Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Cooperation for Competition On the occasion of thi s Fourth of J uly , marking t he 190th bi rt hdate of our young , (as nations go) federat io n of states , we can find s trong e vide nce t hat th e spirit of independen c e is still burning in th e hearts of Californians. E vent s of the past weeks have pulled, as nev er before , the lon g grey beard of our national a ssociati on. At a time when motorcy cl e s po rt s men should be acting toget he r to keep up wit h the ri s in g inte re st in our kind of fun. we ar e dissipating our energies in int ra-frat ernal strife . In a way , Cyc le News is re s pons ibl e for bringin g local ra cing to t he attention of AMA admi nistrato rs. Ou r pages refl e ct the s po rt as it i s happeni ng in th e West . Other ar e as of the nation, where raci ng is l es s ad van c ed than here, complain ed t o Col umbus that we out here were vi olating th e rul es. What hasn' t been said (in prin t ) unt il now is tha t prior to Cycl e New s, th e AMA had go ve rne d Cali forn i a from fa r-away Columbus, Ohi o with a fair ly loo s e rein. Thi s seemed to work for ev e rybo dy 's ben e fi t. If the riders were neglected , at lea s t they were not enc umbe red . When th e Southern C alifornia Spor ts C ommitt ee was in its heyd ay . united around th e annual Cat alina Gran d P ri x. the y us ed California as a testing ground, I am told. to tryout new rule change s before they wer e written i nto th e book. Catalina was lost in 1958 for a vari ety of re asons and sinc e the n the pow er of th e Sport s Co mmitt e e has dwi ndl ed. Aft e r 1958 th e dealers . backbone of th e Committ ee , dr ift ed away or were driven out . All exc ept t wo repr e s e nt a t ive s of th e industryBill Martin, who says ve ry little a t the monthly me e tings. a nd E a rl Flande rs , who often s ays a little too much. Today. in st e ad of guiding th e s port s ma n rul e s writer$",th e Committ ee tri e s to follow th em. SOm etimes t he rul es don't fit the situation out here. If yo u enfo rc e th em. people forge t t he ir mann er s ; when y ou ig no re t he m you can't ke ep it sec ret. The ne wspaper carries word across th e na tion. Cycl e News recognizes its res po ns i bi li ty for helping ' bring the s itua ti on about. If we hadn't reported how Californians customarily a lter th e rules to rit our highly-developed kind of racing. perhaps no on e would ha v e known , or cared .. On this an ni ver sary of t he foundi ng of our nation we ask th e pa rt ie s presently in disput e to imitate th e exam ple s of our foundi ng fa th e rs and hammer out an association t hat will permi t more progr es s for our sport and re s pe ct the rights of local groups and individua ls to ride for fun whene ve r t hey want to. Portraits to Posters In an swer to pres ent and future reiteratio ns of the question. · who d o e s t hose elaborate 2- and 3-c o10r ad s that shine forth from the pa ges of Cycl e News ?" we point with pride to art is t Carl Bartlett , a fai rly recent arrival on t he California sc ene from P eoria, Illinois . Worldng with the scissors and paste pot of an advertising artist, Carl has created some very effective pages for s uch famous names in the industry as Berliner Motors, BSA, Triumph, Yamaha and others. But his rinest tale"'" come out in his • real" work. Using the brushes and paieUe of a portraitist, which he truly is, Carl can take a had black and white photo graph of, for example, your scribe, and in a few hundred hours produce a copy in oils that come to life right there on the canvas. (.Why , that·s .. you!- friends shout, amazed. The candy red tank fairly vibrates. The dust hanes suspended for eternity and, though you age and wither, the painting is your window 011 the past, sharper than memory, more eloquent than all your tongues .) P ortrai t pai nting soo n will claim all of Carl ' !> attention . When that time comes , CYcle News' loss will be the art world's gain. Until then , every time yOU s ee a Carl Bartlett ad in the newsp ape r, YOU' ll know our ci rculation has j umped by another 200-1 ,000 copies. That 's how many extra papers our a dvertisers buY to se nd out to all the ir retail outlets for us e as pos ters. LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES (#1) "'b en Dr. Gerhart SUmmer, P hD. deci ded to laun ch the American M otorcycl e Service Ass n.• a sort of · Tripl e-A" for mot orerc les , little did he dream he'd be the first member t o need the pick-u p service his a ss ociat ion plans to offer. Unfortunatel y for the good doctor, the state insurance board is taki ng its sweet time examining AMSA' s credentials. Approval is expected " any day now," but until the crit ica l board is s atisfied, AMSA doesn't do busines s. Dr. Summer was riding his Triumph Booneville on Hollywood' s favorite s wervery, Mulholland Drive , one warm night last week when, as he puts it, "the engine stop ped running." Fo r all his academic de grees, the good doctor is an admitted dunce when it comes to things mechanical. Upon purchasing his first motorcycle a few years ago , he was natly turned down by the automobile associations when he applied [or emer gency road se rvi ce In suranc e, -W e doo' t ltCcept motorcycles ," they all said. That is why he conceived AMSA. s ars Dr. S. · W hat do you do if your moto rcrc te breaks down?" he is fond of aski ng. What he did wa s , he passed a chain thr ough the frame tubes and locked it to a convenient lamppost. Then he t humbed a ri de home , borrowed a pick up truck and returned to gather the ai ling cycle. Needless to Say, an ente rprising thief had beat him t o it . Sometime during the 3 or 4 hours the u r, was away, so meone had broken the lock and stolen the bike. Of course it was i nsured for the ft but, as Dr. SUmmer say s , a li ttle wistfully, "The re' ll never be a bike as grea t as that one. " Trails All· Clear BOOBY TRAP WINDUP After a very pleasant holiday in the Lanc aster des ert l ast SUnday, we are pleased to sound the " all- cl ear" on our booby- t rap warnin g of two weeks ago. About a dozen des ert sand bus ters , incl uding your sc ri be , sti rred up the trails and found no sign of villainy left anywher e. No more spik es, no cunning barbed wire to thwart the eager wheel s. The only "booby traps" I dis covered were of my own making, when I Inad vert antly barbecued a Bultaco lent to us by Honda of W ilmington. Not to be s topped by one warning, I then endeavored to kee p up with Des ert M ter as La rry Hal ey on my road-goin g BSA and ended up with the headli ght aiming in a slightly cockey ed direction. After that, discretion took the bett er part of enthusiasm and I sp ent the res t of the afternoon enjoying the free barbecue put on by the Ponderos a Ranch owners , Al and Lois Coltzau, and the teenage rhythms of a very good quartet called U Th e ElSA was treated to a gratis rescue by Eric Brown of the Am erican Mo tor~cl e Service Association, and J im Manning ("life insuran ce for motorcycl ists only") revi ved the Bul taco in time to beat the traffi c home. When we woke up this M onday morning, the first thing we want ed to know was. who won the l O-mile National Championship (· Chari ty Newsies" ) at COlumbus, Ohio on Sunday ? In vain we lea fed thro ugh th e major metr opolitan daily newspapers - no report. W called e the two largest newspapers in the area and they didn' t recall se ei ng any report of a motorcycle rac e on the wire s ervices. "We'v e got aut omobil e races, boat races, foot rac es and bicycl e races , but no motorcy cle rac es," a spo rtscribe sai d. Then we called United Press Inter- FOR 80cc YAMAHA 5ept-.Jter 3, 1 . ~ • • Two Hour UTeam" Scrambles By Bo b Gnodl n g The El Caj on M. C. of San Di ego i s well known for i ts annual Coyote Chase, a de s ert event held durin g the December holiday season. I n addi tion, June i s the month chosen for their second most famou s event, a T wo-Hour T eam Scrambles , usually held ne ar the beach so as to benefit from the cool ocean breezes. T he E l Caj on cl ub was aided o n J une 19th by the T ita ns, an d bot h clubs accused J ohn Barn e s , a po pular membe r of t he Los Ancianos Club , of bei ng the culprit who laid out t his devastating course . " Bi g John - out di d himself at Miramar Mes a with an eight-mile , brushcovered , roc k- load ed, drop-o ff and sandwash-filled course , with an uphill t ank-slapper straightaway. T he te am of Zane P rat he r a nd Gen e Fetty (T ri umph and BSA) won in the Open Expert Class. T he 250cc E xper ts all rod e two-stroke machines and the team of Warre n Ra ms ey on a Bu ltac o and Mar k Good in g rode a Maico to the win. Triumph- mount e d J ohn Barne s and J im Hj al mar s on with hi s Matchle s s had an easy win in t he Open Novi c e C las s . Othe r Clas s winne rs we re John Kenyon and Ri ck E ck er t (Bultaco and Mont e s a ), whil e Stan Whitt en and Byron Krene k t eam ed together wit h th eir Yamahas in th e l OOc c Class wit h no co mpe titio n in s i ght . The uni que T e am Sc ramble s is both demanding an d s a tis fyi ng to ri de rs who wait all ye a r fo r t he eve nt. ( Re s ults on pa ge H ) .' l; .,s l,oi ':< ...... !~~"~'l:.~ . ~ ,,- ' -. •. " _ _ .. ~~ Three part icipants In two-hour Team Scrambles navigate a porti on of the course. TWO IF BY LAN D from page 1 mai ntal ning an average of fifty miles per hour. Traffic was very li ght. Our big gest hazard was the animals that roam freel y back and forth across the highway; catt le , cows , beautiful hors es (and so many of them), large herds of goat s. and of course , the inevitable little burros , who quite stole my heart. After having travelled only 260 miles - a far cry from the 400 per day we had Irv and Dottle 'ln Santa An~ : ••Mexlco. W e RIDE What We SELL 'SA plann ed - we arrived in Hermosillo, our first big cit y. It is a fairly lar ge city and a very beautl ful one , after the many, many miles of desert. Flowers were everywhere, especially the colorful Bougainvillea. The motel was very pretty, and this time there were tbree double beds in one huge room. So, we dumped al l our gear on one, and slept i n the other two. Once again we could have used a good plumber, but were becoming quite adept at twisting wire han gers into pium bers ' tools. We had dinner at motel dining room. The girls took knits and jersey dres s es , je rsey blous es to go with slacks and one black ski rt that was inte rchangable with the blous es. This made a very neat appear ance. Th e men each had one white shirt and a sport coat which did not wrinkle when it was ca refully packed. W were finding it difficult to slow e down especially at meal times. Meals are almost a ce remony there and it s eems we waited hours . We were co nvinced that we could have made at least 100 miles per day if dinner hadn' t taken s o long. Bob had a color P olaroid camera with him and it was a wonderful way to make friends . W hen Bob s tarte d to tak e a pi cture, people cl uste red around. Then , when he had the actua l picture to s how them in one minute, they were t ruly amazed and pl eas ed. ' (Conti nued Next Week) • • • • YAMAHA ~ ~ F_ Ti ckets Obtal ....bl. from., ~ H~ Fost. Md Gardena Bowl BARRY FOSTER MOTORCYCLES 10425 SO. VERMONT AVE. 754-2811 ~ CALIF.-NEVADA lOO-Mile Hare & Hound COMPLETE RESULTS AND PHOTOS NEXT WEEK EI Cajon and Titans Toss SUGGESTION FOR THE AMAMS&ATA FREE ••• FREE ••• FREE ••• FREE DRAWING The Debris_" nation al and Associa ted Pr es s, the two lar ges t wire services. · W don't carry e motorcycl e reports" said AP . UPI had no report s e ither. In view of this "mot orcycle news blackout " we would li ke to see the M otorcycl e, Scooter & Allied Trades As sociation or the AMA appoint or hire a professio nal publi ci s t to supply news report s and results of the Nationals to at least the major wire services . Al ready t he MS&ATA has a • Public Relations Committ ee" heade d by scoote r salesman Arnold M ende. With $40,000 reportedly budgeted for P. R. this year, that s hould help sell a lot of scooters. Now how about trying to sell a few motorcyc les, eh, M Mende? r. ~ IRV SEAVER ( 714 ) 542·8691 2402 N.MAIN, SANTA AN A • NE 84 864 Royal Enf ield Specia list COMPLETE ROYAL ENFIELD PARTS SUPPLY 1955 TO 1965 • SHELL MOTORS 3.1 46 Century Rd. Lynwood , ca lif. •

• Cover