I used to ride. I loved it. When I was 14 I bought my first dirt bike; a Hodaka Super Rat (a 100cc MX bike). Hodaka stopped making bikes in the late 70s. I had a Honda XL 250 that I'd ride to school and I'd disappear into the woods on Sunday mornings (avoiding church).
That was back when almost all dirt bikes were two stroke. The Honda XL series was one of the rare exceptions. (Back then, the Honda Elsinore was one of the best MX bikes, but it was two stroke.) It was also when monoshocks first started coming onto the market. There weren't any water cooled dirt bikes, although a few had water cooled heads. Back then, the front forks usually had springs, but people started putting makeshift valves on them and filling them with air or nitrogen (removing the springs). So much has changed since then.
In fact, my Honda originally had metal fenders and a metal gas tank. I replaced the fenders and gas tank with plastic, but metal gas tanks were standard equipment back then.
I'm feeling like an old codger. Back in the day...
