On The Pegs May 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 5 | Page 82

On The Pegs
82
LANE LEAVETT
LANE’S STORY
Three-time US National Trials Champion Lane Leavitt talks about
his Pro Trials career. (Photos from the Len Weed Collection)
I rode my very first Trial in the fall of 1969 on a Hodaka Ace 100, the kids I rode
with were my High School pals, and we had some married Adult friends who we
rode Enduros with. For some reason, we all decided we would go ride a Trial up
in beautiful Marine County. Why we all began riding Trials and quit Enduros I
don’t really remember, but I depended on my married adult friends to carry my
Hodaka to any events we did, because I didn’t have a pick-up, all I had was my Hot
Rod 1956 Chevy Bel-Air with a 4 speed Munci Tranny, and Tuck and Roll interior.
We all lived the movie American Graffiti lifestyle, we cruised the boulevard at
night with my Car Club, The Coachmen of Pleasanton, and rode Motorcycles dur-
ing the day. If you have any doubts of how wild our lifestyle was, ask Kurt May-
field, who came and stayed with me the summer of 73, Kurt said to me recently, it
was the best, the wildest and the greatest summer of his lifetime.
Why I decided to focus on Trials was I was not 18 yet, and I wanted to go MX rac-
ing but my folks refused to sign the release for me to race. Trials at that time did
not require a release, so I decided to compete in Trials until I turned 18, then quit
and go MX racing. The sport and the world has change so, very, very much, and
not for the better in my opinion.
So I began trials training really hard, so hard in fact that in one year I went from
a first time Trial rider, to the best rider in the nation in little over a year of hard
training. I lived at home, and had an extremely good paying job building swim-
ming pools that allowed me to purchase my first real trials machine, a brand new
1970 Montesa Cota 247, I choose the Cota, because its the bike that the World
Champ was riding, Don Smith.
On this machine, I had my first solid Championship win, the Pacific Trials Cham-
pionship in Gilroy California. This win made me Champion of NorCal, and gave me
the confidence I needed to begin venturing out around the nation. By that time
I had changed jobs and was working nights at General Motors Parts division in