I started racing motorcycles in 1971 when I was 11 years old. My first motorcycle was a Honda Trail 70, but I only had that bike for about 3 month's because I kept trying to race everyone on it and was going to kill myself. Honda Trail 70's do not make good race bikes. My dad quickly sold the Honda 70 and bought me a Steen. This was the nastiest minicycle on the planet at the time and a real race bike. All the other kids were racing Yamaha mini enduros, which were 60cc and had 14" tires. The Steen had a 100cc Hodaka engine, 16" tires, and a frame manufactured by Rickman, who built some of the best frames in the world at the time.
I won my very first race on the bike and thought I was pretty badass. So I walked into the local dealer, who was Husky Cycle in Holiday, set my trophy on the counter and told them I was pretty badass and they should sponsor me. After they finished laughing they gave me a Husky Cycle jersey and told me they would give me 10% off on parts, at which point I knew I was a badass.
The only problem showing up at the race track with a motorcycle better and faster than what everyone else was racing is they immediately went down and bought a Steen. In the long run I think Husky Cycle got their money's worth out of the jersey they gave me as it sold a few bikes. I raced the Steen for two years and only ever lost one race, and in that race I finished second.
My Steen evolved over the two years I raced it. They came with what was known as the Hodaka B engine. Ours (my younger brother also raced one) were soon updated with the engines out of the Hodaka Super Rat among a long list of other improvements. My dad always loved tweaking our race bikes and they were always wicked fast. In about 1973 the Steen was pretty much outlawed as minicycles were soon restricted to 80cc, but by that time I was out of minicycles and ready to race with the big dogs...
Anyhoo.... that's the story of my first race bike, I'll try to do a piece on every race bike I've owned when I get the time. Hope you enjoyed....
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