01-27-2024, 11:25 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 2,615
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Hodaka. 60s to early 70s dirt bikes
The Hodaka story is unusual. The brand came from a relationship between a farm chemical company of the USA NorthWest and the company that made the engines for Yamaguchi Japanese bikes. Yamaguchi went bankrupt, and Hodaka was left without a buyer for their engines... It is an fascinating story. I wonder what would have happened if general manager Henry Koepke didn't die in a BMW motorcycle accident?
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-NOS 2020 KTM 250SX (2-stroke motocross) |
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01-27-2024, 02:52 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Dayton Pa.
Posts: 941
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They sucked!!!!
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01-27-2024, 07:10 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 2,615
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By today's standards yes. But in the late 60s, this was state of the art !
Suspension upgrades were on the horizon. I remember when Yamaha introduced monoshocks. But at the time, those Hodakas were great!
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-NOS 2020 KTM 250SX (2-stroke motocross) |
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01-29-2024, 02:47 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 472
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Back in the 60's I rode Hodaka, Bultaco, Harley Davidson(dirt bike), Norton, Yamaha, and got a Honda in '72 that made all of those seem like junk.
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2018 Bashan Storm(sold) 2016 Magician 250 |
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01-29-2024, 06:55 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Dayton Pa.
Posts: 941
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I did,never owned one but the kid next door had one. junk from the start,did not last very long.
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01-29-2024, 07:29 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2023
Location: Upstate SC
Posts: 325
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To each his own. Many years ago I had a 125 Wombat. I used to go through a few bikes and that's one I wished I had kept. Got some vague idea if a bucket of money fell out of sky one day I might look to find another like it. For no real good reason really.
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01-29-2024, 09:40 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Volcano, Ca
Posts: 7,112
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Had one as a kid. Loved it. Raced it in the "100 cc and lower" class locally. It was the hot ticket at the time. Yamaha had the 80 and Honda had their four stroke turd of an SL 100. I'm eyeing an Ace 100 right now for the herd. All the chrome is good and the bike is complete but needs love. I think it would look awesome in the fleet.
They are a great story. There were a lot around when I was a youngster.
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"Light a fire for a man, and you heat him for a day. Light a man on fire, and you heat him for the rest of his life." 2007 Suzuki DRZ400S (SM convert) 2009 Q Link XP 200 1967 BSA B25 250cc Starfire 2022 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 2023 Royal Enfield Scram 411 1948 Royal Enfield Model G 350 |
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