Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127973
bas hed th ei r wa y ri ght to th e fi n is h cou ldn' t help wo nd erin g if King wasn' t the lucky one. "It' s a workou t; it's the bes t work out y ou ca n eve r ge t, but it' s very h a rd w or k," said Bet hel Lawrence Eth ridge, w ho was piloting a 1975 CB750 attached to a Velor e x Sid e ca r . "They : s ay mot ocrossing is probably the most p hysically demand ing sp or t ther e is; well , let me tell you, riding a side hack on a solo course across cou ntry is p retty demanding also." Diane, his wife of 42 yea rs, w ho was rid ing in the sid ecar, described her firs t LA-B-to-V ex p erience as "s cary som efimes. You couldn' t see because of the o ust in the air and you d idn't kn ow if yo u were dri ving off the edge, but we're ha ving a good tim e an d it took me getting ou t of the sideca r to fa ll d ow n; I w as on my own feet whe n I fell over." The sidecar duo of Mike Braver ma n and Walt Fulton did d rive righ t off the edge of an 8- or 9-foo t drop at about 40 mph. "It was p robab ly about half an hour befor e lun ch. We launched it in the air and now we ca n say we' ve really been a ir bo rne . W e fl e w bi g ti m e ," sa id Braverman proud ly. Fulton seemed a little less impressed . "I' ve been sitting in the cha ir the better part of the d ay ge tting beat up real bad . I d id thi s last yea r with m y dau ghter a nd I got to beat her up. Thi s ye ar is pay back, I guess," Fu lton said . A few w ro ng tu rn s near the end of the cou rse led to some crea tive routes into the day-on e finis h in Barstow . "I th ou ght the cou rse was fu n but the ro ll-cha rt ju st sucked ," sa id Rich Go ld . "Wit hou t a telescop e over the top of it you can' t read it because the letters are tiny, tiny. It wasn 't mean t for old people. I d id n' t actually get lost but a coupl e of tim es I h ad to s low d ow n a nd squ in t p retty ha rd a nd th en yo u h it so meth ing because yo u were lo oking dow n at the roll chart. That was a little bit excit ing ." Day tw o was even more exciting for Go ld, who was one of a handf ul of dual sporte rs selected to ride a special 290mile course throu gh Deat h Valley. BLM re str icti ons ca p ped the Death Valley conti ngent at 35, and rid ers who wanted to expe rience the u nique terra in had to submit a letter stating wh y th ey sho uld be one of the chosen few . "Not one of the m had a taillight that was still working and they knew it was go ing to be a lon g d ay, 'so the sweep people took them to an au to-par ts store and th ey replaced all .the bulbs. They di dn't make it in to the awards banquet u ntil abo ut 8:30 p.m .," sa id AM A Distric t 37 Du al Spor t Vice Presid en t, Jim Woods . The rest of the riders got to follow a mor e tradition al d ay-tw o course - a 240mile trek that began with a run past Calico ghos t town. It w as a fun sand-wash an d then a 50-mile stretch of powe r-line roa d that took a toll on tires, bu t support trucks from Ame rican Hond a an d ATK were on hand to help. "We're offering s u pport to any body wh o co m es in," sai d Ch arli e Ke ll er, Manager of the Honda Rid ers' Clu b of Am erica . "So far we've had fairly mino r stu ff. We had one guy come in who'd had a slight alter cation with some rocks - a tube, a few missing bolts, but nothing se rio us. You know h ow H o nda s are." So methin g serious ha p pen ed to th e oldest rider in the pack 78-year-old Bud Wr igh t. Wright, w ho h as go ne ho me wi th the Oldest Rid er Award for at least five years, knocked himself out on day two w hen he cras he d his XR200 and was helicop tere d to a Las Vegas hospital. Luckily , he apparentl y escaped an y major in ju ries and wa s on th e mend befor e the weekend was over. And abou t halfway thro ugh the ride, some thing serious happened to the rest of the rid ers, as we ll. "We head ed ou t of Baker and it started to sprinkle, and dumb Jimmy d ecid ed no t to put on his Coretex." sa id Jim Wood s . " It was okay a t fir st, b u t b y Good Spri ngs it was just pouring, and it p oured all the way to Vegas. We were jus t drenched. " But th at didn ' t ยท me an th e r id e rs weren' t having fun. "It got to pou ring ha rd at the end to wh ere yo u h a d to keep w ipin g yo ur goggles off, bu t w e ha d p u t ou r rai n ge ar on and it wasn' t that co ld," sa id Roy Coe , who was piloting his 1 980-i~1 Ya ma ha m on grel for th e ump teenth year. "It had never rai ned on d ay two be fore this yea r, and I had never , eve r sm elle d wet desert. The aroma of th e plants and vegeta tio n is a mazing , bu t that wasn' t the best thing. When we left Goo d Sp rin gs and rode down the valley to wards th e fin ish we w ere chasing a double rainbow all the way. It was spectacular. It was so br ight it w as hard to kee p .you r eyes on the trail. It was like magic." There w as more m agi c at th e banquet la ter that night, whe n or ga nizers gave away more than $13,000 wo rth of dual sp or t-related prod uc ts. They also a n n ou nc e d th e name s o f th e a w a rd w inne rs, w hic h incl u d ed M ig uel Cas tillo, who w on the Ben Gay Award for b reaking h is hand abou t 30 miles fro m the fin ish on th e fi rst d ay . Eric O lso n , fro m Wa sh in gton , w o n th e H ard Lu ck Aw ard a fter hi s Jeep an d tra iler w er e sto le n in Las Vegas. The old est bike to complete the course was the 1954 Triu mph pil ot ed by Bill Ge tty, and Bud Wrig ht go t the nod for oldest rid er d espite fin ishi ng his journey by medivac helicopter. Brian Pa ppalardo ea rned th e Sma lles t Bike; Aw a rd fo r co m ple ti ng th e co u rse o n a Hon d a XR200, a nd Jod y Villa got th e Lon g Distan ce Awa rd for traveli ng all the w ay fro m N ew Jersey to ta ke part in a ride th at m ost d ual sp orte rs co ns ider to be th e very best part of Tha nksgiv ing . 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