The Early Years of Motocross Museum

If you're a fan of vintage dirt bikes, the Early Years of Motocross Museum is Heaven on earth. The purpose-built 5,500 square foot building houses more than 100 rare machines in Tom White's collection.

Swedish riders and machines made a big splash in the early years of Motocross. Husqvarna is probably the best known marque, but Monark is the most rare. They won the World 500cc Motocross Championship in 1959. This 1959 Monark 500 Motocross is Tom's favorite.

Notice the incredible similarities between the engine on the 1959 Monark 500 and this 1962 Husqvarna 500? Nils Hedlund worked with Monark and then Husqvarna to produce these early 4 stroke machines.

Strange but true. Greeves was a British manufacturer of powered vehicles for invalids before they branched out into motorcycles in 1951. This Greeves Hawkstone dates to the early 60's and has their famous cast alloy I-Beam which took the place of the traditional downtube. They said it was an innovation, but they had recetly acquired a foundry. Coincidence?

Details like the gorgeous high-cam engine on this Italian 1962 Parilla 250 Wildcat Scrambler have made it a favorite among collectors.

The Spanish know a lot about ham and motorcycles. Francisco Bulto co-founded Montesa before starting the Bultaco brand in 1958. The 1964 Bultaco Matador is the first production dual-sport motorcycle in the world.

Don and Derek Rickman produced frames for their own race efforts, which lead to a partnership with Bultaco and later a variety of manufacturers. This 1965 Rickman Bultaco 250 Petite Metisse is the real McCoy and is one of 24 that were brought into the United States. The polished cro-moly frame is instantly recognizable compared to later crude knock-offs.

Cotton began producing motorcycles in 1918 and was one of many British marques in the motocross scene including Greeves and DOT. The Villiers engine is set low and back which lead to near constant wheelies - definitely an acquired taste!

Riders like Malcolm Smith enjoyed considerable success in motocross riding Greeves machines. One signature detail was the 'banana' front fork on this 1967 Greeves 250 Challenger. It has a certain agricultural quality to it.

This 1967 Notron P11 750 Scrambler was a potent race machine, but the high price tag and overall lack of popularity compared to Triumph and BSA contributed to its' downfall.

The Early Years of Motocross Museum is literally packed to the rafters with bikes and memorabilia.

Maico is a German marque who began producing motorcycle engines in 1926. They are best known for their purpose-built Motocross machines such as this 1968 MC125 Motocross. I've always loved this distinctive gas tank design.

When you think of dirt, Harley-Davidson isn't the first marque that comes to mind, but they made this 1968 Sprint in conjunction with Aermacchi. It was used primarily in TT races. Love the Harley-Davidson logo on plastic parts. And yes, that is a Harley-Davidson XR750 in the background.

This 1968 Triumph TT Special enjoyed a notable racing career including winning the Ascot TT National. 40 years old never looked so good.

One of the more notable machines in the collection is this 1968 Suzuki TM250. Why? It's the first Japanese Motocross bike ever built. Only 200 were made, including 65 that were brought to the US. It was heavily influenced by the Czechoslovakian 1965 CZ Twin Port.

One of my favorite Spanish motorcycles is the 1968 Bultaco El Bandito. It was unwieldy to drive and suffered from electrical problems, but I dig the stretched desert racer look. It also has the best name and logo ever.

This is by far and away the most valuable bike in the collection. It's the 1969 Husqvarna 500 Twin Baja Invader prototype that Gunnar Nilsson and J.N. Roberts rode to victory in the 1969 Baja 1000.

The 1969 Husqvarna 500 Twin Baja Invader is the only Husky 2-cylinder dirt bike ever built. It looks normal enough from the side, but you get a better sense of the engine's substantial width from the top.

The 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross was made famous by the cult classic motorcycle film, <a href="http://www.heavy.com/movies/2011/05/on-any-sunday/">On Any Sunday</a>. It's the bike Malcolm Smith rides with Steve McQueen, horsing around on the beach, and has become quite collectible as a result.

This 1971 Baja 100 was another Harley-Davidson manufactured by Aermacchi for the American market. These bikes were used for desert racing which had a 100cc class, but unfortunately, were short lived.

Suzuki won the 250cc and 500cc Motocross World Championships in 1970 and the American market eagerly awaited a model drived from the works machines. They received the 1971 Suzuki TM400 instead. The combination of hefty weight, unforgiving handling and instant-on power made it basically unrideable.

Another rare bike in the collection is a Monark 1971 125 MX. This expensive bike was the Ferrari of its class, but was overshadowed when Honda released the ground-breaking Elsinore a few years later.

The Early Years of Motocross Museum is dedicated to <a href="http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=163" target="_blank">Edison Dye</a> who was an early importer of Husqvarna motorcycles and is considered the father of motocross in the United States.

The 1971 Yankee 500Z was a promising bike. Dick Mann helped design the frame, Ossa made the engine and it had the best components available - all assembled in Schenectady, New York. Unfortunately, the bike tried to appeal to everyone. The result was too heavy for MX and too slow for road racing. Many went unsold at the time, but they are quite collectible today.

AJS was a British concern who began manufacturing motorcycles in 1909. The firm ran into trouble in 1931 and the name was sold and passed on to a variety of companies. This AJS 250 Stormer was produced by Norton-Villiers in 1972 and although it had several innovative features, the dated Villers engine kept sales low.

The 1973 Honda CR250M Elsinore was as revolutionary as the 1969 Honda CB750. Simply put, it redefined its' category overnight, leaving lots of lesser models literally eating dirt.

Hodaka is an intriguing story that begins in 1964. It was based in a rural Oregon town, but owned by the Shell Corporation. They were famous for their inexpensive machines and credited for starting the trail bike craze in the United States. Models had colorful names like Dirt Squirt and Road Toad, but this 1974 Hodaka 125 Super Combat is the most prized.

This 1974 Husqvarna 125 Cross is a gorgeous machine, but expensive for the time and quickly overshadowed by the 125cc Honda Elsinore released a few months later. See a theme emerging?

The 1975 Rokon 340MX is one of the more interesting motocross bikes ever built. It was powered by a Sach 2-stroke engine, started by a pull cord, feeding a torque converter for a truly automatic transmission. It was basically a snowmobile on 2 wheels. The lack of engine braking led Rokon to install disc brakes, nearly a decade before they became standard equipment on other motocross bikes.

The 1975 Can-Am 250 MX2 was affectionately known as the "canned ham". It had a number of unusual features such as a rotary valve intake system and fuel fed to the lower end directly through a tuned aluminum tube.

Puch is an Austrian marque that won its first World Motocross Championship in 1975, no small feat considering the emerging dominance of the Japanese. This 1975 Puch 250 Twin-Carb was one of 90 built to reproduce the victorious works machine.

Gary Jones, an ex-racer, started the Ammex Motorcycle company. Based in Mexico, the name stood for American-Mexican. A massive devaluation in the peso in 1976 doomed the company from the start, leaving few examples today.

The Early Years of Motocross Museum is dedicated to raising money for the High Hopes Head Injury Program. Something that is near and dear to Tom's heart. If you've enjoyed his collection, please consider <a href="http://www.highhopes.ws/632926">showing your support</a>.