The sun on your face, the wind in your hair, an open road ahead of you. Riding a motorcycle is a feeling so exhilarating and freeing it could easily be an ancestral blood memory, passed from generation to generation and only awakened when on top of one untamed chrome beast hurling itself down the pavement trail at insane speeds. We can only wonder what feelings must have flooded the minds of those early motorcycle racers who decided to strap an engine to a bicycle in the early 20th century. Did they know what would surely come from their inventions? Or did they simply know that what they had created was just really, really cool. 
The first motorcycle races were called scrambles. It’s hard to find any information about the origin of scrambles besides a year and a place. The first scramble, in 1924 went down in Camberley, Surrey in the UK. What exactly went down? Hard to say, but it was likely exciting. The beautiful, grease stained art of what we now know as MX, or Motocross, wasn’t truly perfected until it hopped the pond and landed in the US. Over the years, MX slowly gained popularity, and boomed during the 1970s. While all this was happening small motorized bikes were used at car racing events to get a pit crew from one place to another quickly. They were called pit bikes. Pit bikes, or mini bikes were a lot cheaper, lighter and more accessible than a regular motorcycle. This made them a hit across the country and before you know it, people were racing them. Pit bike racing was usually an entry point to MX for young and inexperienced riders, as they were easier to control. One of these young racers was named Mike Lichfield. Mike stripped down a Honda xr185 in his garage and took it to his local track in Utah. Mike grew up, started a family and passed down his love for motorcycles.
Mike and his son Parker started Buscadero Motorcycles in early 2020. Coming home from the One Moto Show in Portland Oregon that year they sat in a Mexican restaurant thinking about what kinds of things were missing from contemporary motorcycle culture. That’s when a sudden stroke of inspiration hit. What if, they thought, you made new motorcycles that looked old? Thus, Buscadero Motorcycles was born. Buscadero Motorcycles takes current pit bikes and combines them with the classic flare of vintage ones from the 1970s. The motorcycles are capable, fast and really fun. The father-son duo have successfully made a motorcycle that prioritized being fun to ride, while paying homage to their old school pit bike racing days. They made 50 110CC dirt bikes that sold out completely, and the people were hungry for more. Each one was customized with vintage style body parts that complete their retro look.
Buscadero taps into that ancestral blood memory of going really fast by paying homage to their old school motocross roots while kicking it up a notch with all the new machinery that motorcycle engineering has to offer. If you were on the fence earlier, rest assured that Mike and Parker Lichfield are two guys who “get it” and are giving the people what they really want: fast motorcycles that look really cool.
Last year Buscadero and Voltage collaborated to make some sweet little bikes. Around here, we’re fans of Buscadero because of their hands-on approach to making motorcycles and their distinct vision for creating an exciting and enjoyable experience behind the handlebars. You can check out Buscadero at the link here! While we're at it, we'll also leave some photos here from the time we ripped our custom Voltage x Buscadero motorcycles through the desert
