Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2003 Honda XR650R ended up being fairly positive. We had no major problems, and we actually finished second in class (okay, so only three teams finished) and midpack overall. Following is a rider-by-rider rundown of our team's ride. LANCE G.: A friend of the Cycle News staff, Lance has ridden the Baja TEAM CYCLE NEWS PITS HONOA'S BIG-BORE FOUR-STROKE AGAINST THE 24 HOURS OF GLEN HELEN By CHRIS JONNUM PHOTOS BY KINNEY JONES ot just anyone can qualify to be a member of a Cycle News offroad squad. If you're too fast or serious, for example, you're out - we only team up with folks who have a laid-back attitude and won't mind if we don't feel like risking life and limb for a plastic trophy. For us, it's all about the experience, and that experience should be more about riding than wrenching. It was for those reasons that, when we decided to take a second whack at the 24 Hours of Glen Helen, we invited a group of similarly minded buddies (in typical CN fashion, one team member wasn't finalized until minutes before the green flag fell) and chose Honda's tried-and-true XR650R as a race steed. The bike doesn't get much glory anymore, what with this year's advent of the higher-tech, motocross-focused CRF450R four-stroke, and with GNCC enigma Scott Summers having hung up his boots, leaving only desert racers like Johnny Campbell and slow guys like Team CN to uphold its honor. Still, the big XR remains a very legitimate choice for N 24 NOVEMBER 13, 2002' a U a those seeking stability, luggability, reliability and speed, as long as they don't mind putting up with a little (okay, a lot) of extra weight. Despite our laissez-faire attitude, our previous year's experience meant we were a little better prepared this time around. For. instance, we actual- ly thought to bring lighting for our pit area (no more struggling with flashlight-illuminated filter changes), and we had enough foresight to invite our friend Ted Gablin to work as a pit marshal (last year, Kit and Chris were forced to stay up for the duration of the race). As a result, the experience 1000, and despite his battered old riding gear, he was by far the group's best-looking rider, thanks to a smooth, clean riding style. He was also our fastest rider (fortunately for him, he's easygoing enough that we let him on our team anyway), and when he was on' the bike, our lap times dropped considerably. The sun set during Lance's second stint, and despite the fact that he wasn't wearing a helmet light, he continued to clear all the doubles and tabletops on the motocross track. Lance's second night stint didn't go as well, and he pulled in early with a tweaked clutch lever, saying he was going too slowly and asking that someone else take over. We're convinced that it was all mental, however. Sure, his lap times had gone up, but so had everyone else's. Perhaps because he's so accustomed to effortlessly doing mach one, the outof-control-turtle sensation brought on by the night had him feeling out of sorts (while the rest of us experience it all the time and are therefore used to it). Fortunately, Lance redeemed himself by doing our final stint so quickly that we were just barely able to sneak in one extra lap. KIT: As Cycle News' Off-Road Editor and a veteran of the Baja 1000 and last year's Glen Helen race, Kit Palmer was pretty much the unofficial captain, so he had the authority to belt out orders left and right. Of course, if you know Kit, then you know he's not much for belting out orders, so the mellow nature of our team's approach was not endangered. Still, Kit did have one directive, and that was that someone other than him would be starting the race. Easygoing Kit had been saddled with the chore last year, and he decided he'd rather not bang elbows with more amped-up riders this time around. Another reason for the decision was that Kit - who loves nightriding - wanted to delay his long saddle-hours until closer to sunset. Unfortunately, Kit's night session was marred by the fact that the XR's clutch plates went out early in his first lap - the victim of constant clutchslipping on the low-visibility, dusty uphills. Kit made his way back to the pits, where Honda did the swap and sent rum on rus way. The rest of Kit's ride was pretty event-free, though he did have a moment of night-blind-

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