78 RC500 refresh

RF145
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11/12/2016 2:27pm
You did not have a towel handy Stevie?
chuckdavies
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11/14/2016 1:29am
CrGuy2T wrote:
Have to resurrect this thread. It needs to be in bike builds! I had the pleasure of seeing this bike today. Im not much on vintage...
Have to resurrect this thread. It needs to be in bike builds! I had the pleasure of seeing this bike today. Im not much on vintage bikes bit this bike is seriously very trick. It's super light too.
x2...unbelievable!
6/17/2018 6:18am Edited Date/Time 6/22/2018 12:05am
Very nice Newmann!.. I will build my 79 as a 78 RC replica.. white fuel cap, Fox Shocks, billet mounts, no fork boots, etc. You are a lucky guy to own the real deal.
make1go
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BF
6/24/2018 7:01am
ugg none of the pics are coming up for me...?

the last lot of the honda.museum did?

The Shop

BogMasterR
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Marysville, WA US
6/27/2018 11:58pm
Any chance that the example you have is the same bike that is on the cover of "30 years of legendary motocross bikes"?
newmann
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6/28/2018 6:22am
BogMasterR wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2018/06/28/270863/s1200_51ZREF79HXL.jpg[/img]

I had that one flown over from Australia to be used in a museum setting for Bob Fox at the Fox suspension headquarters in California. Shortly after tracking it down I got a call from another party that heard I was shopping around for an RC500. That's when the one I have popped up.










What was really cool was when both of them were here at the same time, something that probably hasn't happened since 1978.


Bearuno
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6/28/2018 8:45am Edited Date/Time 6/28/2018 8:50am
BogMasterR wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2018/06/28/270863/s1200_51ZREF79HXL.jpg[/img]

newmann wrote:
I had that one flown over from Australia to be used in a museum setting for Bob Fox at the Fox suspension headquarters in California. Shortly...
I had that one flown over from Australia to be used in a museum setting for Bob Fox at the Fox suspension headquarters in California. Shortly after tracking it down I got a call from another party that heard I was shopping around for an RC500. That's when the one I have popped up.










What was really cool was when both of them were here at the same time, something that probably hasn't happened since 1978.


I gave a copy of that book, signed and enscripted by Ray Ryan, the author, to Bob, on one of my visits to Fox Racing Shox. Sometime between 2000 and 2005. I did Fox suspension for many years, and would go there / to Switzerland each year for seminars and product releases. I knew and worked with 'Neezer' pretty well, too.

That Bob needed / wanted another copy - either he lost it, or chose to keep the signed / dedicated copy for his own library.

I first met Ray Ryan in the 70s, during the huge Dirt Bike boom, and worked at the first OZ Fox distributors - 'Competition Development'. I turned up at some of the earliest BMX races in OZ, organized by Comp Devel, and kicked the crap out of all on my own frames I made. So, they put me on a Mongoose, and I started making frames for them. Ray kept his CCM at the old shed /barn behind Macquarie University ( that I now lecture / teach at, every now and then, many years / decades later - it's strange how things work out) that I alternately froze and baked in, whilst making frames for them. The CCM frame was ever the example of how frames should be made and welded.

Ray was quite the character, and one of the founders of Australasian Dirt Bike Magazine. He died shortly after I got the two signed books from him, one for me, one for Bob Fox.
FreshTopEnd
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6/28/2018 10:18am
Never met Ray, but loved his writing and what he did for VMX. I did share emails with his wife to get permission to use his column on visiting old dirt bike shops in a tribute DC ran.
BogMasterR
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6/28/2018 3:31pm
My copy of that book has Brad Lackey's autograph on the cover and Jim Pomeroy's further in the book on a bultaco picture of him! Great guys,true legends of the sport.
6/28/2018 3:46pm
Those RC fuel tanks are dangerous to your baby maker.. my nuts start hurting just looking at them. The OEM bulge is not as big, but I remember several times when I raced the 1979 and it threw me into a tank slapper right into the fuel tank. Never happened on my other bikes. I wanted to wear a "cup" when I rode that bike.
FreshTopEnd
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6/28/2018 4:17pm
Those RC fuel tanks are dangerous to your baby maker.. my nuts start hurting just looking at them. The OEM bulge is not as big, but...
Those RC fuel tanks are dangerous to your baby maker.. my nuts start hurting just looking at them. The OEM bulge is not as big, but I remember several times when I raced the 1979 and it threw me into a tank slapper right into the fuel tank. Never happened on my other bikes. I wanted to wear a "cup" when I rode that bike.
I think the actually moved the hump more forward for the stockers, probably for the reasons you're suggesting and to get weight more forward (have to remember how rapidly chassis and suspension dynamics were changing in the initial long travel days.

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