Super Hunky is where he belongs. Rick Sieman, founding editor of Dirt Bike magazine, has joined the legends of the off-road world enshrined at the Husky Memorial in the Mojave Desert. On Saturday May 18, a group of fans, friends and family made the pilgrimage to the famous location near Cuddeback dry lake to celebrate the contribution that Rick made to the world of off-road riding. Rick was the editor of Dirt Bike in 1971 when the magazine became the first publication dedicated to dirt-going motorcycles. He singlehandedly changed the moto-magazine business. His daughter Cindy and friends like Rick O orchestrated a monument that has a caricature of Rick’s face–glasses, handlebar mustache and all.
The Husky memorial is an iconic place among off-road riders. It’s not a graveyard, just a place where plaques and various fabrications were placed in respect to dirt bike riders of the past—often several generations of them. Included there are tributes to Bruce Ogilvie and his dad Don, DeWayne Jones and his dad (also Don), Kurt Caselli, Rich Caselli, Jesse Goldberg and many, many more. There are several complete motorcycles mounted in concrete, a bunch of forks, handlebars and motor parts, and a very interesting connecting rod that’s over 3 feet long.
Rick’s monument is now one of the tallest there. That’s fitting–it’s safe to say that virtually all of the other honorees commemorated at the site were influenced by the words of Super Hunky.
Back in 1993, the Husky memorial was an obscure place known only to a few. Here, Gary Jones and his dad Don stop by to replace the grips on the Husky. This photo was published in Dirt Bike along with the GPS coordinates. After that, the site changed rapidly.
Three of the commemorations are of special interest: there’s one that simply says “Jerickson” another that says “Ogre” and another that says “Gormo.” None of these are real names, but to those who know, they are the whole reason that the Husky Monument exists. They were all members of the Desert Zebras motorcycle club. Jim Erickson was a Zebra who passed away in 1987. Gormo, whose real name was Alan Norman, and Ogre, who was Ron Griewe, decided to place a 1979 Husky there at the end of Erickson’s favorite trail. Contrary to popular legend, the bike actually belonged to Gormo, not Erickson. They placed a plaque beside the bike that said “Jereckson” because that’s the way Jim’s signature looked. They welded all the nuts and bolts in place so that they wouldn’t be stolen. For years the monument didn’t change much. But in 1993, the GPS coordinates were published here in Dirt Bike magazine, and then things began to change rapidly. Now there are about 50 plaques there, including ones for Ogre and Gormo, who both passed in 2010.
The placing of the Super Hunky memorial was very Iwo Jima-like.
Gary Jones was one of those who came out to pay respect to Super Hunky.
Ron Lawson and Rick’s daughter Cindy Sieman.
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