Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Y""~ .Iw".~.",, •America's Oily Weekly Mltorcycle Newspaper" Publisher••••• Charles C. Claylon Editorial s tories , carto ons, photos, Business Manager•• Sharon Claylon etc, are welcomed and will be paid Circulation Mgr••• Gaye Thomason F1~ST • • • • for upon publication (e xce pt Prl'SS Edilor•••••••••••• Carol Sims rel eases and "Voice" Ietters.) AdAdvertising Mgr•••••• Tom Culp dress e d. stamped e nve lope as sur es Pholo Edilor••••• Dennis Greene return. Ass·t. Bus. Jolgr••• Melinda Fosler &411 N, LNg Buell BI'& Sinde ropy pric 25¢ Lab Technician••••BiII Pettigrew LIIIg Beacb. Calif, 50805 Subscription: One year 2nd class Receptionist. ••••Louise Marshall Dr: BIX., Lng Beach, Calif, Mail ••••• • • •• ••••••• $7.50 Published weekly except the tir st One V.. ar First Class Mail•• $14.00 a nd last week of the calendar year Phlne: 423-0431 (Subscribl'rs please allow three by C&S P ublishin g Co•. Post Office wee ks lor address chanae.) (Area Clde 2l3) Box 498. Long B ea ch, California. Adv ertisrn g rates and circulation Second Clas FI'DIft L.A, Phones: &36-8844 Beach. Calif. s p os ta ge paid a t Long Inforrnation will be sent upon reque st. ... It THE FINISH LINE QUESTIONS AND * jfANSWERS *.. • ... "'* • By BOXY BOCKWOOD QUESTION: SALUTE TO S1DEHACKER The Sidehack Association announces that a youthful member, Tom Ridyard, has been called to active duty with the U.S. Army. Due to his riding as passenger with Crash Roesch (crashing at speed at Stardust Raceway In Feb. 1967 without a scratch), being observed piloting an Ariel Square Four kneeler on the hack wheel at Orange County, riding a 250cc Yamaha sidecar kneeler on the street, and his membership In the Sidehack Assoc., Tom has been inducted on a trial basis. It is hoped by all members of the Assoc. that the moral strength Tom has received from his experiences with the Assoc. will help to bring him back safe and sound. (sanity was a big question on his pre-induction interview.) His membership In the Sidehack Assoc. Is to be honorary until his return.. .at which time all past dues will be deducted from his mustering out pay. JIM MOFFITT . _President Sidehack Assoc. 100's WANT TO GO ALL THE WAY We, as a club, beg to differ with Maureen Lee's statement that small bore riders In general feel that the Gripsters' 100 mUe Grand Prix poses any kind of a jitters threat. In fact the possibillty exists, dependent upon when the trail bikes are allowed to start, that one of our kind could even come In ahead of the super fast 250 class. The 100's Club, being dedicated to the desert and the 100cc and under machine, wants to go the distance. In !act, we would like to go the same distance as the big bikes in every race. Ask any of the 40 or so trail hikes (6 of them happened to be 100's riders) who were stopped 1/2 hour early at Good Springs during the Barstow to Las Vegas run by a jittery big bike rider, how concerned they are about a little 100 mUe race. THE 100's MOTORCYCLE CLUB Azusa, Call!ornla DEPT, OF CORRECTION In last week's Issue, we listed address and phone numbers of District 37 sporting stewards to contact if one wished a 1968 application blank. Several errors were tnadvertantly made in the listings, so below are the correct names, addresses and phone numbers of the various representatives. It you plan to race In Dist. 37 and haven't as yet gotten an application blank, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the steward handling your particular division as soon as possible. LIGHTWEIGHT SCRAMBLES - Dick Kouns, 11626 Muriel Drive, Lynwood, Call!. 90262. (213) 631- 6733. HEA¥¥WEIGHT SCRAMBLES - Sam Crooks, 8291 Eleventh Ave. , Inglewood, Callf. 90305. (213) 678- 2868. TRAILBIKE DESERT - Ken Peterson, 2931 Oakendale Place, La Crescenta, Call!. 91014. (213) 249-7315. LIGHTWEIGHT DESERT - Ben Bok, 4461 Vista Del Monte, Sherman oaks, canr, 91403. (213) 783-7 009. HEAVYWEIGHT DESERT-Cal Makela, 207 North Gladys , Monterey Park 91754. (213) 280- 5597. SIDEHACK - Gary Weber , 10126- 1/2 Mountair, Tujunga, Calif. 91042. (213) 353- 8719. Twenty- four-year old Jody Nicholas looked like the " old" Jody last Sunday down at Carlsbad. It only took him about ten laps during the practice session to find the fast way around after a twoyear layoff. The last time he raced was at Daytona two years ago - in this country. Shortly after that time he went to Mossport, Canada on one of Bob Hansen's Matchless G-50 's and broke all the track records - in the rain. Jody was perhaps one of the most underrated road racers ever to come along. He chose to fight rather than switch in many races that he could bave won with equal horses. He still has two years to go in the Navy and will be riding AMA road races in the area whenever he Is Dot fiying off carriers. No, he Is not available for Daytona. _ A lot of new equipment was at Carlsbad including the Suzuki 500, Brldgestone 350, Kawasaki 350 and the latest in 250's from Suzuki and Kawasaki. With less than two months before the Daytona race the new stuff Is now in the shakedown stages with the flnlshlng touches coming up the next time around at Carlsbad on Feb. 18th. Ron Pierce, although he is only 18, Is fast becoming the rider they will have to beat in any road race In the 250 class. Ron starts his third year of professional racing this season and found out a few weeks ago that honesty does not always pay. When applying for his .'68 racing license he finally put down his true age of 18. The AMA took a second look and suspended him for two weeks. Two weeks in January isn't nearly as bad as two weeks In March (Daytona) or two weeks in August. Art Baumann, the Amateur who last year won both the IndianaPolis and CarIsbad Amateur road races, sent in for his license and was classed as an Amateur again for '68. He was Just beginning to wonder what one had to do to become an Expert in the road racing ranks when one of the more liberal and free thlnklng committee members came to his aid and had him advanced to the Expert class. .We tend to think that If nobody would bave come forward in his behalf then he could have started a petition that would bave most certalnly been signed quickly by all riders who will be Amateur road racers for the coming season. On the subject of licenses there Is a new get-tough poliey within theAMA that says if a rider Is going to ride the Ascot TT next week he must bave his license In his hand. There will be no telegral!s or last minute phone calls from GHQ. It you don't have It bY the time you read this It is best to forget It until the annual 100-lapper the first Sunday In March. Non-TT riders who are going to ride the halt-mile Ascot opener In Aprll should send . in now as everything stops In Ohio for the annual speed week at Daytona in mid-March. Daytona entry blanks should be available now so a rider can send to the AMA and obtain them anytime. All entries will close twenty-one days before March ne, A big mystery lately is that many r iders are receiving their $2.00 AMA membership car ds but no license. Both were appli ed for at the same time. (?) One rider se nt his in with a selfaddr es sed air mail return envelope. They kept the envel ope and sen t the license back via the usual stagecoach route. Tbat' s pr ogress for another week. In California there is a conglomeration of identifying letters on competition plates (such as 123f, 123c, and etc.), what areas or towns are represented by such a letter? Or would they be too numerous to list? E.A. - Haywood. ANSWER: By The * Answer Man QUESTION: While the European riders were in So. Cal. the past few weeks, I made a point of studying their style and I noticed that the type of their suspensions differed quite a bit from the typical units I am used to seeing on most of our local racing machines. Could you explain some of the advantages of the • trials like-set up on European bikes? (21-inch front wheel, trials type bars, etc.) J.C.E.-ontario ANSWER: The grea te s t difference between local and the Europ ean Is: the visiting competitors had much softer suspension. The front fork travel was measured and found to be 7 inches. Even our machines equipped with customs, such as the Ceriani forks, ba ve a maximum of 6 to 6 ~ in ches of travel. I would almas tswear that the 'shocks were filled with but a ten-weight all. The 2 I-Inch wheels on European machines ar e actually lighter then our standard 18 and is-Inch units and as you must realize they have tbat whe el off the ground more than on. Of course, that diame ter helps somewhat if a small series of chuck hol es ca n' t swallow 'suc h a large diameter wheel. Each rider seemed to have anIndividual rake, height etc., to fit his personal reach. When you're off the pillion 80 percent of the time, pegs and bars are the most important to your ease in handling the machine for . hours on e nd . Leverage is a dire requirement and besides, "to each his own." QUESTION: Before I enter my 5-90 H 0 n d a in Sportsman scrambles I have a few questions. First, what type of pipe would be the most beneficial for maximum power? What size wheels and tires would give the best handling? S.F.Norwalk. ANSWER: The best pipes you can use are the &90 -low pipe header s", after they are giv en the following modifications. Cut the head er pipe in half and remove the i nne r pipe or bushin g. Reassembl e and add 18 inch e s of additional s trai ght pipe len gth. I also s uggest yo u hog out the cy li nder e xha us t port diam eter to ma t ch the header. Tap er the port so that it flo ws e ve nly to the origi nal diameter at the valve seat . Do not a lter the port a t tha t poi nt ! F or whe el s, I s uggest 18 i nch x 2 ~ inc h a lloy rims with 300 x 18 Uni versal tir es. If you wan t som e real scoop on pro per sc rambles modification for a &90. contact P e te Grimes, c hief ports honcho for Norm Re ev e s. He bas one of the hot te st & 90's around . Yep. too numerous to list! Tho s e letters repr es ent geographical ar ea s within th e enti re U.S.A. Possibly the A.M.A. could provide you with a list. if you contact the National office, .Ame rica n Motorcycle Assn., P.O. Box 231, Worthington, Ohio 43085. QUESTION: What is the purpose for having a buffer chamber between the . engine inlet and the supercharger for a motorcycle engine? If one is necessary, where can I find information on how to make one? I found the article in the recent " Cycle" magazine about the supercharged Norton was not sufficient. B.S. Culver City. ANSWER: A buffer chamb er is designed for the purpos e of restricting losses of fuel and air mix by being forced from the blower to inlet valves and exit the exhaust at the time of valve ov erlap. In the buffer chamb er gasses are relativelj still and thus when val ves are open the incoming rush of pressure is less at initial stages than it would be if directly transferred from the blower. The determination of a buffer chamber's necessity should be determined by the angle of the ports and the val ves positions in relation to one a not her. If the ports are straight in and valve s directly opposite one another, you can imagine the scavenger of jet effect that can take place from intake to exhaust. If the ports are radiused so that gasses are directed only to the cylinder and losses are thus at a mlnimum,the use of a buffer chamber is not necessary. Sometimes a chamber Is placed between blower and engine intake and the engine's .in take must be a storage of air and fuel mix sufficient to supply one and half times the engine's displacement demand at any given moment or rate of r.p.m, The area of a blower's chambers are not always sufficient to do this, thus a storage of plenum chamber is required, The reason for one-half more than the engine cylinder displacement is two fold. First, to compensate for loss and, second, to mak e less demand upon the blower's deli very for the next opening of the intake valves. To the best of my knowledge th ere is not a single sourc e of information that can give you spe cifications on blow er i nstalla tion or the required a ccessory dimensions. If the Answ er Man can be of a ny further help,send in the Questions. TYPICAL BUFFER A A B A - Blower Input. B - Bufler outlet to engine ports. • • r

• Cover