Many of the most influential off-road racers of the 1960s are practically household names among motorcycle enthusiasts. Riders such as Bud Ekins, Malcolm Smith, John Penton and Preston Petty immediately come to mind when thinking of big name off-road riders of that era, but ask the riders who raced during that time and many of them will mention Walt Axthelm as one of the best off-road racers of that period.

Walt was one of the first Americans to compete in the prestigious International Six Day Trials (now called the International Six Day Enduro). He won numerous off-road events in Southern California during his racing career, including a class in the popular Catalina Grand Prix. He rode with factory backing from BSA, Jawa, Suzuki and Kawasaki during his 30-year racing career.

Riding a BSA Gold Star scrambler in 1955, Axthelm earned the District 37 (Southern California) No. 1 plate. “They threw everything in together,” Axthelm said of the points chase for No. 1. “Desert races, scrambles and everything to get your points.”

“Walt won the AMA District 37 high point championship when there were a lot of great champions competing,” said fellow off-road legend Dave Ekins. “I always thought of myself as the king of the 250s, but Walt showed everyone how good he was on a 250 the year he won the 250 race at Catalina.”

By the early 1960s Walt had moved from riding the big four strokes to the lighter, more nimble two-stroke off-road machines. He began riding Jawas and CZs and that led to an opportunity to compete in the ISDT. The U.S. Jawa importer helped set up the trip to Austria for Axthelm.

“They supplied me with a motorcycle, put me up in a hotel and took care of my expenses,” Axthelm said. “At the time it was thought that I was the first American to compete in the ISDT and that’s the way they advertised it.

His bike seized on the first day putting him out of the competition.

Walt went back to the ISDT as part of the American team at the Isle of Man in 1965. It was held in horrible conditions that year and Walt said all the Americans were out of the competition by the third day.

By 1980, Axthelm was in his late 40s and he decided to retire after getting hit by a big rock thrown up by a racing pick-up truck in one of the long-distance desert races. “I decided that it wasn’t fun anymore,” he said. “I had a small sailboat at Dana Point and just packed it up and went sailing and that was it.”

Walt said after growing old and fat drafting on a computer all day he decided to take up mountain biking. He found his competitive spirit was still very much alive and he became one of the nation’s top senior mountain bike racers. In 2007 he won the overall cycling jersey in the National Senior Games. After retiring Walt moved to Durango, Colorado, and trains almost daily for bicycling competitions.