Images, Sounds, and Smells

And time travelling

May 04, 2026

Memories are tied to our senses. At any given time, memories that were buried deep can be dragged out of the cobweb-filled recesses of your mind by one of your senses.

I spent a lot of time around motocross when I was younger. My family owned a race track, and I spent quite a bit of time there. I also took a lot of photos of motocross races early on in my photography journey.

Vintage wheels

I spent most of Saturday at a vintage motocross race. AHRMA is the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association. And the members collect, restore, and race old bikes. Some of the bikes are over 50 years old.

Memory lane

The distinct sound of the older 2-stroke engines, along with the smell of the exhaust from the oil/gas mixture they run, transported me back in time. Walking through the pits looking at the bikes was a trip down memory lane.

I could close my eyes, breathe in the smells, listen to the engines, and feel like I had gone back in time between 40 and 50 years.

Vintage bikes I remember from my childhood. Some that I would sit on in the showroom, wishing I were old enough to be able to ride them. European brands like Ossa, Bultaco, and Maico were big names in the 70’s and early 80’s before the Japanese companies began to dominate the sport.

Full circle

When I began photographing motocross on a regular basis, the bikes were a little newer than some of these. However, reality check, the late 90’s and early 2000’s bikes I did photograph were also racing this weekend and are also considered vintage.