Y'a toujours un document qui ressort  des archives ... 🤭

A voir le proto je dirais  vers  '75-77




A la BAJA '88 , check avec un mécano.....

Moto Verte, en 79 je crois (le document est à la cave), avait convié Larry Roeseler et Al Baker pour une séance de roulage. Sous le grand arbitrage de "not' maître", Mallet alors rédacteur en chef.
Certaines photos sont passées à la postérité.

Tout à fait !  j'ai posté tout ça plus au début du post  😉

D'ailleurs j'ai fait agrandir et tiré en litho une de ces photos.....en bonne place dans le salon

je m'en rappelle aussi, magnifique photo, super le futal noir PJ1  👍 

Greetings,

I trust this letter finds all of you in the very best of health and spirits. I live in Southern California and I am the owner of one of Al Baker's 1982 XR500R's. I purchased it from a man in Hesperia, California, who bought it from Al before he passed away. When i bought the bike, i did not know who Al Baker was.

Since i do not own a truck, i rode the bike home - 25 miles through the open desert - to my home, which rests on the edge of a mountainside. I only have to go over the hill, behind my home, to reach Hesperia and the Mojave Desert.

While cleaning up the XR500R, i discovered that Al had powder-coated the brake hubs bronze. I tried to preserve everything, so i simply sprayed a satin clear over the bronze hubs.





The bike had been in storage several years when i purchased it on February 3, 2020. Since then, i have ridden it several hundred miles.

I am attaching a few photos for you to enjoy. This one with the graffitti in the background. was taken in an irrigation canal near Hesperia, on the ride home to my house.



I am replacing only broken or damaged parts. The goal is to race the XR500R at nearby Glen Helen Raceway.



I have applied race number '642' in honor of Al Baker and Jack Johnson's 1982 Baja 500 win.



Wishing you all the best...

Great story for your bike which have an another life on the trails.

Some images i found that may interest you..

The chain sliders on the 1982 XR500R are hard to find, so i started making them by hand...

Je suppose que la couleur blanche et la plaque phare ont été ajoutées car le modèle 81-82 n'a pas ces spécificités.

I am told that Al was fond of the Mugen white frames, like Johnny O'Mara's #1 ME125. 



This bike was powder coated white sometime in it's lifetime, I assume by Al.  I have no plans to paint it red.

This is what the bike looked like the day I bought it and rode it home:



Since that time, I have only cleaned and replaced damaged or broken parts, but the color scheme has not been altered.

Photos from yesterday's ride...

Looking out over my home:



Talking with local hang-gliders at about 6,000 feet elevation:



This wooden bridge - 10 minutes from my home - leads to a trail that opens into the Mojave Desert:



On the trail leading into the desert:



Hope you are all in the best of health and spirits...

Hello,
interesting bike ! Could u tell us more about the red points upon screws.
Are they kind of racing control markings ?
Thanks for sharing  😀

Each time a bolt is torqued, it is painted to indicate work on that part is completed. Its how we have always done things...