Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Tes t and Photos by Bill Pettigrew CI> CI> lI> ~ Q.. ~ c> ... c.; Q; .Q ~ o ~ t.:l =!: t.:l -J ~ U _ What now has to be one of the fines t of the big class of competi tion motorcycles being impor ted into the good 01' U.S.A. started life a little over two years ago as the Maico X4 360 and had some very dis concerting features . The old X4 as it is now known, was a real @II$%';&* to start and had a rather awkward feel to it. Then the comp ression r elease was inc orporated into the barrel and this was a vast improvement. The release lever that was located on the left side of the handlebars was pulled in and you simply had to kick the mach ine to l1fe with the releas e in oper ation. This is gr eat if only for the one kick that is usually needed to br ing this rather healthy beast life. Frank Cooper .. distributor for the Malco line, and Brlan Fabre, a close fr iend and engineer; wor ked hand in hand to develop the Malco into the fine piece of equipment that it is today . It is my guess that Frank's close relations with the Maico factory and their listening to his suggestions and doing something about them has been ins trumental in the development of the X4A into one of the top moto-cross machines available to the Amer ican consumer today. In fa ct, the X4A's price is very r easonable In comparis on to the going pr ices for machines In this class; in fact It's the lowest list price of the bunch. Lis t is $1098.00. With the new frame that is nowa stock ite m and the new engine characteris ti cs it looks as If this Is a completely new motorcycle from the gr ound up. The handling can only be described as one of the best and that ' s no pass ive s ta te ment. The X4A handles In the corners, whether r ough or billiard table , takes the wide open desert type ter r ain in s tride, and goes through mud (moto-cross) li ke a e MAICO X4A 360 Moto-.Cross T St Swedi sh rid er La rs Lar sson chase the new X4A for hi s mount the lasl few months. Lars I s ranked as the 9th best ride r In the worl d I n Mat.. e re... Malca dealerWaltA xthelm ri des what he sells, and that makes for a well Inf ormed salesman. cha mp. Power Is immediate no matte r what gear or situa tion you might be In, and this come s from the widened power band that now revs to approxima tely 8500 revs with three to four more horse on tap. This makes the X4A power band very wide and pulls s uper strong all the way through . A new forged Mahle pis ton with the Dykes compress ion ring is now being used and works very well . Beefed up crankpln to a full 25mm will bring out more bearing area and thus longer engine life . A needle bearing is now Incorpor - ated to the s mall end of the rod . This together with the mai n bearings being lubrica ted by the transm is s ion otl Tns tead of the usual oil-gas mtst me thod should provide the already r eliabl e engine with an unbreakable uni t, Something that may also be mentioned here Is that the second and third gears in the transmission have been beefed up with more metal in the r ight places . The main shaft has also been beefed. As far as the exterior changes go It must be mentioned that the old cast al loy rear hub has been replaced by a sheet metal job that is claimed to be s tronger and at the same time save approximately five pounds of weight. After a len gthy s ession aboard the bike we notic ed that we weren't near as ti r ed as we would have been, say, on the old bike or s ome of the othe r makes on the market. This was pr obably due to the excellent positioning of the pegs , shift lever , br ake, 'and s eat. The bars weren't to our likin g, but that's us ually personal pr efer ence . The clutch Is of the wet, multi-plate variety and at no ti me were we able to get it to slip even after so me hard clutching. At no time in the tes t wer e we able to gr ound the front or back su spension units and they r ebounded beautifully with none of the typical seesaw action. Carbur etion Is very well handled by a 30mm Bing carburetor. Wor d is that the Bing may be replaced by a 34mm Mlkuni tha t has already been tested by Cooper , and all that Is holding It up is the factory negotiating with the Japanese factory over prices . The new hard lined and squared off tank is a two gallon job that will be fine for moto-cros s and TT wor k but the four gallon jug that is available will be better for desert and the long cross country r ac es. With the peak hor sepower now bei ng clai med at 40 hp at 6500 rpm we found tha t to be a little opti mis tic, like most of the other claimed figures by other make s. A good guess is 36 to 37 hp, But the 6500 rpm Is ver y good In that the power is now coming on at a lower r ev range and is , much mor e usable espectal!y in motocros s . The Malco X4A 360Cc Moto-Cr oss ts one of the finest pieces of out-of- thecrate racing hardware available to the American public toda y, and if you don't believe It, ride It. BIG BAJA BLOW-HOLE Story and Photos Bill Harmer by " T he noted Baj a Blow-HOle wi ll somet imes ,shoat water ten stori es high. T he new · Vla Cuata" ( tall road) between TI j uana and Ensenada cast s the cycllsta tota l af60¢ American to travel the enti re dis tance whil e the cars are charged $2.40. you will be charged two and one- halt Just a few paved mil es south of the pesos (20~ U.S.). You can now go all the beautiful Baja r es or t city of Ensenada Is way to the city of Ensenada with only one a natural wonder whic h, It it were in our mor e toll of three pesos (24~ U.S.) at country, would be declared a national the so uthern terminal of the highway. monument, so spectac ular is Its aquatic This new r oad, which costs the cycli st display. The phenomemon occurs when only 60~, nicks the automobile driver the pres s ur e of the tidal s ur ge builds up $2.40. Consequently, It Is very sparsely in a s ubterranean cave which blows li ke traveled and the cycle enthusiast is not a safety valv e on a steam boil er . With a greatly bothered by the s tupid fr ee way roar equal to the nois e of a jetliner at antics which we find on our super-choked takeoff, It s pews tons of water skyward, highways here in the States . We would often reaching altitudes of 200 fee t. As say that It ts worth the price just to get the spray des cends onto the cliffs , r ivuaway from the autoists. We might add lets create beauillul li ttle waterfalls. tha t It Is Impos sible to get off the exThe blow hole Is known In Spani sh as presswa y at the famous old Halt W ay " La Buradcra. " which translated into House. Sever al truckloads of earth have English mean s " The Snorter." bee n dumped at the entrance of the ac We, on our BMW, met our traveling ces s road, blocking It effectively . A few companions, Harry and Hele n Teachout mil es further south Is La Fonda where r iding their full dress Har ley 74, at 8 you can s tretch your legs and get refresho'clock on an overcast July morning and ments . The place i s very clean, the cofheaded down interstate 5 toward the infee Is good and the prices are reasonable. ter natio nal bord er . As previous accounts Tourist Haven have dealt with the detai ls of the border cr os sing we'll ski p all but theactmonltion Ensenada , the te rminus of the annual to be sure and obtai n Mexican Insurance Cycle News- spons ored tour Is the thi r d at the lin e. A policy of full coverage inlargest city in Baja Calltornla (42,770 in 1960). In the winter, the climate Is a surance cos ts only $3 .17 minim um. li ttl e chilly with an average temperature As we have already covered the "Vta of 57.9 degrees from November to April, Llbr e" (Free Way) and the little towns but in the su mmer months It is a dellghtand villages that li ne it, weagreed to take ful place to be. The average temperature the new "Via Cuota" (Toll Road) all the from May' to October Is 65.6 degr ees. way with one stop for r efr esh ments . To There Is usually a fog or an overcast fur ther contuse the Issue In an at tempt at in the mor nings . Because of the almos t clarification, we must explain that the fr ee way Is justa road that you can travel • perf ec t cli ma te and the relatively low cos t of living, many Amer icans have at no charge to you, and in no way r echosen Ensenada as a retirement haven . sembles a freeway as we know them. On There are many fine r es ta urants and the other hand the beautiful, wide paved lodging place In the city. The mor e lux ..... toll road Is a lim ite d acce s s expr essway that compares very favorably with our urlous hotel s are along the shore of the freeways. In fact the road signs tha t are bay but there are nice ones In the cen ter painted In Engli sh for the benefi t of the of town also . We stopped at Velasco' Son Avenida Rutz (the main street) for a American tourists refer to the toll road ' leis ur ely lunch before continuing. We as uTIle Freeway." To reach the beginning of the new highparked our bikes in front of the restauway, we take second street (Calle 2a) rant, next to a beauillul BSA and gleamwest right out of town. Just before we ing btack BMW. Their owners were noreach the new Plaza Monumental bull where to be seen but the bikes told us that ring a t Pia y a s de TIjuana (T ijuana they belonged to Fred O. and Don from Beach), the ro ad ta kes a gradual swing to Long Beach . Motorcycles are not known the south and shortly we arr ive a t the to be very talkative and we couldn't find firs t toll gate wher e they collec t two out wher e the owners had gone so we left pesos (1 6 ~ U.S.) fr om each cycle. This a note telling them that they had for gotten toll gets you to the Rosarito gate where their helm ets in the restaurant and head- defi nite pattern acc ording to the tide but even when It Is not doing its best, It Is still worth seeing . Perhaps you' ll be lucky and find it really putting on a show, throwing water 10 stories high. We had been Joined by a thi rd cycle, a Harley Sportster, ridden by Larry Johnson who had missed us at our s tarting poi nt and had passed us as we wer e r elaxing in an Ense nada restaurant. He was greatly surprised a t the pres ence of the blow hole . He has been coming to the end of the pavem ent at Pun ta Banda for years and had never known of its exist- ed s outh out Avenida J uarez. , About eleven miles s outh of Ensenada we stopped at the tmmigration check and although we didn' t have papers, were permitted to go on. The name of the village is Maneadero and at the so uth end of town we take the r ight for k in the road. The sign says "Punta Banda ." We travel southwest over a paved r oad through lush farmlands. About four mil es from the junction we pass the Gr ulla gun cl ub on the mars hy banks of an es tuary. We understand that It Is owned or leased by ence .. a group of Amer ican s por ts men whofind On our return trip, we toured the luxthe duck hunting here excellent. The ury hotel s trip along the water front and s igns tell us to s tay out s o we speed on. wer e . shocked to find the palatial Hotel We s kir t the southern end of the estuary del Pacifico, which was built by for mer and as we reach vartous fishing camps heavyweight cha mpion Jack Dempsey and along the southern shor e of the Todos other American bus inessmen dur ing the Santos Bay, begin a gr adual cli mb up the late twenties as a gam bling casino, was north side of the peninsula of Punta aban doned and being used by the operaBanda. Upon reachi ng the r idge .....e s top tors of the hor se r ental concession to to view the bay and ci ty of Ens enada but s table their animals. For many years It It Is s till " s ocked In" at noon. Now we was the height of luxur y in Baja Calltor begin a descent over a curvy r oute to a ala, playing host to many Hollywood cove on the south s ide of the point. celebrities of the s il ent mm er a . Tears On our fir s t visit several years ago, came to our eyes as we recalled with there was nothing here, but now It Is a nostalgia the pleas ur es of our misspent beehive of activity. Ther e are sever al youth In the gaming rooms of this fam ous camp grounds which charge 50~ per night. old landmark. There Is a "dive and gr ocery store" After a coffee stop in town we headed which r ents sc uba gear and flUs tanks our iron hor ses back towards the border . with air, and several outdoor type eating The trip was uneventful with the excepplaces where the same flie s that are tio n of the ti me we passed a large opencrawling over the garbage, make s ide bed truck which we discovered too la te visits to the food that is being prepared was loaded with freshly caughtanchovles , and ea te n. If you are really hungry, you _ going to the cannery. We all ended up bette r walt unW you get back to Ensewith " fish juice" on our fairings, on our nada, The hot boiled swe et corn tha t you glasses, on our trousers and jackets and can buy for a dime an ear Is usually on our faces . We had to make a ten safe, however , and Is delicious. minute stop to clean up a bit but I still noticed, when we s topped for dinner in The Big Blow Ti juana that the wai ter s and othe r patrons After we park our bike s near the end of the Roma Madrtd restaurant looked at of the pavement we follow the rest of the us as though they s melled so mething tourists (mostly Mexicans) up a path over unpleasant. a little hill and there below us we see the Being on motorcycles, It w s imple to as object of our excursion, La Bufadora. skir t the long lines of trattic which was Sometimes It Is more spectacular than li ned up at the border, taking only a few others but doesn 't seem to have much minutes where many autoists would be connection with the height of the tide . We tied up for hour s. As we mel ted Into the have on past occasions cam ped here for flow of the nor thbound Inter s ta te 5 trafthr ee days, obser ving the blow note at fie, we waved hearty farewells hoping to different attitudes of the tide. Anoceanoget togeth er s oon for another out of the gr apher could probably come up with a way Baja tour .

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