Inspired by a Husky 250-360

[Fire-medic]

If you are 60+ and raced or rode dirtbikes growing-up, then you have met this bike's ancestral progenitor on the hare scrambles tracks, woods, or deserts. Husqvarna, owned by BMW, has released this concept, the "Moab."

You're gonna have to use the link to see it, whenever I try to upload it, 'no-go!'

http://www.webbikeworld.com/husqvarna/moab/

More of a poser than a hard-use dirtbike, it appears to be based on the BMW G650GS, but the facts that the tires are unsuitable for really-hard dirt bike use, the fenders don't offer enough clearance for mud, and those engine cases & covers are going to be very expensive to replace, will likely affect the sales of this bike in the least. Look how-many Jeeps never see significant off-road use, look how-many Hummers there are in your mall parking lots. Image and theme count for so-much more these days than actual hard-core off-road use. If you rode a 305 Scrambler and lusted after one of those Huskys w/a polished-alloy & red tank, BMW wants you to buy one of these!

For cowtrailing and road use, I am sure they are great, but I actually prefer the looks of the Denny Berg 305 Scrambler-inspired custom he did recently:

http://motorcyclenews.us/?p=69

This Honda 750 twin really nails the 305 Scrambler look in so-many ways! My first bike was a 305 Scrambler, and I have many fond memories of using it both as a road bike and off-road trying to keep up with my friends' two-strokes while living in MI. I trail-rode it and used it in the sand & gravel pits outside of Battle Creek and south of Lansing, and after a year of beating on it, I sprung for a real dirt bike, a Yamaha RT-2 Enduro which was like moving from a Curtiss P 40 Warhawk (workhorse of Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers patrolling the Burma Road) to a Lockheed P 38 Lightning (the Fork-Tailed Devil to the Axis powers pilots).

Be sure to check-out the short track look Berg bike at the link too.

For the history geeks:

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/chenn.html

http://www.warbirdforum.com/clc.htm

http://www.456fis.org/P-38_LOCKHEED.htm

My uncle, a civil engineer after WW II, flew the reconaissance P 38 (known as the 'F 4' and 'F 5') in Europe.

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[The Beekeeper]

The P-38 has always been my favorite aircraft from the WWII era, like FM stated the German called these beasts the "fork tailed devils" for good reason!.........I like the story on how they found a few of these buried in the Polar Ice 250 miles from where the pilots of this small squadren in an emergency set them down on the snow pack in 1945 and recovered them in the 80s I believe, now completly restored at least one is operational and are the only surviving examples left in the world........Correct me if I'm wrong FM........................Tom.

 

[Fire-medic]

W/o going online to find a registry, I think there are a few, a very few, left capable of flight. P 51's are common by comparison.

National Geographic did a story on the Arctic planes, the amount of snow/ice coverage on top of them was amazing. It took years as I recall to work the site. I think the Smithsonian was also involved.

OK, I did search:
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/FEATURE-glaciergirl-backstory.html?c=y&page=1

For the story of Glacier Girl?s restoration and first flight, see Air & Space/Smithsonian, March 2004. There is mention made in the article of several P 38 restorations which have been done.

 

[The Beekeeper]

Thanks for the link FM, I certainly had a few facts skewed..................That's what I get for running off of memory..................:biglaugh:.....................Tom.

 

[Fire-medic]

Now, with the internet, anyone can come-up with plenty of useless/interesting facts, depending on how you see them. The trick is in being able to prove or to disprove it.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

I absolutely LOVE the P38, coolest plane ever...

If you never heard one at idle you owe it to yourself to click on the first you tube video below.


There are a few, maybe less than 10, flyable P-38s around, The count depends on what they call Flyable Versus Airworthy, as well as some listed as "on display" are just shells while a small number of "Displays" are 100% airworthy....Some are shown as "under restoration" that are being brought back from dead or merely refurbished from already flyable to just plain better.
The Redbull P38 is the probably most pristine and flyable one in the world, as Redbull went deep pocket on the rstoration, but even it is shown as "static display" even tho it's been flown at a few air shows after restoration before it went to Austria. I want to say there are around 8 or 9 in the world that are flown regularly.
7 at one time appeared at an airshow in California back in '08 or so.

Warbird registry shows over 50, but those can be anything from a flyable to an unrestorable derelict, in any condition. I got tired of clicking on the individual registrations to see what their status was; although I did notice another RedBull owned one in restoration so that means there'll be one more flying eventually.

My brother is married to the daughter of Lefty Gardner Of CAF and "P-38 White Lighting" fame.

I had the pleasure of going up in the thing back in "94...And it wasn't just a joy ride; it was a ride along when he did the full stunt performance at a small air show in Austin Texas. It truly was the thrill of a lifetime I wouldn't trade anything for. It was equipped with a tiny back seat, which is how he taught his son to fly it and gave a lot of ride alongs as well...

Lefty had bought it out of salvage in the '60's (along with a few others over the years, including a bunch of Stearmans he made his living with crop dusting, as well as a P-51 or two)....... flew it in the Reno air races successfully for many years and did lots of air shows.

It was subsequently belly landed due to engine failure while his son was flying it, put in storage while trying to accumulate funds to fix it, and then sold to RedBull, Restored in Texas at Ezell Aviation and then sent to Austria where RedBull keeps their toys...

Incidentally word is that Glacier Girl sold for $7,000,000 to a Texas oil man after the original owner died. I think Redbull Spent maybe a 1.5Mil for the crashed one they bought, based mostly on provenance and history of that particular plane.

http://p38whitelightnin.com/ Has a really excellent read of when his son belly landed it.

Here is a link when Lefty was flying it, he died a few years ago, he was a bomber pilot in WWII, but always wanted to fly the fighters, had to buy his own to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQfAWFHHFA

Here's what it looks like now that RedBull has it. Several Million Dollars later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQp-WcIlIFI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO0yE-oZWTs&feature=related

 

[The Beekeeper]

What an awsome machine!............Thanks for the vids Rusty, how cool to have known someone who has piloted one of these birds and bomber history to boot!..........listening to the stories they have shared would be fun!.............And to actually get the oppertunity to go up in a P-38..............It would be like winning the lotto to some of us!................You are indeed a lucky man Rusty.........................Tom.

 

[VMax-Mike]

Thanks alot now i have to buy wings and a big gat for my vmax. LOL. I actuly dont like to fly. I think i would love it if i was the one doing the flying. Control issue I gess? Im flying to vagas with my son to meet up with family for xmas and not looking forword to the flight. Can you say lots of vodka. Before during and after. My mother in-law dont like it when i fly ether. LOL,

 

[RaWarrior]

If anyone has some awesome plane, I'd go for a ride, lol.

As far as the bike.....the "looks without intent" is nothing new. Once SUVs started coming with "all wheel drive" instead of true 4x4, it was the OEM's realizing that very few people ever take them off the pavement and the worst they'll have to deal with is a snowy road, if it happened to be sold in the north.

A lot of the "adventure" bikes are guilty of this as well. I didn't realize a $20,000, 1200cc, 650lb BMW counted as a "dirtbike". They know that 95% of people who buy them will never leave pavement, and the 5% that do might take it up a dirt fire road or something that really any bike could handle, and the bikes are catered accordingly. Just enough concessions to give the illusion of a globe-trotter do-it-all bike, but without any of the actual ability. Some of the smaller cc bikes flip the other way....a dirtbike with a tag holder, headlight, and a seat that would cleave you in two on the first pothole. To me if it's more than a 650, it doesn't belong off-road, since at that point you have plenty of power for the dirt, any more is just extra weight and harder to manage.

That Husky's the same thing. People dig the look, and probably to some extent the notion(albeit false, or greatly exaggerated) that they could hit the trails if they wanted to.