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 Bobi Scott ,I E o' ar l Roeseler used to keep track of his son's race wins in a little brown spiral notebook. He doesn't keep track of them any more though. His son has grown up, he's 19 years old, and Earl probably suffers now and then from a recurring case of acute writer's cramp which he picked up a few years ago while trying to log all of his son's desert victories, Larry Roeseler wins a lot of races but it isn 't because he doesn't have any competition. Considering the number of people that race in the desert almost every weekend of the year, Larry has probably beaten more racers to the finish line that you would careto count. The o nl y times he didn't finish rust were because his bike couldn't take it, and that's been only about three times. Considering his success, Larry is reserved, very easy to talk to and very much unaffected. He is one of Husqvarna's most valuable salesmen, but you won't find him pushing bikes in the confines of a motorcycle shop. No wa y. His work address is the Mojave or Baja Desert, depending on the weekend, but don't bother trying to find a listing in the yellow ' pa ges 'cause he's always to o busy to answer the phone anyway. We finally caught up w ith Larry and asked if· he would m ind spending .some time explaining him self. Fortunately for us, he agreed, and now whenever you see the name Larry Roeseler - you will know a little bit more about how it all came to be. How and where d id it all begin? Back in 1 962, I wa s five years old, m y dad bought m e an old laum m oui er engine m in ib ik e. Well, t he very first time I got o n it - I on ly knew h o w to ma ke it go - I ran int o a brick wa ll, f ell down in the graveLand scrap ed myseLf all up. It really scared my dad more than it did me t hough. He t ho ught, well that 's prob ably th e e nd of that. Dad was racing back th en, so w e went to all t he races together. I sta rte d out riding Engl ish. trails, you could ride any size bik e in t he 0· 15 year-old class, ro de them for ab ou t t wo years and th en ro de some rough scramb les out at Perris R acew ay. T w o 'y ears lat er I got a H -D 50 and that 'sam e yea r, 1 9 65, m y dad became D istr ict 37's very first nu mber on e Trailbike rider. I rode m y first big de ser t race t hat same yea r, on a H o nda 50, and finishe d 16th Trail Nov ice. I wa s pr etty scared, bu t I sure liked it. I wo re m y mom 's b oots and helmet in t hat race. I go t about 20 0 ya rds from th e st art and crashed. M y dad came-back, p ick ed m e up, and said, "Co me on , let 's keep going." Th an I started rid ing a lot of endu ro s and som e hare scram ble s. In 1967 I was rid ing at Dead M an's Po int . . . w ow. tha t's a long time ago no w that I th ink ab out it. Did yo ur dad have a lot to do with influencing you t o race? Yeah , he really d id. I wanted t o be just lik e dad. He w as good an d I ulanted t o do the sam e things he did , just as welL lie never p u shed m e th o ugh. I see a lot of fath ers n o uida y s reall y p ush ing t heir k ids into racing, telling them h o w to rid e, w ha t t o d o • . • I don't t hink tha t 's good at aLL He never to ld me w ha t to 'do, we just ro d e toge th er a wh ole lot. We went to all the races toget her, r ode enduros on t he sam e m inue . . . we really had a lot of good times. I p i~k ed up a lot of ex perience j ust fr om that. You kn,?w, th ere 's no subst itute fo r ex p erienc e. Even now, I ca n 't TE LL a p erson HO W t o ride. A lot of people co uld p robably beat m e, but t hey don 't use th eir heads , they just flat go. I used t o hate up hills, be caus e of th e doumhills, but now p eople say I'm crazy on doumhills. I used to be really scar ed of t hem , but ex per ience taught me to th ink of th em as flat ground. iVO W . it's easier on a d ownh ill. just b ecause it's down and you can go a lot f as ter co m ing down. Does that make sense? . What oth er interests did you have motorcycle s, racing and getting dirty? besides I play ed baseball fo r a while, but most of the tim e I would rid e bicycles w it h all the other neigh borh o o d k ids. Finally som e of t he k ids bugged th eir paren ts into bu y ing them motorcycles 'cause I had on e. I, was pr obably pr etty unpo pular w ith a lot of th e neighb orh o od par ents becau se of that. In th e m eantim e, I wa s getting hurt a lot m ore on my bicycle than I eve r was o n my hike. 16 rom a rickwat tothe aja