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/125885
rn 51 Sii:II un 2: Sii:II ..:::I g ;... g -:::!" r--. C'l lr') ... u ...0 E u > 0 z Th is guy is lookin g u p in the sky but the parachutrix is al ready down and standing next t o him. Fa llin g at 155 MPH from 10,000 feet , temperature 30 degrees, she said she got a bit chilly. Believe it ! Chuck Merriman go t his pick of the motoreycles an d chose the Honda for his wife. Looks so happy you'd think he wa s go in g to get t o kee p it. false sens e of sec urity by t he previou s 18 MPH easy rid ing sec t io n , it was quite easy t o be late t o the tiebreaker. In th e middle o f th e loop th er e was a ten -mi n ute break in wh ich go rillas and d ucks (Ho llywood variety) served th e tlie ' riders Pep si-Co las (which were do na ted, of course) . There was a hal f-ho ur lunch break and th en th e second loop began, Loop two wasn't a whole lot m ore difficult in terms of terrain, but the schedules were Some of th e better rider s sho wed up for the event (I no ted Bob Steffan and Ge rry Hoffer of the Bultaco team and Dave Holeman fro m Cycle magaz in e). Bu t mostl y it was the family riders, and the trail riders who su p po rt ed th e event. An d there were 1600 of the m! This doesn ' t make it th e largest enduro on record (t hat also was staged by Ron Vincellette, at Calico) but it 's far above the average entry . The first rider left the line at 7:01 and the last one started abou t the time the first riders finished th e event. The yo ungest ride r was Joh n J aco b son, age five . After the enduro , abou t 3 :30 p. m, th e Californ ia Aerial Circ us, a precisio n pa rachuti ng team, put o n an ex hib ition . A large circle was clear ed an d marked for t he m: The firs t two j um pers had th e crowd wo nderi ng if they we re going to 'Witness a mass suici de or so me th ing, as th ey not only m issed the circle by about hal f-a-mile but one of th em had to cut loose his main chute an d use his reserve. By the next pass they had the act together in more wa ys ·than one. Four jumpers left the plane and executed a spinning pinwheel. One of the mem bers of that grou p, Nancy Do yal, who made her j ump in a bikini. Ano ther mem b er, David Perry , was presen ted wi th his go ld wings when he landed. Parry , 58 years old, had j ust completed his 1000th jump. The last gro up to ju m p fo rm ed a ten-man star, then broke , trailing co lo red smo ke as th ey o pened th eir chutes. All of th em lan ded in the designated area and one came very close to a bullseye. The parachutists fi nis hed their thing about 4 p.rn. an d from then un t il dark Dick Payne of the Pasadena Fire De part ment gave away merchandise that faster. There was ho wever, o ne sec lio n of san d whoop-de-does at 24 MPH th at had the best riders fightin g to stay o n time. After th e sand secti o n th e course wo und its way all the way up to the top o f Government Pea k, went past all kinds of wei rd electronic stuff, an d th en back down pas t so me in te res ti ng abandoned mines, to the desert floor. The course was easy enough for so me riders to ma ke it pac king double, but I did not hea r of anyone zeroing the score. In sp ite of all the monkey sh!!!es there really was a genuine enduro. And due to a beautiful rain the day before. there was no dust. the La d ies Auxiliary had coll ec te d. Th e amo unt o f stu ff t hat 'w as give n away was sim p ly staggering. I had plan ne d to list all the people who ha d donated things but after I had made a three page list of nam es and they weren't half through, I realized that it was going to be impossible. They started with three brand new motorcycles, a Honda 10 0, a 75 Suzuki and a little Yamaha 80, trials bike. Chuck Merriman won the Honda, which he is going to give to his wife Adele. Mike Green of Cerritos won the Suzi a nd Steve Whittle of Burbank got the Ya maha. In add ition to the bikes they gave away about 25 new tires, o ver 100 shi r ts an d rid ing jerseys an d jackets, t ra nsistor radios, cases of o il, shopping bags full o f miscellaneous goodies like chain lub e, oil and goggles , probably 50 se ts of ha ndle bars, two or three doze n gift cert ificates from various shops arou nd town, six Dia mond chains, five Terry cables and 25 Preston Petty fenders. I don't th ink anything they gave away was worth less than 55.00 and at least 30 0 riders got gifts. There were supposed to be finishing pins but U.S. Customs held them u p ' in San Francisco so they will be mai led t o the co ntestants along with the results. Scoring wi ll be finished in abo ut a week. This en du ro was held in the no rth ern fashio n, no time sc he dule known ahead of time. Figure it in yo ur head as yo u go. To this rid er at leas t , that 's a better way o f doi ng it. It puts the enduro bac k in the rea lm of amateur sport . T he emphasis is on th e ab ility to think and ride at the same ti me, no t on hu ndreds of d o llars wo rth of equipmen t an d hours of preparation time. The Hook and La dder Endu ro was a pretty great eve nt. We rea lly need more like it. • 7 •