JAMIE ROBINSON: These are vintage motorcycles.
This is Wes's first motorcross race.
We're at CALVMX, Vintage Motorcross.
Welcome to "RideApart."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: So Wes and I have got a
couple of bikes to ride.
Wes has never done motorcross.
WES SILER: Never.
Yeah.
I'm a street rider.
-They always say, learn in the dirt first.
WES SILER: What you can't see right now is I'm [BLEEP]
my pants.
JAMIE ROBINSON: This is so much better than my bike, so
[INAUDIBLE].
I've got more horsepower.
-This one's got Billet triples.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Good grief.
-It's box shock in the rear.
JAMIE ROBINSON: It's a beautiful, beautiful machine.
This is where it all starts--
kids' bikes.
Get your kids involved.
Get them off the street, get them involved in hobby.
Kids' bikes, motorcross, dirt riding--
they'll love bikes for life.
I want to go on this one.
Look at that.
Wow.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JON DESOTO: Really appreciate what you guys have done.
Tammy, everybody else, Charlie with providing
a CZ for me, too.
So I'm going to wear Depends, definitely, when I'm riding
that bike today.
JAMIE ROBINSON: I have Wes, who's my kind of
partner-in-crime on the show.
He's never, ever, ever done motorcross today.
So if anybody sees this guy, he's number 54--
please put your hand up, Wes--
roost him.
OK?
I want him to really feel pain today.
He's riding my 1979 YZ400.
[SINGING - "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER"]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BIKE ENGINES ROAR]
WES SILER: That was fun, but [BLEEP]
me, I'm tired.
JAMIE ROBINSON: This is vintage motorcross.
This is taking it just a tad too far.
1961 [INAUDIBLE].
-This is 600cc.
They made of 127 of them for Southern
California for desert racing.
So they're very rare.
Extremely rare, actually.
JAMIE ROBINSON: It doesn't look like a bike with a lot of
suspension.
-3 and 1/2 on the rear, 7 on the front.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Good grief.
-Yes.
JAMIE ROBINSON: And what's that like to ride around a
motorcross track?
-Like riding a Harley Davidson around the track.
It's just under 400 pounds.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh, good grief.
-So it works you.
JAMIE ROBINSON: And you've got gear-change on
the opposite side.
-It's--
yeah, it's British.
You know, they do everything backwards.
JAMIE ROBINSON: [LAUGHS]
This is a 1973 CZ400.
Air-cooled.
These super large fins here are what
actually cools the engine.
No water-cooling here, guys.
Look to the back of the bike.
Twin shocks.
This was an era where motorcross bikes were really,
really still developing from the road bike.
It is a motorcross bike, but it's only got a little bit
more suspension than a road bike.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: You look like a man with lots of two-wheeled
experience.
Can you tell me a little bit about some of your exploits?
JOHN RICE: Well, I started racing in 1957, and I started
riding in a club called TT Scrambles, back in those days.
There was no motorcross.
It was TT Scrambles.
And I did that.
Then I got drafted in the Army in 1958 and I stayed there for
two years and got out in 1960.
And I started riding again.
And then I rode Ascot, a flat track at
Ascot over in Gardena.
I did that for two years.
And then I decided I didn't want to do that no more, so I
went back into scrambles and I rode scrambles ever since.
And I made a number one in district 37 in 1967
and '68 on a Honda.
JAMIE ROBINSON: So what message would you say to
somebody who's just thinking about getting involved in
motorbikes.
Would you tell them just to get on with it
and do it, or what?
JOHN RICE: Well, that's the only way you're going to be
able to do.
Just don't think about it.
Do it.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh my goodness.
Now I am nervous.
Look at all these fast guys on vintage bikes.
Trouble awaits, I think.
[ENGINES ROAR AND BUZZ]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: That was fun, right till the last corner.
But I am exhausted.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: Robert, what are you doing here at Vintage
Motorcross?
ROBERT: I was at work.
I was driving down a neighborhood.
I saw something red in a trash can.
Came around, it was a Husqvarna gas tank.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh, wow.
ROBERT: Went and asked the guy if I could have the gas tank.
He said, not only can you have the gas tank, you can come
back and take the whole pile of trash.
JAMIE ROBINSON: What?
The bike?
ROBERT: I restored it.
The whole bike.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Good grief.
ROBERT: Restored it, raced it, and I've been with Husqvarna
ever since.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Wow.
Awesome motorcycle, sir.
Look at that.
They don't make 'em like this anymore.
How long have you had it?
What's the history behind the bike?
-Well, I used to race motorcross and I stopped in
about 1980, and I started up again last year.
I found this bike and did some race prep on it, and I come
out and dice it up with the guys.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
So getting back on the bike last year, how was it getting
back onto the track?
Feel a bit rusty here in the beginning?
-Well, I rode this track--
this is the second time here.
And that time was right after a little injury, so I was kind
of going easy.
Today I went a little bit harder and had some good
racing with Gary Jones.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Oh, wow.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ENGINES REVVING]
[ENGINES ROAR]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WES SILER: That actually hurt.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yeah, I could see you're hurt.
So tell me true.
Tell me true.
You crashed at turn one.
WES SILER: I don't know.
I don't really know--
I think a bike hit me and just knocked me over, and I was
laying in the ground and another bike ran over me.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Yes!
Wooo!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: This is the Nissan Titan Pro-4X.
Relatively short bed.
Benefit of that--
lots of space in the cab.
Rides really well.
Perfect for motorcrossing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE ROBINSON: Wow, man, it's like a furnace in here.
[INAUDIBLE] the air.
Ohhh.
I stalled it.
I crashed it.
And then I ran into the back of a guy who
was going super slow.
Smacked into the back of him and stalled it again.
JAMIE ROBINSON: [INAUDIBLE]
WES SILER: Oh, it's so much fun.
JAMIE ROBINSON: Get that thing away from me.