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/125892
rn 51 ... aQ ~ aQ ..::I By Charles Clayton Longer ago than man can measure, the mountains began growing on the Pacific coast. The mountains are rising nearly an inch a year still, and show no signs of slowing. As a result , the clouds blown in by the prevailing winds shed their rains on the ocean slope and the other side gets to be the desert.,_ The northern desert gets more rain than the southern desert so the deserts of Washington and Oregon and northern California are less "deserted" than the Mojave in the south. The Mojave gets the least rain and supports the least natural life. Some areas of the Mojave are as dry and dead as Mars. Into this desert so forbidding came early man. Indians, pioneers and even settlers. In their chr o nicl es they say the desert to them was an obstacle, a haven from enemies, filled with great spirits, a death trap, miserable, beautiful and strange. Men called the desert evil, because it was so inhospitable to life until they inve nted m otor vehicles to power them over t he desert on tracks and wheels where there was no forage for legged animals. Motorcycle enthusiasts were the first to discover the desert as a "goo d " place, where man could escape the crush of civilization on the rainy slope by motoring in the trackless sand. Motorcycles don't need forage or tracks or roads, only gasoline and a strong rider to cross the desert in good order. By 1920 motorcycle ra ces took place regularly in the Mojave desert. Early-day desert races typically started at midnight in order to finish several hundred miles be fore the heat of the day. Courses were marked by a rider who was familiar with the desert, ca lled the "hare" leading the chase, throwing sacks of lime to guide his pursuers , called "hounds." The dazzling white lime reflected brightly in the acetylene headligh ts of the era. Tex Bryant, age 74, recalls the Big Bear Hare and Hounds and the Greenhorn Hare and Hounds h e won in the 1920's. "I was riding a sidecar rig. No passenger. Side cars won all the big desert races then. You needed to carry a lot of spares. The year the Henderson four came our," Tex recalls , "I was riding a new Henderson four in the Greenhorn and one of the valve springs broke. I was leading by a good ways, but I didn't have a spare valve spring. So I tore out a spoke and made me a spring that got me all the way to the finish and I won that year, too." Civilization was content to relinquish the desert to the motorcycle riders until the latter half of the century, when civilization spilled , over the protective moun tains and began establishing itself on th e desert frontier . The cy clers were driven farther into the desert for their garne s, but the sh rin kage was gradual and the motor tribe couldn't c o mplain. In 1967 an agen cy of the U.S. government established in the 180 0 's to oversee public grazing righ ts and another agency of that era charged with representing the rights of mineral miners combined and were called the Bureau of Land Management. The new superbureau was given stewardship over the western desert. At this time recreation vehicles were being invented that laid the desert open to almost anyone who could drive. Four-wheel-drives developed for wartime use co u ld be gotten cheaply and escape buggies were being constructed out of old jalopies in the cr o wd e d ci v i l i z a ti o n . Also simultaneously the motorcycle industry was stepping up production of cheap , lightweight machines that were easily adaptable to desert use. How could th e new BLM ex ert its hegemony o ver the desert ? "That question must have perplexed the bureaucr ats. It is such a vast domain, with virtuall y no boundaries, little indig enous population , meager resources and a large and growing transient population equipped with special tools to enjoy the desert. Part of the problem is, the BLM lacks money, manpower and legal sanction for anything more than general overseeing of desert activities. At the same time, it is under attack via the courts for its alleged failure to keep people out of the desert or at least under tigh ter con trol. The petitioners at court seem to be a misguided but well-inten tioned coalition of nature-mothers calling themselves the Environmental Defense Fund. So to bring this hi story up to date, the desert now has become the token battleground for a war of planetary ideologies. The desert lovers have divided in to two warring camps - the populous but unorganized motor bunch and the limited but vocal anti-motor opinions. While the battle is being joined, the BLM is pressing to win concessions for itself from both sides. The predictable outcome is obvious. We lose, they lose, the BLM wins. The only way I can see for this not to happen is if the motor-lovers and the motor-haters should get together and compromise , independent of BLM interference. Otherwise, one side or the other may ha ve to face the BLM alone. Whatever happens, the desert is in for some serious changing before the present conflict is over. • g ~ g If': r--. C'l r--. >. ~ ;:l c ~ ~ ... Left: There was a time when the desert started well w ithin th e Los Angeles city lim its. Th ese pictures sh ow th e start of th e Seacoast Sw eepstakes in 1948 and th e lo cation of th e starting lin e was about four blo ck s f ro m th e corner of Ventura and Topanga Boulevards in th e San Fernando Va.le», Below: Notice the new house on th e top of th e hill behind the starting line. Th e year 1948 marked the beginning of the end of m otorcycle racing in th e local Santa Monica m ountains. In th e early 'fifties, starting lines w ere pushed way out to Soledad Canyon and even as far as Palmdale. This was considered a large run for the era, with 87 starters. 37