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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125854
Tougher than the ISDT and a lot harder to cheat Tecate 500 Enduro By John Huetter BAJA CALIFORNIA NORTH, MEXICO, MARCH 30-31 Why would more than 250 reasonably sane people pay $45 a piece to have their bodies abused in Mexico? Because some folks like riding in Baja with no other reason needed; some bikers continually look for unreasonable challenge; and some because the Tecate 500 enduro "is the re," like the British mountain climber said. Los Ancianos M.C. of Sa n Diego strung toge ther 489.4 miles o f incredibly remote, difficult, an d little seen o r used rou tes through the Northe rn section of Baja California from Tecate , in the Central Highlands , to San Felipe, on t he Sea o f Co rtez. You ro de so uth o n Sa turday. On Sunday, t he survi vors started back no rth to Tecate over a differen t ro ute. T here's a strong temptation at this point to foll ow the common format of end uro repo rting and describe the cou rse, but 500 m iles worth of descrip tio n in a place as varied and challenging to the biker as Baja would fill all the pages of this pap er. The course included, honestly, everything good and bad. It ran from cool pine-st udded central plateau past lakes and streams, which many can't eve n realize exist in Baja ; over the longest, most brutal sort of ro ck runs impossible to describe - they must be experienced ; down to high speed desert 'an d sandwash ; and on and off the two-lane bla cktop. Th e course wa s everywhere that the Los Ancianos had discovered in a year of weekend riding in Baja. Bruce Bar low was mainly resp o nsible fo r linking it together with marking over the full 500 miles that wa s just enough the whole time. Organization and planning by t he club for the 500 would make Al Eames envio us . The steep bu t co rr ec t entry fee included gas and Va lvoline two-st roke oil , lunches both days (which were good, ene rgy-givi ng, and welcome by noon check) and man datory Mexican insurance. T he club m emb ers w er e m ostl y low-key in d oing a j ob in which the logistics alone staggers the co mmon mind. My ride ended 4 t.s mi les out on th e first day when the gearbox on m y D KW went bye-bye. I reco vered to Tecate some time later to find Bill Messer (father of pro motocrossers Lu ke an d Bob) also bikeless, His Bultaco had seized even before the OK W de-geared. (Now is the time for a ll "DKW gearbox" and "Bultaco piston" jokes. Hahaha. End of time. We didn't th ink it was funny .) We loaded up and made it the 250 miles and 1.5 six-packs of Corona by road to the finish in San Felipe and started looking for rides. Funny thing happened when we got there. Not too many other riders made it on their bikes, either. Some were still out "there" wh ich, in Baja, is very far away indeed. The route apparently got really snotty for 100 m iles after lunch. The first 150 were actually kind of fun. Lynn Wilson was done in by the same I D-mile long ro ckpile that broke Baja 500 winner Dick Miller's forearm. "It's not really hard," she gasped, "but it sure is painful." Eit her you r bike got was ted, o r yo ur body did, or both . Most of t he speeds were betwee n 30 and 40 MPH. That is hardly an endur o; it is a cross-country race . It is very fast in Baja. T he slowest sched ule speed by far of the wh ole end uro was the 12 MPH across (dow n) t he roc kp ile, By Saturday nig ht, Team Husqvarna had finis hed virtually intact and too early ; Team Bultaco was on time but minu s o ne member; Team Lam e had both remaining me mbers (on mis- matched ('ent on / KT Ms) finish, and there we re not as m any tired , so re ride rs trying to sleep in San Felipe as there had been fresh , eager riders sleeping in Tecate the nil/ht before. Not so many riders started on Sunday as started on Saturday. Some of those didn't get started on time. Dave Ek ins looks ti red. He's out there somewhere. Waiting is nerve-wracking, led to cerveza consumption. Th is was one of the nice, fr iendly, beautiful, 40 MPH sections. About three 125s finished Saturday. It looked like Bill Friant (Pen) was closest to being on time. No 125cc machines and none of the three or four ladies that started the 500 miles were to fin ish it. I didn't see anything under a 250 running on Sunday or finish by check cut-off. The uphills on Sunday took care of that. It was balmy and clear by the sea in San Felipe. Not many riders noticed as they tried to find comfortable positions for sore muscles to sleep in. Two-hundred sixty had started Saturday, about 100 started Sunday, a total of 8 I finished by the time the finish check in Tecate called it off. The list of , entrants and, consequently, finishers rea d much like a ~ Wh o 's Who of Baja Racers with so me very seri o us endu roists adde d fo r variety. T his was a very serious enduro. Dick Vick, Dic k Miller, Bornhurst an d Is h er wo od, Teams Husqvarna and Bultaco (incl uding 0 -37 end uro ace Bob Steffan), Casey Fo lks fr om Las Vegas, all of them Baja 500 or 1000 winners, high finishers or, incl udi ng the riders from Ariz ona, Nevada and No rthern California, competent "enduro riders in thei r areas, were there. Most of the good ones finished - if their bike didn't break, or they didn 't. The m o torcycl e press was o ut in force for an event that spells " prestige" very large but m ost of those who finished, or finished well, were riders first and journalists, second . Dave Eki ns " of "Motorcyclist" was one of these but probably blew his overall win poten tial in the last few checks on Sunday. One of the best ways of staying on time in an event of this sort, by the way, is to have a start number that pu IS you between Dave and Bud Ekins. Team Lame lucked out and did. The system works pretty well - if you're fast enough. The biggest terrain obstacles to overcome on Sunday were an incredibly narrow switchback climb on a burro trail up the eastern escarpment of the Sierra J u arez, an engine-eating sand uphill, an d the heavy burden of 20 hours of rid ing fat igu e. If you m an aged all tha t, there was more on and off the high way hop ping, tr yin g frantically to make up ti me . Gas checks were -j us t close enough toge t her to allow most ride rs to m a'ke it by going on reserve. Some didn't. A nybody who finis hed ha d accom plished m o re th an most riders ever attempt. The skilled an d " lucky 80 were m ostly old hands at this kind of riding . Ve ry few neophytes or "unknowns." proportionally, made it. A lot of bro ken bikes and tired ri ders stayed in San Felipe to drive back in vans o n Sunday. Some just couldn't subject their bodies to any more punishment. Baja presents very rough enduro terrain. It takes a certain men tality an d type of skill to ride it , but the Tecate 500 has to be the best enduro I never finished. Results when they're figured ouL • A very strange pa rc ferme materialized under the pepper trees in Sa n Fe lipe . Gass in up , trying to sleep, m ilk for the morning , Ron Castillo for the night. 7