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/126065
By Lane Campbell Right off, this has got to be a dumb article, because any idiot knows a family desert enduro IS supposed to be a fun event, not a te st o f survival. What's eve n d um ber is that the guy writing it has only ridden one such enduro in h is life and t hat o n a three-year -old lDST Trium ph with a broken clu t ch cable. Maybe it' s beca use, on that on e ride 1 saw such a surprising number of people try ing t o kill themselves , or, failing t ha t, kill th eir motorcycles. Hence, the Cycle News One-shot Surv ial Manual for First-tim ers, wri tte n by a first-timer. I Bik e p rep - Fo rge t all the exotic stuff; family enduro sp eed aver ages only require a motorcycle that functions, and there's a lot of perfectly functional machinery , wrongly call ed "ob so let e," waiting t o be p icked up for $5 00 or less . The ke y is keeping it functional. That means it must d o certain things. The first thing is idle. A motorcycle that 'wo n' t id le, o r pull cleanly off idl e, has no business in an en d uro. That goes even for t he pipey on es - it may not make much h orsep o wer " o ff the p ipe " bu t it sh ou ld at leas t run. T h at's so you wo n't wa ste tim e, energy, and throttle co ntro l m essing wi th the clu tch in order to kee p the engi ne ru nni ng. If yo ur bike won't d o th is, then ma ke it i dle be fo re you enter another run - w hatever it takes, clean th e p lugs, clean the exhau st baffles, replace the p o ints (if it has any), clean or rejet th e carb , w hatever. If yo u do nothing else , do this first , an d y o u ' ll be surprised at ho w mu ch th e effort w ill r eward yo u in terms of enjoy ing yo ur ride. , Se cond is th e su spension. Nothing tr ic k - j ust m ak e sure th at it works. If you ca n b ottom th e fo r ks w ith your . o wn bod y w eight, you 're in tro ubl e. The .rea son you're in trouble is be cause yo u need a cer tain amo unt of rake and t rail to ride sand with any amou n t o f control. Sac ke d-o ut fork springs cause the steering h ead to ride t oo low; rake and trail both d ecr ease ; and yo u win d up with an unrideable han dful in any sandwash. You'll be amazed w hat a differe nce you ca n ma ke in that evil- ha ndler w it h just a simp le set of fork spring spacers you can buy at any _Yam ah a shop for a coup le of bucks. oi1i"", tips - if yo u're flu sh eno ugh to afford som ething with lo ng-travel forks, make double-sure th at it's impossible for the fron t brake ca ble to pop out of its gu id e (s) or snag on . an yt hi ng while the forks ar e stroking. That alone can save yo ur life, so ch eck it a third t im e. Make a little "roll" out of duct tape or fuel line or an ything handy ; and t ap e it to y o ur twistgrip right under wher e your fin ger join ts hook ar ound it in a comfortable riding grip. T h is tends to keep you from de veloping a "death · grip" on th e throttle as yo u begin to tire. . Carry a roll o f duct tape somewhere on the bike; y ou can use it for an ything from p atching a leaky gas tank, to splinting a broken bone, to silencing a gabby kid. Great stuff. The rest of it y o u probably already know from reading all those slick magazines. It 's th e things they don't tell y o u , like the idle and the sacked-out forks, that seem to spoil so many folks' rides. _ Bod y prep Avo id dehydration. . Actually, the correct term for it is hypohydratiori, but everybody seems to ignore th at. Whatever, it means al lo w ing your body to fall significan tly below its normal 90% water co ntent. That's esp eciall y t rue fo r you lovers of th e . gr ap e, because getting totally sm ashed, sick, an d hung o ver the n igh t b efore tends to deh ydrate y ou. T hen yo u have to drink an ex tra amount o f liquid t o m ake up- for it th e nex t morning, ge t sic k aga in, and re sume the wh ol e process. Seriously, though , if you ca n stand it, yo u want t o start ou t on the vent slightly waterlogged, prefer ably with pur e water, Gatorade , lem onade , or mo st any othe r kind o f fruit ju ice. Prune ju ice don 't ge t it, for o bvio us r easons ; and neither do be er o r so da pop. Mental prep - So mehow , it helps to be o ld. Si nce " old " in So ut h ern California means any thing ove r 25, that's easier than it sou nded, at fi rs t; If you still ar en't 25 , practice thin king survival , li ke an o ld man , a t least an ho ur each day. Since t he la test co uple of fa talities at fa mily enduros were you ng people, th is is no t such a d umb idea. Practice - ' Since you already know how to ride fas t (y o u 're su re of t hat, aren't you?) you should instead practice riding slow. Trials riders seem to have this kind of riding wired, so try practicing trials riding - do picky-picky tums at idling sp eed b etween big rocks, go down and up the same steep bank without taking your feet off th e pegs, do intentional little w heelies over roc ks and logs - all the dumb things you see trials riders d o when they're p laying, try to imitate. T his ' wa y y o u won't panic when the speed averages, th e terrain, or y o ur fell ow ri ders in the bo ttleneck ahead for ce you to ride slow. R iding - If yo u've p aid attentio n to all the foregoing: this sec t io n ca n b e mercifully sho r t. That' s becaus e if y our engin e . runs cl eanly at low sp eeds, y our su spension works correctly , your body is well hydrated, y o ur attitude is mature, and y o u 've practiced handling your , b ike without a lot of fo ot-dragging, y o u're already home free - able to handle anything on the "B" rider loop with ease , and able to relax , really enjoy the ride. Honest - you can be flabby, out of shape, with a beer gut that flops over the handlebars of a five-year-old, 300-pound turkey motorcycle and still make it, because you've done ,all the things that prevent yo u from getting too tired, too soon. Oh, y o u' ll get tired; but it will be fun t ired. T here' s a difference. OK, the averages ar e duck so up , so you've decided yo u want to race a bit between check po ints. Please, go to a desert race or a GP and get it out of your system. Family enduros are danger -marked for 18 mph , not 40. What that m eans is, even assuming that the course marking is nuts-on perfect, th e danger arrows, lime stripes or w ha tever ar e going to be set where a gu y going 18- 24 mph can see them , comfortably avoid t he obstacl e, and get back on t he gas. Set them too far away and the guy who's timekeepin g w ill see them, slo w d own, not see any th ing da ngerous, gas it again a nd ' clobber himself. So th ey' ll b e set far closer than yo u'll fi nd comfortable if yo u come at t h em all tapped o ut. T he o th er pitfall is, a t errain fe at ure th at 's safe at 18· 24 mph probably won't b e danger-marked a t all. Suppose, however, you came up on it a t 45 and endo. T ough nuts, huh ? Afte r race co mes pace. Eve ry bod y has a co m for ta ble wo rkpace - a level o f p hysica l effort th ey can sustain for lo ng periods without wearing the mselves o ut. It's a different level fo r d ifferent people; so the tric k is knowing yours. Any - lo ng trail ride is phys ical work; bu t you're generally no t thinking about that. So you w ind up exceeding your level without warning. Yet t he war ning signals are there, if you'll think about them. For instance, if you pass the same rider five times and each ti m e you crash minutes later , that sbould tell you something's wrong. If rocks in the trail are " sn eaking up on y ou " ·wi th ast onishmg regularity, something's wrong. If you put a foo t down to make a p ivot turn in sand and just fall in a surprised heap, that's ano th er sign. It's that 01' deep-seated water-deprived body fati gue that' s sn eaking up on y o u. T h at's when yo u should say to yours elf, " Hey, wait a minut e ," get off the bike, walk around in a circle a couple of times, then sit o n a rock and wait for your pulse to return to normal. T ak e a drink, too - and don't tell me yo u w ent out without ' water on your bik e or person. The fir st symptoms of hy po hydration happen to be deteriorating eyesight .and eye-hand coordination. Which m eans as y o u dry out, you don't see things you need to see in time to avoid th em . You wind up riding over things unawares that any dummy would ride around. .A breather and a slow steady pull at yo ur canteen takes less time than a crash. J Once you discover your workpace and get comfortable w ith it, most of these warnings will be unnecessary. Your breathers/waterbreaks will just naturally coincide with each checkp o in t, and y o u ' ll just happily boogie along, passing all the strugglers, puttin' up hills with good momentum, throttle control, feet on the pegs an ' all that good stuff you know how to do but fail to when you're pooped. One other trick to practice (t hen I'll shut up) is square tums in sand. Everybody knows how to get the weight back, stay on the gas, and boogie along with the front wheel planning to stay straight and u nder control. But the doggone sandwasbes refuse to run in a straight line. Wh at see ms to work (at least with a turkey T ri um p h) is to approac h the t urn using th e rear brake, o ne fing er on th e front brake (no more) weight still back and throttle sligh t ly on wor ki ng against the brakes, as the sand slows y o u 'd ow n. Pick wher e yo u want t o turn, slide up out o f the seat, onto t he tank, plant one foot , pivot and gassit , allowing your w eight to come right back into the seat as yo u raise your fo o t to get that front wheel up and str aigh t again. Works bitchin' if you're not tired. If t his seem s lik e a turkey ar t icle, written by a t urkey, for turkeys , so be it. I wi sh I h ad a d o Ilar for every rider I saw on jus t one enduro w ho didn't know th is stuff. Gu ess I'll jes' go th ump my bra ins o ut. (T h um p?) Yeah, thu mp. Bye. 15