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1976 Bad Rock IDST Qualifier |
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All of us wanted to ride a small 4-stroke engine'd bike. With Cliff a diehard small bore 4-stroke rider (and even then, a big guy, and now at 220 lbs., oops sorry Cliff) the Honda XL125 was chosen as the preferred mount. Not your normal choice for an ISDT bike, our big question was could this docile little bike be modified such that it could keep up with at least a few other bikes, not to mention the "factory" machines. We knew we were going to get laughed at, but if any of us could finish an event and not be dead last – that was all we wanted. We also knew that all the other bikes would have more horsepower than our XL's -- the 2-stroke 125's probably half again as much, and the bigger bikes two or three times the horsepower of our Hondas. But, the bikes did have some beneficial aspects. With much experience trail riding the XL’s, we knew that our bikes would probably have the most dependable engines of any we would be racing against, and possibly the best ability to "put horsepower to the ground". Plus, with some judicious modifications, the bikes would be light and easy to ride, especially when we "non-factory" riders would most likely be so tired that we might just barely be hanging on. Started with two new 1975, and one well used 1974 XL125's, during the Fall and Winter of 1975, the three Hondas were prepared as follows:
Remove all unnecessary parts, frame hangers, etc. After a too-brief period of riding and testing we found ourselves at the tech. inspection for the 1976 running of the ISDT Bad Rock Qualifier.
People laughed at our little XL's. Most of course thought we were crazy. And not just one, but three crazy guys. And to tell you the truth we somewhat agreed with them, but what the heck. At the starting line Saturday morning, all three bikes fired on the first kick, and we were off. Everyone, and I mean everyone, could smoke us on the straight road sections -- this we expected. But, throw in some turns, trees, nasty creek crossings, rocks, snow, mud, and a couple good crashes -- before we knew it, we found ourselves passing some of the bikes that had blown by us on the straights. It was a long hard day for us, but to our amazement all three XL's finished day one! We were sore and tired, but men and machines were intact. Cliff was doing really well at the end of day one. Doug and I were happy to finish.
On day two, after getting our bikes from the impound area, the only maintenance was to adjust the chains, and perform a quick visual inspection. It took awhile for our sore bodies to get going, but we were soon hard at it again.
By half way through the second day we had people we didn't know slapping us on the backs and cheering us on. To our total amazement we all finished day two. Cliff had to run the motocross at the end. I didn't have to, but ran it anyway. The big surprise was when we found that Cliff was awarded a gold medal. And Doug and I were plenty happy with our bronze medals. We had also entered as a team and if I remember correctly we finished ahead of a team or two that had DNF'ed. We all had a ton of fun and wanted to do this again. So, back to the shop. On the needed list, #1 hp. #2 suspension We’ll be back. Al Pedro (click on each thumbnail picture for a larger print, then click your browser's back arrow to return here) |
