Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- I found th e rockers to be p leasant young people. No tattoos or leathers tu dde d clothes on th ese folk, a lthough they did favor lea ther ja ckets and som e sported flat-top, two-toned hairstyles. They usually found us in the cities an d rode a kind of unofficial escort service, cu tting in and ou t of our formati on . This seemed dangerous but since it didn 't cause incident, we just let it happen; we didn 't want to be rude visitors. In o ne sma ll vill age th e rockers performed wh eelies for us on the main hi gh wa y. Several members from a nearb y mental institution had read of o ur corning in th e local paper a nd took the bus to meet with us. We stood wi th them and laugh ed at the a nt ics as one of th e loca l rockers whe elied dragging exha ust pipes on the ground. The Rockers hold a place in pr esent Soviet society similar to the on e Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper showed us in Easy Rider. Nice kids having a good time being free on ' a mo torcycle. Soviet moto rcycle magazines? Well ; if yo u look past the ti tle " Beh ind the Wheel," you migh t find stories on motorcycli ng. I found a used boo kstore, and there, buried in a heap of periodicals, I found three magazines bearing thi s titl e. Of course I didn't kn ow it th en ; th ere were pi ctures of tanks, drag racers and motorcycles o n th e cover. I bought a ll three. Inside I found articles illustrated with photos a nd drawings of ice racers, muddy motocros s racers and, get this, a feature o n the RAD bik e - that swingarm front- ended , hydr aulically steered bik e which represents the leading edge of motorcycle technology. The Soviets kn ow what's going on in th e outside world ; th ey Just haven't figured ou t how to cu t through all the red tape to get things moving in the right direction inside. Maybe with tours such as o urs to dan gl e the carrot, progress will shed som e ru st and begin to move them in to a more co mmon future. O ur sch ed u le d id n o t p er rni t attending a race in the U.S.S.R. I know speed way seaso n was underwa y bu t saw no word of any events . Mo tocro ss h as been losing its popularity over the years, bu t th is was mostl y due to lack of orga nization a nd p rom o tion rather than increas ing problems with liability insurance suc h as.we face here. I spo ke wi th a man in Leningrad, where Guennad y Moisseev lives, a nd he told me tha t Moisseev has been very active in a you th program, sta rting a kind of little leagu e for young Soviet motocrossers. Riding in the Soviet Union " 40 Wh a t 's it l i ke ridi ng in th e U.S.S.R.? Dur ing our first da y ridi ng through th e beautiful Carpathian mountain s in the Ukraine and our last day riding north fro m Len ingrad to Vyborg, we experienced som eth ing ma ny of us take for granted - corners. Most of the rest of o ur tri p had been pretty mu ch str aig htup cruis ing on the Ru ssian system of hi ghways. By our standards, th ese roads wo uld hardl y be called hi ghways - th ey're usuall y two lan es, some times marked, so met imes not. T he road s are wid e a nd vary from region to regi on in both co mpos itio n and testure, So me Am er ican tour m embers comp la ined abou t three things during the trip - th e food, the hotel s and th e roads. As an adven turer I didn 't find any of th e three to be all that bad - the roads weren 't wh at we are used to but I' ve traveled worse right here inm y own country. I think 0 le have a tendan to Young rockers show "Hook 'em" sign prior to whee/ring for the tourists. com pare things with back ho me, but go ing over we all knew it wasn' t go ing to be th e same. By comp lainm g, people robbed them selves of th e p leasure of di scovery. I had a moment, a very sobering mom en t, of discovery o n our first day in the U.S.S.R. We had been held up at the border for fou r hour s. The su n was wani ng. I had o n a dar k shield and dark glasses. As the tour group moved through the first sma ll village, kids by the drov es shrieked a nd holl ered as we passed wi th America n flag flying from the lead bik e. My eyes fill ed with tear s at th e Russian reaction and I reached for my camera. I was looking through a po larizer filter wh ich mad e th ings even ha rder to see. Suddenl y, the Vespa of the rider in front of me , swerved and the lead bi ke also moved o ut of his lin e. I dro pped th e camera and gra bbed th e bar s, then cu t over to my righ t wh en I sa w th e cause of a ll th e fuss. A cow, head lowered right in m y lin e. H o w I mi ssed him, I' ll never know - but I learned righ t the n that it's a very di fferent place. I wo n dere d h ow kill in g a co w mom ents after ente ring the co un try might be viewed .. . Motorcycle thrills came from th e sma ll mom ents like the cow a nd th e sights a long the way. And especiall y the people. They were defini tely the hi ghl ight. Riding for th e th rill of hard co rn ering was reserved for the first a nd last days in the U.S.S. R. We did ride fast , thoug h, and had the thri ll of passing slower tra ffic wh ile stayi ng in formation. O ur average cross-co u ntry speed was a bout 110 kph (abo ut 68 mph). But we had to slow down fo r th e periodic GAl (Soviet traffic militia) stations. Us ua lly, th is wa s a little brick bu ildin g with windo ws, a tabl e and a telep hone connected to a large radio ante nna. The ante nna wou ld be a giveaway and whenever we'd see one, we' d slow and cra wl by a~ th e officer co unt ed our group an d call ed on to th e next stat io n. , This was, I think, th e on ly time we were wat ched. They tracked o ur movement to mak e sure we stuck to assigned roa ds. Twice, we had to stop while GAl "made note of our license numbers, but the y never interfered with us. And we always managed to get a sm ile out of the officers as we rod e by waving. It was fun to see them trying to be so stern then sudden ly break free with a sm ile. The roads took us over some lu sh plains skirted with thick forests. The co u n trys i de wa s beaut iful with greenery and quaint cabined villages. Though th e ro ads were stra igh t in nature, there were enoug h sigh ts along th e way to keep things interesting. If we were riding along and began to overta ke a blue strea m ing haze we'd usuall y find a smo king twostro ke on th e Ru ssian prowl with a rider who'd eye o ur pa ssin g with a quizzi cal look, often a friendly wave and some capped teeth flashing in th e su n. T he vill ages were an expe rience in th emselves and one of my favorite memo ries of th e trip. Peo pl e would co me from a ll direction s o nly sec o nds a fte r we' d hit tow n wo me n holding babi es, ch ild ren , working men and th e old war heroes who still wore th eir decorati ons on their large la pell ed coats. In 10 minutes th ere could be a couple of hu ndred peo p le sta ndi ng aro und our bikes, tal king q u ietly a mo ng themselves, poi nti ng and gingerl y to u chi ng th e strange ma ch ines. Often we were asked how much they cos t, th e n u m ber of cylinders, wa ter or air-cooled, a ll th e usua l vita l sta tistics. If langua ge p roved a probl em I sa w note boo ks us ed, o r p eopl e dra win g in the dirt to sho w po ints of interest. It ama zed me how well we seemed able to co mm unicate with the Ru ssian people usin g on ly th e most rudimentary form s of com m unica tio n. Ther e see me d to be a n easygoing trust a nd respect betw een th e So viet p eople a n d o ur to u r memb ers. The mot orcycles served as a grea t grass-roots tool for dipl om acy. There were no tour buses from wh ich to look dow n on these peo p le in an iso lated and unnoti ced o bserva tion mode. We rod e at eye level with th em and it o nly helped warm the welcome we received. . About the tour Wern er Watcher h atched th e brainchild of a Soviet motorcycle to ur. It too k ma ny hours of negotia tio ns, faxes a nd inf in ite niggling details. Edel weiss Bike T ravel (c/o Arm on k T ra vel, 146 Bedfo rd Road, Arm onk, NY 10504 800/255-7451, At tn : Linda Rosenbaum ) p ut toge ther a package wh ich leaves Munich , runs through Vienna th en a long the Danube to Budapest, Hungary, a nd the n into the Soviet Union for two weeks. The wh ol e package including renting a BMW KlOO, airfare, hotels and two meals a da y costs a little over $4000. Wat cher said he wanted to offer th e traveler a " un iq ue experience." Those words seem so hollow co mpared with th e feelings I found there a nd the memories I brough t back home. The timing for this tour was perfect. The Iron Curtain has lifted and Reagan had recently blazed a goodwill path to Moscow which left a welcome aftermath for American travel ers. The Soviet people really liked us and made it known. The tour provid ed three experien ced guides who took care of all th e details. Each on e of th em offered charm , social agility and a hearty ad mon ishment to enjoy . One recurring th eme I heard from o ur leader, Bruno, was " as you like it," indica ting th at they wo uld cha nge our schedu le to su it special interests. I was disappointed tha t we weren 't able to tour th e Min sk motorcycle factory but our gu ides substitu ted thi s with two other miracles for us - we were allo wed to wh eel to the Krem lin and photograph our bik es in Red Squar e, a request whic h had been co nsistently deni ed as " no t possible." A Soviet euphem ism for the term: forbidden . And we managed a short but eyebursting tou r o f th e H erm itage Mu seum, th e Czars' former winter palace in Len in grad, and now one of the premi er museums of art in the world. We were regularl y bri efed on what to expect and how to deal wi th facets of life we were unaccustomed to: gas co u po ns , m oney and p ersonal indulgen ces. The So vie ts p rovided us with Intourist guides. Sin ce our group was composed of both German and En gli sh spea king memb ers, we had an Intourist gu ide for each. These were both women wh o quickl y took to rid ing th e bikes with us. Instead of working for the Soviet govern m ent, th ey beca m e p art of our traveling od yssey and smoothed over any lan gu ag e barriers we met. The Intourist gui des work in ~ in concert with the 'Edelweiss guides pulled strings and provided us with what I m ust co nsider a n expanded package. Their effort s reall y heightened our experience. The days .were always long and so metimes ard uo us. We often rode from 9:00 a. m. to 7:00 p.m . and I wo uld yearn for tim e to kick back and collec t myself. But each day met wi th a new city as o ur destination a nd th e exci te me nt of di scovery provided fresh daily ad rena line. We sp lit our gro up of 30 into two, which elimina ted bunching at gas and food sto ps along the way. We would often leap-frog each other along th e way. We enco unte red rain. We were in our rain suits about half the days we rod e in th e U.S.S.R. This discouraged some but we had a schedule to keep and pressed o n rega rdless. That's th e Eu ro pean way. Accomodat ions, th ough some comp lained, were adeq ua te at worst and quite luxuriou s in o ther cities. Food seemed- to follo w th e same range. I lost weig h t, but felt that I ate well and enjoyed wha t I ate. We were never able, th ou gh, to get coffee until after the meal. Probably th e worst food hardship I recall. I'd al ways entertained the dr eam of a European Alp ine tour. But when th e idea of a tour of th e Soviet Un ion . - o n a motorcycle - arri ved, I just had to do it first. . This was a once in a lifetime ex pe rie nce and adv enture. But ma ybe one I'd love to try twice. Sure, parts were tough , but others, especially th e joy ous reaction of the Soviet people, made it all worthwhile. I dispelled many myths over there, took many pictures, and I hope to someday return todo more of the sam e - it's a pretty big place! I wonder how many tours I'd need to cross that great land? I think Werner is already a couple steps ahead of me. I hear he's got another tour set in the lower Ukraine, to Georgia and Tiblisi. I also hear there ar e more comers down there . . . •

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