Mini Moto Enduro: The Gambler 500 Downsizes
My Coleman CT200 mini-bike sounded like empty soup cans having make-up sex. My bony ass cheeks got more bruised with every lap, and my hands felt arthritic. Every time I went to loosen my white-knuckle grip, the CT200 tried to buck me.
People were being hauled off the six-mile, off-road circuit with concussions and broken collarbones. A beautiful shit show, where everyone smiled through the pain.
Tate Morgan, founder of the Gambler 500, invited me to the Mini Moto Enduro, a 100-mile endurance mini-bike race somewhere outside of Sunriver, Oregon. He picked me up from Portland airport in a decommissioned ‘short bus’ spray-painted with MUD DAWGS?a little league team he coaches and abandoned for the Mini Moto Enduro?and we started the three-hour drive toward the campground where the race would be held.
The following morning, we understood the madness of what we were about to do, looking at well over 100 mini-bikes in various states of dress and disrepair.
Tate and I unloaded our Coleman CT200s from the back of his bus; he loaned me one he?d been beating on for years. Neither of us hurried during the LeMans-style start, when riders run to their bikes. We waited for the massive dust cloud to settle.
Whoever planned the race?s loop wasn?t fucking around?gravel, sand, silt, boulders, whoops, roots, cattle guards, and more goddamn boulders. A couple of sections, like the ‘fork in the road’ and the ‘rock waterfall,’ would?ve been sketchy on...
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2024 Honda NX500, CBR500R, CB500F UpdatesÂ
02-05-2024 08:22 - (
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