Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Oh~ rhe 6rorie6 we couldrell By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones was strange. No r ma lly at se ve n o 'cloc k o n a wee kday m ornin g , I wo u ld be do uble-loopi ng the shoelaces o n my Reebok ten nis shoes and sifti ng th rough by close t searching for an un wrinkl ed shirt, respectable . eno ug h for a nothe r day a t the office. Bu t th is time I was tig hten ing the last bu ckl e o n m y Gaerne boo ts a nd adjusting the shi n guards inside my n ylo n mot ocro ss pa nts . By seven-f ifteen , I was turn in g o ut o f m y dr ivew ay o n m y Yam ah a XT 600 du a l-purpose mo to rcycle, the same mod e of transportation tha t's carried me to work every day for th e past fou r months. But in stead o f turn in g rig h t a t the first stoplig h t and merging wi th the usu al hea vy flow o f traffic heading into th e big ci ty, I turned left. T he ro u ti ne had been bro ken a nd th e adve nture had officia lly beg u n. It 4 •••• •• J> There hasn 't been a tim e in anybody's life th at they've, a t least once, tho ugh t to th em selves, " I've jus t got to get away." J ob p ressure, traffi c a nd th e never -endin g battle-of- thebills ar e just some of the everyday hassles th at most of. us experience. Unfort u nately, a ll too many people thin k that "getting away" from . a ll th is' mea ns expensive p la n e tickets, far -away places , lots o f time o ff fro m work and hours of advanced pla n n ing. But ge tti ng aw ay doesn ' t have to be th at comp licated. T hat is, o f course, if you own a dua l-purpose, or wha t is no w mor e com mo n ly referred to as a " d ua l-sport " mot orcycle. Dual -sport rid ing can be your Eticket to gell ing away. It 's easy, exciti ng , a nd a few days of rid ing can be as mu ch fu n as a week-long vacati on to some tropical island. And not o nly is dual-sp ort rid ing fu n , but it' s a n in expen sive way of blow ing o ff a co up le of days . •••••• Ren dezvous time was eigh t o'clock T uesday morning a t my folks' house . in Redlands. From there, the six of us wo u ld. spe nd the next two days exploring paved and unpaved roads o n Mt, Sa n J acinto , located just 30 miles eas t o f Redl ands a nd bordering t he p o sh resort tow n o f P alm ' Sp ri ngs. No ne of us were too fam iliar with th e mounta in, making it th e per fect " gett ing away" locat ion. T he p lan was to ride. a ll da y Tuesday, event ua lly ending u p · in Pal m Springs, befo re contin uing to dis cover ne w tra ils o n the moun ta in o n our ret urn tri p th e foll o win g day . First to arrive T uesday morning (and right o n tim e, I might add) was Kinney Jones , who was riding a Yam ah a XT350 . U n fo rt u na tely , Kinney recentl y brok e his co lla rbo ne, but he still in sisted on go ing wi th us a nd carr ied " SOpounds" (his est ima te) o f ca mera eq ui p me nt on h is back. T hen th e "road race spec ia lists," Brian Ca tterson a nd Pau l Carruthers , d rov e up with a Kawa saki KLR6 50 a n d a Hond a XLV600 T ra nsa lp in the back o f a truck. Alth ou gh both of them are more fam il iar with buzzin g aro u nd road race tracks or twi sty mountain road s o n spo rt bikes, the two were willin g to cha llenge so me o f the dirt road s wi th th e m ore o ff-m ad-or ie n ted riders - Kinney, Nate Rauba and m yself. Nat e, wh o showed u p rid ing the smalles t di splacem ent bike of th e group, a Kawasak i KLR 250, tak es pride in hi s mo tocro ss ability, while I'wo uld rat her be out riding end uros or ha re and hound races . The last of th e grou p to show up was Torn Van Beveren , riding a BMW RI O G S Paris-Dakar. He had O a lready been rid in g an hour and a hal f on th e freeway to meet us. Tom's a vetera n desert racer who now spends man y o f hi s weekends partici pati ng - in organi zed dual -sport rides. Our ride , on th e o ther hand, was fa r from orga ni zed. All we had pl anned was where a nd whe n to meet a nd a gene ra l idea o f wh ere we were going. Beyond th at , it was a ll " see wh a t hap pens." Wh en we offi cially hit the road, we had a wid e vari ety o f riders aboard a wide vari ety of motorcycles. But we a ll had one thin g in com mo n - we were ge tti ng away. •••••• The first thing I noticed was the sm ell. The aroma o f burning rubber,

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