Just doing a little research for "letter of intent"/ potential riders for the always amazing/tough/challenging and re-born Tecate Enduro (@100 miles)for early spring 2009. Please list numbers of your crew that are interested. Area of race will most likely be in the vicinity of Rancho Sta.Veronica Tecate Mex.Thx R
If its los ancianos and Tecate then i'm interested. Time will tell how schedules, etc. play out, but it should be cool. What details do you have? The website doesnt mention anything about an enduro.
L.A. member info, still kickin around their plan but want to go back to the enduro format like the "old" days. The format would be the new rules AMA,,,like the FIM type WEC enduros. We just have to wait and see,,,i was just seeing what HVA crew interest there was. R
NO-GO for this season Its off for this season.... many are bummed... and here I throw in a comentary from Husky------Steny (yes that steny) concerning the old school Tecate enduros Los Ancianos Motorcycle Club made up only of members over age 30. Niles Ussery, trail rider extraordinaire, who believed you should work for a finisher pin. Entries for the Tecate 500 Enduro cut off at 250 riders. Average finishers at end of Day Two were 25 riders before the time cut off. Day one always rained. Day two always ended with snowfall, covering up route markers and causing late runners to DNF by coming in on the highway. I rode three events starting with the 1974 run to San Felipe. 1974 on an Ossa 250. The next two on a Husky 400WR. My first year, I rode with Bobby Galloway, Ken Smithy and another friend of theirs, all from Chula Vista and all D-38 desert racers. Bobby and his friend rode YZ 250s and Ken an RM 250 with a down pipe back then. You started 4 to a row, one minute apart. The three finished that event in the snow on Sunday evening. All day long you had speed changes and had to run a mileage chart as well. So you had a clock, route sheet, and speedo on your bike. I houred out on Day 2 in the desert, with a 5-speed gearbox that had only 1st and 5th gears in it by lunch time. My springs in my rear brake broke at mile 40 on Day 1, and I rode the other 210 miles with only a front drum brake. My bike seized up three times. I had three rear flats and one front. My swing arm bearings went out and Mag 7 welded my swing arm up at the lunch stop. Magnificent 7 Race Team. These guys had lunch stops down to a pat. It was always raining, they had a large fire going, they took your bike and gassed it up, did any work on it you needed, fed you lunch and gave you a hot, wet towel to wipe your face with. It was so cold outside at the 4,000’ level, you didn’t want to leave. But if you were late on time, you could make it up by not taking your one-hour lunch down time break. After this event, I joined Mag 7 and stayed with them for the next 29 years (2004). The ride took you down past Valle T (which was just a dirt road back then heading west to east). I rode the final 30 miles into San Felipe with a rear flat tire, too close to houring out to stop and fix it. We came down the large sand dune to the south of town to the finish line. My guys were camping at a trailer park there with their wives. I parked the Ossa, change the tube, ate a bite to eat and laid down on the ground to take a short nap before showering. I woke up at 6 am the following morning, still in my gear. We left on day two at 7 am and headed north through the desert. At the first fuel stop at mile 300, everyone was draining their gas tanks. Seems the gas truck from San Felipe had water in is tank. Some guys got the water, some didn’t. By the time I got to the lunch break at the south end of Laguna Salada, I had lost 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear. The sweep team made up of Rick Secor and his dad on Huskys picked me up chugging along in 1st gear. At the lunch stop, it was suggested I DNF and head out on the dry lakebed north toward the Highway, 50 miles away. I sang “1000 bottles of beer on the wall” to pass the time as I rode at about 5mph north. (Side note; I bought Rick’s 400wr that summer, selling the Ossa). In 1975, on day one, up in the Pine Forest in the early morning fog, while rounding a blind corner, I hit a cow broadside in 3rd gear on the 400. I flew to the left, the bike to the right, and the cow disappeared. My front end worked funny the rest of Day 1 and I DNF’d at the end of the day. That year the race started and ended in Tecate both days. In 1977, I came home from McConnell AFB and rode the event for the third time. My points went out at mile 45 on Day 1 on a really nice long road on a perfect day, ending my ride. They allowed you to compete separately on Sunday if you DNF’s on Saturday. It wasn’t the same for me though; if you could ride both days, why ride on one? Back then; there were so many different bikes and riders of all levels. Bultacos, Ossas, Pentons, Huskys, CZs, Rokons, Hodaks, Triumphs, BSAs, RMs, PEs, YZs, ITs, CRs, XLs, Zundapps, DKWs, Maicos, so many bike brands. Riders of national caliber, riders who were novices, or experts, and riders who never competed. Guys there who, until that event, you only saw their pictures in dirt bike magazines. Malcolm Smith camped opposite us in '77 with his then very young children in a Camper. The Tecate 500 was a premier Enduro, up there in toughness with the Greenhorn Enduro, Trask Mtn. Qualifier, Sandy Pine, the Gator Enduro in Florida, etc., in the East Coast. It was laid out so that only the “best” riders would finish. No more than 25 or so when it was a 2-day, 500-mile event. I was racing AMA D-38 desert (red plate back then) as a Novice and rode enduros all over So. California. Up to then, those down hills at Red Mtn. were the worse things I’d ever seen. Tecate made those look like slides at a city park. Moss covered rocks, at 45% angles with 4’ of water to fall into. Rocky streambeds where only national caliber riders rode. All the rest of us walked and shoved our bikes forward on Saturdays mud fest. Fast-forward 31 years to now to 2008. Land is hard to come by; Baja is more populated than it was in the 70s. Hondas, KTMs, and Yamahas are the premier bikes that show up for races now. The Tecate 500 and 250 are in our memories. The Hare Scrambles look like fun, but the Enduros truly challenged you, bike, mind and soul. Having 10 or more speed changes daily and having to ride on your minute for 250 miles a day times 2 days. Just imagine the fun and throw in some of the nastiest terrain a man could find in Baja, rain for 6 hours, temps below 30* and snow the next day to cover the trail markers in the late afternoon. The course designers all had smiles on their faces, truly a great bunch of guys………. Long live the club! And long live Husky riders and my riding buddies back then. Guys like Rick Finger, Arnie Grunner, Chip Howell, Dick McClean, Frank Ball, Terry Walsh, Bill Halbert, Bob Popiel, Sandy Davidson, history makers and Joe Blows, all from San Diego. Steny
