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Very early Venezuela pictures


Paul Mihalka

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Paul Mihalka

A friend from Venezuela sent me some pictures related to my I think very first race, on my street Matchless.

 

I'm in the center # 73:

 

img917.jpg

 

I won second place:

 

img096.jpg

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Even without the hint, I figured you were #73. It's amazing how the human brain recognizes faces. This must have been taken around 1950.

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I'm sure you were excited to see these photos. They are wonderful!

 

Looking at your boots, were they specific to riding? The leather looks soft in texture, no? How would you rate the gear you used back then?

 

As for the evolution of helmets, was that state of the art back then?

 

Nice trophy! Do you still have it?

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Paul Mihalka
I'm sure you were excited to see these photos. They are wonderful!

 

Looking at your boots, were they specific to riding? The leather looks soft in texture, no? How would you rate the gear you used back then?

 

As for the evolution of helmets, was that state of the art back then?

 

Nice trophy! Do you still have it?

 

Boots? Riding and whatever. Riding gear? Any leather jacket, any gloves, bluejeans/khakies, any motorcycle helmet.

 

Looking at the pictures I surprised myself seeing how fast progress was made. Previous pictures were 1951.

 

This is 1952:

 

or_AJS_350.jpg

 

1953:

 

or_velo_peru_1.jpg

 

1954:

 

or_Gilera_1_1.jpg

or_equipo_Gilera.jpg

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Paul, you really were a stud! Bet you spent a lot of time signing autographs for the ladies--more than that we won't ask about.

 

 

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beemerman2k

Wow Paul. Great stuff! :thumbsup:

 

You had to have some gonads to be racing on those things in that kind of gear. I don't want to know what wipeouts were like. Come to think of it, you gotta have a pretty big pair to race on today's machinery as well :eek:

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Paul,

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing. They (and you) look great.

 

Er..what was kept in that cup? You both seem to be holding it at arm's length

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Paul Mihalka
Wow Paul. Great stuff! :thumbsup:

 

You had to have some gonads to be racing on those things in that kind of gear. I don't want to know what wipeouts were like. Come to think of it, you gotta have a pretty big pair to race on today's machinery as well :eek:

 

Going down was less scary then compared to today. The bikes were slower, the "tracks" (streets) were slower, the tires let go at half the speed of today. During my racing I slid on my butt three times and each time I got up and finished the race.

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