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/125721
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By Ron Schneiders
The politics of repression can
be either brutal or subtle but the
end result is the same: Some
freedom is gone. Young people in
Czechoslovakia and Chicago
experienced the brutal variety, a
rather new experience for them.
Minorities have been experiencing
both varieties for years. Now
motorcyclists are going to experience
the subtle variety but they don't know
what's happening yet. By the time they
find out they'll be faced with a fait
accompli and they'll have just about as
much chance of reversing the situation
as the black man bound for the land of
the free on a slave ship.
Right now. the desert is, for all
practical purposes, closed. There are
three areas where runs can be held.
Thin k about it, gesert riders. You've
already had about 6 runs in each of the
three areas and the BLM is shunting you
to one of the three areas every time you
make a request for a race. The trails are
getting so worn that you might just as
well put up street signs. Then you can
simply write out the directions and save
all the trouble of liming. It doesn't take
much imagination to see, in a couple of
years, some reason for one of these
remaining areas to be shut down. Maybe
the military will want one for yet
another bombing range. Then you're
down to two. Runs will get shorter and
eventually you'll be racing in a large
playpen that nobody else wants, Sunday
after Sunday. The terrain will look just
about like the Ponderosa (the race
course, not the ranch). One person's
private vision of hell is racing the
Ponderosa - forever.
The deserts are gone righ t now. The
process of repression has been thorough
and painless. Its been so painless that's
it going t6 take a hammer blow right
between the eyes to make desert riders
realize how thoroughly they've been
had. Now come the forests. '
The Angeles Forest is open right
now. With very little exception you can
ride where you want to. It takes a bit of
research and iI)genuity to get around
some of the locked gates, but it can be
done. In years past, races have been held
in the forest and enduros are still held in
many forests around the country. With
Southern California riders being pushed
off the deserts and out of the counties
they've turned to the Angeles National·
Forests as a last resort. This has irritated
the horsemen and hikers who have had
the forest to themselves up to now.
They are putting pressure on the Forest
Service to "Do Something". The Forest
Service reacted in typical bureaucratic
fashion: they calle