Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

•\ I M '" I' I , .. . , I , • A COUP"LE Of· GUYS L ·,TERALLY' 8- '" Q. .... '" '" ..... By R o n Sc hnei ders Photos b y Ellen Schneid ers '" LA S VEGAS , NEV., Feb. 27 , 1972 ::E ~lan y people have go ne t o Las Vegas ll' and toured the t own expensively but 11; not ver y many have co mp let ed the z Boonie Bounder's own very special tour w of th e su rr o undi ng ar ea! For sheer d ex c itement, the Boonie Bounders ~ Gambler's End uro b eats the slots every time. For so me it might even have be en more ex pensive , too. Th e Boonie Bounders said righ t on their p ost er , "This is a to ugh one!" and aft er th e recent run of to ugh endure s, ~UL.T=C= h er e in Southern Cal., the Novice rid ers te nded to be instant believers ; they stayed awa y in droves. A mere 196 riders showed up fo r th e Boonie Bounder's run and a disproportionatel y large number of them were "A." riders. Last year the run featured a swamp that h ad a lot of riders sp end ing the bett er p art o f theday diggi ng their bikes out of flavo rfully scented m uck but we figured that his year , since the starting area was north of town instead of south, a good tw enty miles from last year's, that we'd miss th e swamp . No way. Straight as an arrow we went, at 18 and 20 mph ANOTHER FINE PRODUCT FROM MAIL ORDER BIG BORE avera ge right to the swamp. Mo st California enduro rid ers have had little experie nc e with swamp mud and it sh ow ed. Gu ys got t heir bikes buried so d eep th ey're going to have to wait until th e swamp dries up in the su m me r and then blast them out with d ynamite. T he generally m uc ky gro und was interspersed h ere and there with holes fill ed with more liq uid m ud o r very muddy wat er (tak e yo ur cho ice ), abo ut cran kcase deep. Lots of rid ers spent time drying their engines a fter th e first few o f these. That elim in at ed th e unwat erproofed bik es from th e run, which was a good th ing. Whe n I go t to th e last m ud ho le t he re was a check on the o ther side. A yo ung lad gave me a slip with m y t im e o n it and I re mark ed to him , "Yuk , wh at a mess!" My bike and b od were in ch es d eep in mud. "That's o ka y, " he said cheerfully, "Y ou 'll b e ab le to was h it off pre tty soon." R ight h e was, to o . Befo re lo ng we came to several clear running strea ms where y o u co uld se e right down to the bottom, abou t two and a hal f feet. A fte r those 0 f u s wh o were really wat erproof su rvived ab o ut three of those, th e Boonie Bounders go t tired of fooling aro und and put us right in the creek to ride down it a few hundred yards. That wa s so w e could get to the river crossing, To cross the Las Vegas River you ride over a bridge, o ne end of which is on solid ground and t he other end of which is in the middle of the river. Apparently t he guys who built the brid ge were sh ort o n lumber because b esid es being too sh ort by 10 fee t o r so, it 's also lack ing so me pl anking, like every other o ne . It 's more lik e a ladder th an a brid ge and it's n ice and mudd y an d slo ped at about 30 d egrees. A goo d t est of yo ur d et ermin ati o n . T hat wa s abo ut all t h ere rea lly was o n th e mo rn ing sec tion, except for a 20-mi le ride back to th e pits over bro ken, ro cky co un try , o ld mine ro ads, and suc h. A couple guys got shook b y a vertical ledge abo ut four feet high o r so in a ro cky littl e ca nyon, h ut it was nothing really . It only hu rt wh en yo u lan d ed . T he mo rning section was the easy o ne, design ed to eliminate all the novices and snivelers, but somehow it missed me. I was still in the run n ing barely. It didn't take long before yo u realized that the afternoon section was going to be just as dry as the morning section was wet. \\' e went up and down a few rocky hills that were push-up affairs for small bikes just to get warmed up a bit and then drifted over t o th e sand d unes. Southern California has lo ts of sand b ut they don't have any that co mes quit e as fine as tha t Las Vegas variety. T ha t st u ff is so fine th at if you stopped you r b ik e it sun k righ t dow n to th e skid plate. Wh en th e going was level, I co uld just b arely keep movi ng with the engi ne screaming about seve n grand in first. Bu t w e did n 't stay on the leve l very lo ng. Pretty soon the trail headed right up a d raw to wa rd a ridge and fro m there to the top it was a p uch-and-rest affair. A couple of guys literally destroyed t hei r engines on that hill. Mos t of t h e bigger bikes didn't have too man y problem s b u t life sure was d isco uragi ng tor th e little bi kes. T hat d eep sand didn't last t o o long - o nly four or five miles - but it was lon g enough to get me and mo st of th e o the r smalle r b ik es quite th oroughly d isqualified . Fro m th ere o n - it was sti ll 25 mil es to the fin ish - t he ru n fea tu red rock an d steep hills. My rid ing part ner who was riding a 3 70 mac hine co mplaine d of -- _. 3 60ee to 41 Oee or 440ee. J OOee to 133 ee, 125e e thru 250ee to 327ce 3 l-1 gal Sherpa S ·T / PurSang tanks & ski d plates ...... .... Blank cylinder sleeves , all sizes (do yo ur own porting) . CUSTOM ENGIN E WORK STOC K B UL TA CO PA RTS SPEED EQ UIPME NT WRI T E FOR FREE PRICE L IST " Home of the fastest dir t bike in the USA II Call or write for details - mail order 0 .1<, Beaver Tooth Chain Breaker. For quick chai n repairs - don't be without one! Fits right in your pocket, weighs only 1% ounces and work s wit h a lOmm w rench...D on' t walk back , carry a Beaver T ooth . Ju st $3.9 5 . PUMFREY BULTACO 2 18 19 Sherman WaY, Can oga Park , Ca 9130, (213) 887 ·7696 Wanted IJ\J' ~Memberl To rep resent in government Motorcycle Owners, Ride rs, and Enthusiasts ' PO Bo x 26062, Sacramento 95826 New desert demo nstratio n rides: Suzu ki 400 MX; BSA 500 MX; AJS Stormers ; Montesa Cappras SUZUKI CIT Y So La Brea , (90301 ) (213) 674-143 1 728 Inglew ood , -' Cali f. ~de~ilent... You're not supposed to do this. -.. ..

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