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8. rf. ,... ~ Ol .. a; c: GREE By Ron Schneiders • HORN • ::> .., DUARTE, CALIF" May 30, 1971 - The Pasadena M.C. staged the 25th annual Greenhorn Enduro this weekend and they went all out to make it one of the best ever. Ironically, they drew a smaller entry than they have Z in any recent years. Entries came frqm all over the country from riders W ..J whose big ambition is to finish this pretigious event, but, like the U > prophet who is without honor in his own town, the Pasadena club found U itself unsupported by the riders in its own southern California area. A mere 380-odd riders signed up to ride the 500 mile National. !@ w The Pasadena Club's unforgivable sin in the eyes of the southern Californians was to require street-legal bikes so that they could duplicate as much as possible the runs of earlier years on their Silver anniversary. This isn't such an unusual or difficult requirement; the rest of the world has been requiring street-legal equipment for enduros for years and most bikes can be made minimally legal without either much work or money. A license plate, stop lights, muffler, a toy bulb hom and a $2.00 mirror will suffice. But southern California riders, like dinosaurs, find it difficult to adapt to a changing environment., Staging area for the run was the home of the big sleds, BSA-Triumph Corp. in Duarte, which is just on the outskirts of Pasadena. If anyone thought about running an open expansion chamber, be quickly abandoned tbe idea becasue the run started off down Foothill Blvd. and then went over some residential street to Highway 39. A few riders found tbey were already in trouble. With close-ratio gearboxes on small bikes, they had a practical speed range of between 20 and 40 mph. The scheduled speed up Hlgbway 39 was 36 mph which really required a top speed in the neighborbood of 60 mph to maintain. They were late before they ever got off the asphalt. About 10 miles up, the course left the highway for dirt roads and wound about 80 miles through the forest with schedules of mostly 24 mph. For many riders, the rue roads were a novel experience and they found the steep dropoffs somewhat intimidating. With a turn about every 100 yards (usually hairpin) lots of rocks and the ever-present cliff to on,e side, averaging 24 mph wasn't really easy, although th ose used to fueroads didn't have any problems. A rew northern California-types, who are used to holding 24 mph over trails, found it duck soup. Eventually the course left the forest, passed through Pearblossom, and went off cross-country toward Four Corners. Just out of Pearblossom there is a canyon that the Pasadena Club really likes. They used it going both ways last year and this year. The canyon is filled with deep, powdery sand, has lots of sharp t"rns and a few cboice rocks. With more than two riders in the canyon, visability becomes non-existant and even breathable air is scarce. From the canyon up to Four Corners and then on to Red Mountain, the going was fairly easy desert trails, but with constantly bigh scbedules. Beyond Four Comers there was a rocky section that tended to act as a separator. It separated men from boys, Some guys have a whole computor on the handlebars, which is all right if they ride fast enough I boys from machines and parts from motorcycles. Quite a few bikes went in street legal and came out desert sleds. They did however, leave out a particularly miserable canyon that was included in this section last year. After the rocks they went over tbat nice trail througb the pennacles and down into Ridgecrest for the overnigh t stop. So far tbe riders bad covered .250 miles and most were about as tired as anybody can get and still remain on their feet They headed toward the designated camping area that had thankfully been placed some distance from the carnival. Sleep was urgently required. But for many riders, there wasn't to be any sleep for quite a while as they struggled to repair bent and broken scooters so they could continue the run on Sunday. Ridgecrest is a friendly town for bike riders and several of the shops stayed open to help riders that needed it. My Sachs broke at Pearblossom so 1 was out of tbe two-day event, but could compete in the Sunday-only class if I could get it fLxed. I hunted frantically for some Sachs par-ts but the only dealer who handled Sacbs was one wbo had closed early, But the dealer at Mahoney's Sbop sent me over to see a young fellow named Mike Franich who tore down one of his own bikes to lend me the parts 1 need half of the rear hub assembly. All he asked was that I return them after the race. 1t's nice to get to places like that. There aren't very many of them any more. Sunday started with sleepy, ,xhausted riders trying to spark some :nthusiasm for another 250 miles of Sunday started with sleep, exhausted riders trying to Spark some enthusiasm for another 250 miles of riding. About 100 riders had dropped out by this time. Some were replaced by Sunday-Only riders (like me) but there were lots of number with only one or. two riders. To start off there was an easy trail with a 24 mpb scbedule for One of the attractions of Greenhorn is the fantastic sweep of country covered, but this rider is probably too busy to notice that he's passing the historic mining community of Red Mountain. about 20 miles. No problem. Then the gas stop at Garlock road and the schedule jumped to 30 mph. We thought that was going to be a dirt road section but the arrows led us right into some really nasty deep sand whoop-de-doos. Anyone who doesn't think enduros are races ought to try to hold 30 mph over "that kind of terrain. If you could hold that schedule, you could win your class in most desert events. Fortunately the schedule dropped to 18 mpb for about 10 minutes over a rocky section which gave us slowpokes a chance to make up a minute or two, Then it was back up to 30 for the remainder of the trip into Four Comers. The course from F our Corners to • Pearblossom was almost the same as Saturday's. Quite a lot of road with fast but easy-to-keep schedules. And that powder canyon. But the canyon wasn't too long and there was lunch waiting in Pearblossom. One easy rest hour and then a mere 2Y, bours more of riding in beautiful Angeles National Forest. Tbe veteran enduro riders got back into their Barbour suits in Pearblossom, knowing it would be chilly in the mountains toward the end of the day, but some desert racers elected to continue riding in their normal sweatsh.irts and Levis. They were in for a surprise. As we climbed into the mo untains, it became progressively colder and colder. It also became darker as the sun went down and fog settled on the mountains. It started drizzling. By the time we hit the 18 mph section, visibility wasn't much more than 10 feet. You were into the turns before you ever saw them. Trying to hold the schedule became quite dangerous because of the possibility of going over a cliff or running over a slower rider. Tbe markers' were invisible in the fog and whenever you bad gone for a while without seeing either markers or other riders, anxiety born of fatigue, chill, loneliness and fear of going over a cliff, or spending the nigh t lost and cold would start up. Then you'd overtake another rider (or be overtaken) or catch a glimpse of a marker and everything would be all righ t for another few minutes. Eventually we got back to the pavement, Route 39, 10 miles to go, 36 mph schedule and (for me) 7 minutes late. Time to play road·racer on wet pavement witb knobby tires and Sunday evening traffic. The CHP is out there doing its thing and its got somebody with a number plate pulled over so I'm lucky. He can't do anything about me. Up to the finisb line at 6:01, one minute late. Could be worse. Talking to the riders after the event, it seemed that most everyone 25 Gordon Portner expensive "sled" --someth ing rare enduros. Bill Ocheltree (69A) and Bob Keys (69C). Bill was the :'unidentified" Novice rider who took 1st Novice in las he's going to be an unidentified "A" rider!