Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

"THE VOICE OF CALIFORNIA' V. .II al~. 5ening all tile west PubltslM:r and AdverUsinc: Manager _It ••••••••••• Charles C. Clayton Editorial stories. cartoon. photos. Business Manager•• Sharon Clay Ion FlItST etc. are welcomed and will be paid I. Ciradation Mgr••• Gaye 1bomason for upon publication (except pTess Edilor•••••••••••• Carol Sims releases and "Voice" letters. AdPholo Edilor••••• Dennis Greene dressed. stamped envelope assures Edilorial Assistan&.Robert Bradford return. 6411 N. LHg Baell BI,'" Advertising Ass&. • Lynn Lancaster Single copy price ••••••••• 25¢ LI. Bea. Calif. 10815 SUbscription: One year 2nd class Published weekly except the first Mail •••••••••••••••• $7.50 Dr: Btx 418, LIIig Beacll, Calif. and last week of the calendar year One Year First Class Mail•• $14.00 by C&S Pu blishin g Co., Pos t Office PboIIe: 423-l1431 (Subscribers please allnw three Box 498 , Lon g Beach, California. weeks for address change.) CArea. Code 2l3) Second Class postage paid at Long Advertising rates and circulation Beach, Calif. FI'IIII L.A. PlIones: &3&-8844 information will be sent upon request. CI) s _IKICIl:aCD:IIKICII:a:a:lr:alllllla:l"'II:aCIII:IIKIC"CIII:I"'II:aCIII:I"~ would have done everything just right. But I feel that Jean Carterand the rest of the officials did one hell of a job. Just consider all of the planning and mailing. plus the heat. dust, long hours and gripes. I would not relish the job. would you, Mr. Complainer? WES ANDERSON, SR. #25 Trailbike Los Angeles, Calif. TRIPPING OUT EQUAL TIME In the Aug. 31st edition of your paper there was a rather scathing criticism in Voice s, by a Mr. Howard Grisham of San Luis Obispo. on the races the Twin Wheelers Motorcycle Club ran for the Oxnard Sports Festival. and if I may have equal time, so to speak, I would like to answer some of his complaints. His first was about the technical inspection and for Mr. Grisham's information many riders were refused permission to ride because of illegal equipment and I had no reports from other riders of illegal and dangerous machines being on the track. As for riders signing up in the wrong class, yes. there were a few cheaters. After about six guYS squawked about this (one entrant in the 250cc Novice class being an Expert), we ran out and checked him right on the starting line and he showed us a legitimate Novice card issued in his own name. So, I'm supposed to kick him out with no proof of wrong doing? What would Mr. Grisham suggest we do, finger print everybody and run them through, an IBM machine like the F .B.I? Mr. Grisham has a good point in his remarks about racing in the pits and beer drinking by the ambulance driver and riders, but if they had Coor~ and Brew 102 as be alleges, they bought it to the races themselves. By the way, all these boozers must hold their liquor pretty well. because after 100 separate races the ambulance was never used. Maybe we were lucky at that, according to Mr. Grisham the driver probably couldn't have found the hospital anyway. Come. come. Mr. Grisham. With the overwhelming turnout of 366 riders it's impossible to expect everyone of them to be a gentleman. Our Club is slightly too small to as.sign a babysitter for every rider. Of course. if we had little pea-dinging races like the last few I went to up North (we had more 250s alone than I'Ve ever seen in his area) the problems would diminish immensely. I also notice on Mr. Grisham's entry card that he has no Club affiliation listed. Has he ever helped put on a race and realized the problems of supervising an event the magnitude of ours? If his answer is yes, I would like to respectfully invite him to Ventura so he can straighten out all of us clowns. On this argument about what district we are in. Mr. Grisham and Cycle News are both wrong. We are affiliated with neither. A Club is not required by the AMA to join any specified district, although we recognize competition cards from any district. P.S. We had ten compliments for every complaint. JIM MANDEVILLE, Referee Oxnard ANOlHER VIEWPOINT Concerning the Aug. 26 & 27 Grand Prix at Bay Mare: I heard many complaints and gripes about the late start, the course, dusty conditions, type of start and etc. I realize that the complainers My wife and I are enjoying the series of articles about the Fee's trip through California. We have always been interested in California and its history, and have been to many of the places mentioned in the article. Actually, we are sort of envious but my wife doesn't ride well yet, and the kids are still too small to leave at home alone, so our motorcycle traveling will have to wait for a while. I am always hap py to receive your paper each week and I hope that more travel-ty'pe articles can be included in the future (not at the expense of event coverage however!). In appreciation of your efforts I remain Yours truly, JOHN W. BENGSTON Compton, Calif. TJ-LA PAZ RECORD RACE Now there will be an official record foi the Tijuana/La Paz run. The recent announcement by the National Off-the-Road Racing Association of a race for bikes, jeeps and dune buggies AND the promise of a substantial purse will finally make things OFlFICIAL. Up to now it was strictly a matter of honor•.All one had to do was to -say· he did it in such and such a time. Without the addition of money there was no point in going any further. Now tbat has changed. and for the better. The fact that a dune buggy has bested the best bike time adds further incentive. The next few months will be very interesting as plans are laid. The color and spectacle of such a race will surpass all else. Distributors will be quick to realize the advantage of the publicity and will be quick to realize the advantage of the ~ublicity and will be fielding orgamzed teams. Dealers will also find attractive benefits in being associated with the Winners. Riders and spectators will reap the harvest of all this effort. Mr. Pearlman. ~ the Association has probably gone too far with hi~ offer of letting the bikes change riders at tbe halfway point. It's true that having a passenger along to help is an advantage but a bike's ability to t r a vel on the narrow • easier· path could offset that advantage. The ride is so rough that the passenger will get very little rest and will certainly not be able to • sleep· as suggested. A bike rider is on his own, however, and must cope with whatever problems he encounters. That is a handicap, but it will be reduced by pit stops along the way. The beauty of this race, aside from the glamour. is that it favors no particular machi ne or size machine. The attributes that make a desirable bike will be found on the winner's machine.•.RELIABILITY. This will be the deciding factor. Having had some previous experience in Baja myself, I can recomm~nd it as ideal for motorcyclist. I Will surely be there and will assist the event in any way I mi ght be needed. WILLIAM BLAKESLEE Downey ODE REBUTIAL Mr. Ode Writer. what was that little 441ccdoing out in front of your big bad 650 that you had to come up from behind him? Undoubtedlyhe was cringing 'from fear, cause one of those squirrelly TR6's was near. Ah yes, he did pull over and hide in the grass (or you might not have passed him), not with envy in his eye but with glee, so that he couid get he hind you and play with you in the rough, picky sections and then when you head up that deep, sandy, steep, uphill and spin that twin up to the hub, he'll come pop-popping by you on the rear wheel saying, "Bee, hee, hee, they should have left them brutes in Coventry." Come on up to Victor Country sometime. There might even be an old 350 trials model up here that may make you. just want to eat that ode and go looking for the closestBeezer dealer. Maybe if you'd try one of them yaller-tanked things you migbt get one of those numbers you can fit on .a plate. Bob Miller San Luis Obispo Hill & Gulchy Rider PRIZES FOR PROSELYTIZING Bravo on your give-away contest! My entry blank will be forthcoming assoonaslcan choose from amongst the many hundreds (thousands?) of reasons why I like motorcycles and motorcycling the maximum twentyfive words•••• Meanwhile, I urge all readers to clip or tear out the subscription blank and contest page of each week's Plper and send it to a friend or acquaintance, whether a rider or would-be rider. For a fiv~ent stamp you will thereby give someone else a chance to tune into ·our· great paper. and perhaps even luck out with the top prize P-II, if not one of the Ie sser pr izes. Perhaps this idea will catch on and snowball into at leasta doubling. if not tripling' or quadrupling of subscriptions. and an accompanying increase in interest as well as participation in the chpsen way of life for us of the tw~wheel world. Cycle News may help too, by offering to keep a tally (on the'address labels?) of subscriber-entrants who are re- sponsible for eliciting new subs, by merely suggesting a way (such as including the address label cut out and included with each entry blank sent to a friend) which could then lead to CN's offering an additional rack of small to large size prizes to those bringing in the most to the fold. How about it? ERNIE KRUMM Kerman, Calif. ("send aU thousand reasons in, Ernie. You may only win once, but enter as many time s as you wish. Thanks for the subscriber participation idea! Starting this week ihe subscription blank will always be printed on the bottom of page 3, in back of ihe front page space where subscribers addresses are printed. Every new subscription that we recei ve on one of these blanks will be credited 10 ihe person whose name is printed on the other side. On December 1st, when the contest closes, we wilJ award another rack of prizes 10 the one who has ihe most subscriptions credi ted 10 his name.-) VOTE BY MAIL SLATED AMA H'EADS AUTHORIZE COMPRImON CONGRESS VOTE The American Motorcycle Assoc. announced its Executive Committee has authorized a vote by mail of the "Class B" ($2) members to make necessary changes in the AMA code of Regulations to allow for the implementation of a Competition Congress. AMA by-laws require the thirty members who serve on what is DOW known as the Competition Committee to be appointed by the Association's secretary. The purpose of the Com(ConUnued on page 28) BY CHUCK CLAYTON OYER . , . CIRCULATION THIS WEEK Cycle News' circulation has crept up steadily over 'the past two years but this week it takes a sudden jump, doubling the number of readers for this ~ssue.t~lI:nks to ~ special mailing arranged with noted promoter J .C. Agajanian. Aggie is maihng a free sample copy of this week's Cycle News to everyone of the 16.000 people on his mailing list. Many of the names on the Agajanian list are car racing enthusiasts who may be reading about the fantastically exciting sport of motorcycle riding for the first time. . We hope that they take away new impressions of the two-wheeled sport and that some of them decide to come back for more. Writing down enthusiasm .is a poor substitute for the thrill of actually participating as a rider or . spectator. in the legends that are being performed every week i'n motorcycling. But once you have seen or ridden in a motorcycle contest, then reading about the events and seeing the pictures brings back the sound of motion, the smell of excitement and the thrill of victory. Cycle News brings you this every week. A Bad Week For Accidents This week has been a very tragic one for motorcycle enthusiasts. Accidents are always imminent in every walk of life, but motorcycle riders are probably more aware, and therefore in better control of their safety than most non-riders realize. Therefore, in my opinion. nearly every accident that happens to a motorcycle rider, especially racing experts, has to be classified as a freak accident. some so unusual that no amount of protection could completely elimi nate them. -Every year, however, we learn more about the causes of accidents as we push back the limi ts of what it is possi ble to do with two wheels and a motor. So it may truly be said that thoSe who have suffered or died at the handlebars have not done so in vain. Control is in the hands and the heads of the riders•.As we learn better ways to control our bikes in all situations, the rate of accidents is decreasing. We are winning the war against death and .im ury on the- track and the road, but the casualty list is the price we pay. b.l -J ~ U

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