TMX founder hoping for a Christmas miracle - can you help?

By Team TMX on 18th Dec 23

News Motocross

One of the main men responsible for bringing TMX to fruition back in the late-seventies, Mr David Dewhurst, is asking readers to help him locate his old race bike - a 1974 Mk11 Ossa Phantom that he raced very successfully in North West AMCA events during 1975 and '76 before TMX was born.

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David Dewhurst's Ossa in all its glory - do you know where it is today?

The bike is unique because of the extensive modifications he made to it in the hopes of improving its performance. In an era when everyone was heavily modifying their machines to try and keep up with Honda's new Elsinore, David pulled out his hacksaw and became a design expert.

The rear subframe was cut and welded to allow the shocks to be angled forward, and, more significantly, a steel fuel tank was welded up to sit where the airbox was originally located. The front forks were also modified with Schrader valves and a balance tube to provide air springing.

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Does this set-up ring any bells (jingle or otherwise)?

The bike was certainly no engineering masterpiece, but in his defence, a lot of riders, and for that matter, factories in the mid-seventies, were all trying to blindly design a path to the future of motocross.

David would love to track this bike down to see what later owners made of my early foray into bike design. If you can help then please drop our editor a message at suttytmx@gmail.com and he'll do a little Xmas matchmaking.

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