Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; Championship Enduro • • ~ E E 0 Forf a de a ge • • 0') I:' 0') ...-4 0 ...-4 ~ ~ =' c:: ~ I-) (Above) For the past four vears, the National Enduro Championship has gone to Dick Burleson. (Right) Skip Olson manhandles his Can-Am. The Legendary Jack Pine Dusty and mud -caked you roll in . drop down a gear or two and follow some riders ahead of you through the gathering jam of vans and campers returning to headquarters along with the bikes. You seem alone 'a nd unnoticed in the crowd. Behind you are over 200 miles of tortuous trails and backwoods roads more than nine hours of battling sandy hills . mud holes, fallen timber and an occasional water crossing. And rough, seemingly endless tight going through the pines and hardwoods of these northern Michigan forests. But the annual running of the legendary Jack Pine Enduro is far from fin ished . You and the others still running will get more tomorrow. another 200 miles of equally rugged terrain . Already one-third of the almost 400 sta rters from across North America have been knocked out by mechanical trouble. fatigue or dis qu alification . T he rest of you will lea ve the starting line again a t the ra te of u p to four per minute beginni ng at 7 o'clock Sunday morning. just a half ho ur after the chilly la te-s ummer dawn. It'll be dark in the densewoods at first, and the morning mist .will make the logs slipperier and the trees more difficult to dodge. Here is a sport that pits hundreds of off -roa d m otorcycle riders a nd their machines against nature and each other and the clock direct competition between men, and in'creasing numbers of women. from all walks of life and all levels of skill from novice to champion. It 's a ' sport without age limits that combines an endurance contest with the thrill of racing, one requiring some acrobatic balance and agility , quick thinking. strength and more than average stamina , This doesn't mean you have to be a weightlifter or a long-distance runner to ride enduro successfully and to have fun . What it does mean is that what you lack in muscle and physical endurance you must make up in riding . skill. planning and precise timekeeping if you're going to win . Yet even winning an enduro is different - there aren't any crowds cheering you when you finish, not even for a champions hip performance . There's no money as a lure to greatness. no recog n itio n except among other enduro riders . Other rugged runs The Jack Pine' has been going for over 50 years , and veterans of those early runs say it's not as tough as it used to be when there were fewer trails and riders covered 600 miles on heavy street bikes . Now the Jack Pine is just one of more than two dozen nationals and more than a hundred local endurance runs sanctioned a nnually by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) a nd other regional groups for amateur riders. It's currently the second longest, exceeded only by the Greenhorn in California . Most of the other runs are 100 miles. except for a few nationals 125 to 150 miles long. Entrants are classified by engine disp lacement and rider performance in previous, enduro competition, Except for a senior division for riders over 40, there are no age categories , and there isn't always a separate powder-puff class for women . Starting times are determined by a drawing. not by class , and everyone rides together. A Ifi-year-old novice may begin a run next to a national .cha rnpion . You won't find any of the circus-like atmosphere of motocross racing at an enduro because it's too spread out for all but a hardy and seemingly sadistic bunch of spectators who surround each mud ho le and line each impossib le hil l. Reall y, on ly the riders ever see an enduro or even catch more than a brief look at what it's all about. The names of some of the nationa ls suggest the obstacles or type of terrain to be encountered - Fallen Timbers in Ohio, Curley Fern in New J ersey and the Lonesome Pine straddling the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee; the Foothills Classic in Minnesota and . Indiana's Bu rr O ak. Others like the Cotton Boll in Texas. Red Garter in California and Steel Helmet in Missouri, e,

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