Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

located t oward th e bottom of t he " Shelf Trail : which is exactly wha t it soun ds like. I drop ped eig ht points at that check and for co ntra st , Ha w k in s, M ik e Laff ert y and T y Dav is; the to p three fin isher s in the eve nt dropped tw o . Th ey were th e only three rid er s t o drop two poi nt s in th e se c ti on as eve ryone else dropped m ore. Ba ck on the ga s and back up an other goa t tr ail and I w as getti ng my second wind, which m ay ha ve bee n m y de mise. Rid ing on m inute 4 , th er e w ere not m an y r ide rs a h ea d o f m e , b u t t he on e s th at w er e, I was sta rti ng to catch and pass at a rap id pace. The goa t trails , like the rest of t he e ve n t, wer e extremel y rocky a n d I managed to point m y Honda d ir ectl y int o a big piece of granite that was o bvi o usly bo lted to China becau se it d id n 't bu dg e and it se nt me over the bars at the same rap id pac e t ha t I was c atching my c om petitors. The good news was that somehow I m ana g ed t o keep t he b ike from going down the lo w side of t he m ount ain , but t he bad new s w as it was rest in g pipe side do wn on a huge table -top -lik e rock . I had managed to g ra b onto the ro ck on my way down the mounta in , saving myself from any bodily injury . I sc al ed u p the roc k o n ly to noti ce a pool of gea r oil forming on the massive Oat rock. Sure eno ugh, wh en I picked u p th e t rus t y Honda , that had go tten me ohso -close to th e fi nis h, ther e was a quartersized hol e in the cl utch cover an d it was spewing oil j ust as fast as I w as spewing sweat. T o make matters worse , it was h igh ce ntered on th e rock , so t he only way to get it off was to roll it down the hill a ways . Afte r dragging the bike off th e rock and back up to the t ra il, I nu rsed it to the top of t he hil l and into check 12, which was lo c at ed ap proxima te ly a mile from my dreaded disaster. I had wasted at lea st 15 to 20 minutes in th e process and when I pulled into th e check they wrote a big fat 29 o n m y sc orecard, wh ich meant I was 25 minutes lat e . M y in e x p e r i en c e to l d m e t o st op t h er e, o r el se I w as go ing to be t urn in g in a c o oked bo ttom en d to Honda pres s m echan ic Erik Crippa , wh o w ould h av e to rebuild th e entire th ing from the bottom end up. I im ag ine d Crippa putting in long hours in h i s sho p , and since he happens to be a fri end , I didn't want t o put him through that. S o , m y ra ce ende d at che ck 12 ins te a d of c h ec k 14, whe re it should have . Ac cordi ng to th e g uys t hat fini shed , the last 10 m iles was the worst. For ex a m p l e, my r id ing partners Rick Dani el and Ro n Poche r bo t h had problems. Po cher ho u red out a nd Rick got l o st and then stopped to give Ty D av i s gas. because the defending cham p had ru n out. Team Green 's Destry Abbott was in c o nt ent i o n for the overall u ntil the last ten miles, but h e managed t o exper i en ce a crash li k e m ine , sending h im off a rocky goat trail and dow n a steep hill . Abbott still wen t on to finish fourth . Even though I heard the horror stories , I was confident that the H on d a would have gotten me through it a II and on t o the fi n ish. Atter t he event, second place fin i sher M ike Laff ert y ad de d sa lt to m y woun ded and a l r ea dy te nder ego by telling me, " Yo u shou ld have just kept going. Once I fo rgo t to p ut engi n e oi l in one of my b ikes and I ro de two lo cal enduros before I rea lized t he cas e was dry ." He did ad that he fe lt it was an ex tremely tough eve nt and was relieved that he managed a second overall finish . That made me feel better, but what Crippa had to say w h e n I arrived home m a d e m e fe el wo rs e. " He was right: said Crippa about Lafferty 's advice . "You could have made it to the fi n ish w itho ut all t he oil, no p roble m ." If o nly I had known. W hat I do k no w is t ha t eve ry t h ing I ha d do ne to t he Hon d a , with t he except ion of c ras h ing it , m ade it a d amn f ine en du ro b ik e . I look fo rw ard to r etu rn ing to the Desert Mountain End uro next vear with si mil a r com po n e n ts atta ched to what ever b ike I may be r id in g and next ti me, l ik e the CR250 , I'll be rea d y for whatever may occ u r . eN oe ., I • Don't be roa dkill,buyMcGraw the king oftheroad in . motorcycle insura forCalifor a. The West's large nce ni stwriterof m otorcycle ins urance.Arated by A.M. BestIPSIC·j. 25year hlSlOl Y in the business. McGrawoffersrates as lowas $79 a year. Allmakesand ~~ McGraw Insurance mod covered. T els ohear more about McGraw, askyour dea . Or call us direct ler • Pacific Specialty Insurance Co mpany.part of the California 's Largest Wr it e r of Motorcvcle Insura nce ~cGraw Group of affiliated comp anies. 38 01 Ha y e n A .... .. M en l o Park , CA 940 25 P.O. BOX " 0 . An a h e im , CA 928 15 www.mcgrawgroup .com 1.800.6MCGRAW CAo Licen.", No . 0531139 " .80 0.662.<7291 de News Video T:heater " 1999 WORlD TRIALS REVIEW" Full Action Highlights from the FIM World Tr ials Championship Series (#~ I)6()) Trials j.. one of (he most exciting and ente rtaining "po rt.. of modern times. Compcnto rv must combin e supreme ..kill with stre ngth. fitness and control. and the ' nl",l.h an: increasin gly attracted to the engagi ng and spec tacular displays. ..ulders and sheer drops were the mainstay of the incredibly testRive rbeds. fearso me rocks. big step.., inc redibl y steep clim bs. pill ' huge hI ing sections during the 191)<) World Trials Cham pions hips. Multi-World Champion Dougic Lampkin compe ted uguinst t hl..'1111' intcnuuiona l trials stars: SIeve Colley. Marc Colomc r, Fujin ami. Kuro yam a. Ja rvis . and C umozzi . Lampki n rem ain ed do min ant throug hou t the- majority (If the ye a r, h ut an a.l llnishin g perfor mance from Steve Colley a l Watkins Glen ' turned the form book upside dow n as he took a magnificent win. In this full officia l revie w, another action-packe d year of competition unfold s. with exci ting lng hliglus from every champ ionship round. Relive the he, t actio n now as quality footage. stunning d ose -ups and breath taking com petition add up In unmissablc motorcycle enterta inment. 90 minut e' from While Sta r I Duke Video. cu e I & n e vv s MAY 3 , 2000 25

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