Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

sClrlllm6lln'lIlrounilr By Maureen Lee Oh my, I guess I must gently chide Ron Schneiders again, but not with armor on or soap box out because it. actually isn't worth it, but on behalf of· the Enduro riders of Southern California' I feel I must. Ron, dearheart, in regards to your column on the Silver City Three Day that was cancelled, much of what,you said is true, or partly. There were a few foul-ups but the District was proceeding nicely with plans. Did you really know who was in charge of the various parts of the Trials? I guess not. Did you know Earl Flanders was in charge of scoring, working 'Yith his team and making sense out of the FIM rule book section on the scoring of an ISDT-type trials. If you ever want to get into a bag of snakes, get into that section! . Did you know that Preston Petty was to check out a computer in Las Vegas to handle the overall scoring in nothing flat as the results came in and that I was to be the one manning it? No I've never run a computer, but being reasonably intelligent I could learn, I've pushed buttons before. You see, a lot of people at the top level of District 37 are intelligent. They are so quiet you don't really know they're around;but they do get things done. In regards to running decib(l1 meters, time checks etc., only a little experience is necessary. My husband is not a working part ,of District 37, but he can run three watches at one time, plus keep an eye on two or three other riders, and he'd be hell on wheels with a decibel meter or at tech inspection if pressed into service. There are many such men in the District that were willing to work that e.:ent and they'd do well at it too, Without any fanfare. You complained a bit about the tire changing check. Tsk, tsk, Ron. This was to have been an ISDT-type trial, not a mickey-mouse event and as you obviously don't know it, ISDT things are different. The Europeans spend whole days practicing nothing,but tire changes. They can do it in spmething like four minutes, and it wasn't .quite fair to say that most of our guys can't even do one in a garage. If they're ISDT material, they can. Ask someone who ,witnessed Steve McQueen's tire ) changing practice when he rode the ISDT. He got it down: pat. . In closing, when you listed the riders who reside here who are ISDT quality you did quite a few chaps an injustice. I realize you couldn't list 'em all, but, you see, there is a gentleman by the name of Dave Ekins who has quite a few ISDT medals, gold ones too ..... Speaking too, of ISDT, or'l should say, the ISDT, I think you'll find a very concentrated effort by the BSA-Triumph brigade as team efforts. Hurray! The two-strokes have had it their own way too long and what would racing or- timed events. be without Beezers, Trumpets, No~~ons, etc.? And while on the subject of I\SA, there was a whole gaggle' of either retired or semi-retired BSA riders at Ascot the other night and the pits resounded with the merriment. Th~ old California Gophers were practically holding a reunion down there. Monte Darling who carried our District number four plate was down from Washington where he's got his own place, and it was old home week. Even one of the fastest Gophers of 'em all, Don Spargur was there from the days when a Triumph had to go Jike hell to keep ahead of a finely tuned Goldstar. H has long been rumored that Spargur was taught to ride by Jim Hunter. Some say it was the other way around. Me, I think Jim Goldsmith taught both of 'em. End of my nostalgia bit for the week. If there are any petitions in your local shops regarding bike riding, etc., please take the time to sign one. On many you'll find you don't have to be a regi~tered voter, it's just to show the politicians how much people power we have. If there are any meetings in your area, show up. You don't have 'to speak, just show support, you'd be su~rised how much good it does when the boys at the-mahogany tables look over and -see a whole group of smiling faces all in one place, detennined to stand up for their rights. Those in our group speaking for our side usually just ask for all of you to stand up when the time comes for our comments on the issue. Lately, there seems to be a hang-up somewhere about letting our group know where meetings are being held, especially in District 37. We've heard the comments that the Sierra Club always shows up but the ORV people don't (that's us including all the other with ORV wheels). That's interesting. How come the Sierra Club does always show up? Could it be our group has been inI1.ltrated? . .In Defense of Freedoms By J. G. Krol Mr. Bill Robinson's outraged letter in the June 13 CN says that as President of the International Four Owners Assn., Inc. he was understandably reluctant to turn against all ofrroad motorcyclists but, due to the repeated depredations he has suffered, he has come to the conclusions that all dirt riders "must be legislated to remote areas", that uthere must soon be laws making it illegal to ride a cycle in any but designated areas". Evidently, Mr. Robinson is confident that such areas will always tum out to include the public highways, the place where he chooses to do his own thing. Mr. Robinson says the. people causing him so much trouble disregard plainly posted property boundaries to tresspass on his land, which is not, one gathers, undeveloped, unfenced, unposted, uniden tified wasteland. Am I to understand that this is not now prohibited by law? Mr. Robinson says the people causing him so much tremble actually cut his fences in order trespass on his land. Am I to understand that this is now now prohibited by law? Mr. Robinson says the people causing him so much trouble physi€ally endanger residents. Am I to understand that recklessly endangering other persons' life and limb is not now prohibited by law? Mr. Robinson' says the people causing him so much trouble deliberately harass his livestock and actually cause serious physical injury to his live'stock. Am I to understand that these things are not now prohibited by law? Let us put this question to Mr. Robinson, and urge him not only to answer it, but also to consider its full implications: What is it ,that the people causing you hann and loss are doing which is not already. lHohibited by one or more existing laws? It is alr.eady illegal for anybody, motorcyclist '\ or not, to cut Mr. Robinson's fences, enter his. land, and injure his livestock. In other words, the people he is concerned with are already criminals. If he has any complain t at all, and I surely ,think he does, it is clearly against the sad fact that his governrilen t passes laws but then does not enforce them...except where it fmds it convenient to do so. Surely Mr. Robinson is keenly aware of the punitive class-legislation directed against road-going motorcyclists, and h'e ha~ no doubt fough t against it. Yet how successful can his defense against such attacks be when he himself advocates applying the identical principl~ against off-road motorcyclists? " Only because Mr. Robinson is the President of the International Four Owners Club does this behavior seem so ou tstandingly irrational and self-defeating. The trutl\ of the matter is that most of us, most of the time, are Mr. Robinsons. Long ago I predicted that the survival of motorcycling depended on a race between the develQpment of sound political consciousness by motorcyclists and the surmoun ting of nonnal bureaucratic inertia by governmen t. Today we have at least that minimal level of political consciousness among motorcyclists whereby some of them will and do write letters to their rulers, and that is certainly a good thing. But this level of development will. ptove ultimately futile if le.aders, like Mr. Robinson, fail to work towards the resolution of deeper contradictions. While the so-called . political workshops of the AMA have some limited value in helping motorcyclists at least to be heard by their governments, something much more basic is sorely needed if motorcycling is to survive as an expression of human freedom and (Please tum to pg. 38) : II ~ rr-----------~ I I I I I I I I '. :.a I~ ~ Ig I I I ~ - Before you read this ad, look on the other side of this page and read our offer for the new and exciting 1972 MOTORCYCLE COMPETITION GUIDEBOOK FOR CALIFORNIA. Dig it? Good. Now all you have to do is fill in the 'handy coupon (on the other side), clip out this whole mess and fold it up so the mail panel shows. Then staple, tape or glue it all together with your money inside and drop it in your local mail box. That's all. We'll rush you all the guide books you want. <.l II I ION ----.:.---..,-~-"fOLDHERE FIRSTI--------------I r '/ I I: I '. :, FIRST CLASS : Permit ,No. 2,914 LO~8 Beac~, Calif. I "I ·1 T·'BUSINESS REPLY , / I I, c;;::A:EE:l: :;:::CI5 I M~ll ~ No poslOge .,omp _lOry if mailed in lhe Un;" Slo'" I P.O. Box 498 I-~ I /1 ",,··-----------~-I Lon.. B.ach, Ca. 90801 1:------------"""'", 'oeo I I I I I UIDE ' K

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