Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

....,. '''" 'THE VOICE OF CALIFORNIA' _It FIRST I. M1J N. LHC BeacII Bin. L_c BeacII, Callf.!I. Or: Btx UI, L-e Beaell, Calif. Pbeae: 423-0431 (Area Code 213) F. . L.A........S; . . . . . . VOICES GlaUda For Pa.ishmeDt I have a complaint that ties In with some of your recent articles-Enduros. I ride a • Trail Bike" In the desert and !lke many of the other loocc riders I feel we are being shortchanged in both Enduros and races. We pay full entry fees oot get to ride 114 to 2/3 of the total distance In desert enduros and races. It doesn't cost the promoting club one cent more to let us go the wholeway,and1t's more trouhle for them to have a separate finish. We have always had to go the full distance in the Greenhorn Enduro and only 3 of us have ever finished-you can bet It was WOI1b it. Last year we beat all the 200cc machines. in last year's Prospectors GOldrush Enduro none of us finished but we beat all of the 250cc· B" riders. Those were endurance runs and we either endured or not. but we were proud that we had competed. I won the trail bike class on my Honda 90 in the last Cactus Derby oot I'm not proud of this trophy. We rode only ~ the course and it was so easy I could have done better on a 50cc machine (I hi talmost every check early-broken speedo). Earl Roeseler entered the 250cc class on his 100cc Zundapp at the Jackass Enduro so he could go the whole way and get In the "overall" results. I'll be racing in the "Tiny Bear" Instead of entering the Shamrock Enduro this year. Why drive 160 miles. one way. to ride 45 easy miles? Desert racing is getting to be just as bad-we usually go only 15-30 miles. The only run we were allowed to go full dis· tance last year was the San Gabriel Hare and Hound in November. SOme of the clubs live us separate courses and they usually live us more laps and a better race. The only club to give us a decent distance this year was Coachella Valley Mlc and that was only 40 miles. Some of us are thinking of entering the 125cc class-of course we would be the class. • I am awaiting the Prospectors' ·Goldrush Enduro" and the "Green Hom". Maybe P.M.C. and the Prospectors will give us some credit and let us go all the way. If I could get a sponsor on a guod 50cc macblne I would try the Greenhorn on it! Whither endurance? RICK WALDEN (Trail Bike #4) Banning ('Maybe expedencedleather-bottoms like yourself enjoy the impossible hills and bike-breaklng terrain that small bikes would be subjected to H they ran with the big ones, but what about the new desert rider just starting out? For him it would be more rlUstnltion than run. We hope to encourage mure clubs like the Shamrocks to consider the novice riders too when they lay out a small bike course. Btg bores and 21lO's need one kind of course (steep bills, fast terrain and power situations) wbieb the trail class just couldn·t navigate. They might even get in the way.") MOON SHOT Cycle News is unbeatable when it comes to motorcycle racing. However. you made a few slips with your moon picture on the cover of the ·Cycledelic" issue. I am employed by the Jet Propulsion LaboratofY in Pasadena as Dala Processing Project Engineer for the Lunar Orbiter Project (Translated. that means tha!'I am responsible for the IBM computer programs which control the mission.) Because of my work I recognized the picture instantly. First. the picture was DOt taken by Ex Jorer n oot by Lunar Orbiter III In late February. The prominent crater in the center of the picture is Kepler; it is ahout 20 miles across and more than a mile deep. The one due right of It is Kepler A. One other cOtmlen~the small cratered area In the lower right comer has apparently been edited. It. belongs at the bottom left of the orilinal'picture. However, your issue was enjoyable. I look forward to receiving every issue of Cycle News. SKIP NEWHALL Altadena ("Tbat·s Cycle News ror you SIUp. We evea edit the _ I " ) Gea. Mgr. Ad & Edit.Chuck Clayton Business Manager••Sharon Clayton Cmulation Manager Gay e Thomason Asst. Editor••••••• Rudi Hartmut Photo Editor• • • . • •Dennis Greene Reader Service. •• .sherri Deannond Ad & Edit. Asst. •• Robr rt Bradford Production Assislant••••Randy Say Published weekly except the first and last week of the calendar year by C&S Publishing Company. Post Office Box 498. Long Beach, California Please allow tbree weeks for address cllance• second ClaSs Postage paid at Long Beach. calif. Any part of this newspaper except copyrichted maUer IIl&J' be used without permission as 10Dg as credit is liven. Editorial stories. cartoons. photos are welcomed and will be paid for upon publication. Addressed. stamped envelope &Ssures return. SinIle oopy price • • • • • • • • • ~ Subscriptions: One year ZIId class mail • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 51.:10 AdverUsing rates will be seat on request. ANYCoMERS? It has come to my attention that there will be a National Championship Enduro in Forest Hill California on April 23 1967. ' Well. I was asittin' out on my • chair· t'other day, and a bunch of Our native hack riders tol' me of a kinda challenge they wanted heerd. They sat they will beat any sidecar at this Enduro that has nerve enough to show up with their rig. Knowing there ain't a rider team around out of Southern California, that is worth worrying about, They figured maybe frozen N?rthern California, or an out of stater rmght be ready to get used for traction up there. They figgered they are just too dern slick to get beat in the sand. so they want to try some tree smashin' and mud sloggin'. By the way. we got us a little bitty two stroke outfit In the groW. that reckons Inches ain·t the answer and they say there ain't skeered of no big monster machines. Wunder where all them Jack Pine hacks hide out the rest of the year? Sure be nice if they'd meet our fellows somewhere out here, so we could pick up some pointers. Gotta go now. but if any hack [rom San Diego on, or Ventura north, Bakersfield out, or Hawaili wet, wants to wager a jug or something...let US know. We're ready! Expectantly .. RED MOUNTAIN RALPH (hisself) General Delivery Red Mountain, California I WANT IN Please send me information on the AMA. on how to join. And also District 37 in California Thank you. Riverside mainly. RICHARD SMITH Bloomington (-To join the AMA. sead $2.00 to: American Motorcycle Association. Worthington, OIIio. For infonnation on District 31 sporting events conlact Jean Carter President Dist. 37 Sports Committee: 1:1:143 Nordoff, APt. 4, Sepul veda. To ~in a club in your locale- whether your mterests are competition, road riding or purely social - check the listings in Cycle News' once-a~nth Club Directory.") THE RUMOR MILL MJULD YOU BELIEVE? •••That a new lightweight 750cc, Nortonenlined scramhler will be introduced to western riders April 15. ... " """ " """"""""""" ...That the wedding or a noted drag racer that was supposed to lake place at the Irwindale strip was postponed Indefillit~ Iy, leavtnc preacher, tv ,camera crews and 24 pounds of rice waiting at the church. so to SIH:al<. " """" "" " """" """ " " " " •••That the elections for the new AMA Congress are scheduled to take place by this October. """"""""""""""""""" ...That land for the proposed new scrambles scbool has been ollered and now the call is out ror skilled riders to work as paid Instructors one or two days 00'" a week. """""""" "" """"""""" ...That Sonny Angel, the famous special builder. is putting together a very special experimental motorcycle that you'll be hearing more ahout. """"""""""""" """"" " By Chuck Clayton NECKBREAKER DISCOVERED IN SEATTLE A newsPaPer clipping sent to Cycle News by oorthwest correspondent Vic Eboott tells of another young cycle rider killed by a cable stretched across a road. Quoting from the Seattle Times. March 27,1967 page 9. "Dennis C. Cooke, 16 ... was killed when he was thrown from his motorcycle after the cycle hit a cable stretched across a road in Kent about 6:40 o'clock last evening. ·State trooper Terry Drews said Cooke was westbound in South 204th st. near 28th Ave. SOuth when his motorcycle struck the cable. used as a barrier gate across the roadway. He slid 32 feet on the gravel road. "The youth was dead on arrival at 7:28 o'clock at Burien Geaeral Rospilal. ·The cable was stretched where the street dead-ends. County officials said that a hearby resident had been liven a "trail permit" which gave him the right to use the right-of-way beyond the end of the street. ·The permit did not give permission to erect a cable. the officiais said. "His death raised the 1967 county \raffic toll to 49.•••" I think it is high time that the people In our sport who claim to be spokesmen spoke out about this carnage that is allowed to continue on our streets and tralls. A few months hack we reported a similar death of a young boy, also only 16 years of age, who was trapped and killed by the deceptively innocent chain or cable·gate· erzcted by so many unthinking landlords. These deaths are counted as traffic deaths to the detriment of statistics about our sport. It behooves those who worry about such statistics to petition thei r legislators for laws to control and regulate the insane stringing of mantraps on trails. How many more kids will have to die before we have laws to prevent people from breaking our necks? It does little good for grieving parents _to sue thoughtless landlords for creating what the law calls ·attractive nuisances" when the law fails to recognize chain and cable gates as dangerous. Both of the deaths we reported occurred in late afternoon 'when shade obscured the barrier. THESE THINGS SHOULD BE CLEARLY MARKED. They should carry a brightly painted sign that it is visible day or night. A large warning sign shouid be placed at least 100 ft. from the barrier on the approach from either direction. Let's see one of those legislators who prl>fesses concern about motorcycle fatalities get off the helmetand-crashhar kick for a moment and throw his influence where It can do some good. TT At Sa. Gallrie. Va., Eddie Mulder of Burbank. 1966 American Motorcycle Assoc. national champion. will lead a field of nearly 200 riders In the year's first AMA steeplechase 'IT races at San Gabriel Valley Speedway in Irwindale Saturday night. Mulder will be hard pressed to beat several of the nation's top riders includingSkip Van Leeuwen of HOll~ood. Dan Ruby of Gardena, Dick Dorresteyn of San Pablo and Dick Hammer of Lakewood. Other top contenders include Eddie Hammond of LynWOOd, Rich Thorwaldson of West Los Angeles and Swede savage of San Bernardino. The motorcycles race inside the paved track. on a specially engineered steeplechase course which has both right and left turns and features two jumps on whicb riders become airborne for 20 to 30 feet. san Gabriel Valley Speedway is located on Ri vergrade Road. three miles north oUhe San Bernardino Freeway and just eas t of EI Monte. TY Co...... Of H,& H Television viewers will have an opportunity to watch desert motorcycle racers bounding over rocks and sagebrush in a championship hare and hound soon to be produced by the ABC-TV network. The race to be filmed is the Pacific SOuthwest Championship Hare and Hound, sponsored by the Victors M.C.. and scheduled for April 9 at Lucerene Valley. Billed as the biggest hare and hound since Big Bear, the event will be run off in two 45-mile loops. SOme twenty cameras will be stationed at critical points throughout the course and overhead coverage of the progress of the race wlll be recorded by a cameraman located in a helicopter. The action wlll be filmed by famed surfing movie producer Bruce Brown and later condensed into a half bour movie for the District 37 film library. Dart- Dolars Gary Nixon netted $4,975 for his record breaking win on a factory prepared Triumph at the famous Florida road course. Buddy Elmore, who finished 12 seconds behind Nixon on another factory Triumph picked up $2,200. Total AMA award money was $15,750. ·Beautiful. just beautiful,· was how jackpot winner Nixon summed up his 98.23 victory. Winner of a 100 mile race for 250s, the previous day. when he raced a Yamaha, Nixon added: "It was a good ride and I'm not tired. My rump is a little tender. It took a beating on the bike seat these past two days. CALIF. SCHOOL GRADUATES first C,de Clal; On a rainy morning last Saturday, the first class in the Downey Adult Education motorcycle rider training program got its diplomas. Twenty-four students successfully completed the 12 hours of professional riding tips conducted by Instructor Bob Vance. Half of the class had never ridden motorcycles before. All the learning was done on bike ... contributed by U.S. Suzuki. J. Edwards donated ten of their fine helmets to the class Among the Students were several father-son, father-daUghter combinations. beanng out the contention that motorcycling is a family sport. Each recei ved a certificate of completion. sanctioned by the Cali!. Department of Education. The course is the first one to be approved by the state. New Class Sigaiag Up On April 8 a new class will belin. Sesslons are held saturday mornings. three hours each for four weeks. Students need not be residents of Downey to enroll. Cost of the course is $7. If you know of anyone who wants to learn to ride right, he or she can apply by calling the Downey Adult Education office, Mr. Chester E. Sutton, Director. at 923-6711 or the Downey Police Dept.. Lt. Childers• TO 1-0771 ext. 51. PROPEITY OWNER ASIS CYQE IIDEIS TO AVOID BEl WID Miss Grace E. And erson requests that motorcycle riders avoid her high desert propertY when laying out desert runs. She fears that -if this is done repeatedly it could produce washes." Until the District 37 Sports Committee is able to convince Miss Anderson that her property will not be damaged by cycles riding over It, District President Jean Carter requests that clubs and fun riders stay out of the area near Hi Vista bounded by 210th St. on the West. Ave H on the North, 220th st. to the East and Ave. I on the SOuth. We thank you.

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