Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542841
Y ou would know their names, these great racers of the 1970s. They were once so fast that they made racing look easy, which is what professionals do. These days, however, these long-retired cham - pions move with greater caution. No longer OEM, many are now modified with replacement knees, shoulders and hips. Some are learning how to listen again with cochlear implants, while others have had prostate-cancer scares, beset with Parkinson's and other plagues that are visited upon men after seven decades of living in an Earth suit that comes complete with its own hidden expiration date. These mo- torcycling racing legends of the '70s (and '80s), who were so very different from us then, are so very similar to some of us now. These are the things we now expect to see in life, so when former Team Honda star Steve Wise died last week after suf- fering a heart attack, the news was another painful reminder that nothing hits faster or harder than the hands of time. We face the reality that the people who shaped our world of motorcycle racing are slowly leaving us. The sport of motocross was just a pup in the 1970s, which is when Steve Wise was coming of age. Clothing contracts? Private practice tracks? "We were all just regular kids who found a passion," recalls former Team Honda rider Warren Reid. "Everyone of us—we were just kids who loved to ride dirt bikes. We had that spark." Wise would become one of Reid's closest friends on the MX circuit. Separated by thousands of miles, the Texan, Wise, and the Californian, Reid, were never strangers. "We all read Cycle News," Reid says, "so even though we were in California, we knew who the fast racers in the other states were. We knew about Mark Barnett in the Midwest, and we knew about this kid from Texas named Steve Wise. He was easily the fastest guy on a 125 from that state. No one else was even close. When we finally met, we became close friends before we even were teammates. And after that, we roomed together all of the time." Motocross in America was, from the beginning, a game played by the "haves," those riders CNIIARCHIVES P128 BY KENT TAYLOR STEVE WISE STEVE WISE MORE THAN A RACER (Right) Steve Wise was a two- time Superbikers Champion, proving his versatility as a racer. (Below) Wise won the New Orleans Supercross in 1979.