
Editorial about Hammer & Tongs Philosophy
March 2012

First of all,
DONT
DO IT.
Itll
kill ya. - -
- They say never mix medication with alchohol. I'm only gonna
tell you once. Race
Promotion, coupled with pride- the drug you tried because your friends
were doing it - without wanting to at all - before you knew what was
happening, you were tangled in it - a brief high & genuine satisfaction
at doing a good job, followed by awful lows, in the form of loooooong
hours, tremendous responsibility, and a sure way to ruin your financial
situation. Often and often I tried to look away from the possibility
that it was a monumental waste of life.
And
yet I made hundreds of friends and experienced the highest highs one
can imagine being able to race these incredible vintage motorcycles
at a time when the sport was balanced perfectly. And now that I am excusing
myself from the stage, I would like to share my philosophy- how and
why I did what I did with the VDR and Hammer & Tongs racing series.

A few years
ago I realized that Vintage Motocross only has a finite lifespan,
and
it
is about to be over.
what?
Siege, what are you talking about?
It isnt dying... it is very healthy~!
True.
Yet it will only be alive a short time because of why it is alive.
Every time I turn around I hear about some guy shipping a whole CRATE
of perfectly good bikes overseas. Each crate is a chunk of possible
racing, possible competition, now gone forever from our scene. When
you line up with the two fellow racers in your class, you have no way
of seeing the four other riders that would have been there.
Each of those
invisible guys is real. They arent ghosts. They just arent
lined up next to you. Theyre someplace else. At home. Working
on the house. Each one of them missed that RM, or Pursang by a day.
Sometimes five minutes. Your season will have races where you are the
only one just because they arent there. So as a result we cherish
the bikes that we do have and then are reluctant to take them out into
the dirt, even though they are dirt bikes. The perfect ready-to-go CZ400
sitting sadly in a den. Next to a big-screen TV. No place for a thoroughbred.
And see? -again the pool gets even smaller. But there is a more
important element.
Many times
I have heard people say we HAVE to get the kids involved, because when
were gone, who is going to race these bikes?
The
answer is NO ONE.
No
one is going to race them. Its over.
And
its OK. The only people who really care about the last of the
twinshock racing machines is us. Our kids will turn up someday saying
Dad check it out- Im gonna get into Vintage Motocross.
We will leap out our recliners OK maybe jerk creakily
out of them maybe, but filled with joy-
and
say COOL~! whaddya have? Our kids
will say I picked up an 05 YZF Nine Thousand,
or whatever they are- and our momentarily aroused interest will flip
to disappointment. I thought you said Vintage.
I did, Dad. This IS Vintage. We
will say NO NO you need a 74 CR250.
Dad-
are you kidding? Where would I get that? Also you cant ride them-
theres no suspension at all~!
Sigh.
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now looking to the future

photo
taken at the last Hammer & Tongs Race
So our job-
and I mean RIGHT NOW- is to enjoy the hell out of it. Let it
burn bright- a ferocious roman candle from Valhalla. Bikes are still
around not cheap like they were in 99. But they are there.
Sure theyll be around ten twenty years from now- but the people
who will race our bikes- CZs Maicos, Elsinores and Montesas - will be
the sons of rich men. Strutting cologne wearing playboy types; the sort
of persons we all agree need to accidentally be eaten by sharks on some
tropical vacation
.
Obviously
I don't want to be right on this. I hope our sport exhibits some lasting
power. But one thing is sure- it ain't over yet. A fellow can still
pick up a race bike- encounter the real thing a bike in a garage
sale, on overheard conversation at the Cafe. For me it was the butcher
carving up meat behind the counter at the grocery store. I went in looking
for a pork chop. I came out with an 81 YZ250H. The
fellow was looking to give his old race bike to someone who might really
enjoy it.
It's no fun
still ready to play a game when everyone has faded off to bed. For the
time being we are mostly still awake- and those available to today now
is a marvelous wide cross section of society. In their helmets, you
can't tell who is a truck driver and who is a judge. We have blue collar,
white collar, black belts, purple hearts. That richness is what makes
it all worth it. The sport can still be enjoyed by the common man.
next



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