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/128320
VINTAGE AHRMA MX Experience I have a confession to make : I am in love w ith old bikes again. It's an alOiction that I thought I had purged myself of long ago, but I guess it was always there. I might never have relapsed but for a chance phone conversat ion with J.T. Sout hern, the propietor of Jake 's Garage, a custom graphics design firm that also sells the wo rld's coolest lunchboxes - check 'em out at www.jakesgarage.com. While entertaining me with one of his side-splitting discourses on how life imitates the world of motocross - or something like that - the subject of AHRMA motocross and the season opener at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida, came up. Southern is a huge vintage MX enthusiast. Likea lot of the loons who get off on vintage bikes, he has several, and he told me he had planned to make the journey to Florida for the Gainesville round . Then he suggested that I do the same . "I hate AHRMA," I ranted back at Southern . I had ridden some of its events about I 0 years ago, and I swore I'd never go back. What I had enco unte red then was a bunch of whiners following a leader who frowned on the idea of younger riders - such as I was at the time - "infil trating" their little club. I took a dim view of such narrow-mindedness the n, and I still do. But Southern convinced me that a lot had changed and that Ishould take another look at the grou p and give vintage racing a try. So it was that after four days in Spain for another gig, I was home all of one day before packing my bags and my riding gear and heading to Daytona early. It was my first trip to Gainesville I 44 Raceway, but I was pretty sure that I had come to the wrong place just the same. Rather than whining and grumbling, most of the AHRMA competitors were chatting it up like long lost friends who hadn't seen each other in years . Due to a family emergency, Southern had been forced to back out of Gainesville, but he assured me that all I had to do was show up and hook up with two of his pals, Bruce Rounsaville and Bobby Taylor - two guys I had never met - and everything would be fine. As it turned out, Taylor never showed. He was supposed to be bringing me Southern's '78 Husqvarna 390CR to ride in Saturday's postvintage National MX, and although several other riders - whom I had also never met - graciously offered me the ir spare bikes to ride, I opted out of racing the first day. Fortunately, I did manage to fi nd Rounsaville, and I was glad to make his acquaintance - for more than just the fact that he was willing to let a total stranger bash the hell o ut of his clean '73 CZ250. True to the rest of the AHRMA folk I had met the day before, he and his New Jersey gang turned out to be incredibly nice people. A big fan of the 'Co mmie Czech bikes, Rounsaville climbed aboard one of his CZ 125s and offered to lead me around the course for practice before Sunday morning's vintage Nat ional. It was a good idea, as I had never ridden a CZ before and wasn't rea lly sure what to expect. Right away I was impressed with the old bike's smooth, friendly powerband and its fantastic handling. It also cornered like it APRI L21 ,2004 • CYCLE N EW S was on rails. As for the suspe nsion... what suspension? With the mandat ed four inches in the back and seven inches up front , there's only so much trave l quality you can expect to enjoy. One of the keys to riding a vintage bike quicklyis to pretend like it doesn't have any suspension, which, basically, it doesn 't . But there was one irritating flaw with the bike: I couldn't seem to get the thing to shift without hitting a false neutral. After coming in and confer ring with Rounsaville about it, he exp lained that CZS have really long shift throws and require extra attention w hen going from gear to gear. It gave me something to th ink . about for the first moto as I lined up in the gate for the 250cc Sportsman Intermediate , the fullest of the day, with 33 riders . To pass the time before the race, I initiated myoid So Cal moto ritual of stamping down the dirt just beyond the gate to give the rear tire some extra bite off the line. I had just fini shed and trundled my bike into place when one of the visiting Italians two spots over from me must have figured that what I was doing was a good idea. He had begun to do the same when the starting line steward saw him and ran over in huff. "What do you think you're doing?" the long-haired offical screamed. "You can't do that! You should have to move over now! You're breaking a major AMA rule and an AHRMA rule!" To which my Italian "friend" simply turned and pointed at me before muttering something that was barely audible. Busted. The official came over to me and basically re peated his diatribe but did not fo rce me from my spot either. By the way, I have since checked the AHRMA rulebook, and I stillhaven't found the rule that I supposedly broke . When it was ou r turn to go, we slotte d into place, the gate dro pped , and I got a pre tty fair start, running about fourth into the first turn , but as soon as I downshifted, I found a neutral, allowing abo ut 12 guys to blitz past me o n the gas. I tried to gather it up and fight my way back into the fray but then missed another gear and lost about three more spots. So it went, as I found myself making eN manag ing e dito r Scott Rou ssea u had a b last rid ing this CZ250 on a beautifully preppe d tra ck d uring the AHRMA Na tional MX opener at Gainesville Raceway, but his results were more fizzle tha n fireworks. 40th Anniversary frantic pass attempts on slower riders, on ly to alternately become one every time I missed a shift. When the first moto was over, I was furious to say the least. But it was hard to stay that way, because when I got back to the pits, everyone was having a great time , laughing and bench racing about their firstmoto ex periences. In a split second , I had an ep iphany. Here I had come to race, but most of these people had come to hang out and let the odd moto interrupt their camaraderie. I began to see AHRMA in a whole new light, and I decided to apply that newfound spirituality to the next moto. O nce again, I got off in fo urt h or fifth, and once again I dropped straight to the back by missing about three shifts before the drop-off into the quarry. But so what? The point now was to find somebody to race with, which I did right away. First, I found a guy on a Bultaco to swap spots with, but eventually he let me go. Then , up came a quicker guy on a Maico, and the battle was on. He passed me, I passed him, and then he patiently waited for me to make a mistake, which inevitably came when I missed a shift for about the 347th time that day. A desperate attempt to retake the spot just before the finish line hill came up short. But another dismal moto finish, and overall finish, couldn't dampen my new -found enthusiasm for vintage racing and for AHRMA. The racing was run smoothly and promptly, and I had a blast. I can't thank J.T. Southern and Bruce Rounsaville enoug h for rek indling my love for old bikes. I have since picked up a couple of Husqvarnas of my own, and I am on the lookout for more. I plan to attend several more AHRMA nationals this year. See, I can't wait until the next time, when I can go bench racing with my pals and ride a little vintage moto on the side! eN