Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

v .i6' It) Q. M .... '" . by dave sanderson e ~ .... ?l w Z W ...J U >- U INSIDE DAVE . MUNGENAsT a v e Mungenast is tall and s a n d y h a i r e d , a polite, quiet-seeming man when y o u first meet him. But there is much more here than that, and it begins to come out as you talk : how he runs a successful motorcycle dealership and a succes sful car dealership in St. Louis ; how he has been one of the kingpins in developing the two Missouri motorcycle organizations; how he has been to every ISDT since 1967; how he has spent the last two years developing a 1700 acre motorcycle park designed strictly for family recre ation. It was typical of th e kind of man Mungenast is that he showed up at th e ISDT qualifiers last spring on a Honda 250 . As , a co n siste n t Six Days medal ist on Pen tons a n d Huskies he had origin ally signed up for the qu alifiers as part of th e Husqvarna team, but instead chose to go his own way o n the quiet, unremarkabl e-looking stock Honda, The switch from the proven Swedish ma chines to a bik e with no competition re cord at all seemed strange to people who didn't know Dave, but the results speak for themselves-a solid string of gold medals, including one of the eleven golds at the tough 1972 three day Berkshire. Dave is very much h is own man and has himself together in a way that very few other competition riders in this country d o, lt is this quiet forcefulness that impresses you in conversation. Dave is artic u late a nd thoughtful on a whole variety of topi cs connected with motorcycling, and it is always clear that his opinions are his own, arrived at from his own observations and experience , and that he is prepared to act on them . Take the problems of the Missouri MIC '' It'S the only competition that I really feel that I enjoy; I like to get really Involved." affiliate , for example . ""'hen the job for us, " Sunday down at Fort Hood, and I "In Pol and Bud Ekins, Malcolm Missouri Motorcycle Dealers Association It isn't surprising th at a per son with thought, 'Boy, he's gonna be late,' Smith, John Penton, Leroy Winters, was formed in March of 1972, Dave was this direct, pragmatic wa y o f attac king be cause he was just poking along, or at myself and John Nelson rode Huskys, ele cted President. But it quickly became least that's the way it felt t o me .' But and there were about four other clear to him that th e MMDA could ' problems should be a dedicated trail rider and su ccessful co m pet it io n rider. hell, he rolled in there four minutes Americans there. Three o f us got Golds : never do more th an part of the job-the There is no pl ace to h id e on a trail early , sat there, looked over his bike, Bud Ekins and Malcolm Smith a nd me . small dealers who could n ' t pay the $160 bike-your failures and suc cesses are That was my first attempt and that's very nonchalant, very co o l. dues and in d ivid uals were still left out. your own , and you have to learn to what sort o f spoil ed me; I got my taste Dave's answer was to put together an co pe with them on your o wn . Nor is it ·'The ·P e n t o n team i s o u r of Gold the first time, y o u kn ow. That's organization th at would involve all parts surprising that Mungenast's favorite hope--they 've got the potential to be a what got me hooked 'on this. I've been of the motorcycle community. The form of com p etit io n should be th e Six World Trophy Team if they can just sort t o every one sin ce, and I'd like to plan Missouri Motorcycle Association was Days. The ISDT is a very sp ecial kind of o u t so me of their problems. They 're just on riding at least three or four more. In formed ab o u t a year ago, and it now has c o m p e ti tion, an d th e qual it ies it a little too aggressive, I think, but th at's 1967 when you ca m e b ack nobody had over 1000 individual members who pay d emands are precisely those that co m e part of being young··the average age is even heard of the ISOT.. in Cycle World dues based on the number of bikes they only ab o u t 21 or 22, The other thing is there was ab o u t a paragraph, and it said, through most strongly in tal king with sell , ranging from $35 for the dealer the friction be tween the manager and 'Three Americans won Gold Medals in Dave. The spectacular riders almost who sells 50 or less per year to $900 for the te am - Doug Wilford is an excellen t Zakopane, Bud Ekins, Malcolm Smith, the dealer who sells 1000 or more. never do well in the ISDT; it is the manager, but he isn't tactful with them. and another rider.' That was my press quiet, s e l f'-c o n tained people like "We formed the MMA primarily so Mungenast who have the inner 'reserve J 0 h n Penton and I have had our co \.'erage on my trip to Europe." we could involve the individuals and the differences of opinion, but he's the only of strength that it takes to co m e back small dealer, the guy who didn't want to guy that's really put his money where pay his $~ 60," says Dave. "Now we've year after year and do well . ' After a string of rides on Pen tons, "It's the only competition that I his mouth is when it comes to the ISDT,- Dave went to Czechoslovakia last year got a sliding scal e where the big guy and now that he's laid the groundwork pays his share and the little guy pays his really feel that I enjoy," says Dave. "I with a very special Honda 250, only to everybody's going to try and pick up on share. I got up this year at the MIC like to really get involved, It's so much be put out by me chanical 'p ro b lem s, it." . more than most people realize. You meeting down in Florida and told them This year he is part of the ambitious Dave's own ISDT involvement dates Triumph effort ; so far he is pleased with what we 've done in our state, and at know, you can get out there and bomb least 20 people asked me for co p ies of through the woods for one day and have back to 1967. "Leroy Winters called me the bike's reliability and good handling, up one day and told me that Edison a good' time, but when you have to do our dues scale, and a lot more people but not so happy with the 325 pound Dye was coming to St. Louis to see me weight. In spite of all this Dave still that for six days in a row, and you have wrote me after I got back asking for information-so there's a definite need to make sure that your motorcycle stays about going to the Six Days, and I don't considers himself a fun rider--"and the know how the hell that ever came together , and you have to keep yourself minute it stops being fun I'll quit," he for it." about. I got my first bike in 1951, and I says. "We've got I 0 or 12 guys from the in one piece. your mental outlook At the moment everything in becomes the most important thing. Like always rode the dirt, but I just rode in shop, and we just go out and play on Missouri is being done through the the woods locally for fun, and I still Sunday, ride 60 or 70 miles and ride a they say, by the third day most guys are MMA. "People look at the MIC, and it's would rather do that than ride in an ' lot harder than I do in a trials, really, psychologically defeated, and that's a big thing up there in Washington, why the true professionals like the event. I was way over the hill before I because if you c rash you're not out, you D.C . , and there 's no working Cze chs and the West and East Germans ever even went to a National enduro--I know. And it's really fierce relationship," Dave says, The MMA competition. The Husky team went are so difficult to bea t. went to Jack Pine for the first time in employs a full time Executive Secretary "In this country, the Penton kids are 1965 and won my class. And I'd won down to Doe Run, my motorcycle park at $12,000 a year, and he has recently about the only ones who are the 24 hour Nation Championship south of St. Louis, the o th er day for been hired to represent the MMDA as psychologically up for this thing, along " Mar a th o n here in St. Louis two or three some publicity pictures, and they just well though hi s primary responsibility with Malcolm Sm ith and a few others. I times. got their bikes out, had their pictures will still be to t he MMA. The resul ts of th ink this is something th at Malcolm "Anyway, in rolls Dye, and he had a taken and loaded up and left. They having a man fulltime speak for psyches himself for all year. The ride for me on a Husqvarna, I'd never didn 't even ride around. I just don't themselves: five minibike parks, three in Americans are getting more series ab o u t even seen a Husqvarna, didn't even understand how people can look at St. Louis and two in Kansas City ; good it -I'd say there were 30 pe ople out of know what it was, and I'd never ridden motorcycling that way," relat ion s with b o t h the Missouri th e 300 entries at the Missouri ISDT one until I went over to Poland . I was Doe Run is Dave's current project, a National For ests ; i n cl us i o n of qualifier who w ould make 'go o d I 700 acre park about an hour south of riding Honda Scramblers at that time, motorcycles in the latest Missouri driver competitors, guys like Malcolm , Ed the 250 a nd 305 Scramblers, and before St. Louis near Potosi, the center for training manual. Schmidt, Ronnie Bohn, Dick Mann." that I'd had Zundapps and Triumphs enduro co m p e t it i on in the area. In Dave's way of doing things the Currently aobut 25 miles of marked one How do you judge someone's ISDT and just about anything you can name. full time man is the key. "You have to potential? "Jake Fischer had bad luck There was no specialized equipment; way trails wind up and down the rocky, have him, I c o u l d be the most last ' y ear but he's another good rider, you just took whatever was available wooded hills; there is a motocross dedi cated, devoted guy in the and I wouldn't have said that until r and went home and rebuilt it. I had a course that is used regularly for world.. but I don't have the time. I've rode with him at Fort Hood and 250 Zundapp Super Sabre and Amateur even ts, the beginnings of a got a business to run, and this is just like watched him pace himself, and he can everything on it was off of something children's playground and not much anything else , you hire somebody to do do it. He can go fast when he has to, else-it had the exhaust pipe off a else. "People come out there and say, it for you. The main thing is to find somebody competent, and I think we've and he can cool it and still get in on Maico, the gas tank off a J -B BMW 'Oh, is that all you've got? You've been time. I followed him to the first check handlebars, and God knows what else. here, two years and that's all you got?' It0t a good man. He's done an excellent D .. , v

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