Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

:: " '" r:. N " '" ~ w Z w oJ U >U At his master con tro l panel. Jac has monitors fo r all the cameras and it can also tell him As the special effects units are put to work. this is the way it will com e across on the tape as shown here on on e o f the mon itor sets, the "Kawasaki Presents" is superimposed across th e Mach III. Taped Courses By Rod Brea ker In th is h igh ly competitive m otorcycl e ind ustry , it is a constant effort to stay ahead of the co mp etit io n n ot only in sales, bu t in servic e as we ll. About a y ear ag o, Al Goslee , th e Western Servi ce Man ager fo r Kaw asaki Motors , was loo kin g for a meth od to incr ease the skill s of th e Kawasaki mechanics in the field. Due to distance and time o ff th e job, it was just not economically justified to h ave th em a ll attend the service sch ool in Santa An a, Calif., and there weren 't enough qualified instructors to ta ke the sch ools int o the field . Here is Jac at the master control panel as. preparations are made to shoot another tape. Since Buzz Baty left Kawasaki, Jac has been the guiding forc e behind the project . G oslee then b egan lo o kin g into th e fiel d o f closed circuit TV an d Vi deo T ap e, unheard of in th e m otorcycl e ind ustry. H e discussed the id ea with 'Buzz' Baty, o n e of his employ ees, a t th at time and now a rep orter for Cycle Ne ws. An idea was born . It st arted with a small p ortable cam era an d so m e varied equipmen t, but it was a kin to making " BEN BUR" with a home movie cam era . Whil e all th e serv ice p ers onnel h ad fai th in the id ea , th e h igh er-ups wer e a little ske ptical abou t in vesting huge sums o f money in an untried sy ste m. It was th en d ecided to shoot a tr ial tape to presen t to th e top b rass alo ng with a requisition fo r m ore m oney for elaborate equipment. S o a subj ec t was picked for th e first tap e ab o u t replacing a rim o n a wheel and retruing it; it would als o cover remo vin g an d re placing th e tire. As th is was to b e a low budget flick , th ey con ta cted y ours truly, a nd I jumped a t the ch an ce t o be di scov ered. An other Kawasa ki emp loyee, J a c Reynold, who was at th at ti me in th e p arts department , but wh o h ad been trained in th e Navy as an ele ctronic o ffere d to lend his technician , assistance. So one even ing u ntil 3 in th e morning, we w orked o n the tape, it was crude, it was unprofessional and it t ook a lo t of ed iti ng (mostl y slicing me o ut of th e p icture , so H oll ywood will have to wait ) but ~h e fin ish ed product was suc h ,...,...,,...,...,--- From looking at this shot of the master co ntrol panel. y ou can see that Jac is kept busy when a ty pe is bei ng : m~,~7(.i ~/~~~ }'~i ~ ; sometimes takes two men on th is panel for some of th e elaborate special effe cts. '. \ , . ' .' 1.' " " ~t 3~5'1", 'l, -roJf ~ . ... I c 'Jv,'r , ~,fr1'o11 how t he spe cial effects w ill loo k befor e he cuts into it and puts it on the tape. th at the top b rass b ought th e wh ole p roject to th e tune o f $ 75,0 0 0 to begin with, an d th e Kawasaki Audio Visu al Studios w as b orn. A building was rented in a San ta Ana ind ustrial c omp lex and conver ted in to a studio w ith so me o f th e m ost exotic TV eq uip m en t availab le and th e ma kin g o f instructi onal TV ta p es is go ing at full speed. T hese tapes are no t only b ein g sen t th rough out t h e sta tes, but th e sound track s are b ein g r ecorded in to foreign languages for o verseas shipment, ano ther ste p in th e right d irec ti on to help th e rid er and th e sport b y giving us b etter train ed mechanics for more troublefree riding, a tip o f th e h at to Kawasa ki. Exclusive Photos of Evel Knievel's SKYCYCLE By Da vid Swift Hid d en deep in th e b owels of Or a n ge Coun ty , so mewhere between Moviel and Wax Muse um and Disn eyland, sits th e Sky cy cle. Sh ine y-bright and sleek , it lo o ks li ke an enlarged version of th e p er fec t gif t of a 10-year-o ld 's Ch ristmas tree. Sk yc ycle. A most poet ic w ord. It sums up the fee ling one gets wh en alo ne an d in complete control of h is fav orite iro n ste ed. O f course , wh en Evel Knievel lights up th is o ne, no one is going to b e mor e alo ne than h e. But that's a d iffe ren t story. The Skyccycle is b ein g d esign ed Do ug Malew i c k i , a by min i atur e -rock et de s i gner . Malewicki is h esitant to say much about th e p roject m er ely b eca use when o ne wo rks f or Evel, o ne wants to say no thing th at m ight get Evel upset. But th e d esigner p roudly admi ts h e has a good deal of fai th in th e proje ct ; every thing is as far as th e eu t-and-dried aerody namics go. Not so with th e builder, Don Ed munds , a famous sp rint ca r d riv er an d o wn er of Au to R esear ch. Edm u nds, a b rilli ant mech an ic with a zest fo r the esoteri c wh en it comes to ma ch inery, lik es th e p rojec t very much b ut is d oin g it mo re o ut of h is .friendship for Eve! t han anyth ing else . Bo th he and Kn ievel ad mit th at Edmunds' busin ess h as a lot to lose if th e Skycycle fails. "But," one of Edmunds' em p loyees asked, " where d o you go t o build an ae rodynamic m onster?" With all o ur roc k etmake rs unemplo ymen t, o ne co llec ti ng wo uld n' t h ave to go far. l--.....:"--;.;.;.-----'--'-----~C7."~;_------...L....:.--'''---.;:...=.....:'''-'''--J.N

• Cover