Nevada Rally: The American Adventure by Clipper Paul

Author:Clipper, Paul [Clipper, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Clipper
Published: 2012-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

In 1995, Johnny Campbell had it all figured out, and took the top spot overall.

One day’s finish; rolling into Ely after a long, hard day.

Bernardo plays class clown as usual, with Davide Trolli, Johnny Campbell and Edi Orioli helping out.

Get Rolling

“Well, the ride home starts here,” I said to Mark in the morning, as we unloaded the bike and got it warmed up. I really didn’t know anything; whether the bike would last, whether I would last, whether Mark would make it to the gas stops on time, whether we planned on carrying enough gas in the truck...but it didn’t matter. It was time to head out and hope for the best.

The day started with a police-escort caravan out to the start of the transfer section. Once there, we were put on the clock and turned loose for 70 miles, until we got to the start of the special test. There is a time limit on a transfer section, but it’s very generous and easy to stay within. Basically, the 70 miles would be a shakedown for the bike and a chance to get used to the odometer and the roll chart.

It didn’t take very long to realize that I had a problem with my odometer, and it was consistently reading a few tenths short. I guessed that the wheel size programmed into the ICO would have to be changed, so we changed it before the start of the special test...and of course changed it in the wrong direction. By the time I started the special test it was way off, which did very little to help my confidence. It also didn’t help navigation that first day, and it wasn’t until that night that we got the right advice and plugged in the proper wheel size. From then on, it was perfect.

The first day’s special test took up 284 miles of the week’s ride, and it was a pretty good mix of fast two-track and some hellatiously-fast dirt roads. There were quite a number of rocky sections as well, and right away I started thinking about what I could do to make the WP forks work better. Any time the bike hit a buried rock the forks would pogo up in the air, and if the hit wasn’t direct they would also hop the front wheel to the side. Not a really comforting ride. It was plain to see that the forks weren’t valved for high speed rock work, and something would have to be done.

They beat on us pretty badly that first day, but before you knew it 284 miles had clicked by and we were skidding to a stop in Tonopah. I have no qualms about admitting I was shell-shocked and beat to a frazzle after so many miles in the saddle, and it took a good 45 minutes of sucking a bottle of Gatorade to get me back into shape. Not long after that I learned that a combination of rally inexperience, anxiety, and odometer error caused

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