“Maxxis Tires” – Classic Ink #59 “Answer Racing 1992”

For this edition of Classic Ink, we are going to take a look back at an ad for Answer Racing’s 1992 lineup.

Mike Kiedrowski was Answer’s top gun in the early nineties. In 1992, he was coming off his second 125 National Motocross title and another Team USA victory in the 1991 Motocross des Nations.

The early nineties saw the arrival of all-over Gel Print technology and Answer was quick to bring its vibrant and colorful look to its lineup. These Jerseys looked amazing and popped with color but the thick cotton/poly construction and dying process seemed to lock in body heat as well as it did color.

I loved Answer’s Elite gear when it was introduced in 1990 and I still have the yellow colorway in my collection. The pants were made of Tactel and Twill and had a slick feel and beautiful vibrancy of color. The jerseys were a 50/50 cotton-poly blend that was not as bright as the Gel Prints but breathed better and was more comfortable in the heat. While I loved this Elite gear it did feel of substantially lower quality than the AXO Sport gear I picked up a year later.

Ever heard of this Damon Huffman kid? I wonder if he ever amounted to anything. Personally, I was not a fan of these Sport Pants with the less colorful logos, but I had several of the Yellow Sport jerseys. I always preferred 100% cotton for my jerseys even though they were less vibrantly colored and faded faster than the Gel Prints.

At 5’8” I never had to worry about needing longer pants but it is cool that Answer had something for the Benny Bloss of 1992. I was never a kidney belt wearer, but they were still a thing in 1992. I’m not sure why they went out of style but by the mid-nineties, they were far less common. It may have had something to do with the fact that suspension technology had improved to the point that the bikes were no longer trying to beat you to death over every bump.

I loved the fact that the DGY Yamaha team ran my exact Answer gear in 1991 and here Doug Henry does his best Tony Blazier impression on his YZ125. I’ve always wondered how good these bikes were because the stock YZ125 was about the slowest machine I had ever ridden at the time. As to these gloves, none of them are very attractive to my eyes. The Gaerne boots, however, still look great other than the Velcro fasteners that were quickly going out of style by 1992.

These TEK-4 chest protectors always struck me as a rip-off of the AXO Pentagon. In truth, I was not much of a fan of either one and preferred the more stylish Fox Roost 2. I remember reading reviews of the Roost Boost in the magazines and they made it sound like a works ignition that made a huge difference in power. Suckered in, I ponied up the cash and bought one for my CR125. In my experience, it did absolutely NOTHING to alter the way my CR ran. Maybe I was an outlier, but it made me start to question the validity of some of the aftermarket reviews I read in the mags at the time.

I remember how cool the Pro Taper was when I first saw it on Bradshaw’s YZ in 1991 but at the time there was no way I was going to pony up the cash for the Pro Taper bar and a whole new upper clamp to allow me to run it. After all, I was already cleaned out from buying that damn Roost Boost.

Before the Pro Taper, Answer’s Alumilite was the strongest bar in motocross. It was substantially stronger than the Renthals of the time and the choice of many pros and teams.

It is good to know that the Jet Ski guys were getting snookered into buying Roost Boosts as well in 1992. The Answer Radialite was a pretty good sprocket, and I ran a few of them back in the day. They were reversible, which was cool, but they were a bit busy looking compared to the cleaner Renthal designs.

Once upon a time, Answer was a silencer powerhouse. They had a huge lineup of alloy silencers for motocross and off-road use. Big sellers like the S-A Pro were the silencers to run if you wanted to take your MX bike into the woods in the 1980s. When the VFC silencer was released, it garnered a lot of hype but I don’t think it ever caught on in significant numbers.