Endurofest

After kitten videos, the next best thing about the computer age is the ability of like-minded vintage motorcycle enthusiasts to feed their fetish, however bizarre it may be. Any motorcycle marque produced within the last thousand years has a web forum peopled by dyed-in-the-waxed-cotton devotees.

Need to know how often to replace the leather crank flap on your Hurley-Pughes Wildebeast? No problem. There’s a page that will have the maintenance schedule, including information on where to find the rare “war years” paper flapper. Spend any time on a model-specific forum and you’ll have a global network of friends all suffering from the same disease.

If you're lucky, the camaraderie of the forum spills over into real life like it does at EnduroFest, a vintage two-stroke Yamaha Enduro gathering. Traditionally held in the high desert of Gorman, California, the fourth annual EnduroFest was moved to Moab, Utah, in order to draw vintage Yamaha Enduro enthusiasts from points farther east.

I’ve attended many vintage motorcycle events, and they usually deteriorate into a game of restoration one-upmanship. There’s always one originality whore who, waving a rusty spoke nipple in the general direction of your face, tells you how it took him two decades to locate a period-correct pot-metal spoke wrench. “See those rounded-off corners?” he’ll say. “You won’t find those on a nipple that’s been tightened by a modern wrench.”

Another stock character is the Over-Restorer, a guy who rebuilds his classic motorcycle to a quality level that would have bankrupted the original manufacturer. The Over-Restorer lives in a stagnant world where entombed motorcycles never crash or wear out.

EnduroFest is nothing like that. The guys who attend E-Fest use their Enduros hard, like Mama Yamaha intended. Their bikes may be scuffed and dirty, but they’re well oiled and reliable as 40-year-old off-road bikes can be. Modifications to improve performance are encouraged. Modern rear shocks and larger gas tanks are common. Custom cylinder porting and expansion chambers add a cackle of excitement to the air. The only judgment your mods will receive at E-Fest will be done by a cold-hearted, emotionless trail.

The bikes may be impeccably maintained, but the riders are a mixed bag of ailments. Most E-Fest attendees fall between 50 and 60 years old, prime 1970s nostalgia bait. When you reach that age it’s best to travel in a group. Hopefully, somebody will know CPR.

While they may not be as fit or ride quite as fast as they did when they were teenagers, E-Fest riders have lost nothing in terms of determination. After watching the boys repeatedly throw their classic bikes against the side of Moab’s Widowmaker, a steep, rocky climb interrupted near the top by two, vertical rock ledges, you’ll gain a new, more literal definition of mid-life crisis.

But maybe you don’t feel like separating a shoulder crashing on The Widowmaker. That’s okay. There’s no wrong way to attend EnduroFest. Some E-Festers spend most of their time hanging around HQ talking Enduro trivia.

Originated by Dave Meese, E-Fest is an all-volunteer, sponsor-free zone. There are no invitations to receive and no fees to pay for this gathering. Attend at your own risk. There is a suggested campground, but you can stay wherever you want. Hell, you don’t even have to own a vintage Yamaha Enduro to attend, though riding a modern four-stroke amongst these two-strokes will require a thick skin. And a gas mask.

There are a couple of ways to get involved with the next E-Fest. The first is to visit the EnduroFest planning thread on yamahaenduro.com, a nearly impossible task, as the forum firewalls are 22 feet thick and 300 feet high. The second is to visit EnduroFest’s Facebook page. Either way, isn’t it about time to dust off that old Yamaha?