Enduro comes from the latin word endure which means withstand or persist. This form of
competition is somewhat related to army motorcycling ordonnances that had to travel in
hard terrain between troups to deliver orders and messages. The key ingredients is to
be able to work on your bike to keep it rolling and to fast and safe travel on and off-road.
There has been competitions in enduro for a long time but during the 80's things
got somewhat more organized. There are some odd engine size classes and also different classes for two and four strokes.
The reason for this is that most contries in southern europe around the meditteranian sea
use small bikes, vespas, scooters and mopeds as common means of transportation too. Famous
events are except the championships, International Six Days Enduro (ISDE/ISDT), The
swedish Novemberkasan and the finnish Pajjane around (Around a lake). These events are
prone to wear out both bikes and riders. For example Novemberkasan normally have around
300 participants and some years only 10 - 15 riders make it all the way.
Europe Enduro championship 1980 - 1989Times around 1980 the enduro sport was a mess with really odd engine size/type classification. However 1980 50cc champion was Gino Perego (Italy). 75cc champion was Stanislaw Olszewski (Poland). Eddy Hau (Germany) won the 100cc class. Gualtiero Brissoni (Italy) won the 125cc class. Klaus-Bernd Kreutz (Germany) won the 175cc class and Andrea Marinoni (Italy) became the 250cc champion. Augusto Taiocchi (Italy) won the 350cc class. The 500cc class was won by Guglielmo Andreini (Italy). Heino Büse Germany won the 750cc class and the 1000cc class was won by Rolf Witthöft (Germany). Herbert Schek (Germany) finally won the +1000cc class.
1981 enduro 80cc champion was Angelo Signorelli, Italy (Fantic). 125cc champ was Gualtiero Brissoni, Italy (Fantic) and the 175cc class was won by Klaus-Bernd Kreutz (Germany). Alessandro Gritti, Italy (Kramer) was the 250cc champ and the 500cc winner became Jens Scheffler, DDR (MZ). In the +500cc 4-stroke class the champ was Hans Werner (Germany).
1982 ended up with 80cc winner Pietro Gagni, Italy (Zündapp), 125cc winner Harald Strößenreuther, Germany (KTM), 175cc champ Klaus-Bernd Kreutz (Germany), 250ccm Gualtiero Brissoni, Italy (Husqvarna), 500cc class winner Guglielmo Andreini, Italy (Maico) and +500cc 4-stroke Eddy Hau, Germany (Yamaha).
1983 80cc 2stroke champion was Pierfranco Muraglia from Italy riding an Accosato.
125cc 2-stroke champion was Andrea Marinoni, Italy riding KTM. Harald Sturm DDR (East Germany) won the
250cc 2-stroke class riding MZ. The 500cc 2-stroke class was won by Jens Scheffler (MZ) riding
for DDR. Edy Hau (Yamaha) won the +500cc 4-stroke class riding for Germany.
The 1984 season final result was: 80cc 2-stroke Pierfranco Muraglia, Italy (Accosato), 125cc 2-stroke Rolf Hübler, DDR (Simson), 250cc 2-stroke Harald Sturm, DDR (MZ), 500cc 2-stroke Jens Scheffler, DDR (MZ), +500cc 4-stroke Guglielmo Andreini, Italy (Honda).
1985 champions became: 80cc 2-stroke Stefano Passeri, Italy (Accosato), 125cc 2-stroke Rolf Hübler, DDR (Simson), 250cc 2-stroke Harald Sturm, DDR (MZ), 500cc 2-stroke Jens Scheffler, DDR (MZ), +500cc 4-stroke Thomas Gustavsson, Sweden (Husqvarna).
In 1986 the winner where: 80cc 2-stroke Stefano Passeri, Italy (KTM), 125cc 2-stroke Joachim Sauer, Germany (KTM), 250cc 2-stroke Harald Sturm, DDR (MZ), 500cc 2-stroke Sven Erik "Jösse" Jönsson, Sweden (Husqvarna), +500cc 4-stroke Josef Chovancik Czech (Jawa).
1987: 80cc 2-stroke Gianmarco Rossi, Italy (TM), 125cc 2-stroke Davide Trolli, Italy (TM), 250cc 2-stroke Dick Wicksell, Sweden (Husqvarna), 350cc 4-stroke Joachim Sauer, Germany (KTM), 500cc 2-stroke Sven Erik Jönsson, Sweden (Husqvarna), +500cc 4-stroke Giangelo Croci, Italy (KTM).
1988: 80cc 2-stroke Gianmarco Rossi, Italy (TM), 125cc 2-stroke
Angelo Signorelli, Italy (KTM), 250cc 2-stroke Dick Wicksell, Sweden (KTM), 350cc 4-stroke
Thierry Charbonnier, France (Yamaha), 500cc 2-stroke Sven Erik Jönsson, Sweden (Husqvarna),
+500cc 4-stroke Thomas Gustavsson, Sweden (Husqvarna).
Finally in 1989 the standings after the season where 80cc Franco Muraglia, Italy (TM), 125cc Paul Edmondson, Great Britain (KTM), 250cc Dick Wicksell, Sweden (KTM), 350cc 4-stroke Laurent Charbonnel, France (Husqvarna), 500cc Sven Erik Jönsson, Sweden (Husqvarna), +500cc Jimmy Eriksson, Sweden (Husaberg).
United States GNCC 1984 - 1989
The American GNCC championship is a one class only competition. These are the past champions.
1984: Ed Lojak (Husqvarna), 1985: Jim Maltba (KTM), 1986: Ed Lojak (Husqvarna), 1987: Ed Lojak (Husqvarna) and in 1989 as well, Ed Lojak, this year riding a Yamaha.
United States FMF National Enduro Series 1980 - 19891980: Dick Burleson (Husqvarna), 1981: Dick Burleson (Husqvarna), 1982 Terry Cunningham (Husqvarna), 1983: Mike Melton (Husqvarna), 1984: Terry Cunningham (Husqvarna), 1985: Terry Cunningham (Husqvarna), 1986: Terry Cunningham (Husqvarna), 1987: Kevin Hines (KTM), 1988: Randy Hawkins (Suzuki), 1988: Randy Hawkins (Suzuki).
ISDT/ISDE during the 80's
The International Six Days Trial (ISDT) that in 1981 was renamed to International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) is a very interesting competition. The riders compete in different displacement classes individually but the entire thing is a country team result. There is two titles, first the Trophy which is the senior class and then there was the Vase, later renamed to the Junior Trophy.
1980 in France (Brioude), Italy won the Trophy with (Gualtiero Brissoni, Guglielmo Andreini, Giangelo Croci, Augusto Taiocchi, Elia Andrioletti, Andrea Marinoni). Czechoslovakia was second and Germany manages third. Germany however got their revenge by winning the Vase (Junior Trophy).
1981
The ISDT (International Six Days Trial) was renamed to ISDE (International Six Days Enduro).
The 1981, Italy (Elba) edition was an entirely Italian affair with Trophy winners Gualtiero Brissoni, Alessandro Gritti (Kramer), Metardo, Giangelo Croci, Franco Gualdi, Augusto Taiocchi. Italy also won the Silver Vase, (Junior Trophy).
1982 in Czeckoslovakia (Povazska Bystrica), Czeckoslovakia won the trophy with Jirí Císar, Belsky, Emil Cunderlik, Vladimír Janous, Jozef Chovancík, Stanislav Zloch. DDR won the Silver Vase with Geißenhöner, Hannes Mauersberger, Reinhard Klädtke, Uwe Weber with their MZ Junior team.
1983 Sweden won the Trophy and the Silver Vase with the riders Hans Hansson, Peter Jansson, Per Grönberg, Sven Erik Jönsson, Lindbom, Thomas Gustafsson.
1984 in Holland (Assen) the home team, Holland won the Trophy with:
Dinand Zijlstra, Henk van Mierlo, Martin Schalkwijk (Kawasaki), Henk Poorte, Simon Schram, Gerrit Wolsink.
DDR won the junior trophy with Reinhard Klädtke, Jens Thalmann, Lämmel and Andreas Cyffka.
In 1985 in Spain (Alp La Cerdanya), Sweden once again won the trophy: Peter Hansson, Per Grönberg, Dick Wicksell, Sven Erik Jönsson, Lundberg and Thomas Gustafsson where the Swedish members. DDR riders Andreas Cyffka, Mike Heydenreich, J Grüner, Udo Grellmann won the Silver Vase.
The 1986 Six Days, both Trophy and The Silver Vase was won by Italy. The 1986 Italian riders where Angelo Signorelli, Alfredo Pegurri, Tullio Pellegrinelli, Giangelo Croci, Guglielmo Andreini And Grioli.
1987 in Poland (Jelenia Gora) DDR took both the Trophy and the Vase. The DD Trophy
riders where Jens Thalmann, Reinhard Klädtke, Uwe Weber, Harald Sturm, Jens Scheffler, J Grüner. Their Junior team
consisted of the following riders, Mike Heydenreich, Udo Grellmann, Thomas Bieberbach (Simson) and Pörschke.
The 1988, France (Mende) ISDE Trophy was won by France Thierry Charbonnier, Stéphane Peterhansel, Gilles Lalay, Jean Paul Charles, Jean-Claude Olivier, Marc Morales. Italy won the Junior Silver Vase.
1989 in Germany, Italy continued their enduro success by winning the last Trophy of the decade with the riders: Gianmarco Rossi (TM), Stefano Passeri (KTM), Angelo Signorelli (KTM), Trussard, Fellagara and Franco Gualdi. Finland started to gain momentum in the enduro world by winning the last Silver Vase of the decade.
Enduro bikes in the 80's
It's obvious that european brands was much more succesful than the japanese bikes in enduro competition even under the 80's. The reason is likely that enduro was a bigger sport in europe than in the United States so the european factories contracted the best riders. The Japanese factories wheren't very interested in investing money in enduro. Another reason could be that the japanese bikes couldn't be purchased with lightning coils and most contries had registration legislation that would proove hard to overcome. The two major european brands, KTM and Husqvarna had stable, slow handling bikes compared to the japanese ones and that is another factor that contributed to their popularity. Otherwise most enduro bikes from the 80's later half was motocross bikes with lights and other requirements. They had to have a more effective muffler and a slower reving toquier engine was an advantage too.
Bikes, pics, books and riders from the 80´s