Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

..at.. .,~~~~ou~~~~~~~,~~~~~ts~~~~~::;c~~gA!~~O~~M"'. ~ Darrel Trtber's record setting ThreeFlag run of a few months back caugbt our eye and we decided to take a whack at it. Darrel rode a BSA Rocket Three from the Canadian border to Tijuana, Mexico in a shade under 24 hours.Couid the three of us, my wile Denise, our trusty Matchless and myself, slasb Triber's time? We toured motorcycle dealers in the Los Angeles area looking for a sponsor and pointed out to everyone the big space on our 8-gallon touring tank that had a band-lettered sign saying, "This Space For Hire." No one seemed interested except the U-Haul people who wanted us to tow a traller back to Seattle for them. We declined politely though the extra space would have come in bandy... Let me interject a word of thanks to the many readers who wrote in identifYing our bike as a Matchless. As you may remember from our last travel story, we thougbt it was a Matcbling or something llke that because part of the name had been worn offthecase.Atfirstwethougbt the letter-writers were putting uS on because Matchless is kind of an unllkely name for a motorcycle. As a matter of fact, it's downright boastful. A I so we'll have to turn down the people who offered to buy the Matchling. Apparently no such thing exists. We began preparations for our record assault by lettering "Sponsored by the California Highway Patrol" on the gas tank, figuring we could speed a little and get away with it because we have always beard you don't mess with the CHP. Denise, my child bride, said we would have to speed a lot to break Darrel's record because be came down from Canada and we would be going UP. I cuffed her smartly. Tbe late great W.C. Fields is supposed to have said, "Women shoullfbe struck regularly, likeagong." Drag Strip By Dan Zeman Photo by Donna Lucas The purse for the July 4th meet has been steadily rising. I figured I had better get on the ball and decide where to distribute the gold. First is the llst of donors. Lions $1,000, yours truly $25.00, Betty Nichols $25, Two Cycle Modification Center $25, Ed Roth-Choppers Magazine $25, Pete Devlln $5, Don Green $5, H.D. of Inglewood $30, Dale Brown Motors ~~~ D~= ~a:o~~e:z~$~~tYT~:i~ wood $20, Motorcycle Enterprises $25, two anonymous donors, one of $25 and one of $10., and Cycle Guide Magazine $25. This gives us a total casb purse of $1315.00. There were also certificate awards received from the following: BUIlT SUPER'mm was all the sleeping we did to get rested up before leaving. Our pbone was dis- connected anyway so it didn't bother us, and when someone came over we'd just tell them we had to prepare for our record run. Denise and I dreamt a lot. We had visions of cheeringcrowdsllning the streets as we drew closer and closer to the Canadian border. Perhaps tame would at last be ours! We planned to cross into Mexico and have our time certified by the Mexican border guards but that didn't work out too well. First of all, we almost didn't get out of the,States. The American border guard asked us where we Were beaded and when we said Canada, be shined his flasblight into our eyes and said, "You two are flying in the wrong direction." Tbey let us go after a humiliating searcb turned UP nothing. All we had on us anyway was two knapsacks, eacb holding a full two-gallon can of gasoline. We turned around, wobbling like crazy because of the heavy knapsacks, and approached the other set of guards we would have to pass to get back in the U.S. We explained the purpose of our quick U-turn to them and they said they'd be happy to olficially certifY our departure time. Unfortunately they couldn't agree on what time it was exactly. We ended up with a slip of paper that said, along with seals of both governments, Official Departure Time, Tijuana, Mexico, 3:17 or 3:27 p.m. So we thumped off in a northerly direction to see what the higbways had in store for us. Little did we know! Del Mar and Encinitas were just exits on the Freeway and our little thumper whizzed right UP the scenic California coast. As a matter of fact that's just how the bike sounded: Whiz-thump, wbizthump, whiz--thump. We came to Carlsbad, making a note to visit here some time and see the famous Caverns. Traffic Belmont Cycle $25, Laidlaws H.D. $25, Suzuki Fun Center $25, Roher Bros. Cycle $25, Honda of Gardena a $6.95 pair of gloves, and a custom paint job by Cycle Delic Choppers. This gives us a total purse worth close to $1500. Some of the donors wanted their money or certificate put on certain classes in the Street Division and so It was done. This is the money breakdown for each class: TOP FUEL $350.00 plus $25.00 certificate (Laidlaws H.D.) Runner UP: $75. Jr. Fuel: $150. up to 45 cubic incbes Runner UP: $50. Top Speed: $25. Low E.T. $25. Wheel Stand Contest: $25. STREET DIVISION (Stock Only) There will be an all cbopper class and the winner of this class will win $10. and a custom paint job by Cycle Delic Cbop- and was bumper-to-bumper all the way througb Oceanside. That didn't bother us thougb, we went rigbt up the center divider next to the fence and made good time. We have a funny set of forks on the machine. Someone once told us they were originally on a Greeves and were called Earl's Banana Forks. I palnted them yellow to go with the name and they did a good· job of smoothing out the occasional culvert that crossed the divider. A t San Clemente we turned inland slightly and headed for the dread freeways of Los Angeles, keeping up an average of 65 m.p.h. Gas fumes from the can in my pack were bothering Denise a lot; she kept giggling and rolling around on the seat behind me so I used up my can first. Denise held the bandlebars while I poured. We had forgottenafunnel so it was a tricky operation to say the least. We almost set a record for driving the farthest on a burning two-wheeled vehicle. We had the fire out in no time with the helP of a passing motorist. We did resent the ones who went by and laughed though. Those downtown freeways are weirdl There were quite a few motorcycles but we seemed to draw more than our share of attention. One touristy type with Indiana plates on his car pointed us out to his wife and she started snapping pictures of us with her Instamatic camera. Denise got annoyed a bit and shouted, "Haven't you creeps ever seen a charred Matchless with yellow banana forks on it before?" I guess the vacationermisunderstood and thought we were one percenters or something because he whipped across three ianes of traffic and got off toward Pasadena. It must have been a misunderstanding because who would go there on purpose? We went once and it was closed. We made It through the maze of signs until we were on the north side of Los pers of Burbank. A - $15. B _ $15. plus a $6.95 pair of gloves EHonda Gardena) C - $10. plus $25.cert.(BelmontCycles) D - $60. ($50 of this donated by Temple City Kawasaki) E- $15. F- $15. G - $10. plus $25. cert. (Suzuki Fun Center) H- $10. I - $10. J - $10. K - $10. plus $25. cert. (Roher Bros. Burbank) MODIFIED DIVISION A- $25. I - $10. GAS DIVISION B- $25. J - $10. A- $50. C - $25. K- $10. B - $45. D- $25. C - $40. E - $20. D- $35. F- $20. E - $30. G- $20. F - $20. H- $15. There are a few weeks left so the money may still go up In all classes. If no more donations are made this will be the way the cash bounces. 0.. 65 m.p.h. average really started to drop. 60, 55, down to 50 m.p.h. We tried to make UP for it on the downhills and I'd sbut off the engthe to save gas. Coasting at 90 is weird for ~ose of you who haven't tried it! The only noises you bear besides the bowl of the windarethellttle steel bearings going round and round in the front wheel bub. This is wbere we came to grief. It was all my fault really, I was turned around talking to my spouse; it was so peaceful cruising with the engine sbut off, when sbe shouted, "Look out!" I turned my bead in time to see that we were about to run into a cattle truck that had just gotten on the freeway. There was no time to swerve so I picked out what looked like a cheap place on the truck and we smacked into him. The impact llited our front wheel off the ground and wedged the bandiebars between the wooden stakes on the rear panel of the truck. We were shaken uP but not hurt. We were traveling at about the same speed as the truck and the driver must not have felt mucb of a bump. He probably looked in his rearview mirror but there was notbiDg to see. We were hidden by 50 excited cows. I shouted to get his attention, "Ob sir?" I said. He couldn't bear us, he was probably engrossed in a dream of his favorite truck stop and the sexy waitress there. As it turned out he had just left a truck stop and was not due to stop at another one for his enttre triP. He and his co-pilot changed on the go and their destination was Vancouver, British Columbla. We couldn't get off and we couldn't attract anybody's attention so we made the best of it. We slept, tying ourselves to the bike with bungee cords. We tried waving and shouting at cars that passed us but that didn't do any good. Most of them must have thought it was a stunt of some kind. One elderly lady even applauded politely and mouthed" Bravo" at us througb ber closed window. We shivered all -the way through Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Our average dropped quite a bitbutwefinally made it to Blaine, Washington where the truck was stopped at the border. The border' authorities thought we were trying to sneak into Canada and pried us loose. We were too cold to explain the situation until they had filled us uP with coffee. They marked their olficial seal on our Tijuana papers and we bereby lay claim to the time of 35 hours and 12 minutes by a single cylinder Britisb motorcycle fired by gasoline for 200 miles and then motivated by Diesel fuel the rest of the trip from Mexico to Canada. This Space ONLY $6.50 lIer week Call (213) Ask for Tom 423-0431 PRE-DRILLED KNURLED EDGES made of duraluminum TIC-4 "CROSS" under $3OlJ p.o.e. 517.00 to $23.00 Bold New Breed of Mini·Cycie Chromed Stainless Steel CSpokes - 30¢ each :S DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED Write lor FREE literature NORTH AMERICAN IMPORTS P. O. BOX 621 GARDEN GROn. CAL. 92640 A true motorcycle in miniature. Dealer and Distributor Inquiries Invited Send 25¢ for deal and liter.ture to: not just a dressed-up Mini-Bike. Big wheels, big brakes. big tank and big engine-- a 7 grand 2cycle, 50 cc Garelli that cranks out 5 big horses and hits 50 MPH. ENGINE SPECIALTIES, INC.• Dept. eN West P.O. Box 260. Cornwells Heights. Pa. 19020 or ENGINE SPECIALITIES, INC. WEST, ·Dept.eN West P.O. Box 600. Belmont, Calif. 94002 ~

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