Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

~ Motorcycle N ~~ =--=-..:..:.:e:w:..:::s!p~ap~e~r-_~ Publisher••••• Cbarles C. Clayloo Business Manac:er•• Sbaroa Clayton Manapng Editor. Wayne F1emiogtoll Production Manag~•• Dennis Greene Assistant Editor &. Lab Technician •••••••••••••• BiD Petli~w Bookkeeper••••.• Susan llbilelaw Circulation Dept•• Jenny McDonald Receptionist••••••. Sandra PurdY Box 498. Long Beach, California. also publishers of Slale Cycle News for the Eastern slales. Second Class Poslage paid at Long Beach, Calif. Editorial stories. cartoons. photos. etc. are welcome and will be paid for on the 15th of every month for material published the previous month (except press releases and ·Voice· letters.) Addressed, stampI'd envelope assures return. Reprinting in whole Or in part expressly forbidden except by permis- Published weekly except the first and last week of the calendar year by C&S Publishing Co., Post Office sion of the Publish rs. Advertising rates and circulation information will be sent upon request. VOICES OF THE WEST Readers are invited to wice their views in the • Voices· cohulII. Names may be withheld on reqnest, but IIRsigned letters will not be considered. so It was almost impossible to miss. I've been in about 20 races, and this was !be best yet. The course wastunand !bey let the trailbikes race instead of push. I just bope more clubs get the Idea. JOHN PAVICH Van Nuys, Cal. DON'T BE A -HOT HelDROUGH LUCK One Feb. 16 the Crestline MC staged tbelr first official event, an Enduro near Rialto. The mem bers wanted thelr first 001' to be a good one. Due to the terrain features of the area, the course bad to be well maIl< ed There were very few trails that could be followed and a large quantity of 11mI' and ribbon was a must. The weekend before the event, the membership carefully limed the entire course in such a manner that not even !be rankest novice could lose his way. Ribbon was placed no less than a hundred feet apart for the entire twenty-three miles. During the following week all bell broke loose. The rains came, the lime was gone. A grouP of borse lovers from a nearby riding academy took it upon themselves to become the savious of their kind and the ribbon was stripped off, wadded up and discarded. Flash floods bad reduced rough sections of !be course to Impossible. GrollPs of lesser determlnatloo would have cancelled the event wilen by the saturday before !be race the rain was still coming down, but this was inauguratloo time. The Crestline clubdooned thelr rain sults and set out to re- mark !be course. For fourteen hours It rained, and for twenty hours the club worked to Would !be persoo, wIlo "accidentally" picked llP the Orange Bell star Helmet df !be back of our truck at Perris Race Track SUDday, please return it! The boy wIlo owns It worked for sil< mooths to pay for It. I'm sure It couldn't possiblY mean as much to you as It does to him. Anybody knowing anything about It please call (213) 280-410'7. HELEN PARKER 3326 N. Angelus Rosemead, Calif. loocc YS, 125ee IN DESERT I am ready for a new competitive bike as mine is getting pretty tired. After looking around, I have found that my choice of race ready 10Dec bikes Is very limited. If the class was increased to 125cc's, I would have much more to choose trom - most of the new race ready trail bikes are l25cc's. To my knowledge, Honda Is the only 001' that has a decent new 10Dec bike I'd like to bave trail bike riders me a postcard stating tbelr preference d lDOce or 125cc. I'U get!bese cardS to a dlstrlct meeting to let !bem mow wbetller or not the riders feel 125cc should be !be I1mIt 00 trallblkes. D.S. MARTIN 4578 W. 138tb st. Hawthorne, Gallf. 90250 ~we~mesem~ceoftheo~ course. SuDda,y rewarded all with bright skies. The course was ready. Two bundred and twent;y entries competed and !be bard work paid df. The treasury, which was completely dePJeated, was ooce again fat by over flve hundred dollars. After !be tropb,y money was taken a Dice profit wouJd be shown. As the members rode df to cJean UP, they were obviously e1atIlld, It was all worth it. But their e1atloo was short lived. Upon returuing, It was learned that every last penny of !be daYs recelPts bad been stolen trom the slgo-llP trailer. Some sick-minded indlvidua1 bad put !be grab 00 it all. All of !be entry fees, pIns over eight bundred dollars in cash checks that Dub Smith, the race chairman, had taken in at his cycle shop on saturdaY. The wIlole Lall of wax. What now: No trophy money, no money for another event, Nothing. Is tIlere satlsf8CtlOO in the tact that the event Itself was a success? Would you be satistled? What can we, fellow enthusiasts, do? Sbould we take llP a collectloo? Stage a benefit race? What? I have talked to a club member about It. I learned that !bey may bave found the answer. The club has been trying to get a bike donated to be ratned off. l! they can't work this out there are other possibilities, butnothing certain. 1 can think of only one sure answer. U the Cresiline MC can somehow rake llP the money to stage another event, let's get together and make ita great success. They have the guts to try It again. Think about It. STAN COFFEE Taft, Californla send NIXON'S ROAD RACES Tbe Betzel Smith article in !be number ~ Feb. 18th issue, page 14, was extremely well wrluen.. In this he displays the knowledge that could 0IIly be attained by following our NatiClllll1 AMA Champiooshl.ps very, veryclosely.SureIy, be Is 001' of !bel¥!stinformedautbors on our great sport. But holy smoke Mr. Smith! How could you make such a mistake about our National Number One, Gary Nixon. YOIl stated that .. now he needs to -.Id 0IIly a road race to become !be first rider lID win every type of national event." Do you not remember the year Nixon earned his number I? Daytona? Gary bad !be back- to- bacJr:: wins there with a Yamaha win on saturday in !be Amateur-Expert 250 go, then repeated his win SuDda,y in !be biC 200miler for Experts. Tbe 75-mUeNal:l.ClIIIl1 at carlsbad, Gallf? Be 1100 lbat, and !be lOO-ml1e National atLoudoD. NewBaaIP-shire. AU National CbampionsldP Road Races Mr. Smith. JAY K. LACE'Y Portland, Oregon DONATION TO RESCUE 3 We, of the Desert Foxes M.C. would like to thank the Desert M.C. for their super-good B&H on the 16th at Lucerne. Also thanks to Rescue 3 for bringing in rider 389MX and bike, Mr. Curtis Church. We don't have much mooey but we would like to contribute ~mething. We have a ambulance oxygen bottle with regulator for you. LLOYD POWELL 15802 Greenworth Dr. La Mirada, Calif. 90638 JUST ASK CYCLE NEWS I have some questions to ask and you seem like the best place to get !be answers. I need some advice 00 laying out a scrambles course, !be general Ja;J-out, length d !be stralgbt away, width of track, especlal1y the corners wbere to place the jump, etc. I would appreciate any help you could give me. Please continue with your very fine newspaper and tbaoI< you in ad9ance. KEN BOLMAN Kodiak, Alaska o COMMENT: 11Ie AMA spor&smaa rulebook contains some of the inro_d.. you waat.. It can be _d IlJ seadiDC a request .willl $1 to AlIA, Box 231. WorGI1nclDD.OIaio.aeta IaidY PlOd scrambles Finish The Funny Contest - AND STILL IN THE LEAD. FOLKS. IS #7, AMA DIRECTOR BILL BERRY. RIDING TO FILL OUT THE CLASS AFTER THlS MORNING'SSUSPEN~ON~ GOOD HARE & HOUND ____________________ l'S,Q 11 I just want to say congratulations to the Desert M.C. for their great bare'n hound on February 16. Tbelr organizatloo was great, and the course was marked ~ cIa~q~ (or.$5 to John Hedin o( 130 S. Coronado SL, Los Angeles for us WlDDlDg hue. luch the paper (or tile Den contesL 0 tc bscripuon: 011.. y °nel.. copy 25t r 2Dd class 7.58 _il. ... . ... ... .... .. NATIONAL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR. , , •• na.aS R. CUlp Cycle News (West), P,O. BOI 498, Long Beach, Calif. 90800 Tel. (213) 423-9431. EASTERN ADVERTISING Slate Cycle News (E.st) P.O. BOI 13, Amherst,Obio 44001 Tel. (2\6) 984-2433 rider to help ~ out the course to m the terraJn. You can't do it right without ricling It.. Make the straight long enough to et inlD top gear with a 500cc or 650 aDd IIIllke the course wide e_gh to let several bikes )IIlss safely abreast.. J( yon blade CJr improve the terrain, 1& bec_es an. By Barbara Adams Olhms The sound of motorcycles ...wide open, full bore, straight pipesl It's music! It's power and speed and freedom ... to me, and maybe to you. But there are a lot of people out there to wbom it Is just noise - raucous, j.rrltating, lUJpleasant noise. And every year more open spaces dour state are being filled with dozens of buildings to house these people. The open spaces grow smaller; the noises are nearer. The people wIlo bate noise complain. They bave a genuine right to complain. The open spaces are closed to riding. We complain. We bave agenuinertgbt to complain. One man's freedom Is an~ other man's prlsoo. There Is not enough space now for eacb to flll his needs.And tIlere may yet be a wbcie lot Jess. The age or tota.l indlvldral llhert;y wb1ch occurs wilen there are not euough indlvlduals in an area to bump into each otber has long been over in this part of the U.S. and problLb1y it's over almost everywhere In the world. The motorcycle cootrlbutec:l Its little bit to !be demise because transportatioo bas a lot to do with !be narrowing d gaps. 'Ibis Is !be problem, !be equitable sharing d aft1labJe space. Wbat Is the answer? Part d !be answer Is in !be growing number d motorcyc1lsts. For a wb1le this will add to the problem becaose there will be more of us to anooy otbers but at ~me point we wlllbetraosformed from a minority to a majorlt;y (a majorIt;y in this country need not be a matbematlcal majority of 51%. It can be a minority with sutnclent pub11c1t;y, cobestveoess and actlvit;y to have acceptance, and we are getting there.) A more immediate part of !be answer is that unpJeasant word, compromise. U we can't bave It all and they can't bve it all we bave to get togetller somewbere in between and co-exist. The industry Is worldng 00 more acceptable oolse levels in or1g1nll1 equlpment. Motorcycle grOQPS are wl1Iing (~metlmes TOO willing) to agree to restrictions, but !be ind1v1dual, each indlvidua1, must assess his own respooslblllty and make his own compromises with !be noo- motorcycling public for the beneflt of all of us. It iso't an easy tiling to do. Recently I watched an elderly man in a white Cadillac try to drop the tall-end rider d a club 00 the Palm Springs Indio road. The club was riding quite properly and making no provacation but perhaPs the slgbt of them riding together into the wind was to mucb for !be gentleman alone in his 4000 lb. armor. At any rate be nearly shoved my sportscar df the road to get behind them and hung a scant bandspan behind the tail bike for several miles. Skillful riding prevented disaster but the car driver's evil intent was clear • Very few non-riders are that hostile. Many are 00 our side. Most just don't want to be bothered. And that Is rea1ly our compromise...to make a reascmable effort to respect the needs d reasonable people.

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