Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

By Jim Gianatsis Six-thirty in the morning comes awfully early when you're used to sleeping in late on weekdays. I try to roll over and ignore the wake-up call from the Quail's Inn front office, but it won't leave me alone. My roommate Pedro, a 16-year-old kid from Mexico City who hardly speaks .any English, bounds out of bed and answers the phone. "Si? Sir' ..Gttm, must get up now." I struggle to the edge of the bed and manage to sit up. Parting the curtains I look for the sun, but it isn't even up yet. As I slip into my running gear Phase 4 shorts, a Scott USA shirt and a pair of Brooks Vantage warne stompen; - it begins to occur to me that what I thought ~ight be a neat three-day vacation in sunny southern CalifoT1)ia is really turning into an intense Marinelike Green Beret Special Forces course in survival training. The only difference is we're in training to meet the challenge of our opposition on a motocross track and not in some third world jungle. What I had gotten myself into was the Suzuki Official School of Motocross, a serious three-day coun;e in the proper training methods towards becoming a better motocross rider. The school is conducted in Carlsbad, CA, just north of San Diego. Headquarten; for sleeping and eating is at the beautiful Quail's Inn on Lake San Marcos, with classroom and gymnasium a few miles away, as is Carlsbad Raceway where the riding portions ofthe school are conducted. The Suzuki Official School of Motocross has an impressive history that goes back further than the four yean; which Suzuki has conducted it. Originally, Carlsbad Raceway was the location of the Husqvarna Training School which was started by former 500cc World Motocross Champion Rolf Tibblin. It was an extension of the Husqvama philosophy that rider skill and training is just as important in the demanding sport of motocross as the right motorcycle. Tibblin's assistant at the school was Mark Blackwell, a former American 500cc National Champion himself. The Husqvama Training School was successful from the standpoint of large student enrollments, but the operating costs of the school were much too high for a small company like Husqvarna to handle and after two yean; the school was disbanded. Blackwell believed in what the school stood for and what it did towards helping riders and improving the image of the sport. He took the concept of the school to United States Suzuki where he convinced the Japanese manufacturer of the importance of such a school, both for the betterment of the sport and Suzuki's own public image. Suzuki was sold on the idea and hired Blackwell to run the Suzuki Official School of Motocross for them. Blackwell devised up an all-new school program for Suzuki with the help and endorsement of Suzuki's own 500cc World Champion. Roger DeCoster. The Suzuki School is unique among the other motocross schools in the country in that it is owned and operated by a major motorcycle manufacturer. Everything is included in the school from lodging and meals, transportation to and from the San Diego airport, to the student's choice of any displacement size Suzuki RM motocrosser for use at the .school. A complete course manual is given to each student for use during and after the school, covering all aspects of the course from riding techniques to motorcycle maintenance. rider trainin , health and ;,ro~r diet. Each regular school is three days long. and there are also special schools for minibike riders and advanced Expert rated riders. The regular school is more than tough enough for the majority of average or above average riders. Training and techniques taught in the Expert class are difficult enough that injuries can happen if a rider isn't skilled enough. so admission is restricted to riders with Expert ratings or those holding Professional competition licenses in AMA, CMC and so on. Tuition for the Suzuki School is only $150 and that covers everything. It's quite a bargain and the price hasn't gone up once in the school's four-year history. No accurate figures were available on what it actually costs Suzuki to put a student through the school, but a rough guess - considering all the operating expenses including the lease on Carlsbad Raceway, insurance, instructors' and mechanics' salaries. bikes. food and lodgings would put the cost around $500·600 per student. Suzuki is taking a big loss in running the school, but they feel the results in promotion and improving the sport are well worth it. Each school is limited to 20 studems so the two instructors will have time to work with each student individually and each school session is usually booked up some six months in advance. Staggering out of our rooms in the cool. grey light of morning we are met by our instructors; Wayne Boyer who now runs the school and Bob Elliott his Students spend lots of time rlStening and watching. not just riding aU the time_ assistant instructor. Both are Expert riders with Wayne a regular top-20 all the orange juice and low-fat milk finisher on the AMA National circuit them ";ere in high school and around we wanted. At no time ~uring the since the early 1970s, while Bob is a I 7 yeaTS old. It was surprising how hot southern California Pro who is one course of the school were we given eggs closed minded they were to many of U.S. Suzuki's main test riders when (the yokes of which contain too much things, particularly when it was meal he isn't at the school teaching. Blackcholesterol for the human diet), fried time. The majority of them would foods, foods cooked in grease, or red well left the school last year to take not eat anything served to them, while over the position as manager of Suzuki's meats which have an overly high fat some would leave whole meals uncontent. motocross team. touched. Bitching about the food beWayne and Bob load us up into the From breakfast. everyone piled back came a common occurrence. two school vans and drive us out to a into the two school vans and we were It looked like a student rebellion taken to the classroom a few miles hilly countryside area for a 2.5-mile might OCCllI at any moment, followed run. First we warm up with a short away. The classroom session runs beby an attack on the local McDonald's uphill walk and a series of stretches. tween 9 and 11:30 a.m. with a short or Pizza Hut. I wouldn't have minded Then we begin the run which isn't an break in between. On the first day, we sinking my teeth into a Double Cheese quickly brushed over the basics of all-out race to see who is quickest: but Whopper and let the grease dribble in Wayne's words, ..... to introduce motocross bike maintenance. The down my chin, munching on a fried you to the things you need to do on a second day, the topics changed to cherry pie or gulping a big Coke. But I regular basis to condition and train for proper exercise, diet and nutrition, had also come to the school to learn.·1t motocross." along with a visit to a Nautilus gymnawasn't long before I' was joining Returning to the vans after the run, sium next door for an introduction to Wayne and Bob in scavenging the unwe do another series of stretches to proper use of the equipment. eaten food off the students' plates. We never went hungry. but a lot of c1osedhelp keep us limber and prevent our Both Wayne and Bob would take minded students did since there was muscles from tightening up during the turns as well as assist each other in the never time in our busy schedule to day. The final morning of running at classroom instruction. There seemed sneak out anywhere else for food. school, Friday, is augmented afterto be so little time to cover every subThose who disregarded the proper wards with an hour's worth of exercises ject thoroughly and in detail; we were diet and training portions of the back at the classroom. Each exercise brushing over everything just so fast. It school, only to follow the riding or stretch is designed to beneftt a paJ'was becoming obvious that a three-day techniques taught, will neveJ' advance ticular part of the body used in motoschool was just too short to cover everyto the level of National Champions thing in detail. cross. like a Kent Howerton or Danny After our morning workout. we reThankfully, everything touched on LaPorte. Not because those students turn to the Quail's Inn to shower and lightly in the school was covered in won't know how to ride fast, but bechange for breakfast. It is at breakfast much more detail in the Suzuki School cause they la'ck the total dedication that the students receive the second inmanual used by each student during needed to become a top-level Nationaldication that the school is more serious the classroom sessions and then given caliber rider. than was expected. There was none of to them to 'take home afterwards. We went back to our motel rooms the typical eggs and bacon, buttered We would leave the classroom at after lunch to change into our riding toast and sausage breakfast faTe. Rath· 11: 30 for lunch back at the clubhouse gear and head out to Carlsbad Raceer. oT' the first morning, Wednesday, near the motel. Lunch the first day way, site of the American round of the we were treated to whole-wheat panwas a hot tuna fish sandwich with 500cc World Motocross Championships. melted low-fat cheese on whole wheat cakes and cups of fruit. The following For the students who had never seen morning the menu was Wheat Hearts bread and a salad. By the second day, Carlsbad Raceway before, except from (a hot Cream of Wheat-type cereal), Wayne's proper nutrition kick was in front of a television set, it was dry wheat toast and cups of fruit (in really becoming serious as we munched certainly a disappointment. .. baked water, not a sugar syrup). out on raw yegetables along with some adobe clay surface as hard as concrete The fmal morning, Friday, we had kind of barley soup. covered with a powdery dust to make it Grape Nuts cereal and the fruit cup Most of the students were young, a ain. Alon w~t crach· breakfast ~~s ••"'-. :tn~~~ith.,q~L _~e.pJi.Q.?);~f_~~ .~l,.

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