Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Legislative Notebook By Barbara Adams Dahms en ~ There Is a saying among motorcycle people that U you have motorcycles Ioog lrJ enough you're sure to have one stolen. ..J There Is also a prevalent notion that U there Is nothing much that anyone cando :.. to prevent" motorcycle theft and there ts U less chance to retrieve one which has been taken. All evidence Indicates that these pessimistic opinions are true. Insurance rates Indicate this, Motorcycle Insurance is exorbitant. Consequently few motorcycles are Insured. Motorcycle theft Is usually a private problem. Were It the problem of insurance companies you can rest assured that changes would have been made already. Many of the developments which have lessened auto theft were at the instigation of Insurance companies. The DMV unintentionally encourages the situation. A motorcycle may be registered or transferred with no inspection. No one checks the machine against the pink sUp to see U the descrIption agrees with the bike or U the numbers have been altered. With the present arrangement (In California at least) no one ever compares motorcycle and registration except the officer who stops you to give you a ticket. It is not reasonable to expect law enforcement people to solve this problem unless every rider wants to be stopped every few miles. ~ The favorite pastime of many motorcycle owners, the constant alteration of the machine, has unwittingly created a continuing demand for 1l11cit parts. The custom1zlng fad creates some beautiful machines and it also creates a lucrative market for stolen motorcycles. How sharply thefts are influenced bY custom1zlng is Indicated by automobile thefts. Over all the percentage of auto thefts has been downward over recent years. The thefts of the types of autos which are used in the creation of dune buggies has rtsen sharply. These ears, like the stolen motorcycle, simply disappear from the face of the earth. They are able to vanish into that vast graveyard known as off-road vehicles•••vehicles which need never be registered or checked again. Law enforcement people; when asked about the theft problem, throw UP their hands. "Even U we catch a motorcycle thief nothing usually happens to him." And it Is true the penalties are not very great. bne of the first solutions usually proposed to any problem ts sMer penalties. Yet experience has proved that making the crime harder to commit and less profitable has always been a more satisfactory solution. There are a number of ways to make a motorcycle harder to steal. Some bave tried. Ignition and fork locks deter a walk-away. Heavy cbains binder more serious efforts. Perhaps we should go back to the hitchingposts •••steelones set in concrete to which a motorcycle could be chained. However, U anyone wants your bike he will probably get to it wbatever you do• And once it Is stolen it takes only minutes to make it unrecognizable. It will never be possible to eliminate this quickcbange qua.Uty do the motorcycle but it can be made legally more difttcult. EDITOR'S NOTE: Next week Barbara Adams Dahm's Lecislative Notebook will look into die possibilities of using national orr-road recistration to make motorcycle theft less frequent. George Hamilton To Star As Evel Knievel Famous motorcycle showman Evel Knievel announced at a press conference last week that George Hamilton will portry him in the movieversionofKnievel's Ute, "Color Me Lucky." SPEEDWAY RACING ASSOC. ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT Peter. Palmer has been elected to the post of Speedway Racing Association Inc. president at their recent general meetIng, The position was recently created by the resignation of George Wenn, speedbike tuner. Once the promoter of speedway races at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, Mr. Palmer, although a newcomer to the speedway scene, feels a keen awareness of the problems and complexities which this office will hold for him. Currently a speed-bike owner, he ts sponsor of the three man Great Bear racing team. From hi. Burbank hospital bed, Ev.1 KnI.v.1 (IOJIIlround) talk. ov. plan. lor hi. lortllcOlllnl movl., ·Color M. Lucky" with ador ~otl' Hamlllon who will porlray KnI.v.1 In th. 111m. The ..cup.ratln, Knl...1 lay' he I. t"chlllI Hamilton to do motorcycl. Jump•• Knievel expiained, from his wheelchair In the Burbank Medical Plaza, where he is recovering from his third operation in 90 days; that he ts bowing out as the star of his own biopic to concentrate on his upcoming Grand Canyon motorcl(cle leap. "I'm teaching George how to JumP motorcycles," said the ailing Knievel, who broke the steel pin mending his hiP and had to cancel a jump scheduled in Portland, Ore. recently. "We'll have him Jumping over three or four ears In no time. I) "I'll handle the emotional breakdowns and you can do the physical ones," grinned Hamilton, at Evel's side. Hamilton sees the Fred C. Niles production as an oPPortunity to make a "d1tferent kind of motorcycle movie. One with plenty of action, and also showing the human side, with a message." "Motorcycles are of prime importance nowadaYS," the dark, handsome movie star continued. "They've always been Inllerestlng, and now, with the feeling of frustration and lack of space in the cities, they've become an important means of releasing frustration. Every Idd's a SUPerman in his own back yard." "Evel is far beyond being just a stuntman," Hamilton went on. "Regular stunt. men take their hats off to him. His only competitor is himself. We hope to make "Color Me Lucky" as an art motion picture combined with a commercial picture." Knievel eiaborated on the themes of the movie. "It will show that crime does not pay, even U you don't get caught and sent to prison, as 1 didn't. Everyone has to answer to that old man upstarts. It will also illustrate my reasons for quitting professional motorcycle racing, because you can't make enough money at it, as things are now, to make a living. And it will sbow that you can doanything U you want to badly enough." Marlon Brancio did more harm with one movie "The Wild One" than 100 men like ~e can undo In ioo years, but "Color Me Lucky" is going to be good for motorcycling." Knieve1's Skycycle X-2 Is being built in Anaheim for the proposed Grand Canyon jump sometime next year. "U the Department of Interior won't let us Jump the Grand Canyon, Del Webb is negotiating for land on Hell'S Canyon for the jumP. It will be the same distance, 1.1 miles across.

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