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even a factory one, could afford a Porsche, Whaley explained that his contract was incentive based. "It wasn't like my motocross buddies who were making big bucks regardless of where they finished," he said. "If I won events, I did well, and, fortunate- ly, in 1977, I won everything, so it was a really good year for me." Whaley said he's proud he accomplished what he did dur- ing a time when trials was at a high point in America. "With all the factories involved, there were a lot of talented riders," Whaley says. "There was Lane [Leavitt], Bernie [Schreiber], Joe Gugiel-melli, Don Sweet from New York. There were a handful of riders on any given day who could win. There doesn't seem to be as much interest in the sport these days. It just sort of died." Bernie Schreiber went on to fame in the World Champion- ships, but despite his talent, Whaley never experienced the same success at the interna- tional level. "I had some good results in Europe, but when I went from Honda to Montesa, it was never the same," he said. "With Honda, if I needed a new part or something it was almost imme- diate. With Montesa, they had what I call the 'mañana syn- drome.' Everything was going to be done tomorrow. They were just so laid back that I had a real hard time mesh- ing with them to the point where it became a problem. I wasn't over there to just hang out. It didn't work for me." Whaley had his days on every type of trials course, but he was best known for his strength on dry courses with big, steep boul- ders—like the ones he grew up riding in the San Diego area. Whaley won his final National Championship in 1980 and after that he raced only sporadically. He rode a couple of events for Beta Motorcycles when that company made its first at- tempts in trials, but according to Whaley, the Italian bikes at that point were not quite ready for primetime. By the early 1980s, Whaley, who was only 22 at the time, was out of the sport. "Unless I went full time to Europe, I kind of felt there was nowhere else to go for me," Whaley said. "I wanted to be remembered as a rider who went out on top and didn't try to hang on past his prime. You see that happen and so many times riders tend to be remembered as the rider you last saw instead of the rider they were earlier in their career." After racing, Whaley became a building contractor and moved to Montana in 1992. There he became a snowboard instruc- tor. His second wife, Dawn, was also into that line of work. Today, Whaley is a grandfather. He keeps his competitive juices flowing by racing bicycles—both road and mountain bikes. As for being the forgotten man of observed trials, Whaley says that being away from the sport and living up in a remote part of the country probably hasn't helped his case. "I have friends who keep me up to date with what's going on in the trials world, but I've sort of separated myself from it. Although when I moved up here, I was surprised to see how many trials bikes were around. I think I found out where all of Yamaha's old trials bikes have ended up," he laughs. "Every hunter up here has one. They don't know what it is or what it was made for, but, doggone, they sure are geared nice and low so they can get around these trails." CN Marland Whaley passed away in 2019 at the age of 60. This Archives edition is reprinted from the November 4, 2009, issue of Cycle News. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor CN III ARCHIVES P138 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives