STORY TIME: THE COMEBACK THAT NEVER WAS

After over 50 years of motorcycling from Moto Trial, Moto X, Enduro, X Country, Trail Riding, Hill Climbs, Adventure Riding and more, I should be hanging up my boots and kicking back rather than kicking the bike.

But the addiction that is motorcycling never goes away. In fact, it gets more and more addictive as time goes by when one has more time and resources to indulge in what is a lifetime passion. Life is a bitch! When you can afford the extras, time takes them away.

Last year I built up a Bultaco Sherpa 325 Twin Shock Trials Bike to ride in the Twin Shock Class at club events. This was real fun and after all, it was what I used to do quite well in the 1970”s. I managed to break my leg first-time out; never any damage in all the Trials of the previous millennium, but that is another story. I still have to get the plates and pins out but I eventually got a clearance from the specialists that I could renew my competition licence. Old age does have one advantage, MNZ gave me a FREE Championship Competition Licence because I am over 65 Yrs of age. Just like the Gold Card but better.

There doesn’t seem to be any club-type Enduro competitions so I figured I would build a bike and ride a National round just for fun. My plan was to finish before houring out. It is something 80% of Enduro riders can do without too much stress and having been “up there” in the day, I figured it wouldn’t be too much problem Trail Riding the first round at Tokoroa - run by the legend that is Sean Clarke and his Number one fan, Adele.

So what to ride? I already have an XR400 but that is set up for Adventure riding so no go there, plus it still has a kick start. I also have a CRF250X that I bought expired and have rebuilt to near new condition motor-wise. This is a nice bike for Trail Riding but a little too heavy and tall for my liking now that I am less “competitive”.

Son Chris and I have been discussing what a great Trail Bike would be and we both (unknowingly to each other) set about building up hybrid specials from a CRF450 rolling chassis and a CRF230 Engine. We figured that the great suspension, excellent brakes, and good handling would upgrade the CRF230 trail bike engine - giving one a soft, easy-to-ride bike with an electric start.

I will go into just how we went about this in different ways at a later time (we have two of them now) as it is a novel in itself. But briefly, mine is the first to see the trail and after a few adjustments, seemed to be just the ticket for an Enduro. Brake Pads, Air Filter, CRF250X softened suspension front and rear and a DR Trim seat and Workshop Graphics decals. A Lithium battery to save weight was fitted. Add Michelin tyres front and rear with Mousse inserts and the new model designation - the CRF230RX was good to go.

Over Covid and the broken leg, I have been very inactive and to my own disgust, put on 10 kg where it shouldn’t be. This meant a whole new wardrobe for riding so I called in some favours and purchased some O’Neal gear including boots, helmet, gloves, shirt and trousers, hydration backpack with EVS knee braces, kidney belt, and body armour. Fancy I can tell you. A Bonk Bros tool bag (from the 80”s) completed the outfit.

We headed to Tokoroa and the infamous Tar Hill venue where Sean had set out what he said was a pretty easy and ridable course which would be ridden twice to create the distance needed to host a National Enduro. Arriving early, I scored No 1, meaning I would get to ride the course before everyone else got to. Well, that turned out not to be true. ☹

Start time and away we went. The little Honda fired up on the electric leg so there was no turning back. Right at the start, my goggles fogged up so bad I couldn’t see at all, so I left them behind relying only on my glasses. Being blind as a bat is not fun so the glasses were most important.

400 metres into the single track, I decided to have a good look at the ground - to see just how slippery it was. Yep, it was slippery as my shoulder and nose can tell you. So back up and away and trying to put some pace on. Already riders on the second minute had passed me and were off in the distance weaving in and out of the trees at what seemed like Special Stage pace. It was later that I realised that they were just cruising.

The first time I knew it was going to be difficult was when descending a slightly off-camber very single trail track in the trees. The front wheel stepped out on the wrong side of a pine tree I quickly became intimately acquainted with. Fortunately, there was an escape route down in the gully so lucky me. Next was the dreaded cutover of pine slash on all angles. I do recall being able to lift the front and wheelie over the worst then muscling out the rest – back in the day. This didn’t happen and another lay down suddenly became something I didn’t want to happen again. When I was able to stand on the pegs and feed in the enormous power of the 230, the Michelins hooked up skipping over obstacles like a breeze. So I couldn’t blame the tyres, or the suspension…nor the handling. It was just a lack of current talent.

After that, we headed along some formed forestry trail amongst some large pines and then into some young pine plantations (3 or 4 years old) with sticks, stumps and branches at angles designed to either grab your front wheel and yank it to one side thereby losing any sense of balance or pluck you right off your bike. And then it was wheel spin on the branches that had become shiny smooth. The odd shower added to the dread.

By this time I was 30 minutes into the first loop and starting to feel the strain on my thighs. Standing on the pegs was becoming strenuous and as any good rider knows, standing is the only way you can ride with any pace in the wild. Every minute or so another three riders would sneak by with me moving over to give the real men a chance. When long hair started zooming past, I knew that I was way off the pace which made it even more demeaning, adding to the exhaustion. Mind you, it’s no disgrace to be beaten by the ladies at the Enduro – many many guys get beaten regularly by these awesome chicks. What’s more, I even coached most of them back in the day! Maybe I did a good job???

As the km’s ticked by, my eyesight became worse and worse. I was unable to see more than about 3 metres in front of me – anything further out was blurry and looked smooth and easy until the ruts, logs, roots, etc got within 3 meters and then I had to take evasive action or just bulldoze into it. Quite exciting at times and the main cause for slowing down. Bugger!

Having ridden Moto Trials back in the day, my riding skills were slightly above average so when it came to the logs on the trail, it was no problem to just skip over them and carry on. One seemingly fast rider blasted past me half a km before the first biggish log only to have me putter up and over the log and ride away while he was struggling with the bike on its side. I was to pass that rider two more times in the next 20 minutes.

Then it was a matter of survival. Sweat, steam, cramps and sheer exhaustion started taking over until after one step off, the mighty 230 stalled and wouldn’t start. The starter motor wouldn’t fire at all and with no kick start, I was looking at the ultimate DNF from no backup starting system. Where is the kick start when you need it? At this time I was actually grateful that the old girl wouldn’t start. I took off my helmet and sat down on a log to contemplate what I would do next. I spent 15 minutes giving a thumbs up to the rest of the field as they slowly filed past desperate to lose as few minutes as possible.

Eventually, I wandered back to the Honda and had a look round. An axillary switch in the centre of the handlebar clamps was always a puzzle. Turning it off and on whilst the bike was running didn’t seem to do anything so I always wondered why it was even there. I did notice that it was now in the OFF position so I switched in to on and the electric start fired up and the 230RX ran like a sewing machine again. So it isolates the electric start motor. Thinking back, I remembered the previous owner (who tried to get this hybrid running well) had used nicad torch batteries to run the starter motor. This was a total loss system thus the need to isolate the batteries to save them for starting. I have fitted a Lithium battery that charges from the alternator so the switch is not really needed. I must have knocked it when I had the little laydown.

Unfortunately, this meant that I had to carry on as there were now no excuses for waiting for the sweep crew to recover me. So on we went, the 230 and I, up hills, down gullies, over logs, and through ruts until we found the first Terrain Test. We sat back and waited till those few behind me caught up so that I wouldn’t hold them up in the crucial test. I was unable to pick up the pace and cruised through to the finish to fall over right at the scoring tent in front of several officials with John Rushworth mentioning that I was the only rider to crash there. Bugger again!

Off to refuel at the first check. I was about to check in when I saw I was already 36 minutes late. In Enduro, once you are one hour late, you are excluded from the event. I was due to repeat the same loop which meant at the pace I was traveling (and getting slower) I would be well over the hour by the time I got back to check two. Thus I made the decision to withdraw from the event for several reasons:

I didn’t want to be the rider that the organisers had to send a search party out to recover after collapsing from exhaustion.
I didn’t want to do any damage to the CRF230RX that had been abused all morning.
Common sense said that if I carried on I could hurt myself.
I was BUGGERED!

The bike was fine. The tyres hooked up well, the seat was perfect, the suspension worked well for me, there was enough power except for the steep uphills where I had to pick the right line, the lights worked fine, the big pegs kept the boots in line and even the Renthal bars handled the pace while the Zeta handlebar protectors certainly saved the levers, several times!

Disappointing for me as I had expectations of finishing. I never expected anything more than to make the end in one piece but alas, the terrain, the lack of fitness, age and eyesight all played their part – mainly the eyesight. The fact that the vast majority of riders finished without Houring Out indicates that the course was rideable although challenging, requiring reasonable fitness and skill level - compounded slightly by the weather. Four of the five ladies managed the course with few problems. Seven of the nine Juniors and Nine of the 17 Over 55-year-olds also got home so no excuses there either.

Observations on Enduro are and have always been that the less skilled riders, who generally are at the back of the pack, expend the most energy through picking up their bike, lifting it over logs and sticks, dragging it out of ruts and bogs, and general exhaustion from the physical exertion of riding a dirt bike over challenging terrain. And this compounds as the day draws on.

Enduro is a very difficult code to organise, as the vast levels of skill and fitness make it nigh on impossible to cater to everyone. Motocross for example is relatively easy to complete because the courses are rideable; be it slowly for some and extremely fast for others. Completing the 20 or 30 minutes then having an hour or two to rest up before the next race is not so hard if you are just going out for a fun race. Cross Country is similar as most courses are rideable for the beginner also. It is the stamina needed to complete two or three hours that catches up, but then no matter how many laps you complete, you still get a result even if you are passed by the leaders several times.

For Enduro, you have to keep to a prescribed average trail time and if you are more than 1 hour behind time, you are retired from the event. The reason for this is that with an event that might be four, five or six hours long, with the course being up to 130 km long, riders could be out in the forest all night, necessitating many many check crews waiting it out indefinitely for the last couple of stragglers well past a reasonable time. This is impracticable and thus the Houring Out Rule which means all riders are recovered from the course and everyone can pack up and head off home. So it means that riders cannot stop and have a rest before carrying on. The compounding effect of challenging terrain, muscle fatigue, exhaustion and mechanical failure makes it even more difficult as the day progresses out in the bush, on your own without a break.

There is no quick and easy answer to solving this problem other than running easy courses with very loose average times but unfortunately, this does not cater to the top 50% of the riders who thrive on the challenge.

With less and less Enduro competitions available to competitors, the riders that struggle often get lost to the sport in favour of easy fun trail rides. In the past, there were many “Club” type easy Enduro competitions leading to regional events and finally, the Nationals where the Experts and Wannabes strutted their stuff in splendid skills and endurance.

I would suggest that if you were contemplating giving Enduro a go, firstly enter a Vinduro. These are easier events that cater for the older motorcycles from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s but will accept entries from modern bikes. But the modern bikes are not eligible for the championship trophies. Vinduro is run almost identically to National Enduro competition but with a more relaxed atmosphere, less formal interpretation of the finer rules (safety is paramount) and less challenging terrain over a shorter time period. You still get the challenge of riding to average time, there are special tests to see if you can ride at a reasonable pace and the riders and organisers are more than helpful if you need guidance. This is a good way to “give it a go” if you are finding Trail Riding is becoming a little ho-hum and you want a challenge.

Don’t be like me and enter what is reputed to be one of the toughest events of the calendar with no physical preparation after 25 years from your last Enduro.

I must say though that I enjoyed the event itself. I enjoyed the challenge of the terrain which I conquered - although very slowly. I enjoyed meeting up with all the riders who were becoming superstars as I was finishing my competitive era. The organisers are many of the same over the past 30 years and the new helpers are just as enthusiastic as ever.

Enduro is a great sport but just like a Boy Scout – BE PREPARED!

Greg

NOTE; A big thanks to Forest Trail Events for putting on the Enduro, to John and Jane Rushworth for the excellent scoring, to all the helpers, crew and time keepers for their long suffering input and to all the riders that gave me a wide berth as they ripped past me on the trail. And to MNZ for the free competition licence and for co-ordinating the series.

Featured