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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141057
III by Larry Langley CALIFORNIA CITY, CAL ., . Apr. 21, 197 3 - T he SRA came up with an intere stin g co ncept with their Gr eat Dual Enduro/Hare and Hound. T he ide a "6' 1 e, M ..... en .: was to run a somewhat s traig h t lin e en d uro S atu rd ay and t he n use th e same co urse backwards Sunday as a Hare and Hound. The o nly p roblem w as th at SRA picked Easter weekend to ru n it. T here are tw o weekends a year that rid ers will not co me o ut , and they are Eas ter an d Ch ristm as. Only 150 rid ers showed up to try the enduro on Saturday. This was too b ad as th e we ath er was j ust beautiful, and th e S RA laid out a very good co urse. First riders o ut o n the: enduro co urse left at 9 :01, so everyone got a good night's sleep be fore undertaking 57 fun miles on th e first leg of the Grea t Dual. I did something diffe rent on thi s run, I took my seven year old son Bobby along riding Buddy Up (two 01 o ne 1 mo to rcy cle). I wasn 't sure h ow it would work out b u t as it tu rn ed o ut we had a nice ride. T he first five mil es were very enjoyable a t the posted 15 MPH average. SRA to ok us canyo n running up and .d o wn th e neat s an d, ca nyon s abounding in the area. A t the five mile 'check I caugh t up with th e rest o f the guys (an d girl) riding on my number just as th ey were taking off. They left a little early knowing that th e SRA alw ays throws th eir ch ecks about 14 miles out, righ t? Wrong. A hal f mil e further d own th e wash SRA was wai ting with su per sneaky check Nu mbe r One. Boy d id they ca tc h a lot o r ride rs early. I m ot o red up righ t on time lau ghing at my riding frien ds wh o wer e looki ng at their sco recards in sorrow adding up the points fo r being early . This was to be our on ly time zeroi ng a chec k as th e average went up to 24 MPH, an d the re was n o way I could keep up with Bobby on m y ta n k. S o we j ust took it easy an d enjoyed th e spectacula r sce ne ry wh ich con sis ted o f much green gr ass and co lo rful wild flowers wh ich were in full bloom. The co u rse was tigh t bu t fun , and to ke ep on the 24 MPH y o u had to ,really ride your tail off. Only six mile s past ch ec k 1 was the ne xt ch ec k which was another surprise for riders us ed to riding S RA endures . This one also caught a lot ' of rid ers riding off schedule . A fter winding up , th rough an d then down th e Rand Mountains we, fin ally cr ossed Randsburg Highway and gassed up at Garloc k Highway, whe re our pit crews met us. After downing a quick Coke we took o ff on 23 nic e miles of tr ails wh ich would end up at the overnigh t st op , th e Wagon Whee l Cafe o r more c ommo nlv known as Charlie 's Place. . We we re doing pretty good on thi s section and I actu ally got b ac k on schedule wh en Bobby informed me he had to go . Now, sc he d ule o r no t, wh en yo u r seve n y ear old is sit rin g right on y our lap and assure s y o u he can 't wait , it 's tim e to pull ove r fo r a un sch eduled pit st op. N o azguments. Back on t he trail we find o u t th e rear tir e is flat. . > ::;: ~ w Z W ..J U >- U It's about the (yo u guessed it l fifth minute at the SRA Enduro. He's got the 21st numbe r. Wonder if it 's the 2 1st minut e. Sig h . We limped in only 6 mi nu tes late and rec eived our very n ice finishing pins . Bobby was thrilled as it was his firs t. Go t to get that mini -b ike put together for h im. . T he S RA scored the cards and p resen ted th e trophies Saturday night. D. Cummings, a C rid er, won l st overall What were you do ing on Easter wee kend ? with o nly 9 points lost. L. Leach came in 2nd overall with 11 poin ts lost. These are high scores for a SRA enduro but I th ink th e p laceme n t of th e sneaky ch ec ks zap p ed a lot of the riders. Sunday it was Har e and Hound time b ac k to the pi ts at California City. Ab out 100 rid er s too k p art in th e second part of the Great Du al. The co u rse was a lot tighter than desert racers are used to but it was interes ting and fun. Results were not avai lable as this was being written . Summing up, it was a nice weekend b ut I sure wish S RA woul d try th e flip card scoring system. Sawmill Enduro' by J im Arms trong pho to s by Ron Seeman & A rmstro ng UPPE R LA KE, CAL., Apr. 15, 19 73 The U.S. Forest Service (Men docino Nation al Fores t). th e County of Lake, local property owners rand th e weathe r cooperated with a hard-workin g North Bay Motorcy cle Club fi) put on an outstanding 1973 Sawmill Enduro. They had no trouble filling their 750 entry quota by mail and had to tum away post-entries. T he required District 36 Enduro Card (at $2 a copy) apparently was no deterrent. The wea ther had been a li ttle dri er than usual, causing a dust prob lem on parts of th e co urse, but nothing lik e even a m oderate rain would h ave done. It was also a might chilly for the early starters. The first five were off at 7:01 with Carl Cranke and some of th e o ther Penton crew away at 7: 13. . The worst marking of th e day was onl y about tw o mil es o u i, causing a lot o f de to urs . Lat er marking prob lems were more aggravating than serio us. T h at ea rly de tour was a b lessing in disguise for th e over -eager , wi th th e first ch eck at 5 .2 mile s to slo w down th e hot-sh oes. From then on , however, it was a hot-shoe run with d efinitely tepid-toe tim es . T he first hal f had a lot of roads with little trials sect ion s st uc k in b e tw een ; th e 24 MPH average was fast-comfo rtab le. The seco nd and third chec ks were at 19. 6 an d 45 .3 mi les. With over an hou r or ridin g ti me at the sa me average between checks, you did n 't even have to kn ow h o w to divide to do yo ur R=D/T. A t the gas check was to be foun d the _ greatest th ing since. free gas: Free Gas! The ring-a-d ings bring th eir own oil and th e club slosh es the premium go-j uice into gallo n j ugs . Ho w nice no t to have kn ow y o ur Prestone bottle in ti mately en ough to d istinguish it fro m 5 0 0 or so o ther Pres tone bottles. After a mandatroy half hour, th e tough p art be gan. The averag e dropped to 20, and the pace ch ang ed from fast-comfortable to fast-fast. The club had cut miles of brand n ew trail tr ough th ick fo re st and th e going te nd ed to be tigh t and n arrow: it was ofte n hard to p ass even if th e gu y ah ead w as will in g. As fr equently h appens with virg in trail , so me secti ons w ore b adl y and presented lat er numbers with so me real tough ies and their acc o mp anying bottlenecks. And with th e req uire d p ace , bottlen ecks you didn' t n eed. There were lo ts and lots o f logs to cross, esp ecially in an old bum , and lo ts o f water to di tto ; it w asn 't uncommo n to find th e tw o together. T hree more checks be fo re th e finis hkept everybody h on est. The fin ish was 97 .2 lon g mil es fro m th e st art and th e ru n , fo r t hose o n time, too k a fe w minutes under 4 hours. Th e word was th at Bob Keys , a co ns isten t NoCal win ne r , w as early, bu t every body else was pre tt y late . Sw eep in g, checking an d emergency resp on se wer e first-rate. The O ld Adobe Fo urwheelers of Petaluma p ro vid ed radio communication and other worthy services. The only thing lacking was a flip-card system; the resul ts will, it is hoped, be alo ng so meday (ho-hum) . Keeping on schedule tweren't easy at the Sawm ill... enduro that is.