I have always liked being a little different, I like to think, original.
Back in the early 70's, 71 to be exact, I lived in a small town in central Kentucky and had just got bitten by the MX bug. At that time, there was one motorcycle shop in town, a Honda dealer in a hardware store. Honda didn't make a MXer. I went to the closest mult line MC shop which was 100 miles away and bought a Penton 125. I was the first guy in town to have one. I got a lot of flak from all my riding buddies for riding something that you couldn't get parts for quickly. About 3 months later, there were 4 other
Penton riders in my town. If we needed parts, we would either all load up in the car and go get them or who ever went, would take orders. It proved to
build a good comraderie between us, but also I learned to work on it, to improvise, to make do with what I could muster up.
The next bike I bought was a brand new 72 DKW! Same engine as the Penton
and overall, pretty much the same bike except for the leading link forks. I got to say that every race I went to when I owned that DKW, it was the only DKW there!
I did well on it and ended up getting sponsored by the
new Yamaha shop in town. I rode Yamahas for a couple of seasons but the old "being different" bug got me again and I bought a 73 Bultaco 125 Pursang.
That one was probably the worst decision I made, not that I needed parts for but just for the simple fact that it shifted on the right and brakes on the left and I never quite got use to that deal.
In 74 I went back to Yamaha, I was racing in MS. and while I did great on the bike as far as results, it took every cent I had to keep it running. I was
on the 4th oversize piston when I traded it in on a 75 Bul 250 Pursang.
There again, the closest Bul dealer was 150 miles away but as it turned out,
I never bought one part for it and I raced it hard for one season.
Well to shorten this diatribe up a bit, in 03 I bought a KTM 200exc and while its been a good, reliable bike, I would go to a race and its a sea of orange. In Feb, I was thinking I needed a new bike and to tell you the truth I never was happy with the linkless suspension of the KTM and its handling. It was good but I thought there was better out there. I found out that there was a small machine shop in Tuscaloosa who sold GG's. I went to pay him a visit and bought my 06 250 ec. While I don't really think the shop I got it from has much in the way of parts, I'm surely not worried especially since we now have the internet and this great site and all the available info here.
So while I would like to see a little more effort on the factory's part to promote themselves, it kind of makes me feel good to go to an event and be the only GG there. I guess I don't like to be one of the "sheeple".