1970 Pueblo Run Mountain States Enduro Motorcycle Race - 5-Page Vintage Article

Description

1970 Pueblo Run Mountain States Enduro Motorcycle Race - 5-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article.
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
J. D. Tibbits bangs his AT-1MX
Yamaha through a gap in a first-
section traffic jam like a halfback
turning the corner.
Nobody in the U.S has a nicer set of
hills in their back yard than the people
who live along the eastern slope of the
Colorado Rockies. That's for sure It s
also for sure that if you're a motorcycle
rider who likes hills and trails., you owe
yourself at least one Colorado trail-ride
before you get too rickety to twist the
handle. But how can you come in from
out of state and engineer a successful
one? Many of the paths up there are
dead ends. Some run onto fenced,
posted land, or are closed to motor
vehicles. Besides, suppose you broke
down fifteen miles back in there Fifteer
miles of mountain trail takes only an
hour or so to cover on a bike, but it can
mean a long day's walk back — espe-
cially on tender city feet.
These problems may be reduced a
little if you have a motorcycling buddy in
Idaho Springs or somewhere. If not, you
might like to take a crack at the annual
Mountain States Championship Enduro
— the Pueblo Run But go prepared for
a real do.
An enduro is a planned, competitive
trail-ride, a long one laid out in meas-
ured sections. The competition comes in
riding each piece of trail at the proper
average speed. You'll get yourself dis-
qualified though for not finishing a sec-
tion, or for finishing it over one hour
behind schedule, so even if trophy-dus-
ting isn't your bag, you have to avoid
those possibilities if you want to com-
plete the trail ride the organizers have
laid out
The trails over which enduros are run
tend to be rather crude, of course, which
is where the endurance enters the game
and also why preparation is such a good
idea. The Pueblo Run tracks the same
country used for the infamous Pueblo
National Trail Scooter Enduro — Clin-
ton-powered anvils putting it on class
like Sherpa T's and Greeves Anglians
over paths so bad that the mountain
goats use ropes. Most trails in the Rock-
ies are cut by hikers and game animals
and burros, and the guys who lay out
the Pueblo Run have problems not with
finding trail challenging enough, but
with finding trail passable enough.
If you do drop out. of course, the
terrain above Pueblo still manages to be
a pleasant sort of hell. At least you
always have a cool, shady mountainside
to poop out on till your lungs start
working properly again. Good thing too.
You could have built a motorcycle
from pieces dangling from
geography along the trail,
especially if you were building it
for a centipede.
Shrouded in early morning mist,
eventual winner Tom Myers' DT-
1 rolls along through an easy
stretch on its way to a hard
one.
because at Pueblo 1 969, nearly half the
field was scattered along the trail and
out of action before the run was two
hours old. In most cases, lack of prepa-
ration helped do them in
Most enduros have their separators
— sections designed to tax the best,
eliminate the walking wounded, and
generally ensure that no normal human
being cleans the meet. At Pueblo, the
first section traditionally qualifies as a
separator on the theory that if you are
not ready for the Rockies, it is best to
discover it early before it spoils your day.
Just to add to the fun, it rained all
afternoon and evening the day before
the meet this year As a result, a first
section, which was plenty steep and
narrow and rocky before, became steep
and narrow and rocky and all slimey-
gooey now
Whole lines of competitors had to
stop on the muddy, rocky trail to wait
while some poor guy up ahead got a
half nelson on his TR-6 or some-
thing. Then he’d either get underway
again or fall down the mountainside and
clear the trail and everybody would try
to start back up from rest on the slick
rocks. Tires would spin and bikes would
slither and wet tree roots would catch a
few more and the whole thing would...
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