Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. 'i ' . I. ' . ' 1111 1 The subject is enduros... In th e first month of a new year it seems appropriate to take a close look at the Southern California enduro world , w ith the idea of to ssing out suggestions, a few bouqu et s, and one or tw o bri ckbats. Congratulations are due Bob Steffan, District 3 7 Number On e, . who pil ed up almost 10% more poin ts in 19 74 than sec o nd pla ce Mike Ad am s. Congratu lations also to the Ch ap arrals M.C. , who have o ne whale o f a b unc h of their club members in th e top 100. It seems that the District is o ff to a good start th is year with a some what milder than normal first run (th e Iron Hors e, in case y ou missed it ), b ut be fore we start a polarizing pr ocess between the advocates of milder runs and th e give-tern-hell t ypes, le t's d o a little cold ly rational discussing. (At th e moment it 's a rather one-sid ed discussion, but any of y o u who can find the address of Cycle News and ca n get your though ts on paper - can ch an ge that.] Until we get some other opinions though, I'll try to present both sides as best I can. As things now stand, which is an important qualification, there are two major points in favor of tough endures. From the results of the last two Dist ri ct endures, it is obvious that tough enduros are undoubtedly better competition. In the Iron Horse Enduro a UB rider won overall, while sec o nd place went to a rider who is No. 77 in the points standings. That wasn't a skill co n test; it was a lottery. By c o n trast, in the Last Chance, wh ich was quite a tough event, four of the to p five finishers were in the top lOin the points standings. I hope we Can agree th at in a meaningful co n test th e most skilled rid ers must win . The CRC, promo ters o f the Iron Horse Enduro, have proven co ncl usively that given reasonable terrain an d moderate sch ed ule sp eeds, th ere are lit erally a hundred riders who can zero a co urse. (Fo r reference, ·th ey had 16 zeroes this year and 62 zeroes last y ear. ) Not only that, but I am sure tha t as soo n as yo u have 10 or more course zero es there is a better th an 50% m athematical probability tha t two riders will zero th e tieb rea ker. So even if th e tiebreaker had any relation to skill (whic h it o bvio usly doesn't be caus e of th e many uncontrollable varia bles) , it isn't a go od system becaus e it doesn 't work very well as a tiebreaker, let alo ne determine the be st rider. Citing these points, the ad vocate s of tough end uros can argu e that meaningful competition is impossible unless the enduros ar e tough eno ugh to en su re that n o o ne zeroe s th e even t. The second argument in favor of to ugh enduro s is a b it h ard er to defin e , but may be even m o re importa nt . So me endur o riders d on't reall y think of H 6 end u re s as co n tests between people bu t as a co n test b etween th e rider and th e en viro nme n t. It is a classic re enactment of th e struggle between Peary an d the Arct ic, be tween Captain Nemo and the ocean. If th e enduro isn't to ugh eno ugh to sear the so ul and scar th e body , well th en, the catharsis just doesn't happen . He d oesn't come aw ay wi th the high feeling of h aving tweaked th e d evil 's no se and go tten aw ay wi th it. His manh ood is unproven . Yo u migh t say th at th e above rep resents a sick head, an d y o u wouldn 't get any argu men t from me, but the fac t remains th at a fai rly substan t ial number o f enduro ride rs have just th is a t t itu de . And it wouldn 't do to di scourage them fr om ridi ng endures because when ma cho types run out of mountains to conquer, they migh t st art wars. There are many arguments in favor of milder endures, but most ca n be stated in few words. Riders whose lives aren't dedicated to motorcycles and/or endures, and/or proving manhood can't afford to ride tough endures, either in terms of potential body damage or bike damage. So when a club or organization gets a reputation for this type of run, the undedicated riders (p ro b ab ly ab o u t 80% of th e total) stay away. Another argument is th at good, tough runs are very difficult to stage because as the toughness go es up, so does the probability of so me thing going wrong. The " something going wrong" can be anyth ing from a bad bottleneck to the need for a full-s cal e rescue of hundreds of riders (as happened at the Cowb ell Enduro a few years ago). And wh en a rider dies of heat prostration or e xh aust i on (as has happened in Southern Californ ia enduros) it 's pretty _diffIcult to exp lain the rationale of to ugh enduros to his wife and kids. Most clu bs and promoters just don 't need t h at so rt of hassl e. One last argu ment is th at while undedicated riders will stay away from sup er tough enduros, dedicated riders will ride any enduro. So if mak ing money or att racting riders is a primary aim, from the promoter's point of view it makes little sense to put on very tough endures. If you doubt this, co mpare the number of family fun enduros and the entrants they had with the number of District runs and their entrants. So far in this discussion I have been assu min g that clubs and promoters make rational decisions on the ba sis of the riders' desire, profitability, and co nvenie nc e. But there are a few clubs around whose members are dedicat ed to th e principle of proving manhood through m otorcycles. When such a club stages an en duro , o r even worse , wh en two o r th ree of th em stage b ack-to-back e nd uros, ra tio nali ty goes out th e windo w. Ie s important to make a dist in ction b etween th e club wh ich feel s th at it must stage a reaso nab ly tough enduro to satisfy its " customers " o r to pro tect its rep utation or simply to ha ve a me aningful con test, and th e club whose me mbers are co m mitt ed to the tria l-by-fire notio n. The o ne club m igh t have a minor bottleneck th ro ugh oversight, or a mist ak e o f judgm en t ; they migh t get so meone hurt o n a par ticularl y dangerous sec tion. But both th ings are fairly unlikely , and if o ne of th em happens, the cl ub will be prep ared to d eal with it. The tr ial -by -fire club doesn't car e ab o ut bottlenecks. Their heroes will stomp their way through. And if a rider is hurt, wh y th at 's first-class evidence th at he wasn ' tough enough to survive, so let him lie where he falls, if he can't J,(et up and ride on in. Despite the co mpelling argu m en t favoring tough enduros for the sake of a Bimbo signs w ith Bultaco I,,!king a n ew t w'! -year contract to rid e m otocross fo r th e Bultaco fa ct ory is [im Pomero y (nght). Onlook ers are, fr om lef t , J ohn Grace, Presid ent of Bultaco Internatio nal, Andy R ichman, h ead of international racing and J ohn Oldham, J im s business manager. "A lth ough I've had offers fr om o ther brands, I fe el m y best chance to win will be on a Bultaco, .. said J im , after publicly d eclaring h is aim to be th e first American world champion in mo tocr oss. Pomero y finis hed "to p A m erican " in last year s Trans-A MA series. . 1 1 1 •• •• •• 1. 1 • • real contest, it seems to me that the weight is with the other side. But this is not an either/or situation. We don't have to choose between endures that are so tough m ost riders stay away , or enduros with 16 to 60 zero scores. Let's look at a co up le of alternatives. First, le t 's get rid o f the co nvent io nal tiebreak er. It' s an anach ro nistic joke. Its onl y saving grace is th at it is easy for the promoter to use. If one wanted to , it would be rela t ively easy to co me up with a tiebrea king m ethod th at was in keeping with th e spirit o f th e co n te st. For instance, a t so me chec k in th e middle o f the run, a rid er co uld be asked by the ch ecker, "At 24 mph , h ow long would it take to go 16. 4 mil es ?" At the last word , th e checker would clic k a stop wat ch wh ich h e would sto p wh en the rider gave him the co rrec t an swer . This method of break ing t ies would separate some of th e tag-alongs, and would favor real timekeepers. Next, wh y not carry the C Class concept a little farther? Instead of having C's ride one loop and A's and B's ride th e whole way, why not have C's ride one loop, B's ride two loops, and A's ride a third loop? Since the A riders would already have ridden a lo ng way, it would not be necessary to have a long third loop. A 10-mile loop with a couple of really tough spots and high-speed averages would sort the A's out pretty well and leave th em feeling that they had a good run for their money. It would also make a promotion to A rider mean something. Another advantage of this system is that, since there would be no obligation to put any thi ng very difficult in the first two long loops, th e sa fe ty o f the event wo u ld b e increased im meas urably . If eac h class h ad a d iff erent colo r score card , t wo or th ree girls co uld practically ha ve t he sco ring comp leted by the tim e th e last A rid er finished . A new trend . . , . ? The results fr om the CEA' s Last Chan ce End uro arri ved last week. On th e resu lt sh ee t th e CEA discussed several of th e problems they had with th eir event, accepting responsibility fo r so me things and full y explain ing others. I find th is sort of responsibility-tothe -rid er to b e r efr eshing and en couraging. I hope it w ill start a trend. Attached to th e resul ts was a very handsome finisher pin. For those who earned it, it was definitely worth waiting for. I didn't, but thanks anyway. Double standards Journalistic integrity and plain fairness require that rep o rters try to loo k at every event in exactly the same light, checking as much as possible the same th ings at each event and making consistent judgments from week to weck. This approach precludes " do uble standards" on th e part o f th e reporter, bu t s h ould n ot preclude double standards on the p art of the riders. Sp ecifically , ab o ut h alf th e end uros ar e now put on by pro fessional promoters. Sin ce th ese promoters are making their living doing these eve n ts and are spending a good p art of their t ime out in the d eser t , th ey can do th ings better in so me ins tan ces than th e cl ubs. And th ey sh o uld d o things better. The riders shou ld expect high er st andards from p e opl e wh o a re doin g thing s professionally. And th ey should ma ke so me allowances for cl ubs th at must wo rk with vo lun tee r labor, lo wer budge ts, and sometimes just plain less ex pe rtise. On e might ask , why not let promo ters do all o f th em ? For one thing, th e clubs are a check o n the promoters. As long as the clubs are around, the promoters have to do a better job, particularly if. they 're chargin g higher en try fees. But beyond that, th e amateur clubs, while being spo tty in quality , are sometimes brilliant, and while a promoter might alw ays b e pretty go od , he'll almost never be brilliant. So yo u tolerate some mistakes, a few terribl e runs , so you 'll have a chance to ride the great o nes. Reporters can 't (and sho uld n 't ) make allowanc es fo r wh o puts on a run, but I hope the readers and the riders do. Ron Sch neiders

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