in the stupid twin carb setup . It turns out that rumours can be right . But the design fault I discovered all on my own was that if the chain came off , the sprocket cover wasn ’ t up to the job , resulting in broken cases . As luck would have it , this happened to me when I was on for a top 10 finish in the Two- Day Enduro Nationals ( B Grade ). Apparently , the organisers ran out of signs towards the end of the course . So , instead of correctly marking the Experts turn off , they stapled an arrow to a branch over the track with the letter A scratched on it . It was near the end of the second day , I was cream-crackered , so I missed the tiny , scratched letter , and turned into the expert section . Shortly thereafter ... the chain came off . It came off at speed , bunched up on itself and cracked the case . I was stuck on a nasty uphill climb , with approximately half a sump ’ s worth oil covering my boot and leaking on the ground . But based on all the stories I ’ d heard about Honda ’ s being hard to kill , and also the fact that I was completely shagged out , frustrated and angry – I put the chain back on and rode up the hill ( by ‘ rode ’ I mean pushed , dragged and occasionally sat on the thing ). At this point there was more oil on me than I supposed was left in the motor , so I pushed the thing for miles before catching a ride . I had houred out , DNFed , and was informed that if I hadn ’ t turned into the expert section I would have continued along an easy ride to the finish . FECK ! - I ’ m looking at you , Waitemata Motorcycle Club .
68 KIWI RIDER