Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

CYCLE CIRCUS FANS SEE SCARY SHOW By Bill Spencer SA N FRAl lCISCO, CAL., Dec. II , " 1971 - Super Joe Einh orn , Bob Gill , Steve Droste and Dave Aldana all combined efforts t o make th e fir st showing of the Cycle Circus a success, and in many ways it was. For all th ose that did a d ouble take on Aldana's name , it 's righ t. Ne x t year 's Nat io nal N o. 13 did his th in g in co nju nctio n with injured Steve Droste. Droste broke his ankle early in the week doing publicity for TV and when a replacement was to be found, the only on e that could b e found was Aldana. He su cces sfully completed Droste's jump o f seven cars without a landing ramp for th e day sh ow and did it aga in fo r th e night sh ow and just t o make it more interesting, he called for an eighth car wh en nothing went wrong. In the afternoon show he su ccessfu lly co mpleted h is assigned tas k but the laandin g op en ed up a seam in the gas tank and a ra gin g infern o ensu ed . With typical Aldana adroitness he jumped off unseated. Without a doubt, he is spectacular at an y th ing he does and h e usually does it well. Bob Gill kept the antics rolling right along with wheel stands that turned in t o endoes a nd de ath wobbles. He dazzled th e slim d ay crowd with a ten ca r jum p wi tho u t a landing ramp and his 400 Su zu ki miraculously held very well together, for all the crash in g it did. The in-between ac ts w ere sim p ly that with the Victor McLaughlin Drill Team being the shining ligh t. Clowns, junior modifieds, Kenny Brown and the res t left the cr owd in anticipation fo r th e great finale , Sup er J oe 's assault on 14 cars. He was introduced and said his spiel. He was slightly nervous but with the help o f some no t es he cam!' off ra th er well a nd the d ay crowd reall y go t behind h im with mu ch ap plause. They really wanted to se e him make it. He mounted his trusty Triumph and b egan his sp eed runs. Some renovations had been done to the entires to the floor and the cen ter doors as the speed would be in the 70'plus range and even with shortening the handle .bars it was little close. With but three runs d one, J oe gave the thumbs up aud went t o th e fore, h e h ad been experiencing wh eel sp in problems entering the ramp ar ea and wasn 't too sure of the speed. As the roar of the engine go t closer; the spectators . go t quieter and when J oe h it th e bottom of the ra m p, every o ne gra b bed tigh t. J o e flew eas ily into th e air an d ex cept fo r the amazing height h e lo oked lik ed h e was posed in action at the As cot IT jump. He landed very hard n earl y 50 feet d own th e ramp an d as h e got onto the con crete flo or h e so rt o f got in a w obble, but con trolled it well b efore putting o n th e brakes. By this time he w as still go ing rather fast and h ad nearly run out of room. As the cr o wd jumped up in ap p lause Super Joe hit hay bales and the wall . A t this particular part of the Cow Palace, there is a wood door and it splintered into match w ood under the fo rce. After a n et ernity o f seconds someone yelled he w as up and when h e walked in t o the arena th e noise was as d eafening as it w as when Knieve l r o d e b ack in after his effort. The mark was officially set at 118 feet, nine in ches and even though the n igh t run was somewhat less su ccessful, the record of Evel Knievel's 14-car s w as ti ed. The n igh t show was somewhat less su ccessful as o n th e landing, Joe missed the ramp entirely an d suffered a broken hand. He crashed into haybales and the wall destro yin g th e secon d motor but survived fairly well. . A dirt-biker's view of an unusual o h o p p e z- St eve Droste? - Actually it's Dave Aldana. By Ed Dreschsler Photos by Dave Swift What does a dirt rider think of ch oppers? Well , if you had asked me a few weeks back, I w ould hav e sai d a lot things, m o st of them of non-complimentary. Most choppers I have seen must have b een d esigned ·t o astonish and/or shock st ro llin g pensioners. Equipped with a garish combination su p er fl uous MaI.tese crosses , . skulls, ,wrought n:o n o.rnamenta~JOn, and a sissy bar reaching eight feet mto the heavens, they stand as grotesque symbols of defiance. Dirt . bikes , b y necessity, have all non-functioning paraphernalia stripp ed fr om them. Ex cept for competition machines, most dirt bik es are retire d stre et b ikes with everything removed but the sea t , frame , and engine. Bob Price, 23 ·y ear- old mild-mannered car sal esman and dirt bike rider from Long Beach, decided lasi year " to build a stree t bike li ke no one else had." Based u pon what h e h ad learned from ow nin g 12 or 14 bi kes and a vivid im agai natio n , Bob laid siege to a 650 Triumph Bonnevill e b asket case. First thing d on e was .t o attach a '4 9 hard tail to th e fra me, removing th e' swing arm and sh ocks. He th en d ecided t o ch r oine a sin gle p iece of th e engine. Well, th at stuck out lik e a Husky in the Powder Puff class. S oon anoth er piece , and then another was sent to the plating sh op for a shine-ern-up job. Now, th e o nly m e tallic it ems rem ainin g o n th e bi ke n o t ch romed are th e p o lish ed carbs an d oil tank, pain ted fra me, gas tank an d fenders. The frame is m olded, b ut th e gas tank is not b onded t o th e ch assis., The craftmanshi p invo lve d is o f sup eri o r quality and y ou have to look twi c e to see th at they are two pi eces. What's th e ugliest thing o n any b ik e? The electrics. ..right? When first insp ecting th e bike, it appears that it is equipped with an energy transfer ignition system because . of an ob vio us absence of a b attery . Clos er in vestigation reveals a b eautifully d esigned battery b ox co n ta in ing th e b attery an d o th er elec tr ics so w ell 'p laced that it.is overlooked. ..Of. .th.e.original. bike, .on1¥;.the. engin e Sup er Joe makes final pass before clearing 14 cars. and the rear hub complete with brake assembly remain. The rest h as been so highly modified that even its own mother would not re cognize it . The paint is a pearl yello w done with a can dy flame which goes from reddish orange to light orange back to dark orange to red to wine to burgandy. The flames are outlined with b lack pin-striping. Pin-striping on the chassis is done in purple. The nuts h ave been fogged in black fo r a two-fold purpose ; first , to eas e in match in g touch-up o f wrench marks when removing nuts and secondly, to set off th e ch ro med nuts. By the way, this is its fourth paint job, the first three being destroyed .by human error. The ch ain guard is made of \4" x I" chrom ed plate to show o ff the cadmiu m plated chain. With all the ch ro me , paint, design, etc. , . how does it ride? It handles 'e x cellen tly . The 19" front spoolie on th e 10" tubes se em to lift the front end up radicall y , but since the neck isn't raked, the steeri ng is natural. Only when rolling to a slo w stop does balance shift become evident, but it is n ot enough of a problem to gripe about. The .hard tail , ~ith its o bvious absence of cushioned suspension, does make for a stiff ride, but it is not that much of a problem on well-paved streets. Only the ' roughest bumps require a slight lifting o f the riders bod for co mfo rt. Wh en as ked how much this whole thing c ost him, Bob is "q u o te d as saying "I don 't want to be quoted about how much I have t ied up in this 'th in g, but I have over $4 0 0 .0 0 in ch rome alone," Asked if h e co uld b e bribed into parting with his creation, he said "Let 's see ... $4 0 0 in chrome, 93f for cable covers , $ 3 75 .0 0 for...... N " . '" N .... e, '" N e:: .Jll ~ w Z w ...J ~ U

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