Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

':D Y'S A IX:' . By Kn Palmer m really beginning to wonder about all these Baja horror stories I've heard over the years . I'm sure you've heard them, too. You know, the y usuall y go so me thi ng like th is: "There we were " minding our own business when all of a sudden these cop s pull us over, an d for no reason at all, they give us a hard time, an d the next thing we know they throw us in jail." Of course, they forget to tell you the part how the y were sp eeding along at 90 mph in their shiny new dualie truck, load ed .to the hil t with $5000 motorcycles; how they had given the cops a hard ti m e, ins u lted them , and act ed as though th ey were rich Americans who owned the place. N ow d on 't get me wrong, I' m not saying tha t there aren't any corrup t police in Mexico - or in the U.S., or in any other cou ntry for that matter - b u t they' re not all bad. And not all of these horror stories involve the "Federales," either. "Wa tch out for the locals," I was always warned. "They'll steal anything tha t isn't tied down ." Like I don't ha ve to worry about tha t in Cali fom ia?Or Ne w York ? Or anywhere else in the world? It was talk like this that scared me away fro m rid ing in Baja. But I didn't know an y better. Look ing back, I now realize th at I wasted many yea rs of would-be awesome trail- rid ing time by listening to these people and the ir ho rror stories. "Why would anyone want to go to Mexico, much less ride there?" I thought. Now, however, abou t 10 y ears after my first trail-riding ad venture in Mexico, m yoid thoughts ha ve ce rtai nly ch anged . I am b y no m eans a Baj a "exp ert" or a Baja "know-it-all," but, I for one, have never experienced an y of these grim ta les : instead, m ostly the opposite. I m u st ad m it th a t I' m not all that craz y abou t some of th e bigger bord er towns, su ch as Tiju ana, Mexicali and Ciudad Juarez (El Paso), but anywhere south of those cities is just fine with me. It's here, d eep in th e heart of Mexico and Baja, w he re I've expe rienced so me the best riding terrain ever, and ha ve m et some of the nicest and frie ndliest people. And some of these people I've met at odd times . A few years ago, I was riding my night section during the Baja 1lXX). I was having the tim e of my life, chasing my headlights. thr ou gh the darkness, my entire world focussing on these tiny, reflective, course marking tapes tied to the chaparral bushes that lined the two-track dirt roads. I had alre~dy rid d en over 150 miles and had another 50 miles to go before handing the bike over to one ofmy teammates. Up ahea d, I could pick out smalIlighis and a couple of bonfires, It 's co mmon k n owled g e to slow down when you see specta tors standing in the m iddle of nowhere during th e Baja race , or any off-road race for that matter. Usuall y, they've ga ther ed around so me kind of obstacle on the course. If it's not a natural obstacle, then these spectators have mo st likely fab ricated some kind of jump or bump in the co u rse, hoping to see the bikes catch some air. Usually, all in harmless fu n. The obstacles are commonly referred to by the ride rs as "booby traps," because the build ers don't realize th at good launch pads need to be constructed at least th e length of the mo to rc ycl e' s wheelbase, otherwise the bike will cartwheel end-over-end when they hit these "ju mps" at speed . Anywa y, I backed off the throttle as I approached this crowd of Me xicans. Once that I had de termined everything was safe, I began looking down the dirt road to pick up the reflective ribbons again, and just as soon as I had opened up the throttle, I found myself kissin g my XR's fron t fender w ith th e face of my helmet, as the back tire sho t straight up in the air . Ground-sky, ground-sky, is what I remember ne xt. All of a sud d en it was real quiet and d ark, and I could har dly breathe. I was lying on my back and when I opened my eyes I saw w hat seemed li ke hu ndred s of eyes peerin g down at me - my helmet light was still wo rking . I thought, 'Those bastards got me - a frigin ' booby trap ! How stupid of me to no t see it." But to my surprise, the Mexican spectators seemed d o wnr ight co nce rned about my health. They helped me to my feet and dusted me off.'I looked around for my bike in the darkness and found that some of the spectators had already p icked it up a nd were repairing the nearly shea red -off front headligh t with black electrical tape. I kind of jus t sa t back a nd wa tched as I was trying to learn how to breath again. In - out , in out. I tried kick-sta rtin g my big XR628 bu t it just refused to fire. Some of the spec tators held my bike so I could stand on bo th pegs and get a more efficie nt kick . Nothing. I was exhausted at th is point, and sweat ing profusely. Finally, the Mexicans offered to push-start my bike in the d eep sand. A group of them pushed and pushed until the bike finally lit, and with it came a loud cheer from the crow d. Just as I was about to take off back d o w n the tra il, I felt someone pulling a t my arm - it was on e of th e Me xicans holding out my brand new spare goggles that had ripped ou t of the r ea r fende r pack when I cr a sh ed. I thought, "Thieves? Yeah, right. " As it turned out, it wasn't a booby trap th at had caused m e to crash, instead , I had hit a small bush on the lip of a dirt road tha t I hadn't seen - 100% my fault. At -th at sa me race, one of ou r guy s d riving our team' s su pport truck was involved in a nas ty head-on accident on th e road between Ensenada and San Vicente. Nob od y was seriously injured, thou gh the tw o people in the other car did su ffer broken bones, cuts and bruises. Our guy was, as expected, imm ed iately hauled off to jail, and once it was d et erm ined tha t the accident was jus t that - an accident - and tha t he had all the corr ect insurance pap ers he had purchased at the bord er for $38, everything was han d led swiftly an d effortlessly. In fact, he wo un d up ha ving dinner with the family of the people he'd hit, the following nig ht, they too realized that it had been just an unfortun ate in ci d ent and there were no hard feelings or lawsu its filed, for that matter. After dinner, th ey even had a beer or two at Hussongs. And then there was the time that my wife, The resa, and her good fr iend , Renee, took one of their periodic wee ken d trips to San Felipe. Th is ti me, th oug h, they had borrowed a frie nd 's car who had forgotten to tell them about the car' s broken fuel gauge. Stranded on the side of the d esert ro ad about 20miles no rth of San Felipe with a boned ry gas ta n k, my wife and her fri end bega n flaggi ng d ow n passer s-b y for help. Ov er a n hour later, no on e had stopped. The y said mo st of the people d riving by were Americans heading to San Felipe for the Easter Holiday with ATVs and motorcycles in the back of the ir vehicles. Some of -them drove by hanging out th e w ind ow, hollering at them whil e holding out cans of bee r. It was getting dark and they were getting a little scared and had nearly given up hope, when a car with two Mexicans in it - going the opposite direction - turned around and stopped . After a short discussion, they pulled a can of gas out of their car's trunk and poured the entire contents in to the empty car. My wife offered to p a y fo r the g as, b u t the "local s" wouldn't accept it. Instead, they jus t sm iled and wa ite d until my wi fe and her friend were safely on their wa y. I could go on and on about friend ly Mexican hospitality. It's just too bad all you hear about are the bad things - the horror stories - but, very rarely, any of the good stuff. Mexico is really no d ifferent than any o ther p la ce, and th e Mexican people a re no d ifferent than anyone else. They w ant to be trea te d wi th respect and courtesy, just like you and me. You know, "Do Unto Others..." I just w ish I hadn' t was ted so many years spend ing my weekends riding in my local hills when I could've been having a much better time roosting around down in Baja . I've go t some se r ious c-; catching up to do . I · ~·O OKING. BACK.'.• I 25 YEARS AGO... October 14, 1969 oad racer Steve McLau ghlin . wa s fea tured on the cover of Issue #39, staring in disbelief at hi s Yamaha TZ 350 which caught fire during a race at Orange County International Raceway...Mert LawwiII became only the thi rd rider in the ll-year history of the Ascot National to win the race more than once. Lawwill, who had recently won the Grand Na tional Cha mpionship, topped Gene Romero in the 2D-lapper. Dav id Aldana won the A m a te u r final...88 5 riders competed in the Jackass National Enduro in Red Mountain, California...Mike Runyard, Dave Sm ith an d Carl Cotton all won races at Saddleback Park ridin g American Eagles...BeI- R gium won the Trophy des Nations, held in Kest er , Belgiu m , with Joel Robert, Roger DeCoster and Sy lvain Geboers giving the team its first win in 19 years ... 1 5YEARS AGO... October10, 1 79 9 an d y G o ss w o n the las t AMA Grand National Champ ionship event of the decade as he took 5YEARS AGO... over the lead four laps into the race to " ' , ' I October4, 1989 WIn the Ascot Half ..··· "... dd ie Laws o n was Mile. Goss topped Mike Kidd and featured on the cover Gary Scott w ith Ric k y G raham and Ste ve Ekl und rounding out the top five. of Issue #39 in 1989 after winning his fourth The Junior Invitational race was won by Gene Church ove r Jeff Haney...Texan 500c ~ W~rld Champ ion shtp With a secon d Kent Howerton won the second round place finish in the Brazilof the Trans-USA Series, held in R ian Grand Pri x. The Grand Prix w as won b y Team Pe psi Suzu ki 's Kevin Schwantz wi th Lucky Strike Yamaha's Wayne Rainey finishing third. Lawson bea t Rai ney b y 17.5 points... D amon Bradshaw won the 125cc Na tional MX a t th e Broom e-Tioga Sp orts Center in Bin ghampton, New York, w hile Jeff Stanton came out th e w inne r of th e 500cc cl ass... Eng la n d won a crashmarred Team Cu p Speedway Championship in Bradford, Eng la nd, beating Denmark and Swed en, wit h the American team finishing fourth. Erik Gunif F ':. :·:· ·:.. ..·.. . dersen suffered neck and spinal ._~ '.Jj:Jj injurie s in a ho rrific four-rider '('o r/d ChQmpi~" ~ crash in the first heat...Raymond Roche woo both legs of the G&. ~ man round of the Wo rld Su per. . . bike Championship, held at Hockenheim. Belgian Step hane Mertens . continue d to lead the Worl d "'':5;::::.;:;;;:..~-, Ch.ampionship, bu~ onl~ by three ._,::::;"0-.;.,....:;-... pomts over Californian Fre d -7'- Me rkel... Buchanan, Michigan , beatin g Mike Bell an d Andre Malh erbe...Associate edi tor Jim Gianatsis took a test ride on Graham Noyce' s World Ch a m p io nsh ip winning Honda RC-450-79 motocrosser ...Jimmy Fili ce and Chris Carr we re big winners at" the Salinas, Californi a, quarter-mile' di rt track. Filice wo n the 250cc Exp er t class and Ca rr d id likewise in th e 85cc Expert class ...Doug Polen wo n both the 410 Cafe and 655 Cafe classes in road racing action from Bryan, Texas... E M -, iii'""-.,: . t'- : U > /!;~;:."

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