Riders in Cross Country Chase favor older machines
Jul. 9—Getting a 1955 Harley Davidson uphill on a hot, humid day this week tested Colorado motorcyclist Abby Spaedt.
"I don't know what hill it was, but we were going up this big hill and we were going up and up and up and I didn't make it to the top, and that's when my belt got stuck," she said. "We were almost to the top and that's when my belt stripped, and I started rolling backwards. I got it stopped, it just coasted to the bottom."
Such things can happen with older motorcycles, which Spaedt and dozens of others are racing this week during the Cross Country Chase, "Secrets of the Ozarks." The cross-country challenge, which began Tuesday, involves motorcycles manufactured from 1930 to 1960. The route loops through the Ozark and Ouachita mountains of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Spaedt and the other riders arrived in Muskogee Thursday evening, ending the third day of their challenge.
Thursday's day's route included Magazine Mountain, the highest point in Arkansas at an elevation of 2,753 feet.
"That's a pretty tough climb for some of these old motorcycles," said Jason Sims, operations director for Cross Country Chase. "I ride a 1942 Harley. These things only have anywhere from 2 horsepower to maybe 10 0r 12 horsepower, compared to a modern motorcycle, which has 80 to 90."
Spaedt said Magazine Mountain was not the peak that gave her all those problems.
"It was fine and I loved it," she said.
Randy Grasso of Fremont, New Hampshire, said getting up and down the mountain was not the biggest challenge he faced on a 1939 Harley-Davidson EL Motorcycle. He said the hard part was finding the midday checkpoint on top of the mountain.
Grasso said he likes older motorcycles because they have "soul," which modern cycles don't have. He said older cycles are unique, like older cars are.
Spaedt said older motorcycles pose a different challenge than newer ones.
"With a new motorcycle, you just get on the bike and touch a button and go," Spaedt said. "With this, there's so much more technique. I know that I have to do this with the throttle and I've got to do that. There's a whole process just to get the bike started."
Cross Country Chase media spokeswoman Marjorie Kleiman said about 80 riders registered for the race, a 1,340-mile loop from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, through the Ozarks and back.
"I think we lost a few due to bike problems and things like that," she said. "So there may be a few that have not finished."
She said they spent the first night in Branson, Missouri, the next night in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the third night in Muskogee. A fourth and final night was not disclosed before returning to Cape Girardeau on Saturday.
At the start of each day's route, riders did not know where they would spend the night, Kleiman said.
"The name of this event is Secrets of the Ozarks. One of the secrets is that the riders do not know there they're ending up," she said.
Riders learn their route turn-by-turn in with an old-style roll map attached to their handlebars, Kleiman said. The maps show a diagram of each turn and how many miles and tenth-miles it takes to get there.
Spaedt said the roll map was not that hard.
"They're great directions," she said. "It's not hard for them to find the way."
