2007 OVBSAOC Spring Classic Reliability Run

R.E. “Dick” Ranger Reports

Partly Fact, Partly Fiction – You Decide

Sometime back in April, my wife Ruthora was reading the latest issue of the OVBSAOC newsletter and noticed the ad for the Spring Classic saying something about a 75 mile Reliability Run that would be held on June 2. “Hey Dick, why don’t you get your old Triumph out and ride this thing? You haven’t been on a good offroad run in a couple of years, and this sounds like a good one”. Pretty soon, she had me talked into driving up to Ohio for the Meet, but the only trouble was, she wouldn’t go with me because her strawberries would be coming on strong by then, she said. So, I got on the phone and called my nephew Doyle Belcher who lives over there in Logan County, WV, near Wolverton Mountain. I knew Doyle had a ’68 Firebird Scrambler that he had been bragging on to me last Christmas about riding it on the Hatfield –McCoy Trail System there in Logan County, and all I had to do was suggest that he take it up to Ohio and show them northern guys how to run the trails on a big machine.

Doyle bit, and before long, June 1^st had come and we were on our way to Cable’s Campground at Toronto, Ohio. Heading up US 119 out of Logan found us in Charleston around noon, and we pulled into the campground near Toronto right around 5 pm that afternoon. It seemed to be a sparse turnout for some reason. Doyle figured it was because of the high cost of gas and everything else they’re blaming Bush and that Halliburton outfit on. Whatever, we were there to ride, and we soon had our “Sporting British Twins” (that’s OVBSAOC’s description of our bikes, not ours) unloaded and our camp set up. We had a nice evening and were glad to see the forecasters were not calling for rain, which is unusual for the Toronto Spring Meet these last few years.

The next morning, I headed for the coffee wagon while Doyle got us signed up. One of the organizers said they had hoped to get 20 riders, but by the time sign-up ended, there were 30 names on the entry list. The entries included a team from the Penton Owners Group including ISDT Gold Medal Winner Paul Danik, Alan Buehner from Cleveland, and the father-son team of Olie & Al Martin, all riding Pentons of various engine capacities. Other entries of note included Royce Klein, an “A” Class enduro rider on a 1972 Zundapp, Steven Szewczyk on a BSA Victor that he claimed to have ridden in 18 of these reliability runs over the years, Kerry Kubena on a ’66 Triumph TR6-SC (that’s a desert sled, I heard Doyle telling a young boy), and Bruce Williams on an ISDT replica BMW twin. The smallest machine was a Honda 90 ridden by Kevin Hillyard, and the largest was the 750 Ural sidecar of Ian & Jeff Cottrill. The oldest was the 125 Benelli of John Agostinelli, but there was also Christian Adams riding his aunt’s 4-speed Matador. They probably bought that new back in the ‘60’s. There were also two entries riding buddy style: Maryland’s Bill Menges and his daughter Jo, and Joe Reindl and his daughter Kimmy from Connecticut.

At the riders meeting, the referee said there were 8 offroad sections and several miles of dirt and graveled roads. As for the route directions, there were none. Riders were instructed to watch the road for large circles of yellow paint, the number of which indicated what direction they were to turn. I overheard one of the club officials saying they had used $90 dollars worth of yellow spray paint to mark the road. Heck, that’s probably more than our county highway budget back in Kentucky. In the offroad sections, they told us to watch for those enduro arrows which would mark the route. It sounded pretty simple, and after some precautionary advice and warnings about excessive speed on the downhill gravel roads, the first rider, Royce Klein, was checked out at 9 AM. One by one, everyone was waved off and since I decided to bring up the rear, I was the last rider out. Of course, the object of the run was to average 24 mph over the entire course. The only problem was, the course length was unknown to the riders, so we had to pace ourselves.

Klein left the campground and hung a big left on to the adjacent county road, and was on his way. Then, on to a State Highway, and then a few miles later, it was time for a gravel road. Soon, the riders encountered the first offroad section, a washed out and rutted downhill that came out in some guy’s back yard right by a rusted-out Winnebago, and a little later brought us on to the same county road we started on, only a few miles to the east of the campground. Then, we went up and over a few dirt roads to the next offroad section, an abandoned farm lane with a rough muddy section midway down a hill. It was rutted out pretty good too, and a few riders had some difficulty here. At the bottom of the hill, I saw that Alan Buehner was broke down. After the run was over, he was telling me he whiskered a couple of plugs, and called it a day. I don’t know what kind of pre-mix he was running, but I always used that Golden Spectro stuff in my Husky back in the ‘70’s.

After a few more miles of secondary road, the riders were soon on another dirt road, and a sharp left at an old oil pumping station led to the 3^rd offroad section. Not more than a 100 yards into the section, the riders encountered the first obstacle – an old Buick Skylark was buried in a mudhole and was blocking most of the trail. Doyle told me later that when he came through, there were briars and jaggerbushes on each side of the car and hardly any room to get by. He said some wise guy had stuck an enduro arrow on the back window of the car directing the riders up over the roof. Doyle said he remembered seeing that Andy Tarnik guy ride his BSA Gold Star over the top of a 1965 Chrysler back at the club’s summer meet in 1990 when he was a kid, but there was no way he was going to try that stunt on his Firebird. So he bulled his way through the briars and he was “glad he had them bark-busters on” he said later. By the time I got there, the Buick was still buried, but there were paths around either side of it and I didn’t have any trouble.

We weren’t too far past that Buick when the trail turned on to a gasline right-of-way with a steep downhill followed by a steep and long uphill. I opened that Triumph up going up that hill, and it sounded great. Just at the top, there was a sharp right and then I saw a checkpoint about 100 yards out toward a cornfield. Riders were stopped and cautioned to follow the route marked through the corn field so that the club could stay on good terms with the farmer who let them pass through his place. This was a nice section with that hill, but it could have been a bear, as I learned afterward. The guy who laid out the route told me there was a swamp section that he had to by-pass after getting his own bike stuck up to the forks. I’m glad he cut that section out. I’m too old to push that Triumph anymore.

We were soon at the half-way point where gas was available at a BP Station in the small village of Richmond, Ohio. Many riders gassed up here, and after leaving Richmond, we enjoyed a brief but peaceful ride along a wooded country lane before being directed down a fence row along another abandoned road. Doyle told me he liked to have killed himself on this section when he met up with a drainage ditch at the bottom of a hill. I heard this ditch also caught a few other riders by surprise, and right after that was a large log across the path that also caused trouble for some guys. Otherwise, everyone cleared the section OK.

And so it went. Offroad sections connected by county roads followed by more offroad. I think the layout guy saved the hardest sections for the last, and he got me good. A two-mile long slick , muddy, and wet stretch down a creek valley was my downfall. My Triumph’s E.T. ignition went home, as they said in that movie. I picked up some water in the points, and I got way behind before getting that T-100 dried out and fired back up. Right after that section was the last and maybe the hardest for some guys. It was a long, rocky, washed out, and rutted uphill section that ended up on a State Highway about 4 miles from the campground. One guy said he was having a hard time getting up that hill, slipping his clutch and really concentrating on his line, when some guy jumped out behind a tree and took his picture. “Scared the hell out me”, he said.

As it turned out, Doyle ran into some bad luck, too. On that same stretch that gave me trouble, Doyle hit a rock a bit too hard, and it pinched his rear tube. I told him before we left to run more pressure in that rear, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Now he knows what can happen. Anyway, he spun the tire almost off the rim going up that rocky uphill section and he said he barely limped on in, and was late enough to be out of the running for a trophy.

When they handed out the trophies that afternoon, someone said the run was 67 miles long. My VDO indicated 68.5 miles, but I spun my backwheel pretty good all day, and that may have been the result. One thing I thought was a nice touch was they give trophies to the two guys and their daughters who were riding buddy style. The local Ural dealer had promised a large turnout of Ural sidecar riders which never showed so they gave the extra trophies to the buddy style entries. That’s a good way to get the riders back if you ask me.

All in all, it was a good and fun ride. It was sort of like the “B Riders Enduro” they used to have there in southern Ohio years ago. I’m glad Ruthora talked me into going, and I’m glad Doyle come along, too, because it would have been a long drive back to Kentucky for this old timer by myself. They said the next reliability run will be held August 11 at the club’s summer meet. Now if I can get Ruthora to come with me, I figure we can wipe up that Buddy Class. Them guys and their young daughters better watch out. Ruthora still got some pretty good arms on her, and those mud holes won’t give us any trouble with her pushing.

Results

Modern Class

1. Jerry Lohrer – Yamaha XT225
2. Chris Lohrer – Yamaha XT225
3. Bob McCollough – Kawasaki 220

Vintage Lightweight

1. Royce Klein – Zundapp 125

2. Paul Danik – Penton 125

3. Paul Busick – Suzuki PE175

Vintage Heavyweight

1. Steve Szewczyk – BSA Victor

2. Dave Emery – BSA B50

3. Warren Kleis – Honda 750

Sidecar & Buddy Class

1. Ian & Jeff Cottrill – Ural 750

2. Joe & Kimmy Reindl – Honda 650

3. Bill & Jo Menges – Honda XL350