Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

You' ll alwavs see it FlflST In • ••• f!Jfrl/iJl&B ~ 6411 N, Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach, Calif,90805 Or: Box 498 , Long Beach, Calif. Phone: 423-0431 (Area Code 213) From L,A. Phones: 636-8844 .. VOICES In Case You "Wanda-edTh e CYCLE NEWS coverage of the 12t h· Annual Death Vall ey Motorcycl e Tour was very good. and will be much appre ciate d by eve ryone who took Part in it. either as ride rs or as sp onsors. But why couldn't )'OU get our na mes corr ec tly? Ser iously, I do realize that with all of the e vent s tha t took plac e It would be a task of almost impos s ible size, but . at any ra te, for your informatio n CUSTOM CLASS Best M otor cycle and Girl -under 350c c Mickie Sprague P lacentia, California Best M otor cyc le & Couple-under 350cc Charles Bycroft a nd Wanda Thompson Santa Ana, California O.K., maybe I'm pushing, but thi s was our first motorcycl e tour wit h our cus tom '65 :Honda , and e ven th ough we had no one competing a gain s t us , we did our very best. I'm kind of proud of - W ANDA' S HONDA- , for s everal reasons . This machin e won two t rophies in 1965, a s best dressed stock machine, one at T he P oker Run of Th e Road Ramblers. and the othe r at the ben efit run, Operation Mercy. It was ent ered in the Dea th Valley tour las t year , but en-route , was totally wreck ed. as I was , sp ending 3Y.. months In a coma afterwards. Fo r thi s year ' s tour, the machin e was totally rebuilt, and reworked, all by my good friend , Tommy T hompson. His wife , Betty came up with the color sc heme, and made OUf dr ess uniforms for us . Th eir 13-year daughter, Wanda. is my constant riding compan ion, henc e the name of th e machin e. However, e nough is enough, just keep your good newspape r coming for all the motorcycle people, road riders. racing. and all. It Is the bes t. CHARLESH. BYCROFT Santa Ana Peter Who? Who is P. Ra chtman Th e Great White Father of motorcycle dom? He writ es lik e a product of the grea t herd. E veryone agr ees that wearing a crash hat s hould be up to the Indi vidual , not so me big mouth do goode r and the State of Calif. Yet Mr. Rachtman s ta tes that the sooner this law comes Into eff ect the better for all of US. I say Mr. Rachtman has no right to e xpress any opi nions that in cludes US, especially written. As beginners . most people that I have talked to would like an off the street or hi ghway place to practic e until they familiarize thems el ves , which wouId lower the accident rat e I' m s ure . If Mr. R. has a bone to pick wit h T i me mag . or his insurance c o. he s hould bring it out in the ope n so that all motorcyclist may join the fight. BOB ELLER Santa Monic a What Is Sportsmanship? In referenc e to that great paragon of s ports ma ns hi p, Tony Soto . Mr. Soto 's idea of sp ortsman ship s eems to be in collecting the free gold given out by the RRC In the form of trophies. In the run he was referring to sponso red by the California Eagles , due to the large turnout the departu re was delayed tll! 9:20, and the extra 20 minutes was allowed at ea ch check point. I left P aramount at 8:45 and riding well below legal speeds and taking a break of at least 15 minutes at each check point. I was abo ut an hour a he ad at each check point . Oh yes I got los t, probably at the same place he was refe rring to as marked in erro r. I was stlll an hour ahead at the check poi nt. M motorcycle In stock. y legal. a nd cost me under $500. Mr. Soto wll! te ll you with out you eve n asking that he has $5000 invested in his bike, and has a t least 2 trophies as to what a great machi ne it Is . Soto says he was 15 minutes la te a t the fini s h lin e, and they di squalified him for the j udgi ng. He was a ctually 40 minutes lat e, using th e time adv erti s ed on the conditions given at th e time of admissio n to th e run. Mr. Soto rode in and put his bike on th e jud ging lin e , and without c hec ki ng about st gn-i r-, he s ta rted puttin g his equipment out for the exhi bit . When he was told he was too lat e for the judging, he thre w a tantrum that would ha ve been dis gus ti ng if a three-ye a r-old boy had tri ed it. I have ne ver known them to hold up a ra c e a t Ascot or at a ny of the Har e a nd Hound rac es or an ywher e el se becau s e your bike, or anyone else 's caugh t fi re or was wrec ked. As to Mr. Soto puttin g out a fi re or being a good Samari ta n. I do not know. He may ha ve put out a fi re or gone for an ambula nce . but no bike turned up at the finis h of that run that looked like it had been in a fi re. Th e time allowed and t he time he took would easily have allowed him to do that and stll! make it. Ins tead of taking his di squalificat ion like a s portsman, a nd either keeping quiet or goi ng home, he stayed the re all afternoon using a busive language to any of the offic ials who would listen. I do sensure the Cal iforni a Ea gles for allowin g him to stay on the grounds and behaving himse lf in the way he di d, eve n if they had to c all a policeman to remove him. I am not a member of the Ea gles nor any c lub who were helping out at that run, I am only writing you to ke ep the re cords straight . If Mr. soto is a sportsman, 1 will withdraw my cla im to eve r being , or hav i ng been one. T.R. TURNER Downey P .S. Mr. Soto's equipm ent. Including firefi ghtlng equipment was virtually s potles s when he arrived at the s ig n in point. ("Maybe he took a moment to clean it? ") When You're Out nf Points... Dea r Chuck: If you hav e any doubt that di strict 37 hea vywei ght desert ride rs read your paper you s hould receive my phone calls . You publi sh ed my list of all riders who had ea rne d points in desert heavywei ght as of Oct.!, 1966. I thank you for that but I wis h that s omewh er e in your pap er you would cla rify one point. (No fa ult of yours , mine , or the distr ict 37 s ports committ e e.) THERE IS A MISUNDERSTOOD THINKING THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU FINISH A DESERT EVENT YOU WILL EARN POINTS. WHEN THE POINT CHART GOES DOWN TO ZERO THERE ARE NO MORE POINTS. I s hould say that I am ela ted to be electe d to a fourth term on the distrtcr 37 competitio n committee but I was actually hopin g to get out. I have enjoyed the associatio n wit h the rider s a nd the sp orts committee and now tha t I am stll! in I wll! make the best effort . CAL MAKE LA Mont erey Park All-American Worldbeater Talk Get on the stick Chuck Clayt on. A 250c c 1 cyl, 2 cyc le engine is made in L .A. a nd s ome are in bikes. Th e engine has run at As cot and turned exce llent lap times . It is manufactured by Standun Machin e Co. and designed by Bill Smith. A c omplet e U.S.A. engine and stronger than any Bulta co or Honda or whatever. ROCKYSHAPIRO Concord (·You've been rea din g those old magazi nes again, Rocky. Th e Stan dun, like the Croc ker, the Indian , Van Tech, Oc elo t, etc. hasn't been man ufa ctured for years. " ) A What beater? A re cent Issue of Cycle News carried a photgroph of our new Yetman /Ducati conversion under a tiUe of " W orld Beater part 2 " Since the publication of this issue. we hav e bad many customers inquire a s to the meaning of this title . and si nce we could give no knowledgeable answer we thought you might have a moment to drop us a line of explanation . Wesincerely ap preciate your coverage "THE VOICE OF CALIFORNIA" Charles Clay ton Editor Sharon Clayton Bus ines s Manage r Gil Brown .. .... A·dvertisin·g Manager Asst, Editor Robert Bradford Dutch Fie lde r Customer Relation s Dennis Greene Photo Editor Gay Thomason . Ci rcula ti on Manager. P ublis he d weekly e xce pt th e first and last we ek of th e calendar year by C&:S P ubl ish i n g C ompany. P. O. Box 498 . Lon g Beach , California. of our products in your fin e publication. We have found Cycl e News to be a very effecti ve adve rtising media. Th e Yet man Corporati on Da vid S. Yetma n Beverly. M s s. a Second Cla s s P os ta ge P aid at Long Beach. Cali f. Any part of this newspape r may be used without permission as long as credit is given . Editorial contri butions. cartoons. photos are welcomed and will be paid for upon publication. Self-addressed. stamped envelope assures return . Sinde COP)' Pri c e 15¢ Subscriptions: One year 2nd class mail $7.5 0 Advertisin g rates will be sent on reques t. By Chuck Clayton • • (The two-part " world-bea ter" editorial in Cycle News was in tended to s ta rt readers working towar d build ing an "AllAmerican" moto rcycle to compe t e against the factory s pecials currently bein g Imported for racing. Apparently, as e videnced by your letter, our campaign is starting to attract attention. W had e suggested that your frames might serve as a starting point." ) WEEKENDS ON W HEELS f By P eter Rachtman Some of the 1967 models ha ve al ready been int roduced. and as ye t ther e haven't been t oo many ea rth-shaking changes or developments. That new- purple and gold paint jo b on the Tr i umph Bonneville is pre tty far out... BSA has made a few nice changes on th e Victor. (A new longer seat a nd the addition of passenger foot pe gs help to mak e this outstanding dirt bik e a little more pra ctical as a dual purpos e machine l.. and Suzuk i ha s brought out their X-6 Scrambl er. Hopin g for a little more e xcitement than these modest cha nges offered. I decid ed to do a litU e s le uthing to see if ther e weren' t s ome really new developments promised for the co ming year. 450 Scrambler Comiug Close r to Reality It ' s beginnin g to look more defi nit e that Honda will have a 450 Scrambler out in the very near future . I unders tan d that ther e is one and pos sibly even two prototypes of this new model a t Ameri can Honda in Gardena . After seei ng both the 160 and 250-305 Honda Scra mblers wherever I go. I not only am quite su re that 1 al re ady know what thi s new bike will look li ke, but- am al so fair ly sure tha t it should se ll in lar ge numbers. Th e spo rty looks of the scramble r model sho uld help the sale s of this exce ptional motorcycle. Many pe opl e felt that last yea r's 450 road version was one of mot orcycl edom's outs ta ndi ng va lues , but that its styli ng kept it from gai ning lar ger sa les. .......................................... Component parts of the Wilkinson engine are laid out In the order they ass emble. Upper end (pistons, rods, cylinders barrel, hea ds and carburetors) are borrowed oll a pair of $5 war surplus stati onary motors. Any con' ventlonal engines can be adapted to the WII· klnson lower end. Although the plans are for building a two· cycle engine, a Ieur-eycle setup can also be devlsed. NEW TOY FOR GROWNUPS Detroit , look out! J a pan, s tart to s hud de r .. . Engl and, yo u might as well pull the plug because a L os An geles inventor ha s fo und a way around the hi gh cost of making engi nes to power motorcycles. E ver sinc e we de s c ri be d the Wilkinson Wiggle-Wa ggl e e ngi ne in our " Wanted, a n a ll -Ame ri c a n Worl dbeater" serie s a co up le of wee ks ago , lett er s and ph on e c al ls ha ve been re c ei ve d asking for more detail s. Relax. t hough Detroit, Engl and and Japan . John R ay Wil k in son the aforemention ed inventor, isn't mak i ng a ny plans fo r imm e di a t e producti on of moto rcyc le engine s . Ye t. He ' s only mak in g p lans to ma ke plan s . P lan s of the e ngi ne , that is , avai lable to readers of C yc le News who wou ld li ke to ha ve a little wi nter pro j e c t guaranteed to ke ep th em amused inde finit ely. In spira t ion fo r th e wiggle -w aggle (Co ntinu ed on pa ge 17) F urthe r a long thi s· if you can't beat them...[ oin th em" philos ophy. I understa nd that Royal Enfi eld will be brin gin g out a 750cc " Custom Stre et Scramb le r" which s hould debut ar ound Chris tmas. 1 can' t really understand how anyone ca n mass produc e a " custom" . but from wha t 1 hear. this will be an ultra-s porty, ultrafas t st reet and s ports machin e with TT pip es . It is bei ng de sign ed stric tly for the American market and s hould c reate considerabl e excitement whe n it arrives . ........................... ill ... Every ti me I pick up a mot orcyc lin g publi ca tion , so meone is mak in g the run from Tiju an a to La Pa z. A frie nd of mine ha s j ust gone Into trainin g. .. he claims that he is going to be the first to make the thousand mile trip on a Cus hman Eagle. ... " ... When I started writing this column. I decided to su bscribe to and!or join eve rything in si ght . So far the only (Continue d on pa ge 22) · . Compactness gained by the Wilkinson design Is Illustrated In this view. Engine measures S"IlO". Engine gets Its nickname ·wIUI.. waule" from the back·and·forth acll on of the ·thullil" (center) wh.. runn ln,.

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