Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"My_son got me into it. He's up ahead somewhere, and I hope he's waiting for me:' said Richardson halfway through the day. "It's great and I'm having a lot of fun, but I'm 62 and I'm a bit tired. I've just got to go a little slower than the rest of the guys, that's for Ride For Kids dual sport sure." The course presented unique challenges for sidecar pilots such as Mike Braverman, who was riding with his 8year-old son Robert. "We got stuck one time in the snow and had to have a couple of people help push us out, and we couldn't take the single-track, but we're having a great time:' said Braverman. "We're just trying to keep up." Longtime off-road fiders such as Red Austin found fun in all the memories that the course brought back. "The hard-way section was a real remembrance of a lot of old trails that I used to ride 30 years ago. That was very enjoyable:' said Austin. "This is only my second dual sport ride. It makes me want to do more." "It was a great ride for everybody," said Tom Diaz, who tackled the course on a 1985 Honda XR350. "It had all different levels and, except far the snow in some spots, it was pretty easy to stay on the road. I've only been riding a year - and a half, and I had a blast. It's beautiful riding out here, and rides like this make you want to come back and do it more often.'" ex By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren SAN BERNARDINO, CA, MAR. 15 Ual-sporters don't need a good reason to go riding, but they found a number of very good reasons to ride at this year's Southern California Ride For Kids dual sport event. The number-one reason was to raise funds to help the fight against pediatric brain tumors. The 200 dual-sporters who gathered at Glen Helen Regional Park raised almost $40,000 to help fund research to find a" Cure for this tragic childhood illness. "This is a great cause, and w.e're totally dedicated to raising money for it," said Larry Langley, whose club - the Orange County Dualies - contributed almost half of the money tha twas raised. "We raised over $17,000 and we're still going. We did a candy sale, a garage sale, a raffle - we're raffling off a Honda XR400 - and we had a giant parking-lot sale yesterday. We believe in this and want to do everything we can to help the kids." The ride got off to a late start thanks to a round of speeches that included words from the event organizers, the mother of a child with a brain tumor, a doctor who treats brain tumors, and employees of American Honda, which helped to sponsor the event and provided a, pancake breakfast. The speeches, along with the presentation of the check, combined to make the riders' meeting last almost two hours, and the dualsporters were champing at the bit by the time they hit the trail around 11 a.m. Once they were moving, however, the participants found another good reason to attend the Ride For Kids: a fun COurse that took them on a'100-mile jaunt through the San Bernard.ino Mountains and the high desert near Victorville. Adventurous riders began their day with a lap of the Glen Helen motocross track and a blast through a portion of the Prospectors Grand Pr·ix course. They then joined the rest of the field for a romp up a sandy wash that led north into the foothills. "1 got off to a bit of a rough start in that damn sand wash, let me tell you, but once I got out of there, everything else seemed like a piece of cake," said Danielle Cohn, who was tackling the fifth ride of her dual sport career on a Yamaha XT225. "Last year when I did this ride, it was the first dual sport ride I'd ever done, and I couldn't make it all the way - I had to cut off a section. This year I'm aiming to do the whole thing." Like many of the repeat riders, Cohn was in for a bit of a surprise. Instead of the novice-friendly course of years gone by, three-quarters of an inch of rain the day bj'fore the ride had turned a slightly-tougher-than~usual course into a real challenge in .spots. There were mud puddles to contend with, slippery downhills and, in a first for many of the Southern California riders, a 3-mile section of snow. For John Smith, a three-time dual sport rider who had a kidney transplant back in August, the ride was a little D more challenging than he had hoped it would be. "This was pretty gnarly compared to the other two rides I did. I was messing with the roll chart, trying to get a cramp out of my right hand and, boom, that was it," said Smith, who went off the side of the trail and slid about 20 feet down the side of the mountain. "It was probably another 200 feet down to the bottom and the bike was pinned on top of me in the middle of an ant hill. I had to wave for guys to stop. A lot of people didn't see me, but I finally started waving my helmet. I really want to thank the guys who helped me out." Ridel$ were falling left and right in the snow-covered section of the course, which brought out a lot of ingenious riding techniques that ranged from standing up and trying to be smooth to riding at 2 mph and dropping the bike every few feet. The snow was cause for complaint for Leroy Miller, who was riding with his son Chuck Miller and his grandson Ryan. "The COUrse was outstanding, but I have a complaint about the section up in the snow," said Miller. "All of the longlegged guys put their feet down going through the snow and kicked the snow out of the ·way. They lowered it, which made it really tough when us shortlegged guys came through. That's not fair. The long-legged guys should only be allowed to ride with their feet on the pegs." The course was laid ou t like a large figure eight. The first half of the figure eight looped through the San Bernardino Mountains on the west side of Interstate 15 and offered an extra 9-mile section for riders who wanted the fun of a single-track roller-coaster ride through the bushes on the way to the lunch/gas stop in the Cajon Pass. The fun continued after lunch with another loop through the San Bernardino Mountains, this time on the east side of 1-15. (Top) Dick Allen 'was one of the many dual-sporters who participated in the Ride For Kids dual sport ride, much of which was spent in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. (Above) Carnage in the snow was a common s.lght on the 'Ride For Kids. "It's an excellent course and the conditions are perfect because of the rain. There's great traction and no dust, and we've seen some great scenery,"· said Bob Oman. ''I'm just thankful that we didn't have to go uphill in the snow. That would've been tough and I already had my little fall-down. I got suckered into an uphill sort of a thing and just fell over. 1I The ride appealed to dual-sporters at all levels, from off-road racing ace Bruce Ogilvie, who turned the event into a family affair by riding with his father . and father-in-law, to DR250-mounted Hal Richardson, who was tackling his first-ever dual sport ride. AMAlPJ1 Northwest Amateur Arenacross Championship Turner pounds Portland By Clay Light PORTLAND, OR, APR. 3-4 ~ wasaki-mounted David Tun-ter was in a class all his own in the 50cc Amateur competition during the AMA/PJl Northwest Amateur Arenacross Championship, held at Portland's Memorial Coliseum. Turner scored runaway wills in both nights of competition. Turner, who " based on his air time and large-margin victories - looks to be oc 0\ 0\ ...... 'N C'l :-;:::l I-< 0.. < 35

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