Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'Success comes to those who hustle wisely.' T uner Bill Werner's belt buckle w a l k t h ro u g h t he i n terior y ard confirmed his populari ty . Things to do. Changing the o il, the spark plugs and doing a grease job in the m iddle of the i n n er sanctum o f Harley -Davidson is o ne sure way to get a lot of sidewalk superin tenden 15 to stop by and chat. _ .even if th ey're supposed to be working . Ano the r wa y -a much a more spectacul ar one-is to bump off a race b ike and w atch the people com e running. Unmu ffled exhaust has a way of se tting the blood to boil and those who came o ut to see wh at that ungodly roar was were treated to the sight of an orange and bl ack XR leaping from one comer of the lot to the next with Bill on board syncing the carbs and turning a close ear for an y telltale sou nd that might not be right. The ra cer was lo aded, along with th e . spare bike, m inus the engine which would be flown out at the end of t he week; enough tires to put twenty bikes on rubber ; tools ; spares; and an assortment of odds and ends plus Gary 's go lf clubs. It w as boogie ti me . UReady?" uYea." "You?" A slight nod of the he ad . " Then let's get on th e road." You probablv won 't bel ieve this, but it 's reall y true. We were ab out an h our away from Milw aukee , taking a long shortcut .to get to Interstate 80 and p as s ing t h ro ugh Del van , Wisc onsin (fam o us for being eithe r the h ome o f that great circu s hu ckster P.T. Barnum or at least whe re he go t h is start). The newscast er h ad ju st signed off and Dionne Warwi ck came o n singing, " Do you know the way to San J ose?" Coinciden ce ? Sure. We laughed and right the n and there decided it was going to be a good t rip. We cou ldn' t lose . We kn ew the way to San Jose. "I j u st gotta d o good a t San J ose, " Gary was saying as we hung a right onto 1-80 somewher e in the com stal ks of Iow a: set the cru ise cont rol at a little ab ove th e speed lim it and settled into a ca ra va n o f tr act or tra ile rs headed we st ward on t he co nc re te unb ilic al co rd, te th er ed together here and there with a lot of stop s inbetween, It wa s good to h ear Gary talk with some final ity ab out cl inc hi ng the title he's been cha sing for four y ears. It w as fun talking ab o ut wha t he was going to do and what he wasn't alth ough I kep t starting my qu estions with "If you do " and he kep t answering "I'd like to d o thi s and th at if. " It was a little gam e we pl ayed: nei th er o f us wan ted to sound too certain lest we put some sort of a hex on what wo uld be Gary's biggest race . . . ever. Im ages th at pass in th e nigh t leave etc h ings on yo u r m ind, espe ciall y on a night when the full m oon is cast ing its spe ll o ver th e Iow a co un try side and the road is str aigh t. the tr aff ic-except for the caravan o f truck s we we re travel ing with-digh t an d th e crac kle from the CB just en o ugh to keep the sense s sharp. Som etim e p ast 10 p .m , th e .M isso uri Ioorned in to view and in a flash we were over it and then gone. The first big hurdle had been cleared and we were rolling on into the night across the wide expanse of Nebraska. Trees cas t sh adows of gnarled arm s, and corn fiel ds stood at attention lik e soldiers awaiting an inspecting general. Those with more sense than we had already bedded down fo r th e n igh t , y e t the time and the miles p assed quickly until a rest area-at 3 :30 a . m v-vb e c k o n ed, Scott, for all h is competitiveness, didn't feel like taking on the sandman for the remaining hours before daylight and, more importantly, wasn't about to crawl out of his warm sleep ing bag. I p aid the water bill, checked the doors and crawled into the lower bunk with the hum of the modem day pony' e xp r e ss-vrhe long haul truckers-playing softly in the night. . In the morning a young m an 's fancy tu rns to . . .b reakfas t , an d Scott was n o e x c e p tion . Travel tip: Check out Grampy's Pancake ', House in Kearney, Nebraska for good food and some fan cy waitresses. With bellvs full of food and 59 gallons of fuel in the tanks "S coote r Sc ott and Panama Red" started o u t with 8 13 miles and o ne third of the t re k behind. The fa rm e rs in Nebrask a h ave a neat way of b ailing their ha y. Someh ow th ey collect the h ay an d mold it to look like loaves of fresh bread in a b ak ery store. Farther d own th e road the ha y was twisted together like giant coffee b uns . S udd enl y 11 :15 became 10 :1 5 as Og allal a, Ne bras ka p assed b y an d we swu ng into Mountain Standard tim e . " Boy, I still feel so re from all th at rack etbal l I pl ayed. I guess I tri ed to get too mu ch in to to o short a time: ' "H ow lo ng h ave you be en playing." I asked? "Awhile. Bill got m e in tereste d. lie an d h is brothe r bel on g to a club and it's a great way to ge t in sha pe and wo rk o u t you r aggressio n ." Mon oton y o n a lo ng tri p is you r worst e ne my so in between th e Allman Brothers' so ut he rn boogie , some good hard rock, a little Elton John and eve n so m e J ohn D en ver ( R O C K Y MOUNTAIN IIIGH has a lot m or e me an ing when you're rolling across the Continental Divide.) Gary and I rapped abou t all sorts of things. "Y ou ever been to San Fr an cisco?" "Nope." "You?" " Me neither." "Well we don't really have to be in San J os e until Saturday so if we keep on hu stl ing lik e we are we sh o uld h ave a t least a d ay to ch eck o u t th e pl ace." " Righ t on." So , like a coup le o f kids promised a new toy , we spe d on , swapping th e driving every tw o h ours or so and sleeping in between. Cheyenne isn 't a spectacular pl ace although it appears out of nowhere after you crest so me hills in the vastness that mak es up Wyoming. It was time for a late lunch, a good stretching and a few minutes spent in one spot. By n ow the food h ad begun to look the same no m atter w hat y o u ordered alth ou gh the ice cold Oly sure did hit the sp ot. As we rolled ou t of to wn we passed a number of st ores adve rtis ing western wear. "H e y , d o yo u re mem b er those sna keski n co w boy boots th at Darryl Hurst and Mike Gerald were wearing at . Dallas?" Yea," I said , "you mean the cockroac h sta mp ers." That caugh t Ga ry by su rp rise, "what do y ou mean ?" "Well, " and I p au sed to draw h im in a little, "those pointed toes are the finest weapon known for stompin' a roach wh en yo u get on e back ed into a corn er." He laughed. "What do y ou think I' d look like with a pair of them and maybe a cowboy hat in th e sign -up line at San J ose? Yo u know, just for e ffec t-fo r a laugh." "You 'll damn sure ge t a laugh." We st opped and parked and strode in to th e sto re like with eyes wide like it was a ca ndy store full of go odies. First came the h ats. T en gall on ones and some b igger-vprobably twen ty gallon specials an d the n the to p per for th ose (Con tin ued on page 38 ) 15

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