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/125732
PAST ASCOT STEWARD DIES Jack Blake-Hedges, long associated with professional racing passed away on June 4. Jack was pit steward at Ascot Park until 1968 when illness forced him to give up an association that was of utmost importance to him professional flat-track racing. He had worked in the sport in some capacity since 1945 when he came to California. Prior to that he had been active in the Chicago area. 24 HOURS CANCELLED Stunts Unlimited regretfully must cancel theJ.N. Roberts 24-Hour Enduro due to a major percentage of Stunts ~nlimited members scheduled to be out of town on race date. Unknown Hazard In Cycle' 'Ownersh .' IP • The fallowing article appeared in the Spring 1971 issue of the California Trial Lawyers Journal. The author, an Attorney at Law, wrote us and stated he is "hopeful of obtaining enough cases to show a pattern of conspiracy in the insurance industry, particularly those carriers that write mo torcycle insurance exclusvely. " He also invites any reader who has a case involving the problems briefly outlined in this article to contact him at 1231 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif 94103... Ed. By Edwin T. Caldwell, Esq. With nearly six million motorcycles in use today, most owners are aware of the hazards arising out of their operation. One hazard that an increasing number of motorcyclists are discovering, is, when they purchased their motorcycle they may have involuntarily waived Uninsured Motorist Coverage. It is the writer's opinion, based on many cases, that there is a high incident of contact between motorcyclists and uninsured motorists, probably because the uninsured mo torist is ordinarily less than careful. With this underwriting factor in mind it would appear that many liability insurance carriers writing uninsured motorists coverage in the State of California, either expressly or impliedly seek a waiver from the motorcyclist of the provisions of the uninsured motorists endorsement and thereby encourage the violation of the spirit and purpose of Insurance Code 11580.2 (a), which generally provides for a voluntary waiver in writing. It would appear that a pattern is developing whereby the purchaser of the motorcycle deals with the seller, ON THE LIGHTER SIDE ... Q ,.HE ECOLOGIS":S DOHl liKE ALL ,.\\15 ENVlROHMaN,4L O,ciiTRUCTION) SO C.R"~l\ IN ,HE ~ANO"""SH t1SXTTI""E. ENDUIO ESSENTIALS If you prefer, you can go the other way and figure the mileage for every minute, or every 3 minutes, or any other increment that suits your riding style and accuracy needs. Just remember, don't make it more complicated than necessary. The more fIgures that you have on the page, the smaller each must be and the harder it is to find the right line. If you have to stop to read your chart, you've defeated the whole purpose by losing time you might not be able to make up. When the chart system is working right, there's nothing better. You have an accurate and instantaneous check on distance and time. The trouble is that often something changes and invalidates the whole effort. Most often it's a last-minute schedule change by the sponsoring club. Th"n too, in many enduros you aren't given a complete schedule at 1l11. In Northern California 'events you are simply told on th e starting line to go at a certain speed, say 18 mph, and you maintain this schedule until you come to a "speed change card" which mayor may not occur at the same spot as a check. For enduros like these, it's obviously impossible to even make up a 'chart. Another reason for not using the chart system is the sheer drudgery involved in making up a schedule for a long run. The best system that I know is what I call the "two clock system". It was explained to me by Bob Steffan, who has won many enduro5- including the famous Greenhorn. I don't know if Bob invented the system or not. At any rate, ifs very effective. It requires th~t you have an accurate speedometer and two docks., It's best if one of the clocks is mounted on the handlebars in some fashion. Assuming that it ""is, w'e'll call ~at clock the elapsed-,tiT[le clock, while th'e, other, which may be a. wrist watch, we.11 call the real-time. clock. ~t\ .lq, 01 ""'~ l>?ml'\.) Mike Elliott, the "brave" who's been opening and closing the main gate at Valencia-based Indian Dunes race track for more than a year, got his wallet scalped at the old reservationJune 6. seems that Mike, a 1t drop-of-a-bonnet bettor, made a wager with top-ranked Powder Puff Joyce Soyka from Canoga Park, Calif., that the young lady couldn't and wouldn't repeat herself as a 3-moto winner for the second week in a row. A steak dinner was at stake. Joyce, who had won the fIrst 2 motos in the contest for the council of "Slidin' Squaws," again held the lead in the final race when she suddenly went down allowing three other machines to pass her. Elliott smiled and was beginning to tuck the loot back into his wallet. Then came the news over the P.A. that Mrs. Soyka was not only up and going again, but that she was closing ground on the leaders faster than a flying arrow. AT last report, Joyce Soyka and guest were enjoying a couple of scrumptious steak and lobster dinners replete with martininis and pre-paid gratuity to waitress at Valencia's Ranch House Inn... (Continued from page 1 0) The real-time clock is simply made to agree with the starter's watch and left alone. The speedometer is set at 0 miles and the E.T. clock is set at exactly 12 when you start. If the schedule calls for you to ride at 24 mph, for each 2 miles that the speedometer clocks off, the E.T. clock should register 5 minutes. You check yourself at 5 minute intervals. Five minutes, 2 miles; 10 minutes, 4 miles; 55 minutes, 22 miles. If you don't do anything but this and you can ride fast enough, you should never be more than 2 minutes off at any check and will usually be closer than that. If you have enough control to be able to ride closer than that, it's easy to fIgure the in-between mileages: A mile takes 211. minutes, or 150 seconds.. 1 miles takes 15 seconds. So, if you see a check down the road at what you estimate is .7 miles from you and your speedo registers 14.1 miles, you do a quick computation and fIgur'e that the check is at 14.8 miles. Fourteen miles should take 35 minutes and .8 miles takes 2 minutes, so the E.T. clock should read 37 minutes and 30 seconds when you arrive at the check. This of COl.1rse is nonsense. Noone but the most expert could possibly carry out that set of calculations' in the length of time required, and besides.. suppose, you're early or late? What can ypu do about it? You can adjust your arrival time by half a minute at most which might be worth one or two points and might make quite a difference if y,ou're going for high point trophy. But in that case, you're wasting your time ready this! In r~ality, you'd see the check and npte your speedometer and round off to the nearest mile. Fourteen miles on the' speedo and the check about 1 miles away makes 15. Fourteen miles is 35 miputes and 1 mile is 211. minutes 'makes ,_' 37,112 jninu\es ~and your clock, reads- 36 minutes. You try to roll into the check at 38 minutes even and in this case if everything is right, you'll be one minute late. If your clock is just a little off, you'll accidentally zero the check! Figure to the nearest mile and the nearest minutes and resolve questions in favor of late rather than early. With this system, whenever you get to a speed change, you set back both your speedo and your E.T. clock, back to zero, and start fresh on the new section, if you're on time. If you're not on time, you must adjust your E.T. clock accordingly. Suppose at the speed change you note that the key time is 10:13. Let's say that your number is 88. You must add 1 hour and 28 minutes to key time to find out if you are on time or not. The real time should be 11 :41. If it's 11:43, you're 2 minutes late and should set your E.T. clock to 2 minutes past 12. If you were early, you'd set it ahead of 12. Then you either "catch up to the clock" if you're late, or let the clock catch you if you're early. To summarize, don't start trying to keep time to the minute until you can ride fast enough to hit checks early occasionally. Then get only as complicated as absolutely necessary. Don't buy gadgets. There are all kinds of charts and calculators and plastic goodies 0 f one kind or anoth er for sale. You don't need them. There isn't time on a run to fool with them and besides, they break, fall off, and get covered with mud and dust. The method that I've outlined is plenty accurate enough to get you into checks within a 6-minute interval, 2 minutes early to 4 minutes late. Allowing for random distribution within that interval and 7 checks per run, you would have a score of 16, which is sufficient to fill your home With trophies within a year. Next week we'll talk about bike preparation. «(.;"Jr~ lrv't it tuiiU l.:....JJIol rA•.J1hJ t. J.,j.J\ who is primarily interested in the sale and who also acts as an "agent" for an insurance company who is writing this particular kind of risk. In the dual capacity as a seller of a motorcycle and "agent" for the insurance company he is intent on persuading the purchaser to buy sufficient collision and liability insurance to protect the seller's interest while at the same time the seller discourages the purchase of uninsured motorists coverage, probably at the insistence of the carrier who recognizes a high risk factor. Accordingly, a number of insurance companies use a deceptive application whereby the purchaser unknowingly waives uninsured motorist coverage by his signature at the bottom of this application. The application itself will set .forth the waiver, usually in "fine print". If there is any discussion at all about an uninsured motorists coverage between the purchaser and the seller, it is usually minimal. Many of the "agents" do not understand uninsured mo torists coverage well enough to explain it if an inquiry is made. Further, if the purchaser insists on uninsured motorists coverage they are quoted a premium that may well exceed the total premium for liability and collision coverages combined. The policies written by these carriers are designed to omit any reference whatsoever to uninsured motorists coverage and generally the application is not attached to the policy. The cases in California appear to be moving toward the direction of limiting of such unfair practices by insurance companies; however, it may be necessary to bring an action in Federal Court to prevent, once and for all, what appears to be a conspiracy to violate the Insurance Code of the State of California. One of the first cases to interpret Insurance Code 11580.2(a) was Mission Insuance Co. v. Brown (1965) Cal 2nd 508. The court stated, at page 510 "the legislature, by providing that the liability imposed by the statute can be avoided only by means of an agreement in writing, signed by the insurer and the insured, deleting the provisions for uninsured motorists coverage, clearly showed an intent that there be no 'fine print', unilateral waiver or limitation of the requirement". The forewarning in the Mission Insurance Co. case is exactly what is occurring today. A typical fact situation, is found in B ohlert v. Spartan Insurance Company (1969) 3CA 3rd 113. Bohlert was a 19 year old who purchased a motorcycle and was requested to sign an application where an "X" had been marked. He signed the application but did not read before signing and w,s not given an opportunity to read it nor did he receive a copy of it. At no time was subject of insured rna torists coverage or waiver of same discussed. The Court of Appeals remanded Bohlert to the trial court on the issue of voluntary waiver. The Court cited common law principles that the trial court is required to use the aid of extrinsic evidence to determine the meaning of the agreement and if the waiver was voluntary. Parsons v. Bristol Development Company, 62 Cal 2nd 861. Coronet Credit Corp. v. West Thnft Co. 244 Cal App 2nd 631. In conclusion the Court in Bohlert said that an agreement excluding uninsured motorists coverage must be "conspicuous, plain and clear" to constitute an effective waiver. Utah Home Fire Insurance Co. v. McCarthy 266 Cal App 2nd 892. In those cases where the policy is issued without reference to uninsured mo torists coverage and the policy is "exclusive", i.e., the policy provides that the total agreement of the parties is embodied in the policy. Allstate Insurance Co. v. Dean (1969) 269 Cal 2nd I, would be analogy, make uninsured motorists cov,erage applicable because there is no policy waiver. The Allstate case involved a restriction that was not part of the policy and the Court said it did not, therefore, apply. The problem is further complicated with the fact that many purchiisers of motorcycles are minors and need a detailed explanation of uninsured motorists coverage which the motorcycle salesman and "agent" is not equipped to explain notwithstanding pressure from the €amer to obtain a w,ai\l:er.,·· . ~. l .b JI.b!' co u:.!lJ ,),J(,l.J . . n c.. ''{l.tJLll.4 d u ..... vv ... C> ai '" ~ .; til i: ~ ~ l) t;