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/125891
Santa rides a desert sled By Ron Sch neiders CALI FORN IA C ITY , CAL., DEC . 8 The SRA Christmas Enduro, if you want to call. it that, was held this weekend about 10 miles north of California City in the foothills of the Rand mountains. But caIling an SRA event an enduro is a litt le bit like referr ing to a su per cafe racer as "basic transpo rtatio n." It '5 bo th more and less th an the truth. No promoter reall y d eserv es a day like th is pas t Sunday . It was so gorgeo us, su ch a fun-to-be-aIive d ay , th at if th e whole cours e ha d be en ru n over broken glass and week-old pizza , peo ple still would hav e been smiling at the end. Recen t rain s d id for th e d esert so me th ing for which we cy clists don't have a wo rd. In s kiing, sn o w th at 's so absolutely perfect tha t yo u can't do anything wro ng is call ed " ego snow." Sunday we h ad " ego sand, " j ust we t eno ugh for per fec t tr acti on and no dust, but not so wet th at it felt yo ur mo tor was run nin g with the cho ke o n . Add to th is temper atures tha t wer e barely nippy en ough for a jac ket and brigh t blue skies and all you co uld do is feel sorry for the people wh o were n't o u t rid ing. Th e S RA must have figured it was go ing to be co ld er tha n it was b ecause they had a co ffee an d a ho t ch oco la te sto p o nly five miles o ut o n the first lo op . Co ffee was served by th e world's first m e z z o -so p r a n o , S ant a Cl au s. co urtesy o f the dista ff sid e o f th e Ame rican Legion . Both Santa with co ffe e wagon and a sec re t chec k were hidden in a little cut tha t yo u wouldn 't th ink co uld h ide a good sized turt le. Yo u came over th is little rise and th ere yo u were, wi th Santa Claus, 5 0 o th er guy s drinking co ffee , and wondering wh y everyone was 17 min utes la te , approximately . It turned out that the girl ru nning th e chec k st arted flipping th e car ds at key time for th e start (8 a.m .), rather than key tim e for the ch ec k (8 : I 7). It didn 't hurt any th ing becau se the sco res ca n be adjusted by simp ly su btra c ting th e 17 minutes but it ~as co nfusing. One fello w ca me into the check , saw the car d , turned aro und an d split before he co uld be scored. In te chnical te rm s, this is called "ch ea ting. " Out o f sight o f the ch ec k he tried to figure o ut wha t happened . By the time he gave up and went in to be checked he was reall y la te. You co uld h ardly say th at chea ters never win but ir's nice to know that some times the y don't . The first loo p , whi ch was laid o u t primarily for the women and kid s. resemb les a first -y ear interne 's draw ing of th e large intestine. Eac h half-m ile yo u double ba ck almo st 180 degrees. It's rumored th at in th e even t o f bad weath er Ron Vin cellette figures he ca n co ver th e wh ole first lo o p with a tarp. Using h is techn iqu e you co uld lay ou t the 500 mil e Greenhorn End uro o n a go lf co urse . th o ugh , it's a good Actually It d id h o wever , require one to be very careful in spots . There was a mining ro ad co mi ng do wn from Go vernment Peak, fo r inst an ce , wh ere a sligh t slip co uld t u m you in to a sky div er . Mostly th ough , the co urse wa s ju st sup er trail. wi th few ro cks and not too many wh oop-de e-docs, thanks in p art to the rain . There were so me nice narro w canyons, with a few ro ck y steps in th em (b u t ridabl e at 20 mph ) an d eve n some windy rid ges like we used to ride five years ago . In fact the whole loop reminded me of earlie r rid ing days, in th at it was good, fun riding with places where y o u ha d to be skillful and care fu l, but none of the ' mile-after-mile , beat-yoursel f-to-dea th stu ff. Of co urse, whether fun rid ing like th at re ally co nstitu tes an enduro depends o n yo ur definitio n o f enduro. Enduro or not, apparen tly an aw fu l lot o f people like it bec ause th ere were o ver 5 00 e nt ries who paid betwe en se ven a nd te n buc ks ap iece to rid e, as co m pared with the last Distric t 3 i end uro whic h drew less than half thai number. Bu t among the entries I no tic ed none o f th e des ert ho t shoes. It's a wh ol e differe n t gro up. Part of th e allure is th e heavy tr ophy give away . Tw en ty percent of the st arter s get troph ies , and th ere is abo u t every class yo u ca n think of. On e cl ass reall y exci tes m e a b it. 1t is a cla ss fo r I O-man team s. If th is ca tches o n, as it lo o ks like it m ight. it co uld give th e clubs a rea l sho t-in-the-arm whi ch they b ad ly need . The three -man teams Santa drives a coffee t ruck to wa rm up for the Big Ride . arc ofte n just a spo nso red trio o f h ot shots who arc unbea ta ble excep t hy ano ther such group. But fo r a 10-man tea m yo u nee d a club with a poo l o f rid ers. At this eve nt th ere were four such teams. the Desert Streakers. San Fern an do Va lley !\I.C., Hughes lei Segundo M.C. and the Ge neral Dynam ics Turtles. The Streak ers, previous win ners o f the award , are heavy favorites. The course gets MX-y in spo ts . Good place to keep you r cool and en joy. S RA events do no t end a t th e finish line. This o ne be ing th e Christmas Enduro. the SRA tol d all the riders to bring a to y o ut fo r donat ion to the Toys-fo r-T ots pro gram. The Marine Corps wi th so meth ing o f a tr adition o f ove r-reac t ing, se n t a troo p c arrie r wi th ab out h alf a ba ttalio n o f Marines o ut to pic k up th e to ys. There were a lot of toys b u t n ot th at many. I'm on ly kiddi ng . I can't think o f a bett er use for milit ary types. Whil e th e Mari nes were co llec t ing to ys fo r poor kids, Santa Claus was giving away to ys to so me o f the kids who wer e to o yo ung to rid e. Fo r bigge r kid s (like me ), Santa had brandy and egg nog. Reall y . They wen t thro ugh cases o f hrandy and a vat of egg no g. So me guys went th rough the line three time s. so by time to go home, Rud olp h 's nose wasn't the o n ly o ne glo wing w ith Chris tm as cheer. C Resu lt s in abou t a wee k. All kinds come to a fundu ro , includi ng th is guy w it h f ive beercans growing out of h is head . We forgot to ask h o w he gets hi s he lmet on an d off . .. techn ique, be cause the rider s are never far fro m the pits and it's easy to h ide chec ks. Yo u look fo r ch ec ks ahead of yo u , and so me guys get very adep t at spotting ch ec ks miles ahead . But wh at can you do if the check is off to the side ? Th at's pretty ha rd to spo t. The firs t lo op w as 22 m iles long an d after an ap pro pria te lu nch b reak, a t about 9 :30 (!) the mo re expe rienc ed riders took off o n th e second loo p . 'Ib is loo p was about 3 2 miles lo ng and quite a b it more challenging, altho ugh there was still nothing on it that wou ld require pushing or o th er such evil s tu ff. 5