ericm979

I learned on rental Yamaha DT100s at the local riding park (Carnegie, outside Livermore). My dad hated dirt bikes and wouldn't let me get one, probably because he didn't want to be hauling me to riding areas. When I was 17 I ended up with a Kawasaki S3 400cc triple two stroke street bike as my first motorcycle.

When I was learning to ride on the DT100s, trials was the new big thing in the dirt bike magazines. I'd have killed for a Sherpa T or Montesa Cota 348 back then. I had the 348 brochure memorized when I was 15. I ended up buying a 348 Cota in '98 or so when I was doing a lot of trials competition on modern bikes. Compared to modern bikes it's junk- heavy and doesn't turn or stop. You can't use the clutch in sections, but the flywheel is so huge that you don't need to. You dare not shift in a section because you are likely to find a neutral. But it's still fun. My best moment on it was at a vintage trials competition and vintage bike fest where Dick Mann was the guest of honor. He loves trials and builds really nice trials bikes, and was out helping to put the vintage trials on. On one of my loops he'd stepped in to check a section that happened to be one of the few that I had wired. I did a clean ride and Dick freaking Mann punched a zero on my card and said "nice ride". Of course at another vintage trials I was making my way down a gnarly descent on the loop between sections, and Dick, who was at least 75 then and on a bike 15 years older and 50 lbs heavier, passed me like I was standing still and while going by gave me a look that said "why are you so slow?".