Back when I did my first 4 day event everyone rode 80's enduro bikes because well it was the 1980's and while it would still be possible to do the A4DE today on a 70's or 80's bike I wonder if many people would want to do such a long event on a bike without smooth power delivery, plush suspension and disc brakes (plus a ready supply of parts to fix the bike after the event). At the last Vic. vinduro event I did a few laps on my SWM 175 and a few on my new KTM 300 (I took the new bike when I went out with the video camera). The two main points I noticed between the bikes was the braking (one or two finger stopping versus a handful of brake lever to slow, not stop, the SWM) and the delivery of the power (both two strokes and both with a good quantity of power but the KTM was so much smoother and easier to ride). Now this isn't a critisism of the older bikes it's just that I can see why the vinduo format that Peter Drakeford and the organising clubs have in Victoria is working so well with a 20 to 30 minute lap of varied trails (none of them too hard, although the rocks on some of the hills at Benella created a few challenges) and the riders able to do as many laps as they like at what ever speed they want to (Steve Juzva, just to use one example, was riding his vinduro mount faster than most guys could ride a new bike). The charm with vinduros is the riding along with the relaxed approach, social stuff and the interesting array of bikes to look at (much more so than at the say the last Stockmans Rally where it was pretty much a sea of 500 identical, late model KTM's, WRF's and a few Honda's). The modern enduro isn't the bike and rider destoying event (not that the Four Day really ever was) of years gone by but it is still a lot of riding over sometimes very cut up trails (as was the case at last years A4DE).
All said and done however it would be great to see a classic enduro bike enter and finish the major Australian enduro.
Mark
