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/125646
43,000 Mile Cycle Odyssey Jim Plrk. look Ihh pld... of _ke)'. on hi. lb.... n N frle.. ul h. trl.d 10 t..ch the IIIOnke)'. how to .hoot. plct..e of him on hi. Ib.unld. T1Int didn't .ork out. Parks attributes much of the tour's By Btll Bell success to his Kawasaki cycle. "The Art By B.E.R. Service bike beld uP beaut1fu1lY," be ell[lla1ned. "Fully loadedtt~about680pounds Don't ask Jim Parks where be's been and with me on there was an additional lately - unless you've got nothing to do 220-plus pounds. And I drove the cycle bu t listen for the next week or so. as bard as I could in areas where no Parks, rugged, 26-year-old Burbank, motor-powered vehicle bad ever before Callf. adventurer fresb out of the "Easy been. Rlder" mold, recently completed per"After I left Cape Town, South Africa haps the most rrueUog and certainly one I would ride for bundreds of miles on of the longest motorcycle odyssies on bard rock paths carved out by oxen and record. It was a 43,OOO-mile vayage from _ter buffalo. The poUDd1Dg I look was Capetown, South AfrIca throUgh the MIdworse tban anything I ever experienced dle East, Europe, on to Soviet Russia on a cycle - it really tore me UP 1ns1de and f1na1ly bome to Callforn1a. - and often I would wonder whether the The venture was SPODSOI"ed by Ka_punishment I was taking was really worth saki Motor CorP., U.S. d1str1butor for it. But then I would say to myself, 'you've the Kawasaki motorcycle 11De, Champion got to keep drivtog,' and I did." Spark Plugs and Torco Oil. Parks rode Parks laughs when be recalls his a bigbly-mnd1f1ed and heavily beefed-up AfrIcan experiences. Kawasaki A7 350Cc twin on his epic "All the natives were pretty friendly, journey wII1cb toot nearly five months althougb I did run into a few tribes that to complete. thougbt I must be some kind 01 bearded "It was great, a real gas of a trIP," . demon or devtl. One illY even threatened be recalled recently. "I toured Central to let me have it with his spear runl But and South America for SuzuJd several then his young son began examining the years ago but this latest trip tops them spokes of the wheel and be cooled down." all. Truthfully, I think I surprised even One of the most difficult parts of the myself by completing it. I knew I could trip was crossing the desert tbrougb the probably do it, but there were plenty of Middle East at the beg1nn1ng of summer. times along the _y when I began having "I arrived in Algeria in late May and my doubts." then rode _st and north throucb Moroc- co and across the Strait of GIbraltar to Spain. It was so damn bot in tbat miserable Sabara I figured I'd just collapse. You keep riding and rid1ngand all you can think about is the beat, the bumidity and bow bloody thirsty you are. It was living bell." . When Parks arrived in Paris, be was welcomed with open arms by the locaJ Kawasaki distributor. "But be wasn't greeting me because of the pub11cIty I was getting for him througb my trip. He bad beard that I was a pretty good mecban1c and be wanted me to work on his racing bikes wII1cb were entered in a major race tbat weekend," Parks said. As it turned out, with the young adventurer's' upert assistance, Kawasaki f1n1sbed one-two at ooeoftheCOI1t1nent's blggest motorcycle Grand Prix. Parks' or1g1nal plan was to leave France for England, then ride north to the ScandaMvtan countries where be would prepar~ for his trip to MoscQW. I wangled a permtt to travel to Moscow on a motorcycle from the Russian Embassy," be said, "and I was go1nc to be the first illY on a bike to ever enter the city that way." "But when I f1Dal1y arrived in Russia at LeniDgrad, the Soviet 01f1c1a1s nixed the whole deal. They said tt was something like 800 miles between tbat city and Moscow and there was l1ke no way of carrying enougb fuel on the hike to make the trip. Of course there weren'tanygas - stations aiong the route. Can you imagine ••.not a single fiWng station over tbat great a distance. What a country." Parks did manage several extra-curricular activiUes in his lengthy travels, . , including a press conference with noted Oil beart surgeon Dr. CbrisUan Barnard in Cape Town before be left; and an interview with Prime Minister lan Smith of ~ Rhodesia when be visited tbat nation. He almost was granted an audience ~ with United Arab Republ1c president lz;J Nasser when be arrived in Cairo, but it == turned out the cb1ef executive was more lz;J preoccuPied with the 1srael1 problem at ..:l the time. ~ Another bigbllgbt of Parks' monumen- U tal adventure was getting married. "I met a beautiflll British g1rlin Cape Town wII11e I was there preparing for the trip and _ fell in love and were married." He offered b1a new bride a chance to PartIciPate with him on a 43,OOO-m11e honeymoon trIP but sbe polltely decUned the 1Dvttation. in J.os Angeles, Kawasaki sales adm1n1stration manager Swede CarlsoD, who was instrumental in beJping set UP the trIP, termed Parks "resourcefUl as bell. He's really quite a illY. To have managed to keep the bike going for as long as be did and with the extra-beav:r load be carried required tremendous ingenuity." "To sbow you bow mucb be loves to ride," Carlson continued, "when Parks found out in LeD10grad tbat be couldn't get to Moscow, be look off for Murmansk - wII1cb is in the Artic Circle at the very northeast tip of F1D1and." To top off the trIP rlgbt, when the trave Uog Callfornlan got off the boat with his bike in New York be boPPed rtebt back on and rode bome practically n0nstop. "He was Idnd of anxious to make it back bere," Carlson quIpped. if . ~ r '" "'. SOlI. II the native. that P.,kI .ncocme..d In Africa . . . not u docll' u Ihl. WIll polld CI..."" One chap IIn.t.ned to u.e ......r l1li P.,k. until lhe ullft'. _ took In Int••at In the bike. A J Y40 STORMER CON~UERS MATTERHORN Saddleback Park, Calif. 11/19/69 The Place? On No•••her 19th, 1'" onloo......t Caillornl.'. SncIdllllnck Plrk p.ped In ••_ _111. The Sc_? The)' had Ju.t .11ne•••d lhellrst conque.t II the fierce IIntt.rlIOrl1'. pe.k b)' 250cc Motorc'CIe•• The Riders? And)' Robertlon .nd Ilenet Arne lion.. The "'chlne.? A.J.S•• II course. Of .lIlhe 250cc motocro•• Nchl... on tile mnrklllou)', onI)' A.J.$.'. new Y40 Storllllr he. the fierce lorque ...ded 10 turn mount.lna Into mollhill•• And they'll ke.p on doln,ll, .pln .nd .pln .nd .Clln. Becau.e the Storm. I. fIII. ble.In their Allllr· ,Ic.n debut,.t the Wuhlneton Inter.Am, .Ix Y40' •• blrted .nd .Ix nnl.hed. Worth ••Itlnc lor. W.tch for 1970 .. 1 •••••1 '0" new AJ.S. de.llra . _ .