Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dave Bertram· U.S.Pro Grip World Trophy Team Manager Five-time ISDE go ld medalist and former AMA Reliab il ity Enduro Champ ion Dave Bertr am is - and has been for many years - a major player when it comes to organizing th e United States' ISDE elfort. Then, on d av four, th ey ra n a mo'di fied course. Basically, they ran th em on a roa d out to muddy grass track, ran them back to pare ferme, w here th e y sa t arou nd for two ho urs, then went ba ck ou t to the tes t aga in. Th is d erno tiva te d ou r g uys , becau se we're stro ng in the terrain tests. In d ry grass tra cks, we do very well, bu t in mu ddy grass tracks... H o w o fte n do o ur guys ha v e time to prac tice o n mu dd y g rass tracks? The Swedes, th e Finns, a lot of th e Aussi es those g uys just ra il the mu dd y grass tr acks. Muddy grass tra cks has to be ou r wor st sce nario for the U.s. tea m. We we re a bo u t 200 seco nds awa y fr om a podiu m g oi n g in to d a y fiv e . That' s basica lly insu rm ountab le unless yo u h a v e tragedy (s tr ik e) th e oth e r tea ms ... They did have so me traged y, but it on ly struc k their sixth gu ys. S..yeden se nt on e guy to th e hospita l, the Finns had a m echanica l fa ilure, a nd I think an Italian Trophy rid er wen t ou t, too. a By Kit Palmer Photos by Mark Kariya his w as su p posed tohave been the yea r tha t the Pro Grip-spon so red United States Trophy Team was going to win its first In terna tio nal Six Days Enduro. Or, at the very least, fini sh o n th e p od iu m . Afte r all, there wer e many elements favoring the U.S. team a t this yea r's rec ently concl u ded Au stralian Six Days. To name a few : The Au strali an terrain wou ld be relativel y . sim ila r to tha t found in America; th e team , for the mo st part, would be riding together for the third year in a row; and all o f th e Europea n team s w ould be working out of containe rs, jus t like the Am erican rid ers h a ve always d one eve ryone w a s p re tt y mu ch on eq ua l grou nd . But, as we all kn ow , th ings d on 't always go as planned. When the closing cere mo nies were bein g pl ayed ou t, the Ll.S, team was not included in the han ding ou t of trophies. A ninth-p lace finis h iia:::; way of doing tha t. By the fifth JCiY atcompe tition, it \\'3 5 obviou s tha t th e Trophy tea ni' " goals weren' t going to be met - not even close - and mor ale was sinking fast. Still, the p rou d America n team forged on a nd finish ed out th e even t a s best t h e y cou ld , but ma ny onloo kers were wond er ing if this would be Am erica' s las t se rio us attempt to w in th e Six Days . After a ll, Am erica b rok e out its best ch ina a nd s ti ll fa iled to im p ress th e world . O ne of the pe ople concerned abo u t th e American tea m's fu tu re was Dave Bertram , the team's manager. Bertram , a form er ISDE Trophy rid er, has for man y yea rs been ins tru ment al in master mind ing America' s ISDE su p port effort. He created the Rid e To Win orga nization, h e ' s a me mber of th e ISDE b oa rd of dire ctors, a n d h e' s th e CEO of the Northern California-based mo torcycl e accessory cha in Cycle Gear, which also sp onsors so me of our top ISDE rid ers. So co ncern ed w a s Bertram ab out th e team' s futur e th at he ca lle d an eme r- T 44 gency meeting wi th this year's Pro Gr ip Ll.S, Trophy Tea m rid ers and the AMA im med ia tely follow ing th is yea r's Six Days. At 10 o'clock Su nday nig h t following the last d ay of com petition, in his ho tel room, he flat ou t as ked, "Are we do ne?" We recently ch a tt ed with Bertra m and discu ssed such things as what was said in that meet ing, wha t went wrong an d right - in Aus tralia, and w ha t ou r fu ture pl a ns are wh en it co mes to the United States' in volveme n t in the Six Days. Firs t of all, wha t went wrong in Australia? Well, tha t all starte d on d ay one, wit h mechanical probl em s (ha ppe ning ) to Rod n ey Smith . Tha t co m p ro mised his test scores the first da y; still, afte r the firs t d ay, we were in a great posit ion . I was really excited abo u t ou r test scores. We were really, really close, even th ou gh al most every rid er fell in every tes t. Scott Summers had so m e rea ll y good tim es. I w a s reall y impressed wi th Scott's ride the first day. Rod n ey go t h is b ik e fixed a nd w e were all stoked for day two. We were ready to come ou t with ou r guns blazin g. Th en w e h ad mere m ech a n ical prob lem s, with Destry 's (Abbo tt'stbik<: qu itting . Then it see med on d ay two, for wha tever reason , we jus t weren't up to s p eed in th e tests . We we re s ti ll in d ecent shape, but it rea lly too k the wind ou t of our sails wi th Destry going out. We were lookin g for big th ings out of him. ' After d ay two , we jus t so rt of lost a litt le b it of en thusias m. Day th ree, I think we did well on the muddy grass tra ck . We ha d sp otters ou t ther e; ou r guys ha d goo d lin es and go t through with no problems, no cras hes; an d w hen th ey threw that ou t, it was a real le td own. If it' s really, reall y nasty, w he n it' s almost su rvival, whi ch that test was - the ru ts go t so d ee p in p la ces, you cou ld n' t ge t throu gh them . That's why they ended up throwi ng it ou t - the last par t of the Club rid ers were stuck for 20 minu tes. Q A on everyone th at the QnU.S.paper,you seem toasedes thepoin tteam fin is hed isa p ing inth, b ut see positive side of things. O ther than the bad fini sh, I think th e positive thi ng is th at this w as one of ou r bes t Six Days - in my opinion - for th e fu tu re , because it w as a real wa ke-u p call. I called a mee ting to order wi th the T rophy team , H u gh (Fle m ing, of th e AMA ), Gun n y (Ric k Cl a ypool e , th e overa ll Ll.S, team manager ), and a few key su p p ort people, in my room at 10 o' clock afte r day six. We were there till 12:30 in the mornin g. And the ton e of the meeting was, "Okay, gu ys, wha t d id we learn fro m thi sSix Days? What do we need to d o better ?" But, most impo rtantly, are the Trophy guys committe d lfGi ::e vea r)? ::;t I'm a competitor, t!)<). I don 't wan t to stay involved with an effort i;';;;' 5 n ohum, "Let' s ,go on vacation to Au stralia, or Portu gal (the site of next year's ISDE)." To me, that' s not wh at it's all about. I'm as serious about win ning as every one of those riders out there. Our riders, they're all cham pions; they're a ll used to wi nnin g . I kn ow Sco tt Su m me rs was very d isappointed with his perfo rmance. Ty (Davis) was very disappointed with his, so the tone of the meetin g was, What are we going to do next year to ge t better? Or, Are we going to throw in the towel and ju s t se nd a B team back ove r a nd jus t have a big vacation? All the rid ers unan imously said , "I'm in for next year." Then we came up wi th a few things on how we're go ing to im prove ou r per formance. A Q Wh at wer e so me of tho se thi ngs? topic A O neformat is, we wa nt to improvt, , the of the qualifiers . Gra ss tracks: That's primarily what we need improve on; we've go t to ha ve g ras. tracks. You can 't send a rider over ther (to the Six Days) wh en he hasn't rid der a grass track in over a year and expect tr compete wit h the Finns an d the Italians w ho rid e eigh t or nine World Champi ons hip rou nds all on grass-track forma t s The Na tional Serie for them is still for matted like Six Days wit h grass tracks and you just can' t compe te agai ns t thos guys when we don't rid e 'em. So we'r goi ng to s ta rt o u t b y in form in g th e (Ame rican) clubs of ways they can help and I kno w they will get behi nd us . W need more grass tracks, and we need t rid e 'em, rid e 'e m, and rid e 'em. We ' re also go ing to have an AMA appoin ted representat ive that can wor with the club as a cons ul tant via phon prior to the event to help them . Th e ca n d escr ib e a field; we ' ll g ive the written instruction s - like the test need to be this wide, this long. We don 't need lO-mile-Iong terrain tests wh en the FIM rules s ta tes 2 to 3.5 ki lo meters ma ximum. The w hole th in g about th e Six Days is that it's short and it's fast (terrain tests). A lO-mile terrai n tes t doe our guys absolutely no good for training for the Six Days, bec ause you rid e 1 miles at a much d ifferent pace than you rid e 1.2 miles. So we' re go ing to have an AMA -a p po in ted rep tha t can help the club initiall y, then show up prior to the event and maybe view the special tests and maybe help the club mod ify certain area s tha t need to be tun ed up. And he can actually be on site during the event to just make su re it lives up to wh at we need to im prove ou r Six Days results no t jus t for our Tro ph y riders bu t for all the rid ers. If a Club rid er shows up for his first Six Da ys and the w ho le thing is abou t grass track s, and he hasn' t ridden a grass track in his life, he's going to get de mo tivated , and he may not go next yea r. Another big thing that we can do to im p ro ve our resu lts is trai ni ng cam ps . The It a lians, for exa m p le, have three traini ng camps, th ree da ys lon g . They have one at the beginnin g ofthe season, one in the middle, and on e a couple of weeks before Six Days. So here we are, up agains t a team tha t not only rid es probably 25 d ays a year of grass-trac ktype even ts but sup p leme nts that wi th ano ther nin e d ays of intense training on grass tracks, with ISDE spec ialists. Th at 's part of ou r agend a - to have Six Days specialists on hand to so rt o f help us w it h lin e se lec tio n . Our guys already know how to rid e a motorcycle. W itho u t a do u bt, ou r r id ers a re t he fastest rid ers in the world; we just need to know how to rid e this type of specia l test. It's no t like, "Here, brake later," or "Bra ke soo ner," or "Use the front brake m ha rder, elOu;\'~ 1 .: There 's non e of that that need s to be instru cted . It'5 basically just "Show me w he re to go, show me how you gu ys fin e-tun e it ," beca u se w e're o nly a' few se cond s off. It' s jus t that a few seconds accu mulated over 18 special tests ad ds up. I Wh O u ve in mi nd th O We'ld do yoPauhl aour ridndson herae,t cou help train --- . ve got Edmo ers? A who I'm su re wou ld be very happy to as sist u s. He' s a World Cha m pio n , and I d on 't know how man y times he's fini shed in th e top five overa ll a t Six Da ys . Sven -E rik Jonsson is retired ; I think he wou ld lik e to come over and prob abl y h el p u s if we as ke d h im . I

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