Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

you are o ver toward the downhill side, it is movi ng u nd ern ea th you and you can sti ll maintain co n trol and balance. The same thing a p plies when y ou are making a n off-c amber turn . Say y o u are turning to th e righ t an d th e gro und is lo ping to th e le ft . This happens ofte n t courses whe re t hey put a tu rn a ro und the e nd of a ri dge o r o n the side o f a ill. As you go aro u nd pu t more of your eight o n the o u tside o r downhill side. You also have to keep the power on steadily wit hou t goosing t he throttle or tting ha rd on the bra kes. If you close e th rottle on an off-camber yo u will 'tart slidi ng down the hill. If you apply e brakes you will do the sam e th ing . mooth and cool will get you a round e turn, Showing how to use a berm to square off a corner, Gary came in from the left, making the turn ti ghter than the track it self requires. Bik e is pitche~ over . and sliding. Above right, Contact! Below lef t, as you come off, start straIghtening up the bike. Below right, get it straight up, open the throttle and go . raking in the rough Im agine a long straightaway with a igh t turn at the en d. Just befo re the u rn is th e worst piece . o f ground yo u ver saw. It has ru ts running in both ire ctions, half-buried ro ck s, tree roots isible, and th e wh ol e thing is covered ith a two-inch layer of sm all round o cks. You are winging down th at straig h t, at out in top gea r, and just as yo u get nto th e bad stretch y o u need to get topped for th e comer. You th ink I'm gonna te ll yo u h o w to a tha t , don ' t yo u? I'm not. T here is no ay . Just though t I would mention th at. Brakin g o n ro ugh te rrain is a p roblem au solve by where you ride , not how au ride. This a ffects your lines o n the :o u rse an d I will discuss that in the .o mpeti tio n section. There will be places where you h ave a go th rough rough ground and get lowed do wn or accelerate whi le you are oi ng it. When you can't avoid, yo u do t, Practice this so you get an nd er s t an d in g of the things the o torcy cle is go ing to do and p ra ctic e it low ly at first because there will be o rne surprises in the re. hoop-de-does I d on't know where th e exp ression 'whoop-de-doo " originat ed. I first eard it when I was a kid, riding in the ifornia desert ra ces . The desert wiII ave long stre tc h es wh ere there are egularfy-spaced ridges in the sa nd robably caused by the wind. They ar e d to ride and t iri ng over a lo n g .stance b ut we gradually developed a echniq ue fo r them. On a motocross co urse that we made rfectly smooth by a b ulldozer, a series f regular b umps a nd valleys will form ery quickly when the bikes get out on e track. These arc even worse than esert wh o o p-dees because they are ade by the motorcycle themselves. What happens is, at a certain speed, a otorcycle wiII have a natural ro c kin g otion at a steady rate like a ch ild 's ocking-horse toy. Anything that starts a make a depression in th e ground will entually cause a long series of hoop-dees to be dug in to the ground. is can be due to hard braking, hard celera ti o n , or a jump wh ere th e bikes d hard on the rear tire. That first little d ep r essio n gives the ike a fore-and-aft rocking motion ich enlarges the first depression and ates another one farther down the ourse. The second one causes a third to arm, and so forth. The pattern of the dula tions in the ground exactly tch es the motion of the average otorcycle when it is rocking fo rward d back. So the m otorcycl es rock ong and dig the pattern deeper, an d e d eeper it gets the m o re the bikes eem t o e njoy pl ay in g th a t ga me . To rid e through there you have to rea k up that co nsp iracy between errain a nd mo torcy cle. If you don't, ad things can happe n to you. If you let the motorcycle follow t he ontour o f LI)e track, with both wheels uch in g th e gro u nd, and you go fast au will no tice that your rear wheel sta rts getting airbo rn e o ff the tops of th e bumps. At th a t instant, yo u r fro nt wheel is o n the ground so it can serve as a pi vo t. Sooner or later the rear t ire will co me up into th e air at a n angle . If th e fro nt tir e is o n the ground ac ting as a pi vo t , the bike will start ro t at in g sid eways. When th e re ar tire touches d o wn it will bounce up again but it will start swi nging in the op posite direction. Th is bouncing an d tail-wagging will b uild u p vio lently and pretty soon you will crash or fall off. That's called "eating it. " The only part of that which can be p re ven t ed is leaving the front wheel dow n so the rest of the motorcycle can pivot on it. The main th ing in ri ding throug h whoop-de-doc s is to get the fr ont end ligh t and up in the ai r so it m isses the bumps or just barely kisses the to p as it goes by. As long as you've got that fr ont end up , there is nothing to worry about. Tum the power on, stand on the pegs, a nd mo ve your weight to the back of the moto rcy cl e. When the front en d is just floating ove r the bump s, th e rear tire will be working u p and down over them. It wiII p ro bably come off the top o f o ne b um p, travel through the air and land on the side of the next bum p . The rear suspension is wo r king as m uch as it can but it can m o v e only about fo u r inc hes. The whoops may be 10 or 12 inches tall, so m etimes a lot higher. There is no way the rear suspension can cope with all that terrain variation. Your shocks should be cushioning the jolts as the suspension compresses b u t yo u also have to help out by bending your knees. The rear su spension helps the bike. Your knees act as the suspension for your own weight b y bending as you go over the b umps. Riding the whoop-dees is a good thing to watch before you pract ice on them because you can see the difference very easily. Watch novice riders in a bad section . Typically they wiII leave the front tire on the ground all the way through. If they try going fast the rear end q uickly gets out of co ntrol so they usually don't do that . They will go very slo wly rid in g their rocking h orses al ong the track. Some of th em will fall. Now watch the experts go thro ugh . Fr ont wh eel s ar e up an d they are going pro babl y three ti mes as fast as the rocking h orses. Even while doing that, th ey h ave better co ntrol and less chance of d umpin g. Turning on the rear wheel When the t;on t wheel is m a king the bike tu m, it is exerting a side for ce on the gro und. If the wheel is ligh t1y lo aded or even up in the air it can't get a grip o n the su rface a nd m ake the motorcycle tum. An example is riding through th e whoop-dees on you r re ar tire. You m ay still want to tu rn wh ile you ar e pullin g some kin d of a wheelie and th e way to do it is lea n th e bike in th e direc tion yo u wan t it to go. You ca n't make any sharp turns th is way but there are a lot of places on the motocross trac k where it is useful. The surface If you race on di fferen t tracks in your part of the co un try and maybe have the opportunity to try a few course in other areas, you will ride on abou t every kind of terrain there is. Good dir t , grass, sa nd, mud and gravel to name j ust a few of the all-time favorites. The best way to learn the di fferen t characteristics in so me o f these fun place s is to experimen t and practi ce. I have already mentioned d oing you r acceleration and b raking routine on di fferent su rfaces, as well as practicing starts . Here are some clues and riding tips that may help you. Grass usuall y has good tractio n unless it is tailor wet. If it is tall, the bl ades will lie down flat under the tire and they can be slippery . Pine needles are about as slippery as ice . If you have ever run in t o a dense layer of them you 'll agree with me instantly. To get forward t ra c tion, keep power o n . The rear t ire may spin a little but it will quickly dig down to the good traction. T o turn o n slippery grass or something • How to Win Motocross, copyr ight 1974 bv Gary Bailev. is bei ng seria lized in Cycle News . The best-seller, now in its second printing, is condensed for this serialization. The complete book is available for $6 from Cvcle News Products . See ad in this issue . like pine needles you just have to go slow and carefully. Sand is hard to ride slow ly bu t pretty easy if yo u are go ing fas t. Get your wei gh t to th e rear so th e fro n t is ligh t an d d o esn't sink o r plow in . When y o u want to turn, d o it mainly b y leaning th e bike. T o m a ke a sharp t um, pit ch th e bike. The tires will slide alo ng, building a berm as they go and finally the berm will stop motion in that direction and tum you in the direction you intend to go . You have to expect the tum to widen out while you are making it because you will slide sideways while you are turning. Mud is a great favorite for the spectators but I do n't know many riders who yearn for it a lot. You can get phi lo soph ic ab out it an d say the mud is there so I will ride in it . But a lot of mud arou nd a track reduces the amo unt of fun you can have . If it is d eep al l you can d o is try to go in straight lin es as much as possible and have e noug h mom entum when yo u h it so you can go all th e way through th e sw am p . In d eep mud , hold th e b ik e strai gh t up and use fuII power. Your rear tire wiII eithe r dig d own to so me traction or it will throw enough mud any way so you will move. In slip pery, greasy stu ff body English is t wice as important as anywhere o n th e track a nd you use it to hol d the bi ke as vertical as possib le. Sometimes bo unci ng o n the seat will help ge t traction in tw o ways. It sp reads out the tire so there is more co ntact with the surface an d it also drives th e tire down in to the surface. If you are trying to accelerate and not getting much, bouncing on the bike will probably help. A lot o f riders treat a wet track as though it was hub deep in mud and that 's a mistake. If the mud is o nly an inch or two deep, there is good traction just underneath it . Use power so the rear tire can get down to the sticky layer and you can ride about as fast as if the track was dry. Mu d may require you to change your lines in the comers . Loo k for the edge of a ba n k, or a grassy verge, or even some o the r rider's ruts to help y o u ma ke tu rn s. Ride gravel ab o ut th e same as sa nd. Keep the front end light a nd ke ep your speed up. Tum by leaning th e bike and don't try hard, tight turns on the lo o se pebbles. • Ruts Ruts on a wet track are a help. If the top layer is still squishy and not too deep, the best traction will be in the bottom of someboy else's ru t. Use it. , If the m ud got pretty deep last week, riders made ru ts abou t six inches deep, and then the sun came ou t to dry it all up , you have a d ifferent siu ta ti o n. Most riders will try to avoid getting down in a d eep rut with hard sides. I usually avo id th em t oo. Sometimes you can't avoid getting tr apped in a d eep ru t and it 's scary. The previous rider m ad e some zigs a nd zags to keep his balance but they m ay not help you very much in keep in g your balance. In fact it may seem th at the rut is trying to make you fall ov er . If you get in a si tu a ti o n lik e th at, don 't fight th e rut. If you get a de ath grip on the bars and try to fight yo u r way through , yo u wil l lose. Relax, get y o ur weight back to ligh te n up the fro nt end, tum on a little power and float through the ru t. If the handlebars wan t to wiggle a little bit, let them. Anytime you are worried about the terrain co n tro llin g your front wheel and maybe knocking it off course or leading it off course, ge t the front end ligh t . The lighter the front wheel , the less effect it has on the direction of travel. In fact, if you pi ck it up off the ground it won 't have any effect on yo u r lin e of tr avel. Next week: Holes, ruts and other obstacles to develop your riding technique. 31

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