Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

EDITORIALS: By Ed Youngblood The amateur motorcyclist in most at the country has rolled his machine to the far wall at the garage, stowed his helmet, and settled into the recliDer with a stack at trade and sport magazines; enduring his annUlll hibernation, recallIng the rides and races at the summer, and dreaming of the coming season heralded by the Rites at Spring occurring at DBytona in March. The AMA professional has hung up his hotsboe, torn down his motor, and begun cleaning the weapons for that opening blttle; wiping the cobwebs off the large capacity gas tank, getting out the brakeequipped wheels, and replacing the wbeel-barrow handlebars with elipons.A few, pros and amateurs alike, are keepIng in shape in local winter enquros, but for most at us this is a period of dormancy. And for the majority of us - like never before - it should be a period of deep thought. With the next season will come more excitement and confusion, but this time It will not all be on the race track. We all know how to react when we're under the homlardment at dust, noise, f17ing clods, and stinking motor oll. That is the atmosphere we seek out and in wIl.Ich we thrive. That is the ellxlr. But an atmosphere of another kind of noise and turmoll is bulldlng, and to this we must be alert and in preparation. In this quiet time from December to March wbile motors are shut down, we must gather our wits, re-examine our desires and motives, and remain cautious until we are sure of what we want. our thoughts now may determine whether our words next summer are intelligent or irrational, and finally whether we are at one body a year bence. If our decisions are a little undercooked, by this time next year we may be a collection of helPless splinter groups, factions, and grumbling malcontents, complaiDlng about bow we got cheated because the AMA dldn't do enough for us. We are the AMA, and though Mr. Berry seems to have done some fatuous things lately, we may be entirely too quick to shake our fists toward Columbus and make him our scapegoat. We sbould face the fact that in a sense -If one is to take a long view at the matter - Mr. Berry and his staff are being exactly wbat we each PlIY a few dollars a ye8r for them to be. Row IiId Are We? We support the AMA ometaJdom parthat _ may lave ... object fOl" our gripes and a bod)' that we can blame for oar own stubborn contrariness. I am sugestIDg that If we wut to blame the AMA for the buUdiDg turmoll and CCIDfusion we sbould be aware that we are only avoiding the real traDsgresaton that is in the perYersity fI Meh of our persoaalities. It will be a sad comment on tIa1I:J so Motorcycling?~ Is ·AMA Good For the ability of American motorcyclists to co-exist with one another l! It turns out that we have spent years building a commoo focal point only to burn It down in an effort to ap pea s e our own had consciences. Why is the American motorcyclist unable to effectively organize? Rather than accuse the weaknesses of the AMA, let us look at ourselves in the decade or so since Marlon Brandogave us self-awareness as a group and at the same time a questionable public image. Admit it or not, sometimes we really do like to think fI ourselves as "Wild Ones," and perhaPs there Is some truth in it. I am not talking about Heavenly Blues, the egomaniac with the emotional maturity of a school-boy played by Peter Fonda, nor am 1 talking about the pathetically lost and self-conscious soul-searcher portrayed by John Casavettes. 1bese unlikelyRomantics of the recentchoppermovtes never really existed anywhere, and they Oar internal disp_ates are really caused by stroag individualism. are fundamentally different from the early WUd One. The WUd One was a motorcyclist confronting himself and his Isolation as an Indlviduallst within a society bee 0 min g progressively less friendly to iDdlvidualists. It is time we admitted that a little at that wildness Is in all at us. The tastefully dr~ssed ban vice-president commuting on a spotless BMW is cerla1nly a far cry from a Hell's Angel, but Isn't he just a little "wUder" than his associate who used the commuter train? The steel worker or brick-layer with his lunch box strapped to the rear seat at his Triumph doesn't stay drunk, smell band, and publicly degrade women, but isn't he alittle "wUder" than his co-wnrker who usesa ear pool? The dirt-tracker who loads his racer into the EI CarniDo and drives across several states with his wife every weekend isn't a drug addict or a street brawler, but wnuldn't you say he has a little •'wilder" life than his neighbor who spends the weekend watching televlsedAFL? And wbat about the Motormaids? They are ladies, but in spite at wbat Dot RobInson keeps telling us, they are not the everyday-Iaundromat-bridgeelub ladles. If they were they would be watching Brighter Day rather than molioriDg to a ralJy or coagreptl.ng at a NatiOllll1. T1I1s all means that the American motorcyclist is ... iDdlvldua11st, perhaps more than in any other eoantry on Earth. 1bat Is the "Wild ODe" I am talking about, and lboagh we mustconstantlJ restst the public's image at the crazed, homocidal, masoehistlc Ancel, we should take a good 1001< at ourselfts and admIt wIIllt we are. Henry Ford.w to it that In this country the motorcyclist would neyer again be the avenge motorist, and CI) though the psychology is too complicated for a layman to fully IIDderstaDd, maybe the reason we ride hikes and are not average is the same reason we can never organize and get too close to each other, regardless fI our commoog interests. Right there is one bigdlffereocebetween us and the Angels. They cling to each other like fungus, so after all in our respectablllty may lie the very reason for our present dlsagreemeot and discontent. But all of this "rugged iDdlviduallsm" is why we must try harder, exercise patience, forgive a little longer, stretch our points of View, and keep our voices down. In rage we may huff off, swearing that we can run our own game the way we want to run it. And maybe we can for a wbile, but eventuallY the truck-load fI tuftles shows up at the track with a fuelburner and a lot of muscle, and then nobody has any fun. Or the slick promoter gives you a hand and at tropby time has sJdpped with entry fees, gate receipts, prize money, and a pUe at club dollars he needed for "expenses." That's not fun either. So when we start letting our stroog personalities break us uP, the ~ones amass and the bad guys moye in, ma.kiDg us all look like bad gll)'s in the eyes at the public. We are on the verge of confirming the worst public suspicions and attltudes about motoreyelists. !' m not ealliDg for a rally around the AMA. The AMA is not sacrosanct, and perhaPs there is a better answer. Nor am I criticizing the existence of independent clubs and local sanctioning organizations. If they truly come up with a better way at running things they will prosper on the strength of their intrinsic good quallties. I'm not even calling for unity. If my view of the American motorcyclist is correct, there can be no total unity nor complete agreement amoog us. What! am arguing for is thoughtful consideration on the part at each at us as individuals. We must be aware of our own built-in dlsadvantage as individuallsts and at the extreme danger of splintering off into small and powerless grouPs, and we must reallze that these are the reasons for more effort. Prone to Veering translating ideas into realities requires ~ cooperation, inestimable effort, ezperieoce, and frequently a long series fI human errors. A lot is wrong right now and a lot fI people are at fault, but aren't we taking the easy way out? Isn't Ita little too easy to heap blame and abuse oIl Misters Berry and Clark? Isn't it alittletooeaay to assert that the AMA can't run a good race and that It has never done anything for the road rider when neither accusatlon is true? Isn't it a little bit harder for each of us to subject ourselves to close examination and self-criticism and admit that for the same reason we ride hikes we are too prone to go veering fit on our own? I think that wbile the motors are shut down and we are able to think quletly, this re-evaluatioo fI ourselves is exactly wbat we should undertake. If wedon't, the coming summer may bring severe, costlJ, and palnful seizures to the motors at the greatest sport on wheels. 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