Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Winner AI Rodgers (Tri umph) shows easy sty l. lor rough country. Note headli ght on l or salety. alo ng with his headli ght and tai ll1ght burning mer r ily . After r iding the Mint 500, Al hadn' t gotten a chan ce to pull the lighti ng equipment off his s coot er , so he figured as long as he had it he might as well us e it. Have you ever been overtaken out In the desert by a guy r unning lights? Terrible feeling Isn't It ? Out in the middle of thi s loop was a che ck at the top of the wor ld' s largest sand dune. Most of the mac hinery quit at the base of this hill. Jack Byers (Needle and Thread Man) was having swinging arm trouble, and so was Don Bohannan. I just don't know about those new fangledb1kesl Jack fixed his up on the s ide of a mountains ide, and Don managed to limp Into the pits , where the Love brothers, who excel as mac hinists took an AmerIcan nut and forged it over the Llmey swing arm bolt with a adjustable wrench that must have been three fee t long. At this point, another gascheck loomed into view and the third loop began. You could have counted all the bikes If you used your fing ers and then took 'off your shoes to get the rest. There just weren't many scooters left running. thi ck scrub pine , narrow sandwashes and flat-out fenceline r oads . Near the original access road, the re was a fast helmet check east of the dunes and the n into the r oll1ng gr ass plains cover ed with beautiful yellow flowers. If you like flowe rs, this Is keen, but the Sal t Lake Motor cycle Club had dec ided to mark the course with yell ow 's urveyor ' s tape at thi s poin t. For some r eason ouly known to deser t riders, the tape was the exa ct same color as the flowers. Did you ever see Al Roge r s sniffing desert flowers at 50 miles an hour? Up to this point, a cool competitor could follow the tire trall lald out by the hare, so the going was easy. Once you got into the grass, all you could do was decide which was tape, and which was flower. For some reason, It reminded me of a Easter Egg Hunt. At the edge of the flats, the course dropped back down into the rough country, across the orlg1naJ access road and Into the scrub where another check was hidden. From this point, the cour s e became mile after mUe of 4 and 5 foot soft sand dunes. You couldn't go around them because of the scrub pine, so you trled to go over them. By this time, riders lungs were perched on the Ianks of their scooters, and they just gave up. What most of them didn't reaJlze, was If you continued, you ended up on the maln road, followed a fence road for another five miles and then charged into the pits li ke a real hero. Most of the klddles that had made it this far sat out in the bush es wheezing like a bunch of old ladles. When Al made it In, the members of the Sal t Lake Motorcycle Club put a checkered flag over his handlebars , and then allowed him to putt through the crowd into the pits. All the way down, the crowd che er ed , yelled and whis tl ed. It's very rarely that a deser t rider gets a chance to make a victory lap, soAIRogers mus t have been a pretty pr oud young fell e r at that point . I don't dig the commerclaJ aspect of trophies many times, but this Is one time I think the donor of that 300 foot trophy should be mentioned. If you ever end up in Salt Lake and need so me long green, check with Miller Finance. Not ouly do they lend money, but they dig bikes, and give beautiful trophies. Would you believe they're our kind of people? Short and Dirty Section Husky rld.r dusting of! his boots. The Man In White, Al Rogers was beginning to take the lead, and Byers was also moving up at this point. From the pits, the course went directly north and then circled west into the h1gb Utah country. The trall wound through miles of More danger marks nextUmepteeeze! ._.Bob Bohannan of Rams running 2nd overall, and being an older gtG', got so tired that he just had to take a nap. When he awakened, just like Rip Van Winkle, be continued on his way. FOIDld out later that he hadn't lost one position during his rest period•..Jack Paine, having nothing to do wbiJe AI Rogers dozed (passed out) In back seat, decided to pull gravel hopper handle that they had stopped under. M te r car had been dug out , AI was still alive, and somewhat peeve d••.Ron Sloan, Pr esi dent of our good old Sports Committee tried to widen a gull ey with his super li ght P 11 while charging along at 600 mph. At this point, he enc ountered reversal of ai ler on controls, seve re bulfetting and a fla meout. He ejecte d, and landed safely with only a broken ankle which Is pretty neat when you r ide a bike that weighs In at 800 pounds (shades of Homer Knappl) The gull ey Is still healing! ••.For some reason, Dlckle Dean and John Kootz rode in double after someone's Greeves died . Do you s uppose that they'll ride the 711 that way?•••Whoever tha t Utah gal was who made all that chow at 2 a.m, in the morning while we were bringing In los t r ider s , tell her we love her! •••Jack Pai ne who has never fa1led to break a cluich cab le at Che rry Cr eek fi nally br oke the jinx. Thi s time, just as he c r ested a dune, he jammed a throttle cable and went Into or bit around the sun. When he fi nally hit the ground, he found that his fr ont wheel was square . He has dec ided that this was cuas ed by atmosperhic conditions .••Old National Number 32, Dusty Coppage , did a fantastic job of modifying his fork rake between the start and the bomb. As he picked his scooter up, a Shamrock creamed him, and he went back down for the count of ten. Being a llnis her, he scraped all the wreckage up and went on his mer ry way with the front wheel tucked under the skid plate. Within a few miles, he picked upa chunk of greasewood, did a wailing endo, and decided to take a short br eak while the battle went on•••Poor old Max Switzer, who has been trying to bea tA l Rogersfor all these years , ble w a throttle ca ble in the sand. You sho uld have seen Uncle Max yanking on that ca ble while staggerIng through the endless miles os sand, Mush you hus kies! •••To save Al Roger s fr om a llle of sin with thos e Chickers, the Shamr ocks ought to adopt him.A s all the followup consisted of a guy on a Honda 90 spreadi ng good cheer and advi ce, AI went out on a r es cue run . He took wine, water (in s mall am ounts ) and lots of chow. The good old competition types had lit half the for es t on fir e In hopes of a ttracting som e atte nti on, and they cer tai nly did. Try to Imagine AI Roger s aboard a RE6C. with lights ablaze making a rescue atte mpt on all those poor home less riders. Can you Imagine having wine , good chow and lots of co mpanionship by the ll ght of a blazing forest li re at 1:00 a.m, in the morning? h er e is the nasty part•••While all you guys were · out getting those coveted points , there were people having tun at Cher ry Creek. They had a neat vacation, ~ got in some good rtding and won some g:, trophies. You = y think to yourself, '" .. Who cares?" • As far I can see you had 0.. better care. Fo r the past fe w years, the European r iders have come over here ~ and whipped us at our own game, and 2l there was n't a thing we could do abo utlt. We jus t could not ride well enough to beat ~ them . We spent all our tim e going r ound Il.l and r ound in a slick ci rcle, or trying to § keep up with Joe Blow In the desert, until .., we lost track with reallty. All we do Is pick the fastest rider in our little dinky DIstrict, and try to beat him . If we manage this gigantic feat, we think tha t we are now King of the Mountain. Meanwhlle, there is a 15-year-old kid in anoth er District who can blow the best we've got Into the weeds, but we don't have to wor ry about him, because we never leave good old District 37. Meanwhile , the troops fr om Europe come over every year and do wheelles up the Corr iganvi ll e hill while our r ide rs are tucke d in tight and trying as hard as they can. I don' t even feel lik e taking photos while this goes on. It kind or gives me a lump in my stomach every ti me I see i t! Do you know what I' m talking abou t? There will be so me clod who w1ll wr ite me a nasty letter through this paper, and another whosays he can bea t me on a 100 mile drag up a sandwash, but do any of you know what I' m talking about? I cer ta1uly hope so, as our reputation hangs on it. Think, think, think, thi nk_ ••• (Results on page 20) This stuff Is l or camels. Jack Byers (Triumph) on hi s way to 500 class winner. -------------------------J. C. AGAJANIAN Presents . . A. M. A. ~,~19[~Y~,~,~@ce EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT ~ T. T. RACES SAT. NITEr JULY 61h SPECIAL ADDED ATTRACTION SIDE HACK RACES ON TT COURSE 18400 S.Vermonl-Gardena Eas1y Reached _ Just 011 fbba: & San Dieqo Frwys .

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