Blackwater 100...

[MassTrike]

Do they still run the blackwater 100?? i just picked up the DVD and it had some cool trike footage. looked like it was a blast!

[Wickedfinger]

Long discontinued I'm afraid ........

[deathman53]

what dvd, I have a blackwater movie and it had no trikes.

[MassTrike]

what was the reason for it to stop?? Deathman that DVD is Blackwater Forever, its a 2 disc special, with a look at most of the blackwater races through the years, its pretty neat you should check it out.

[03 ORANGE SHEE]

davis west va is less then an hour from me, used to go as a kid, and the people at the creeks throwing water on the banks, thats for real, like all the beer cans!!

[TimSr]

The last Blackwater 100 was in 1993. It got closed by the treehugging affiliates, the swampkissers. I dont think they ever ran trikes in it. I know for a fact that trikes could not run it from 1991 on, because we had two guys in our group, besides me that wanted to race them. One of the videos, Mud Wars, from 1991 shows a Honda trike trying to make the bank at the 93 river crossing, (the seat and fenders come off when it crashes) but that was a spectator, not a racer.

This picture was taken in 1991. Im the guy on the Red Kawasaki KE175. In the remaining two years I ran my RT180.

http://home.neo.rr.com/timtim/blackwater.jpg

http://home.neo.rr.com/timtim/blackwater.jpg

[MTS]

Cool pics tim!! got anymore??

[Dammit!]

I remember dirtwheels covering the event back in the day. Saw plenty of trike pics from it so they let them run when they were in production.

[MassTrike]

heres a few a snapped off my tv a second ago..

[dogger]

tim sr. in the 80's they did run trike's. there's a guy not far from me that's in his 40's that raced there in his younger year's in 85 or 86 he raced a 200x and his dad said he'd buy him any bike he wanted if he won his division. his did and the next week he brough home a brand new 250r. I know he raced the blackwater race a total of 8 time's only 3 on trike's though he said.

[TimSr]

Its a bummer I missed the trike years. I never knew they ran them. This was an AMA event, and they were quick to eliminate trikes from everything. I have a 1990 tape too, and they didnt run any in that one either. At least it looks like they got a few good years, couldnt have been more than 3 or 4 though. I guess Ill be grateful I got to experience it at all intsead of bummed I didnt do it on a trike. Besides that, I wasnt nearly as well versed on a trike in 1991 as I am today, anyways.

I also appear in the Mud Wars video from 1991 with one of the few speaking parts (before the stetcher arrived). We should offer a prize to whoever can find the footage. LOL! The hint is that I was mocking a popular TV comercial from that time period. Can anybody provide that infamous quote?

[Jeb]

Yeah, I got a nice big write up about the ATVs at Blackwater in one of my 86 DirtWheels mags. It says that the first time they let ATVs run there were 30 entrants. In 86, there were over 300! :beer

I think it was the Highway 93 River crossing is where they said the "Slime Tribe" hung out. According to the DirtWheels article. Lotta crazy fans in those pics!

[toyota200x]

This thread is great. Lets see some more pics.

[TrikeKid]

From what i've seen some of the stuff like the drop into the river doesnt look like something i'd wana do on anything.

[Mobular]

I also appear in the Mud Wars video from 1991 with one of the few speaking parts (before the stetcher arrived). We should offer a prize to whoever can find the footage. LOL! The hint is that I was mocking a popular TV comercial from that time period. Can anybody provide that infamous quote?


Would that be: "The best tasting dirt that I've eaten in a while........I dunno, I can't move.......I've fallen and I can't get up!"

So, what happened??

[TimSr]

Mobular wins the prize, whatever it was! The comercial was for the LifeAlert, which had an old women lying on the floor, pushing the button on trusty LifeAlert around her neck, saying "I've fallen, and I cant get up". It then became the trademark saying of anybody in our riding group, whenever they ended up on the ground.

As for what happened, there was huge bottleneck on an extremely steep rocky downhill. I decided to take an alternative route that was even steeper to get by all these guys because I was sure they were morons and I was bullet proof. The '79 KE175 has mechaincal drum brakes, and I needed both of them on this hill. I got tangled up in a tree root on teh way down, and when I got it loose and started rolling again I went for the rear brake to aid my front one, and the pedal had disappeared under the frame from the root. I avoided all the trees on the way down, but hit a big rock as soon as I re-enetered the trail pretty much out of control. I rolled my body off the trail, and took my helmet off. Before the paramedics could get to me (who were conveniently located on this hill) some guy with a video camera sticks a microphone in my face. I had no idea who he was until I bought the video and saw it months later. I got a rock gash in my leg that hit the bone.

I came bacc the following year 1992 with my new RT180 with hydraulic disk brakes in the front, but they had taken this downhill out of the course, along with the Rt93 river crossing.

[Jeb]

Great story TimSr!

I was reading another article about blackwater in a 1988 3&4 wheel action and noticed something funny.

The article from 86 shows lines and lines of trikes getting ready to go. The pic in 88 is close to the same and I can't find a single trike out of all the ATVs pictured. My how trikes dropped out of the limelight so quickly. In fact, the only trike pic I saw was a small black and white pic of a bunch of quads tangled up in a mudhole and in the middle one lone 85/86 ATC250R.

[toyota200x]

Man that is amazing that trikes were just gone. Does anyone remember trikes being frowned apon back then? Did people look at you weird if you rode a trike in the late 1980's?

TIMSR, do you have anymore pics or know of anymore out there somewhere on the web? How did that RT 180 do when racing? Thanks

[Mobular]

I'll accept nice clean 20s.....

[speedracer350X]

Yes Toyota 200X, I'm afraid trikes dropped fairly quickly in popularity. Even when they were still being sold in 85-87. I first started riding in 1985, may dad bought me an 85 ATC 110, which I still have today. But I remember then, quads were coming onto the scene, which I do give Suzuki credit, even though I'm a die-hard Honda man. In say 1986, early part of year, their were alot of Quadsports and Quadracers. Then Honda came out with the TRX 250R, well, everyone knows how good a machine that is/was. Plus, you gotta remember, say late 85/ 86, the CPSC was starting to really push the ban on 3 wheelers. I think it sucked, but quads were becoming popular at the time they were "new"/ "In style", and obviously easier to ride for the first time atver, vs. riding a 3 wheeler. So alot of people were like, oh well, these quads are "cooler" anyways. Yes, I still have painful memories of 87, when all the magazines came out with the news, that in 1988 no more 3 wheelers would be produced.