzuki's. My dream was to go to California and ride at
Saddleback and all those other places I read about in the
magazines. My buddies and I would go to the Inter-ams and
Trans-am's in Ohio and see all the Europeans and we would sneak
into the pits, get kicked out and sneak in again just to see our
hero's and those works bikes. I actually got to meet Hakan
Andersson and Roger DeCoster! At the time it was bigger
than life. I was now obsessed with all of this. I
kept racing and got pretty good and finally turned pro in 1975.
In 1975 I was 18 years old. I had a 1972 Chevy van, a 1975
YZ250B monoshock (painted to look like Hakan Anderssons) and
$900.00 to my name. On a whim I loaded the bike up and
told my parents I was going to California by myself. I
didn't know anybody there. Three days later I arrived at
Saddleback park in total awe. It was just like in the
magazines. It was a Saddleback Saturday, where they ran 40
min. motos. Tim Hart was there on a works monoshock, Rich
Eierstedt .... it was so cool. I lived in my van
at a place called O'Neal park near Saddleback for awhile until
one day at Saddleback, I met a guy named Glen Apling. Next
thing I knew, he invited me to live with him and his family.
His son Glen jr. had a bike just like mine and we did all the
Saddleback, Carlsbad CMC and OCIR night races.... what a blast.
Each Sunday you would see Marty Smith, Pierre Karsmakers and a
whole host of factory riders with works bikes at local races! I
remember seeing Bob Hannah test the first RM preproduction
Suzuki's. He was winning every single race and no one knew who
he was. Everyone thought he was just a guy that
would come and go. I thought he was for real and was probably his first fan. I
remember hearing the announcer at Saddleback call him "Hurricane
Hannah" for the first time. (The story of him getting that
name at Hangtown or in Florida is wrong!) I stayed there for about six
months and then went back to Michigan to get ready for the 1976
125 Nationals. My friend Kim Blackseth, (whom I met in
California) and I were planning to ride the whole series.
I bought a Yamaha YZ125X model and started training. I
missed Hangtown, Kim raced there as he hadn't gone back east yet.
He called me up after the race and said "your not going to
believe who won".....Bob Hannah!! "He's got this works
water-cooled Yamaha with water pumps on it.....You won't believe
it!!" I saw the bike for the first time at Red-Bud, that bike was so cool. Hannah and Smith would battle all year.
The battles between those two were much closer than history
would have you believe. Bob Hannah was fantastic but so
was Marty Smith. Marty had a lot of bad luck but Bob
probably would have won no matter what. He was
unbelievable and his bike was far ahead of the Honda at first.
But at Delta Ohio Marty had the brand new Type 2 125.
That bike was every bit as good as Hannah's OW27. Kim had some family
issues and had to go back home to California and I was kind
of on my own again. Broc Glover was riding for DG and his
Dad, Dick Glover was driving the DG box van. Dick took a
liking to me and started helping me out with pipes and parts
etc. For me to even qualify was a big deal. I was a
mid pack pro. So What! What an experience that year was.
In between Nationals that year I met the girl of my dreams in
Michigan and
in March 1977 we got married. We moved to California and I still
planed to race the Nationals in 1977 but that fell apart as I could
barely afford to pay rent. I worked as a Framer, moved up to superintendent and eventually started my own
successful Framing company. One day I was invited by Glen Apling to Riverside Raceway to watch Kenny Roberts race.
On the way home we stopped at a guy named Ron Crandall's house (he
worked for the AMA). While there I noticed a works Yamaha
in his back yard. I asked him about it and he said that it
was Pierre Karsmakers' and that Bob Hannah raced it for a while
when he first signed with Yamaha. I believed the
Karsmakers part but since Bob was the big star at the time I
thought he was just making that part up. It took me about
a year to talk him out of it. One year and $650.00 later
it was mine. In 1978 I owned my first works bike.
This was the bike that started this collection. Years
later I brought this up while talking to Bob. It was
true....It was his. Yamaha gave him Bruce McDougal's 125
and Pierre's 250. We were both comparing little details
that only he or myself would know about that bike.
Amazing!
I
eventually changed careers, had six kids and moved to Chicago. As a
hobby I started a mail order company that imported Tecnosel
seats into the US. I also sold other trick parts for
awhile and became the US Mugen importer. To promote
all this I built a super trick aluminum framed CR250 Honda and
Motocross Action magazine did an article on it. It was a cool
bike ( I still have it). I also sponsored Ty Davis in 1990 and
1991 and we won the AMA 125 Supercross title in 1990.
Our main rival at the time was Jeremy McGrath. I met a lot of people
that year. Dave Arnold, Roger DeCoster (who were at Honda)
and I became good friends. At the same time I was also
getting a lot of leads through the mail order business on works
bikes. People were associating me with works bikes because
of the bike in Motocross Action. Other than the Mugen that
I bought in 1980, I didn't get the next one until 1991.
From there it just snowballed into what it is today. I
have really been driven to preserve what has been so special to
me and many others all these years. I have also met some
real nice people and have established some great friendships.
Many, whom were great Champions of the "Golden era" of
motocross.
Terry Good, August 2005
Roger and me Mid Ohio inter-am 1974
125 National Delta Ohio 1976
Getting Hakan
Andersson's autograph Trans-am 1974
Me on sacred ground.....Saddleback 1978
A brand new van and a brand new Suzuki. Getting ready to go to
Saddleback.
Photo: Cindy Good
Bill Buchka, myself and Dave Arnold in November 2006.
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