Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.D ALS O T·ide. Series Final Round: L.A.-to-Barstow-to-Vegas U PR · . A MAlSuzuki National Trail R ---~----- With almos t 550 miles in two days , the L.A.-to-B-to-Volfers plenty of saddle time, but 365 riders tho ught it soun ded like fun. reason to et an u By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren LAS VEGAS, NV, NOV. 25-26 o someon e on the outside looking in, the Los An geles-to-Barstow-toLas Vegas dual sp ort ride could only be described as lunacy. Th e tw o-day rid e is 547 mil es long - more than double the distance that most people consider even vagu ely comfortable on the seat of an off-road -oriented motorcycle. The ride takes place on Thanksgiving weekend , 50 the miles are eve n longer, thanks to biting cold wind s, rain and sleet - even snow in the higher elevations. And the discomfort is made worse still by the sho rtness of the late November days, which hav e many of the riders starting and finishing in the dark, as well as the cold . There are tw is te d an kles , tweake d sho ulders and head-to-toe bruiseS. There are flatten ed tires, broken fenders and the occasional blown eng ine. Hotel bills, gas bills and a long drive home in rott en holid ay traffic afterwards... So wh y are all these people smiling? To those on the inside, L.A.-to-B-to-V is ec s tas y . The mil es m e an fu n a nd ad venture. The cold and d ar k provide an extra challenge . The bumps and bruises are worn with pri de like a Purple Heart, and the bills increase the cama raderie by provid ing some thing else that the riders have in common. Thi s Thanksgivin g's 11th annual run n in g o f th e L.A.-to-B-t o-V du al s p ort rid e d rew a total o f 365 riders. They ra nge d in age from six to 73, and cam e fro m as far a way as Flo rida and England . So me were old -t imers who h ad ta ckl ed e very event s in ce th e ride' s in ception; so me w ere newcom ers, wh o spent th e firs t h our or tw o wondering w ha t on earth the y had go tten th emselves inv olved in. But by the end of the ride, they were T ~ 0\ 0\ rl ~~ rl ;.., ClJ ..0 E ClJ u ClJ c 10 all wearing the same tir~d but satisfied smile . "It's hard to say wh at I like best abou t it. There's so much that I like, plus I'm worn ou t right now and I don 't feel like thinking," sa id Ala n Biggs, who compl et ed th is year' s co urse on a Su zu ki DR250 - a vast improvem ent ov er th e Vir ago he u sed in 1992 and .last year's 250cc street bi ke . "There 's some gre at sce nery - like the rai nbow canyo n ju st past Barstow w ith all the d ifferent-colored rock s. It' s also a real cha llenge to see if you can do all the mi les, becau se it's long, and yo u meet a lot of grea t people. I think it' s p rob ably the best eve nt · I've rid de n." Th anksgi vin g ' s turkey was ba re ly d igested wh en the rid er s leaped ou t of bed before dawn on Frida y morning for the start of the first day's ride . Check-in opened at 6 a.m. at Dick Allen's Yamaha /Honda /Kawasaki / ATK in Newha ll an d, w ith 231 mil es to go, most of the dual sporters were on the road before 7 a.m. In stru cti ons on th e roll ch a rt led s tra ig h t up in to th e An ge les N ation al Fores t. The vie ws from the .tops of the rang es w ere s p e cta cu la r but so me unlucky rid er s we re less impressed by the patches of ice that hid in some of the high-elevation corners . The ice took down the spo tless light blue BMW RlOO piloted by first-time GS L.A.-to-B-to-V rider Terry Hopkins, who ro de his bi ke to the eve n t fro m Sie rra Vista, Arizona, and planned to ride home again afterwards . "I dropped the bike thr ee times," said Hop kins. "O nce on ice, once in gra vel, and the third time, I oversho t a curve and d ro pped the bike tryi ng to ge t it back over th e berm o nto the ro ad . It wa s a grea t rid e, th ou gh, an d I h ad a reall y good tim e. It was a bit tou gh er th an I th ou ght it was goi ng to be, but people told me the course was actually a bit easier than it's been other years, so I feel for- tun ate I chose this one. I'v e been meaning to do it for a whi le." The early going included a number of gated sections tha t are norm ally off-limits to the publi c, and a run along Angeles Cres t Highway that wa s followe d by a plunge do wn the side of the mountain ran ge to Upland . "Jus t p a st Ne wcom b' s Ran ch , w e dropped down a long road . It was tight an d tw isty, reall y tight turns, an d off camber so I couldn' t put my foot down," said L.A.-to-B-to-V veteran Bob Tartter. " I wou ld ' ve sa id there w as too much road, but there reall y wasn 't for me. I mu st be out of shape because I was read y for a rest." Bill Johnson's ride cam e to a sud den end before he reached Upland. About 50 mil es ou t of the first ga s stop at Littl e Rock, Johnson tou ched wh eels with riding partner Dick Allen and disappeared over the edg e of a cliff. "Dick did it. He'll do anything to sell parts," Johnson joked, but the accide n t was anything but a laughing matter. "Th e bike end ed up about 100 feet down the cliff in a wrinkled-up ball and it took me 20 minutes to craw l ba ck up. I' ve go t big bru ises but (' m wa lkin g around: ' said Johnson , who rode ou t of the sectio n on the ba ck of his buddy' s mount. "We'll go back and get the bike in the next week or tw o - or next spring if it snows." Problems a little less complicated than those faced by Johnson were solved by suppo rt personne l sent along by American Honda and Suzuki, who did everything they could to help the dual spo rters no matter what they were ridin g. Hond a ' s Ch u ck Miller came to th e rescue of Suzuki pilot Dean Kako when his DR350 was knocked over by another rider at one of the gas stops. . • "The ba rs w ere com p le te ly bent. I co uldn ' t believ e it ," s a id Ka ko, w ho grabbed a repl a cement se t ou t o f the Honda truck. "I' ve had this bike for ages and never changed the ba rs - they were originals." The fun continued as the miles flew by. Old-ti mers rediscovered some of the trails used in prior years and newcomers, like Texa n, Terry Ellstro m.ydiscovered so me Sou thern Califo rn ia riding tricks for the very first time. "This is way differen t from what we rid e aro u n d Hous ton," said Ellstro m. " It's real ma rb ley. If you run too much pressu re in yo u r tires, wh ich I think I di d, you slide around too much. And if you don't have eno ugh, it's easy to rimcu t a tire. I d on ' t kn ow what the best nu mber is. I'll jus t keep experimen ting." Th e trail moved fro m th e An geles National Forest in to the San Bernard ino N ation al Forest and then hit the desert floor near Hesperia for a long run along Stoddard Well s Road to th e overn ight stop in Barstow. Conscious of the long mileage and the short d aylight, most of the riders kept a steady pace all day and some of the frontrun ners reached check- in at Bar stow' s Holida y Inn shortly after 2 p.m. Slowe r riders and those wh o had suffered minor problems stragg led in a little later, while gro ups tha t had su ffered major problems and signi ficant downtime faced the entire dese rt section in the dark. Tem per atu res drop ped sharp ly when the sun set and a gu sty wind added an extra chill to the air. Many of the finishers kept the ir helm ets on for warmth as they walked into the hotel to check in, bu t even thr ough a full-face helmet, their tired smiles we re obvious . "We we re having way too much fun. You can't help but break into a chorus of ' On An y Su nd ay ' w he n you' re go ing do wn Stodda rd Wells Road side by side. We were si ngi ng a n d h on king ou r horns," said Roy Coe, w ho se 1978-ish Yamaha mon grel is a familia r sig h t at L.A.-to-B-to-V. "This is the seventh event it has done, and it has a twin.now - ano ther mix-andmat ch b ike we built ou t of th e trash," sa id Coe. "Th ey p ro ve th at you don't h ave to spend $8,000 on a b rand-new bike to h ave a good time dual sporting, and they work better than more expensive bikes. We were rid ing wit h a friend on a 600cc Honda this morning. It blew up early in the day an d I mean, it really b lew up . Parts came flyin g ou t of the engi ne." Harry Brat tin broke the fra me on his BMW before he reached the end of day one, but the only damage his ridin g partner did was to the knob s on his rear tire. "The only way you can ride this thing in the tight stuff is to gas it. You have to wo rk it thro ugh the turns or the weight will get you:' sai d Larkin Wight, as he surveyed the missin g row of kn obs in the midd le of his BMW RllOOGS's rear tire. "The rocks just ate the knobs up." The rid ers were up before dawn for the second day in a row on Saturday, and the stormy clou ds, brisk wind and occasional drops of rai n th at g reeted them we re far from encourag ing. Des pite the gloomy d awn and temper atures in the low 40s, most of the riders opted to start as soo n as they could and were on the roa d shortly a fter check-in ope ned at 6 a.m, Day two's 316-mile jou rney wou ld be even longer than the trek they had faced the day before, and the course, which ran through Death Valley National Park and followed narrow corrid ors through other envi ronmentally sens itive desert ar eas, ca lled for extr a ca re and so me s trict . spee d limits.

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