Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

- .'"0 old men who s1t all day (every day) in the SUD of Civic center park clutch the rope barrier and stare out of wiDedimmed eyes at this strange figure, leather clad and only his eyes visible from inside the Bell Star helmet, sa1l1ng seemingly without effort along the street on his gaily-painted Triumph, one wheel high in the air • Again Knievel does a warm- UP wheelie, and when he comes down he locks the rear wheel and slides to a stop in a cloud of blue smoke from his seared rear tire. Long baired teenagers who spend hours trying to get the wheel of their Honda 90' s in the air look longingly at the speeding figure. The consensus of audible comment: "Jeeez." The jump itself isalmostanti-cUrnactic, yet strangely satistying. Knievel attains really remarkable heights. It's so quick, so graceful, It almost looks easy. But after the jump, I and a dozen or so kids walk uP the take-off ramp and look at the landing spot more than 30 yards away. And 1 think to myself: "Whatever they're paying him - he earns every penny." Frank Connors' Ossa West, ..presented by Charlie Hoekle's Motorcycles, took orders from dealers for the attractive line of Spanl sh Scramblers. Neither bird, plane nor superman, E.el Knle.el mamlwly missed Injury when maklnl 3 jumps, starred on TV news easts for f_ days. Knievel makes three jumps at Cycle '68, and each time the effect is the marvellous. "Yessir, you folks can see and talk to Evel Knievel, downstairs at Cycle '68," intones the announcer in what becomes a sort of litany; a runtogether compedium of lnIormation that succeeds beyond belief: "Yes, folks, Evel Knievel, the man who has jumPed a motorcycle farther than any Uving person•.•.you'll see the sky cycle, the machine Knievel will use to jump over the Grand Canyon••••on New Years Day he is going to jump over the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas (they're the largest water fOUDtains in the world, you know) •••equlpPed with lWo matched Turboolque rocket engines••••" On With the Show Fulton SIr"t IJl front of the S.F. Library was blocked for the miniature Grand Prix four days rauln&. By George Martin The roar was deafening even as you parked your car ana walked toward Brooks Hall, the hu~e underground arena beneath the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza. .. Wailing two-strokes, roaring Hondas and the deep throated "blaaat" of big Triumphs and Art Bernheisel's Harley Sportster, rattled off the classic granite buildings and rustled the feathers of the City's braver pigeons and sea gulls who bad hung around to watch. A street had been blocked off, and along its center stripe was Evel Knievel's red, white and blue takeoff and landing ramps, about 30 yards apart, silently waiting io perform their part In the week's drama. The large crowd of onlookers, mouths agape, watched silently too. But there was nothing slleni aboui the dozens of racers of all sizes and shapes that were tearing around the blocked off street. lt was Motorcycle Show time, and in San Francisco that means, "Put the Manx in the Ranchero, Henry. We gei to race in the street!" "Cycle '68" as the show was billed this year, was an example of how a sklllful promoter goes about putting on a really successful event. My favorite philosopher puts it this way: "The art of living a happy and successful life is in making institutions work for you." Time after time, this was the factor that helPed Cycle '68. lt all started on Monday before the show, when members of the Bay Area press were invited to have lunch and watch Evel Knievel do a Uttle one-wheel riding. ADll10us lest they miss their photo- graphs, the cameramen clustered around KIlievel as he warmed up his eog1oe, asking him to point to a spot where he would be on one wheel, so they could be readY. "Just stand anywhere," Evel shouted over the roar of his Triumph TT SPecial, "I'm going to ride it all the way UP and down the block." As the photographers scattered to their vantage points, San Francisco poUce officers held back traffic on Taylor Street right at Ftsherman's Wharf so the King of stuntmen could pull wheelies UP and down the street! Now that, children, is what the Old Philosopher means by making institutions work for you. Alter making three or four passes with the ~ront wheel pawing the alr and the sliatterlng roar of the big Bonnie drowning out the nearby cable car bells, Knievel jumped up on the seat of the bike and did a few wheelies that way, too. He was just blasting past, standing UP on the seat, when a silver-haired lady tourist and her husband emerged from one of the better restaurants lining the wharf. They did a quick double-take, and the man yanked an Instamatic camera from his jacket and rushed headlong into the street to record this for the folks back in I-o-way. The woman, rattled but retaining her cool, jerked on my sleeve and asked, "Young man, who is that person?" "That's Evel Knievel," I answered, "he's going to jump that bike over 13 cars at the cycle show Thursday." Dropping my sleeve, she rushed into the street and shouted over the unmuffled b I a s t of Knievel's eXhaust; "That's Evel Knievel, dear, he's going to jump over 13 cars Thursdayl" Linda Cole, queeo of San Francisco Cycle SlIow, pushes off R. Grmt prepartnl for tile ·Clvlc Cen"r Grand Prix·. His derring-do done for the day, Evel sliPPed out of red, white and blue starstudded leathers and donned a tailored brown tweed sult to meet the press at lunch. While reporters talked with the Montana-born stuntman, cameramen scurried back to their newsrooms and studios _ Monday was to be Knievel night on Bay Area television. Institntions Working Again Thursday dawned bright, clear and cold _ a perfect Thanksgiving Day. But while families across the nation prepared for a comlY time at home, the panel trucks and El Caminos were already converging on San Francisco Civic Center, loaded with gleaming machines and happy AFM racers, flat-top baircutsand turkey-eaters' eyes, as it were. Knievel was to jump at 1 p.m., but by noon the street was jammed on both sides with spectators, watching the bikes jostle each other around in what amounted to grand prix short irack. But the magic hour soon approached and the now-familiar figure, tall in his leathers and flat-tracker's boots was idling his "wheelie motor" through the crowd, then speaking to the people through a hand mike. IT Evel ever decides to give up jumping, he could probably make an excellent living selling mall order bibles over radio station WWVA in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He has a pleasant voice, smooth delivery, and a self assurance (necessary in his profession, one suspects) bordering on aplomb. He ends his speech snying, "I'm glad you all could make it••.and now I hope I dO," and blasts off. The tattered Uttle Downstairs, the show is jammed. And It's a good show, smaller than the big one in Los Angeles, but good. BSA Western has surpassed itself. A huge backdrop says, "step Into The BIg Bold World of BSA," and this tremendous eight-foot high picture is there of that ultra-sexy chick with the spear gun and the BSA Victor that you've seen in the ads. And plastered all over are those remarkable posters, those fine, fine posters. "120 mph out of the box" says one, and behind the shiny red Beezer erputlng out of the packing crate Is this incredible woman you wouldn't believe: black leather jacket, unzipped (and nothing underneath, natch), blonde bair in slight disarray, and a Mona Lisa-cum-Brigitte Bardot smile. My subsconscious mind screams Mister, Mister, here, take my money, quick give me the biggest BSA you've got and that blonde's address! The whole line is there, spor~ new double-leading shoe froot brakes and an improved contact breaker assembly for more precise timing. Also new is an anodized aluminum tank badge that doesn't crack like the old glass ones used to. And also, they don't fall under the tariff heading of jewelry, so they don't cost $13 per as the old g1ass one did. The new Yamaha 250cc scrambler is the centerpiece of the Cycle City booth. It looks Uke a real goer, but only time and racing will tell. They bad a movice projector set UP with a small portable screen, and were showing movies of their almost embarrassing trtumphs at Daytona. Bultaco-American bad a Metra1la with matching black and sUver fiberglass fairing as its most eye- catching machine. But the "secret Bultaco" is the new Mercurio, this year with 200cc's (up from last year's 175.) The new Mercurio has alloy wheels, and the same port timing as the "old" 200cc Metra1la, although a smaller carb for a more tractable engine. The Metra1la, although a smaller carb for a more tractable engine. for a more tractable engine. The Mercurio has always been a real screamer in the handling department, only lacking a little top speed. It looks Uke Bultaco has eliminated that objection. Harley- Davidson featured a semi-circle of machines clustered about the record-holding Bonneville Sprint streamliner. MUwaukee's stylists have done remarkable things with black crinkle flnlsh paint this year. In stripes and panels on (Continued on Page 23)

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