Rick Johnson’s Scrapbook P1 | Fox Feature

Presented by Fox Racing

Seven-time Motocross and Supercross Champion Ricky Johnson is not only a legend in our sport, but he also remains one of the. coolest and most down-to-earth guys on two wheels. During RJ’s heyday in the 1980s, the internet, and social media were the stuff science fiction movies were made of, so behind-the-scenes stories were few and far between. Having had Johnson on the SML Show previously, we know that he’s got a virtually endless supply of memories from his racing days, so we asked him to share some insight with us about this photo of him on a Yamaha in 1985…

“This photo is from 1985 at the Gainesville season opener. I had just won the 250 National Championship the year before and this was my first race with the number-one plate. Looking at this photo, I could tell that this was shot in turn two. You went around the big left-hand sweeper left-hander, and then you went into a tight right, and then would do a quick left and jump down into the rock quarry.

“This was also my first National in Fox Racing gear. I was part of the Sinisalo crew in 1984 and it was starting to get really weird. I think they were wanting to get out of the American market, and I also involved in a lawsuit with them. At the time, Sinisalo didn’t have a decent chest protector, so I wore a JT chest protector at Binghamton because it was so rocky. I covered all the JT logos and stuff like that, but they weren’t going to pay me because I wore that and they considered it a breach of contract.

“That off-season, I was racing in Sweden at the Motocross des Nations, and Pete Fox was there. He was only around 15 at the time, but he came up and introduced himself and told me that he’s always admired my style and this and that. He told me that he designed gear, and he pulled out his notebook and showed me some designs and asked if I would be interested in signing with him. Pete designed it with colored pencils and paper. It was pretty cool! Yamaha went from yellow bikes in 1984 to white in 1985 and he knew that that was coming and wanted to design that gear just for me.

“I saw his drawings and was like, ‘Yeah, I appreciate what you are doing.” To be honest, Fox Racing wasn’t the coolest at the time, but I was also familiar with his Pete’s uncle’s stuff because I ran a Fox Factory shock – a Fox air shock on my YZs – back when I was an amateur, and rookie pro. They were an enthusiastic but authentic brand. His dad rode. His uncle rode. They built bikes. They did all the different stuff, so I thought if I could bring a sense of cool to it, and Pete and Greg were both young and looking to take over the company, so it was a fun time.

“Fox offered me my first-ever signature line of gear, and that gave me a sense of a little ownership. I had a good time. We had a blast just creating different stuff. I went with all of Pete’s color schemes and stuff like that. I liked the bolder colors. and simpler designs that were not so busy, because everybody was trying to do all kinds of crazy shit at the time. Even with my helmets; if you notice the ones that my dad designed – my replica helmets – my dad always made them so that the goggle strap didn’t interfere with the paint scheme. They were bold designs that looked good from a 100 feet away, not just at two feet.

“I think we felt the same way about the gear. It was Pete’s idea to do the one side red, one side blue in 1986. I liked that gear a lot and I thought that looked really cool. They had to make me custom pants because I had a 31 waist, but I had to wear 34 pants because my legs were big. Even then, the shit was tight.

“The 1985 season was tough for me with Yamaha, because there was no production rule, but Yamaha fielded production bikes. The 1985 Honda works bikes were so good, and the Kawasaki works bikes were good, and so it was tough battling those guys. I sort of had the sophomore jinx while running the number-one plate. I thought I should be respected more, and I struggled on the bike. I had issues with the forks because all we had was a Simons anti-cap kit in it, and an Ohlins shock. That was it. There was no works crank, no works cylinder. We had Bud Asplen building pipes, and Kel Carruthers porting the cylinders. Other than that, man, we were as stock as it could get. That was tough.

“The next year, in 1986, I switched to Team Honda and my career took off. But yeah, in 1985 I think the best feeling was when Pete presented his ideas to me and told me what his vision was to do with me on board. You know what I mean? Fox Racing always had strong guys like Mark Barnett and the whole Northern California crew, but he wanted to go for a sense of style and I was stoked that he thought of me to do that.”

Next week: The switch to Honda.