Mind Blowing 2 Stroke Dirt Bike Collection Uncovered!

We have found one of the world's most impressive collections of super rare dirt bikes. In this video, the man behind the awesome VMX The End Fox Hill event will be giving us a tour around this treasure trove of factory machines. And we'll also be getting the lowdown and the gossip regarding the 2023 edition of the world's best two-stroke motocross event. Okay, so I'm back here with the king of vintage motocross, Dave King, Mr. VMX The End. And we're in one of the best Aladdin's cave of dirt bikes that I've ever seen. You reckon this might be the best collection in the UK, right? Undoubtedly. In the UK, this is the biggest collection of genuine works machines. I think we'll start over there. Number 17 bike, Josh Coppins. I want to say 96. So this was the first year that Josh came over to Europe to race. As far as I'm aware, he paid for it himself. He wasn't, you know, he wasn't paid for it to ride then. This bike then was already a year old. So this had been used in the GPs the year previous in 95. Nice piece of history, conventional forks, but a full on... So why is that a 125? 250. Factory Suzuki's were never as... Nobody built a bike like HRC. Factory Hondas were just on a different planet, but these factory Suzuki's were not far behind. And this one here, that's Manik Pervoets. There was one year that he was leading the series by a country mile and Stefan just chipped away, chipped away every week and eventually Manik finished second. I want to say that's a 95. I think that is. I've just seen an Aprilia over there actually. Look at that. Now they're rare. You don't see very many of those. You brought up a good point there. They're rare. Do you know why they're rare? There's a common theme with these bikes is generally they either weren't very good, they didn't make many of them, or they were hideously expensive. And I suspect that bike has got all three. For future collectors, that's what you want to be looking for. Stuff that was really expensive and exclusive, like the Cannondale. Yeah, I'd love to have a go in the Cannondale. Yeah, so if you've got one, contact Max. Yeah, definitely. Right, what have we got here then? Yeah, so Rob Herring. The fish. Yeah, Rob Herring. What a nice guy Rob is. His 96 250, which wasn't a full factory bike. It was like a kitted bike. No doubt though, very, very collectible, very, very special. I think one of the best looking bikes in here. That was the very 90s. Yes, very, very 90s. You've hit the nail on the head. It was of its era. In my opinion, the best looking bike in here is this one. This one, this one right here. This is this one is just all time classic. So this is brand new, lovely history, never been ridden. This was actually given to Jeff Stanton back in the day. And this sat in Jeff's trophy room. So this is a 96 250. So this is the one that sparked all of this. That's generally how it goes. You know, if you make a commitment to somebody and they know that you're not a messer. Where else are you going to find a brand new 96 CR250? Yeah, I doubt whether there's another one on the planet. Just jumping eras. Yeah, we've got the man of the moment. Yeah, the man of the moment for the VMX DN is Mike Brown. And me and Max were arguing this morning, and I said this was 2004. I said seven. And Max is right. This is Mike's Kaz Honda, but it's a four stroke. So we'll skip over that. Yeah, we'll skip it. Come back to the light side. Yeah, it's still very nice bike, twin piped, but it's a four stroke. Like I said, this is an absolute Aladdin's cave of treasures. Oh, the stuff everywhere. One of the best collections. Dave reckons the best collection in the country. Yeah. Extremely rare trials bike over there. Factory Honda trial. Yeah. Honestly, everywhere you look, there's stuff. There's obviously the memorabilia, the bikes. If you know of a collection like this and you think we should feature it, let us know in the comments down below where we should check that out. But what's that sign there, Dave? That's that. Yeah. Somebody pinch that. I'm not sure it was, but that's that's the best meeting on the planet. Yeah. So let's have a sit down. We're going to talk about the OK, Dave, so we've had a look at this insane collection, and I believe that some of these bikes are going to be at your event of the MXN Foxhills in August. Yeah, most of the in fact, all of the factory bikes will be at Foxhills all weekend long. Yeah, you'll be able to come along, have your photo taken with the bikes, just have a good look around and be nosy and see, you know, how our works bike is different to a production bike. Tell us about this year's event. Then obviously last year's event just went off. It was the best weekend of the year for us personally. I think for a lot of people, it just can't be the kind of festival feeling, the vibes, the racing, everything about it was awesome. So how are you going to do that again this year? Good question. We were lucky last year with the weather. Weather obviously with motocross is a huge part. And as you remember, it was blisteringly hot when it was sunburns around. It was it was just a great sort of party festival weekend, wasn't it? Which is what we want it to be. It's not just about the racing. People got to remember it's entertainment, it's a show. The racing is just a small part of it, especially, you know, for me, my focus is on entertaining people as well as the racing. Stevan Evert's world title winning 97 RC250, the first year of the aluminium frame, which if you remember, McGrath didn't like that bike. What's so special about this bike is as it came off the track, it's never been it's been in two collectors collections. It's never been mucked about with, which is how you want the bike straight from the track. It doesn't go any better than that. And then Fred Bolley, French rider, 99, I think that is world title bike. But the interesting thing about this, Fred won the world title on this bike, but Fred, I'm pretty sure, was like the second rider. He wasn't the A guy. He wasn't the A guy, no. Again, this bike came straight off the track into a collector's hands and here it is today. And they were just telling us some cool little facts about this bike as well earlier to do with the clutch here. We know it's Fred Bolley's bike because when he crossed the line at the final GP, through the bike down, we got a bent lever. Interesting with Fred, when I first got into this sport when I was like five or six, like the first few DVDs that we got, like the season review was the Pichon versus Bolley years. So to me, Fred Bolley was the man when I was a kid. There was RC and McGrath in the Supercross and Bolley and Pichon in the GPs and that's what me and my brother grew up watching on repeat. I just noticed another little thing on this Bolley bike, right? Laser helmets. That's where our name comes from because we used to wear laser helmets when we were kids and when we first set up the channel, we were like, no, no, no, laser. That's where it comes from. Think about how much is going on away from the racing and the legends that come not to race but just to have a few beers. I mean, some of the legends have beers and race. That name, Ryan. Yeah, like Ryan Villopoto. He's quite unique in that. He's like a modern day Graham Noyce. Tell us about some of the legends that are coming this year, riding and not riding. Okay, I might have to refer to my list because there's so many. Yeah, there's so many this year. So riding for Team America, we've got the same team as last year. We've got Mike Brown, Ryan Villopoto and Zach Osborne on different bikes this year. And the other American that's coming as our guest of honour is the one and only Mike LaRocco. Mike LaRocco. I was saying to you earlier, Mike LaRocco, the first motocross t-shirt I ever got when I was like five, Mike LaRocco t-shirt. So I'm looking forward to seeing Mike down there. Team England, we've got the rider that should have ridden last year for us, Tommy Sell. Tommy's now on Kawasaki. He's got a free rein deal where basically he can do what he likes. I can assure you Tommy is well up for it, really well up for it. Mel Pocock. Mel Pocock rode an absolute blinder last year for us. And Brad Anderson. How could you not have Brad Anderson on the team? I think the moment of the weekend for me was Moto 3 in the team race when Brad passed below. And the crowd just went wild. It was awesome. And then in the last Moto when he won it, didn't he? He won the Moto and he just threw the whips past the crowd down the hill. Team Northern Ireland, who finished third last year. That is Gordie Crockard again. How could Gordon not be on the team? Nev Bradshaw, as long as the knee. He's had that knee op, hadn't he? You probably know more about it than me. Like two weeks ago maybe. And Graham Irwin. That's a real solid team. Trouble is there's so many solid teams right the way through the event. The latest team that only came in last week is a team from Latvia. Mattis Caro, which I think you know. Yeah, former British champion. Yeah. Loris Frybergs, I think you pronounce his name. I'm not, I do remember Loris's name. I think he did 450 GPs, did he? Back in the mid 00s. But yeah, that's another solid team. Team from South Africa. There's just so many, so many guys. We couldn't make these videos without the support of our awesome sponsors. Puteline have products to lubricate, clean and protect your bikes. We use their MX9 oil in all of our two strokes. And when you're dealing with old and precious bikes like we're featuring today, you have to be very careful with the fuel that you put in them. Thankfully though, Puteline have this E10 fuel fighter additive that is specifically designed to protect the fuel system from the harmful corrosive effects of modern E10 fuel. I've included links and more info in the description down below. Thanks once again to Puteline for supporting what we do. Lurking in the back over there, we won't go into too much detail, but there's some brand new CR250s never been ridden. 2007. 2007, so the last of the Hondas. And a 125. And a 125. If they ever come up for sale, my name is up first for those. Obviously Mike Brain's been coming to the VMXDN for many years now. Good friend of ours. You get chatting people and I always ask the question, you know, have you still got any old bikes? And Mike said, yeah, sure I have. I've still got my total winning. This is the one. This is the one, the 2001. 2001, yeah. So this one was shipped over from Mike earlier this year. That was in Mike's personal collection back in Tennessee. Yeah, I mean, every KX of that era wanted to be that bike. We did a video with Nev Bradshaw on a KX125 a few years ago. He just picked up a KX125 and this was the look that he was going for with the build. And then when we did the video on the track, he was trying his hardest to look like Mike Brown. I even said it in the video. He's like, I'm going for a Mike Brown look today. Collector's dream again, straight from the rider that won the title to a collector. That's the way you want it to go, isn't it? Yeah, you don't want them to be, you know, used as a... Because a lot of these bikes did. A lot of these bikes were sold and went as field bikes. And 20 years ago, nobody wanted this stuff. Nobody wanted... Why would you want an old motocross bike when you can go out and buy a new one? Nobody saw the history in these special bikes. And then as the years have gone on, as the VMXDN, you know, as I created that 12 or 13 years ago, all of a sudden there's interest for it. And yeah, these bikes are still out there. It's not just the international team race this year. We've got the Wright Engineering national team, which has brought out riders that are sort of... Maybe they were pros sort of 10, 15 years ago and have sort of a bit out of the sport, but would like to come back in it. But they're not quite at that. They don't want to jump in at that Mike Brown level. Exactly, at the Mike Brown level. Yeah, because as we said earlier, it's a double edged sword for us. We want the good racing, the high level racing. Yeah, but these old guys don't really want to come back into it and race somebody like Brownie. Toe to toe with Brownie, yeah. And we've got guys like Christian Whatley. Karl Nunn is going to be making a return. He is on the SR75 Suzuki team. You made me laugh now. Sorry. SR75 Suzuki team. That's going to be a nice bike for sure. It is, yeah. Jeff's in. Jeff's doing the bikes for the national team race. I don't know who the other two riders are yet. So we've got two team races. We've got two team races, yeah. To make it more interesting. On the two team races, are the years of bikes different? No, exactly the same. Any two stroke up to and including 2002. But I have to say, and I give Wobbs's credit again, this second team race was Wobbs's baby. I was sort of dubious, but the way it's going, it's looking like a really good idea. So you've got the two team races. You've got Evo 125 where there was that Titanic race last year between your mate Neville and your mate Mike. And that this year is going to be spiced up with Brad Anderson's going to be on a Steve Plithero tuned 125. And then you've got the normal Evo classes all the way, and Super Evo. Ultra Evo. Yeah, all the way through the field. So plenty for to keep people entertained. For everyone. This is maybe one of the oldest ones in this room. Yeah, so this one I think is 1980. This one actually came through Jeff Stanton. Okay, it's got Johnny O's name on it. It's got Johnny O'Mara's name on it. It's also got Jim Holley's name. Yeah, because I only found this out very recently. I didn't realise that Johnny O'Mara got injured that year, and Jim Holley was the fill-in rider. Jeff Stanton sourced this for us. Just a really, really nice Mugen Honda. You don't find them. No, I've never seen a bike that looks like that before. I'll be brutally honest, that is horrifically ugly at the front. I know, it is. Do you know what, you're bang on there. That red engine just does nothing for me, and those scoops up at the top there look like something a six-year-old has made. But, you know, it's part of the evolution of motocross. That was back in the era when they were trying stuff. Yeah, exactly. That was in the era where they'd try anything. That was probably the first one to have the radiator. It would have been the first one to have the radiator right up high up on the top there. We've forgotten some of the big name stars that actually are going to be racing at Fox Hill in August. So, 1980s, 1990s, GP, British giant, Kurt Nicol coming over, and who was the other guys that we were talking about? David Knight. David Knight. Enduro legend. Is it Sir, hang on, Sir David Knight, isn't it? And he's teamed up with Danny McCanney, coming over from the Isle of Man. So, yeah, you know, can you imagine if it was a little bit sticky? David would be... If it was like 98. Oh, man. Isle of Man might win. God, yeah. Can you imagine? Yeah, no, please don't let it be like 98. Jeremy Van Horbeek coming over for the Belgian team. There's strong riders right the way through the field and just different eras. You know, you've got Jeremy Van Horbeek, for instance. He only finished GPs last year. Mike Brown finished, what, 15, 20 years ago. Whoever thought you'd see Kurt Nicol and Ryan Villopoto race the same race? I think Kurt actually said that last year, didn't he? Yeah. One other thing that's happened literally only in the last day is Yamaha, as a global company, have come on board and they are sending over Michele Ranlaudi and Alessio Chiodi, and Chiodi will ride a full factory 93 OW250 Yamaha at the event. That is awesome. I remember back to last year, people were asking for him to come. Yeah, I know. He's been, of the European guys, he is probably the most asked for guy, because a lot of people remember him at Fox Hills. Yeah. I certainly do. Yeah. That's going to be wicked seeing that. Dave Thorpe's 1989 RC500. This is the one that kind of started off, not this exact bike, right? But this era is what started you off in your journey. I have a sister bike to this, only two in existence. This one is far more complete than the bike. Although I bought my bike from Dave, the bike was never, never complete. There was lots of parts missing. This one is 100%, even down to the grips, 100% complete and it runs. Yeah. And this was the bike that Dave left Honda for and rode in 1990. So you've got the 89 and the 90, so chronological order. Yeah. So Dave went to Kawasaki in 1990. And to be fair, this was an all new bike. So the perimeter frame, very radical for, you know, back in 1990, the engine was pretty much well proven because that was the same engine that came from the previous year's bike that Kurt Nickel rode, the tubular frame bike that Kurt came second on. So it was a good bike. It must've been a huge culture shock, but don't get me wrong. This was a good bike. This bike it was a factory Kawasaki, you know, it was a hand-built bike. To have them both next to each other as well, like that is a very unique part of history that lucky enough to see here today. And now this one, we know all about this one. Of course, you've got the, the, uh, just the unobtainium every collector's dream. Andrew Malab's 1985 RC 500 that carried the number one plate from the previous year, completely original down to tires, everything, just a complete and utter time warp. So we've got a full video on this one. So, uh, I'll leave a link to that in the description down below. If you want to know all about this bike, how much it might cost, everything like that, check out the link down below. Just some oddities that I picked up over the years, the HRC team back in the eighties was sponsored by Pirelli. As you can see, always the stickers were always on the front and back mud guard, but the riders had choice of tires. The riders were given a free choice. They didn't have to use Pirelli tires. So this one I think has got, uh, actually I was just saying cross on the front, but yeah, with a Metzeler on the back. And I think the 89 has got Dunlop's on, which is the same as the, the, the bike that I bought off of Dave. So they, the riders obviously made that decision themselves of what they felt was right for, for the conditions. Am I allowed to quickly run through the sponsors? Yeah, go for it. They make it all happen. I'm going to have to refer to my, my notes. So, so as I said, yeah, so we've got Honda through the John Banks group. We've got Wright Engineering, Sbriggs Commercials, RaceFX, Offroad Only To You, Madison, ESP Graphics, ASA Scaffolding, Garland Offroad, Apico DSG, Farrows of Bristol, Bickers Action, Stebbings Car, Supermarket, SC Sport Homes and GearTech. That's in no particular order. They're just fabulous companies that put their money into something that we love and we should support those companies. Personally, our story at the vets is quite long. We've been, 2011 was the first year we went, which was the third year of the original event. Yeah. And I think you did a promo for Puterling. Yeah. Who are now actually one of our sponsors again, which is full circle. Yeah. Oh, wow. Which is yeah. I'll do a plug for my sponsor. Yeah, no, absolutely. No, no, we did a video for Puterling back in the day and that's the first time we came and then we got hooked straight away and came back many times through the years. And you've been back every year. And then last year was just personally my favourite edition of the event ever. It was unreal. You know, as I've said to you before, you will have free reign because you've always been very good to us. We will give you whatever you want. If you want to put a GoPro on whoever, you know, you haven't even got to ask. So we will be there again this year. We hope to see you guys there. When is it, Dave? 26th, 27th of August and buy your tickets on Eventbrite. Don't leave it too late because it might sell out. It got hectic last year, didn't it? There was a lot of people. We filled 70 acres. So, yeah, be quick. We'll hopefully see you there, Dave. Can't wait. Yeah. Thanks, Max. Thank you.