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[David L Schneider] - We're here near Moorestown, Michigan where the classic Jack Pine Enduro is about to start.

There are a lot of motorcycles here.

Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis, Betas, KTMs and others.

All specialized bikes set up for trail riding through the woods, fields, and streams trying to hit their planned times from checkpoint to checkpoint.

This isn't a speed event.

It's a time event.

The winners are the riders who are able to get the best score overall by keeping their bikes running and hitting each checkpoint within the allotted time.

Believe it or not, the first Jack Pine endurance run happened 100 years ago, making it one of the first, if not the first, enduro runs in the U.S.

The Jack Pine was first run in 1923, organized by the legendary Oscar Lenz.

It wasn't just a one day event.

The old Jack Pine runs were two day affairs, covering 500 miles through Michigan's North Country over the Labor Day weekend.

The Jack Pine was a pretty big deal, and riders from all over the country would come to compete.

In the last few years, the Enduro has become a one day event.

The first Jack Pine motorcycles weren't the sleek, specialized bikes you see here.

They were big, heavy street bikes like Harley-Davidsons and Indians, only slightly modified to run in the mud, water, and sand.

Many of the riders were introduced to motorcycles during their time in the service during World War I.

After the war, the motorcycle craze took off with men and women joining the riding fraternity.

I'm David Schneider.

And today we're going to take a look at how the Jack Pine Enduro has endured all of these years.

[Bill Ricards] - After World War I, motorcycling really took off.

There was a huge amount of bikes.

There was extensive competition between them.

The manufacturers there was probably at that time still maybe 100 motorcycle manufacturers in the United States.

And Harley-Davidson had become the preeminent ride by, say, 1923.

[Doreen Abfalter] - Lansing Motorcycle Club started in 1920.

President Oscar Lenz, he had ridden the Tour of the Pines before World War I, and then in 1923, started the Jack Pine.

The Jack Pine motorcycle event, also known as the Cow Bell Classic, started from Lansing always over Labor Day weekend.

500 miles long.

[Bill R.] - The race was laid out for a long period of time by Oscar Lenz, who won the race seven times.

There were many obstacles and it was of an endurance nature.

And Lenz would spend up to two weeks, day and night laying this course out.

And there were small cards that were put on trees that had arrows on them.

And Lenz would put these on trees all on the whole course.

And it was your job to follow that.

The course was not dependent on roads, and it went through woods trails, swamps, across rivers.

Rarely, if ever, did they cross roads.

It was known as the world's toughest race.

There was no other race that held comparison to the Jack Pine.

Early on, it was nationally famous.

People came from all over the United States to race in it.

And it was a premier race for Harley-Davidson.

They highly advertised the results at all their dealerships.

And if you won the race, you were considered the national endurance champion for the United States.

Oftentimes, maybe only a quarter of the motorcycles would finish the race.

[Doreen A.]

- At the beginning of the race, when when you sign in and get ready to race, that's when you got your turn-to-turn route sheet.

Every turn marker had the mileage written on it.

And those riders could take this route sheet- We had a key time when we would start would be key time.

We'd say 6 A.M. in the morning.

That's when they would leave.

Then you put your rider number to that six.

You could figure the time you were to be at every one of those corners averaging 24 miles an hour.

[Bill Wertz] - On the charts there was different areas and I think if I remember right mine was was folded into a piece of paper and it was slid into a plastic container and taped to the gas tank so I could look down at it.

Some of them had little maybe they cut them in strips and do, maybe my dad had one he put that into a little strip and he could turn it and it roll up inside of there.

And the watches, they had a watch.

It was a mounted into a platform that was fastened onto the handlebars.

So he can look at the chart and say, So be here at 12:03, could look at his watch and if it's 12:03 then he knew he's on time or such.

And that's the way they maintained their- then in that stuff all became more sophisticated over the years.

Their checkpoints were various areas along the route.

And of course, they all had to be measured out exactly.

And they knew the exact time you were supposed to be there.

they're would be people standing there.

And as you come in, they would take your number and they just register it and make sure that you on time or late or early.

So every minute you're late, you're deducted a point.

Every minute you're early deducted two points.

And so an object was to be try to not to lose any points.

And that's how you would win: the rider that lost the least points.

[Doreen A.]

- As far as volunteering, on these 36 checks, you need four volunteers per check to man the check because you'd have to have a person time the rider as he comes in.

You'd have two with clipboards for the riders to sign.

You got to give them a little chip with their time that they came in the check.

That was their proof they were there.

They also had to sign our clipboard.

So you needed four people at each check.

Well, a lot of the checkers would do two checks each day.

And then you've got two people that did pre-run to make sure that all the arrows were still up and the course was okay.

There might be a tree down.

There might be some reason that they would have to change the course before rider number one goes through.

And you could be an hour late before you were disqualified.

So after that hour there would be a couple of guys ride sweep to make sure there wasn't anybody lost or hurt on course.

So as far as amount of volunteers, it's hard to say.

There was a lot of them.

[Bill W.] - Jack Pine at that time that I know of was was a 500 miles.

One year you left Lansing and you went up the west side of the state.

Evart was where you had noon, you got a noon break, and then the second day you come down east side, across the Rifle river and then down, down through Sanford and down that area and down, back, down to Lansing.

And then the next year it went the other way.

You went up the east side.

Second day you come down the west side.

[Bill R.] - I know that the Lansing Motorcycle Club early on had a banquet before the race in their clubhouse Oscar Lenz would tell stories of past races, and but it was it was just a really good get together.

The race was started by they drew numbers and then they would hand out the starting positions to the riders.

[Doreen A.]

- When we would leave Lansing, the Lansing cops they would be at the lights and hold traffic for us because we left every minute, four bikes or six bikes would leave the starting line.

[Bill R.] - Setting the machines up for the race, the early riders put on what I can see, knobby tires.

They also, in some instances, bobbed the fenders on the bikes.

They took off items that they figured they might lose along the way, whether it be a headlight or license plates.

But there's evidence that they were largely street bikes that endured the race.

They had performance enhancements that they put on the bikes.

There were really no limitations of what they could do to the motors.

I know Ted has told me that his dad had different gearing that he created to help the bike go faster.

[Bill W.] - The Jack Pine was Labor Day weekend, and weather wise it was generally nice out at that time of year.

[Ted Konecny] - Weather wasn't a condition.

The race was going to run rain or shine no matter what.

And the more rain it would get, the sloppier the course would be, the more chances are that the riders would get stuck or have problems going around bends and stuff and maybe laying the bike down.

But the race went on no matter what the weather was.

And if you wanted to run it, you had to put up with that because that's just how it was back then.

[Bill R.] - Early on, the competition between Harley-Davidson and Indian was very extensive and it was survival of the fittest.

The fact that Harley-Davidson topped Indian was largely due to their race results.

And race results brought you customers to buy the motorcycles.

And early on in the Jack Pine, I only have seen one instance where Indian won the race that's as far as I can see for Indian.

[Mike Maurer] - In the 1960s, people riding Jack Pine were primarily on Harley-Davidsons.

They're obviously built right here in the U.S. and everything else.

As the bikes became specialized, riders started riding bikes from England.

The BSA, the Triumph were all being imported.

Eventually in the seventies the Japanese manufacturers were starting to import motorcycles and those were being used for off-road riding.

Eventually the Japanese had their manufacturing.

The Swedish manufacturer Husqvarna, which became very big in the 1980's and eventually KTM, which was an Austrian motorcycle, that is predominantly the bike that people ride these days is a KTM.

[Bill W.] - The endurance run, the Jack Pine was set up is the classes that the classes all would vary.

You would have heavyweight bikes, which are large, maybe the 70 force, the creators, Triumph's or Naturals.

And then you would have they would be a middleweight class, 500 size, maybe 400 cc's.

They would be lightweight ones, and then they would be a little bantamweight.

They were called in the classes.

They would be A and B riders, more experienced riders.

And you earn points over the years become an A rider and then a B rider would be more of what they call novice nowadays.

And the classes you would have buddy class were two people would ride on the same motorcycle.

There would be a powder puff, which is the ladies.

The sidecar is really there is no advantage to them over solo bikes.

Actually, be a more of a disadvantage because when you get into the tight areas they had to tip the bikes up with the side hack up in the air and drag the bikes through the trees and back down.

[Ted K.] - The sidecar rider is just not there for the ride.

He's actually working from either leaning on one side or the other for the weight displacement to get them through an area or if they get stuck getting out and help push.

But he's going to work at it.

He's not just going to ride.

[Bill W.] - We had a lot of, sand traps to go across gravel pit areas and stuff and the passenger would lean over the back tire and to get more weight under the tire to help balance it.

Getting a little bit of weight off the sidehack.

And then they get into the mud.

Passenger they would hold the bike underdog and haul the sidecar up and kind of walk across the crossing.

He was just a helper.

[Ted K.] - I really don't know what was in it for the sidecar rider, but I would go so far as to say that he probably was out of the sidecar pushing often, because if you're going down a trail that's one thing.

But when you got to go across a water stream, river or whatever, I really don't think you're going to want to be in that sidecar going across that stream versus maybe being behind pushing.

In my mind, the way I would look at the race to have started is they would probably start you down a dirt path trail to get you to thinking this, well, this is going to be pretty easy.

And the first thing you're going to run into was going across a ditch, a gully, a stream up a hill, down a trail.

That's just going to be the warm up.

Because as you go along and you get farther north to where you're going to stop, it's going to get more ability that you have to see if you can make it.

I have seen some of the streams that are a bear to get across.

They're not level on the bottom and you don't know when you're riding across if the bike is going to sink down because you just hit a deeper part of the stream.

And if it sinks down, is the bike going to stall?

Are you going to be able to get it going again?

Back the early machines used to have the distributor down low or the magneto.

And if you get them wet, you're going to have trouble getting it started again.

All of those are things that I don't think these people really had anticipated would happen until it happened.

And then there's going to be somewhat of a panic.

And what am I going to do now to get the thing going?

And you're going to have to get creative quick on what you can do to salvage your ride to keep on going.

[Mike M.] - One of the challenges of the Jack Pine is just the, hazards that you have on the trail.

Historically, when we started in Lansing, we had river crossings and then obviously that would be a major challenge there.

Sand hills.

Not only going down the sand hills but climbing the sand hills was was another challenge as well.

There's always the unknown challenge.

There's been times when you've been running down the trail and there's a deer running next to you or cuts in front of you, or even worse, it might be a turkey.

They're a little slower than the deer are.

But anyway, the rider's responsibility is to get through all those challenges, maintain the speed average, or get through it as quick as they can.

But those that do it best, you know, go home with a cow bell.

[Ted K.] - When you're coming down, just judging where you're going to go, just because the ground is all torn up here, because that's where everybody else went, doesn't mean that's where you want to go, because they probably got stuck there, too.

Thinking that was the way to go when it wasn't.

And I know there was a a place up north where they would come down this hill and go across the ditch and cross the road and go back up another hill.

And they had to put a stop to that because it was too many cars that were getting hit by flying motorcycles coming across the road.

[Bill W.] - The dangers back then when you're riding the motorcycles in the woods and stuff is, maybe if a rider got lost, he was coming down a trail, got turned around, come down a trail the wrong way.

I believe my uncle was in an accident and broke his leg that way.

Hit another rider coming the wrong way.

He had gotten lost.

The ones that dropped out during endurance runs usually would have mechanical problems, or else maybe they had fell off and hurt their arm or was injured or something.

And I don't really remember anybody get seriously hurt.

I do know a friend of my dad's in Sanford.

He thought maybe a stick got stuck, run over a stick and got stuck on the front tire and he flipped his bike and he kind of got injured, but then lost his sense of smell.

He didn't like that.

That was- [Doreen A.]

- One year there was a dam that broke and flooded a big area and washed out a lot of the motorcycle bikes or the contestant's bikes.

You can't control it.

You go.

Rain or shine.

Weather doesn't make a difference.

[Ted K.] - Protective gear didn't really develop until later in years.

They would have worn gloves.

But you were going to get filthy and dirty and nasty and it certainly wasn't the time to be riding with your best motorcycle gear on.

[Bill W.] - Most of the riders back then would wear helmets.

And there was a few that did not.

But generally there was safety, was the helmet, the deal.

And the clothing was just an optional thing.

Some had leather jackets, some did not.

Maybe some would have leather pants, riding boots.

Others were just wore jeans.

I mean, it was quite a variety of apparel.

A lot of riders, if you belong to a club, a club would have like a little vest you put on with the name of the club on it and just kind of stood them out amongst all the other riders.

[Ted K.] - As the gentleman would be riding his bike along, it was kind of a spectator sport back then, and there were people along the way watching and stuff.

And I'm sure if a gentleman got stuck or fell down with his bike, I'm sure the spectators would assist him to get back up and on his way again.

But I don't know if that was frowned on or not.

And things were real different back then than they are today.

And everybody was willing to help and felt good about it.

[Doreen A.]

- We always had a lot of spectators for Jack Pine.

There were special places that there would be hundreds of spectators.

One would be Rifle River crossing, or another one on M55 just between Houghton Lake and West Branch.

There are two big hills.

You come down one, you cross 55.

We had state police there to watch traffic and you'd go up the other one.

[Ted K.] - Somewhere along the line there has to be your friends or relatives or other people that will furnish you with extra gas, oil if you need it, parts for the bike if it breaks.

Because surely you can't have all those extra parts with you on that bike riding these trails and stuff.

So those kind of things, we'll call them miscellaneous accessories are going to have to come along somewhere along the way.

And when they would go through a small village, town, burg, whatever, I'm sure they would stop if there was gas station there and refill their tanks.

It was a major thing to not run out of gas because it would be awfully hard to push that big bike to the next station back in that day.

So you had to have your homework done on where you were going to stop as you went along to keep yourself going.

[Bill W.] - After we get into West Branch the first night and you checked in and there's people everywhere, congratulating everybody getting in for the first day because a lot of riders did not make it that far.

And we stayed at a motel on the west edge of town, And then they'd always the guys would always work on the bikes at night, maybe make some minor adjustments or check things out or change oil or whatever, stuff like that on the bikes then just get a hot shower.

Next morning there was a church that I remember they served breakfast and that was a big thing.

Everybody went there for breakfast in the morning and then you just left.

Somewhere in downtown West Branch again, and headed out back to the north, out of town and back on the road again.

[Bill R.] - Women riders in the race were certainly there.

It's very difficult to tell the numbers.

Dot Robinson was one of the early riders.

She was successful.

She was in the sidecar class and I believe one of the years she took second.

[Ted K.] - Dot Robinson was Earl Robinson's wife.

And I'm sure that the two of them traveled to these get togethers together, and she didn't want to ride behind Earl, so I'm sure she had her own bike and put a sidecar on it to keep her stable instead of having to hold the big bike up to make turns and stuff like that.

She was quite the rider, from what I understand.

And when I was a very little kid, I did meet her and Earl.

[Doreen A.]

- When Jack Pine was over, you had to score.

We were up from the time we got back from our check in Farma's basement doing all the scores for all these riders and all the different classes.

Double checking to make sure from the check sheets that the checkers handed us.

It would take us about all through the night and about noon the day after Jack Pine.

We'd go down to headquarters and post the results.

They had an hour to protest their score.

So the riders, that's where the little chip comes in.

They had to have proof.

If we couldn't read their signature or they got it on the wrong line, or they thought we had the wrong time down, if they didn't have their chip sheet, we went with what we had.

But after the protest, well then the trophies were all handed out.

[David S.] - How did the Jack Pine become known as the Cow Bell Classic?

Legend has it that back in the day, during the set up and layout, on one of the first races, one of the layout volunteers found a cow bell in a pasture where the race was being run.

He mounted it on his motorcycle and was later decided that the cow bell would make a pretty good trophy.

Another legend says that Oscar Lenz stole it from a cow.

Oscar never admitted it, but did say Paul Bunyan took it off his blue ox Babe and gave it to him.

[Bill W.] - For the Jack Pine entrants, You got the a small cow bell just maybe a little one inch by one inch.

All entrants received that little cow bell and it had it stamped on it the date what year of the run it was.

And then the event trophies if you won a trophy there was a big cow bell on top.

[Doreen A.]

- The ultimate trophy for the grand champion of Jack Pine is a cow bell, a big cow bell.

He gets his name on it.

He gets to take it home with him for one year because it's a revolving trophy.

And so when the cow bell gets all full, then they come up with another cow bell.

So it's still going ever since 1923.

[David S.] - The sidecar class was very popular with Jack Pine spectators.

Last run in 1971, the "hacks", as they were called, would put on quite a show of struggling through the mud and sand and especially fording streams and rivers.

The sidecar winner would receive a brown jug with his name on it, and he kept it for a year.

The next year it was rotated to the next sidecar winner and so on.

It's not sure where the joke came from.

Perhaps Paul Bunyan gave that to Oscar too.

[Ted K.] - The Jack Pine race was a challenge, and I think it was important to the riders to see if they could meet the challenge from start to finish and finish the race running.

[Bill R.] - I think the reason that individuals were interested in being in the race was that there was a lot of notoriety.

If you won the race, your face was going to be on the Harley-Davidson poster.

It was something that individuals and friends, they wanted to participate in it.

it was a challenge.

And there was a lot of camaraderie between the riders.

Even though they were racing against each other, they were still all friends.

And certainly no race was tougher anywhere than the Jack Pine.

[Ted K.] - My name is Ted Konecny, and that's my father behind me holding the trophy.

he rode Jack Pine nine times, finished every time and won it twice in 1938 and 1940.

I'd like to think that my dad racing was a precedent for those people because there aren't too many that are going to finish every time.

So that was quite an accomplishment in itself, let alone whether you actually won or not.

Just to finish the race would be an accomplishment for anybody.

[Doreen A.]

- There were a lot of friendships formed during because of Jack Pine, Riders would come from different states, and it's natural to check out this guy's bike or that guy's bike or what kind of a part he's got different than he had last year.

They just became real good friends.

it's undescribable.

It's something in your blood that doesn't go away.

[Mike M.] - So I've always been around Jack Pine.

I kind of grew up that way, you know, following my dad around through the through the seventies as far as when he was racing.

And in 1980, I actually rode my first Jack Pine.

So I was really a thrill for me, knowing all the history, seeing my father do it for so many years, being able to ride next to him was was a big thrill for me.

Actually won my first Jack Pine, my first cow bell trophy in 1981.

So that was that was another big thrill.

A number of my family members have ridden Jack Pine.

Many of them don't have a cow bell trophy.

And here I was 15 years old, and my second Jack Pine winning a cow bell.

They made it very clear to me that that was a really big deal.

And I then I understood that and understand that.

[David S.] - Today, the Jack Pine is a one day race, but it is still a two day affair.

On Saturday of the weekend, the Lansing Club sponsors the Pine Cone Enduro.

This is a race for spouses, sons and daughters.

It's a bit of a lighter course and was started years ago to encourage youngsters to compete and to promote the sport.

Jack Pine is unique to mid-Michigan.

When it began in 1923, it was a group of adventurous motorcycle riders set out to challenge woods, trails, and streams.

Now the motorcycles are more modern and specialized.

But the determination of riders to conquer The Jack Pine course still lives on.

[Bill W.] - And my dad and my brother, they rode with their all sidehacks and any place where there was a crossing, like through a a creek or a mudhole or sand hill, the spectators all would be out: "Hacks are coming, hacks are coming."

It was just kind of a popular thing that was just totally different.

[Doreen A.]

- I don't know if you have ever ridden, but there's certain vibrations when you're hanging onto the handlebars and you're riding and you get stuck and you get in the sand and get stuck.

By the time you get to West Branch, I have seen people have to pry their fingers off the handlebar to let loose of it.

[Bill W.] - And they had this it was a gentleman had a dog, a small dog that would jump up and sit on the gas tank in front of his lap.

And that's where he rode, the dog rode.

[Bill R.] - My motorcycling experience started at an early age.

We had a washing machine repairman that had a Cushman scooter and maybe when I was 8 to 10 years old, he would give me rides up and down the alley, much to the displeasure of my parents.

They they had little or no interest in motorcycles then.

[Bill W.] - I do know when during the depression area when the tires were very, you could not get rubber.

Him and all of his friends they would put one tire inside of another tire.

And that's how they rode their motorcycle, because they wore out the tire and they put another one inside of it.

[Ted K.] - My mother put her foot down and told him there'd be no motorcycles because she didn't want me riding like he did back in the day.

It didn't work, though.

I decided when I was 18 that I was going to build a bike.

So I went ahead and bought a bike and started redoing it.

And I did get a little help from him, but she was not happy.

[Bill W.] - I do know when I came to a mudhole somewhere south of Evart, I was sitting there and there was a lot of bikes stuck in the mud.

And we're on a long power line or something.

And I can remember old lady yelling at her husband or son or somebody to "help this little boy across this mud."

And he just grabbed me and pulled me across it.

So I remember.

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