Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• 1.1 !I a= IiQ IlQ .... g ;... g ~ r- C'l ~ <.0 ->:l "'""".l , Five fast, sweaty days with Rolf Tibbl in By Larry Barnes In the span of on ly eight years motocross in the United States has gone from a novelty sport to the highly developed art it is today. No one can any longer "run what you brung" with success, or hope to win the first time out. Today you must have a carefully • ... prepared machine ; you must be prepared physicall y ; and you must know and use th e proper riding techniques. All three a re important and any two without the other will prevent you from achieving much success on the national or internation al motocross scene. You migh t win local even ts galore, but y o u ' lI ne ver make the "big tim e" without practicing the art o f motocross. Just as other sports, moto cross h as its current heroes. its brief success stories and past masters who now spend their time teaching young riders what they've learned over the years. These masters are scarce in the United States. One is a five-day training cen ter sponsored by Hu sq var n a. The grand- master or , if you will, "maestro" of Husqvarna's school is three-time World Champion Rolf Tibblin. Rolf T ibblin won his first European Championship (w hich is the same as World Championship) in 1959 after seven hard years of dedication . Not a brief success story , Tibblin worked hard at his art a n d stayed in the top three for the nex t eight ye ars, e xcep t for 19 61 when he "dropped" to fifth. Included were back to back World Titles in 1962 and 1963 foll owed b y two close se conds in 1964 and 1965 . Rolf retired from World Motocross c o m p et iti o n a fter another se cond pl a ce finish in J 967. But after tiring o f the hotel business in Sweden, Rolf came over to the United States and proved his cross-country ability by winning such maj or events as the :'olexican 1000 and :'olint 400. Today a t 35 Rolf Tibblin is still in great ph ysical shape and a n active rider. lie is working hard t o get his Carlsbad, California training cen te r and motocross track into full swing and has set his go als at nothing short o f training an American rider to become the first stateside World Champion. Husqvarna evidently does not believe that the whole country revolves around California, because they asked Rolf to take his school around the country and offer it to young riders on their own ground. Tibblin offe red his train ing to Texas riders at Rio Bravo Motocross Park near Ho u s t o n for S J 75 each. This ride r /wri te r e n ro lled in th e sc hool primari ly to fin d out whet her th is S 175 figure would be a worthwhile investment for an asp iring racer, The price included room and board at the Holiday Inn, where I first met Rolf Tibblin. He was easy to spot in the lobby, looking like a well muscled prize fighter with Scandinavian blue eves and blonde hair. . When Rolf sweats. you sweat , . . a lot . At seven a.rn. Monday the school began with breakfast where eggs we re ru led o ut and the st udents came face to face w ith their instructor "Coath" Ro lf Tibblin. His mile-wide smile and flashing eyes immediately put each o ne at e ase and we soon moved ou tside for o ur first session of physical conditioning . "I believe you must be stro ng physically before you c an th ink about being fast on your motorcy cle: ' he began. And then we b eg-an 10 sw eat throuah about 45 various knee bends, ten regu lar push ups, push ups on finger tips , 20 toe raises, 20 al tc rnate runs (running in th e push up position). 20 back stre tches, bicyding, 50 floor to sky rea ches and the worst, scissoring leg raise s . . . first flat o n vour back then o n each side . . , for 3 0 seconds and rest for len . Then he told us how to rest (tha n ks , we needed th at }. Lie o n your back w ith knees raised an d rotat e y o ur arms over y our head when brearhing in and back down to your sid es when e xha ling (so rt of self-re suscitat ion }, " O.K . K\I Ys!" he said for th e fir st of many ti mes and we a ll got up fo r isometrics. One t hat really puts th e legs in shape is sit tinl( against a wa ll with your legs at a 90 degree ang le . . . without a cha ir ! Rolf "sal" there and timed us for three se Is of 3 0 seconds each, not win cing on ce, while we stumbled around d uring th e ten second breaks. But at no lime during this or any of our work outs was an v m an "tortured" as per an o the r maga zine's articl e about the school. Rolf a lways ca u tio ned against "straining y o u r body so much you get physically and men tally tired." \\'e were to do as many of the exercises as we could do cor rec tl y . It was no good to do them wrong , Rolf does not try to make "motocross muscles in five days" at all. lie shows you a co n di tioning program thaI when used for eight mon ths to a year will give you an advantage over your competition in endurance. Indeed, the whole program is not so muc h t o give you instant results o n the local track (it might) , but show you the way to build your body, to build you r riding skill in the long run - a year, two years or five years fro m no w, A nywa y, back to the Ho lid a y Inn for a hearty bu ff e t lunch. T hese li ttle gatherings at meal time were re al highl igh t s of the week. Her e Ro lf wo u ld d isc uss t he mo rn in g's workout, give a preview of the afternoon riding session, and ta lk of his years o n the championship trai l. lIis heavy Swedish accent is downright invaluable for maintaining an audience, Everyone listened to every sen tence an d got the meaning of every word . Out to Rio Bravo where Coach Tihblin gave each bike a thorough go ing -over to see that it was set up properly. Common faults of bike preparation include: 1. Bars too wide. 2. Bars too high. (T h ey must permit leaning. ) 3. Broken levers. (T h ey 're dangerous to you and others.) 4 . Sloppy c a bles. (Migh t ca tc h on another bike.) 5. Chain to o tigh t. ( I-V," slack required.) 6 . Downward sloping footpegs . (You r feet slide off. ) 7. Swingarrn should be level when rear shocks are compressed half-way. 8. Seat is too soft. A worn out seat increases the distance you have to move from sitting to standing, . meaning unnecessary work fo r your Ie/( muscles . Stick a coup le Cycle Neuis issues under your seat co ve r to firm il up. [Nothing else is considered tr ick.) ante Coach Tibhlin was sa tisfied with our bikes, we warmed up with a few laps around the berrny track, while he made mental notes about the riding style of the" Dirty Do zen" and me. . Today we would on ly learn how to st op correctly , one of the main princip les in the art of motocross, Each rider wa s to ride "so fast you can" toward a designated point and come to a halt just a t the lin e. Coach Tibblin taught us to use both brakes , engine compression and to put body weight up over the tank to s to p quicker. No two finger braking was allowed because the amount of pull o n the lever needed can ch an ge dur in g a lonl( moto. After he was satisfied we a ll had the proper te chnique, Rolf added the d imension of c o m pe ti tio n. Everybody lined up and took o ff at Rolf's signal. Th e man 10 stop c lo sest to the line first was the winner. The improvement in this prin ciple was obvious as every man was c o rni n g faster and faster to th e line and stopping on a dime. Leaving the bikes at Rio Bravo, we returned t o the lIoliday In n for a light dinner. According 10 Tibblin, your body docs not rest easy on a full sto mach . It wou ldn't have made any d ifference th at nigh t because everyo ne was dead 10 the world long before the 10 p.m, curfew . "Good morning, it's seven oclock ," said the voice on the phone, "I1u h? What ? Oh veuh . I ' m at Rolf Tibblin's :'oIX sc ho ;,1. Didn't do 100 had yes terday . Kept up with everybody else doing ca lis l hcu tics . I'll just hop up a nd .. ,.t lzrit'k ! '· Every muscle in my hody cried out in ag o n y. I thought I was in prett y good shape, but that rumor was quickly dispelled crawling out of bed tha t second morning,

• Cover