3/19/2024 0 Comments Monark pro 170 specsEverts rewarded Puch with its first World Championship in motocross. Though he had many top finishes that first year, it wasn’t until 1975 that Everts and Puch found their true form. The Austrian Puch company hired Belgian motocross rider Harry Everts in 1974 to compete in the FIM 250cc World Motocross Championships. Several replicas have been built over the years. Expert sources claim only six real Monarks were built and around 35 Litos. Rival company Lito stepped in to take over the team and build machines. Unfortunately, after winning the 500cc World Championship in 1959, the team disbanded when their team manager died. The Lito motocrosser first appeared in the late ’50s as a Monark. That would change in 1966 when East German Paul Friedrichs captured the FIM 500cc World Championship on a Czech two-stroke CZ. Hedlund’s design would give the advantage to the Swedes. Swedish builder Nils Hedlund took the best features of the British iron and built a better engine and chassis. An intense rivalry between four-stroke bikes from Sweden and Great Britain raged throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. The marque achieved its greatest success when Sten Lundin rode an Albin-powered Lito to the 1961 FIM 500cc World Motocross Championship. Sweden’s Lito is one of the rarest motocross machines from the 1950s and 1960s. Sweden was a major presence in early motocross, noted both for its talented riders and groundbreaking machinery. The price for a good example has almost doubled in the last 10 years, and it wouldn’t surprise anyopne to see these worth over $100,000 in 10 more years. The RH67/TM250 has become the number-one collector motocross bike in America. The TM was sold with a complete parts kit that included pistons, rings, replacement clutch parts, gearing, and carburetor jetting. The TM250, as it was called, was raced in America by riders Preston Petty, Walt Axthelm and Gary Conrad with some success. The power was peaky and handling was subpar compared to the European-built machines from Husqvarna and CZ, but despite this, Suzuki decided to build just over 100 production bikes based on the RH67 twin-piper-of which 65 came to America. Early GP results were dismal, but Suzuki came back with an improved machine in 1967 dubbed the RH67. Though single-cylinder and twin engines were tested, Suzuki settled on a single-cylinder design that was heavily influenced by the 1965 CZ twin-port 250 model. In 1966, the Suzuki factory sent two engineers and a road racer to Europe to begin developing a motocross bike. The TM250 is the first-ever Japanese motocross bike. You don’t need 170, which is how many Tom had when he died unexpectedly-, you just need one gem. Motorcycle collecting starts with one bike. The first vintage bike that Tom restored was number 5 on this list. Instead, collect bikes that have a special meaning to you personally - the first bike you raced, the bike you drooled over as a 13-year-old kid, the bike your hero raced, the bike you always wanted to own but couldn’t afford when you were in school. Tom’s one caveat for potential collectors is to not collect bikes because of their value or rarity. However, when you set the parameters at ten-you are limited to ten. At the very bottom of this page, after the top ten he included several bikes that are worthy of the list, if only for their quirkiness, popularity or creativity. Also note that in Tom’s “Early Years of Motocross Museum” he collected even rarer bikes than he included in this guide - not because they weren’t worthy, but because he wanted to provide a cross-section of brands and types. Be forewarned, that the prices of some of my top 10 collectibles are staggering - matched only by the rarity of some of them. In this piece the late Tom white wanted to show you the 10 bikes he felt that every motocross collector should own.
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