Damn! :(

[Thumper]

I just received word (a couple days ago) that I've lost another friend. It came as an email from his son. This is getting way too common these days and it pretty much sucks. I first met Ed during an enduro in 1980 when I raced motorcycles with him. He gave me an autographed copy of a book he'd just written (Duct Tapes). I know I still have it "someplace". Probably packed away in a silverfish infested box in the garage. He was a FUNNY guy and could keep you in stitches for hours at a time. This getting old crap is for the birds.

From his obit: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obit...elder-11687705

Family, Friends and Fans Mourn the Loss of Ed “Duct Tapes” Hertfelder

Many remember Ed’s famous and hilarious “Duct Tapes” column printed in several publications including Cycle and Cycle World, Dirt Rider, Trail Rider, etc. along with a series of published books, “Duct Tapes 80”, “Reset to 80.1”, “80.2 Change to 27 MPH”, “80.3 Gas Available”, and his last book “80.4 Finish Check”.

Ed was proud of his title of “World’s Worst Dirt Rider” and met so many friends and fans along the way! He was invited and spoke as the “Master of Ceremony” in countless motorcycle events around the world. One of his dirt bikes remains in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

You will be missed by many my friend.

[DeputyDog]

Sorry to hear that Jim.


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[johnboy]

We were big time dirt bikers back in the day and bought every dirt bike magazine they published. The Duct Tapes was always my favourite read. Ed and I both rode Honda thumpers. I think he ended up with an XL600 while I had a very modified XL500. I can still hear the roar that thing made at full throttle plowing through a swamp or climbing a hill. Man, those were good times!

[Thumper]

Hence my moniker on this site Johnboy. I rode a “thumper” also and loved the 600. I actually landed a Honda contract to race the XL185 when it was introduced in 1979. The Elsinore was very successful in those days (mostly moto-cross), but they wanted to have a 4-stroke entry. The XR185 was the moto-cross version and the XL was the enduro version. Honda wanted the 4-stroke entry to run the “under 200cc” enduro class and wanted the exposure for their new bike. It was a huge success and led to the introduction of the XL250 2-3 years later and then the XL600 a few years after that. I acquired the nickname Thumper and many of my old friends from my racing days still call me Thumper to this day. I still have a pile of old trophies stored away in the garage. Fun days, for sure.

Honda wanted me to TRY to break the bike so they could find any weak points. I could not break it! Luckily, if I did, I had a lifetime warranty as long as I was racing for them. The ONLY failure I ever had was during the 1979 (or '80?) Barstow to Las Vegas race (150 miles). I was running flat-out across a dry lake and broke the oil slinger ... it pretty much disintegrated. There were no cell phones then, so I flagged down another racer and asked him to notify my pit crew at the next pit stop to give them my location. (he was limping in to the next stop with some sort of engine issue) Darkness started to set in as I waited and somehow I managed to lay across the bike with my legs on the handlebar crossbar and my head resting against the taillight, all the while, still propped on the kickstand. I was close to dozing when I started hearing a "sniffing" noise. I opened my eyes and was face-to-face with a coyote! I guess he was hoping I was dead. I'm not sure which of us jumped the highest when we realized what was happening!

I was finally rescued and the crew took me on into Vegas. Honda took the bike in and replaced the slinger, but I don't remember if the failure instigated any production changes or not.

[johnboy]

Somehow the thought of you on an XL185 brings the 'bear on a bicycle' vision to my mind.

[Chicken Dinner]

Somehow the thought of you on an XL185 brings the 'bear on a bicycle' vision to my mind.

I was right there with you John Boy. I’m shocked the frame didn’t give out first.


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[Thumper]

Ha! Bof'a youse can bite me! Yeah, I looked like a monkey fucking a football, but I loved that little bike. I was also a 120 lbs. lighter in those days.

[johnboy]

My wife and son both rode XR200's and they were the most unstoppable little machines you could imagine. I've seen the missus completely drown her bike (outa sight underwater), pull it out, tip it up to drain the water and mud out of the pipe, crank it over and ride off. Great little machines that I actually preferred over the bigger displacement bikes in the real gnarly stuff.

I rode my thumper for years and always enjoyed someone asking to ride it. Standard answer was "if you can start it, you can ride it". Amazing how many big, tough biker dudes had no idea how to start a big, 4 stroke single and wound up with a sore leg from the kickback cause they tried to kick it like a 2 stroke. That thing kicked back like a mule if you didn't get it right. Fun stuff!

[Thumper]

Ha ha! I just remembered, I have some old pics framed and hanging in the garage. I just went out and snapped one of my old XL185 taken during a desert race. Wow! Talk about memories of some fun times! I ran with the CRC (California Racing Club) back in those days. They always had a photographer somewhere along the course and we never knew where they were (usually close to a scoring position). They'd always set up on a faster leg of the course, near a hump, so that they'd usually catch you airborne. It appears my rear tire is just coming back down to earth here, so it fits their m.o. They'd just pop up from behind a rock or bush along the course. I have no clue which race this was or where it was. I didn't mark any of the photos and my memory is in the toilet these days.

Judging by the jersey and black kidney belt, I know this was a VERY early (sponsored) race and I notice the bike still has the stock Honda shocks. I don't even see a roll-chart mounted, so it has to be one of my first races. To keep time, I'd run with a pro and just do my best to keep up while he kept time. I also had a sponsorship with SUDCO International and they kept me supplied with parts, tires, chains, shocks, carburetors, jetting kits ... that sort of thing, so since I'm running stock shocks, this must have been one of my first sponsored races, before any upgrades. I also notice the raggedy looking number on the plate. I remember getting ready to roll up to the starting line and the officials asked me where my number was. SHIT! I'd forgotten to add it. Someone threw me a roll of masking tape and I threw the 21A on there just in time to take the flag! (a real professional, huh?)




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[Thumper]

My wife and son both rode XR200's and they were the most unstoppable little machines you could imagine. I've seen the missus completely drown her bike (outa sight underwater), pull it out, tip it up to drain the water and mud out of the pipe, crank it over and ride off. Great little machines that I actually preferred over the bigger displacement bikes in the real gnarly stuff.

I rode my thumper for years and always enjoyed someone asking to ride it. Standard answer was "if you can start it, you can ride it". Amazing how many big, tough biker dudes had no idea how to start a big, 4 stroke single and wound up with a sore leg from the kickback cause they tried to kick it like a 2 stroke. That thing kicked back like a mule if you didn't get it right. Fun stuff!

And that was with an automatic compression release!

[johnboy]

Yup but you still needed the right technique or that motor would let you know about it.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Sorry about your buddy, Jim.

BKB

[Thumper]

Thanks guys, Ed will be missed by many.

In my old racing days, I had a partner I always ran with (Jim Pilon) and we ran as teammates. He was actually an employee (mechanic) of mine at the Hollywood Cadillac dealer. I eventually moved on, but he stayed active in the motorcycle racing family. He knew Ed also and I emailed him an article I'd found mentioning he and Ed at a race years ago. Here's the email i just received after mentioning I'd be in town the end of this month:

Thanks for the article. I remember that weekend well. We had so much work back then but more fun than we could contain. Having Ed around was so much fun. I still have pictures of us on stage at the Hacienda in Las Vegas. Great times!

See if you can squeeze in a day when you are here so we can get together.

Nasty

(Ha! We went by Nasty and Thumper back in the day)

I dug up an old post from this site that I made about 3 years ago. Sorry for the Thump post, but Ed's passing is bringing up lots of fond memories and I'm just rambling here. It's kind of soothing. I'm sure, when Jim and I hook up in LA, Ed will be our major topic of conversation. This is the old post I'd made about Jim "Nasty" Pilon.

Back in the late 70's through the 1980's, I had a Honda Sponsorship (along with a couple other sponsorships) and raced enduros for Honda. I had a team mate and we did pretty well for ourselves. Man-o-man, the stories I could tell! We were racing in Mexico when he had a bad crash in Rosarito Beach, I had to scoop him up and run him back up to San Diego to put him in the hospital with a pile of cracked ribs. He'd just finished a restoration on his old Chevy truck and the border agents thought we had the work done in Mexico, so they detained me at the border and figured my buddy (lying in the back of the truck) was faking to try bypassing the system. (and made us pull into the inspection lane to investigate) I had to run back down to Mexico the following weekend to meet with our attorney and bail his bike out of jail (literally ... long story). I remember a race where we had to go down Strawberry Slide ... it was so steep, my rear fender kept whacking me in the back of my helmet all the way down to the bottom (which was nothing more than a large collection of broken bodies and bikes). Did I say it was a long, STEEP downhill?! There was the time we slept in the back of my '75 Datsun B210 (try THAT with two large adults!) to keep from freezing to death and woke up the next morning with ice all over the windows ... then when we touched them, realized it was on the INSIDE (from our breath freezing). The time his Husky 390 wouldn't start at the beginning of the Barstow, CA. to Las Vegas race, so I pulled him with a rope to get it cranked. When I glanced back, all I could see was his bike being dragged on it's side and a huge cloud of dust with his head sticking out of it hollering STOP! STOP! (he lived) I remember kicking a rock while I was doing elebenty-bazillion mph across a dry lakebed. It folded my steel-toed boot into a perfect "V" and broke all my toes. While in the pits getting serviced for the next loop, one of my crew told me to take off my helmet and look at the back of it. There was a perfect imprint of the SOLE of my boot on the back of my helmet. To this day, I not only can't figure how I was flexible enough to kick myself in the back of my head ... but also did not CRASH ... OR break my frigging leg!! My buddy told me to bail out of the race, but I refused to pull my boot off or my foot would have immediately swollen up and I'd never get my boot back on. I got the bike serviced and finished the race! I remember the time I broke the oil slinger in my engine during a 200 mile race. I put word out to another racer who passed by to contact my crew and let them know where I was broken down. I curled up on my bike and took a nap, then woke up that evening (still waiting to be rescued) with a dang coyote sniffing my face. I opened my eyes and screamed like a little girl thinking he was about to eat me! (He's prolly STILL running!) Heck, I could go on and on and prolly write a book, but I'll spare youse dufes.

Anyway, my old partner formed a new racing division with the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) and was given the AMA Outstanding Off-Road Rider Award a few years back. (He's still running the division and organizing rides)

The AMA Outstanding Off-Road Rider Award highlights the achievements of an individual who has contributed to the promotion of the motorcycling lifestyle and the protection of off-highway motorcycling. The award is presented to two deserving members of AMA District 37 in southern California, AMA Life Members Jim Pilon and Paul Flanders. Their dual-sport committee successfully organized and now maintains and promotes one of the world’s best known dual-sport events, the LA-Barstow to Vegas Dual Sport Tour, or LA-B-to-V. Launched in 1984, the 400 mile-plus tour typically starts after Thanksgiving and has routes for dual sport, adventure touring, vintage bikes, side-hacks and small displacement machines, so long as they are street legal.

“I am honored and humbled to be nominated and chosen for this prestigious award,” said Pilon. “I also serve as a California State Alternate of the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council and, along with the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Forest Service and various other agencies in four states, we’ve worked to create a responsible use of public land. I am proud to have others and the District 37 AMA Dual Sport Committee put forth their belief in dual sport as a national and international vehicle to enjoy what we love, to ride.”