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CEA LE
By Ron Schneiders
RED MOUNTAIN, CAL ., Dec. 5, 19 71
Bac k in September the San
Bernardino M.C. started a kind of de
facto " T o ugh Enduro Contest ". Since
then each enduro has been significantly
tougher than the last. Many riders
r figu red that they had pr ob ly reached
so me sort of peak last month w ith the
J ac kass Enduro, where o nly 150 ou t of
750 finis hed (20%) . They we re wrong.
In today's en duro th ere were only about
50 finishers out of 4 11 starters (1 2%).
Looking at the sched ule one wo uld
figu re that th e first 16 mil es or so
wo uld n't be too b ad . The sp eed for th a t
sec tio n was 24 mph. Fro m th ere the
schedule speeds dropped steadily: 18
mph , 12 mph, final ly 6 mph. No rmally ,
the slower th e sche d ule, th e m o re
di ffi cult th e te rr ain is goi ng to b e. And
the terrain h as to b e awfu lly rough
be fore y ou h ave di fficulty with a 6 mph
sch edule. At 24 mph sch ed ule is usu ally
fairl y op en desert, sand wash , mayb e
so me mild ca nyons. No t h ere.
On this run we h ad a n easy time of it
as fa r as th e three mil e speedome te r
ch ec k (at least if you don 't cou n t ridin g
into bl in di n g sun an d dust.) From there
we co uld see ride rs pushing up th e first
hil l. Fo r me that one wasn 't a p roblem ,
b ut wi thin sight o f that o ne was a
second one th at everyone had to push ,
m e include d . And right up a t th e top,
good old Dave Ho leman, C EA 's m ost
illustrious member, was sitting there
taking pi ctu res. Tha t was the end of the
CEA Enduro and the st a rt of th e CEA
desert race for the vast maj ority o f
riders. They fell behind schedule and
never cau gh t up.
On the first loop the difficulties were
o f two types an d which ty pe did -y ou -in
dep ended somewhat o n what kind of
bike you were riding. Small bike riders
p ushe d up innumerable hills. Riding a
125 , I had to p ush so mewhere b etw een
10 and 15 hill s. Since it 's im possib le to
push a m o torcycle at 24 or even 18
mph , th ere w eren 't man y sma ll b ike
fin ishers. There was exa ctl y o ne
t railbik e fin isher: Max Bub eck.
Ph o tos b y Ellen Schneiders
Tho se riding medium wei gh t bikes,
250 's and 3 60 's, had the b est time o f it.
They sti ll had to push quite a few hills,
but not quhe so man y as the small
b ik es. The heavyweights had tr ouble
two ways . They h ad to push a few hill s
(n o mean ch ore with a 750 No rto n , fo r
in stance), but they also had problems
with roc ks an d ledges in so me o f th e
tigh ter canyons.
T h e sp aces b etween the hill s were
mixed , so me good trail, a b it o f roc k,
so m e sandwash, and several tig ht
canyo ns. Nothing very di ffi cult o r
frighten ing, just p retty good ridi ng o n
th e whole, which made th e end uro a
rather frustrating experien ce for me. I
was disqualified in th e firs t lo op fo r
b ein g an hour late (p ush tim e l}, b u t I
wasn 't b eat into my so cks lik e you get
from really hard riding, b ecause th e trail
between the hills was relatively easy .
There were some interesting in cidents
o n the trai l. Gary Satterlee, wh o won
Class B lightweight at the Rawhide
Enduro ren ew ed an ac q uai n tance with
Gary Calkins, who won the Cla ss A Trail
in the sam e run. Gary No. 1 stuc k his
foo t into the wheel of Gary No. 2 's
Pen ton and broke his shock ab so rb er,
thus taking both o f them out o f the run.
Bud Howesman was disqualified
about the sam e sp o t in the run th at I
was, so we sat at the bottom of yet
another unridable hill and had a drink
of water. Bud is ab out the o nly rider in
California who h ad a chanc e to pla ce
high in the National AMA End uro
Points Standings, but his chances went
down th e drain in th is run. H e had a few
choice remarks to m a ke abou t th e run
wh ich sta rte d off "This is ridic ulo us,"
an d then go t m ore colo rfu l. Pr etty soon
he started worrying ab o u t where hi s
wife, Ellie, was. " Prob ab ly have to go
back an d d rag her o ff a rock ," h e said ,
like she was a real beginner. Shows th e
persp ec tive :
Elli e
di ffer en ce
in
Ho wes man ca n out-ride most of th e
riders in th e event but to h er Expert
husband , she's jus t a girl on a Yamah a
who's likely to get in to trouble.
Two ri ders were sitti ng in th e middle
of a sandwash 10 mil es fro m the end o f
the firs t lo op. I stopped and as ked if
th ey were all rig ht. They wer e, just out
o f gas. I couldn ' t h elp b ecau se I wasn 't
sure I ha d enough to ge t in m y sel f. But
ar o un d one cu rve in th e was h , less than
200 y ar ds from where th ey were sitting,
was a chec k and a p ickup truck with a
gas can ! Wonder how lo ng it took them
to discover it?
Dave Ekins came fly in g through th e
no on check w it hout eve n stopping. Was
h e so in tent o n keep in g schedule h e
didn 't even reali ze it. was lunch time ?
No. He had just lost his time card an d
was madd er than h ell . Accord ing t o hi m
he h ad lost o nly ei ght points in the
m orning section , whi ch was abou t 100
ti me s better th an th e winner. Ne xt week
. I'm going to tell him about the
14 -pound tr out I almost h ad in the net
when th e leader broke.
Bob Ste ffan: "This has just set
S outhern Cal ifo rn ia Enduro ridin g back
2 0 years,"
Steve Hu rd was p assing me o n a
ste ep, roc ky hill, going d own. He 's in
th e ro ugh , fly ing ove r vo lley-ball sized
roc ks , I'm o n th e tra il. He's abou t t w o
gears h igh er th an I am. "Hurry up, R on!
You're not goi ng fast en ough, " he
sh o u ts. Yeah, Steve, I know. But he was
outasight.
The CEA w as going t o co mp ute th e
scores and post the winners on the sp o t,
but one ch ec k was protested so that
eliminated that. It lo oks lik e Max
Bubeck is the "A " T ra ilbike winner
because be was th e o nly Trailbike rider'
to finish . Max rid es a Hodak a.
Steve Hurd is likely to be . the
Sweepstakes wi nne r , wit h the o nly score
less than 100! Steve lost m ost o f his
points being earl y , a problem unique to
h imself. If memo ry serv es m e right,
Kawasaki was offering ab ou t $5 ,00 0 to
an yone who won an AMA Natio nal
En d uro on a 'saki. Merry Christmas,
Steve.
Class A Ligh tw eigh t winner is
probably Bob Nic kelse n, wh o said
fervently , "Tha t's th e last time I'm
«oing to ride a n End uro bi ke in o ne of
