Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• ab o ut 95 pounds. We se t up o ur pi ts 105 kilometers ap art. CN : And there was no problems I take it, since you won. Malcolm: Bu t the race organizers reall y Wanted th e cars to win so they set up th e co urse wi t h a lot o f fa st straigh ts. Then , th ey made u s (the bik es) rid e a half-ho ur in the dark every morn ing , ridi ng j ust on the headli ght. Th e cars were favo red be cause it 's be tt er for advertising and pro mo ti o n if t hey win . eN : What is the race itself really like? How long is it ? Malcolm: It's a th ree-day eve n t. The first day is like the Elsi nore GP used to be . Th ey ran everybod y aro und town, t hro ugh t he streets. T he n, the y st arted all the fir st day finishers acco rding to the time set on the fir st day ' fo r t he lo ops out in to th e mo un tains. The r ace is act ua lly near Lesoth o , wh ich is an independen t co un try in the mid dle o f South Afri ca. The . first day of the mountainous riding; " you go around Lesotho , t hroug h th e m id d le of the co untry, and back ou t in to Sout h Africa . I had a one hour, nin e minute lea d af ter t hat day, so I started on e ho ur, nine minutes befo re anybody else after that. It 's not like the Baja races wh ere t he winner co uld be way back. Wh oever is out in fro n t is winning. I wa s the fa stes t g uy thro ugh the first 106 kilo meter section, then there was a 375 km sect ion and four ca rs bea t me be cause of havin g to ride in th e dar k, so I started fif th afte r t h at sectio n. Th en, we h it th e rough stuff and I passed th em and I n ever saw anybod y for the rest of t he rac e. There was a 50 km sec t io n and a 200 km sec t io n t he following day . They give a trophy fo r the winner o f each sec t io n and I go t the m all, exc ep t fo r tha t sectio n in the da rk, plus th e overall tro phy . < '44 Malcolm th en wen t in to so me de tail about hooking up a Mot oplat elect ronic ign ition , such as the K TM has. fo r running lights. We talked about th e two different types of Motopl ats, wh ich was b e s t f or what applicat ion and, in gene ral, Malcol m reve aled more of th e ext e n siue t e c hn i cal prep aration kn owledge th at ma kes him, an d his bikes , such steady and fo rm idable competitors. The only problem was tha t in Africa, he ho oked up th e y ello w and gree n wires fr o m the Mo toplat , as per standard p rocedure, but still couldn 't make th e light work. lie resorte d to the s t a n d a r d KTM lighting eq uip me n t, th ough he prefe rs a CIBIE quartz -iod ine ligh : fo r nigh t off-road racing.) CN: You haven 't done any long distance bike riding for a wh ile e xcept for Six Days Trial and the Qualifiers, have you? Ma lco l m: No, t hat was my firs t long-distance o ff -road race o n a b ike since th e Baja 500 in 19 72 , w hen I b ro ke m y leg. CN : Was that mainly because of your bad legs that you've stuck . more w ith the carSi Malc o lm n ods af firmatively : When your leg is held to get h er with pi ns and p lates an d everyth ing yo u have to be careful ho w you use it . CN : But you have a real ly good record of fin ishing on bikes in that type of racing - up until the big number in the 72 Baja . Malcolm : Yeah , I'd finished all of th em until th en . The Mint 4 00 , Baja . .. CN : Did you see any an imals in Africa? Malc olm: We wen t to a ga me preserv e after the race an d saw a b unc h but while I wa s o n the bi ke, only o ne. During th e pre-ru n, I ran over a big cobra. I went back t o lo o k a t it and he was really upset. He was sitting up by th e side o f the ro ad , wit h h is nec k all fanned o ut, his sin g away. It was a big sna ke. CN: What is the terrain actually like ? Malco lm : It 's fu nn y co un try. There are big hill s t hat are all ba rr en , no trees aro un d . Much of t he Rallye is above timber lin e , I guess. It was mostl y big m ount a in passe s , wi t h cuts and wash outs. Everyt hing was u p and d o wn . Yo u'd go up and u p and u p and then. down, down , down . It was hig h mountain st uff with lots of rivers and st rea ms to cross . Tne tr ails, what we 'd cal l flreroads, . don' t h ave any be rms becau se they 're made by animals o r peop le in stead of a ca r or a grader. Th ey 're very poor, eve n fo r fireroads. Yo u 'd hav e tr o uble getting a VW do wn them. There arc no edg es o r cushio n to th em , so th at if it runs along a cl iff, yo u drop righ t off with no berm. In so me places it was fairly smoo t h, in so me places , rock y. -, CN : What, if anything compared to it , in your experience? Malcolm : Th e terrain was kind o f lik e th at in Baja be tween Va lle de T rin ida d an d t he grape orcha rds. Riding it was like ridi ng half o f a Six Day s Trial. T he co urse went right thro ugh the back-co un try villages b ut the natives weren't t o o attr acted to th e bik es lik e the Mexi can s are in the Baja race s. They would st ay bac k m ay b e 20 or 30 feet from the co urse whil e in Baja yo u can ' t get the Mex icans out of the. wa y - they want to to uch th e bike. CN : Was the course set up w ith mandatory checkpoinu? M a l c o l m : The re were lots of c heckpo in ts to keep anybody fro m short-coursing the race bu t I th ink it would be very hard to cut th e co urse, anyhow, since there just aren't any oth er t rails . There's no p lace else to go . CN : Will you do othe r races like th is: rallyes, ouUide the U.S ., whatever? Malc o lm : 1"I1 d o th is one aga in next yea r , p rob ab ly . Then th ere's the T rans -Ka lahar i R all ye, ac ro ss the Kal ah ar i Deser t in Botswana bu t th ey do n' t allow bi kes - o nly ca rs in t hat o ne. If you fe ll off yo ur bike, the lion s would ea t yo u. CN : It's the "Roof of Af rica Ra llye." How high was it? Malcolm : The race went up to I 1,0 00 fee t altitude and a lot o f it was abo u t that high. CN: How did you set up the jeni ng fo r that much altitude d ifference? Malc olm: I j etted for 11 ,0 0 0 an d used the cho ke on the KTM. Whe n it st arted ping ing, I just pushed the cho ke o n. It worked well . I'm ta king a ch o ke o ver wi th me fo r m y Six Days bike. CN: And you'd never ridden a KTM before? Malcolm : No, I reall y hadn 'L Just up an d do wn th e st reet in fro n t of the sh op but never in t he dirt. eN: How did you like it? Malc olm : I was really impressed with t ha t 25 0 motor : very stro ng. T he handl in g is may be a little be tte r t han my Husky 's for co rnering but it di dn 't see m as st ab le o ver the st raight line rough stuff. I'd always wo ndered how Carl Cran ke co uld go so fast and now I can see it . You ca n really make up so me time in yo ur corne ring. I ran the sho c ks in th e u p right position. I bu ilt up some a lu m inu m KO Nl s and used 100·lb. sp rings . . . looking fo r not too mu ch st ress and reli ability. T hey last ed th e whole wa y . CN: Sounds like you liked the KTM 250 pretty well. Malco lm : I d id, b ut I wis h yo u 'd say I'm st ill a Hu sk y rider. That's wh at I kn o w best. CN : Malcolm , gett ing even more personal , I've never known how old you are. Malco lm : 34 . I've be en racing o n and o ff fo r 18 years. CN : That's longer than you haven't been rac ing in your life . M a lcolm : Ye ah , hey , I guess that 's right. CN : We re there any problems? Weather, anything? Malc olm : Th er e was snow and hail fo r at least half th e second day. It rained up th e re in t h e m oun tains , too , for o h . . . three-quarter s o f a day. CN : Sounds terrible. Malco lm : No , I liked th at . When it' s mise ra ble an d yo u're hurt in ', that guy b e h i n d yo u is h urt in' eve n more and .. . he 's beh ind yo u. I thin k o f it th at way . It works better, CN lin an attempt at humor): Wow, Malcolm, you won a race! And then it came: the fa ce-splitting, all-consuming grin tha t reaches fr om side to side of h is fa ce and lights up the blue ey es with a t w in kle th at says life can be fu n. Th e Malcolm Sm ith grin.

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