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/126643
(Continuedfrom page 25)
Tile Great
Ellcape
tucopa. The cheeseburgers were delicious.
But so far , 99.44%of th e riding had
been done on the street, so it was a
welcome relief to head for the desigC(")
nated trails of Ballinger Canyon. A
00 welcome relief for everybody save th e
~
Treasurer, who found all three lines
...... of an uphill corner occupied by Mr.
~ Motocross, who had stalled the Kawa00 saki. Having lost the subsequent encounter with a rock, the Treasurer
~ ret ired back to the truck, wh ile th e
:;j others went on to attack the ridges.
After the crew had gotten suffi ~ ciently dirty , we backtracked on
Highway 33 and picked up th e d irt
road going through Quetal Canyon.
The support truck continued up 33
to Highway 166, and th ey would
mee t us near Mt. Pinos.
Quetal Canyon turned out to be a
bla st; gentle road leading up into the
scen ic mountains. Mr. Motocross was
going about 45 mph wh en he hit two
truly deep ruts, knocking out one
spoke on the Suzuki and dinging th e
rim. although the bike didn 't get out
of shape. That gav e us a ch an ce to
ca tch up, finding him adj ustin g th e
remaining spokes. All too soon, however, we ran ou t of dirt an d wer e back
on th e road, heading for Fraz ier Park.
Highway 166 through th e Mount
Pinos recreation area to Fraz ier Park
is very scenic riding. High a lt itude
carburetion troubles on a couple of
the bikes reall y gave us time to enjoy
it.
Wh en we gassed up at Frazier Park,
it was almost sunset and we still had
another 50 miles to Lancaster, our
second stop. These 50 mil es would
prove to be another drone, and again
we were amazed at the wa y Mr. Motocross was prepared for it. It was possi bly the first tim e in our motojournal ism careers that we'd seen a Sony
Walkman tape player headphones
being fitted inside a full -coverage
Simpson MX helmet.
Saturday night found th e gang
with 230 total mi les under th eir belts,
too tired to do anything more th an
wolf down some Mexican food and
retire for a ni ght 's sleep. T oo tir ed to
notice the hotel's jacuzzi and sauna
facilities. Rats!
(T o duplicate o u r journey, tak e
note of th e rou te descri bed on th e
text. Road bikes sho u ld follow th e
su p port truck path. T o get from Fraz ier Park to Lancaster, tak e Interstate
5 south to Highway 138, a nd follow
tha t eas t to Highway 14, wh ich goes
south to Lancaster.)
Sunday morn ing dawned bri ght
a nd su n ny again, a nd after an in determ in ate drone to cross th e desert
a nd get to Lucerne Valley , we wer e
ready for th e seco n d mounta in leg o f
o u r trip.
T he Trail Boss had p romised nothin g but easy trail on th e seco nd da y of
o u r tr ip, but we began to sus pect th at
some th in g was am iss wh en th e route
up th e mountain (the d irt bikes were
on th eir own again; the support truck
trav eling up Highway 18to Big Bear);
pa ssed very close to a bee farm , th en
a lon g a fence for a q uarter o f a mile
before the serious climb up the mountain began.
And ser ious it was. Ro ck , rock ,
more rock, sand and still more ro ck
co m p rised our climb. We all began to
wish for rea l dirt bikes with real
kn obby tires. The Treasurer dr opped
th e Suzuki several times, a n d in co ming to his aid at one time, Mr. Motocross nailed a rock a nd was sp it o ff
the Honda this tim e, thus causing th e
cry to ring from the mo unta ins,
"T h ree do wn. one to go!"
Nobody had ridden th is sectio n of
!l! . !ifl~