Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

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CN Harbo r City, CA 90 7 10 32 213-530-4656 By Rita Boyd It's six a.m. not even light yet and the first rider is at the sign-up window of my trailer waiting for it to open. The day of our club End uro has finally arrived after m on th s of preparation. That preparat ion began five months ago, with discussions at o ur monthly club meeting of possib le sites for the run. Th at 's not an easy task an y mo re as our desert has shrunk considerably in re cent years. An are a is finally picked and th en there are we ekend group safaris wi th kids and wives to find interestin g and challenging te rrain. At the next club meeting an Even t Ch airman is chosen. or sentenc e d. de pen di ng on how y o u look at it , and he in tu rn sele cts his Lo op Captains. Fr om t h e n o n th e loop s work in depen dentl y with th eir volunteers on many excursions to th e area. Wi t h t he e ntire event ro ughly sco uted, the Even t Chairman che cks th e co urse against the BLM map s, ma kin g sure it co nforms t o th e areas o kayed by th e Bureau fo r this ty pe of even t. This year we sen t ou t 50 letters asking for per missio n t o c ro ss private land . \Vhenever we ge t a no , the c o urse mu st be ch an ged. After th ese preliminaries , th e Even t Chairman meet s wit h t he BLI\I for a review o f the co urse an d to ob tain th eir approval. Th en th e serious wo rk and th e o u tlay of cl ub fu nds begins. Ribb on must be ordered, plus stakes, arro ws, staple gu ns , and finisher pins. By th is t im e t h ere are trips t o th e desert every wee kend. T he lo ops must be spot rib boned and measured over and o ve r a gai n , c he cking an d double checking to make sure t he co rrect mileage is known. Lo catio ns for checks must be fo und , with mileage again th e import ant factor. Arguments follow o n speed averages - there 's always some sadist wh o wants to make the whole run 3 0 mp h - ove r r o c k s , cliffs every th in g. Aft er t he speed averages are thrashed au t and decided, the loops are ridden a t the prescribed speeds to d o u ble-chec k th e pl acement of checks, mileage a t t he finish o f eac h loop, and o the r details . O n c e the t e c h n i c al wo rk i s co m ple te d , annou ncements are written up and di stribu te d t o pu blic ize th e even t. The cl ub used to distribute bu lle t ins t o all t he cycle sho ps and t o' p revio us entrants, but in th e last co u ple o f y ea r s w e h av e r eli ed almost ex cl usively o n Cycl e News - we found th at 's wh er e o ur ride rs were co m ing from . As th e wor k details ge t har d er th en , wives and c hild ren are usuall y left at home . T he co u rse must be full y rib boned and wrong way , danger signs p lace d, an d turn arro ws po siti oned . Marking t he co urse lik e th is is a slow, bo ring j ob t ha t n o one lik es. Meanwhile the Even t Cha irman mu st arrange to have an ambulanc e or Res cue Three or both on han d, plus co mfo rt facilities all co sting th e club money - usually before any en tr ies are rece ived. Th e drawing for starting numbers is held ab out two weeks before the enduro and we then have some idea of how many en tries we can expect. The club puts on a challengi ng event for the experienced enduro rider, although in th e past couple of years we have added C loops in order to draw the novice riders who have become so numerous in the past few years. We have drawn some, but we seldom have 2,000 riders - more's the pity. After the drawing, rider instructions mu s t be written and route sheets formulated and mailed out. Most mail entrants do send self- addressed stamped envelopes, but some still apparently haven ' t figured out what SASE stands for. Ot hers fill out entries on little scraps of paper and have to be run down at sign- up to fill out official District 37 AMA entry blanks. There is still a lot of work to do Saturday , the day before the eve nt. Final marking and som et im es remarking must be com ple ted and check crews taken o u t to their che c ks. In some cases, a crew has to work two chec ks on differ ent lo op s, de pe nding on the number of chec ks - this y ear we had 24. Because these chec k points are so critical, the crews, made up of wives and at least one male cl ub member, must be experienced and hav e a lot of st amina. It m eans standing out in the open, dodging motorcycles for around three hours - an h our after the last rider is due - and that's if yo u're only working on e chec k. Sign-up opens 'o n Saturday and is handled by th e wives . What with last minute rider sub stitutions, post entries, and selling District 37 ca rds required t o ride our sanctioned points run, it's a big job. Saturday nights are quiet - unlike the celebra tion th at usually takes place Friday night - and are taken up with Loop C apt ains and c h e ck cre ws last-minute meetings. Six a.m , on Sunday sign-up opens and the checkers and pilot crew start out . The pilot crew rides the loop as fast as th ey ca n, ch ecking that course markings are in p lace. One year the pilot crew had to replace rib b on blown away during the nigh r, They also must ribbon the last three mil es or so in to the noon and finish chec ks, Th e fir st riders usu ally start aro und eigh t a nd t he n th e hundreds of questions be gin - where 's the finish of the f irs t loop? .. where does the sec ond lo op start ? . . hav e y o u found m y hu sb and, he broke d own three miles o n the other side of Ch ec k Three. The sweep cre w are the last gu ys on th e co urse. Th ey help riders wh o are hurt or have broken motorcycles and bri ng bac k informati on to fri ends or families in th e pits. End uro clu bs make every e ffo rt possibl e to see that all of the riders an d equipment get b ack to th e pits. Th e on e thing the enduro club as ks is th at riders let us know when they 're in. Man y times we've had crews sent out to pi ck up riders o nly to find o ut , by acc id en t, th at the gu y cam e in , pa cked up an d went home. I wonder how he 'd feel if th eclub did the sam e. After all th e bodies and bikes are in o r acc o un te d for , it's time to let down with a be er. All th at 's left to do is listen to a few guys gripe abo ut the course, che cks, spe ed averag es, their bikes, their wiv es, and the "rotten desert ." A few club members will stay on Monday to pull rib bon an d poli ce th e area and then we pack it in for ano ther year . No, n ot a year - jus t six months . . . until we st art all o ve r again. An yhow - we'll see yo u next ye ar I'll be th e on e beh ind the sign -up . window, •

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