42-Year-Old Twinshock vs Modern Dirt Bike!

This is the two-stroke that time forgot. It's a 1980 cotton EMX 400 and in this video I'm going to tell you all about it and of course we're going to hit the track as well. In the early days of motocross, Great Britain absolutely dominated the show. Great British brands such as Matchless, BSA, AJP, Norton and even CCM were all GP mainstays, race winners and even championship machines. Between the years of 1954 and 1979, five different British riders won seven world championships and during that time Team GB won an astonishing 15 motocross des nations titles. But with the dawn of the 1970s came the Japanese invasion and the European and British brands of old just simply couldn't compete with the new age technology coming out of the far east. These British and European brands were swept aside by a wave of yellow, red, green and blue. Those legendary machines were then confined to their history books but they will live on forever thanks to their pedigree on the Grand Prix stage. But there's one British legend that doesn't seem to pop up in those history books and that's this, the cotton EMX 400. In this video you're going to watch me lose my twin shock virginity on a super rare 400cc two-stroke and I believe there's only three of these in the world. Oh yeah and for a little bit of fun at the end we're going to compare the time on this to its modern day equivalent. So here I have on board the cotton EMX 400 two-stroke and I've just popped my twin shock cherry. I've never ridden a twin shock motocross bike on a track before. I've never ridden a bike with jump brakes on a track before so there's a lot to get used to, a lot to get the hang of here. Of course this is a big four two-stroke as well so slightly different riding style to what I'm accustomed to and I'm just getting used to how to work this box and how the suspension comes with the bumps and the ruts and the gnarliness of this track here today but so far so good. This is a 1980 cotton EMX so over 40 years old and I'm glad, I'm proud to have popped my twin shock cherry on a British made machine. A big thanks goes to Alan Joyce who owns this motorcycle for letting us take a rip here today on this super rare, super old British made two-stroke. Let's have a chat with Alan, find out a little bit more about this bike, this EMX 400 two-stroke. Woo! Do you hear that bog? Yeah that nearly, it bogged there and it bogged in there just now. I think I pooed myself. I can't believe how easy it is to start as well. Okay so here we are at the track with Alan Joyce who owns this beautiful cotton EMX 400. Alan is an arch nemesis to our buddy Sean Smith. Alan just tell us a bit about this bike. You've owned it for like 10 years? 10, 15 years in total, two times. First time I bought it somewhere down south, it was in somebody's barn, rode it, raced it, actually had a couple of wins on it, sold it or swapped it for a YZ465. Then I struggled to get it back off him for a couple of years and ended up having to basically swap a KXF450 for it to get it back so he got something to ride still. Just gone through it, it's had a light cosmetic and mechanical makeover, just fresh oils, greases, fork service etc etc. It's what it is, it's there to be ridden isn't it? Yeah so it's a historic bike, you've also got quite a lot of history with it as well don't you, like you just said. So the format of the day, I've just ridden the bike, I've popped my cherry on a twin shock on a bike with drum brakes, that was an experience to say the least. Alan's with me and Alan will be swapping throughout the day so I'll be in a fox, Alan will be in a wolf, just so you know who's riding the bike and then hopefully towards the end of the day we'll do a lap time showdown on the Cotton EMX versus its modern day equivalent which is your 2019 Husky 450. So that's the format of the video, let's do this. So we've seen the bike on track and we've heard the story of how Alan came to own it, but what exactly is this thing and what's the history behind it? Well Cotton is actually one of those ancient British motorcycle brands, having started out life in the early 1900s with a focus on building machines for TT racing in places like the Isle of Man. During World War II the company had to switch their focus to the war effort and motorcycle manufacturing and development took a back seat for a while. After the war Bill Cotton, the original founder of the company, eventually retired and the ownership and the structure of the business changed a few times over the following decades. In the 1970s the company joined forces with Mike Etoff, who was the famed frame man from CCM, the Bolton based motorcycle company. Cotton moved their factory up to Bolton to produce the EMX range, which used a 366cc Rotax engine, which is what we are riding today. At this time British manufacturers were truly struggling to compete with the mass-produced Japanese motorcycles and many of them did join forces in order to survive and this is ultimately how the Cotton name faded into obscurity. But there remains a strong contingent of Cotton enthusiasts. So what is this thing like to ride? Well I was actually very surprised at how well it handled and how well the suspension coped with the ruts and bumps. The motor on the other hand was very difficult to get my head around and I did struggle to find the confidence to push it, especially after I nearly lawn darted myself into oblivion. We found a horrible bog at a certain point in the rev range that held me back from pulling the trigger on a lot of the jumps. But overall I was actually very surprised at how much I enjoyed riding the old Bolton Barracuda. Okay so there we are a day on the Cotton EMX 400 two-stroke four-year-old bike. I'll tell you what there's a big difference between this and that thing a modern day four-stroke motocross bike. There's a hell of a difference. The seat alone just how you can't get up the tank like that without hurting your your gonads. I crushed my nuts on that jump one lap I really did. Insane. First I'm on a twin shock it actually rides pretty good in the bumps and stuff. I thought it'd be like a pogo stick or kangaroo as Alan would say. But it's not it actually handles quite nicely. That motor takes some getting used to though. We had a bit of problems there with it bogging in certain places at certain points of the rev range so I'm a bit nervous to even attempt a hot lap. I don't know if I'm going to do that to be honest. These jumps are a bit sketchy if it's bogging. I almost died in the whoops earlier trying to do the double double. But yeah what a machine. Honoured to pop my twin shock cherry on a British made bike. Big thanks to Alan over there for letting us ride his pride and joy today. So how does this thing compare to its modern day equivalent? Now bear in mind I almost completely wimped out on even attempting a hot lap because I was so nervous of hitting jumps whilst in the low to mid rev range. But I decided in the interest of the video I'd give it a go. Even if I did have to resort to a couple of cheater lines here and there. I also decided not to push it too hard on the 450 as I felt that a win was in the bag no matter how bikes have indeed gotten better in the past 40 years. I hope you enjoyed this video guys and I hope you learned something new about this great British motorcycle. A massive thanks goes to Alan for letting us ride his bike today. And also a massive shout out goes to Mark Gibbons, 971 Monster, Phil Ellis and Muppet for sending in super thanks tips on last week's video. If you want to support what we do here a super thanks tip is a great way to help us go bigger and better with each and every video. As always guys a massive thanks to all of you for watching. Be sure to give it a like and share with your two stroke loving friends. And remember to subscribe to the channel if you want to see more like this in the future. My name's Max you've been watching 999 Laser. Until next time I'll see you at the track.