”EUROPEAN “ AMERICAN RIDER STYLE

 When you learn to ride a wheelie, you realize it’s like ONE LONG CONTINUOUS CROSS UP! This is why rider STYLE is visually communicated so strongly through wheelies, and likely the reason wheelie riding is such a rewarding challenge. Tilson and his brothers as part of the La Mirada “Motorcycle Hill” crew, played an important roll in shaping California dirtblke history. They were pioneers with not only dirtblke wheelie riding, design, and aftermarket parts fabrication, but also the first series of California Moto Cross (CMC). Early on, they recognized the outward essence of passion in motion—the unique STYLE of each rider, noticed most in those weightless moments in the air, off a jump, or on a wheelie. Today we call it a “Cross Up,” or in the extreme, a “Tail Whip,” etc., but at the beginning, Tilson and his Motorcycle Hill buddies called any trace of this style: “The European,” or just “European.” Their dirtblke roll models were European. Then it became, “Hey, do a ‘Roger DeCoster’,” or “Do a Joel Robert” (pronounced Roebear). The remarkable STYLE of these two early-days European riders reached across the globe with an impact shaping Tilson’s wheelies and California dirtbike rider STYLE in general. Mark Nohr, Karl Lucas, and Tilson Shumate agree there were no outstanding American riders to look up to at the time. They say that American riders today don’t seem to understand how much of an impact European rider style had on American rider style in general. Its no wonder the 1983 Euro–Italian made WRX 250 CAGIVA dirtblke was the perfect host bike for Tilson to transform into his record setting CAGIVA wheelie machine!