A Special Thanks to Florida Steve @ The Great 2-Stroke Biker Blog!

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One of the last of the roaring 500CC World Championship 2-strokes sits on display outside the Suzuki tent at Mid Ohio in the summer of 2005. Kenny Roberts, Jr. had just won the 2000 500CC World Championship the year previous, but the '01 model failed to deliver, leaving KRJR in a lowly season-ending 11th place in the final championship. In 2002 Dorna re-named the series MotoGP and the 4-stroke era in World Championship motorcycle road racing was ushered in, to replace the ring-dings that had taken over the sport in the early-mid '70s.
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I wanted to give a shout out to Florida Steve, who runs two of the best motorcycle photo display blog sites around the net. Steve's sites 2 Stroke Biker Blog and Motorcycle Photo of the Day are some of the best gathering spots on the net to peruse some of today's (and yesterday's) machinery of the two-wheeled variety. And that's what we're all about, right?!

Steve took the time to post a few more of my shots of the KRJR Suzuki from the '01 season on his site the other day, and being as how I am just getting caught up here I wanted to give him a big tip of the helmet and 'Thanks Man!' to let him know how much I appreciate him showcasing my work on his sites.

Here's the link to the post on the Big Blue Suzuki 500:

http://2strokebiker.blogspot.com/2011/01/great-shot-cortousey-of-stushots.html

Steve also runs the Motorcycle Picture of the Day, which is morphing over to the Motorcycle Photo of the Day (due to some technical problems suffered a few weeks back.)

Here's the link to the old site:

http://motorcyclepictureoftheday.blogspot.com/

And here is the link to the new and improved site, which he has managed to move everything from his original site to:

http://motorcyclephotooftheday.com/
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Thanks again for the nod Steve and keep up the great work!
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Cool Bikes At Cool Bike Races...and a Big Thanks to Florida Steve at 2 Stroke Biker Blog!!

More often then not when going to all these different races over the years, we've also come
acrossed some pretty cool street bikes along with the usual array of high performance--and
high dollar--racing machinery. The bikes that pique your interest may be different then the
ones that pique your buddy's. But that doesn't make them any more or less significant, just
unique to what YOU or THEY consider unique, rad or sick. And they don't have to be some high dollar Euro machine, or some over-chromed virtual boat anchor, nor some high performance
rice burner that sings like a chain saw on acid. They can be your normal run-of-the mill breed,
a low dollar home-build, or even a rare-or getting rare as you get older-model you coveted as
a child or a teenager in lust.
One of those for me was the early to mid '70s Yamaha R5 and RD series bikes built on the 250/
350/400 2-stroke platform in the day. They were relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain,
and gas AND oil were cheap in those days. Think cheap--good gasoline, before ethanol blends,
could be had for less then 50 cents a gallon. And even based on a bike that would get 30-35
miles per gallon, at that price you didn't even THINK about fuel mileage in those days.
I came acrossed this hybrid-built bike at Elkhart Lake back in '06. The attached story from
Florida Steve's http://2strokebiker.blogspot.com/ site will tell the full story behind it, but
wanted to show you another shot of this beauty I took as it sat next to an early '70s Honda
CL175 that was immaculate as well. A stark contrast in the bare bones but very well built
Honda high-pipe Scrambler, which appeared to be bone-stock, right down to the tires even.
And the RD-inspired street tracker with the hand machined rear sets and radical look
stingers on the expansion chambers in a flat track-themed rolling chassis. BOTH very sweet
and both quite the bike for their day. And even today!

So take a read at what Steve has to say as he is the 2 stroke king knowing these bikes, and then
what I had to throw in from when I took the shots. Maybe someone out there will recognize
this sweet piece and contact us and fill us in on it. And being the old 2 stroke head that I have
been, that would just be SMOKIN'!!

Thanks for coming by, and thanks again and as always to Florida Steve for helping to diplay
some more of my stuff. Check his stuff out as he runs an ultra sano site with some ultra
sano pics and info. I just can't stop drooling...or smokin'.......

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! And to all a good night.....

http://2strokebiker.blogspot.com/2009/12/sme-excellent-shots-of-well-known-rd.html