Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 21 MAY 29, 2013 clists in Southern Indiana, they never let sloppy Hoosier winters keep them off their bikes. LaMastus had hours and hours of riding experience in snow, mud and slush. So when the conditions got ugly at the qualifiers, LaMastus would shine. Still, LaMastus was on the bubble for making the team when the final qualifier rolled around and by this time his little TS was flat worn out. The backstory to this whole thing was that Ron's father owned a small Hodaka dealership and for a time LaMastus had ridden the bikes with help from his dad's shop. But no matter what trick Hodaka factory parts they put on the bikes, LaMastus could never get to the finish line due to something breaking. That's when he decided to buy the Suzuki. While the thing was a toad it would at least finish the race. The LaMastus' were a tight-knit family and Ron running a Suzuki at the races didn't go over well with his dad, to say the least. "Back then there was a big rivalry between shops and I'm sure that didn't do my dad's Hodaka shop any favors that I was racing on a Suzuki," LaMastus explained. "Let's just say there wasn't much communication there for a long time." A few weeks before the final qualifier Rick Moore, the Suzuki dealer who'd sold Ron his TS, told Ron's dad that his bike was worn out and probably wouldn't finish the last race. "Well a week or two before that last race my dad pulls up and he's got a new 185 Suzuki…" LaMastus wells up with emotion recounting the story. With that bike LaMastus did well enough to make the cut and qualify for the 1973 International Six Days. His dream had come true. Now an official member of the team, LaMastus hoped Suzuki would help him out by giving him parts for his TS185. "I got the letter back from Suzuki that said that wasn't a competition motorcycle and they wouldn't be able to help me." Puch offered him a motorcycle to race, but they wouldn't be able to supply it to him in advance so he could practice. The answer came from an un- P129 usual source. Rokon was looking to sign dealers. Ron's dad agreed to sign up and buy some bikes with one proviso; they'd have to supply Ron a bike to race in the Six Days. Ron left for Massachusetts two weeks before the start of the Six Days to get a crash course on not only how to ride the heavy (305 pounds) automatic transmission Rokon, but how to do maintenance on them as well. Remember, this was the ISDT and the riders had to perform all the bike maintenance and repairs themselves. During the Six Days it was discovered the mag wheels of the Rokons had bearing issues. Being his first ISDT and being a nice, honest Midwestern man, Ron played it by the book and repaired the wheels on his own on the trail and took the hit on the time sheets for it, which cost him any chance of a gold, or even silver medal. Others on the Rokon squad pulled off deep in the woods, and secretly had their wheels changed. It was an education for LaMastus, but he said he never regretted competing by the book. All the Rokon team bikes finished, quite an accomplishment for a first-year team with such a radically designed motorcycle. He would go on to compete in six ISDT events and become a racing legend in the state of Indiana. He felt his silver at the Isle of Man in 1975 was his most valued achievement since he had to overcome so many obstacles, including getting caught up in another rider's crash and racing on the gnarliest course he ever raced. Today LaMastus still lives in Southern Indiana and spends time restoring old off-road bikes in his shop. He still rides off-road for fun and recently purchased a big KTM Adventure mainly as a road bike. Seeing those pictures of past ISDTs in the magazines and wanting to be a part of the American team racing in the Berkshires led to quite a CN respectable off-road career for LaMastus. Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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