Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

s lower "B" s ch edu le would a pply to the s ing le la p of th e day 's tra il. Conn e ct ing the four g rass -track spe c ia l tests and o ne endu ro test was tra il tha t a ltern ated betwe en grea sy cla y based h ills a nd rock y , san dy highspeed lo wla n ds . Th e h ills we re the tr ic ky part, and th e Finnish T rophy T e a m (la s t year' s ISDE winner an d the fa vorite fo r th is yea r) re c ei ve d its firs t bad blo w. Samul i Aro , one of th e squad's 400cc riders , ba iled off on a downhill and , in a s pec ta cu la r c rash , b roke both a co lla rbon e a n d a knee . Wit h th e ex ce p tio n o f th e tr ic k y b its , a ll of t h e rid er s agree d th at it was a fa irly fa st a nd un e ve ntful da y, a nd all of t he Am er ica n ride rs fin ishe d with out se riou s pr obl ems. Hoe ss ha d the disti nction of be ing th e first Am eric an o ut o n the trai l, rid ing on mi nu te 18 , and it wa s a m ixed b less ing , accord ing to him . "It 's nice to be up fron t. I'm no t com pla ining , but yo u're clearing the trail. m a n: he sa id . "We ' re taking all t he ro cks , clearing them off the tra il. I'm maybe the 15th , 16t h bi ke thro ugh some times . The re's not a s mu ch traffic, but sometimes it' s good . sometimes it's bad: s a id . "Eve rything in th e to p end was worn, wors e tha t I wou ld have liked . I didn 't even wa nt to look at th e b ot t om e n d . 1 just p u t my cl utc h a n d cylinder head o n it a nd le ft it a lone ." Once the b ike wa s im pounded , he he aved a s igh of relief (before sta rt ing the jo b of pu tt ing the donor' s "new" 426 ba ck tog eth er) and a dmitted he had no cl ue a s to how reli ab le his hybrid ma ch ine would be. "Ya maha m a kes a good b ike , but I was told th is e ngine wa s us ed last yea r in Po rtuga l. I'm g o ing to ta ke it as far as I ca n , a nd we ' ll see ho w it goes: DAY 1 All week long , ev e ryo ne ha d he ar d h ow dr y a nd du sty Spa in wa s , a nd see n the e vid e nc e firsthand o n tr ips to the c o u nt rys ide to c heck out th e s pec ia l t ests . So , of course , o n t he morn ing of the start, it was ra in ing . A cold d rizzle fe ll o n th e starting podium , a nd rad io re ports fro m the firs t check cla imed it was pou ring up in the mountains , so riders had anoth er stra in to add to the pressure o f a ro c ky, technical course and unfam ilia r terrain . With ove r 550 riders starting th e course , the officia ls decided that the Am er ic a ' s J un ior Troph y effo rt was do omed fro m th e en d of day one , whe n tw o riders o n th e t e a m were accused of o uts ide assi sta nc e in the fo rm of a p it pers on sq u irting chai n lub e o n th eir c hains du ring the final wor k pe riod . Te am riders Kurt Ca se lli and J ohn Beal ro de under pr ot e st on da y two to no ava il. Remaining team members C o dy Mastin and Dav id Pearson so ld ie re d on the rest of the wee k , but the team fin ished in 15th pla ce . Spa in's four-m a n Junior team to ok the win in that competition . Eve ry body arrived in Granada with little drama or d elay . The onl y impound problem was s uffered b y Ran d y Ha wk in s , who e n te re d t h e country with a Yamaha WR426 F that he br ought fro m th e States. The tro uble with a 426 is th at IS DE rules have a clas s for 250cc Fou r-Stroke, "up t o " 4 00cc F o u r -S t ro k e , a nd O ve r 500c c Fo ur-Stroke. A WR4 26 F falls into a no -man 's la nd be tween the 400 a nd O ver 500c c class , and therefore it's illeg a l for ISDE com pe tit ion . "I fig u re d they 'd let it by ," said Hawk ins, "Or if there was a problem , I'd bump up to the Over-500cc class as plan 'B.' The trouble was, we had to use plan 'C .'" The offic ials wouldn 't allow the 426 to pass, and it was too small for the +500cc class . At that point, Hawk ins asked around, found a (Above) Riding In the 400cc FourStroke class, Australian Stefan Merriman was untouchable in Granada, posting inc re dible test times and collecting the overall individual win. (Right) American Club riders Brian Bennett 1465) and Tim Taber (467) negotiate a low underpass while out on t he trail. Though strong in t e rms of endurance, t he U .S, effort was ha m pered by its special-test tim es. WR400F chase bike on the Portu guese team that he co uld us e a s a cylind er donor , and started a careful jo b of remov ing the cylinders from both bike s and mak ing h is 426 a legal 400. He planned to use a new 400 piston, rings and wrist pin he had in his parts kit. With he lp from a "few different peop le in the p its , he went th roug h the labor ious jo b of stripping down both engine s a nd carefully bu ilding h is up, until it came tim e to insta ll. th e 400 piston in his 426 bottom e nd . That' s whe n h e d iscovere d that t h e tw o bikes ha ve d iffe rent-size small e nd s on th e co nne cting rods . With tim e runn ing out , car eful work turned to panic , and all hands joined in t o help . Now he h ad to remove the bottom end of the donor bike , build the engine again , and get it into impound by 8 :00 p.m. "I used my new piston and rings , but th is bike had been used hard ," he eu e • a n III _ so • NOVEMBER 2 2, 2 0 0 0 7

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