On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 115

On The Pegs VOL. 4 ISSUE 7 - July 2020 115
top of a long slick slab before losing traction and bouncing all the way to the bottom.
He seemed more amused than I was, and said “Poor Sam’s Bike...” My immediate
response was “Aye, but I’m getting me money’s worth”. He laughed hysterically. I
got to the end of the section and he was still sitting there. He was waiting on me. He
sat there until I had pumped my tires back up for the long crossing ahead. Listening
to the video I saw recently of him and Dougie, sends chills up my spine....... I can still
hear him say “Let’s make dust baby!!!” And off we went. He was so nice to me. I will
never forget it....
At the time I was a Senior in High School. I had become friends with Lane Leavitt
and somehow, I ended up staying with him in Northern California that summer.
Don’t honestly remember who’s idea it was, but it was the best summer of my life.
I still talk about it to this day. He was traveling to Ohio for an ISDT Qualifier while
riding for Bultaco. We met In Nebraska as I recall and trans-ferred all of my gear
and scooter into his truck. I left my van behind a gas station with the permis-sion
of the owner. We went to the event in Ohio and returned to get my van for the trip
to Pleasanton, California. While there we rode nearly every day. We rode several
events up and down the West Coast. Practiced nearly every other day. The old
adage of play golf with someone better than yourself if you want to improve. The
same holds true in Trials. I was riding nearly eve-ry day for three months with a rider
that was better than me. Lane, at the time was the best rider in North America. I
couldn’t have picked a better Role Model. And I certainly couldn’t have picked a
better rider to push me to get better. We would ride in the day and cruise, in his
blue 62 Chevy Nova with carbs that stuck up through the hood, and try to stay out
of trouble at night….. I was 18, In Northern California, riding nearly every day for
three months with the best rider on the continent, and somehow, I thought this was
normal.
Upon returning to Oklahoma I received a call from Yamaha. They were putting
together a Trials Team and were looking for the best rider available in the 4 regions
of the country. They chose Don Sweet from the Northeast, Bob Hopkins from the
North, Joe Guglielmelli from the West Coast and Me from the South-Central region.
We all had different riding styles and different approaches to setting up our scooters.
I altered the top shock mount position. It was moved forward and down like
what the later Yamaha Majesty uses, and for that matter Yamaha and several other
manufactur-ers eventually used. I guess I had happened on something that really
worked before it became the norm.
We also had what was touted as being a “fuel Injection” system. The system had
two distinct parts. One was the section that received fuel from the tank and dis-