About Zundapp. In 1966 I lucked out and borrowed the 125 cc works Zundapp intended for Leroy Winters. (Edison Eye had sent Leroy and Malcolm Smith to the Swedish ISDT; then Dye late in the game, decided to have Leroy ride a 250 Husky. That left me with the opportunity to snatch Leroy’s works year old 6 day 125. (Zundapp, for the ISDT-ed.) The night before the Trials start, Bud and I had a meeting with the director of Zundapp for permission; the whole conversation was carried on in the French language. Bud spoke French pretty well.) I learned to ride the bike during Day 1 of the Trials. Then bought the bike in 100cc form early 1968 so I could not have ridden the ISDT Works bike in the 67 ‘horn as most people think.

Ed Romas, Jack Krizman, and I entered the ‘horn as a team and for some reason I didn’t have a bike, and neither did Jack. In the last minute, I borrowed a production 4-speed 100 from a close friend, Joe Bihari. Except for the goofy handlebars Joe liked, this bike was box stock right down to the tires. Jack had also borrowed a 360 Maico from one of his friends. The fourth guy on our minute was riding a Harley Sportster, never did see him after the start. I won that particular enduro because the Gods smiled upon me.

I think 40 years ago the H-D would have been a 55 incher. The first morning of that particular ‘horn they did a lousy lime job which also got blown away with overnight winds of near blizzard force. So us slower guys had a better opportunity to spot lime because of our leisurely pace. Those fast guys just kept going faster trying to find markers they had blown past.

I believe our overnight was in Randsburg. Sunday morning we rode to Cinco and didn’t go near Jawbone. Cinco, most recently known as Tokiwa which later burned down, was a gas stop and the section from there to the Town of Mohave is where

That particular ‘horn was cut short about 20 miles and was not allowed to finish at the start. Seems the CHP wasn’t keen about having a bunch of dirt bikes on their pavement. Another thing to ponder: If my number was 18 and I started on minute 18, then the guys who start at 6:00 AM sharp would have to be number 0 right? Common mistake, even Bill Brokaw wrote about it. Another answer: the Zundapp would have gone on forever; those Germans knew a little something about building reliable motorcycles.

Ed Romas still lives in the Canoga Park house he bought in the 1960’s. Jack Krizman lives in Lindsay, California. Both are retired, naturally.

It never did matter what I rode as long as I enjoyed myself. As it worked out, the Zundapp was the best choice because I could carry it when I had to.

-- Dave Ekins

On March 3rd, 2006, Dave Ekins, upon further reflection, added...

David [Buchman], after reading your account of the '67 'horn, I found my copy of the Cycle article and your rendition is quite accurate to the story published. Then I got to thinking about the 20 or so 'horns I have ridden. This one had about a 20% finishing average, so the 61 points I lost makes sense. I had finished an awful lot of those 500 milers generally losing less than 20 points. I would presume this one was pretty tough. Additionally, the toughest ISDT was '65 with a lot less than 20% of the 300 entries finishing. It was also won by a 100cc machine (Hercules). The only time the Six Days has had an overall winner with a bike of less then 250cc.