Photos of Kristina Sundal and the 1984 Fox Yoko Gear
By Billy Rainford
Heading to tracks and hanging out with great people is easily my favourite part of this job. The older I get the less time I have for jerks. Fortunately, jerks are the rarity in our sport.
Former champ, Kristina Sundal, saw my photo of the old Fox Yoko gear and asked if she could take it for a spin. Of course, I agreed but I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to make it over to her private track, so I didn’t really make any solid plan.
Well, the timing and weather were right for me to bring my mom over to their track and let Kristina see if she could fit into this rather small gear.
Here are just a few photos from the relatively short time we spent with some great Canadian moto people.
I’m not sure when the last time was that my mom sat in a chair and watched and listened to the sights and sounds of Moto, but let me just make a rough estimate at around…33 years!
Kristina was a great friend of Jeff McConkey‘s and the two of them spent a lot of time doing laps on her track. Jeff was the consummate “gear guy,” and I think anyone who knew him at all would agree to that.
It put a big smile on our faces just knowing how Jeff would have felt, having Kristina spinning laps at one of his favourite places on earth in a weird set of gear.
We knew the medium shirt wasn’t going to be an issue, but the size 30 pants were a little bit of a concern.
She managed to get them on, but zipping them up was another story. Somehow, they look better now than I thought they did when they were current!
She had to step up and then ease herself onto the bike to avoid ripping the butt out of the pants before she even got started.
Kristina said the track is set up to be a lot of fun for all levels of riders. This old western town backdrop is amazing! Her dad is a big Civil War buff. Look at that 36-year-old gear shine!
Mission accomplished. I knew going in that the inner leather patches were a little brittle after all these years, and they came apart pretty quickly.
The seams held strong and there were no “wardrobe malfunctions” to speak of.
We joked that if you’re looking for a set of gear to least more than one century, the Finnish-made Fox Yoko gear is a great choice.
The hip pads are sewn into the liner and didn’t really want to stay in place. They made for some pretty awkward “pantie lines.”
Kristina still has great style on and off the track. Once I loaded my antique jersey and pants back into the van with mom, she hopped into some HAF gear. Actually, as Mandy said, it was “half a set of HAF gear…” Ba-dump-bump.
Thanks for being a good sport and having some fun, Kristina. I can’t wait to test out some new gear and ride Jeff’s Yamaha YZ250 2-stroke at her track as soon as we can make that happen.
