Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125878
Little Tufty Enduro: Rocks, what rocks? I had my eyes closed on the downhill. ~--~-------~ By John Huetter RED MO UNTA IN, CAL., S EPT . 15 Over 300' motorcycle-mounted masochists massed in the middle of the Mojave desert this weekend to subject their bikes and bodies to organized pain and po unding. They were cheerfully wave d off, some of the rid ers still smiling, in the pre -sunrise coolness at the rate of fou r every min u te to begin 49.4 miles of so me of the m ost concentrated to r' ture it's possible to conjure in a hot, dry desert. To all of yo u (bo th of yo u) ke ep ing track o f the 'con t in ui ng adventures of Team T ur key (A KA Team La me), yo u will be di sap poi n ted t o know that th e nu m b ers o f this notorious crew were severely red uc ed in th is URA-sponsored event adv e rtised as " to ugh in that o ne of said team had so severely injure d himsel f in finish in g this enduro last year t hat he's still limping and an other . . . gone road racing. How embarrassing. But good 01' Steve (on the latest version of his multi-thousand dollar fou r-st roke sing les . See "The Bike tha t Neve r Was " soon over most o f this same ne wspaper.] and Olly (on a Rokon he had first seen only 12 h ours previously) led off t h is do ugh ty band of endurance riders that include d luminaries suc h as Fre d Hayes, Carl Price , an d Marv Munyon on Mettco Pen to n / KT Ms and an abbreviated Team Bultaco of Bob St effan an d Gerry Hoffer . There were also an unco mmo n n umber of o bserved trials riders entered on pukka trials bikes and No rCai riders. It was th a t kind of course. Specifically, what kind of . co urse it was is indicated by the fact th at one of th e prizes for class winners was hang glider flyi ng lesso ns p ro vid ed by Ron Storey of Free Fligh t Syst em s. Many riders wished they'd taken the les so ns before th e en duro as t h e use o f a motorcycle was on ly a handicap on some (o r many, dep ending on who was telli ng the story) o f th e sec tions. The first check was just a little over the minim um three mi les o ut from the start an d to q uo t e par t of Team Turkey, '"When we we re two mi n utes late to the first check, I kn ew we were in tro uble." They weren't in as much trouble as a lot of riders who came into the check after covering the sh ort distance, five, 10 and 15 minutes late. This was advertised as a rough enduro so there weren't an y cr eampuffs out there. One dude bellowed between bounces over the all too so lid granite boulders, "They said tough, but n o t impossib le." The URA co urse mar kers injected a cruel n ote of irony even th is early in the sched uled t hree and half hour ru n . When riders came over the roc ky up hill , they were confronted by the rocky d ownhill, halfway do wn which (or a little mo re) was the checkpoint. To paraphrase Winnie the Pooh, "They could see the check, they co uld smell the check, but they couldn't quite reach the check." If you tried to go fast, you fell do wn. Simple as that. So m e equipmen t was already showing signs of get -offs, lay-downs and other un desira b le activities. So were some rid ers. Well, this first sect ion kin d of set the mo od for the rest of th e run, and will the guy who " bo rr o wed " m y wr en ch to re move th e airbox from his Husk y please ret urn it c/o this paper? Repairs four mil es o ut? Yup , And lots of them . The remainder of the first loop was more hard stuff with th e exception of a sand y, almost·a-frreroad . part with co ntinuous schedule speeds of I g and 24 MPH o ver un real terrain. Part o f th at un real terrain included a tight canyon U Winner J im Keast (178) leaves a check as two other masochists start down one of the many hills. right after a checkpoint that developed into a monster bottleneck. Whether or no t the bottleneck was necessary will be, and has been, debated loud and long. Early numbers made it through , late numbers didn 't, and, at one point, it looked like a hundred or more riders milling aro und, screa ming engines, and churn ing up d ust. There 's a st rong possibility the succeedi ng checkpoints will be thrown out to compensate for the 30-40 minutes that a lot o f riders lost in this canyon. . In the m ids t of all this go -faster mayhem, those tricky URA devils threw in a 12 MPH section and, sure enough, it had a check in it and, equally sure enough, it ca ught a lo t of riders not trapped in the canyon - early. Another irony, being early on a loop that most riders were thankful to finish. There's no justice on the Little ,T uffy, or so it would seem . Just when everybody tho ugh t t he first loop was over an d most kn ew that th e pi ts wer e jus t a m ile or less away, t he co urse hi t a check and shortly after po pped o ver a hill which overlooked t he pits. Bu t this downhill was the kind you look at and tum aw ay from in no rmal ri ding co nditions . There were big roc ks at the top, little rocks and loose silt in the middle, and big rocks at the bottom. Some of the lines were incredible until you o bse rve d riders taking them - out of skill or desperation or loss of control. Yes, there was a switchback about two-thirds of the way down, with a cliff o n the far side. Now co m es the time when most enduro stories talk about the u phills o n the course. Maybe we 'll make this story a little cheerier and no t talk about the uphills. Believe me , they were there. Any kind of up hill yo u want just so it fits the general category of steep and difficult. The second loop offered more of th e same terrain under different names Early repairs led to late arrivals. The numbers on these two bikes tell some kind of story . .. If you were still on time a few miles past the start, it was easy to smile. Later on in the enduro, though. things got a little tou9her. Repairs four miles from the start? You bet. climaxed by a downhill before the last checkpoint abo u t si x miles out from the finish. The sign a t the top said "Hang glider launching point 50 ft. " Some gu ys rode up the edge an d looked over and sat there fo r a long while. Some guys barreled right on over, moto cross st yl e, and to o k the downhill in about three long leap s. Some guys bulldogged recalci tran t motorcycles through the cal f-deep scree in to the checkpoint. Some riders came wailing down the hill looking completely out of control, scattering ch ec kp o int crew to the four compass points as they took out bushes and ribbon. Some guys 'may still be up there. (Course sweep wasn't complete when we hit the road.) Oh, yeah. This was also the tie-breaker ch ec k. Why did they need a tie-breaker chec k? Well, it's traditional in enduros and there were an awful lot of good riders out there, so what th e . .. ? Survival rate was not h igh. Out of nearly 350 who started, i t looked like maybe less than half that many finished within the one hour cut-off time. One d ust-covered rider palmed his finisher pin on a plaque and said to nobody in particular, HI deserve this." Tough , yes. According to surviving Team Bultaco member Gerry Hoffer, "This was no candy run," but there were grati fyingl y few injuries. The worst reported was a broken foot suffered on the firs t loop . We did notice o n e or two roc ks out there, so m e o f which seemed very solid. But in making a short, tough enduro Downhills with rocks and fas t averages demand sk ill, luck and determination. Here part of the Mettco Penton team demonstrates. course in the Mojave desert there is little choice but to have lots of rocky, or silt y, uphills combined with lots of ro c ky or silty downhills, with maybe rock y can y o ns connecting them. The URA seemed to have found all the ones they could squeeze into 50 miles. There were no water crossings. Loop two captain Larry Langley of the URA had predicted before the event that a score of around five points lost would win it overall. He , and a lot of other pundits, were surprised when once again someincredibly lucky, reasonably skilled person who knew how to kee p time and take chances won the 1974 Little Tuffy Enduro with only one point lost. Jim Keast did it, There were a number of riders who came in with the five and six point scores but complete results by class will have to wait til ncxtweek and the determination of which checks count as valid. In addition to the post-bottlen eck checkpoints, there was one p rotest over the timing at another check, still unresolved as o f deadline. In general, however, those who were actually able to pay a ttention to such det ails fel t that the times and distances were reasonably ac cura te for such convoluted terrain. Didn't hear any co m p laints about co u rse marking, either. There appeared to be several sacksful of pink ribbon and URA arro ws winding through the des ert. Ep ilogue wi th n am es an d numbers as soon as we get the facts. • 9