Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
Meet Linda Adent, who was featured on one of Cycle News’ most memorable covers.
By Kent Taylor
In the early 1970s, long before the motorcycling world realized that women would make up nearly one-fourth of the market, women were mostly just an advertising element in the industry. There were miniskirted vixens in go-go boots on Nortons, bikini-clad babes on BSAs, and mod girls crawling like king snakes on Honda 90s. They were called “attention grabbers,” pawing and clawing at the reader, with slogans like “Go far faster.” About as subtle as a punch in the mouth.
Then there was a 1974 Kawasaki magazine ad. While other companies were using bullhorns that blared “sex,” Kawasaki suggested that to capture someone’s attention, you didn’t need to say a word. With just one winsome gaze from the backseat of a ’56 Chevy, a pretty-in-pink blond woman made strong men weak, helping move Kawasaki triples out of the showroom faster than if Yvon Duhamel himself were on board.
What the hero on his Kawasaki H2 does not know is that the sweet lass probably isn’t even focused on him. The girl in the ad is a lifelong rider, a former desert racer, and she is likely thinking more about redlining that massive two-stroke triple than about cuddling up on it as a passenger. Her name is Linda Adent, and Cycle News readers already knew her from the cover of the March 26 issue of 1974.
“My brother Mark had just completed a race at Indian Dunes,” she remembers. “A photographer just walked up and asked us to hug. We did, and he shot the photo. Mark was almost 20 at that time, so I would’ve been just 17 years old.”
That shot, taken by Jeb Wilcox, not only became one of Cycle News’ most recognizable covers of all time, but it also helped Linda launch a career as a model in the sports industry, where she would pose for ads featuring automobiles, motorcycles and even water skis.
It was a life that would begin in the desert, where the Adent family was spending their weekends.
“I grew up in Calabasas, California, and my brother, my mom and dad and I lived on something like a farm in Calabasas. It’s where the Kardashians now live, but back then, it was so much smaller. We would see maybe one car drive by, and now there are hundreds every minute. We had chickens and ducks, and we rode horses. Mark surfed, and I would boogie board at the beach. It was a great family life, just a magical upbringing.”
“In 1968, we received a Yamaha 80 for Christmas. Later, Mark got a Honda 90, which he rode when he started racing. But before all of that, we were just a family that rode motorcycles in the desert for fun. We would drive out on Saturday and stay overnight. We would sleep in a camper, in tents or even on cots. We were just kids, and we didn’t care.
“When Mark started racing, we joined the Rams Motorcycle Club. That was just one of the clubs, and we would all have fun together. On Saturday nights, there would be these huge bonfires, and we would all get together for the fire. One night, Mark and I got on his race bike and went off to visit some friends. It was dark—we couldn’t see anything, and the next thing you know, another rider was coming at us, and we hit them head-on! We weren’t hurt, but the bike was too badly damaged, and Mark couldn’t race the next day. I remember our dad wasn’t very happy about that!”
Mark had a successful desert racing career, often giving the desert legends like Jim Fishback and A.C. Bakken a good run. He won a number one plate in the 250cc class and would go on to qualify for the International Six Days Trial in 1975.
“We all got to go to Italy for that one,” Linda remembers. “He crashed into a tree on the fourth day, and so he wasn’t able to finish, but it was still a great trip.
“I started racing in the Powder Puff class, and they would just put us in with the Old Timers. But I did race with the boys a few times, and I remember one race where I finished second in the 250cc class on Mark’s DKW 125.
“Mark also did some single-seat car racing in the desert, too. But then it just became too expensive, and my dad said, ‘We just can’t afford this.’ And so that was the end of the desert racing.”
Mark Adent, who passed away in 2011, played the big brother role well, watching out for Linda and helping her with her riding and racing. He moved on to a career as a building contractor. Meanwhile, Linda was briefly married to Hollywood stuntman Danny Rogers, who, besides serving as Erik Estrada’s double on the television show “CHiPs,” is also famous for a well-known photograph.
“Do you remember the cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ album, with the two men and one of them is on fire? Well,” laughs Linda, “Danny is the guy who’s not on fire.”
After her marriage to Rogers ended, she met a professional fisherman from Minnesota and spent a few years competing in bass-fishing tournaments before retiring and moving to Colorado, where she now lives with her partner and former desert-racing buddy, Wayne Cook, whom she had not seen for several years. They are still riding today, with a couple of Honda CRF230s to kick around on the trails.
Linda has enjoyed a fun and adventuresome life, one that was kickstarted when a photographer simply observed a tight-knit relationship between a girl and her protective big brother. But while young men may have had their eye on the pretty blonde girl in the pink sweaters, Linda Adent was focusing on her own journey.
“Eyes on the road,” the ad states. “Because you’re more interested in the way you see the world than in the way the world sees you.” CN
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