2013 World 2 Stroke Championship

The sounds alone tell the story!

World 2 Stroke Championships

 

Eric McKenna demonstrates how an old YZ250 can still roost! Photo by Dirt Bike's Ron Lawson.

This weekend Glen Helen will fill with the smell of pre mix and rasp of 2 strokes. Listen to what Lori Bryant, Glen Helen manager has to say about the event.

GLEN HELEN’S LORI BRYANT: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD TWO-STROKE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Talladega first turn is the biggest, fastest, widest and most steeply banked first turn in motocross.

While the MXA gang was at Glen Helen on Thursday testing pipes with Daryl Ecklund, Dennis Stapleton and Austin Politelli, we talked to Glen Helen general manager Lori Bryant about the upcoming World Two-Stroke race.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR THE WORLD TWO-STROKE CHAMPIONSHIP?
"We think that it is important that the sport put more emphasis on two-strokes because it leads to affordable bikes, less expensive racing and bikes that can be worked on by the riders themselves. We have seen lots of local riders give up their four-strokes, go out and buy a used two-stroke (for anywhere from $1000 to $3000) and do just as well as they were doing on their $9000 four-strokes. Motocross needs two-strokes and to get more young people and families involved. Glen Helen wants to help bring back the grass roots feel that made motocross what it is today."


Lori Bryant.

SPEAKING OF COSTS, WHAT DOES THE WORLD TWO-STROKE COST TO RACE?
"We want to keep the entry fees as low as possible—if you enter online the entry is only $30 (and $35 on race day). Plus, a second class is only $20. The Pro class entry will be $40. We will have transponder scoring, but Glen Helen does not charge an extra fee for transponders and we don’t require any kind of membership. This race is open to everyone with a two-stroke."

WHAT ARE THE CLASSES?
"We will have classes for all ages, all skill levels and all bikes sizes, from 50cc on up. During the warm-up races last month our biggest class was the Over-50 Experts."

WHAT ABOUT THE PRO RACES?
"There are two Pro classes—the Husqvarna 125 Challenge and the 250 Pro class (which is open to any size two-stroke)."

HOW BIG IS THE PURSE?
"The combined purse is $9500 between the two classes. The winner of the 250 class will earned $2000, while the 125 winner will get $1000—plus a brand-new Husqvarna CR125 (even if he won the 125 race on a Yamaha or KTM)."

HOW LONG ARE THE MOTOS?
"Every moto will be run on time, not laps. The two Pro classes will race for 20 minutes plus two laps, while the amateurs will go 15 minutes."


The view from the top.

WILL THE TRACK BE THE SAME AS IT HAS BEEN?
"No. We will build a new track for the MTA World Two-Stroke Championship. The track will have more ups and downs and it will include some new features plus Talladega, Shoei Hill and Mt. Saint Helen. We want a fun track that will challenge all the different classes from Novice to Pro."

ANYTHING ELSE?
"The April 6-7 weekend will be a big party. On Saturday we will open the two-stroke track (on the USGP track) for practice from 8:00 to 2:00pm. And, for riders who want a warm-up race, Troy Lee is holding a special 15th Anniversary REM race on the back track on Saturday. There will be a Pro purse for the Over-40 Experts, Over-50 Experts, 250 Pros and 450 Pros. Plus, Troy is bringing his complete team, semi truck and sponsors out. Then on Sunday, we will open the gates at 6:00 a.m. for the World Two-Stroke Championships (and there will be an ARX vintage race on the REM track also)."

Reprint from MXA Website

2013 WORCS...Lake Havasu, AZ

MXGP of Thailand

MXGP has been on a worldwide expansion this season. Here is some footage of the new track in Thailand. How new? Well the track was created just for this GP. This short video was sent by a friend of a friend who was at the race track while it was being built. He lives half the year over there. His words below......

JUST A MONTH BEFORE IT WAS AN OPEN FIELD WITH A BUNCH OF ROCKS.THE WEEK BEFORE WE WERE OUT PICKING ROCKS OFF THE TRACK.WOW DID THEY DO GREAT JOB IN THE LAST WEEK! HERES SOME OF THE ACTION..JACK

Return of the 2-Stroke!

New Beta 250 Two Stroke

Here is a neat video of the new Beta 250 two stroke. The rider jumping thru the tree is our own #33 putting the Beta and his new Fly gear to the test. Both the gear and the bike look great. We will have more on the bike later.

Saddle Soap.....Mink Oil ?????

Recently I received a note from a friend who was passing along an e mail he had received from his buddy Dave Holeman. Many of you may remember Dave and his writing style from the heyday of motorcycle publications, he wrote for many. I had a hard time controlling my laughter as I read this. I completely understood. Some of the modern day vets will not remember Hi-Point but the concept of change applies to all of us. Enjoy Dave's perspective.

Saddle Soap

I've been after my son David to 'clean up and take care of his (expensive, leather) FootJoy golf shoes'. To no avail. "What do I clean'em with dad? Dish soap and water?" Me gray matter went into reverse and I tho, "Hmmm, Holyman, how'd we take care of all those leather boots back in the day? Sear's lace-up 'Linesmen Boots', AXOs, Full Bores, Alpinstars and, my fav, Hi-Points."

In his 'wood shop' they use a fair amount of "linseed oil" to finish, protect lumber projects...something I used gallons of in the Corps on M-1 and M-14 wooden stocks. And I remember all the stuff I used on my dirt bike, street too, boots to keep'em in good shape, clean, waterproof, snow proof. "David, I'll get you some 'Saddle Soap' to clean and protect those golf shoes, okay?" The obvious reply was, "Huh? Saddle Soap? What's that? Never heard of such a thing, are you kidding me, dad?"

I thought I had some Kiwi Saddle Soap 'round here, but found none. The other day I drop into the much vaunted "Sports Chalet #1" store in hi-zoot La Cañada, my neighbor. "Where's the Saddle Soap, please? I ask the 3 early-20s kids at the entry...greeters of sorts. "Ah, er, what's that again?" I repeat, slowly, "Saadddlle Soooaapp". A fascinating look of bewilderment comes across the faces of these three (2 boys, 1 girl) college grads. 

Okay, I'll give'm a hint: "You know, a dressing for care and cleaning of leather boots for example." The 'cool' blond lad walked me over to the Chalet's huge shoes department...10,000 tennies of all types. And hiking boots with a synthetic mountain to practice climbing on. Two sales guys there. "Saddle Soap? Never heard of that. What's it for?....Oh, over there on aisle-13." On 13 there's a small collection of spray cans, squeeze bottles and canisters for waterproofing (wax) re snow and sundry dumbshit crap priced for politicians to buy...on their expense account. Nothing for"leather care".

 My young guide looks and reads and is numb about what'n Hades there and what my request is. You know, at this moment, I felt both 'old' and 'smart as Einstein'. The lad looks at me, and complete sincerity says, "Sir, I just have no idea what Saddle Soap is and what you need. Sorry."

 It's at these moments I pray David will not be as useless and stupid and uninformed and without wit. I thought and didn't wanna insult this Cal Tech grad working a retail counter for minimum wage who's hard-on is smarter than both his hemispheres. So, back to basics: "What do you think Saddle Soap would mean, son?" The kid hadn't a phukking clue and we walked back to the entrance. I said, "Well, what are saddles made of, covered with?" Now there's a toughie! He didn't know!!! I suggested, "Leather?", and his eyes popped open..."Oh, I didn't think of that!" I said it's not a 'trick' question.

Now, says this ole Marine and dirt donker: "What do ya think saddle soap infers?" Again, as his walking pace slowed to a stop, "Ah, gee, I'm not sure." Now, how does one 'educate' young people with $250,000 college educations and degrees who are working in sporting goods stores, Subway, Target, Mickey Dees, etc. about, "What meanum...?"

"Hmm?" says I. So I ask if he knows what 'Kiwi shoe polish' is...never heard of it. Next, "Have you ever 'waxed and polished your dress shoes'?" We’re at the cash registers now, but it's 9:15 AM and the store's vacant. I asked the other two 'kids' at the counter..."Nah." Finally I asked, "How do you think world-class hikers, motorcycle racers, police, military and the like care for their leather boots and gear?" Silence. I've done it! How to "silence" teenagers who know everything.

I left actually depressed and humored. Brainiacs who can't tie their shoes. Billion dollar bridges in America built by our adversaries because we can't teach our kids how to weld...or clean & waterproof boots. Rosemont middle-school with the only "shop" class in Glendale Unified....Pasadena, Burbank and most all others in CA.

Somewhere in this mess of a house I know there's frigging Saddle Soap. Ah hah!!!!! In the hall closet, atop the shelf with the various small boxes (empty), there it is. Inside an old "Hi-Point Motocross Boot" cardboard box is my vintage supply of leather oils, medicines, potents and prescriptions for animal skin life and care. It was literally like opening a time capsule. I've lived here 26-1/2 years and 15 down in Montrose. Don't remember last time I looked in this box. The odor of waxes and chemicals was like walking past a bakery, donut shop...mind drifts back in time. Hundreds of images past. Honest to God! My Randsburg home...Baja...Cycle...Motorcyclist...Cycle Guide...Yamaha...Maico...Matchless...AJS...Greenhorn...Last Chance Enduro...Dirt Donks...Leo Lake...Braverman...Greenie...Noodleman...'Doon...JT...Schiller...Dale P. Boller...Donna...JC...Kem...virgin desert after a spring rain...endless dry lakes...downhills to die for...smokebombs...naked check points...hip-deep snow in the Mojave...broken bones...teens crippled...riders dead before their time...#1 in the world...hot wax and Xacto knives...DT-1...riding Bob Blair's 1st-Quacker...crashing...emergency rooms...casts...surgery...pain. Oh, now I remember why I quit that shit too.

Nonetheless, opened the box for David after school that day and had him stick his nose in it and see the "stuff" from back in the day. "Geese dad, what's all that stinky stuff for?  Smells awful." Opened one after another and had him sniff, touch and rub between his fingers. He was puzzled and fascinated. Explained what'n'hell "Saddlesoap" is and is for. But what still has him stumped are the Mink Oil containers. I told him way back in the day the rich would extract special oils from dead minks to make Mink Oil for their leather coats and shoes and things. "Dad, what's a mink?"

Before his start-of-the-season 'Toyota Tour Cup Qualifying School" next weekend down Elsinore way, he's gonna clean and treat his FootJoy size-13 golf shoes and find out what Saddle Soap and Hi-Point Mink Oil are. Sorry to be wordy...I kinda drifted back into a time warp at the smell of that Hi-Point boot box's contents.

Drop the banner, boys!

 Dave Holeman

Villopoto, Weimer, Why Atlas Brace

Bucket List

These days I often hear people talk about their bucket list. Maybe that's what happens as you get older. You start to look at the clock differently. Recently my friend Doug (21J) mentioned he wanted to race Baja, not just ride but race. One of those things that sometimes lands on a bucket list. Well sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. The challenge was Doug's age...70. Our own #33 quickly overcame that problem and found a 60 team in need of another rider. Doug raced the Baja 250 and held his own despite his lack of experience. Now he is an avid Baja trail rider. Baja racing ... well he's been there done that! Watch this short video of Doug's race for a look at Baja seldom seen. 

 Hats off to Doug for pursuing life with Gusto!

Trophy Truck 31 passes Bike #609 in Guatamote from zoomlenz4u.smugmug.com on Vimeo.

Riding With My Heroes!

One of the great thrills of attending the ISDT Reunion Ride is the opportunity to meet, talk and ride with some of the guys who I looked up to when I was a teenager in the early 70s.  When I was banging my 125 Suzuki in the first years of NETRA’s Junior Enduro series, I never thought in a million years I’d get to meet and be on a first name basis with the top enduro riders of the day…guys like Jack Penton, Carl Cranke, Don Cutler, Charlie Vincent, Dick Mann, Preston Petty.  Likewise, I never thought that, thanks to my continued involvement with the ISDTRR, I’d actually get to ride with these guys.  Fast forward 40 years, and my wildest thoughts have become reality.

At this year’s ISDTRR at the John Zink Ranch in Oklahoma, I got to ride on the same minute as Carl Cranke (10 ISDTs), Fred Camerson (7 ISDTs) and J. D. Hammock, Oklahoma native Six Day rider.  I turned 55 this year, Carl is 64, and Fred just turned 70.  Shouldn’t be too hard to keep up with some “old guys”, right?  After all, we all slow down as we age and get to the point where we all remember when we used to be fast.  I’ll start out by saying that these guys have aged gracefully….which is putting it mildly…and let me put this into perspective for the doubting Thomas folks out there. 

First of all, I’m an admitted B rider for life.  Some guys just “have it” in the woods, others have to work for it.  I never really “had it.”  Oh, I did OK in the junior enduros and even in my 40s I could manage to place well at the end of the year depending on how many events I rode, but I always had to work for it.  On my best day of riding, where you and the bike are one and everything is working great, I can sometimes hang with an A rider who’s having a crappy day.  Needless to say, I wasn’t courted for factory rides or spots on America’s Six Days teams.

Still, we all like to think we can hang with guys 10 or 15 years older than us, even if they were way better riders than we were back in their prime.  Age is the great equalizer…yeah, keep on telling yourself that.  Here’s a snapshot of reality….

Fred Cameron is a really cool guy.  He just turned 70 but you’d never guess it by looking at him as he looks easily 20 years younger.  He’s always been a small bore guy and he was riding a YZ125 at the Reunion.  I spent most of the weekend riding with him and here is what it takes to keep up with him on the trail.  You know how it is in the woods when the rider ahead of you is someone you need to beat for points for this enduro or maybe to wrap up your series championship.  You’re doing a good job hauling down the trail and you catch that whiff of 2-stroke in the air and you know it’s “that guy.” 

All of a sudden you go into special test mode…you’re up on the tank, charging all the corners, heavy on the throttle and taking chances you know you shouldn’t.  You attack boneyards you’d normally slow down for and pray your bike doesn’t go wacky underneath you.  You blow over blind hills and into blind corners with reckless abandon and pray some sort of stopper doesn’t materialize in front of you.  In short, you’re going for the gold with every bit of adrenalin-infused energy you can muster and hoping that you don’t auger in before you catch your prey and put the pass on him

That pace, that “going for the championship” speed, is what it took for me to stay on Fred’s back fender on the trail sections between the special tests.  I had to work my tail off to stay with him and hope I didn’t do something bone-headed, while Fred just motored smoothly along ahead of me like it was just another day in the park.  Smooth, effortless, no wasted motion, and an uncanny ability to read the trail.  Don’t get me wrong, I was having a ball but I spent most of the weekend moments from disaster.  Lady Luck was on my side and I didn’t do anything really stupid, but Fred just impressed the heck out of me, especially when I considered that he wasn’t really pushing it or riding over his head….and he was fully capable of doing this all day long for 6 days if he needed to.  Impressive to say the least! 

Fred and I were pretty close on special test times, but that was more a matter of terrain and displacement.  On the wide open stuff, I had 400cc to play with and bested Fred’s times by a few seconds.  In the tighter stuff his 125 gave nothing away and his superior ability gave him a decided edge that my extra horsepower couldn’t overcome, and he topped me in every one of the technical tests.  Again, one bobble on my part and it was all over.  Fred held plenty in reserve and for the most part toyed with me.

Carl Cranke was also on the same minute with us, and one minute behind were Jack Penton and Guy Cooper.  Those guys kept up the same wicked trail pace on the transfer sections, but when it came to the special tests it was a different story.  At the first special test on Saturday, I was quite ready to let Carl go into the test first, but he was over talking to Jack and Guy and Guy’s brother Chuck, and motioned me to go on ahead.  When the starter’s arm dropped, I hammered into the test which started out on a long, gradual, fast  downhill along a fence line with several dropoffs before turning into the woods for a bit and then emerging again onto the fast downhill. 

At the bottom of the downhill, probably ¾ of a mile, the test took a 90 degree left turn and went out across some lightly treed pasture.  Like I said, I was on it hard from the start, but when I hit the left turn I heard a whistle behind me.  I pulled slightly to the right and Carl went by me like I was dragging a boat anchor.  I’ve got a Rev-Loc clutch in my 400, so there’s no missed shifts, no clutching the corners,  no worrying about stalling out or being in the right gear, you just gas it and go, go, go.  I kept Carl’s fender in sight for maybe 10 seconds, then it was nothing but dust and I never saw him again until the checkout.  

A half mile later I heard another bike coming up fast on me.  This time it was Jack Penton, riding a ’99 250 KTM.  He flew by me and proceeded to nearly float across a rocky creek crossing that had me puckering up big time.  I wish I could hang with them just to watch them ride….they make it look SOOO easy!  Next to pass me was Guy Cooper who was riding a 1974 Penton 400 with 4 or 5 inches of suspension travel…but he might as well have been on a 2012 bike because he was flying faster than Jackie or Carl and beat them both when the special test times were posted.  

These guys are nothing but throttle or brakes, nothing in between in those special tests.  No wasted motion, no wasted thought.  When the trail opens up and you make the conscious decision to drop a gear and hammer on it, they’ve already made that choice and are on the gas before you finish the thought process.  They’ve put 20 or 30 feet on you just that fast, in a couple of split seconds, and when they do that on every turn and every obstacle it doesn’t take long before even their dust cloud is gone and you’re riding alone again.  Some of that comes from riding thousands of miles in hundreds of events over the years, but a lot of it is just uncanny natural ability that I know I’ll never have.

I wrote a few years ago about riding with Don Cutler who is the master of smooth riding.  I rode behind Donald for the better part of two days and never saw him pick a bad line.  He stayed up on the pegs 95 percent of the time and the only time he put his foot down was when he came to a stop.  I could hang on his fender so long as I rode hard and didn’t make any mistakes.  One bobble and he was gone and I was playing catch up.  It is easy to see why these guys were so successful at the Six Days and every other type of event they entered.  I’m just humbled that they let me eat their dust and I thank them for a great and fun ride!

Jeff Debell

2013 ISDT Reunion Ride  August 24-26  Cheshire, Massachusetts 

The 2013 ISDT Reunion Ride will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1973 International Six Days Trial held in Dalton, Massachusetts.  Included in the weekend activities will be a 2-day AHRMA-sanctioned cross country competition, a non-competitive Legends Backroads Tour...a dual-sport style event for those wishing to enjoy a relaxing weekend with their pals on two wheels, and a Saturday evening banquet and awards ceremony. 

The Reunion Ride will be headquarted at Jim Hoellerich's Ayr Hill Farm in Cheshire, MA and will feature historical displays including Jim Hoellerich's personal vintage enduro and ISDT motorcycle museum.  Jim's museum contains dozens of vintage competition motorcycles, all of which have been restored to showroom condition, as well as tons of memorabilia from the golden age of enduro riding in New England and the 1973 Dalton ISDT.

All vintage motorcycle lovers are welcome to attend and participate in the Reunion Ride weekend, with a special invitation extended to all former and current ISDT and ISDE competitors.  Information on the Reunion Ride and registration can be found on the AHRMA website, www.ahrma.org, or email Jeff DeBell at jeffdebell@aol.com.