Words: Rick Land

Photos: Various Photographers, see captions.

Why am I writing this story? – Let me tell you what happened!

The Trials Guru asked me what is Brand X? How to answer that? It’s simple, yet complicated.

So here you go…

I was recently greatly honored to have been the recipient of one of the Trials Guru VIP caps and decals from John Moffat at Trials Guru. I had also received some decals from another guy, Bernie Schreiber, so I thought I would dress up the nameplates on the front of my bikes with these new graphics.

Upon completing the project, I sent a picture to both John and Bernie to thank them, and also so they could see what I had done with the decals they had shared with me. I really didn’t think much more about it, but something caught John’s interest when he saw the name on the plate, ‘Brand X’. He sent me a message inquiring who or what is Brand X? When I told him he said it sounds like there’s a story there, and wanted to know if I’d share it? So I thought sure, why not? I’d be happy to.

I had explained to John that I’m ‘Brand X’, it’s a nickname given to me by some friends long ago in the sport. As I started typing this, I realized that Brand X is much more to me than just a nickname, a graphic, or a motorcycle. To me, it’s something special that takes me and hopefully others that were around northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri during the years of 1974-76, back to a special time of Observed Trials in the USA when we witnessed participation in the sport like we haven’t seen since.

How to start all this? I suppose a little information about me is in order.  My name is Rick Land, and I’ve been around the trials scene here in the USA for fifty years now. I started riding in 1969 at age 9 on a little 65cc street bike. When I was around twelve or thirteen, my Dad purchased a Yamaha 125 enduro for me, and that got me started in off road riding. Sometime the next year my Dad and I went to watch a local trials event, out of curiosity, just to see what Observed Trials involved? After watching the event, there was no doubt I had caught trials fever, and shortly thereafter the Yamaha was traded in for a Honda TL125. I bet there’s a few of you out there that have cut their trials teeth on a TL125, isn’t there?

I spent every day of the summer of ‘74 riding the Honda in my backyard or in a wooded lot about a half mile from our house. One day, to my surprise, I encountered a couple of other kids in those woods, and they also had trials motorcycles. One had a TL125, the other a Montesa Cota 247. But the best part was that besides finally having someone to ride with in the woods, they both could drive, and one had a three rail motorcycle trailer; which meant I could go along with them to practice at the rock quarry where the local trials club held monthly events.

During this time the little Honda served its purpose and was a great bike to learn on.  That September my buddies asked me if I wanted to go to a two day trials event in Kansas City? The event was the First Annual Quarry Cup Trials, hosted by the Mid America Trials Team or M.A.T.T.  This event has now become the longest consecutive running two day Trials event in North America. It was my very first Novice Class ride; back then we only had three classes, Novice, Amature and Expert. This inaugural event was won by the National Champion at the time, Lane Leavitt. I watched him and the other top riders that weekend, and it inspired me to improve. I kept riding Novice though the rest of the year, and my skills were improving but my Dad was seeing something that I wasn’t; the Honda was already holding me back, I was improving that quickly.

In early 1975, February I believe, we were getting ready to go to a trials but my Dad had a surprise for me. I wouldn’t be riding the Honda at this event; he had brought home a brand new Yamaha TY250 from the dealer, for me to ride in the event. Here’s the hook, I wasn’t sponsored and no, he hadn’t purchased the bike, and no it wasn’t stolen either. My Dad had purchased a few bikes from this dealer over the years, and had a good relationship with them; and he had noticed the TY had been on the showroom floor for quite some time.  The TY was a new Trials bike designed by Mick Andrews, and just released by Yamaha but everyone at that time, that knew anything about trials, knew the Spanish bikes were the bikes to have for trials, so the Yamaha sat, as it seemed nobody was interested in it.

I still to this day have no idea what my Dad told the dealer or how he convinced them, to let his kid ride a brand new bike, in an off road event but he did. My Dad also stressed to me not to scratch it because it wasn’t ours, sure no problem!

We arrived at the event, I was anxious to sign in and ride the new bike. I had plans now that my Dad didn’t know about. When I signed in I moved up a class to Amateur, why not right? Even though I had never won the Novice class, my thinking was that with this new better bike I could compete in Amateur with no problem. My Dad had his doubts but agreed to let me ride the higher class. Those doubts were quickly erased at the end of the day when the scores were tallied. My first ride in the Amateur class, on a bike I had never ridden before, I had won by over 20 points. Hmmm, lucky kid is what everyone was thinking I’m sure. How could this be? The next day, we washed the bike, cleaned it up, and back to the Yamaha dealer’s showroom it went, along with my first place trophy – they wanted to display in the window by the TY.

This went on for a couple of months, pick up the TY on Friday, ride the trials on Sunday, clean it and back to the dealer on Monday with the trophy. Out of probably eight rides total in Amateur, I won every event except two I believe, all on the stock TY.

Now we’re in the summer of 1975, it’s only been a year since I witnessed my first trials event. My Dad had now purchased the TY250 for me, the TY and I were meant for each other; it fit me well and enhanced my riding style. I learned how to use its faster revving motor, tighter turning radius and its penchant for one of my favorite techniques, the floating turn.  About this time, I was approached by the two top riders in the area, both of whom I watched riding the expert class at that first Quarry Cup the previous year. They told me I should move up and ride Expert with them, they had talked it over and they thought I was ready for the move. I had serious doubts about their judgment, remember I had only been in trials for not quite a year, and had only been on the Yamaha for maybe six months. But I thought what the heck? I did it, moved up to Expert, the top class at the time, all within a year of starting to ride trials.

These two guys were the top riders in the club that hosts the Quarry Cup 2 Day Trials, the Mid America Trials Team, or MATT for short. A little background on these two characters, one of the riders was John Miller, everyone called him JB. He is the founder of the MATT club. The other guy was Dale Malasek, he is the guy that did the Action Videos of World championship Trials Rounds back in the 80s and 90s, and later became the GasGas importer for Trials motorcycles for a couple of decades here in the USA.

Dale and JB became my riding partners, and we spent many weekends in the Expert, and later on in the Master Class riding together in every trial we could get to around this part of the country. It was a blast and I learned a lot from both of them. Dale was the one that took me to my first National Trials Competition in Colorado in 1975. The Mid America Trials Team became my home club back in the 70s, I spent so much time with them they became like family; even though I was from Topeka Kansas they always, and still do welcome me with open arms. They were and are quite the group of people, they were always doing something innovative with the sport. But they also had another fun little thing going; almost everyone seemed to have a nickname of some sorts. Everyone knew each other by these names, the scorecards had the names on them, and even the scoreboard had the nicknames on it. Everyone knew who was who by their nickname.

Dale was known as the ‘Rubber Duck’ or just ‘Ducky’ back then, and JB – never one to be out done, he had quite the nickname that showed up on the scoreboard one day, ‘Wil E. Everdab’! And no he didn’t dab very often, so it was a fitting name! But one day, and I can’t remember the exact specifics, if someone called me this, or if it just showed up on the scoreboard, I was now called ‘Brand X’.

It was JB that gave me this name, and when I asked why or what it meant they said it was because I rode a ‘Brand X’ or a generic motorcycle, in other words my Yamaha. You see at that time; I was the only top rider in this part of the country on a Japanese manufactured Trials motorcycle.  Most were on Bultacos, a few others on Ossa and Montesa, but no Yamahas. The Yamaha really stood out among all the Spanish bikes so the name stuck, and I was proud of it.  It was even printed in articles in the trials paper of the time here in the USA called The Plonkers Press.

That was the beginning of Brand X, but I will say that no real disrespect was meant, it was all in the name of good fun and camaraderie. Just for fun, while typing this, I actually looked up to see if there was a definition of Brand X? What I found is funny, and I’m sure it’s what JB and Dale meant when comparing my Yamaha to their Bultacos.  Here’s what popped up with the search: “A competing brand or product not referred to by name but implied to be of inferior quality.”  I love it, yep that was my Yamaha back then, but many superior Bultacos would fall prey to the inferior ‘Brand X’ Yamaha.

From 1976 through 1977 my Dad took me to some National Trials events. Riding with the caliber of riders that were present at those events helped me improve. In 1977 I finished in the top ten in the Championship class at the final round in Colorado. I’m still very proud of that finish, as at that time I had only been riding trials for a little over three years.

I didn’t compete in another National event for seven years. Then in 1985 I was able to attend some of the events, and within a few years, I had managed to achieve another top ten event finish in the Championship Class. Trials had changed, and events were much different from when I had last competed at the National level during the 70s. From the 70s though the 2000s I competed in many Local, State, and Regional events, as well as winning two Class National Championships in the 2000s.

Lets fast forward now from 1976 to 2013. My son had purchased a very well used 1974 TY250 at a yard sale. After having it for a while he decided it should be with Dad, since I had ridden one back in my younger days, I was thrilled to receive the TY. The thought of getting to experience riding a TY again lit a fire in me. I had been reading about how the vintage trials events were taking off across the pond, and now having a vintage bike I was even more inspired to get the TY running again.

I wanted to get going with the project. I tore the TY down, and went through it bringing everything back up to standards.  I did some basic modifications I read about to update the old bike a little, like changing the footpeg position, and updating the rear shocks. Other than that the bike was basically in stock form right down to the paint job that I did myself. While prepping the tank for paint, I came up with the idea to bring back the ‘Brand X’ name. I had some Brand X graphics made, and I put one on top of the tank and sealed it with clear coat…Brand X was back.

As I began riding and competing on the TY, I started thinking about things I could do to improve the performance. I contacted my very good friend Jon Stoodley and asked for his assistance in this area. Jon is a tuning Guru, check out his Gearhead Alerts on the Trials Guru website and facebook.

Jon instructed me to do some basic measurements in the motor, and send the cylinder, head, piston, and intake to him; and he would work it over for me. When I received everything back from Jon, and after careful studying of the work done, I assembled the motor. The reason I was looking over Jon’s work with the motor was so I could try and understand what had been done, and why the work had the effect it did on how the motor now ran?

I bombarded Jon with questions about what was done and why. As Jon found out, I’m a very curious person about all things mechanical. This all kicked off what has been a great friendship between Jon and I with lots of whys, how comes and what ifs through the years. Jon even sent me literally boxes of books covering everything from basic engine function, to advanced motor modification, carburetion, frame building, design and modification. I read them all and had even more questions…good thing Jon enjoys teaching!

As I was now fully committed to all things vintage in trials and with Jon’s careful tutoring, the A Model TY started progressing getting better and better. I then began to watch for what had been my second TY250, the dark Blue 1976 model, and in 2015 I hit the jackpot! I found one for sale in Denver Colorado, the gentleman that had it was only the second owner and the bike was original. We met halfway between Denver and Wichita in western Kansas and the deal was made, I had my second Brand X Yamaha!

The second TY was quickly brought up to speed to match the work that had been done on the first bike. I enjoyed riding both bikes in local events, but as we all know in the vintage world there’s always that desire for something better, I always wanted a Yamaha Majesty! Who doesn’t right? Try and find one of those for sale in the USA! Only one option, build my own.

Around 2017 after many long hours of research on everything I could find, Majesty related, that may give me a clue as to what was done to transform a regular TY, into a Majesty. I felt I had a fair understanding of what frame modifications had to be done. So I set off into building a frame jig to hold everything in alignment, and go about the work of cutting the frame apart, and putting it back together again all the while maintaining proper alignment of the frame. But before cutting apart one of my precious TY’s frames, I purchased a frame off eBay as the victim of my wild idea. After completing the Majesty modifications to the extra frame, it was time to take a bike apart, and transfer everything to the experimental frame, the Yellow bike was chosen.

Upon assembling everything in the experimental frame it was time for a test ride. The difference was quite noticeable, and the bike handled phenomenally! I liked it! Now I have no way to know exactly what was done to the first generation Majesty frames but from my research, and what I felt while riding the bike, I had to be very close! The Yellow Bikes frame was now modified to my new specifications, and the first of what I now call the ‘JSE Brand X Majesty’ was born. I included Jon Stoodley’s ‘JSE’ logo which stands for Jon Stoodley Engineering which I thought was fitting as he was instrumental in helping with the engine work, and also in answering my endless barrage of questions. After completing the Yellow TY, the Blue 76 model was to follow closely behind, with the same modifications.

I stamped the ‘74 frame Brand X 01, and the ‘76 frame is stamped Brand X 02. After completing the frame work, the Yellow ‘74 went through one more change. I always wanted a bike with the factory Yellow frame and a tank with the black speed block pattern, reminiscent of the factory racing Yamahas of the 1970s.

 The ‘74 was once again stripped down, frame and tank painted, with the speed block pattern on the tank, no decal. The Blue ‘76 retains the original paint scheme as it was my favorite of all the twinshock TY’s. The Brand X Majestys continue to evolve, although at a much slower pace now than in the beginning. There’s very little that’s been untouched as I continue to experiment and try different ideas.  They are true one off special bikes, even if they don’t appear so. I wish I would have had them back in the 70s, wouldn’t that have been grand?

Jon Stoodley / JSE Trials

Jon Stoodley, while a man of many talents and skills in all things mechanical has one other great talent, he’s an artist. Jon has gifted me with copies of some of his pen and ink drawings which are very good.

When I purchased a trailer to haul my special Brand X bikes, I thought – I need something ‘Brand X’ on the side of the trailer. Back in 1975 I helped do a trials demonstration with the MATT club over in Kansas City Missouri, it was called Yamaha Dirt Days, hosted by Yamaha and naturally featuring their bikes. A member of the MATT club ’Wild Bill Milliken’ (there’s a nickname again) was there taking photos of us, and took one of me doing a big floater turn. Jon was able to do an outstanding pen and ink drawing of that picture, the graphic company was then able to transfer that into their program and the Brand X logo was formed. That drawing is now what is on my trailer.

So, now you see how Brand X has evolved through the years – from a teenage kid back in the mid 70s, to a tank decal, a trailer graphic, to very special vintage bikes, and to now – let’s just say a sixty-plus year old guy – on his old bikes. To me, ‘Brand X’ is much more than all those things; I hope Brand X is a representation of what observed trials was like back in the 1970s, and that era of the sport. And for the folks that were around when The Ducky, Wil E. Everdab and Brand X, battled weekly for top bragging rights, and be a reminder to people of those special times back in the heyday of trials during the 1970s.  I hope that seeing the trailer, the bikes or hearing the name, brings back great memories of trials long ago.

Since entering the Vintage world of trials eleven years ago, I’ve strived to promote the vintage side of the sport. Something I’ve had the pleasure of doing was hosting some local vintage trials events to try and share with other riders what the experience of trials was like back in the 70s.  Seeing the smiles on the faces of those riders at my vintage events, as they worked their way through some vintage Brand X sections is a memory I will treasure for my lifetime – That Ladies and Gentlemen is ‘Brand X’!

TRIALS GURU: Many thanks to Rick Land in the USA for putting together this very interesting article. Rick is the father of Dustin Land and grandfather of USA Vertigo rider, Ryon Land and his older brother Dalton. Jon Stoodley refers to the Lands as the “Lampkin family of the Mid West”!

Copyright: Trials Guru and Rick Land – 2024

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