MOTOCROSSER JIM WEST
P92
Feature
that in 1975 was just a few years removed
from something groovy known as dirt bike
riding. A dirt bike had a high front fender,
an expansion chamber and knobby tires
and every teenaged boy who had seen On
Any Sunday and who hadn't been drafted
into the U.S. Army wanted one. West was
one of a handful of Southern California
kids who were helping move the sport
from trails to tracks, from stripped-down
street bikes to purpose-built motocross
machines, like Jim's German-made Maico,
along with CZ, AJS and an odd-looking
British motorcycle called a Greeves. Once
a powerhouse in the industry, Greeves
was one of the first companies to sign
up American talent. One of these young
factory riders was a Californian named Jim
Wilson.
"I was staying in England for a while,"
Wilson says today. "The Greeves factory
had brought me over to com-
pete in some races on their
new bikes. And I saw a copy of
Cycle News! So, I'm reading
and I turned to see who was
winning the local races back
in California, which at that
time was usually Gary Bailey.
He would ride and usu-
ally win every class he en-
tered…sometimes as many
as five on a race day!"
"He was the guy to beat"
Wilson continues "and
someone did it! It was a
new kid and he wasn't
even riding a real moto-
cross bike. He was on a Yamaha
DT-1, which was really just a
trail bike. And his name was Jim
West."
James Marshall West was
born on October 9, 1952. The
son of a police officer, Jim
displayed a talent for all things two wheeled
early in life. "He could wheelie his stingray
bicycle the length of the city block," remem-
AJS was so
impressed with
Jim West that
he was featured
in a Cycle
News ad.
West was one of a handful of Southern
California kids who were helping move the
sport from trails to tracks.
Susan Ard
poses on the
same XR75
that West gave
her and made
to look like
his Husqvarna
race bike in the
early '70s. She
recently found
it on eBay.
Billy Grossi remembers
West, as, "a fluid, really
smooth rider. The kind
of a rider who didn't look
like he was going fast,
but he was!"
