Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.,...---- - -- FBI Trail Ride' Summe rs, Hawk ins, Tony Megla and Dale Stegall ponder Cumberland Falls, one of only two waterfalls in the world (the other's in South Africa) where one can s ee a "moonbow" on ce rtain nights. true nature. "It challenges you to get through. I just think it makes for a more fun, better rid e. "Th e techni cal sections, when yo u have a gr oup like that," he exp lains, "it kind of crea tes a planned bottleneck where everybody gets back together as a group. If y ou' re o n those f.ast, open qu ad trails, people like Scott Summers a nd Rand y Hawkins a n d those g uys start playing, and pretty soo n you 're 10 miles behind. Wh en it ge ts reall y tight and technica l and everybody' s got to stop a nd start u sing th e rope, everybody's going to be back in the gr oup." Megla put it more simply. "It was prob abl y the toughest' three d ays of riding I've ever don e !" he exclaimed. "Probably just the com plexity of the riding (made it so tough) - the situations, the leaves. For one thing, you never saw dirt the w ho le time; we never saw any dirt on the trails! All the ro cks and logs were kind of hid den und erneath th e leaves. That was the whole game to me - rid e 80 percent of your level until yo u ge t to the next obstacle. Then it was, Who can make it to the top of the next obstacle>,' or , 'How far can you throw you r bike?' The farther you can launch your bike, the less you'd have to carry it." Johnso n pu t it another way. "I considered it more of an expedition than anyt hing," he said. "You can't really call it a 'trail ride' - it was almost like a Lewis-and-Clark thing. When 1 came up to something technical. I treated it almost like a trials section, to see if I could get through. It's a litt le bit of a self-pride thing - to see if I could clean so mething that Randy Hawkins floun dered through. " Summers agreed . "This year, because of m y injury, I was being rea l careful," he 'sa id , "b u t normally, it' s not a race - it's a contest to see wh o can make it through a section:' he sa id. "Tha t's fun for me, because I can kind of sit back an d s tu dy it and then go ah ead a n d a tta ck it and se e what happens." To b e ho ne st, thoug h everyone grouses while doi ng the "01' heave ho," it's all a facade. No one rea lly despises th e work, a nd it a lso see m s to build camaraderie. "Yo u get to be really good frie nds with the sponsors, which in the lon g run I gu ess has a business ben efit, when yo u get on a first-name basis and become a personal frie nd:' Bram ble tt co nfesses . "It's hard not to be so mebody's frie nd when yo u' re on th e other en d of th e rope, pullin g the m and their bike up a draw, you kn ow ? But at the sa me time, it just reminds everybody why they got int o the industrv to start with: It wasn't or for th e money - th e prestige or a nything else - it was because they loved rid ing d irt bikes ." BACK TO BASICS For th ose who are aro und them all th e ti me, d ir t bike s a n d r a ci n g can become a job, like any other occu pa tion. The FBI Trail Ride provides the oppo rtu ni ty for a select few to get back to the basics of riding and rediscover its joys. "I just love going with Fred and Scott and those gu ys:' Johnson proclaims. "It gets you out of reality for a while - no phones, TVs or anything. They make it thri lling, too. There are unknown obstacles that can jump ou t in fro nt of you. It's a total test of mind, bod y and bike. It's fu n to have that camaraderie, too . It's just too much fun ." 'That was my first time on the ride, and it was probably the best trail ride I've eve r been on, " Hawkins says enthusiastically. "I was really shocked a t the trails. Most of the time, when you go on a tra il ride, you could drive a four-wheeler or Jeep a round it. Me , - - -- - ---, TRA ILRID E coming from SETRA and end u res, rid in g in technical, gnarly stuff is kind of fad ing out a little bit else w here. It was so much fun for me, I cou ld' ve kept rid ing. I just hope my name's on the list for next year. " 1 completely enjo yed myself," he continues. 'That was another thing that I was gla d to see: that we weren't overhosted, I guess. We d idn't have to stay in no Holid av Inn ; we staved in ru stic lodges and hung out , like at Earl's place, shot pool. It was kind of, like , to me, that this is what rid ing with your budd ies should be like - benc h-racing, having good food ." Cha nces are you may not ge t an invitation for the eighth an n ua l FBI Trail Rid e. Howe ver, w ith so me p lanning, t h ere' s no re as on yo u co ul d n' t g e t together with som e frien ds and do your own ve rsion . H ow abo u t a Charlie ' s f~ Ida ho- At-Night Trail Ride? Three days on the '98 Honda XR250R By Mark Kariya B y and larg e, most of the motorcycle press overloo ks Ho nda's XR250R. The reason for this is that most of the ent~usiast media islocated in ,Southern California, and, to be honest, there .aren t many places 10 good 01 SoCal where an XR250R is very exciting. . To really appreciate the bike, you need to spend time in Easte~n-style terrain. When it's rainv, cold and miserable, and all you see ahead IS fallen leaves, the occasional green rock and a tunnel through the trees, the XR250R quickly becomes your best friend . For '98, it's got the requisite bold new graphics, but there are also a couple more changes. Most visible is the m uffler, now styled like the one on the XR400R. Honda also claims the subfra me is stro nger, and tha t checking the oil is quicker due to an . oil-pump mod. We tried one of the new 250s on the FBI Trail Ride; the only de tails separating It from box stock we re the Summers-style hand guard s and Pirelli tires. When the trail turned gna rly and technical. we decided that the "unex citing" XR250R was the perfect weapon. It permitt ed a rid er of aver age weight and ability to motor thr ou gh instead of getting stopped cold due to rebou nd ing unexpec ted ly off a rock or uselessly sp irming the rear tire with a su dden hit of power. That's du.e .precisely to the soft, com pliant suspe nsio n and mild ly tuned engine . ~ou ~eed to hit huge air or A-rider speeds in big whoops before finding a .sho rtco m1Og 10 ~he su.spension. And when traction's scarce, "mild" keeps you mOVIng. All the restnctors 10 place d id, however, make the powerplan t stu mble at the high end of the midrange. The most glaring id iosy ncrasy turned out to be starting, which was so meti mes hit-or-miss, no matter whether it was hot or cold. That's the only time something like a KDX220R came to mind. We al so sa m p led a few miles aboa rd a 250 with a 280cc b ig-bore kit and Yoshi mu ra exhaus t that Summers pu t together . It felt like it had mor e com press ion, requiring a slig htly gentler throttle ha nd wh en the go ing go t tricky. But the added grunt and mid range made it much easier to lo ft the frorit end, and even made the stock suspension feel better. It was only on the loud side. In ad di tion, we tried a 250 that had been jetted richer after having th e exhaust res o n a to r and airbox snorkel removed . It proved to be noticeably stronger than the stock XR, not quite as meaty as the 280, and barked a decibel reading somewhere between stock and the Yosh pipe. (We wo uld've liked to have seen how a turned -down ex haust tip like those from Thumper Racing managed power and noise output.) After three days of both casual and intensive, technical riding, we came away with newfound respect for the XR250R. Now we know why Honda contin ues to sell them: They work well for some of the to ughest tra ils aro u nd by being easy eno ug h for a beginner to learn on . Scott Summers somewhat dwarfs the XR250R but, unofficially, he' s found he goes faster on it in tight woods than on his 600. The 250 is supereasy to rlde and has woods-focused suspension. Updates for the '98 are the muffler, 011 pump and a stronger subframe. 17

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