Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125609
HELPI HELP -- HELMETS - ANTIQUE & CUSTOM CYCLES HIGHLIGHT S.F. SHOW Latin beauty Lillian Martinez and pert Terri Looney demonstrate just two of the many attractions at the upcoming Cycle '69 show, April 2-6, at Brooks Hall in San Francisco. Lillian is shown on Bob Hawkins' hand built Triumph custom, recently awarded "best bike" trOPhy at the Monterey Auto Show. Miss Looney Is perched on a real old-timer, Eugene Marty's completely restored 1920 Cleveland. The annual San Francisco Cycle Show will feature the finest array of antique and classic motorcycles ever seen in Northern California, as well as the finest selection of custom built cycles ever seen. Also on exhibit will be over 100 racing motorcycles, ranging from Grand Prix road racers to dragsters. A special. feature at this year's shcny will be the "Peoples Choice" award. Patrons of Cycle '69 are invited to vote on their favorite of the hundreds of show bikes, and the winner will receive a trip for two to Hawaii. HELP This is for real! There are two helmet bills (AB 654 and AB 382) belpre the California legislature. A tentative hearing date for the Foran bill is April 10, although it is' not yet definitely scheduled. At any rate it will begin its committee tests very soon. The first committee will be Foran's own Transportation Committee. The members are listed below. If you want them to know your feelings about compulsory helmets, write NOWl John F. Foran (0) San Francisco Robert H. Burke (R) Huntington Beach Wadie P. Deddeh (D) Chula Vista John F~ Dunlap (D) Vallejn Joe A. Gonsalves (0) Norwalk Frank Lanterman (R) Pasadena David A. Roberti (0) Los Angeles Peter F. Schabarum (R) Covina Alan Siernty (D) Los Angeles (one vacancy) It takes six yes votes to pass. Mrs. Florrie Ball had had to stop riding her motor bike. So reports Ihe Indianapolis star in a story dated February 5. She Is 77 and could no longer get Insurance. rs. Ball is 4 feet, IG inches taIl, and wel(hs 84 pounds. She tried to c~ Insurance companies but no company she CllPtacted would accept her polley. "I can ride as well as any youngster and I don't ride all that fast. I love Ihe fresh air. A car's just not the same," she said. Motorcycling ---~ Goes ~ O"-The-Road! Off-road fever seems to be effecting everybody these days. When Honda announced their new line of dirt bikes Is underlined the trend. And now the HarleyDavidson designers have come' up with the ultimate 1,200cc motocross mount of them all. Would you believe, "The 74-Bandido"? Well then, would you believe "Super-Glide"? Actually, the 1973 Harley 74, shown here, Is a dual purpose bike. Remove the saddlebags and you can enter It at Saddleback Park. Add a sissy bar and you're in business on the boulevard. Cover up the rear camper section and you've got a chopper and can get parts in the movies. What do you think of it, motorcycle fans? Write your best thoughts to Mr. William Davidson, care of Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Don't tell him where you saw it first. Photo by Flash ~ ~ ELSINORE GRAND SWIM By Jim Cavin On the way to Elsinore I was dOZing when 1 looked out of the window. 1 said to my wife, "look, there Is Lake Elsinore." She said, "the lake is another ten miles. That is just water along side the road." It was about then our car and trailer turned into a boat. We entered the mud area, I mean pit area, where we got stuck. We got a push to get unstuck. Boy was it neat, all those muddy bikes and racers. I then unloaded my trusty Triumph Cub and joined about two hundred bikes war111.ing up in a gigantic circle, Zoom, zoom, around and around we went. Right In the middle of all these bikes was some Grlpster running around yelling, "go back to the pit area." It was just like playing tag on the freeway and every now and then he did a little Khe Shan two step. It was then the time for the riders meeting, and of course the speaker didn't have a loud speaker. I p::.id my money so I figured I'd better go and get the scoop. I mingled in among one hundred racers and two-thousand spectators to get a good position in the last row. It is about then the race director says, "If you can't hear, say so." That was the last thing I heard the speaker say. Just about then a police car came by, and some one yells out, "The police car has a loud speaker, they used it In the pit area last night." I wonder what he meant by that••• I then slid over to the starting line on my trusty Triumph Cub. Wow, were there a lot of bikes! Wow 0 Wow, were there a lot of bikes. Have you ever ridden up behind one thousand bikes with their engines running? It was so loud it was like using a jet engine for a hair dryer. I revved uP my Cub all the way but I couldn't hear It. The only way I could tell It was still running was to occasionally look to see if there was still black smoke coming from It. They were starting them by classes, the bigger the class the sooner they started. I remembered It was our turn. It was just like a game of red light, green light. The only guy that started fair was the guy the starter was looking at. The flag fell, I mean they moved the rope, and we were off. Really off to be out there in all that mud. This was the first race I was ever in that I thought if I fell I might drown. We zoomed out, made a left, right In front of a torrent of water. Roared across a field, shot down a road and then we started entering the mountains. Just before we entered the mountains a few 100' s went by so I figured I'll catch them here, why not? It is a Mountain Cub. In about two seconds I figured I'll catch them on the asphalt. Gee were the cliffs ever steep. I thought about being a rally driver in the Monte Carlo Sports Car rally going over the Alps. I thought about the left hand side hacks going around the mountain curves with their bodies hanging out over the cliff grasping for balance. I thought about all the hundreds going by, oh well if they're going to pass me It is going to be on the left hand side. At last the pavement and the City of Elsinore. Wow duck for the weeping willow tree. Time to open It up. 55 mph. Here comes some more hundreds. Out of town and into the mud. It was here I fell. I slid about 100 yards on my belly, wilh my hands straight out In front of me. Have you ever been to Ihe beach and watched the waves come in, until the sand is just damp and Ihen this guy runs full speed and slides on it? "Bellywompin" I call it. Anyway 1 did a fifty mph belly-womp at Elsinore. I must have looked like a hydroplane. I ran back and picked up my bike but my gloves were coated wilh an inch of mud and were so slippery I couldn'thang on to the bars. What should I do? I looked around. There was the lake. I ran down to wash my hands in the lake. When I got down to the lade there was this guY cleaning his Filtron wilh his carburetor all apart washing the pieces. I Ihen figured if he had his carburetor all apart by Ihe time I got there _.well, I was just a little behind. Well my trusty Triumph Cub wouldn't start. So back down to the lake to clean my carburetor. Just then I looked around and see two guys on bikes bump each olher and both go belly wompin - whee! Their bikes were burled so deep you couldn't see anything but the handle bars. They both swam back to their bikes but they wouldn't start. This one guy had ona red club jersey wilh a white line going up and down and a white line going around with a chain printed on it. I asked what the line read. He said, "I'm not a Jack Rabbit." I should hope not. Maybe a duck, but not a rabbit. Well anyway this guy walked down to the lake and just jumped In, leathers and all. I said, "you OK?" He said, "Don't distrub me I am taking a bath." If you think I am kidding his number was 914. He got his bike running about twenty minutes later. Anyway this other guy on the Hodaka never got his bike started again, only made half a lap. Boy was I surprised to see in Cycle News that he won his class. Do you think I'm kidding? I later found out he wrote a. letter explaining he did not deserve the trophy_ Well by Ihe time I worked on my carburetor and went back for my bike, it was stuck so deep I could hardly find it. The only thing showing was my rear view mirror. It took six people to pull it out. In the pits It took ten people and one truck to pull my car and trailer out. Oh well, walt until I getthose hundreds next year on my Cub.