Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

that th e liza rds were march ing u p th e canyo ns two by two , look ing for an A rk. It turn ed sections in to m onst ers, an d had E urope an rid ers (like R ob Sh eph erd on th e 123 Cota) consta nt ly d em onstrat ing m iracles. Lat e in th e day I no ticed th is on e chu nky kid, riding t he loop wit h a big "X " on hi , ride r bib ove r anum ber. I learn ed his nam e was B ernie Schreiber, an d he was riding un of ficially as a sort of an "Ex hibition rid er " because, at ag e 14, he was to o young to ente r. Eve rybody was im pressed on ho w well he was handling him self in th is g enu in e bit ch pf a trial. I Schreib er is not new to Eu ro pea n com pet it io n . H e' s "w atch ed " three World Championship rounds. plus the Scottish Six Days. eac h time travelling as o ne of th e three or more top Southern Ca lifo rn ia riders sent to Europe eac h year o n the proceeds from the Am erican Trial Association 's (A TA ) EI Tria l de Esp an a . In o ne sens e it was frustrating . going year a fte r year only to be ex cl ud ed on account of age . having ea rn ed th e right to go as on e of ATA's top pointsearn ers. yet not allowed to foll ow throu gh w ith a n offi ci al World Championship ride . Yet , in ano ther sense , th e trips were invaluable , for th ey all owed Bern ie to m eet wo r ks rid ers lik e Fren ch Champion Charles Courard , Span ish C ham pio n Manuel Soler , a nd world title conten der Yrjo Vesterinen and to · go riding with th em. In th e 1977 French round , it was double di saster . It st arted o ut hot , bu t was raining hard by th e time riders ~ e re head ing out on the third a nd fin al loop . Bernie was leading th e trial unt il the huge mud hol e. Trap 16 - a rea l bik e swa llowe r. I " You kn ow how th e new Bulta co a ir box breathes from th e fr ont ? Well , I had th e o ld o ne th a t breathes from t he to p . a nd th e rear tire just tossed mud o n top of it. At th e mud section. m ud we nt into th e mo to r. T he rings st uc k, I had no power . and the b ike sta lled in a cou p le of sec t ions. I had clea ne d t he mud tra p t he first loop , sta lled in it th e second tim e a nd didn't ride it the thi rd time . I was a fraid I was n't goi ng to fini sh . " I stayed a t Co ut a rd 's hou se in Lyo n , an d we took it to a shop th er e , sp lit th e cases , a nd th e m ud j us t fe ll ou t. St ill. betw een first p lace a nd fifth ( me) rhe re was o n ly nin e point s di ffer en ce . I fo u led plugs and was lat e. " T he n a no t he r foulup . Th e o rga nizers ga ve him th e wrong sec tio n ca rd to ca rry o n the third loop . " I was number 27. T hey ga ve m e 17's ca rd, an d ga ve him mine . A t t he end of th e trial when th ey post ed points , I had too m an y. I co u ld n't prot est , because I couldn't sp eak th e langu age . Som e , o t her guy did it. " By t his time , Bernie definitely had fri ends o n th e "circu it ," so m any he's ' not su re who his ben ef actor was . Aft er three m a ximum effo rt tri als rounds , Bernie was beginning to need friends. T he ex pe nses were o u tl a n d is h . In Belgium : three days and four nights in a h ot el , cost $4 50. Bulta co International had set him u p for th e three rounds, and a fte r he d id so well , urged him to sta y fo r W est Germany. " I ran ou t of m on ey a fte r France a nd had to borrow . Manuel So ler took care of me afte r that. " He was a ble to stay two weeks a t Sol er 's hom e in Sp a in , a nd a lso to' bunk wit h C ha rles Co utard in Lyon , Fran ce . H e ha d had time to ac cl ima tize for Belgium . but h it Sp ain a nd Ge rm a n y co ld. In Fra nce , " I got to p racti ce with Ves ti a nd Co uta rd . Coutard has a favorite a rea by hi s house . H e liv es o n a m ountainsid e . If I was go ing back , I'd live in Lyon ." Then Germa ny , with a fr esh engine afte r the Fr ench round . " T hey had a co u pie of dangerous sections, cliffs you got to jump off almost : The Germ ans a re crazy . O verall , it was a good trials, closest to home as far as terrain . It was like, Hollister wh en it's not raining good traction dirt. Th'ere wer e a few ro cks , some la id in th e sectio ns by hand. They didn 't roll aro un d - th ey wer e big, sol id ro cks . I was number six , a nd the ea rly ri de rs had , t he a d va nta g e . By the ' t im e the lat e r numbers got through , so mu ch mud was on th e rocks that they were pushin'." Bern ie. with 146 po ints , was second to Martin Lampkin's 136 . Now he's ba ck , m erging once aga in into his famili ar Southern Ca lifo rn ia world. H e'll go to Scotland for th e Six . Da ys, return to rid e several AMA National rounds , rid e th e U .S_ a nd Ca n a d ia n W orld Champi onship rounds , t he n return to Europe for Finl and , Sw eden , Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. And of co urse , he 'll end his 1977 seaso n at th e Trial de Espana . He's not forgotten th e ATA circ uit which groomed him. It was lat e su m mer, 1974 . M ik e Griffitts, Rich Delan ey, Martin Belair and B ernie Schreib er wer e all , sp ra wle d in th e ba ck of a VW Microbus, cooling off after t eaching an ATA trials scho ol. Th ey were all talking into my tape recorder, trying to tell m e all at once how they had gotte n into trials . Bern ie: "A san d box buddy conned m e into it . I used to rid e around a cactu s tr ee all th e tim e. I used t o have a Kaw 90. I took th e Kaw out and beat my buddy th e first tim e, got a bout 12th overall . I didn 't lik e trials th e f irst tim e, but after a cou ple rides I won and th en I lik ed it more. " Though th ey rang ed in ages f rom Bernie's 15 to R ich Delan ey 's 23 , th ey had all starte d riding trials ab out th e same tim e, roughly 1969 -70. Th ey, along wit h Mark Eggar and Marland Wh aley, g rew up in t rials tog eth er, rod e toge ther, honed off eac h othe r's rough edges in co m petition . Th ey had each co m e in to trials wit h slig ht ly dif erent att itu des and aspirations, but f th eir deve lopment in th e tight world of ATA t ria !.l g ave t h e m a lot in ca m lnOll. Wh aley , Sch reiber, Belair , Delaney , Grif itt s, Egga r - tog eth er th ey were f th e crea m , but already Whaley and Sch reiber had begun to separate out from th e rest in t rial aft er tr ial. Whaley , in 19 74, was a multi-year State Cha m pio n. B ernie, at 15, w a s 5',8" still a slightly ch unky-looking /40 pounds. But by El Tr ial de Espana tim e, that same year (J 974) h e had zoo me d up t o a f ull six f eet and th e "ba by fat " m elt ed away. H e had acqu ir ed a breadth and pouier'o] back and shoulde rs, a trimness of waist and hips . Another California Kid had grown up . Whether it was because h e was already a tea drinker, o r because of the friendships he had made , Schreiber seemed to slip easily into European competition where o the rs h ad not. Witness b y contrast motocrosser Marty Smith's reaction to Europe. Whatever, Bernie could talk for hou rs a bout it. " T hey don't use st akes to mark the sections; they lay tapes along the ground and the spectators stand right on top of them. That's the section boundary - the mob of people . Wh e~ th e hard part is early in a sect ion , the people start yelling and ch eering so loud if you cle an th at part you ca n hardly co nc ent ra te o n the rest of th e secti on . " T heir trials are gener all y tougher th an ours, th e sec tio ns a re longer . T here's not so m any turns as her e , lot s o f straig ht stu ff with three o r four d iffer ent lines in eac h sect ion . T hey' d like to pi ck b ig roc ks and m ud. "There's only 15 or so at each trial wh o are true world class riders . .. the rest are good national riders, pretty much like here, A lot of them are not consistent. (john) Reynolds did good in England and Ireland ; it all depends on ' where a rider's ground is . . ." Sc h re ibe r's " gro u nd" is Southern C a lifo rn ia, a nd by doing well ou t of his ground , he's est ablished himself as a wo rld class rider . Could any of the rest ? Why , until now , had Americans do ne so poorly? You have to go back , aga in , to th e ATA " bre ed ing ground" fo r a n a nswe r. By early 1975 it was ob viou s. Th ere was Marland Wh aley , B ernie Schr eib er - and eve ry body else. At ATA dub trials on e or th e ot he r would be "hot " and win , th e oth er would blow up in a series of disastrous fives. Occasionally th ey we re both hot , and th en th e tiny ha ndful of SoCal trials regulars got a show ofsho ws. , T he t wo were a study in contrast in th e way th ey 'd approach eac h section. Whaley would walk eac h se ct ion , t est ing eac h rock with a foot , some times holding an imaginary handlebar in his hands, weighting, unweliz:hting and turning in his mind. Schr eib er would rush up, tak e on e quick walk through on th e first loop, th en rid e. On subsequent loops, h e would st op, catch his breath, peer at th e section from the ent ran ce, and ride. Sometimes h e'd take some really du mb fives that way . In American trials , sch edules arefairly easy, and it '.I not uncommon for rid ers to sp en d 15 m inut es looking at a section . Th oroughness counts. But B ernie was different, and wh en he was hot, h e was mira culous. And there's the key. Time and again Bernie had hit on it as we talked. The time pressure in Europe is a whole other world , "I'd say you could spend two , maybe five minutes studying a sect ion the first loop. No more , or you'd be in tr ouble. The second , third , fou rth loops in Germany there was no time at all. I'd just peer over the ed ge . a nd rid e." All th at tim e , Bernie's brazeness h ad been th e ti cket to European success . The ability to read terrain in split. seconds, th e braver y to atta ck " killer" sections full -on , th e will to wi n , t he se lf-co n fide nce a ll c a me (Above) Bernie tackles the rocks in the West German championship round. (Below) Schrieber at Saddleback in 1974. together one month in late Winter. Now, Bernie Schreiber is changed again. Not outwardly. yet - he still lives at home, works in his father's grinding shop , and rides , rides, rides in nearby Tujunga Wash : He's got time for his girl , his friends , the snowskiing in the mountains . He was , thinking about college before Europe, now there's a twist , " I wanted to go back , but now there's no school until 1 make World Champion ." Just like that, it has clicked . " If 1 don't make World Champion in the next two to three years 1 never will. No rider does, if he tries that long and can't do it , he can't d o it. I think my title shot will come next year. " What a cha nge! Bernie doesn't look any different or sound any different and he's slipping easily back int o his daily life of work , free time, and practice . But he kno ws. That's why Bern ie's different. Attitude got him thi s far. In ' t he next few seasons; a tti tude m ay tak e him clear to the top. 19

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