Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

M AN EVENING WITH •• By Ron Schneiders Telephone conversation between a racing buddy and myself Him: "Whatcha been doing lately?" Me: "Well, last night I interviewed Gene Cannady for the newspaper." Him: "Kennedy, he's the cop that races down in Baja, righ t?" ·Well .... yeah. Though there's nothing really wrong with that description; it does fall just a bit short. But it is about all most motorcyclists know about Gene Cannady. As a journalist, I knew a little bit more as of a week ago, but not much. I knew for example, that Cannady and his riding partner, Max Switzer, finished second overall on a 125 DKW in the Baja 500 in the bike division. That's pretty phenomenal. It wasn't too many years ago that a 125 was considered a toy. I knew that Cannady won his class both days at the Elsinore Grand Prix, finishing 2nd and 5th overall against hundreds of bikes that were anywhere from two to six times as large as his. I knew of some other outstanding victories, I knew that he was sponsored by Hercules and that he was employed by the LAPD. That was it. He was a mysterious giant killer and it seemed to me that Cycle News readers would like to meet a giant killer, so I called him up and asked for an interview, setting a date about a week away. During that week, Gene Cannady was chosen as a member of the U.S. ISDT Trophy team. This is about the highest honor that can be paid an American motorcyclist. "I wa.. overwhelmed! " 1 called Preston (Petty) and asked him if we couldn't trade places. I didn't feel I was worthy of that honor." That was Gene's reaction to news that he was on the Trophy Team. We were sitting in the living room of his modest Canoga Park home. As an interviewer, I was faced with the impossible and monumentally egocentric job of trying to get to know someone well in the space of two hours under strained circumstances. Some times the interviewee's home gives some clues, in the books he displays or trophies he has most prominent. But the living room we were in could have been rented intact from Abbey Rents. There were no trophies, DO souvenirs of Gene's profession, few books, not even any toys, a few magazines in arack by the sofa, a tv, two chairs, that was just about it. Gene: Earnest blue eyes, fair skin, slender and sinewy, a habit of looking embarrassed through a boyish grin that would not admit his 30 years. He looks so healthy that you get a guilt complex just being around him. If you like to guess people's occupations, you'd probably peg Gene as a ski instructor, a life guard or some other fun-in-the-sun type. Only his shorter-than-fashionable hair migh t give you second thoughts. "How do you like the idea of riding a P~.tQn in the Six Days?" I asked. _ Gene didn't respond directlY, "Well, I'm going to get one to try out in a week," he said. "Better watch out," I said kidding him, "Those Pentons really handle in woods-type stuff. You might get to like it better than your Sachs!" Gene didn't say anything but his look implied that I was crazy as hell on a windy morning. "What's Hercules think about your riding a Penton in the Six Days?" "Well, when the thing first came up, I asked Ted Lapadakis if he was planning to send a team over to th e trials and he said, 'No'. Then when the AMA offered me a position on the team, I asked Ted about it and he said to go ahead, if I wanted to. He was very cooperative." "At Least this year it won't cost you anything." I said. Many trials contestants through the years have almost gone broke competing. "That's what I thought. I read somewhere that John Penton was going to pay the Trophy Team's expenses, but it isn't so. The A.M.A. is buying my plane ticket and has made reservations for me on the Isle of Man, bu t I have to pay my own hotel bill and living expenses. " I asked Gene if he had much experience riding in mud and such. "No, there's not much chance to ride in mud around here," but then he added with all kinds of confidence and optimism, "but I'll have a week to practice when I get over there." If you're tempted to dismiss that as pure bravado, don't. Last year Gene won a Silver medal at the G81e (allad, 1 .... 0> ~ w Z w ~ o >- o very tough Spanish ISDT. He lost two points the' first day, and none from there on out. The weather conditions took in everything from heat to fog to rain to snow. Most of the riders who are involved in the ISDT and especially those on the Trophy Team are somehow professionally involved with motorcycling. Some race for a living, or own shops, others work for the distributors. In a few countries, the riders are state-supported and their job is simply to win the ISDT or die trying. Gene Cannady is the exception. lie is a polic officer who works foe the LAPD as a detective. To attend races in Baja and ISDT events Gene juggles his time off with other officers and uses his vacation. Until recently motorcycle competition was frowned upon by the department and even now it's not exactly encouraged according to Gene. "I don't miss any work if I can possibly avoid it," he says, "One time I broke my toe. 1 still managed to get into work on Monday, but I didn't move away from my desk for three solid days!" The LAPD now has a motorcycle club of its own, composed of about 2/3 dirt riders and 1/3 road riders. 1ts name is a godawful pun, The Badgers. Whether this refers to an animal, a predilection, an ornament or an antisocial game is not completely clear. Gene notes with obvious glee that the LAPD now has two members who quit a neighboring force just so they could join the Badgers (and incidentally, the· LAPD). Gene has 10 years on the force and does not intend to give it up for motorcycling, no matter what his fotunes are on the track. Even though he is very, 'very good at it, motorcycling is still his hobby. Gene doesn't like his job interfering with his hobby any more then the reverse and as he puts it, "I don't advertise. " There are several areas where' motorcycling and the law might violently cross paths and I asked Gene about one of them, the rather widespread problem of professional athletes juggling their metabolism with pharmaceutical products. (That's popping pills before the Main). Gene ducked. He had raced for a year and a half at Ascot on TT nights. "Gee, I never noticed anything like that at Ascot. Maybe I'm just naive," he said wide-eyed and all Kansas. Many things he might be, but after 10 years with the LAPD, naive he's not. More candidly he said, "When I go to the races, I don't wear my blue suit." Of course a police officer cannot completely "leave his blue suit home" any more than a doctor, an actor or a politician can leave his profession at . home when he goes out to play. That's . one of the disad\'antages of those types of jobs. As a consequence of this situation you have an "inner society" developed wbere policemen socially only associa te with other policemen, which in tum might sociologically explain many of the police-citizen conflicts. Cannady, because he\ such a d"!D" good racer_is partiaUy out o(ibis pattern, but but not completely. He is more or less forced to associate with quite a number of non'police types (sponsors, other racers, team members and so on) but when be rides a race where be isn't sponsored (such as the Adelanto 200) be teams with a brother officer, Tom Gamer. This in spite of the fact that he is up against teams like Mike Patrick and Phil Bowers, and Eric Jensen and Steve Hurd. Tom is, at best, a talented novice. Gene did offer one comment that had the unmistakable ring of sincerity: "Sometimes 1 arrest. people. I like to catch motorcycle thieves." Since talking about his job was hopeless - he was putting me on so badly it was embarrassing - I beat a· hasty retreat back into the subject of bikes. Gene at once became the cool and careful pro fessional. We went out into the garage to look at this machinery. He has three bikes, a long-distance racing DKW with a huge gas tank and a six speed gear box, a fairly stock Motocross model DKW and a Yamaha play bike. The long distance bike had a filler spout welded onto the gas tank that was a full three inches high. I asked Gene about it. He explained that it was designed to allow them to fill the gas tank without removing the tank top tool bag. In last year's Baja 1000 they had dropped a socket into the tank while fooling with the bag and it had cost them the race. The socket broke the filter and eventually shut off the fueL Even though it was a one-in-a-million shot, Gene wasn't taking any chances on it happening again. Gene's motocross bike;' fitted with a pumper carb and naturally I was interested in what kind of success he was having with it. "It adds 5 to 10 mph to the top speed without doing anything else at all," Gene said enthusiastically. I asked about some of the problems that I knew that exist with pumpers and Gene patien t1y explained how they had solved each of them. 1 must have still looked a little skeptical, because after a moment Gene added, ''Well, I guess we're not really that sold on them because we're not taking it down to Baja." Cannady's Yamaha is almost more Webco than Yamaha. He's got light fenders, l1gfi t gas tank and all sorts of goodies on it. But in spite of everything Gene says it just doesn't begin to h&Dd1e as well as his DKW. "And let's face it," Gene says, "Handling is weight and the Yamaha is heavy." Gene rides the Yamaha occasionally because he gets tired of always riding a small bike. There's a chance that next year Ted Lapadakis will put him on a 175 Puch, which would help. "F or some reason, people never pay as much attention to the small bikes as they do to the large ones, even when the small ones are going just as fast!" In another month Gene Cannady, hobbyist. will attempt to do what most of the motorcycling professionals could not do: win a Gold Medal in the ISDT. To prepare for it he will do some running every day, ride motocross on the weekends and spend the evenings learning the new bike. AD in addition to his regular job. When he gets back from Europe he might relax a bit by taking his wife, Lynn, skiing for a week. That is if he can get any more time off from work. If you see Cannady out racing somewhere in the next month, wish him some luck and bid him well. He's got a big job ahead.

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