Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Banging off with Endicott By John D. Ulrich If you ask Robert Earl Endicott wh y he developed his ex tre me " hanging o ff" style eight or nin e years ago, he won't tell you going faster was the main obj ective. "I started riding like th at to be neat. I had a Honda Super Hawk, just mostly for tran sport ation I 1 2 couldn ' t afford a c ar. I starte d going to bike races, and then I wen t thro ugh a mis erable period when I was I 7, 18, 19 years old, had a motorcycle th at I co uld race , and my parents w ouldn ' t le t me. They wouldn 't sign th e papers. So I wan ted to be a pukka street rider, to look th e part even though I wasn 't racing. I had to wait until I was 2 1 before I c o ul d even start rac in g. " Now 26 years old and sponsored by Action Fours, where he works as a m echanic, Endicott rec ently talked ab out his life as a motorcycle racer. " My life revolves around racin g. All the decisions that are made are made for racing's sake ... like where I live, wh at my job is, even wh at spending money I have. It all revolves aroun d racing. Racing always comes first. "I really enjoy mountain hikin g, climbing, and just living in th e woods. I don't like city livin g that much. It's hard for me living in Los Angeles, but it's the only practical place to race motorcycles. "You get asked wh y you race a lot. Some people do it be cause they like to win, other people because it's kind of an art form, other people do it be cause it's a personal challenge to see how fast they can go . I enjoy seeing how much I can improve m yself each time. It 's not so much the competition. " I wouldn't mind being th e AFM Num be r One, but that's not m y main goal. It's not worth drivin g all the way to San Francisco and back half a do zen times a year just to do it. " I enjoy a good race. I'd rather lose a really good race than win an easy rac e. I'm not out to be a winner all the tim e, especially an easy winner. I don't wan t to do th at. " With Aldana and DuHamel, I look up to the people. I know that th ey ride harder than I do, and have be en riding a lot longer than I have, are a lot more ex perience d. I seem to be able t o keep up most of th e time, not quite. Like at Daytona Aldana pulled away fr om me. I find I don't really wan t to pass them back or try as hard as I c ould just because I respect the people. They seem .. . I don ' t know how to say i t. I treat them with a lot o f respect. "I work at Action Fours . It's my main function. Any ti me I want, I can ride any of the bikes they have. The owner is very four-cycle orien ted, an d he likes to race them . Righ t now we have a competitive production bike that I race. The last two years I rode uncompetitive GP bikes for him . It wasn't so bad in '73 ; the bike was close to being in front. But in '74 the bike was very slow, so this year I decided j ust to ride m y 250 and h is production bike . It's n ot really w orthwhile racing if the bike you're riding stands no ch anc e of being in the h un t. "I li ke to have a co m pe ti uve motorcycle, a bike that's capable of winning, race against people who are good, and see how well I can pit myself against them . To me, an ideal race would be where all the bikes are exactly equal, and it was strictly a rider co n test. I would enjoy that much more. "I started off in racing p retty good. I had a competitive 3 5 0 production bike, did good in that class with Mike Devlin. Then I got a 750 p rod uc ti on bike, a Honda. I kind'uv got into an era where there wasn't anybody go ing real fast, and the on e I h ad was pretty fast, so I built u p a reputation fairly quickly with it. I go t to be an AMA Junior without ever h avin g to be a Novice, wh ich helped a lo t. It's re al hard to ge t out of the Novi ce cl ass - th ere ' rc so many people and all th e bikes are so close. Once I was a J u nior I got to ride in the job with Action Fours, and I've jus t sort of stagnated since th en. I've been gettin g better, but nothin g really happene d. "Last y ear I bough t a 250 Yam ah a, whi ch helped a lot. I enjoyed racing it a lot last ye ar. Gettin g off a Z- I an d climbin g on to a TZ 250 Yam aha is . completely di ffere n t. A 250 re qui res that y o u throw it around and abuse i t to go anywhere near fast. A Z- I y ou hav e to be real gentle and cau tio us with it. and y ou can ' t do an yth in g fast. I enj oy the 250 a lot more. "There 's a ch ance that 111 have a TZ 700 to ride a t La gun a Sec a. I'v e been dying to ride on e ever sinc e th ey came out. I enjoy ridin g my 250 but I 've always done better on a heavier motorcycle. I weigh 150 pounds and that's not really a c om p e ti tive weight fo r a 250. You figh t as hard as you can, and a ligh t rider can pass you back, easy. "I've been riding bi g motorcycles, heavy production bikes, heavy GP bikes for years now - that's mostly wh at I've raced all along. If all the people that didn't race nothing but Yamaha twins for years and years can hop on 700s and go fast, ['m sure that I won 't hav e as many problems as they had. ['m used to wobbling around. I know wh at to do with th e wobble. " People offer you rides on th eir motorsickles (sic) all the time. They want somebody com pe ten t to ride their motorcycles, that probably won 't fall off of i t, and will still go fast enough to make the bike look goo d. People who sponsor motorcycle racers are a strange breed. I n ever understood why anybody would want to p ay money to have somebody else ride a motorcycle. They enjoy it. I don't know why they want to do it. They just want to see their bikes go fast. "My girlfriend is Gail Wilson. We've known eac h other for three years now, get along real good. Sh e helps me an awful lot with racin g. I don 't think [ c ould go to th e races and function without her. Sh e takes care of all the little details, lik e cleanin g the bubbles and the visors of the helme t, taking lap times, ke eping track of how many miles are on the motorcycle, what parts have to be re p laced and when. She makes it [0 times easier. "My main goal is t o see how far [ can go in racing. I'd very much li ke to go race in Europe. That's been my goal ever since [ started. It's getting closer, but it's still a long ways away. [ don't know how long I'm gon na race; as long as I continue to improve. it's worthwhile racing. If [ ever reach the point where I'm n o t really getting any better, then 111 probably think about quitting. "

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