wow...those were the days.one of my favorite things about watching the 500s,was the start...listening to 30+ big bores rippin to the 1st turn all at once.Gives me the same rush as going to English Town,NJ for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing....and not only hearing the power...but "feeling" it as the top fuel cars take off!!!.
Can't wait to see some more these pics you got...great post!!
One of the most indescribable sounds I've ever heard and probably will never hear again was at the October round of the National Hare and Hound series in Lucerne Ca back in 1994......Danny Hamel came into the pit, gased up and took off followed by Ty Davis about 2 minutes later and then Larry Roeseler about another minute after that, all 3 on factory KX500's of course......
I will do my best to describe what everyone heard but I won't be able to do it justice....
Each rider came in seperate of the other so the silence of the California desert was broken by the calm rumble of each bike cruising into and out of the pit area........
The end of the pit area led into a bit of a drop off filled with boulders so getting to the bottom of the drop off required negotiation of the large boulders......Once out of the boulder patch it was a sharp left onto a rough fire road that led off into the desert........
I was treated to this sound 3 times as each one of these Team Green super humans took to the fire road after the drop off.......
The whole side of that fire road was lined by large mountains which exagerated every sound coming from those machines......
As each KX500 made its way through the boulders, the sound was a combination of low idle and small blips of throttle until the sharp left......
At the left turn came the atomic blast of 500cc's of thunder going from 1/8 throttle to Pinned in the snap of a wrist!! Each rider kept the throttle pinned the whole time while grabbing full throttle clutchless upshifts through the gearbox......best part was that the bikes themselves were already loud however the mountains multiplied the roar by at least 3 times and the sound continued for close to a minute as each bike disappeared into the desert.....
The best I can describe this sound......Imagine the loudest, smoothest 4 stroke you've ever heard without the "thumps" going through a long tunnel and that doesn't even begin to describe the roar that was heard that day....
Thanks for the memories Danny.......miss ya buddy.
