Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125688
THE P.ROSPECTOR'S GREA TMOON TRICK
By Ron Schneiders
EL MIRAGE, CALIF., August 29,19'70
- On what was probably the darkest
night of the year, the Prospectors MC
staged an enduro which started one
minute after midnight! Somewhat over
300 riders showed up plus the usual
contingent of pit crews, wives, girl
friends and kids. Of course, most of us
had no intention of riding that thing; we
came out to see the Prospectors do their
thing. They advertised a nice full moon,
even called it "The Moonshine Enduro"
and anyone who could read knew there
wasn't supposed to be any moon at all
on the 29th. So we came to see how the
Prospectors were going to do it. Turns
out they didn't. Didn't even make a
good try, in fact. There wasn't even a
sliver of moon until five in the morning
and by then everyone was too tired to
care. When it became obvious that the
Prospectors weren't going to produce
the moon, most of us, having nothing
better to do at that time of night,
decided to ride the enduro, but I heard
that a few magic freaks did boycott the
event in protest.
Even though the Prospectors are
lousy magicians, they do produce rather
good enduros and this one was no
exception. It would have been easy to
make the run either much too hard or
much too easy, either of which would
have been disastrous, the first to the
riders and the second to the club. In
fact though, to this rider the run seemed
just about a perfect blend of dirt road
and not-too-difficult trail. If anything,
there migh t have been just a tad too
much dirt road in the second half, but
that comes under the heading of
nit-picking.
Riding the desert at night, especially
on a very dark night, is a wild
experience. Lots of things that you take
for gran ted just evaporate with the
sunlight
but
there
are
other
compensating advantages. For instance
when you get off the trail, you feel
very, very much alone. You don't have
to be off the trail and out of sigh t of
other riders for more than about two
minutes before you begin cataloguing
your personal items (like matches and
. water), and wondering why you didn't
wear some heavier clothing. But where
in a daytime enduro you'd have to
painfully backtrack in order to get back
on the trail, in a nightime enduro you
just make it up the nearest rise and sure
enough you1l see a string of lights
marking the course just like a map!
Light travels much farther than sound,
and I would guess that you could be
miles off <;.,purse and still frod your way
back - if you didn't ride into a mine
shaft.
Dust, which is a problem in daytime
riding,
can become an absolute
nightmare in the dark. You'll be riding
along and suddenly the rider in front of
you hits one of those talcum pockets.
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LPS
RESW