Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

• •America's Only Weekly ,......cycle Newspaper" Publisber•••••Charles C. ClaylDn Editorial s tories . ca rtoons . photos . Business Manal:er••Sharon Clayton etc . are welcomed and will be paid Circula tion Mer• • •Gaye Thomason for upon publication (exce pt press Editor•••••••••••• Carol Sims rel eas es and " Voice" Ietters .) AdAdvertisin g Mgr. • ••• • Tom Culp dres sed. stampe d envel ope as su res Photo Editor••••• Dennis Greene return. 6417 N. Loag Beach Blyd. Lab Technldan•••• BIlI Petti grew Single COP)' price•••••••••• 25 ¢ Bookkeeper ••' ••• Susan Whitelaw Long Beach. Calif. 50805 Subs cription: One yea r 2nd class Receptionist. •••••• J udy Bailey Mail •••••••••••••••• • $7 . 50 Or. Box 88, LOIg Beach, Calif. P ubli shed weekly exce pt the firs t Phone: 42H4U and last week of the calen dar year (Subsc ribers ple as e a 11 0 w three by C&S Publishin g Co.• Post Orflce weeks for address chan ge.) (Area Code 213> Box 498. Long Beach. California. Advertising rates and circula tion Second Class pos tage paid at Long From LA. Phoaes: 636-8844 information will be s ent upon request, Beach. Calif. co sc .... 0> SPECTATOR SPEAKS I am not a pr ofessional" Letter to the EcI1tor" writer, but once In a while I get my ' dander ' up and must get It out ln the open. Fi r st off, I am a s taunch motor cycle fan , as a spectator and rider . As a spectator, I enjoy all aspec ts of the s port but mus t confes s I have never attended a " dr ag race". I r ide a 500Cc BSA . Not well, but enough to tag along with my husband, BSA 500, and s on, Triumph 650. We have attended, at s ometime or other, every race track, moto-cr os s or motorcycle event in the Los Angeles area. Which Is n't easy since many of the races are held on Sunday and I am a High School Sunday School Super inte ndent and s ing in the Choir during the wor ship services at my churc h. But out we go. A little late sometimes but you'll flnd us somewhere In the crowd. We cancelled our subscription to a well known Los Angeles D9.11y newspaper because there was never any motorcycle news printed. Even letters to the Sports EcI1tor cI1dn't help. It was decided, if you want a specific news, you subscribe to that trade paper. So Cycle News was our answer for motorcycle news. The television and radio keeps us infor med on the unimportant world news and the weekly "throw-aways" provide the local news. That sufficed our personal needs to a point. But what about the general public? The people that mold opinions, pay the bills and support an idea? The motorcycle Industry has mushroomed from a babe-In-arms to a mUlion dollar giant. But we are still In the "word of mouth" stage of public ity for a swrt and a profession that could be bigger or as big as automobile racing. It makes me 111 to know of a really big National or State championship event and all we find as publicity is the results tucked in on page 10, Section D, the day after the race. I feel very strongly, it's time the socalled " sport" crawled out of Its diaPers and sbowed a little spunk by making their chosen sport a full fledged profession. Publicity w1ll do It. The organization of riders, Motorcy cle Racer's, tnc., Is a start. But It hasn't reached the smoke bomb yet. It's only a start. The MRI should flood the big newspapers with pictures, biographies, articles on events, coming and past. Real ly blow up all facets of the motorcycl e racing worl d. Put It before the public and really set It. HARD! Stop depencl1ng on AMA or a local promoter to do the job that MRI should be doing. That Is if you r eally want to make motorcycle racing a money making profession. No one Is going to do you a favor, for free. It takes hard work to make an organization payoff. It can be done if the members are behind It. It certainly is to their benfit to do so . The Riders' Strike at Ascotcould have been a start. As an outsider looking In, I was willing to go all the way. It's my money that pays the gate. But when I figured out the actual payoffs , I was sick all over again. Take Friday nlght, May 10, for ins tance . The paid attendance was announced as 2512. Any fool can figure out that great s um of $2400.00 purse was made up of that extra $1.00 that is now charged the pa tron. I don't know where the promoter got his money that was so " gener ous ly" pald the riders as their purse before the strike, but I sure know where the $2400.00 Is coming from now. I've heard a lot of gripes from the pits, too, and from those that us ed to get In on passes. All those extra li ttle dollar bills are trickling down fr om somewhere to someplace besides the purses. And for the life of me [ can' t figure out what extra wear and tear Friday uight traffic does to the parking lot area, that it Is necessary to charge mnty-five cents more for parking. It now costs the poor car owner $2.25 to park - 75 cents Friday night and $1.50 Saturday at the car wash to clean off all that dust. Real ly nowl! I'm not thr ough but I' ll quit for now. I've got a washing todoandcl1 nner to ge t. Thank you for listening. MRS . GEORGE FALKE Whittier , caur, (- La s t Friday nigh t the pu rse was lowere d from 2. 0100 to $2,1 00 . Asco t track managemen t explains lIIat future purs es wiD be dependent upon s pec tator a tlendance . ") THANK YOU KINDLY, SIR I think you are doing an outstancl1ng job, and believe me I s hould know, [ have been with Cycle News thr ough all the cI1ffer ent oWner s for these many years since It started. Keep up the good work. JERR Y JACKSO N The OLD Man of the Desert Nor walk CaJ1f , • - 'CHERRY' DESCRIPTIVE TERM It appears the specific pr ovisions of Bill 289 concerning dr iving permits and tes ts now raises the ques tion, where Is the safes t place for an untrained motorcyclis t to acquir e the necessary skill, training an d practice to be lic ens ed? We respectfully s ugges t the foll owing Ideas be given car eful cons ider ation: 1. Unused land near metropoli tan areas be assigned for use of motorcyclists only, as training gr ounds and recreational areas. 2. Thes e areas be staffed and maintained at no expens e to the state by r epr esen ta tives from 10 cal motorcycle cl ubs and dealers. 3. These staff per sonnel be qua1lfied on the basis of their motorcycling experIence and s kill as suitable safety instructors, whose purpose will be to pro mote safe r icl1ng habits and give a motor cycle training course, meeting the tes t requirements. We would appr eciate cooperation and sugge stions from all clubs, rider s , and inter es ted Senator s or Ass emblymen concerning the fur thjr development of the sugges tions . MARIN COUNTY MOTORCYCLE ASSOC. P .O. Box 221 San Rafael, CaJ1f. 94901 Concer ning Bob Schwar tz' s letter and the word " cherry." The word cherry has been use d many years as descriptive of a motor vehicle in li ke-new original condi tion, If Mr . Schwartz thinks otherwi se, he mus t have some kind of a hangup and a cI1r ty mind. WES ANDERSON SR. Los Angeles, Cal. IT'S ALL IN HIS MIND ~UJU'4tlue~ I 1 have just read Mr. Bob Schwartz's letter in your June 6th ecI1tion. May I say that .. evil and vulgarity are strictly In the mind of the peru...er." , 1'0 me the word (cherry) conotes a plump, red, rtpe fruit ready to be eaten. H an Incl1vidual wishes to advertise his motorcycle as a plump, red, ripe truit, readY to be eaten, that is his business. VIRGE SLEETER Inglewood, Cal. P .S. Iron is GOOD for the blood. VI~GIN TERRITORY .. With regards to the letter trom Mr . Schwartz tn Santa Monica (he complained about the use of the word ' cherry" In the classified ads). 1 wonder what his reaction Is to our Virgin forest lands? Per haps he is one of those people who see something nasty in the crotch of every tree. His type of thInk1ng couid lead to callIng one of the better brands of racing for ks GOOD-ian!. MRS . MOLUE JONES San Ber narcl1no, c anr, THEY LIKE LAP CHARTS A short note In appr eciation of the lap charts by Carol Sims. They are the next best thing to attending the races . We enjoy Cycle News . SlI 1 icere s, MR. & MRS . C.W. EMICK Oral, So. Dl.kota ( 0 And we enj oyed heari ng from you. Thanks for the kind words,") AN OPEN LETIER CONCERNING RECENT MOTORCYCLE LEGISLATION The Mar in County Motorcycle Association, along with the majority of CaJ1fornia motorcycle club s , deal ers and enthusiasts take this oppor tunity to express our approval of the passage of recent, Intelligent, safety legislation, Le, the Foran and Deddeh Ass embly Blll 289. LET ME BE ME! (Part III) By Barbara Adams Dahms The production of the lightweight motorcycle with the electric starter created a worldwide revolution In cycling. While kicking a starter, especially on a big bike, Is something of an athletic experience, anyone canpush an electric starter. Learning to ride on a heavy expensive bike had been an unlikely opportunity for many who suddenly could buy or borrow a " li ttl e bike." Like the motorcycles themselves the whole adventure of ricl1ng was " s caled down" somewhat and more people began to try It. Business men and college girls and "little old lacl1es" began to be seen on the street ricl1ng motorcycles (of all things). High school kids rode them instead of bicycles. Doctors and lawyers and merchant chiefs took them out to play. A lot of people cI1scovered the joy of motor cycli ng who had never known It befor e. Motorcycles had come to the majority••.not all of it of course but to enough of It to make a change which was Irreversible. Motorcycle registrations soared, espec1a1ly in California which is a center of motorcycle ricl1ng. Naturally this cI1d not occur without s ome uproar. Long- time riders felt so mewhat apart from the new breed of citizens on their llttle cycles. Many of the new breed cI1dn't care to be identified with the infamous r ider s on the big machines. The old hostilities beld true . Only one thing was wrong . They all loved the motorcycle. And big or li ttle, all the machines were motorcycles. The manufacturers of the new br eed of cycles took note of the si tuation and tried to pretend they weren' t making motorcycles •••they were making something else.. J lke «spcrtcyctes ,v The newbreed riders tried to pretend they weren't r iders ••• they were " citizens on two wheels ." The regular r iders tried to pr etend the new breed of both cI1dn't exist. But still they all loved the motorcycle . And after all was said and done they were all rider s. This fact became obvious only when non-riders took note of their r ising numbers and decided something had to be done••.before the rider s took over the wor ld. Regula tion was the order of the day and they were thinking of a lot of things to regulate . (All In behalf of the rider' s 1iafety, of course .) It s tarted in Washington, unnoticed by most r iders , especially in far off Califo r nia . It grew with the natlonal Involvement In vehicle safety pr ograms . It became a part of national law, not blncl1ng upon the states but coercive because it was tied to state money. SUddenly r iders ...of spor tcycles and motorcycle s ••.realized they were In the bag togethe r . The ma jor ity that was left cI1dn' t feel quite the same towar d motorcycles as they had felt a few years back . It's a lItUe harder to feel apart from som eone who lives on your block, But they were " concer ned" about accident rates, etc., and the effect was the same It had always been •.•take away as much as possible the joy of motorcycle ricl1ng. The non- r ider cI1dn't understand (and still doesn' t) and what he cI1dn 't understand should be removed. In state after state the fr eedom of the rider to ride as he wanted was wiped out. In state after state cycles , and apparel were r egulated...by people who cI1dn't ride•••by people who had never been on a motorcycle or worn any of the apparel in question. The ma jority was winning. After all the years of hostility to the cyclist they had found the way to win ••• r egulate . Then it came to Califor nia . The batUe was joined in CaJ1for nia . Road r iders, cI1rt riders, outlaws and citizen riders got together. They were all represented when the riders of CaJ1fornia asked the legislature to let them keep their freedom. In spl te of those who still say " they don't speak for me ," they cI1d speak for all riders because they spoke for freedom. And freedom lets you speak for yourself. EverybodY (or almost everybody) got together for the first time since they parted so long ago, just to say In a clear voice, "Let us be ourselves. Let us ride what we want In the way that we want and take the risks that we want to take." We said it together and they heard us. H we had said it separately they never would have. Motorcycles are hire and they are here to stay. There will be many more of them. In a world growing smaller they are an obvious means of transportation. In a world provid1ng less and less personal adventure, they are an acceptable means for proving oneseU. In a world which so long demanded conformity and has only recently come to have an appreciation of the original they are an opporutnlty to express one's uniqueness. Let us have our cI1fferences for our differences are valuab le. In the sum of our cI1fferences is our strength. But there Is more holcl1ng us together than pulling us apart. We all love the motorcycle . And we stand together to say - " Don't try to fit me into your patte rn. I'm an Incl1vidual . Let me be me!" BAIIBESTOIE ~ ~ ....... , . . . . - . " " _ _at s.. Cal: M.CaI_ Dlltr. l... (2U} 772·21. • < . "

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