Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

_or_millin' arounaBy Maureen Lee third night that week you've declined to come to the dinner table! Another super-goody deal belonging to another is that he buys his own bike at dealers cost from the distributor, then gets his own parts the same way but does all the mechanical work himself. The kind of help we like to think the fondest of comes from what I call the good old-fashioned motorcycle dealer who still exist and who are usually ex-racers themselves. Their shops aren't the chrome-plateglass-earpets on the floor variety but they have a lot more warmth to them. These men try their best to help out the up-and-coming racer and sometimes the one who isn't a front runner bu t who is a regular competitor making a good consistent showing of the brand of machine he's riding, Wepromised no mention of names, either personal or brands but as an example, maybe you ride a big twin and things come adrift and all kinds of horrible horrors happen to the innards, (if you've only ridden a ring-ding maybe you've never seen what a big bike looks like when things do get loose) but there you are with a parts bill resembling two payments on your truck, and we hope, a nice friendly dealer. His parts man will Last week we wrote about the sporting riders who get paid for riding in sporting events in cold, hard cash, some doing as well or better than the true professional and this week we'll go into help that a lot of other riders receive. This kind of help can range from a really super-type deal to being lucky enough to find a dealer who'll give you a few cents discount on a sparkplug! A couple of examples of super-type deals belong to a couple of top names, one of whom buys his own bikes but that's all he does, except pick up his equipment Friday night, ride it Sunday and deliver it back to the dealer Monday for a fixing up of anything that should need fixing up. Needless to say, his mechanical breakdowns are almost non-existent. But, because he never has to burn the midnight oil himself each week getting ready for the next weekend, some of his friends swear up and down he barely knows how to change a sparkplug! How sweet it must be not to have to stand in the middle of yout garage at three in the morning, with a cup of cold coffee in one hand, spare parts in the other and wondering if you'll ever get the beast back together or if your wife won't leave for mother's the followinR morning because it's the your eyeball down the column. But briefly we'll make the point again. There you go into a turn, elbow to elbow letting everything out and you realize the guy next to you ain't going to make it unless you slow just a little but it's the last lap and if you win there'll be that $200 waiting for you. Dig? Personally, we feel that riders who do receive real great deals, either of money or a full sponsorship should be riding in their own group, against each other. If they don't want to ride the prc;fessionai events for a purse every week, fine. But they shouldn't be in there with the guy who is lucky if a dealer can afford to give him a small break on parts once in a while and with the tight money situation of today, dealers are finding this increasingly hard to do. At one time a suggestion was made in District 37 that a "Super-Expert" class emerge in the desert because at the time there was a long drawn-out discussion of who could get a top ten place plate each year, etc. This is too long to go into here but a "Super-Expert" !=lass would have given the guys who always ended up in the twenty to thirty finishing places a better chance for a number one plate. The "Super-Experts" would have their own point system and just have at it amongst themselves. This system could work equally well in any type of racing_ It's something to rap on for the future, anyway. (To be concluded next week) know doubt make all kinds of snide remarks about sloppy maintenance, lousy riders, etc. which is all part of the fun anyway but if you're lucky you'll come home with your boxful of parts for quite a bit less than what the list price is. So m e of your smaller dealers absolutely can't give as much help to riders as they would like to due to their over-head but when you really have a blow-up even 10% makes life a little more liveable. The thing that burns us, too, is that some dealers receive no backing from the distnbutor to help them help their customers out, so any help the dealer gives to a customer comes from his own pocket. In these cases a dealer may opt to help just two or three riders while another may give anyone a flat 10% providing they are a constant competitor. We don't like to mention this but every sport has its deadbeats and we have ours and some dealers have been soured away from helping any racer because guy ran up big tabs and then never paid even a nickle. To these types: every time you kick a bike over may it blow to smithereens. That's my Irish curse on you! Now to get back to what started these two columns. We've noticed that riders who get the helping hand from a dealer, or from a friend who knows somebody in the right places, doesn't tum into the type of rider the guy who gets the flat fee- for riding does. If you've forgotten what started this, dig out last week's Cycle News and run YWHA of COIOIA 1101 E. 6th St. - Corona Cl14) 135-11n ALTA- G I • WORLD'S FINEST Ultra-lightweight Trials Bike (714) 286-1001 Available Now SAN DIEGO ALTA SUZUKI 4825 EI Co'on Blvd. WILDCAT 000 Son Die 0 a reliable mDtDrcycle Bikes and parts available Immediately. Dealer Inquiries Invited. Wildcat Distributor: FRANK WHEE LER 659 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, Ca. •••....•••••.......•................• (805) 942-2312 II'I a 1089 way 10 DloDday lDonliDg. CONLEY 250/360 Down Pipes - $49.95 Unbreakable front fender with oracket $19,95 Folding foot pegs $25.95 Guy R. Louis .if: 1~~ Slmlchrome is a honey I~ Cl14) 893-1051 ~ ODAKA,HONDA, KAWASAKI AND YAMAHA MODELS. AO ~ • List Price S 8.95 AVAILABLE AT YOUR mmmmII 1/ "i.\L ~ eCleanS quick as a bunny OMPETI TlON Tube S1 CH~MICALS Can 713 Est.. Street I~ Fails, Iowa 50126 ~3.45 PAT~ACO HI-PERFURMANCE EQUIPMEHT HEAT-TREATED, STEEl, MOTOCROSS, SELF· CLEANING, FOLDING PEGS. Fits Specific : . ~ .Jimichrome .~~- . $hines Sud_ly Rlck_n Metl"e 7574 Westminster Ave.. Westminster, Ca. -. e . Dealer Inquiries Invited etling away from it all" ia whert Hodaka trallhike. are all aba"t. Free trom . . .kday wonie.. out· iD. the open air .•• trailbiking giT" yo" a "11'0 anywhere. do anything" IdDd 01 lee1iDg DO other .port ccm offer. ways bener than the first Hodaka intro- duced seven years ago. And this testing continues, right down to the tiniest nut or bolt. Cycle Magazine affirmed Hodaka's reliability when they reported on a California Scrambles event with the words: .' 1049 W. Mission, Pomona, Cal. 714-629-8642 West.i.ster Sport C,cle • : : TRIUMPH SUZUK..I MOTORS GrHYeS TIS MOTORS 1049 W. Mission, Pomona, Cal. 91766 714-629-8642 · . · . ..................................... ..-:-- Parts & Accessories Motorcycles "G : : Cl SACHS OSSA Hodaka IIontesa Hodaka, the original trailbike that made off-~d riding a national sport, offers the key to weekend excitement. PO Box 2611, Palos Verdes Pen., Calif. 90214 ~ Torsten Hallman Racing, Inc. West Coast Dlst. lor PENTON Motorcycles Torsten Hallman special design leathers ,; racing equipment U.S.Dlst. I... Trelleb...g IIoto-Cross tires For dealer Info. wrlle ... call , 5345 Tllnken St., La lie.., Cal. 92041 Cl14) 468-14.02 We design and build Hodaka trailbikes to promote this feeling of freedom. Take performance, for instance. Hodaka is the world's most popular lOOcc trailbike because it out performs other trailbikes. Consistently. The technical reasons why are complex. The results are simple. More competitive events in the 100 class have been won on Hodaka's than any other make. We're experts when it comes to building trailbikes and seven years of study and design have taken the guess work ouf of the 'go'. But just 'go' isn't good enough in a trailbike. A breakdown ten miles from the nearest road can be dangerous as well as irritating. ThiS" is where Hodaka really shines. Every single component that goes into building the Hodaka -has been time tested. . some up to seven years. When something isn't up to snuff we iinprove it until it is (flaws should be discovered in the factory by engineers, not in the field by customers). To dale. our 1970 Hodaka has been improved 174 "While the other makes of motorcycles, large and email dropped 'like flies from the pounding the Hodaka's went OD and OD and onI" So now you know what Hodaka trailbikes are basically all about (Weve won National Trailbike Champ three years in a row to prove it). Learn how it all started seven years ago by sending 25c and the completed coupon to: Public Relations Dept., PABATCO, Box 327, Athena, Oregon 97813. H@DAKA MOTORCYCLES .......................................................... · · . . , . : : Foe a copy of "The Hodu.a Story," send the coupon and 2)c to PABATCO's address ~Iow. ; Name . __..•......._ _ : Street · : City _ _ •.. : State . . _ _ : Phone _ _ _ ~ ........_ _ _ _ _ __.._ _...._ __ ~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _....2.ip __ _ _ _ _ _._ _ AMCGWS 11·70 PABATCO. JIoz 327. Athena. Oreqoa 97113 : : __.._ _ _ : . __ : _ : __ _ _ : __ i . .. ~ I>- o .... m .... N ri o ~ w Z W ...J U >- U

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