A Hill
Once a desert race is started and the riders have become
more or less aligned along a single trail the contest
is mainly the man and his machine against the terrain.
The desert race is not a spectator sport. Side by side
racing is not an option, as the trail will not accommodate
two motorcycles traveling abreast for any significant
distance. The dust will force a separation between motorcycles
on the same trail the wind velocity and direction will
determine the length of the separation. It is highly unusual
for a competitor to experience this but you can spend
10 miles behind the same rider. A more likely scenario
is a change of terrain will give one rider the advantage,
and adios. You can easily go 10 miles and not see another
rider. The point to all of this being the terrain is your
biggest competitor. The more types of terrain that you
can traverse quickly the better overall racer you have
become.
The sponsoring
club can route the race through difficult terrain or not
so difficult terrain. It stands to reason that the older
clubs have a better collective knowledge of the millions
of acres that make up the Mojave Desert. Thus the older
clubs tend to use difficult terrain. Up hills, down hills,
narrow canyons, and a 10-inch wide hog back with a two
hundred-foot drop on either side are only a few examples.
Almost always when you are racing across that 10”
hog back there is a 40 MPH cross wind. Nobody paved this
piece of terrain so it will have humps and bumps that
bring your front wheel off the ground. That amount of
wind will move your front end about 8 inches which means
if you guessed wrong about where the trail went over this
crest you are taking a quick trip to the bottom. And to
think NASCAR worries about aero-push. The worst is a smooth
lava flow at about a 45 degrees slope in the rain. This
hill is in Red Rock Canyon; I can take you there. One
fellow that I know managed to start this decent in the
rain with his motorcycle out of gear. His highly excited
comment "by the time I was half way down if I could
have gotten the gearbox into 4th (the fastest forward
gear) the rod and piston would have been ejected from
the engine at a speed above escape velocity thus entering
an orbit around earth. Only a person who works for JPL
(Jet Propulsion Laboratories) would describe it that way.
I would simply say the engine would be exceeding the rev
limit. Yes, I left out several of his 4, 5, and even 6
letter words. A club named SoCal had a private downhill.
A view from the top can be seen on a Rams MC web page
on the Internet. They claim a 3,000-foot drop and the
angle is near 60 degrees with 90 degrees being straight
down. The entire second loop of a Hare and Hound Race
was spent in topping a 6,000-foot mountain then working
your way out to a bald sandy face. There was always a
check at the bottom which became visible, as tiny little
people from where you were. I broke the cuboid bone in
my left foot on this hill; I was going too slow. I might
devote a couple of paragraphs to that incident some time
later in an episode on broken bones. As an expert 50 MPH
is about as slow as I can manage going down this hill.
That is with the back wheel locked up most of the time.
Don't touch that front brake. A racing area outside of
California City has very sharp small hills with peaks
so sharp they are impossible to ride as a hogback. The
Bultaco is a good desert bike that is made in Spain with
the gas tank and fenders being made from fiberglass. In
a Cal. City race I saw a Bultaco impaled on a Joshua tree
about 10’ off the ground just over the crest of
one of these pointy hills. The rider wasn’t there.
Later in a post race bull session someone was positive
the spines of the Joshau tree had penetrated the gas tank.
When looking at a new downhill it helps if you visualize
it as "flat ground at an angle". What route
would you choose if this were flat, once you have decided
on a route and your mind is satisfied with the flatness,
it's easy. However, it is especially difficult to convince
yourself of the flatness when the angle gets steeper near
the bottom. In that case you will not even be able to
see the bottom until you get past the knee. I’m
sorry that shit ain’t flat. Sand dunes can pile
up extremely steep but they amount to nothing. The steep
side is always the lee side. This tends to be the finest
texture and you sink into it. The angle is beyond 60 degrees
and you still need a lot of power to keep from sinking
in and stopping.
During the last several years of my racing career the
Check Chase to Parker, Arizona was the premier racing
event. I liked it much better than the famous Barstow
to Vegas race I rode and finished this race twice before
joining the Checkers. I had received a verbal invitation
to join the Checkers in late summer, my reply was yes
but I want to ride the Check Chase before changing clubs.
They were happy with that because when I change clubs
all of the points that I have accumulated for the year
come with me. This race was always longer and tougher
than Barstow to Vegas. It was a minimum of two hundred
miles and had three different starting places in California
always ending at Parker Arizona near Foxy's.
By the time a rider gets into Arizona he has completed
85% of the mileage, is dog tired, and has a 1/4-inch of
mud on his lips. Incidentally, where we enter Arizona
there is not a 4 color welcome sign advising please buckle
up, our speed limit is 70 MPH with no tolerance. But we
have one last Checker surprise before you get to that
cold drink of water from a hot woman. A sand down hill
in that 60-70 degree range with a real zinger a six foot
vertical rock ledge at the top. At the jump off point
there is always a pair of Checkers that will get your
speed down to twenty or less then indicate to bring it
over right between the two of them. It is a real mess
and a big mistake trying to go off that with no speed.
The first year that we used that downhill in the race
the Checker's in attendance recounted a condition that
worsened as the race went on. The novices would seize
up at the edge. At first they were given two choices;
jump or go over there with that group and cry. As the
riders stacked up waiting for their turn, you would simply
be amazed at how polite they became, please you can go
ahead of me. This is completely out of character for a
desert racer. Anyway as the line lengthened and that other
group was busy making a very large mud puddle with their
tears the choice was taken away. The Checkers simply assisted
each rider in getting over the edge. As soon as the last
one over could get his body and bike out of the drop zone
over goes the next one. The Checkers manning this check
reported "that was physically tiring, as some of
those novices really objected to going off this precipice"
but all objections were in vain as very soon they were
flying through the air with greatest of ease while screaming
very loudly.
We were going to use the same down hill next year and
in the next club meeting there was a discussion on how
to make this go more smoothly. The two guys that manned
the hill that year wanted nothing to do with it next year.
Someone came up with the idea to use a cattle prod; it
was not me as I have no experience with the device. Quickly
the logistics were worked out for support, recharging,
and a back up unit etc. The Checkers are a small tight
knit group and keeping this a secret for a year was not
a problem.
The next year went much better. You should see those
novices accelerated when that cattle prod hits their sweaty
ass. Only about every other one needed this electrical
incentive, I suspect that the odor of burning leather
and ozone caused a reaction in the right wrist. The report
came back that most of those receiving the electrical
assist completed the jump and the downhill successfully.
I look at this as simply a vehicle for the Checkers to
share their vast riding knowledge and expertise with many
of the less experienced riders.
I have never raced over this hill; I have gone down it
just for fun.
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Ray Alexander |
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