Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

,.i., r. Sou," Hos,ile To Touring Mo'orcyclis's? By Darryl Skrab8.I< "Easy Rider" Is a great t1lm and ought to be seen by everybody, including motorcycle riders. It Is an espec.lally good film to see If you are riding a motorcycle down to New Orleans; which ~. what Judy and I have just done. It makes you a little cautious. Judy and I have no desire to be shot off our bike like Fonda and Hopper. Is "Easy Rider" an apt Impression of the South for motorcyclists? For us It has beeIi. Judy and I have met some friendly people, but we have still ridden with a sense of danger. A feeling that we were In hostile territory never left. I can't directly explain this feeling. I think part of It occurs because we are on a motorcycle; part Is because of the way we look, and that Is partly due to our style of living on the road, which Is camping. You can't be overly clean and neat when you camp. And of course, being travelers makes us outsiders to begin with. But It Is more than that. A few illustrations may begin to sbowwhat I mean. On back roads In the South, many of the gas stations are grocery stores with gas pumps out front. A number ofpeople seem to hang out at these places. When Judy and I pull In for gas, one person will come out, sometimes without great d1spatcb. The gas goes In without much conversation. Meanwbl1e, the people who hang out gather In the grocery store window to watch. ThIs scene Is ominous. Judy Is the saviour of such situations. She has a sweet, Innocent smile, and wben she sees the people In the window she smiles It at them, and waves. They are almost compelled to smlle and wave back. In Natchez, Miss" however, the men In the window didn't wave. They just glared b8cIt stonily. But not all the souls In Natchez were so somber. Judy also smiled and waved at a three-wheel motorcycle policeman when we t1rst rode Into town (she Is Incorrlglb1e In this sm1llng and waving.) The cop roared after us, and at the next stoplight we were yelling greetings back and forth. I asked him where we could find a good coffee shop. "Follow me," he said, and he took us several clty blocks to a good place. In MIssouri some parts of the state government are just plain against mo. torcycles. Looking for a campsite one afternoon, Judy and I went Into a CtTY uwrr HUMANSVILLE I'OP. 145 H.,,'s on. for your trivia fll •••• I Saclls - Penton - CZ - Maico Walt Axthelm's TriumptrSuzuki Motors 1049 W.st 5th St., Pomona, Calif. I C114)62'9-8642 - >./.. . . . . . Darryl SUa"" and Judy Tamann COlIllnue tlllir trip to tlIe Ent Cust..... Orl_s archltec. ture proved to be on. 01 tile few hleb poInts of tile SoutIlern portlOll 01 tile I--y. MIsSouri state par k. A sign announced, "Motorcycles Prohibited In this Area." I have learned to Ignore such signs, so we rode rtght In and selected a campsite. Soon a young park worker approached us. "Sir," he said, "you can'tstayhere. There's a rule against motorcycles." I said I didn't believe It. '!be park worker agreed to check with his boss. On his return the worker said the rule had been changed, and we could stay, but only on cond1t101l that we didn't ride the motorcycle. We could ride Into camp once, and we could ride out - once. If we wanted to take a separate trip to the nearby store we would have to walk. Later we talked with a more senior park official. He told us that all Missonn parks had the antl- motorcycle rule, a result of some outlaw trouble about five years ago. Even so, I said, the rule probably was illegal and wouldn't stand uP In court. He said the rule had stood a long time unchallenged (where the hell Is the AMA In alllhls?). All through the South we have helped to bring about a new dance step, which I call the Kansas City Dance, because it started In Kansas City. I admit Kansas City Isn't no:-mally considered to be In the South, but It is where we headed towardS the South. The dance occurs when we ride by. People on the streets will stop their conversations or their walking, and turn to face us. Then they will do a little semi-circular shutne as we got past, Bullaco W. sp.clallze In only Bultaco facing us all the wh11e. It Is a neat dance, and ought to be the rage If somebody will put out a tune for It. In Little Rock we came to grief with that denizen of the road, the gas station man. We wanted to look uP some people so we needed a map and directions. We stopped at several stations. None had a map to give us. The station men had no Idea where the streets that we wanted were. Either these people are extraordinarily dumb, I thought, or there is something else about them. At last we came to a motorcycle shOP. It was near the end of the day and the owner wanted to close, but he had time to show us a map and provide good directions. These illustrations are only samples of the story, but maybe they will give an Idea of the South. Perhaps !lie 1mpres.sion we got Is summoned uP by too many stony looks, and too much blank openmouth rubbernecking from passengers of cars which roar by. It would not be fair, however, to say all the South Is cold. When we parked the bike In a town of any size, there were always a few humorous persons who walked by, then did a double-take at our California license plate. "Y'all come on that thing all the way from California?" they would exclaim. "Why, Isn't that, 00, kind of hard?" They seemed to think we had ridden out In a day or so• was not yet t1lled. In the 250 class, Rich DunIood and Tom Cram were tied for t1rst and Dale Pace was a scant IS points beII1Dd. "." points lead has been shutfled bebe_ these three at every race this y.-r. It was possible to have a three way tie tar the season at the end of the CftDbIc. Off the grid It was Cram 011 the pole, Pace third, and Dale Dorwood makIJIc his bid on the outside. Dale blew Ids chances when he went down on thetoartll lap and was unable to regain his pOIIttlon. Now It was uP to Cram and Pace. Pace could win the season talJ;y by taking a third and holding Cram to foartb place. Cram would have none of It and although Dale Pace won the ttnal nee Tom Cram took home the season trclIIII:r by virtue of a third place f1nIsb bebIDd John Kaelin. Rick SPencer won both the 125 A Mlda and the high potut trophy for tIIat class. In the 200 class Brad Mills took a thtrd In his heat and transferred to the A and B combined Main where he took aaotta.' third and garnered the highpotutlIaDon. '!be OPen class also had a comh&DsI MaIn. Jack Clark was the wtDDer for the evening followed by Gene Cram and Jim Grace. The Sweepstakes race brougbt tM cream of the crop together 011 _ starting line. The point leaders In each cws made uP the field wb1ch ~ .. handicap start with the l25s In trout and each bigger class one row '-ck. GeDe Cram came from the las1 row to will 011 his TriumPll.but 200cc Kawa.saId rider Brad Mills tt'eld his st:art1ng I1Ile adftD!age to take second place. Rick Speaeer on a 125 Kawa and Dale Pace on his %'50 were third and fourth. Mills, Speac:"er and..Eace all tell down d1IrUIc the nee but got back uP on their wbeels totlDlsb. The Ra1n1er club has had a good y.-r racing motorcycles and looks forward to next year when possible AMA .ml"Uon will allow more riders to partIdpale. (Results on page 16) 'ee'ire S','e .,'OCrlSS By Allan Lockheed Jr. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, Sept.21, 1969 - Continental Motocross AssocJat1on Salt Lake City had Its second event at the new location In nraper, Utah and both spectators and competitors agreed that the one mile plus course was the bes1 yet. Young riders did very well. '!be mos1 spectacular young man was 14 year old Pete Crandall who won the 250Cc A class ....-------.. OWASAII (Continued on Page 19) LOMITA HOlDA Sal.s • Parts • Senric. 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