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
'(,me'-On ("/I'Mji; RDlilse~ Sez ([RII 0. « ~ w Z ~ ~ U and 550 riders show up By Ron Scheniders BARSTOW, Ap'ril 4, 1971 - The occasion was CERA enduro number II and 550 riders showed up for a fast, very tough 103-mile enduro. Three loops on this one, roughly 43 miles, 30 and 30, and they were laid out in the form of a limp three-leaf clover with the stem on Highway 395 just south of Barstow. Loop one was west of the Freeway, the other two, east. . riders were complaining that they got in We started easily enough, riding old trails, not too rough, at 20 mph. A loose with just time enough to fill their bikes rocky hill put me and a bunch of other with gas before they had to leave. . small bikers a bit late to the first check On the second loop, we came to the but things still looked pretty good. 300 house. This is getting to be the CERA yards beyong the first check we lost whatever illusions we might have had. The trail dropped into a rocky, narrow canyon and went over a dry waterfall. Two choices: Go through a slit about wide enough for a Schwinn bicycle with a 2% foot drop on the other side or throw your bike off the edge of a rock about 5 feet high. But first you had to get there. Even with this limited choice of alternatives riders were having a hard time making up their minds and then they were usually making the wrong choices. Like the Triumph rider who tried to take his bike through the slot and wedged it so tightly it took 4 guys to pry him loose. The line formed to the rear and when I got there about 130 , bikes were patiently waiting for their chance to shoot the rapids. I got in line and turned off the motor so I could take some pictures. When my tum came, somebody hollered at me to help free the Triumph. UR uh. I quit riding those big sleds 'cause I got tired of lifting them. I pushed my bike off the rock, used the seat as step to get down myself and was gone. Fifteen minutes late. Aiding through a house is neat... The schedule changed to 24 mph, but the course didn't change character trademark. 1 hear Ed Wight won't much and there wasn't any way this approve a location for a run less there's rider was going to make up 15 minutes an abandoned house he can route the so 1 arrived at the 45-minute lunch stop riders through. 20 mph average. If you with only 30 minutes left. A Jot of slow down to 10 mph in the front CZ.Z50 "nd 360's, B.O.E* V"leri"n's hallway, you have to do 60 in the living room to catch up. If you went around the house, you missed the lady of the house who was taking numbers.... After leaving the house we got into some tigh t sandwash that kept widening And outside there was a linel But inside it was crowded... out all the way back to the start. Almost ten miles of straight uphill sandwash at 24 mph. The little bikes work pretty hard and Lord help you if you have a tigh t piston! After another gas stop - 30 minutes _ the survivors tackled loop number 3. Twenty mph across broken rock and lava bed. Often the rocks were so jumbled that bikes that went across didn't- even leave a trail. There wasn't any way to miss the rocks; just try to miss the biggest ones and those odd shaped ones try to wrench the bars right out of your hands. There were a couple of nasty falls in this section, but no serious injuries. Everyone was looking forward to the speed change at ACE European Scrambles Indian Dunes Park 2 mi. West of Castaic Junction Hiway 126 .. . April 11 th Also ESO. We can give you immediate, * bike-olt-thefloor delivery on all three models. Stop by and stay up front with Jawa-CZ. OO~~,~?,~"~~ro~~~:,~t". Los Angeles. California 90064 - Telephone: (213) 475·4541 Sales - Service - Accessories - Parts - Motocross Leathers 14 miles because the average went up to 30 mph. That meant we had to get out of the rocks. 14 miles of jumbled rocks at the end of a 100 mile enduro is a long, long way. At the speed change we got onto a rocky road with a ISO-degree curve every hundred yards. Broadslide the turns, bounce off the berm, fly across ditches and washout with my heart in my throat and everything bottomed out and I still couldn't make 30 mph on that section. "Well, that was the expert's section" said Ed Wight. Trouble is that those experts (like IN and Torsten) were all riding somewhere else today so they missed it. There were some experts, though: Enduro experts. And one of them, Dave Ekins, was very unhappy with the CERA promotion. ''The CERA runs are a joke for a serious timekeeper," he said. "In any serious enduro the course markings are simply to get you from one check to the next and make sure that your mileage is about the same as th e next guy's. When there's a bottleneck, you go around it, or sidehill if you're a good enough rider. But the CERA stations club members on both sides of the bottleneck to make sure you stand in line with the rest of the sheep. That's why Eastern riders come out here and ride one or two runs and give it up. Who wants to ride through a house anyway, for God's sake? Especially when there's a line of 100 1 - 45 min. race per class. Desert start Juniors-Trophies 100cc 125cc 250cc Open Seniors-Cash $100.00 per class 125cc 250cc Open Same 5 mi. course as Optimist Club Combo-X. Water. sand small hills. $5.00 entry fee includes park admission for rider. Gen. Admission $2.00 Adults Sign up opens 6:30 - No practice $1.00 Juniors First race 9 a.m. Under Six Free HUSQVARNA • JAWA/CZ • SUZUKI· PENTON· MZ • MONTESA • TRAIL-HOPPERS open monday through saturday 1st - $40.00 2nd - $30.00 3rd - $20.00 4th - $10.00 Info: Call 805-259-8000