Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

WJ iI 5iQI 2: .... ~ motorcycle anym ore I'll se ll it and buy a boat or somethin g a nd go fish ing . ~~~'t.\\\\\\\. ~ Rider put-on Mik e Adams and Ca rl Price have co me up with an in te resting ide a : they fee l tha t an y ride r rid ing for 0 -3 7 end uro points shou ld hel p put on o ne enduro during the year. If the rider's club p uts o n a d istrict enduro, fine. Bu t the idea is to p ro vi d e help to the small clubs and en courage some other cl ubs to put on enduros, Sounds reasonable to me, what do you think? Let me know and I' ll print a cross section of id eas. ""'.., . . " Learn how to "\\'" tune b ikes at th e BURAK TUNIN G SCHOOL for performanc e , fun & eco nom y, g ~ g -e- BURAK BYE-P BDUeTS Ol 15170 RaymerS!. • Van Nuys, CA (213) 780-1768 r- ...... over y our m istake, wait a moment for it to dry and write right over it. Neat, huh ? This tip m ay be almost as good as the diap er tip in "Dirt Rider." 00 Q.J End uro product evaluations T & C Helmet C ::s .. -: Distributor: Greenho rn In Ron Schneid ers' coverage o f the Gree nho rn En duro he q u ite co rrectly severely crit icize d the Pa sad en a M . C. for ho rribl y inaccu rate mileage, no sweep, layou t und erserving of Na tional Ch ampionship sta t us, etc. In these res pects th e Greenh orn was sadly ~ =: Look for IRoale =: Check I E = _ I • in the Results section. WHITTIER HONDA Mo torcycle Trailers Bell He lmets Full Bore Products 14324 E. Whittier Blvd, (213)'698-0065 Complete stock of parts and accessories for street and dirt, oss~ YEL LO W OR BL UE NO N·S L IP OURY Dea ler tnquines Inviteo (2 13) 363-6230 lackin g. He re are my co m men ts o n what I thought abo ut the run. I have not been riding the 'Horn fo r 20 years like some SoCal riders; this was my second, last year was my first. Perhaps, in future years, I may lose some of my enthusiasm, but right now I feel I am at my peak as far as interest goes. I enjoyed t his year's Greenhorn more than last year , mostly sin ce the start and finished in Pasadena were much more in the tr a dition of past Greenhorn Enduros. It was tough this year, When we hit Charlie's Place Saturday night I was almost totally exhausted. 280 long miles with the last 40 being the toughest. Sunday morning I was glad for the first time I was 103 . I thanked the Sunday layout crew m an y times as they ligh tened up o n us. When we hit the last gas stop at Pearbl o ssom , the adrenalin really started to flow . We were totally pumped. O ur three m a n "8" learn was still intact and, by God , we were a ll going to finis h eve n if we had to tow one of us over the moun t ain s. It was really a th rill co ming o ver th e m oun t ain s a nd ca tc h ing the fir st glim pse o f Pasaden a thousands of feel below us. We rode in together. There are only a co uple of endures wh ere yo u are chee re d b y t he spect at ors at t he fin ish and the ' Ho rn is o ne of th em. That fel t good . Only a 100 or so tw o d ay riders fin ished the G reenhorn an d I felt total pride in b eing o ne of th em. Yes, t he re we re a lot of fo ul- u ps d uring the end uro . Bu t the Gr eenh orn st ill remains the enduro I would ride if I had o ne choice. '. , Mik e Pat rick's Y AMAHA of CORONA=~ 1101 E. 6 th St. """"' Corona (714) 735 -772 1 HR L Lub ricants 7340 Florence Ave. DowneY, CA 90240 213 ·927-4781 jiM FisitbACk5 ~ YAMAHAoi[f@ lNJlfj,lfrlj,l @ I (714) 822-2252 , 9008 Sierra Ave., Fontana, Ca. CMC SANC T ION WITH T HE BEST 30 P,O. BOX 1402 COSTA M ESA. CA . 92626 Why is the Green ho rn sc rewed up year after y ear? I do n't reall y know but I would guess it is a m anpow er problem. The Pasadena M.C. is act ua lly a very small club an d the Gr eenh o rn requ ires a n un be lievabl e amo unt o f wor k and effort to pu ll off. T he logisti cs alone are staggeri ng. I kn o w , . .l helped p u t o n a 250 mil e enduro. 500 mil es is twi ce the wo rk, w hich I co uldn't im agin e . So, Pa s ad e n a M .C. .. . .it was screwed up but m y hat is off to you , anyway. I enjoyed it and had fun. When I d on't have fun rid ing my Ed's Distribu ting 133 21 A londra San ta Fe Springs, Calif 906 70 Whittaker WKR 3-gallo n plastic gas ta nk Man ufacture r: 720 N. Vernon A :usa, Calif 91702 The Whittaker enduro tank is a three ' gallon universal type tank which we mounted on a Ho nd a XL-250 fo r testing. Being designed to fit a w ide range of motorcycles has its limitations at times. in the case of the XL ·250 (and also on the Honda MT-250) the petcock interfered with the cylinder head. Give up ? Not us. We installed a 90 degree fitting where the petcock normally fits into the tank and installed the petcock in the gas line. It worked and what more fitting (pun not intended) test for our installation t ha n the 500- m ile Gree nhorn Enduro? The . ta nk came through just fine in creasing th e ra nge of the Honda by 40 miles or so. T he stock XL·250 tank holds j us t 2,1 gallons. T he shape of the ta nk is a little un us ua l bu t p roved very p ract ic al. It w as slim at t he rear so yo u we re n ' t riding like a b owlegged cowboy and allowed you to get yo ur wei gh t forward when needed without in te rfe re nce, G lad to rec ommend th e t ank b ut w ish th ey would move the pet co ck more tow ard s th e rear. Enduro Chart Paper Manuf actu rer: P.O. Box 218 1 Irwindale, Calif 9 1 706 This p re-pri n t ed end uro chart . paper is just the thi ng for sloppy printers like me. Most route charts are made up on plain adding machine tape and I have a tendency to write my computat ions more and more crookedly until finally it's hard to match up the time and mileage. I used the pre-printed c ha rt paper at the Granny II and Greehnorn enduros and am pleased with it. The papers co me printed with lines ~" ap art and minutes incremented by one for 12 hours. All you have to do is fill in the times and the mileage. A bonus is a con versio n chart for 1-40 ~IPH averages . The only thing I would ask to be changed is to allow a little more paper at the start of the roll and m ove the numbers over a litt le more toward the center (which may have alrea dy been done) . At S 1.95 fo r a 12 ho ur ro ll it see ms reasonab le as th is is eno ugh for two fami ly e ndures. I lon g end uro, o r half of a 500 rniler lik e the Greenhorn. Fo r $4 .95 th ey 'll se ll yo u 36 hours worth . Speaking o f e nd uro c ha rts, do yo u have th e problem o f making a m istak e usi ng a fe lt tip pen, th en have a m ess try ing to co rrec t? Well t rot o n d own to your friend ly neigh bo rhood stationary store and fo r a d o llar o r so b uy a little bo ttle of "Liqu id Pap er " co rrec t io n fluid. This stuff is used by ty pists when they m ake a boo-boo. Just brush it on I never fel t co m fortab le in a full face helmet until I tried one of the new T&C hats. They m a ke the ch in section stick ou t far t he r, giving more inside cle a rance, T h e helmet is very com fortab le to wear. It 's light but seems to be co nstructed very well. The T&C helmet meets al l the sp eci fi ca t ion s excep t Snell, an d com es in metalflake or pl ain co lors. The difference between End uros and ISOT T he recen t ISDT Qualifier p u t on b y the Shamrocks M.C. prov ed tha t a qualifier and an e nduro in no way , shape , or fo rm res embled each other. When I d ecid ed to enter I k new I would not be competitive wi th th e likes of the Pen tons, Gene Cannady, etc., e t , aI., but I figured what the heck, it would be an experience. And the ho pe of a bronze or even a silver medal was m y goal. We unloaded our b ikes an d I too k mine righ t over to the sound tes t to ge t it checked, If it di d n 't pass the test everything else was fo r n o thing, because I woul d n't be allowed t o run. T he checke r O K' d m y b ike and t old me that some riders were stuffin g steel wool Brill o p ads a nd wha t ever up thei; silen cers t o pass the tes t , On e guy had . just gotten the OK when a whole mess of Brillo pads blew out the silencer and landed at the te ster's feet. Needless to say the bike was reje cted. After a ligh I breakfast we went over to wat ch some of the earlier ride rs take off. You had t o get your bike started and ride i t over the penalty line within one minu te or you get 20 penalty pain ts ad d ed to vour score. Finally it was my turn and as I pushed up to the line I said a small prayer that m y scooter would start. A lot of people were watching. First kick it lit and I was o ff on the roughest ride of my life. A coup le of miles o f asp ha lt ro ad a nd then on to a powerline ro ad and th en off into what was to become a lo ng d a y of rocks. Big rocks, little roc ks rou nd rocks, jagged rocks - you name it they had iI. I know t hey had o th er terrain in the run b u t the rocks are al l that stick in my mind. I was moving along p retty good w hen some d ude on a Can-Am b lew by m e like I was tied to a rock. How deflati ng! It's just unbelievable how fast so me of those guys really are . Not just on th e eas ier trails bu t in the real rough stuff. Finally I came in to the first gas check. I was hoping I was early so 1 co uld d ri nk some Gatorade an d rest my bod, b u t no suc h lu ck, fo r I w as five m inutes late . M y pi t crew th rew so me gas in and off I went fo r a long, 60-mile ride whi ch put some o f th e harder enduros t o sham e, I don't know exactly why th e Shamrocks have this rock fetish, but it wa s be coming rather irritat ing. The cou rse has reall y taken its toll. J ack Penton limps in with a foot that looks broken. A Prospector gets gas, leaves and so on com es ba ck , His frame has crac ked in half. He is thankful it didn 't go all at onc e a t sp eed . Only abo u t 40 or 50 fin ish ed the first d ay o f over 16 0 wh o star ted . Only 28 riders finished both d ays. Larry Langley

• Cover