Royal Enfield Bear 650: A roadster made for comfort and high speed
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. You whack the throttle open! Even when your mind is screaming at you to dial it down, you follow your gut and you keep the throttle whacked open!" This is how Eddie Mulder answered my question about how he managed to win the 1960 Big Bear Run even though he started late. “When you got out on the track, the green flag dropped, and the bulls**t stopped," he added, offering me one of his sturdy cigars.
Today, Mulder is 80 years old but when he stood astride his Royal Enfield at the starting line of the Big Bear Run in 1960 he was a 16-year-old fresh faced lad from Lancaster, California. His motorcycle was a single cylinder 500cc with a high-performance cylinder head and an improved carburetor. At that time, the Big Bear Run, a desert endurance race, had captured the imagination of American motorcycling.
It had started out in 1921 as a bet between two riders in Los Angeles as to who could complete the 160km run to Big Bear Lake first. Over the years, this impromptu race transformed into the renowned Big Bear Motorcycle Run. For those who participated, the race was both gruelling and exhilarating, requiring high speeds, traversing desert terrain and choking on the inevitable dust clouds generated by the chaotic scramble.
By the 1950s, it was a full-blown event attracting close to 1,000 participants. Also read: Toy story: Inside a niche (and expensive) hobby In the 1960 event, 765 motorcyclists gathered at the starting line and Mulder won what was to become the final Big Bear Run ever. The traffic snarls and chaos this event generated in 1960 led to it being shut down for good.
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