Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Vou' II Il wl)' S .... .. I •• II FIRST ",, - ~ In 0 ~ ~ g 8 ~ o ~ Col -.J CJ ::.. CJ " America's Weekly oooooooo MotorcYc1e Newspaper" g s 6471 N. Long Beach Blvd• Long Beach, Calif. 9080 5 Or: Box 498 , Long Beach, Calif. Phone: 423-0431 (Area Code 2131 o 8 I Publisher •• ••Charles C. Cl ay ton Rus lne s s Manal:N • .sharon Cla.vton Ass't. Editor• •. W yne Fleming lon a 1'I ational Adv , Dlreclor • •Tom Culp Ph ot o Edi tor ••• •• •Dennis Greene La b Tech nici a n • • • •HiII Pettil:ll.""" Hookkeeper • • • •• .susan W hitt-la w Circula tion J)ept•• ~Jen ny McDo nald Edi loria l & Adv, Asst. Sa ndra Punly 0 0 0 0 0 Se-c-o nd (, 1.1:->:-' plls tal-:l' paid a t L om; Be-ac-h, Cul i t , Editoria l sto rivs , ca rtoo ns , phot os, e tc . a re we lc nmr-d a nd wi 11 be paid § P ubl i s hvd wrx-k lv «x.. ·P Pt tht ' fi rs t and l ast W t ' pk of th t' cu lend ar " par by C& S P uhl i sh inc c o . , P O:-i( o i n c'" Box 01 98 . L OllI-: Bva vh , C u l i torn iu , for upon pu h l i ca ti un (t' xCl' pl pr t' s s rele as e s and > Vo ir-o " It'lt p rs . ) Ad- dres s ed , stamped vn ve l op c re turn , o o ., Sinl:l e COp~" a:-; SUH's prir Subscrip tion : Z~.(" One .n -a r 2nd c l ax s Mail •• • • • • •• •• • • • ••• • $7.:;0 Adv ertising rates a nd c i rcu la tio n in fo rma tion wi 11 be sent upon req ues t, IOClOC)O()O()()C)()C:>OOOOOOOOClOCllOClOC>O VOICES OF THE WEST AMA PRESS EFFORTS A r enewed effort has be en mad e thi s year to di ss eminate news of AMA sanc ti oned professional racing. A basi c press kit was mailed early this year to approximately 500 s p 0 r t s wr iters and broadc asters . News r el eases have gone out to the se same men, and other s , each week following national championship races . Personal contacts made by AMA s latf membe rs with members of the press has resulted In feature s tor i es on AMA racing appearing In man y of the Na tion's leading and most widely cir culated newspaper s and magazines . Many radio s ports broadcaste r s have gi ven Immediate reports to the local motorcycle r ac e en thusiasts. Several television shows on racing and other speclal subjects perlaining to motorcycling have been aired this past year• Others are s ti ll In the planning stages for coming months . The over-all results of the news ef fort this year has been most gratifying. Gratifying because of the enthusiastic r esponse from those who have received thi s news Information from AMA. We Intend to continue to seek ways In which to Imp r ove our me thods of tel1lng about all phases of AMA activities. On behalf of the over 100,000 AMA member s, I wish to extend our most s in cere THANK YOU to all members of the Press, for the flne support given AMA this past year• W.T . BERRY, JR. Exec utive Direc tor Ame rican Motorcycle As s n. Worthington, Ohio RULES ARE RULES In r egard to the Gr eenhorn Gr ipe that recentl y appeared In your Le tters Col umn from Gordon Po rter of San Dimas, Calif ., our records show he "was 61 minutes late at Check N on Saturday. He didn't re-enter but rode Sunday an d finished anyway. Too bad he was over one hour late saturday but that's the rule. What really was his gripe? Better he should s pend more time reading the rule book and less time griping. BOB GREENE Pasadena M.C. POWDE R PU FFERS FORE VE R! As members of the Powder Puff Associa ti on, we are quite distressed upon hearing a rumor in circulation regarding our club. We are constantly being ap proached, of late , by people who assume or have heard tha t our club bad disban ded . Thi s is not true. Our club Is as a ctive, It not more so, than ever before. We have applied for 2 District #37 point runs for next year, a s compared to our one run of last year , and we recently became Incorporated. We would like to encoura ge any gir ls Interested In women's competition to join our club and help us support Scram bles and our District. EULENE LONG Preslden t,Powder Puff Assn., Inc . STURGIS NO-NO NSENSE POUCY In a r ecent meeting with law e nfor ce ment agenci es s er ving the sturgts, South Dakota area, di s cussion featured arrange ments for the 1969 Black Hills Gypsy Tour & Race Mee t. City, county and state ortlclals were In a ttendan ce. It was obvi ous to all obs er vers that the police have already chos en a no-nonsense policy. While it was not specifically discus sed, I personally, fe el that thos e who wear German helme ts and long hai r may find that the poli ce will be offering them te mpor ary asyl um In one of the local jails so as to protect them from a later charge of " lnci tlng a r i ot" • Also, those who persist In wearing filthy clothing, or In displaying other uncl ean hab its may IT WASN'T YOU To Bobby Ewing , Jr.: Thank you fo r bei ng s o hones t. But the guy I saw cheating wasn 't even a Checker . LANNY LEHIGH #243 Saugus, C;:al. find that they constitute " a public health menace" . P er s oaally, I would sugges t tha t a short treatment of western " s heep dip" would serve all concerned . Itwould r id the shaggy ones of vermin and r id the town of the shaggy ones. While some of the plans and s ugge s ti ons will be crttized by a few, thos e who have attended the Stur gis Rally over the pa st 30 years will certainly appreciate those plans made to Ins ure pr ote c tion for the ir annual va cati on Investment. Sinc erely yo ur s, J ACK HOEL Manager , Technical Re search Ya maha Int'l Corp. Montebello, Calif. WHAT IS SPONSO RSHIP? In regards to Mr. Doug Teeter's letters about spons or ed spor ts man r iders. Does . he consider my 16- year-old son Wes Anders on, Jr . or 14-year-old Jeff Wright racing against men li ke Ron Nel son, J.N. Robe r ts and other s, just because a motorcycle businessman has sponsored them ? A lot of the shops will give 10% to any sportsman rider, so according to Mr . Teeter they are partially sponsored and s hould race with the best. Maybe Mr . Teete r is an Expert who can't make it, just have fun like s ome other Experts, such as Leo Froelich, myself and those wonderful lady Exper t riders of the desert Rosie Martino and Lynn Wilson . (l did not Include Jan Dltson be cause s he goes too last.) WES ANDERSON SR. Trail Bike #42 Los Angeles, Calif. I ENJOY ASCOT. BUT I' m wri ti ng to say tha t I really enjoy goi ng to As cot to see the motor cyc l e r aces . The r aces the re a r e a lways ver y exc iting, and there are always some ver y good top name riders riding ther e . Ther e Is only one thing at Ascot that bothers me, a nd that Is the restroom facilities . I fe el that Mr. Agajanian makes enough money, or has enough of his own money to Improve these fa cilities . As a woman, I feel that they are ve ry unsanitary. Halt the time they don't work, and they are very unsightly. I don' t know It other people fe el like I do, but It would be a nice Improvement It the restrooms were modernized. One of the reasons the restrooms are ver y bad Is that they don 't have any privacy. People sitting or standing In the top rows can look r ight into the restrooms. Now Is that nice? Has anyone ever complained about the situation ? I thin k It should be fixed as s oon as possible. Othe r raci ng facilities hav e nic e restrooms, why can 't Ascot? MRS. L . W. MURRAY Whittier, Califor nia ( " Ye s , we've heard this compla int before, Mrs. Muna)'. but the responsibility lies with track management, not Mr.Agajanian, who merely rents the race track to present his events." ) IT WASN'T HIM, IT WA S M E In your october 31, 1968 Issue on pa ge 16 the Ascot T T r es ults stated that Dave Clarke got 5th in the Novice Main. This is not tr ue , it was To m Clark. T OM CLARK Seal Bea ch , Cal. P .S. Per ris Is twice a s fun when r un ba ckwards ! NEWS FROM ALL OVER Reading your paper I hav e noti ced a lack of news from the Eastern Washington and Idaho area. This Is probably due to an absence of reporting our events on our part. I am currently AMA District Referee's As s istant In this area and have sent s ome news which may be of Interest. ================== ~~twe~ By Barbara Ada ms Olhms CLIPPING CORNER I hav e also Included a photo of the winner of the last four r aces In the Spokan e area. He is a fi r st year probationary Amateur named Gary Hite who r id es a 650 Kawasaki out of Ken Goodner's s hop . MORRIS AMAN Spokane, Wash. ~ II Is good 10 hear from you. CyCle Ne ws is yo ur pa per. too . TRAILBLAZERS BENEFIT On Sep tember 29, 1968 at the Nevada Trailblazers, oasis Scramblers HareScr ambles, one of our fellow sportsman riders J im Elder of the Aubur n, Cal.!.t r o nia M.C. was serio usly Injured with a fr actured skull whil e competing at our event. Sinc e the ac ciden t Jim has been recovering at a local Reno hospital. Four days of which were s pen t in the Intensive care uni t. I am s ure everyone Is aware of the mounti ng co s t s of the hos pital r oom r ate s. To help with this gr ea t expense the Nevada Trailblazers M.C . of Reno will be holding a benefit Moto- Cross on Sunday Nove mber 3, 1968. For further de ta ils consult the calendar of even ts in this issue or call Doug Busey at (702) 332-6323 in Reno. You may also mall donations, It you care to do so. Make a check or money order pa yable to Nevada Trailblazers, P .O. Box 6075 Reno, Nev. A special invi ta tion to those 187 other rider s who participated In the event that day. Let' s help make this event a FI NANCIAL SUCCESS. OOUG HARRISON Sec'y., Nevada Trailblazers M.C . Ren o, Nevada P .S. Hey Dirt Digge rs Nor th , an other nice Club T rophy will be given. DAISYS LIKE LON G RUNS •••But only on Championships. Championships should be long, they have to be a challenge run. Other than that, 60 or 70 miles should be plenty every weekend. We do have to think of the newcomers. After all, my friends , it Is the trai lblke class tha t puts the $ In your pocket. 1 like to ride so natch I'li ride whatever the Clubs put on. At this time all the girl riders would like to thank the clubs that give tirstgirl trophies . It gives the desert gals something to go for . ROSEMARIE MARTINO Desert DaIsy #16 Sylmar, Calif. P .S. Des er t Daisys dig r iding with the me n, be st r idi ng teachers . SHORTER COURSES I vot e for shorter trallbike courses. Sixty to seventy miles Is plenty on a small bike . D. J . RUSSELL Dls t. 37 #451 China Lake, Cal. CAUTION ADULTS AT PLAY Our readers send us the be s t Ideas . ln news clippings, organizational newsletters and pr iva te corr e sp ondence, the most Inte r es ting and Informative mater ial reaches our desk. Thanks fo r the effort and keep them co ming our way. Right now we' d like to share a few with you. F rom the Illinois Sta te Motorcycle As s oc tatlon: The Univer s ity of Illinois c1alms there are 170,0 00 r egistered voters In llllnois who ride mo tor cycles . Since motorcycle registra tion In Callfornia ls 380,0 00 plus and Illinois Is 113,000 there mus t be a consider ably larger number of registered vote r s in Califor nia who r ide. In ei ther case cyclis ts repr esen t a bloc of votes thatis noticeable to legis lators. From the Connecticut Motorcycl e As sociation: State Rep resentative Rufus C. Rose Is quote d as com menting on the Connec ti cut helmet law, " The law was poorly wr itt en - it does n' t even say that the helmet must br wor n on the head." Some one In Connecticut wore his helmet on his kne e . " The law Is simply not enfor ceable. Like s eatbe l ts , helmets are a matter of ed ucation not l egislation." Connec ti cut Is one of the several s ta tes with te st cases in the cour ts . F r om McMi nnville , Oregon, a newspaper quote s : Motorcycles aren' t as popular as they used to be . The Oregon Department of Motor V e h i c I e s said 32,9 56 mo tor cycles were li censed last year, a drop of 3 percent fr om 1966. Between 1961 and 1964 motorcycle registrations Increased 60, 64 and 37 percent per year• •••The departm en t has approved 150 kinds of helmets to comply with the new law requIring mo torcycle r iders to wear them. F r om the Oakland Tribune: In more than two out of three car-cycle crashes s tudied by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. , the caus e of the mot orcycl e accident was a car tur ning l eft In front of the rider . In virtually all of these crashes the auto drive r said he did not see the oncoming cycle In time to avoid a coIllslon. From an Oregon editorial: Why should a motorcyclist wear a helmet? If he doesn't care about himself, he should still wear one to help save the motorist who hits tdm from going to his grave feeling like a murderer. P resumably the motorist who hits an "Invisible" motorcyclist an d kills him in spite of his helme t will just have to live with his conscience . F r om the Wall Street Journal: The Departm ent of Trans portation (the same departm ent which pr esented us with the helmet hassle) Is now at work devel oping safety s tandards and r equlrements for bicycle riders . The National safety Council repor ts In " US News and Wor ld Repor t" tha t falai a cc idents In the U.S. Involving mot or cycles dropped by 50 (f rom 2,050 to 2, 000) In 1967 from 1966. The NSC credits this dr op to tougher cycle 1a ws and mentions tha t In Califor ula there were 7 more falai a cc idents in 1967 than In 1966 (319 to 326 fa talities). It does not mention however that registration of mo torcycles in 1966 wer e 310, 072 and In 1967, 380,782 or 70,71 0 more mo tor cycles r egis tered in 1967. Seven addi ti onal fatalities per 70,700 r egistrations is less than 1 pe r 10,000. (

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