Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Results 1. Sim on Wigg (Great Brita in ) 25; 2. A. Poll ehn (Ge rmany) 20; 3 Cerd Riss (Ge r ma ny) 17; 4. Eg on Muller (Germany) 17; 5. Ales Dryml (Czech Republi c) 16; 6. B. Diener (Ger ma ny) 15; 7. M. Gerh a rd (Switzerland) 11; 8. Henke Gustafsson (Sweden) 9; 9. Kelvin Tatu m (GB) 9; 10. 50 Brhel (Czech Republic) 9. Cycle N sD Sport Jamboree ew ual By Tom Van Beveren BARTON FLA1S,CA,OCT. 2 ( , ith a rider count of just over 300, the Fifth Annual Cycle News Dual Sport Jambo ree will go down as one of th e most popular on - and offroad events of the year - at least in California . . Riders who tackled Sunday's exhilarating trails through the San Bernardino Moun tains will remember it as one of the most exciting ri des in r ecent - months, and fo r those who attended Saturday's rider seminars, it will also be remembered as one of the most educational. Riders began gathering for the Jamboree on Saturday afternoon at East Jenks Lake Loop campground, south of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. The seminars began shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Riders new to dual sporting took advantage of the "Dual Sport 101" seminar pr esented by Larry . Lan g ley, w ho had la id out Sunday' s course. Fineline Suspension's semina r covered the do s and d on'ts of sus pension tuning. KTM sho wed its latest lineup of du al sport equipment, and White Brothers presented a variety of products that could be added to a dual s po r t machine. When school was over, it was time for dinner - gallons of homemade chili, p repa red by Cycle News staffers and their spouses. Dinner was accompanied by conversation around the community camp fire - a rare sigh t in Southern California forests at the end of a long, hot summer. The permit for the fire came courtesy of the local Forest Service. The course was divided into two sections - a 72-mile trail from the start area to the lunch stop, and a 6O-mile stretch from lunch back to the campgrou nd, give or take a wrong turn or two. Both secti ons included two " ha rd way" routes. Each of the optional sections was rated for its difficulty so new riders could tell what they were letting themselves in for. The first hard way of the morning got a "difficult" rating, but the roll-chart notes said the only hazard was a short uphill. The explanation let novices know they could tackle the extra miles if they took along an experienced frie nd who could pilot their bik e on the u phill if worse came to worst. The second hard way of the morning, which featu red the area's famous John Bull Trail, was a little more serious. The sectio n earned a "very difficu lt" rating, and a specia l sign on the trail that read: " No BMW s, no KLRs, n o b ig bik es . Trust me, it's TOUGH! Expert level riders only!" The exci tin g ro lle r- co aste r ride through th e hill s p rovided pa noramic views of Lucerne Valley and Victorville. The trail here wasn't for the faint hea rted, and novice riders were well-a dvised to heed the roll chart's warnings. W World Long Track Championship Wigg gains fifth title By John Hipklss MARlANSKE, LAZNE, CZECH REPUBLIC, SEPT.25 nglish m an Simon Wigg rewro te the history books when he took a record-breaking fifth World Long Track title before 16,000 fans in Marianske Lazne. Before Sunday, Wigg was level on four wins with German superstar Karl Maier, b ut Wigg's win makes him the greatest long-track rider ever. But Wigg was competing on a Dutch racing license, and that's when the controversy began. Instead of playing the British nati onal anthem the Czech organizers insisted on playing the Du tch national an th em . This incensed Wig g w ho called out "Stop, stop, 1 don' t want it, 1 wa nt to hea r the Briti sh anthem," after he had received his winner's laurels. But his p rotest was to no avail, th e Dutch anthem finished and Wig g jus t had to stand and endure it. "The FIM President [os Vaasen told me the rule was that a ride r's na tional an them would be played at world finals, no t the licensing nation," Wigg sai d. "But th e orga nizers here went against that ru ling." Bu t nothing co ul d ta ke a w a y the enormity of his achiev ement. Wigg was so su perior on the day, he won his three E s: 0\ r-I 0\' r-I ~ "B u o 30 (Top) ApprOXimately 300 riders turned out for the fifth Annual Cycle News Dual Sport Jamboree held In the san Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear, California. Here, some of the rlders pause at one of the many resets. (Above) Great Britain 's Simon Wlgg scored a rec:ord-breaklng fifth World Long Track Championship at the Marlanske L.azne track in the Czech Republic. qualifying heats, his semifinal and the final. His biggest scare came in race five. He missed the gate badly and wa s in fou rth place on the first lap, but had pushed th rough effortlessly to second on lap two and first on lap three when the race was stopped because Robert Barth, the German rider, fell. It ha d beenWiggs finest race despite the red light , an d in the rerun he made amends by gating first and collecting five more valuable points for first place . "That was probably the ha rd est moment 1 had all day," Wigg said. "I had my best race after a bad start, and then the ra ce was stopped after three laps. Th at meant the engine was ve ry ho t and it had to do seven laps p ractically non-stop, which was a worry." Wigg's nearest challenger all day was Germany' s risi ng star, Andre Pollehn, w ho fi nished runner-up two points down. A run-off had to be held to split th.e next tw o Germans, former cha mpions Gerd Riss and Egon Muller, Muller the old est rider in the field at 46. Mul ler gated in front of Riss, but after a lap and a half, Riss sho t by Muller and held his lead to the finish flag. D The morning's run through the mountains took the riders past the Seven Oaks Resort area, across Clarks Summit and then into the outskirts of Big Bear Lake, where the y headed over the dam at the western end of the lake to Fawnskin. A ride through Ho lcomb . Valley took them to the two hard-way options, then it was timeJor a quick trip down graded roads to the lunch stop at Big Bear City , where Bj's, a local restaurant, offered a Dual Sporter Special - a monster hamburger or chicken sandwich , potato ch ips and as much soda as yo u could drink, all for five d ollars. Scott You nggren, KTM America's sales man ager for the western reg ion, who wa s participating in his first dual spo rt ride , said, "I'm not too fond of the dust, but the quality of the people that are out here, and the great cours e and the great scenery more tha n make up for tha t." Reid Libby, who was tac kling his firs t o rg anized dual sport event on a 1979 Honda XR500, said, "I've only been in the dirt seven or eight times before, so I'm pretty new to off-road rid ing, but I can see why people like this so much it's great." The afternoon's ride began with a circuit around the almost dry Baldwin Lake, just east of Big Bear. Then the riders headed down the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains to the next optional sec tion, which was described on the roll chart as, "Challenging: Rocky, one short downhill, fun trail." The roll ch art wasn 't kidding, and the five-m ile Vis ta Trail /Pinion Tra il section was the highli ght of the da y. The single-track tra il porpoised up and d own, then snaked back and forth through the trees. Th e trail demanded full attention, and the riders had to fight off the distraction of spectacu lar views of th e surround ing m ountains and dese rt. And just when they thought the fun trail was about to end, it got even better. The fina l quar ter mile of the section provided a series of bermed turns one after the other. A fas t road led to the second challenging section of the afternoon, which was made extra challenging by a lack of traffic. Many riders had chosen to give the late-in-the-ride hard-way section a miss, so those who did take the optional ro ute had to navigate the course with few tire tracks to help lead the way. Bull Funk, who traveled from St. George, Utah, to join the ride, found that spending $30 on a fancy roll-chart holder did no t ensure navigational success. Larry Woodruff, on the other hand, discovered that it was possible to follow the mileage instructions without an odometer. "My odometer broke right before the event, but if you read the roll chart and pay atten tion to the major turns, you can wing it," sai d Wood ru ff, who gui ded nine others, including six rookies, safely aroun d the course. The first riders arrive d b ack to camp abo u t 2:00 p .m., but most finished up between three and four. The main complaints abou t the ride focused on the un likely combination of dust and water. "The d u s t was p re tty b ad ," said Woodruff. "For me, the wa ter-crossing was too d eep ," said An ick Conrad, who fell in love with dual sporting at the Cycle News Jamboree two years ago . "The water in the morning was okay but the crossing just before the end was deep." D

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