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/141018
N N . " '" c, N ..... ell C- o« ~ w Z W ..J U >U Christianity and the Larry McClellan Enduro (n'snottoo late to enter) ByRon Schneide rs SO GG Y DRY LAKE, CAL., April 2, 19 72 - About 300 riders gave up the tr ad it ional Christian ch urch services th is Easter in favor o f do ing so me thi ng th at might have b een a more m eaningful Christian ac tio n. They ro de an end uro. No w, under ordinary circums tances even 1 would h ave a di fficult time arguing that riding in an enduro o n Easter is sp iritually better than being in church, but this was not an o rd inary enduro. It w as run as a ben efit fo r Larry McClellen, a member of th e Sid eh ack Associatio n wh o was very seriously inj ured a few months b ack. Larry require s a great d eal of physical therapy in order to bring his b ody b ack to full op eration an d this enduro was designed to raise the money for it. T he enduro was sponsored by the S t umpjumpers and The Sidehack Association, neither o f which had eve r p ut on an enduro before. Since this fact alo ne is enough to ch ill the blood of any experienced enduro rid er to the temperat u re of a properly prepared Mart ini, it was d ecid ed th at t he en d uro wa s to ap peal p rim ar ily to the mo re ine xperienced family riders: Also there are mo re of those types, which meant more' mo n ey would be raise d. A fu ll effort was .Ia unch ed , p ro motio nal (except for advertising). A Yamaha was offered as the first prize and all kinds of additio nal mer chand ise was secured . The rules of the en duro we re rearranged a b it so the winn er could b e a novice as well as an expert and the co urse was mad e easy. Unfo rt unately every one underestimat ed the drawing power o f th e East er b unny and th e clergy . Instead of th e 1,000 entrants h oped for, th ere were just a few more than 300. 1 gu ess th e old Bronx je er, "See ya in church!" tak es on real me anin g on Easter. To make su re that every one h ad an equal chance to win the Yam ah a, t he Stumpjumpers had an errati c novice (mer run th e co urs e b eforeh and and used his time as th e basic sche dule fo r t he course . T o further confuse th ings One tends to think they might have seize d it. they d idn't te ll anyone how fast 1 was going so all any expert had to d o wa s you tried to make up time, but, th e guess h ow fast a spastic no vice could rid ers only stayed on th e fire road for ride a particular sectio n, add 25% to about three miles b efore getting off into th at figure and rid e accordingly . A few th e mo st in te resting sectio n o f th e first experts even managed to co pe wit h th at , loop wh ich was a ro ck y uphill with a swinging with th e sort o f Brubeck-like bend in th e middle, foll owed by neat rhythm that determines .my riding st yl e twisty sand wa sh , decorated in exquisite (yo u know, 11/4 time with an ex tra rest tas te with a m aster collection o f infinity every fift h me asure and an extra fifth for go od measure). But th ey d idn't • vari ed a nd definitely inorganic ro ck . From there, it was a straight sho t reckon o n extra downbeat b y t h e Stumpjumpers. When 1 rode th e co urs e, across the d esert back to the p its at a leisurely 28 mph for th e "B" riders. The my guide foul ed a few pl u gs o n o n e " A" riders probably had to hustle a bit, section and we h ad to wai t for him . Total time lost was ab o ut 15 mi nu tes. t o mak e a 35 mph schedule. This time was originally going to be A fter a brief lunch, th e riders had an subtracted from the time fo r th e sec tio n op port u nit y to check o ut th eir sand but apparently th ey d ecided not to technique. There was virtually n o ro ck (forgo t?). Anyway that was the o n the second lo op but a goodly masterstroke that was needed to make numb er of whoop-de-does were sure the winner really is determined b y included to make sure that no one luck. No one could have figured out loafed. High point for many riders, that maneuver . though, were the sand d unes which Everyone seemed to like the course. were, fortunately, mostly down. Riding T he first lo op started with some p retty down a sand dune is a real b last if you easy cross-cou ntry trail and one hill that go at a reas o nabl e .rate of speed but gave a few riders some prob lems but was many of the beginners blew it by going duck soup for most. The trail down too slow and dragging their feet. meandered over to a fire road t hat was Do it that way and it's just wobbly pretty rocky, but no p roblem unless work. the Fine w eat he r accomp an ied end uro , but it didn't start th at way . Saturday th e wind blew and b y Saturday night a sm all gale was in th e making. Tents bl ew down and camp fire s threatened ' every th ing in the vicinity . But th e worst problem was t hat the wind blew down many of the co urse arrows and covered the lime with dust. Mu ch of the marking had to be redo n e Sunday morning. It was acc o mplish ed but th e results were not perfect. Quite a few riders especially th e b eginners, go t lost and wandered around for a bit. One o f the wonders of th is sport is that there are so few fataliti es. Most o f the b egin ners were out there without water, matches, tools or the faintest idea of where they were. One girl returned to the third check three times saying she couldn't find the trail , in spite of the fact that you could se e the riders some fo ur miles aw ay and could almost see the pits! 1 was out on t he co urse taking pic t ures an d 1 saw something mo vin g a couple h u ndred yards off the course. I decided to investigate an d found a rider who had taken off his sh irt, jacket and helm et _ 'l< ..... _ ~ Ie ·... ..., ~::o Wh enever you blo w it and have t o push uphil l, you can be sure there 'll be a crowd watching even if yo u are 20 mil es fr om anywhere. and t ry ing to wal k som ew he re with h is gear, hobo-fash io n, over his sh ou lder. He h ad n o water , o f co urse, and no id ea where h e was. He had broken th e chai n on his bike and had no parts to fix it, naturally. I gave him a ride to th e next check out of sympathy. Not for him . Fo r the club members who would be out looking for him in the middle o f the night while h e made his way unerringly to the middle of De ath Vall ey . Many be ginners did ride the co urse su ccessfull y an d th ose wh o did had a wonderful time. You co uld always tell the firs t-t ime rid ers. They came in ca ke d with dust, with their bars bent and levers broken and a mil e-wid e grin , an hour and 22 minutes late. Mike Capalite, who writes wrenching art icl es, did the first loop with his lady on the ba ck of th e bike and a 9·year-old on a Yamaha Mini -enduro trailing behind. Mike said he wouldn't help t he boy p ick up the bike when h e dropped it or help hi m p ush up t he hills o r anything. Get h im started righ t. The boy made it, but he was pretty beat. The Stumpjumpers wanted to compute the results on the spot with the help of the riders, but they ch an ged their minds when they found many of th e rid ers d id n't even understand the rules, let alone know h ow to figure their score . So the winner o f the Ya maha will be announced in a few da ys and a Trophy presentation will b e arranged, except that it will be merchandise instead of trophies that will be awarded. 1 offered a trophy to any sup er-sh oe who co uld double my average speed aro und the co urse and I understand the re were a t least two riders who took a shot at it. Bravo! They were Ed Farrel and Tom Deiter. 1 don't know if either of them made it, or if there were any o th ers, but it's nice to see someone take a d iffi cult challenge. All in all, th e da y was very su ccessful ex cept th at n ot en ough money was raised, so we hereby mak e ano th er offer. Any of you who missed the eve n t because yo u had to go to ch urch, may still enter. That's right. You can still get in. J ust send your en try nad your five bucks and we guarantee you'll be a finisher. Or at least that you'll get a finishi ng pin. Since you're starting late, you p ro bably wo n' t have m u ch of a chance to win the bike, b ut wh at th e h ell. . Resu lts in a w eek or tw o .