Trail Rider Magazine

kept up the same wicked trail pace on the transfer sections, but when it came to the special tests it was a different story. At the first special test on Saturday, I was quite ready to let Carl go into the test first, but he was over talking to Jack and Guy and Guy's brother Chuck, and motioned me to go on ahead. When the starter's arm dropped, I hammered into the test which started out on a long, gradual, fast downhill along a fence line with several dropoffs before turning into the woods for a bit and then emerging again onto the fast downhill. At the bottom of the downhill, probably ¾ of a mile, the test took a 90 degree left turn and went out across some lightly treed pasture. Like I said, I was on it hard from the start, but when I hit the left turn I heard a whistle behind me. I pulled slightly to the right and Carl went by me like I was dragging a boat anchor. I've got a Rev-Loc clutch in my 400, so there's no missed shifts, no clutching the corners, no worrying about stalling out or being in the right gear, you just gas it and go, go, go. I kept Carl's fender in sight for maybe 10 seconds, then it was nothing but dust and I never saw him again until the checkout. A half mile later I heard another bike coming up fast on me. This time it was Jack Penton, riding a '99 250 KTM. He flew by me and proceeded to nearly float across a rocky creek crossing that had me puckering up big time. I wish I could hang with them just to watch them ride….they make it look SOOO easy! Next to pass me was Guy Cooper who was riding a 1974 Penton 400 with 4 or 5 inches of suspension travel…but he might as well have been on a 2012 bike because he was flying faster than Jackie or Carl and beat them both when the special test times were posted. These guys are nothing but throttle or brakes, nothing in between in those special tests. No wasted motion, no wasted thought. When the trail opens up and you make the conscious decision to drop a gear and hammer on it, they've already made that choice and are on the gas before you finish the thought process. They've put 20 or 30 feet on you just that fast, in a couple of split seconds, and when they do that on every turn and every obstacle it doesn't take long before even their dust cloud is gone and you're riding alone again. Some of that comes from riding thousands of miles in hundreds of events over the years, but a lot of it is just uncanny natural ability that I know I'll never have. 52 Trail Rider I wrote a few years ago about riding with Don Cutler who is the master of smooth riding. I rode behind Donald for the better part of two days and never saw him pick a bad line. He stayed up on the pegs 95 percent of the time and the only time he put his foot down was when he came to a stop. I could hang on his fender so long as I rode hard and didn't make any mistakes. One bobble and he was gone and I was playing catch up. It is easy to see why these guys were so successful at the Six Days and every other type of event they entered. I'm just humbled that they let me eat their dust and I thank them for a great and fun ride! An afternoon at Cooperland Guy Cooper entertains a group of riders in his museum, including ISDE riders Dave Campbell and Joe Cartwright. Guy Cooper's name probably rings a bell with a lot of riders out there. The Stillwater, OK native is a former AMA 125 motocross champion, long-time Team Suzuki rider, and has a couple of Six Days under his belt. He opened up his shop, personal riding area, and museum to riders headed to the Reunion Ride since he's only about an hour west of the Zink Ranch. I pulled in a little after lunch and found John and Jack Penton there along with ISDE vets Joe Cartwright and Dave Campbell and a handful of other guys checking the place out or getting ready to do some riding to get their bikes dialed in. www.TrailRider.com

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