Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Yoa'll~_ ~ "11IE VOICE OF CALiFORIIIA' 5ening all tile west Publisbec and AdverUsiDg MaDager , , , , , , , , , , , Charles C, Claytol/ ,.It .Editorial stories, cartoon, pbotos, Business Manager, • Sbaron Clayton etc. are welcomed and will be paid FI~ST • • Cir~ation Mer••• Gaye lbomason for upon publlcatioQ,Jexcept press Editor. , • , , • • • • • • • Carol Sims releases and ·VQice- letters. AdPhoto Editor••••• Dennis Greene aressifd, stllm\fed envelope assures ,Editorial Assi slant. Robert Bradrord return. 6411 N. LIlli Beaell BI'tL Advertising Asst. , Lynn Lancaster Single copy price ••••••••• 2S¢ Subscriptlon: One year 2nd class LolIIt Beaell. Calif. . .5 Published weekly except the first Mail •• , •••••• , • , •• , , $7 ,~O Or: Box 498, Loag Beacll, Calif. and last week of the calendar year One Year FIrst Class Mail. ,$14.00 by c&s Publishing Co., Post Office Phone: 423-0431 (Subscribers please allow three Box 498, Long Beach, Caillornia. weeks ror address change.) (Area Code 2l1) Second Class postage paid at Long Advertising rates and circulation Beach, Calif. information will be sent upon request. From L.A. Phones: 636-8844 alw", • • GUEST EDITORIAL A RIDER SPEAKS OUT I read with intere s t, in. the Augus t 17 issue of Cycle News, an article by Mr. Bob Schwartz wherein he advocated a national organization be set up to protect the motorcycling organizations from unfair and hastily contrived legislation. I have had this in mind for some time and felt that something should be done in this re gard. The question of who would "bell the cat· is another matter. A rider of many years and a member of AMA but a few, I have noted with much dismay, the complete disorganization at many IIBny MC events, despite the efforts of a few to IIBke things run smoothly. I like, among other events, Poker Runs but the best of these are mass confusion. This is in no way a slur on the hard-working club members who put these on. It just seems as if the average rider doesn't give a damn unless it happens to be his club that is putting on the run. Without the efforts of Bill Miller and others who are dedicated, nothing would ever get straightened out, Bill has solved IIBny a problem and kept things running smoothly. Nevertheless, we have a national organization and district organizations that should be the ones to help. I like what the ,AMA stands for but I am not impressed with the representation we get. We have many fine members in all areas who do more for us than the whole national organization put together. People like William Bagnall, Gordon Jennings, Earl Flanders just to mention a few. I was amazed when I first made application to AMA to find out that the membership fee was a mere two dollars. After a while I felt that two hucks worth was all I got. I spend around four dollars a month on motorcycle publications just to keep up with the latest news and do a little armchair riding. Rich I'm nof, but I'd pay, and gladly, an extra few dollars per year to the AMA for the privilege of having their officials do a little lobbying in my behalf. I know this will make a lot of people scream. The idea of some- DISTRICT DILEMMA Went to Oxnard, California the weekend of August 6, 1967, to ride in the A.M.A. sanctioned T.T. scrambles held at their annual Sports Festival. Being a Northern rider, District 36-A, and an avid reader of Cycle News, I was very anxious to ride in a District where men, competition, expertese, and thoroughness are unparalleled. May I say now that I was oot disappointed nor unimpressed, You boys in District 37 really know how to put on an event. Good publicity drew riders from everywhere. ,As we drove our panel truck up to tech inspection we were readY for the advertised "stringent goingover.· And I quote, without looking at the bikes, ·Got folding footpegs?· "Yep.· ·O.K.· Very impressive. At the sign-up booth my friend and I were grateful for the speed and efficiency with which the norllBl forIIBlities were dispensed with, and soon found that it only cost -a' dollar thing going up in price doesn't make anyone happy. But just think, two dollars per member, all over the United States adds up to a lot of financial power in our behalf, and there are dozens of ways to do it. Outside of each AMA member paying an extra two dollars, and I use this figure as an example only, the clubs can, during their membership drives, give up one of their weekly beer-busts an d afford the extra money for all of the members. Dealers can be encouraged to subscribe to a fund to aid the AMA lobbyists and thereby do themselves a lot of good in the way of favorable publicity and in increased sales when people find out that they can buy a motorcycle and not ha ve to load it wi th a lot of useless safety devices that the misguided lawmakers of our country have saddled us with. Mr. SChwartz mentioned the fact that promoters of sanctioned ,AMA events should set aside a fraction of their profits for this fund. This should be the case. I don't feel that promoters are bloodsuckers; they are entitled to their help. Motorcycle riders of all varieties are the ones who are responsible for their bank balances. I might note here that there is no pun intended toward the few promoters who have gone bust, but you can't have one-hundred percent success in anything. Mr. Schwartz has the right idea and I second his motion. If we can't accomplish this on a national hasis, let's do it by state, district or county just as long as we get the job done. If I had the time, I'd be glad to be the one to do a little lobbying. ,At this time, the best I can do is to keep writing to my senators and other representatives and ask their help, If this thing gets off the ground, just let me know where to send my two bucks (or more) andyou've got it. R.J. HAECKEL 14752 Candeda Place ' Tustin, Calif. 92680 to sign up in any class one' s heart desired. saturday night's professional Novice T.T. winner at Ascot had his big chance to prove his win was no fluke - against 250cc Novice Sportsman. He (and others) showed a lot of class and I must say, impressed me a whole bunch. Especially good spectator and pit control kept spectators and riders from entanglements as all the "competition scooters· were tested in • all-out-see-I' m-faster-than-you-in-astraight-line-through-tile-pits-and-i nfr 0 0. t-of-the-spectators-events.· A rare treat for me indeed; first time I've ever seen a bike in the pits break its front axle and dump its rider on his nose "for no apparent reason•• Invigorating is the only word for Twin-Wheeler hospitality, nay, exhilarating is a better one. From concession stand and pick-up bed alike flowed the good spirits of certain well-known beverage manufacturers, producing in the pits a kind of brotherhood, a sense of security and virility not far afield from the produced in a "beer party· atmosphere. My only gripe was that jovial J oe-theambulance-driver rated Coors while some of the riders in the pits had to settle for Brew 102. Where was the A.M.A. and my annual $2,00 member'ship fee in this crisis of discrimination? sadly .all good things must. ,come,. BY CHUCK CLAYTON WHAT HAS MISTER CRAZY GOT THAT THE HELLS ANGELS HAVEN'T? "The way you ride. they ought to call you crazy· someone said to Jim Nicholson last Friday night. "Then call me MISTER Crazy,· Number 28 Expert responded, with a frown and a grin and a wink and a squint. Then he went out and won the Main Event. It was crazy. Even the Ascot insiders, wbo, if they could spot merit in horseflesh as well as they recognize it in men, would become rich at the parimutuel windows, were surprised. ,Across the street a new Hells Angels picture was playing to a capacity crowd. A gang of psuedo outlaw kids on choppers were turned away from the movie and decided to try at the Ascot box office. They'd been met at the gate by more police cars than Evel Knei vel could jump. Did they know that their choppers were actually clown versions of speedway machines? Even their sleeveless jean'jackets are but awkward copies of the racing jumper. The tall sissy bars are the extreme evolvement of old-time racing grab handles. Likewise tbe skinny tires and tiny tanks, consciously or unconsciously were copied from the speedway bikes. Or at least so Von Dutch says, and he should know. The kids' machine's are neither beroic nor prosaic but, like tbeir minds, are a confusion of half-understood symbols and mi splaced reality. Reality is happening on the track, where there are no brakes, no rules, and apparently no limi ts. Men who are not afraid to test their courage against the risk of nothingness come to Ascot to merit respect. They don't make movies and tbey don't sing songs about them. So Nicholson's deeds will probably go unsung in popular mythology. But the crowd who saw it that night will always remember that they participated in a historic race. Each time on the track Nicholson evolves a new technique, weekly adding to his bag of tricks, constantly improving his racing style. He has been described as riding like "a sloppy Bart Markel." With his carom drives off the crashwall and his elbowing insistence that compels rivals to let him pass, -Mr. Crazy· does resemble the early Markel. The control is there. Contrast tbe desolate ·outlaws· witJj their hungry need for disapproval. Has any of them what it takes to make an Ascot Main Event? We doubt it. It is no easy matter to put back the best racers in the land when the big money goes to the winner. On the. track anything goes.. They can put you in the wall or run over you, They can· psyche you out.- Last season Nicholson had a clash with the crashwall and spent the rest of the year in Topanga thinking about it. A lot of people said he wouldn't be back, but he surprised them then, too. DoesD't Look Back After spending the early part of this season making a Velocette perform like it never should, Nicholson was given a hetter ride on the Joe Dudek Triumph. Pulling a toothy gear, be gets off the line rather slow. Once under way, he rides an orbit all his own, farther out from the pole than Ascot considers prudent. He seems to head straight for the crasbwall but squares it off in, the nick of time to shoot across the bows of opposing riders while they blink in disbelief, Cameras flash, women scream, race fans simply shake their heads saying "crazy.· At 23, Nicholson is just coming into his powers. He never looks back, as champion Joe Leonard advised him, ·except when you try something new, then look back to see bow much you gained by it.· By contrast, his opponents stare behind them as long as Mr. Crazy is there. He'll be there again next ,Friday night, too. You really ought to be there to see it. Ascot Park, corner of the Harbor and the san Diego Freeways, in South L.A. to an end; you guys in 37 are lucky. I have to return to my own 36-A where we have hard-nose officials who insist on certain bare essentials designed to save life and limb and believe in the ten points so aptly deliniated in -Spirit of a Champion· Cycle News, Vol. IV. No. 26, Pg. 4, July 13, 1967. ,A large sample of Dis trict 3 7 riders and officials succeeded in at least one objective, IIBking motorcycle racing in Southern California a real 'spectator sport, because that is exactly what it was - a spectacle, Regretfully impressed, HOWARD G. GRISHAM san Luis Obispo (-Your complaints are well taken ,sir, but we suggest you direct tbem toward yo... own officials, since tbe Oxnard races were beld in District 36-A, not District 37,·) VON DUTCH IS ALIVE!.. Alive wi th more original ideas for you, the individualist! VON DUTCH••.with the steady hand and creative mind••.bis multi-hued designs on motorcycles and cars have created followers or the custom paint job the world over. You ask•••·How does he•• ?· His treasured secret, the NSG SPRAY GUN. It was created for the painter who feels himself an artist. 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