Alan Camasar, he was a trail rider and left the club in 74, he said even by then there were issues with places you could ride. More and more areas were closed off, he blames the ATVs and "those maniacs on the three wheelers". "Those things really tore up the area, caused a lot of damage". Al says they used to ride in the area behind the Club which was really difficult, it was rocks upon rocks. They also rode in the woods across Moxley from the Clubhouse, they had permission to ride over there, then all of a sudden it came to an end. No one said anything about not being allowed over there any more but he got the point when he and Johnny Paite (spel?) were riding through the woods up there and ran across a string of barbed wire. Luckily he was wearing leather work gloves because the wire was strung at handlebar height and it caught both his hands and brought them to an immediate stop, "really tore up those gloves, Luckily though the wire wasn't any higher".
Another area where the members used to be able to ride was around Millers Pond, (visible off 395) that area was really nice to ride. Al rode mostly Yamahas but had a Bultaco and converted 305cc Honda's. He also ran a Triumph 500 in the woods, those bikes came through with high pipes, but you had to change the front wheel, bars and seat. You could change the gears and the ratios but not the motor characteristics, those bikes were not easy to ride in the woods.
There were two members of the Club who had some fame, one was Bob Fielding, he was a real good guy, he was one of the best riders in the area, Ralph (Strong) sponsored him to go to Czechoslovakia for the ISDT International Six Days Trials. Those were some races, it was a six day Enduro and speed race. You can find footage of those races on YOUTUBE, they area amazing races. Bob was entered as an independent and was racing against mostly factory teams, I can't remember exactly how he made out. But he was a real good guy, his wife made the first vests for the club, I believe he worked as a mechanic for a construction company.
The other person was Robin Perry, he was a photographer who rode trails, he wasn't competitive but he enjoyed riding. He used to live on a hill near where the Mobil station is on 85, the mall is there now. He wrote a book called "The Art of Trail Riding" had a lot of photos, I don't know if you can find a copy, I had one but that was a while ago. he used Bob Fielding as a model for the book. I believe he may still live in New London.
Al says if we are looking for Club info we should try the Groton Public Library, they are the best in the area, and if we can find copies of New England Trail Rider magazine, they covered all the New England events and back then there were a lot. Every state had events.
He remembers going to Pepperill Massachusetts to watch a flat track race, they raced on dirt, a hundred miles an hour crank the bar hard right and drop into a left drift through the corners. We used to call it Scrambling, it wasn't called Moto Cross until later to give it that European flair.The best riders were from Europe and the West Coast, there was a hurricane fence along the inside edge of the track and one of the guys from England took a line so close to it I thought he would take it out. By lap three, the eastern riders were lapped.
klay for Al Camasar
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