Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1976 10 05

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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where the ceiling was too lo w fo r their plane to get over the mountains. They solved the problem by driving to California City and renting a plane. The plane made three passes and dumped froin two to seven sky divers on each pass. In spite of. fairly high winds, the divers performed all their ,scheduled maneuvers, including the difficult five-man star, and abou t a third of them landed reasonably close to the target. The penalty for missing the roped-off drop zone was immediate engulfment by a hundred or so excited motorcyclists. The leader of the Aerial Circus was Pat Moorhead, a fireman, - natcherly, The sky divers have their own competition to sec who comes closest to the mark, and this year the trophy wen t to Bill Hallam, a veteran with 1440 jumps. Bill had a chute that was as sophisticated as Spaceship Enterprise. It could go forward, backward, stop, drop and spin. If you ever get tired of m otorcycles • .. One jumper landed in a bush and got stuck. It turned out to be Sandy Callihan, also known as Miss Buff Diver. However, in deference to the fact th at this was a family even t, she wore a jumpsuit for the party.. Next eve nt was a bar-b-que beef dinner prep ared by the, California Ci ty Volunteer Fire Department, who are going ' to donate some of t he profits to the Burn Ward. Best $2 .50 d inner I ever had. Great big chunks of delicious beef, beans, salad and roll. With dinner out of the way, dessert was in order, fireman style: A sort of impromptu beauty contest. It was won by Kit Manley, who was helping out on the ice truck. She received a genuine red fireman's hat which looked a bit unusual on her, but cute. Runner-up Cindy Dempsey wasn't so lucky. She received a-I ~in ch diameter fire hose nozzle, solid brass, six inches long and shaped like a t 'reudian slip. What will those firemen come up with nex t? Queen Kit 's only du ty as reigning monarchess was to help present the awards to the mini enduro winners, Scott Jacobson, six years old, Larry Steffan, seven years old, Stacey Hofman, nine years old, and Bryan Amdor, -II years old. Each of the winners and the nex t four places in each class received a trophy and a couple of very expensive models donated by Revell and Mattei .T oy s: like aircraft carriers with planes that-take off, and R oger De Coster MX bikes. Stacey was only one of abou t half a dozen girls who finished in the money . Watch ou t, guys-when they start win ning at that age, they're going to be to ugh! Just to kind of ro und out the evening, after the awards, there were movies; four of them. First was "Firefighter", a real ly well done flick narrated by Jack Webb, then UMoto cross- Coliseum '75", sponsored by Can-Am and starring, of course, Jim Ellis. Then came "World of Wheels ~', a sa-so Yamaha effort, and finally "Epic", an outstanding racing picture. Sunday at 7:00 a.m., the first of about 3000 riders started off, which turned out to be unfortunate, as he w as supposed to start at 7:01. All subsequent riders also started a minute early, which is going to give th e scorers a monumental headache. The first loop was very easy, designed so that even the most novice rider could finish in good health, if not in fine style. I rode that loop with a passenger on the back and had no difficulty, so it really did come ou r as planned. The second loop had a few more problems. A torrential , rain two days before the event created flash floods, washed out Highway 14,- and in general rearranged the landscape. A couple of m od era te uphills and downhills became ro ck-strewn gulleys. Frantic re-marking ensued, and the result 'was that C riders had a longish wait wh ile A and B riders nego tia ted a section of course somewhat mo re difficul t than originally planned. Actually, there was only a 2.3 mile sec tio n that was tough, and the riders were given 20 minutes to complete it. There were two m odera tely tough places in the section, an uphill with a couple of narrow rock steps to climb, and a slippery downhill. I made it easily in about eight or nine minutes on a box stock Honda XK350 with trials tires, street gearing, all th e Iigh ts and mirrors intact. That might n ot be a fair example, h ow ever, because even with all th at stuff, that big single four-stroke has more pulling power than a diesel locomotive. I was riding o n nu mber 63 and at that time had to wait for only one rider at the rock section, bu t I was told that a pretty good bottleneck developed later. Aside from that, the course was excellen t with a good mix of various types of terrain and lots of just plain nice trail The rain had done us a favor by providing good traction and little dust. , A heartwarming incident occurred on the downhill, Some hot dog was coming down, unworried, standing on the pegs, and not using the brakes at ail As he went by, he shouted mockingly at the crowd, "Whee, a trials section-sfor squids!" Thirty seconds later, he proved his statemen t by going tail over teacup in a cloud of dust, arms, legs and motorcycle. The crowd cheered approvingly. After the enduro came the climax for abou tone ou t of every five riders: Christmas three months early. Dick Payne, the Pasa de na fireman who organizes th is whole event (with only a few th ou san d hours help from his wife, Janet) had collected an im me nse truckload of goodies to be given away to the riders. Since there were about 600 items and boxes of small things, a complete list is impossible, but here are some of the ou Istanding prizes. First to be given away were two motorcycles, a Suzuki 125 and a Yamaha 100. Charlie ' Sc aggs won the Suzy and Craig Moch won the Yammie, Also given away were a motocross bicycle, a 16-foot kayak, from R .V. En terprises, a bearskin rug from Wild Bill Furs, a top-to-bottom outfit from Can-Am, boots from Bultaco and Full Bore, leathers from Vera Le athers, helmetsand jackets from Bell , an electric tire inflator from Coleman, 50 sets of fron t and rear fenders from Amco, and an "at cost" deal on a Smuggler Trailer. One of the neatest presents came from the City of Big Pines, courtesy of their Volunteer Fire Department. Most of the merchants in town contributed something towards an all-expense paid weekend. Ther~e two nights for two in a motel, steak dinners at one restaurant, teriyaki dinners at another, breakfasts at a third, drinks from the local cocktail lou nge, and on and on. I don't know what you do in Big Pines, but you certain ly won't lack for h osp it ality and the amenities. Another nea t gift came fro m Wham-O. They donated Frisbees to all the contesian Is in the mini endu ro. Some of the distributors made up boxes of goodies with a whole box to go to the win ner. One of these was Rister Industries, which donated ten boxes filled with Boot Savers, oil, silencers, belt buckles, kidney belts, fenders, and gift cer t ific ates. Motorcycle sport riding is usually considered to be a dangerous sport, but the' riders in this event were probably safer than they would have been in church. There were three different communications-rescue outfits on the scene: Service Search and Rescue, the IRRC, and Medevac. In addition, they had the services of a helicopter from Edwards Air Force Base. It's kind of sad bu t most of the service was needed on Saturday to care for pit racers and play riders who wiped ou t both themselves and bystanders much too frequently. One in teresting remark was that the Hook and Ladder is more like an old-fashioned carnival than a normal desert race. It's true. There was every kind of thing going on that you could imagine. Vendors were selling watermelon, sno cones, Bob's Big Boys, beer, bu ttons with your photo on them, silver motorcycle rings, welding services, and ice . T here were co lorful parach u te te nts, trucks and co ncession stands, With a fairly easy course (by D-37 standards) and inexperienced people running the checks, the serious enduro rider probably looks at the Hook and Ladder with something less than total enthusiasm, but for the other 2200 or so, it was a glorious weekend. And I doubt if anyone in the Burn Ward has ever asked if the checks were accurate. l!') l-< Q.I ..0 o ..... u o How NOT to survive a family enduro - a comedy in three acts. 11

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