Trail Rider Magazine

Important Announcement! Before I get in to my Wheel Spin Col- umn, I want to announce that we are moving to a bimonthly (every other month) publicaon schedule. We will now be publishing Trail Rider 6 mes per year. If you have paid for 12 issues, you will sll receive your 12 issues before having to renew. Trail Rider is doing just fine but I can no longer commit to a monthly publica- on schedule. Like many of you, I work a full me job and have a family with young kids. Publishing a monthly magazine is a complicated and me consuming process, and it has be- come more that I can effecvely take on at this point in my career. As al- ways, thank you for the support. Without you, there is no Trail Rider. U.S. Hard Enduro Fantasy My recent trip to Romania for Hard Enduro training has me wondering if there is a place for a Hard Enduro se- ries here in the U.S. Some will no doubt have a knee jerk reacon and exclaim "Hell no! The U.S. off road market is now officially wussified!" While I understand where they are coming from, I'm not quite on board with it. I just don't think that there's anything easy about the type of rac- ing we do here. A three to four hour GNCC, a two or three hour Hare Scramble or an all- day enduro is exhausng! Aer a couple of hours of straight riding, most of us are in survival mode. We have recreaonal rides for the "wusses" – except that some of the recre- aonal rides (a.k.a Turkey Runs) are oen harder than an Enduro, at least locally. Maybe I can be per- suaded to believe that the Sprint En- duro is a wussified form of racing, but I'll reserve judgment unl I actually experience a few. Regardless of where this senment comes from, what is apparent is that U.S riders are open to and embrace change. The new-to-us Sprint Enduro and new two (2) half-hour moto GP formats are the latest craze and have taken off in popularity – and there is nothing easy about going full lt over a short GP course that's had thou- sands of riders pounding away at it. In fact, I find it kinda brutal. Here in the U.S we have a played around with the concept of Hard En- duro with standalone events like the Tennessee Knockout and King of the Motos. Both of those events are wildly and deservedly popular and garner a sizable ridership and crowd. The 24-hour races also draw in huge crowds. Locally the Reading Off Road riders are tesng the concept with their Tough as RORR extreme event (www.rorr.org). So if the US off road market isn't as wussified as it's made out to be and its racers are open to change, is it possible that there is a market for a Hard Enduro series? Perhaps naonally? In Romania they have a growing se- ries called Hard Enduro Compeon Sibiu (www.HECS.ro) which may pro- vide a successful blueprint for others to follow. These events feature an endurcross-like secon and then a 4- 6 kilometer course that includes diffi- cult natural terrain – over there it's hills. A course of that length seems to hold up fairly well, parcularly when they lay out different tracks for experts, amateurs and novices. Are internaonal riders tougher? Oh god no. I've seen them in acon. Some may think Hard Enduro would be especially dangerous. I'm not sure that's true. When I first heard of HECS, I asked several locals separately how many riders are carted out of there in the ambulance. The re- sponse was unanimous: very few – less than a local event where speed is the focus. Hard Enduro isn't all about speed. Teo Issac, a Romanian enduro guide, put it this way: "Before Marn Frienadametz (the brain behind Ro- maniacs) showed us Hard Enduro, I was always geng hurt by trying to go fast. Now, since hard enduro has come along, I never get hurt. The speeds are slower and once you learn the skills, it's safer than other forms of racing." If the U.S. rider's openness to change includes experimenng with different disciplines and acquiring new skill sets, then I think there is an opportu- nity for some entrepreneur to pro- vide another cool medium for riders to choose from. Maybe it will take a trials riding organizaon to get mov- ing on something like this? Imagine the potenal cross pollinaon of trials and off road riders? Then again, maybe this is pure Hard Enduro fan- tasy and the market is too saturated. I know we're not wusses. 6 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Wheel Spin U.S. Hard Enduro Fantasy By Kevin Novello

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