Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

How To Riele Trails ancl En"'ros for Fun ancl Profit It) N ~ Q. M .... '" m e ..., '" ~ w 2 w ....J U > U -- ~- FIG. 3. Turnmg between trees, the rear wheel must be all the way out in the direction opposite the turn to avoid clipping the handlebars. throttle. ThiS WIll get the tront wheel up over the step. Now roll off the throttle, get your weight way out over the front wheel and let the rear wheel claw itself ovef. Getting the weight forward is very important. Not only does your momentum help the operation but it also relieves the rear wheel of the necessity of boosting your bulk. A good trials rider can get over a 3D-inch step in this fashion, but it's a good idea to start on something a bit smaller. The same technique will work of course on logs, big rocks, climbing out of creek beds and many other situations. Suppose you're coming down a sandwash. You round a bend and there's a step. You don't know what the drop is or what's at the bottom and you're going too fast to come to a complete stop. Many beginners get in trouble because they lock up both brakes, pull in the clutch and literally fall off the step, sometimes sideways, sometimes front wheel first. The best approach is to keep enough speed so that you'll clear any rocks and debris at the bottom of the step and get your weight back so that you land on the rear wheel. Even if your jump lands you on a rock, though, you're better off than if you toppled awkwardly off the edge, or landed power off on the front wheel (a sure bet for an endoL WATER The correct line through water crossings is very difficult for many riders to find as evidenced by the fact that every water crossing is the end of the line for some. It becomes much simpler, though, if a few priorities are established. To start yvith: Is the water so deep that your air cleaner is in danger? If so. then the shallowest line must be your line regardless of anything else. If there are several spots you can cross that are shallow enough, what about the bottom? Is it mud? Rocky? Sandy? A hard sand or, gravel bottom is the preferred route, even though others are shallower. The worst is a bottom of melon·sized smooth rocks. Traction is ziltch and even a good rider can take a dunking with that sort of bottom. Rule: If you can see the bottom clearly, ride Trials style on the pegs; if you can't, sit on the seat and dog-paddle. If the wa'ter is really swift and fairly deep, you have another problem. Sitting on the seat gives you much better control than walking alongside, and better traction as well. But if you take a tumble and get pinned under the bike you could drown, particularly if you got swept downstream and dragged over a few rocks. Often, if you have patches of smooth water and patches of rough where it's flowing over rocks, your best line is just barely upstream of the rocks. The water will be shallovver and the bottom easier than anyplace else. MUD Mud comes in an almost infinit variety. Thereisthinmud,thickmud,thickand sticky mud, mud mixed with snow, deep mud and shallow mud, to name some combinations. To keep things simple we will d~ss two basic tYpes in which the fundamental problem is different. First is the thin mud over a hard base such as is often found on fireroads in the spring. Second will be the deep mud found in swampy areas. With the first type, moving through it is no prabelm. You can generally get going as fast as you would like, but staying upright is often a problem. Ordinarily a motorcycle rolls forward with very little effort, but pushing one sidevvays is virtually impossible on pavement and not very easy even on dirt. I n physics terms, we say that the tires offer great resistance to lateral forces, or forces coming from the side. As the motorcycle goes faster, this resistance becomes smaller, but under most conditions it is still appreciable. Making a fast moving motorcycle slide sideways is not toO difficult but try making a stationary motorcycle slide sideways. This resista'nce to sideways movement is the only thing that makes it possible to ride a motorcycle and survive for any length of time. Consider what would happen if there were no resistance: You're riding along the highway and suddenly you note that the road has a slight crown. You would also note that you were sliding irresistibly off of it and into "the ditch. You not only would not be able to climb back 'Wh~re FIG. 4. With front and rear wheels in different diverging ruts, this ride¥' is in trouble. onto the road, you wouldn't be able to steer at all! The road might curve but you would go straight, for a whire anyway. This is the situation that you are faced with in riding mud, though it is not quite that extreme. Normal steering doesn't work very well, and situations that cause no problem on dry dirt become catastrophic on mud. If you drop the front wheel into a rut, there is no hope of haVing it climb out and if you get the front wheel in one rut and-the rear wheel in another, you're in big trouble. Running with soft tires helps immensely in this situation, but as always you risk more flats that way. Realizing the problem exists is half the battle in riding mud because as soon as you..know what's happening, you can start planning for it. Sudden movements are out. If you turn the front wheel you may turn, or not turn, or you may turn after a delay, Of course, if you set up for a turn, start to heel over, and don't turn, you're going to fall over. Every effort must be made to keep straight up and down and to keep both wheels in the same plane. The secret is to plan far ahead so that everything can be done gently. Look ahead and find things that you can use for traction. If the trail turns and there's a rut going the right way, get into it ahead of time and let it take you around, rather than sliding into it in the middle of the turn and getting high-sided. I f there are two ruts, and a rounded crown between them, pick one of them and get in it deliberately. If you don't you may slide in at an inconvenient time or you might have one wheel drop in one and as you instinctively try to c,orrect, the other wheel will drop in the other rut - good-by. Speed is an asset when you're riding- mud. The more speed you have, the more gyroscopic stability you gain from the wheels and the more inertia you have. In other words, you won'f be deflected from your path so easily. The other side of the coin though, is that when things do happen, they'll happen very quickly and your brakes are nOt only somewhat useless, but actually a bit hazardous. Nevertheless, the faster you can ride, the easier time you'll have of it. . 4 MORE MUD In thick or deep mud the. problem is somewhat different, You must avoid getting stuck, If you ride much in thick mud, you will notiee that the better riders seldom if ever get stuck and the reason for their "good luck" is that they have developed their powers of observation to a high degree. They notice the slightly different color at the bottom of a rut that indicated that earlier riders have gone through to hard ground. They notice a tuft of vegetation or a bit of rock that indicates there might be some traction. They can visualize the probable location of car tracks under the mud and realize that between them solid ground will be closer to the surface. Momentum must be jealously guarded when riding thick mud. for once lost it is not easily reco\lered. Momentum can carry you through a bad hole that, once stoppeq in. you'd never get out. Never try to go through a bad mud hole with your engine loafing. It might have been providing plenty of power just before you hit the mud, but the mud will invariably require double or even quadruple the power. If you go in a lower gear than seems necessary. then when the power drains off infO the muck, you'll be right where you want to be. TREES , In the Jackpine Enduro country there are many trees close together. Most of'them have the bark missing right about handlebar height. The worst scarred trees are tho~e that are somewhere in the radius of a turn. When there are two trees close together In a turn you have two choices. You can slow down almost to a stop and ,ride between them straight up and down in the middle of the trail or you can go through them at speed with your wheels almost touching the outer tree. If you try to go through the turn at speed with your wheels in the middle of the trail, your handlebar must hit. Simple geometry and physics. Which after all is what ridinq is all about, right? the Bq!!J~neJgr and~!~~q~e of the Law Properly Rests.' The . Callforma Outdoor Recreation League Speaks Out on the "Coyote Chase" attention of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, the fact that the imposition of fees on any recreational user of BLM lands not only The California OutdOOT Recreation has no statutory authority, but was in League feels that its position on the fact in plain violation of the specific motorcycle race held by £1 Cajon language in the Land and Water Motorcycle Club on Sunday, December Conservation Fund Act of 1972 (PL 3, should be made pubHc. While the £1 92-347). The Congress, in language that Cajon club held its race without is easily understood by anyone complying with the fee, permit and specifically forbade the BLM any insurance requirements imposed by J. authority to charge fees for recreational Russell Penney, state director for the use of public lands except where the use Federal Bureau of Land.Management, in is .....for specialized sites, facilities, his

• Cover