I first started my motorcycle riding career on a Honda Monkey. I was nine, and the little 50cc unit was the perfect size for a first time rider. The perfect power level, too…it had enough oomph to be fun, but you really had to screw it up in order to find yourself sliding on the gravel. From there, I moved on to a Honda Fat Cat and a Trail 70, then jumped brands and went Yamaha two-strokes from the early 1980s until I proved to myself that Travis Pastrana, I am NOT. But I had my fun and like many kids growing up in the 1990s, life revolved around dirt bikes. Why was that?

Well, for me, it was the concept of the mini-bike being brought to fruition…except, it wasn’t. Mini-bikes were go-karts on two wheels, small lawnmower-style engines moving a frame around. The dirt bikes that my peers and I had were on a completely different plane. They accelerated with fury. They either thumped and roared, or they sounded like Satan’s chainsaw trying to cut through a 1975 Mercury. They churned up dirt, they roosted gravel, and in the brave hands, they flew. It was the adrenaline rush that probably kept me clean of other ways to kill boredom in BFE, Washington State.

Donut Media’s Nolan is nostalgic for the glory days of the Metal Mulisha, of Pastrana’s explosive entrance into the scene, of Ricky Carmichael and X Games and all of the riotous fun that freaked out mothers and made kids who wore their riding boots to school lose their minds. Check it out below, while I go see what a good bike is going for right about now…