Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

VOICE VOICE AND MORE VOICE FIRECRACKER EXPLANATION Saddleback Park Inc. would llke to expla1n Its position on tile race held at our park July 4, 1969. Saddleback Park, to tilts date, except for our m1n1-bike races, does not sanction or r..un any of Its motorcycle events. The Park only provides an area for different associations and clubs to hold tIleir functions. On July 4, 1969, International MotoCross' Inc. of La Mesa rented tile entire park for tile day which means tIley assumed all operation and organizat1ona1 regponslbillty for that day. Saddleback Park Inc. provided International Moto- ' Cross Inc. witll a race-ready, completely flagged motocross course. Whetller spectators recognized tile course markings Is a situation beyond our control. AD practice and race procedures are left uP to the organtzation sancttontng the event. Sadd1eback Park has, however, set uP a pollcy stnce the July 4, 1969 race which w1lI require any organtzation wishIng to hold an event at tile park to comply witll cerlatn park race management and organizing pollcies. VlC WILSON, PRESIDENT Sadd1eback Park Inc. AXTHELM ADMIRERS We were Inspired to wrlte-tn after watching Walt rIde nearly 2-1/2 hours tn tile 3-hour Team Motocross at Carlsbad tilts weekend. Iron man Is spelled A-X-T-H-E-L-M. WItness CarIsbad 3hour team Moto-X. WALT AXTHELM ADMIRERS NewPort Beach, Callf. TT RIDERS SISSIES? I'm wrIting you to present tile views of many of the TT riders here tn District 38. There seems to be some controversy tn D1str1ct 37 over the conditions of tile TT tracks tn tile L.A. area. Riders are compla1nl.ng about long watts between races and tile disappearance of tile big bores. To 1eI1 tile truth, tile reason wily the big bikes are dying out Is tile lack of an honest to goodness TT track for tIlem to ride on. It has already been proven that 4O-tnchers are useless motocross mounts, so wily make tIlem rIde TT tracks which are so bumpy and tight that it makes It nearly impossible to get a big bike around tIlem at any decent speed? The gu1Ity traclts are Perrts (bumpy and sandY), Trojan (m.tn1-b1ke track), and E1s1nore (deatIItraP). AnybodJ wbo says that a lIgbtwe1gbtIs as fast as a 4O-1ncher bas obvtously never rIdden one. (If they bave, It wasn't a good one.) TT riders sissIes? Is SIdp Van Leeuwen a sissy? Cal Rayborn? Eddie Mulder? Ralph White? They all started racing on tile sportsman scrambles tracks. So did Aldana and Mashburn. Anyone who would call tIlese gentlemen sissIes had better be ready to prove it. Here tn San DIego we have a very tlne TT track called South Bay Speedway. Th1s track Is Immaculatelyprepared and extremely fast. The open class bikes can hit speeds of a 100 mph and even the hundreds can turn an honest 75. The races there are given extensIve TV and press coverage:, and crowds of 2,000 are not uncommon. So if any of you L.A. area TT rIders are tired of tIlose long watts and those "TT" tracks uP there, and want to ride sometll1ng like Prado ~, get on down Interstate 5 to South Bay and bave some fun. ' CARL BYERS THANK YOU San DIego, Cal. I would like personally to give my thanks to Btll Harry 125x of the Buzzards M.C. Btll quit the Crestllne M.C. Hare & Hound while running in tile top dozen rIders to ald me and tIlen ride me tn double to tile Rescue 3 unit at the t1n1sh. I would also like to thank the VIctors M.C. and Rescue 3, and anyone else who assisted me. Thanks aga1Ji, GARY CONRAD QUESTION ANSWERED Why were tile Dirt Diggers North denIed a renewal of tIleir club sanction by tile AMA? I bave participated tn tIletr races and I know that they are a tlne club. What Is tile reason beh1nd tilts? CONCERNED RIDER Sacramento, Cal. COMMENT: A spokesman rrom the AMA head office in Woribington, Ohio says that the AMA has 1,:WO sanctioned clubs and had to rollow Che policy or not sanctioning clubs with similar names that are close together. The Dirt DIggers M.C. of Los Angeles has priority on the names. HellonahlllOpener 125 NoYic. Bill Urba Is fI,st In clns at III. cluSJ first rac.s at H.llou11i11. Photo. by Bob1 C ulp SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CAL. July 27,1969 - The opening of tile newest off road racing course tn SouthernCallforntasaw motorcycles fiytng in the morning and the 4 wheelers tn the afternoon. The course located some 32 miles east of San DIego Is justly named "Hellonahill". Carved out of the top of a mountatn tile wide two-mile plus course twists and turns across the available fiat space, then drops over tile side. The two downh11ls are third or fourth gear dependtng on how far you let it hang out. The experts wheeled off tile top as the h11I, dropped stralght down and had braktng room at tile bottom. The second down h11I leads to an off camber uphill leadtng to the very steep and powdery uph11I. IV' nn. =SClJCTJsL1'n. sa' By Barbara Adams Dahms WHY LINCOLN WAS CANCELLED Can you tell me wily the Ltncoln TT NatIonal was cancelled at the last moment? MRS. FLORA OBLE Torrance, Cal. COMMENT: Yes, because the traell is being converted to a paved half-mile ahead or schedule. By c;huck Clayton U.S.M.C. TEAM INSPIRES YANKEE INGENUITY It 15 really grat1fY1ng to see Americans roll uP their sleeves and go to work for a good cause. The recent response to tile U.s. Motocross Team Idea el1cits an lnsptring profuston of ingenIous ways of helping, that may yet give tile world an Amer1can motocross champion. The Team Idea was launched early tilts year by a motorcycle distrIbutor, a magazine Publlsher and a famous car racer. They were jotned by movie and TV stars, a newspaper pub11sber, and many readers of tilts newspaper from all walks of' We, who sent tn $15 or more for membersll1p. Altogether, tile Team recetved some $6,000 wb1ch was barely enough to slake Ron Nelson and Jolin DeSoto to three montbs ractne expenses tn Europe. Both Americans returned much wiser tn the ways of world r1d1ng and are now passlng on tIle1r experience to those of us who stayed here. With Ron and JoIm's return, tnterest tn the team Idea accelerated. "There Is a new world out there to conquer," the pioneers reported. AmerIca said, "let's do It." Nobody asked how, they just did tIle1r tIl1ng. Gary Batley won tile CMC serIes, the closest tIItng we bave to a U.S. motocross cbamplonshtp. The owners of Bay Mare Track donated tile proceeds of a case ofbeer to the Team Fund and it sold for ~ly $150. Cycle News offered to put $I5tnto the Fund for every new sub it receIves marked "GIVE TO U.S. M-X TEAM" and so far $95 Is there tor the Team. One guy Is offering a free pIcture of Bailey for a dollar towards the Team. Greaves and several patrtottc dealers are offering to put a sum 1nto the Team for every new motorcycle purchased from them and their sales are climbing as a result_ Now the U.s.M.X. team Is putttDg tocether an expedition of three racers; Gary Bailey, JIm wtlsoo and Paul Harber are payIng tIle1r own ways over. The1r Greeves motocycles are donated. Montesa racer Bob GrossI and Husky carD)lll1gner Russ Darnell are already oyer there, racing tIleir own mach1nes. These five Amer1cans are not asking for anytIl1ng. They're golng to do tIle1r best no matter if we help or not. But if we can help give them a couple of montbs of first class raclng with fewer of the bangups that lack of money can cause, they'll probably come back better than ever. They may even w1n tIleir way onto the U.S. Team that goes after tile world title tn 1970 or 1971. AmerIca said "Let's do It," and we're doing it. NO MOTORCYCLES IN WASHINGTON BY 1915? There are fewer motorcycles tn WashlDgton state now than when they first became popular about 1966. Last year's 46,597 were 16 percent less than when tile s1ate's compulsory helmet law went tnto effect two years ago. If registrations are dec11ntng at the rate of 7,000 a year, it'll be only 1975 before there'll be no motorcycles 10 the state. Jack Zektzer of Seattle 15 fighting to have the law thrown out, but has so far been unsuccessful because, "Washtngton motortsts would feel a lot safer knowing that tile motorcycle rider tIley ran over Is wearing a helmet." MOTORCYCLE SHOULD HAVE RIGHT OF WAY The only valld safety suggestion that we bave heard so far (witll tile exception of better rider tra1n1ng) Is that motorcycles should bave the right of way over cars, trucks and buses just as salIbalts bave the right of way over power boats, and pedestr1ans (tn Callfornla) have tile right of way over vehicular tramc. The new Motorcycle Safety councU sbould lobby for a senstble law, reqn1r1nc otber vell1c1e drtvers to yield the rtebt of way to a motorcyc11st, and then would tile accident rate plummet! A MOTORCYCLIST DISCOVERS THE PSYCHOLOGY SYNDROME From non-motorcycle sources you can learn such tnterestlng facts(?) about motorcycle people. For'example, there's Dr. Armand M. NIcholl, Jr., a Harvard University psychtatrtst who proc1a1med to convention of tile American Psychtatric Assoctation that motorcycle riders are llkely to be "weak and impotent with a poor self-Image and a deep-seated fear of women." For hts scient1f1c studY he used a large, random sample. Large, random samples are necessary for slat1st1ca1 accuracy tn order that 1nd1v1dual differences will cancel each otller out. HIs large, random sample conststed of (get tIltsl) n1ne Harvard students who, hopefully, rode motorcycles. N1ne 15 a large number of subjects and Harvard UnIvers!t;y 15 excruc1at1ngly random! In spIte of tile glarlng fiaws tn hts techn1cp! be expla1ned cont1dently that motorcycle people are really afraid of tall broad-shouldered women who want to ride the cycle. He also c1a1med that when not actually riding the cycle, a cyclIst dreams of rIding, and tflat he Is> likely to be afraid of deatll and tnjury. He concluded tflat cycltsts had a m.tn1mum of phys1cal (rIding a cycle Is not pbysical?) or tntellecttal actlv1ty (attending Harvard Is not tn1eI1ectuai?) and could not compete academ1ca1lY, soc1al1y or atlllet1ca1Iy. (Racq Is not competition!) Dr. Nicholl's Imaginary cycl1st 15 sexually 1nadequate and substitutes a motorcycle for normal graWtcation. How deltghtfully Freudian! Dr. Nlcholt operates tn a psych01og1ca1 world tn which all problems are male and sexual and women are merely a figment of mascultne fantasy. Obvtously Dr. Nicholl did not tnclude women tn hts sample. Maybe he doesn't even know that women ride motorcycles (looking at the world as he does from hts Ivory tower with a telescope). What haPpens, doctor, when a woman hears the sound of a distant motorcycle and has vivid fantasies of moving tn tile wind through time and space with that spectal freedom tflat only a cycllst knows? Does she doubt her mascu1tne (or Is it thenfemIn1ne) competence? Does she have a fear of tall broad-shouldered men wbo tn1t1ate a re1attoosblp by offerq to help start tile bike? The races were run tn three 45 mfDute races willl all Experts nmntng tlrst. Gene Fetty (Hosky) grabbed the lead, witll Jeff W1llts (American Eagle) secOlld while Btll Silverthorn (Husky) picked hts way through heavy tramc and gaIned on tile leaders. Witll one laP to go BW got by Gene and took tile first race ever run at Hl'UooabtII The 250-500 novice race saw a COuPle of Malco rIders have at It. The spectators were having a ball s1nce the P.A. system kePt the action covered. Bill Urban (Bultaco) led wire to wire tn the 125-100 Novice go. Hellooahf.llraceway offers the local motorcycle racers a real opportunity to let tile spectatcrs see tile really fast action as they turned laPs tn two and a half mInutes. Beat that, 4-wheelers! Cd ACe n. n...... OW Anyone would be an idiot to say that no motorcycle rIders ever have any of these feelings. The one he mentioned aboutlear of tnjury or death Is quite common, expec1aliy after three years of battllng safety experts for freedom of apparel and llstenIng to tIleir vivid fantasIes of mutilation and deatll. But it lakes a classic idiot to stand uP tn front of a learned gathering and rep ort on a new psychological cI1scovery, the "motorcycle syndrome", after an exhaustive studY of the psychology 01. n1ne Harvard students. I won't botller to refute hts c1a1ms. (Even be admits that all motorcycle riders aren't like tilts). I wish to refute h1m I And a lot of otller experts who make We m1serable for people tIley know nothIng about. I refute experts who make plans and rules and laws about bow otller people should llve and what values tIley should have and suPport their claims with 1nval1d and unsc1ent1f1c slat1st1ca1 garbage. AD over the US people who lM!9er straddled a motorcycle are saying knowingly, "that's how it Is with Ibose weird bikers." They're sure it's rightbecause some expert who likely never rode a motorcycle said so, with tile weight of hts title and hts organization to back hts words. The media picked it uP and it became the TRUTH. As a motorcycle rider and tberefore an expert 011 psych1atr1st(l knowa~ of them tn college) I wish todescrtbetlle psycho1ocY-syndrome. Alter obsen1IIg tile personal We of tbese students I 0bserve that tbey marry capable women who can earn tile I1ving while tbey get their medical education. They are afraid to go out and llve so they pry and endlessly 1nto the 1nner recesses of oilier people's ltYes and obtatn a vtcartous. enjoyment and sexual crattftcatton from doing so. A psychJatrtst tends to become severely unnerved tn the presence of a perSOll who Is bappy with a We pattern wbtch differs from tflat 01. the psych1atrtBt. Believing as he does tn an orderly socIety and tile promise of an even more orderly one, he feels that those people who live by other standards are not properly adjusted and are a problem and perha.ps a menace to the communlty. Worse, still, they are a menace to htm. They make htm questton hts own values and tilts leads to confusion and posstbly to ortg1nal tbougbt,. Horrors! An expert must never become coofused. (Th1s syndrome does not tnclude everyone who practices psychiatry.) Now if I offer these observations to a meeting of the Amer1can Motorcycle Assoctatlon and they are pIcked ICl by the media, everyme wbo doesn't know schizophrenia from trauma cansayknowiDcly, .. That' s bow it Is with those wetrd sbrlnks." Next week - A Motorcycltst d1sconrs the Safety-syndrome.

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