Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126047
; ::::}::r:~::8::::::::~::::~:::~:~:::~:::::~:::n~:mi:::~:m:gY:8::::H~::~:Pt!~tt:r:i:~:\::::::m:t~~r:::i:~:gM:~:8:::::::::::t:~:::::::~:~:i:~:i:i:~:::::::::::::::::::::::::~:i:::ti:::?t::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::~::::::::~::::::::~~:::::::::::::~::::~::~::~:~:::::::::::::::i:~ :::~:t::~:::m~~:~::::::::::::::::~::::::::::: I: Political lifeline ~ g t A community cycle ~ park- the grunts ~ make it happen By Action OZ LAKEWOOD, COLO., Lakewood, Colorado, being a large suburb outside of Denver, has a few dirt riders among its normal citizenry. The first part of this tale is going to sound familiar - no place to legally ride, the noise, pollution, citizen complaints, riding across lawns, tearing up what few shrubs an arrid area has, etc. What to do! Hold on, wait a minute - all dealers that is with the exception of Lee Reichardt, dealer par excellance , We trod our intrepid Mr. Reichardt early in 1972 when the problem first came 'up , Dirt-biking is at its peak, money isn't tight, things look good. Now for a place to ride once the machine is purchased. There is land around and within city limits. One developer even offered the use of property he owned for a riding area. The word got around that those me-sickle folks were going to have a large area to commit all sorts of bad things and you know. It got taken to the city council and a very large body of taxpayers turned out to beat this proposal down. End of good idea? Naturally not. People just had to be properly informed is all. Through the Lakewood City Council, which was tough to crack at first, Lee was able to enlist support from several members. Once this was done, another area of dissent entered the scene: the Environmental Protection Agency. Their problem was noise and too many people for a given are a. By this time Mayor Richey was beginning to see the plus side . If they could build tennis courts and swimming pools, why not an area for the two wheel people? The mayor got tight with EPA on the subject and with further help from Reichardt, the EPA began to come around. (On e of the things that would have helped at this time would have been more support from the other cycle dealers. None came and Lee fought on alone.] By this time a club had loosely -~ 32 ~ . .. .. .. formed, comprised of people who had energy and the desire to have a place to ride. The publicity was growing; word of mouth was in the most part favorable. Attitudes were beginning to change and the city councilmen were sensing this. The local weekly picked up on it and even a blurb got into the Denver Post. ' An in-depth report was asked for by the city council. The labor fell to Lee again ; becoming repititious isn't it? Meanwhile, Don Schoenfeld of the EPA was committed to the project. He did what he could to help Reichardt prepare the study . Sharon Carr, of the City Countil , also contributed. The next problem was money. All of a sudden it was discovered, by someone in the system , that there was no money to handle such a project. The land, all eighty acres of it, was available, but it needed fencing, lights, picnic tables, easy access roads and gravel and list kept growing. By this time there were about a hundred kids who were up for it and would gladly help by providing grun t labor to do the job. Things began to happen. The city decided it could handle all the major work such as fences, graders, shovels, etc. Money all of a sudden became available , "amazin '''! Lee laid out the various tracks, making sure the bicycle motocross track was nearest the bedroom community - no noise from them pedal pus_her~, don't ya see. Membership by this time had gone from the near 100 to about 50. But no problem. These 50 were the workers anyway. Especially the Lawler family who never quit and were alwaysthere. By summer ' of '75 the idea is taking shape. The last track to be completed is the motocross track and it gets to be exciting. Riders are showing up. berms are being developed , and character is forming through usage. The Lakewood Sportcycle Club becomes official, incorporated and ready to run its first event. It's got a president, vice-president and all the rest. The first event, a motocross scrambles, was held on January 4, 1976. A super way to start the new year. What I've done here, is try to explain an idea and the fruition of this idea. I can assure yo u it was not as easy to do as it was to write. The job was done , as usual, by a few dedicated people, so that a lot of other people can enjoy without hassles. Doesn't it always seem to go that way? •