Tag Archives: Motorcycle Culture

Ake Jonnson: King of Motocross Part 2

The 1972 American motocross season in a single image: after turn one, Jonnson already pulling away

RACING: HOPE, IMAGE, REALITY THE SUCCESS YEARS: AKE JONSSON   “Everything was possible:” the 1971 World 500cc Championship 1971 was another successful year for Maico and Jonsson. It did, however, also hold one of motorcycle racing’s bitterest stories of poor luck and defeat, for both him and Maico. Jonsson, while leading the 500cc championship series […]

Ake Jonsson: King of Motocross

Ake Jonsson

Part 1: The Success Years: Ake Jonsson   “Watch Ake slice inside his line and pass him, seemingly with no effort. What makes a man ride like this?”[1]    “I think Ake was probably the best motocross rider, ever.”[2]   The Vintage Motor Company is proud to release part 1 of a 2 piece series […]

Motocross Looked Like This: Tim Hart

Tim with one of his Maico's

“We were just kids who wanted to race.”[i]   One of the most recognized images of off-road riding, and possibly the sport’s most iconic photograph, comes from the early years when motocross first captured the American imagination. It is that of a lone, airborne motocross racer. The image was first seen on the December, 1972 […]

The Motorcycle as Art

the motorcycle as art

Recently, while returning home from a business trip, I decided to take the long way home and visit my favorite art museum.  On special exhibit at the museum were tow collections of drawings and paintings—the first was an expansive collection of Andrew Wyeth watercolors, while the second consisted of a compilation of landscape paintings by […]

Friends Talking: DIRT BIKE Magazine and Conversational Journalism in the 1970s

DIRT BIKE Magazine, 1972

    Abstract: In the very early 1970s, at the height of the worldwide motorcycle boom, an ad salesman named Rick Sieman envisioned a journal which would enable honest information to be exchanged between enthusiasts. He imagined this journal as the equivalent of “friends . . . talking,” and leveraged his modest resources to found […]