Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Writin'around By Chuck Clayton The Ouestion Is 'How'? ...It is hard to believe that the free ride-is over. Back in 1969, when we blew the whistle on the new Federal regulations banning motorcycles from public' lands, we were accused of everything but good journalism. Now that those regulations are enforced in many areas of the nation, motorcycle off-road recreation is being jammed onto smaller and smaller "reserves" destined to diminish into the final solution of "concentration sites" described in those regulations, where we may ride to our heart's content as long as we don't exceed 25 mph. The issue is clear: the off-road motorcycle won't be tolerated, integrated or accommodated in future land use plans unless motorcyclists insist that it be - and that means effective insistence. Not knowing how to go about saving the land for the sport, but knowing it somehow had to be done, I recently cleared my desks of Cycle News business intending to devote a year to finding some answers. First I joined the Motorcycle Industry Council and applied for a job on their Land Use Committee. The LUC is where the action is in motorcycling today. It is the only organization working for the interests of all off-road motorcyclists in the nation. Whatever the future of motorcycle sport turns out to be like, will be to a large extent dependent upon the effo'rts of MICLUC this year, (coincidentally, MICLUC is the Eskimo word for Gang Ho, meaning pull together and tie that bear). The Land Use Committee gave MIC a good answer to the problem that it will take a full year to get working. It is simply to correct and coordinate all the diverse political and administrative connections among motorcycle enthusiasts in every little town and county, all the way up to State level, under the direction of full-time staff coordinators employed by the state dealer associations. This is essentially what California has going for it under the part-time direction of Russ Sanford, who is dividing his time between Motorcycle Owners, Riders & Enthusiasts and MIC business. What the MIC's answer requires, of course, is at least one enthusiast in every locale who will make it his or her business to know what is going on at city hall. In California a housewife became concerned that her· kids wouldn't have any place to ride their trail bikes. So she went to the parks department of her town only to meet with the usual runaround and rejection. Finally she appealed to a sister-in-law who happened to worK in the city government as a secretary. Only through the inside influence of this relative was she able to reach some officials on a person-to·person basis and persuade them to provide a place for children to ride. N ow a huge recreational park program is under way in her area and several- anti·motorcycle laws have been nipped in the bud, thanks to one person's intelligent determination. There are hundreds of people in motorcycling who happen to play golf with a county commissioner, or know which councilman rides a trailbike, or perhaps went to school with the District Ranger. It is a sorry commentary on the democratic system that it is often times only through such connections that the offical's mind can be reached. _. Under this plan, the MIC is the volunteer fire department, rushing in to help local citizens fight their conflagrations. Most problems are the result of official ignorance and panic. They can be nipped in the bud usually just by simple self·policing. If we learn of the problem too late, and by the time a public hearing is announced, it is often too late, all the volunteer fire department can do is spit on the ashes. That is why a "distant early warning system" is vital to the survival of motorcycling, consisting of thousands of enthusiasts all over the nation, acting as lobbyists in their locales, available to devote a day or two a year, possibly, to putting out brushfires that threaten the trails where they ride. Want to volunteer to be a part of this DEW line? Start by writing to, or better, visiting your local city councilman and/or county commissioner and/or District Ranger and tell them you are interested in any consideration of motorcycle recreation in their agendas. Get on their mailing lists. Chat up their secretaries. Find out what church your man attends and worship there some Sunday. Find out his interests and study him. Isn't there an easier way, you ask, isn't there an easier way? If you know of one, please tell me. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES If motorcycling were a religion (and sometimes I think it probly is) Robert L. Hicks would be its High Priest. Hicks publishes New England Trail Rider, the bible of off·road recreation, out of a garret over his garage in Danvers, Massachusetts. But • most of the time he can be found steering his cobby 500cc special through the forest with amazing grace. Growing up in the heavily Ropulated commonwealth a few miles away from Walden Pond, he became an advocate of ecology before there was a word for it. But ecology, to Hicks, includes trail motorcycles. 'frail riders, in Hicks words, are "woods-wise. We cover a lot of ground and leave it better than we found it. We ride on trails that existed, some of them, before automobiLes, and on old logging roads and abandoned township roads that link up most of New England." The trails Hicks and his desciples ride are not on any maps but theirs. They are compiling a master map o~ Massachusetts bike trails from the personal knowledge of dozens of riders all over the state. "When the state asks where are all these trails that bikies ride," Hicks says, "we'll be ready to show them." Already the largest horseman's association in Massachusetts has asked Hicks to help them layout a cross country ride for the hayburners. Hicks has deduced that cross·country trail riding is where off·road motorcycling is really at. "With only 2% of the state's recreational land, we can have over a thousand miles of trails," he announced recently. But until state sanction of the motorcycle recreational trails, through a commission of which Hicks is a member, most riding takes place on or very close to private land, which is jealously guarded as only New Englanders can. Bikers constantly come in contact with other citizen owners and users of undeveloped land, what Hicks calls "the interface" where bikies and non·bikies need all their manners and civilization to avoid running over each other's toes. I got the chance to watch Hicks at work proselytizing for motorcycling as he went about marking the course for the Berkshire Trials - a series of racing tests connected by a 360 mile enduro. Each time we passed a dwelling in the woods, he slowed down and waved to whatever faces might be at the window. He and Al Eames, a local resident of the Berkshires, had taken the trouble to visit and know all the people along the route. One, a famous playwrite, had his lawyers contact Hicks wanting to know what this "race" was all about. Although the 24 mph course went around the playwrite's property, Eames visited the writer and cooled him out - another small step for motorcycling. It is through thousands of such steps that motor.cycling in Massachusetts has advanced to where it is now the envy of all New England. In New York state, where off·road motor recreation is completely banned by law, enthusiasts are trying to copy the Massachusetts example and get some trails opened. Hicks has spearheaded the organization of New England- Trail Riders, a 2,000 . strong association dedicated to the preservation of the enduro sport. Rules are rigid, and designed to prevent the non·woodswise riders from messing everything up. Members are required to attend an enduro school before they can enter an event. "They may not be woodswise when they finish the school," Hicks comments, "but at least they have some idea how to get through an enduro and not clutter up th.e trail with their bikes and bodies." Hicks is nearly as parochial about his motorcycle efforts as Walden's Thoreau, who upon being urged to see more of the world remarked, "I have travelled a good deal in Concord." Hicks at least has been to Spain and Germany for the 6·Days Trial. I asked if he would consent to travelling at MIC expense to help organize similar trail rider associations around the nation, and he said he would. Now all that remains, apparently, is for local trail enthusiasts to organize like the New England Trail Riders and contact me care of Cycle News headquarters to set up a seminar with Bpb Hick'S. And, of course, convincing the MIC that it is in the Industry's best interest to foment this. THE HARD ANSWERS These are the answers that I have found for the most vital question of motorcycle land use. They are not easy answers, but then it is not an easy question. They answer the question at the grass roots, where it is hoped a few activist bikers grow. EDITORIAL Dist. 37 Forced Into Action By John Bethea 'The action taken by the Dist. 37 Competition Committee on May 13, resulting in the disqualification of four class B enduro riders, uncovered a contradiction between 37's rules and club poljcies. The rule, which states that all riders leaving on the same minute as an A rider must ride as an A, was unknowingly violated by Robert Jansen, Tom Cabranza, Greg Ekins and Tom Sawyer. A protest was filed and upheld. Because of this upheld rule, a club's policy of "drawing for starting numbers indiscriminately" can and has, resulted in a disqualification of a B rider who happened to draw a starting time which already included an A rider. He's disqualified before he starts, not by his own action, but by a club's policy. Several paths are open, then, to prevent this situation from occurring again and one plan of action must be taken immediately to insure that all riders competing do so under the rules. These courses of action are: Proposition A - Abolish the rule. Proposition B - Retain the rule but avoid "mixing" A and B riders. This can be done but making it policy that whenever an A or B rider is first to be assigned a number, no member of another class can be given that same number. Proposition C - Same as Prop. B but going one step further in that separate drawings for the A riders and the B riders are held. Each proposition will eliminate the problem which currently exists, but one holds the most merit, we believe. Following the course set by Prop. A would insure continuation of the status quo "without penalization." But, if this were done, those B riders riding with A's would hold a distinct advantage over other B competitors and this is what the rule was designed to prevent. Prop. B would be the fairest to all riders concerned in getting the lowest starting number. Prop. C would be the best possible, however, and we believe this for several reasons. First, it would allow each class of riders to compete entirely against itself. Second, it would allow the A riders to be selected first, giving them the lowest numbers something for which they have been asking for a long time and we believe they deserve. And this would lead to the third point; it would prevent those early "bottlenecks" at areas where A riders can get through more quickly than the less·experienced B riders. And fourth, it would give an incentive for B riders to improve so that they, too, could "get those low numbers." . The problem is noW in the open, and it's up to the Rules Committee and the individual clubs to decide which is best. No matter which solution is enacted, it must be done soon before a~y other rider is disqualified because of the policy of a sponsoring club. CLARK RESIGNS FROM AMA Tom Clark has announced his resignation from the posItion of Director of Professional Racing of the AMA. He served as department head of the Professional Racing Department since September, 1968. Clark has resigned his staff positiDn with the AMA to serve as Vice President in charge of sales at Rokon, Inc. He described I).is departure from the Worthington, Ohio, based association as "very harmonious." He also explained that the primary reason for leaving was . "~.Y..~~J) f~aIJ:c,ial f~!~e.:'._ \.I....._ ...~."" # , .... Jo'. Ma,la," I.s.,aace sa,s "He, Mr. Dealer" We carryall types of insurance coverage - garage liability fire - theft & dealer bonds Sare Up To 251 JOHN •• MAYNARD INS. 3441 Motor AYe., L. A., Ca. (n3) 836·5211 PENTON AGAIN Craig Young 100cc Berkshire Ch.lcken Enduro April 25, 1971 1st - 125cc & Under 4th - Overall '": c " .., " ~ ~ w d > U

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