Kit Palmer | March 3, 2024
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
Living The Dream
Anyone with even the slightest interest in trials—and even off-roading, for that matter—knows, or should know, who Debbie Evans is. But few know that she once made the cover of Cycle News.
Debbie Evans made the cover of Cycle News in 1978 when she competed in the Scottish Six Days Trials.
In case you need a refresher, Debbie Evans stole the hearts of motorcyclists worldwide when the 5’4” Southern Californian, at just 20 years of age, went to Fort William, Scotland, to compete in the Scottish Six Days Trials in 1978. At that time, the art of trials riding was beginning to gain traction in the U.S., but it was already as big as baseball here in the U.S. as trials was (and pretty much still is) in Europe. Evans was born into a family of motorcyclists. You might not know that her Dad rode the long wheelie on the trials bike in the movie On Any Sunday. By her mid-teens, Debbie was an accomplished trials and off-road rider when the bug to ride the Scottish Six Days Trials bit her. But getting there, she thought, would be impossible.
“I kind of secretly dreamed about being able to ride the Scottish Six Days, but as a young teenage girl, I just thought there was no way that I’d be able to go,” said Evans, who we recently chatted with.
To get to Scotland, she had several considerable hurdles to clear.
First, she had to get her international license, which she applied for in 1977. However, the AMA seemed hesitant to grant her the license.
“They stalled me,” Evans said in an interview CN did with Evans in 1978 right after the Six Days. “I guess they didn’t want some squid of a girl riding in the World Championship.”
So, in 1977, Evans competed in the AMA National Trials series. She finished inside the top 50 out of 150 competitors, “but it was good enough to persuade the AMA to give me my international license this year,” she said in the 1978 interview.
With that hurdle completed, she had to come up with the funding, which was no easy task. When Evans was 15, she got a factory-sponsored ride with Yamaha, and Yamaha was willing to help some, but she needed more help—as in more cash.
Debbie today with her husband, three-time AMA Trials Champion Lane Leavitt, and their son, Daniel.
Evans recalls today, “A friend of ours said, ‘Hey, have you ever thought of riding the Six Days?’ And I went, ‘Well, kind of, it’s just been a dream, but I never told anyone.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to help make it happen, and he got ahold of Cycle News, and you guys put something in [the newspaper] telling I needed help to go to ride the Six Days, and people started sending money and donations in, and it was just amazing! Yamaha got me the plane tickets; Gordon Farley Motorcycles [a sponsor of hers] gave me the motorcycle, and so I had a 175 Yamaha as I rode in the Nationals and everything. It was really an amazing experience that Cycle News had a very big part in that.”
Finally, Evans made it to the start line of the Scottish Six Days Trials in 1978, and not only did she finish, but she also finished well.
“I had a great time,” Evans said. “But when I first got there, though, a bunch of people were betting on me as to what day I would quit, and were being really kind of rude, but I just bit my tongue and bit my lip and just rode. And those same people came up and apologized later.
“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “I was the only woman out of 280 entries; I was 109th overall on a 175, and I was fourth in the Under 200cc class. Yeah, so it was a dream come true.”
She added, “The funniest thing was on the seventh day after riding for six days, when I got up, it felt really weird not to be on my motorcycle!”
Debbie Evans was the only female who competed (and finished) in the Scottish Six Days Trials in 1978.
Evans says she is still proud of her accomplishment. “It was a real test of the kind of rider and endurance that I had. When I would get really tired and when my calves were cramping up and everything else, I think of the two guys who were betting on me as to what day I would quit, and I would just keep going. But I also rode in enduros as a kid and out in the desert, in the snow or in the heat—125 miles sometimes with my Dad, and so I think that trained me because I really didn’t have much problem with keeping up stamina.”
Evans, now 66, still rides motorcycles (and is still very good at it) and is still passionate about riding trials. After the Scottish Six Days Trials, Evans became a big-time stunt woman in the movie industry. What movies might you have seen her work in?
“Well, let’s see. In the movie The Jerk, I rode over the Volkswagen, and did the turning wheelie off the semi-truck, and rode through the wall of fire. And let’s see, in the Matrix Reloaded, I rode the Ducati 996 and drove the Cadillac CTS doubling as Trinity [Carrie-Anne Moss], and one of my favorite things was in a car in The Fast and Furious: I drove a car underneath a semi-truck. Then the semi-truck hits me, and then I flip off the side of the road.” Fun stuff!
Evans still loves to ride trials. She recently attended a trials event in California with Beta.
Evans was in the motocross movie Winners Take All, where she jumped a ravine that no other male stunt motocross riders would attempt. When the guys hem-hawed about doing the jump, Evans stepped in and said, “I’ll do it!”
Another part Evans played that you might not have known is that she was in a photo on the Cycle News cover from the 1978 Scottish Six Days Trials.
“I did get on of that cover of Cycle News!” she says. “They had a picture of me riding up a famous section at the Scottish Six Days, which was called Pipeline, and I was very surprised and happy to see that they had put a picture of me on the cover of Cycle News. The headline said the winner was Martin Lampkin, so not many knew it was me, but I knew it was me.” CN
