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/126068
C'I ..... lII) ..0 o ..... u o The Austrian countryside never lacked an inspiring'view. (Abo ve right) Tire changing was an early morning ritual for 320 riders. Malc olm Smi th 's nin th A merican pe rforman ce. Burleson h ad looked fine righ t . fro m day one . He 's got a bu sy loo king, bu t all together and u nder co ntrol sty le, th at really looked go od in the special te st. "He 'd bett er be un der contro!!" J ill Bur leso n resp onded whe n someone mention ed it to he r, " I keep reminding him - rem ember, y ou 're a fath er! " " I di d n't fe el fast, " said Dic k. l\lalcolm Smi tl'l was asked to sum up the trial. " It was to o ea sy, and the, Italians ch ea t," he answered. Then he added with th e familiar frie n dly smile, " Trn happy . Specia l test? Well, I'd like to have d on e be tter , bu t it was har d fo r every on e. " Malcolm had o ne probl em on the firs t day at a che c k, when he n o ticed the re ar tire had gone flat . He changed it, bu t : h ad n o air. One of th e support crew wen t to b orro w the Swedes ' air bottle while Malcolm pushed th e bi ke throu gh the chec k. Pushing th e bike pu lled the valve stem down throu gh the hole in the rim , and when th ey tried p u lling it back up with a p air of pliers. they squ ashed the stem. Malcolm ch an ged it aga in, putting his spare front tube in the back, and , fmished the day on it. The next morning he ch an ged it again pu tting a good tube in the rear. The third member of the Highland club -team , Ken Maahs, ran out of support when he needed it most on day three. He 'd changed a tire that morning but it went flat in the first ten miles. He ch ang ed it again, inspecting the wheel and tire carefully, but it went flat aga in. Ridin g in roc ky terrain, he so on d iscovered that the tire wouldn't stay on so he pulled it off en tirely and rode on the bare rim. "I began stopp ing tru cks and trying to ge t a new tir e. T he third o ne I sto ppe d w as a Puch tru ck , and they loan ed me a tire. " Ken fin ishe d the d ay dropping to Bro nz e along the way. " I really want to finish, " he sa id on the m orning o f th e fourth day. " I' ll , spend so me tim e in th e imp ound area and wo rk on th at dam aged rim ." His effort to salvage a Bronze Medal was successful. The Lubbock Trail Rider s club team scored one Gold Medal. Georgia's Jeff Hill did the .deed , bu t his teammates J im Simm on s an d Rick y Weather sb ee weren 't as fortunate. \Veathersbec alm ost lost it all on da y o ne when his co il w ire touched the exh aust p ipe _ sh orting o ut: Rick y couldn 't find th e prob lem , but still m anaged to finis h the run. He rod e an illegal m oto rcycl e with some ver y c ru de numb e rs m agic-rn ar kcr cd on ' the sidepla tes into th e m id day ch eck, and if anyone had m ade a sudden n oise, he'd have jumped a m ile. At th e day 's end. his number plates looked new again a ft er a visit to the m ythical dry barn. Simmon s · wasn ' t as fortunate. His bi ke seized o n' th e first d ay ("It was my o wn fau lt.") on th e ro ad, then it st uck twice more o n the third day. J im raised the needle a n ot ch . fou nd a way to ca tch up with th e cou rse, and wasab le to salvage a Silv er Medal, Er ic J ensen and Billy Geier of the Croton a Motorcycle Clu b learn b oth ea rne d Golds, bu t th e th ird m ember. Stan Rubottom, had to se tt le for a Silver. " I've be en riding ju st barely on G old," h e said when we ta lked on the morning of th e fou rth d ay , "but I wish I. cou ld build up a cushio n. " St an , riding a prototype of the 1977 Yamaha IT400, tangled with fellowY amaha rider J ohn Fero during the six th day MX special test. T he two bikes locked together, takin g sever al minute s to pull them apart, an d th e tim e lo st ' co st Stan his Gold. The Rhody R overs club team earned th e_honor of bei ng th e o n ly club te am to sco re three Gold Medals. Don Cichocki, Gary Edm ond and Jeff Gerber comprised th at most su ccessful Am eric an clu b team . Indep enden t Harry Heilem ann who "just sa nded every thing d own and pu t it bac k toge th er" af ter bis p re· trial seizure , said at th e tri al 's end tb at he w asn 't too prou d of his sp ec ial test times bu t o therw ise. n o p ro blems. Th e 5 1st In ternarion al Six Day s Trial, viewed in re tro spect, tempts one to p lay ame. If Kevin La Vo ie 's bike t he "i f " .-g Billy Uhl relaxed all the way to another Gold for Team Hercules. hadn't bro ken th e U.S. World Tro team probably would h ave finished a highl y re spectable fourth, fifth or sixth place. If the - cou rse had been more demanding, or if it had rained, the U.S. Silver Vase team riders would have been more in their element, and they might have scored higher than fourth. But if the Austrian ISDT h ad been any different than what i t was, the likelihood of 37 rid ers bringing home 29 Gold Med als is op t im ist ic at best, All in • all, those guys d id a damn go od job. Results WO R L D TROPHV: 1. West Germany 31 2 .0. 2 . Czechoslovakia 383 .8. 3 .. East G erm any 1 89. 3 . 4 . Great Br it a in 2130.0. 5 . Aust r ia 2226 . 1. 6 . Po land 2 949 .9 .7. Belg ium 5 3 4 6.9 . 8. Canada 8469 .9. 9. F rance 33.566.3 . 10. Un ited States 61 . 1 1. H olland 63. 225 .9 . 12 . Sweden 9 i994.6 13 . 172.1. Switz erl and 92.962. 2. 14. F inland 93. 256. 7. 15. l talv 2 2 5 .3 0 4. 3 . United States 981.3. 5. F inland 1307.0. 6. East Germany 1345.4. 7. Belg ium 1366.5. 8 . Canada 3954.7. 9. Switzerland 4243.6. 10. Holland 4936.2. 11. Austria 17,677.0. 12. Sweden 32,528.3. 13. Spa in 61,220.8. 14. France 66.941.3. 15. Great Britain 77.408.0. MANUFACTURERS TEAMS : 1. ZundaPP I 50.6. 2. Jawa I 204.2. 3, Zundapp II 261.4• . CLUB TEAMS: 1. Dukla Praha 612.8. 2 . UAKK C5SR 748.2. 3. ADAC Stuttgart 864.5. BEST 10 AMERICAN SCORES: 1. Dick Burleson 3985.9 (Hus). 2. Jack Penton 3995.5. (Pen). 3. Tom Penton 4010.4 (Pen). 4. carl Cranke 4066.1 (Pen). 5 . F rank Gallo 4118.0 (Pen). 6. Jim Hollander 4124.8 (Rok). 7. Billy Uhl 4131 .3 (Her). 8. Gary Younkins 4132.4 (Pen) . 9. Malcolm Smith 4133.3 (Hus). 10 . Dane LeimbaCh 4143.6 (Penl. OTHER AMERICAN GOLD MEDAL WINNERS : Drew Smith \Her) ; Don Cichocki (Pen) ; M ike Rosso (Her; Harry Heilemann (Pen) ; Lars Larsson (KTM); Eric Jensen (Pen): M ike Hannon (Sui) ; Jeff Gerber (Pen); Earl Law (Oss) : Denn is Vandecar (Pen); Rod Bush (Pen) ; Gary D imond (Rok) ; Je ff H ill (Pen); David A shley (Vam) ; Bill Geier (Pen); Chr is Carter (Vam) ; John Fe ro (Vam) ; Charles Be thards (Bul): Ben Bower (Bun . AMERICAN SILVER MEDAL WINNERS: Jim Simmons (Hus) ; Stan Rubottom (Vam). AMERICAN BRONZE MEDAL SILVER VASE: 1.. Czechoslova kia 580.0 . W INNERS: RiCky Weathersbee {Pen} ; Ken < 2 . 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