Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

preview at Laguna Seca just before the race. Don was gunning along a supposedly vacant pit road at about 70 when he rounded a bend to find a truck using the majority of the road. Woods came back untouched after some sliding an impromp tu cow trailing and had some flattering things to say about the bike's handling. * It seems that the District office of the Cal Rayborn finished the Laguna Se'ca race with his machine only runnmg at half throttle because he was almost out of gas. He had enough of a.lead at tJ:1at point to make It home Without be~g caught by Gene Romero who was m second. * * BLM has interpreted their authority and Nixon's Executive Order to allow them to levy a $2 per participant land use fee for riding in an event on BLM (public) land. That means two bucks per rider in addition to what you pay to ride the desert race or enduro, or wh.atever, that traverses BLM land. In addition to this, a $2000 performance bond is being . required of promoters that stage events using BLM land. The idea in itself isn't so bad, but it does open up the whole question of land usage and what is reasonable performance in main !aining it to the subjective judgment of the BLM agent. Most folks would agree that cleaning up trash and course markers is reasonable, but what if a BLM agent decides that knocking over a cactus is not reasonable and deducts his estimate of its value from the promoter's bond? We're taking a look into this whole thing, so look for a report on what the BLM is doing for you, the bike-riding public, in an upcoming issue of CN. * Did you know that the CMC retains the firm Hasenplug and Higuchi? * *. * By the way, some of you old timers may remember the CMC-Jones boys con troversy. The Jones boys have written "Cycle World" and asked for a retraction of their remarks about the CMC being a "Mickey Mouse" and "fast buck promotion" organization. It only makes sense considering that the Jones have taken home qui te .a few bucks for being fast in recent CMC events. Watch the "Cycle World" letters column. * * * Phoenix Distributing Company, the company that distributes Dalesman motorcycles in the West, is putting up a trophy for the 125 Noviees in every sanctioned Trials event in Southern California. * * * * We noticed at the Laguna Seca Roadie that the AMA has decided to disallow the use of Y okoh ama road racing tires. This was done very suddenly up there and caused problems for several people who had to change tires after they had already qualified and run practice. on their Yokohamas. They had to SWItch and use the first few laps to adjust to a new tire. Not only that, but road racing tires cost money, which is sometimes a difficult thing for the privateer to come by at a National. Tsk, tsk, AMA. * * * It was Thursday afternoon when it happened. The first indication we had that something was wrong was when one of the secretaries came scurrying past our offices with' a horrified expression aeross her pretty little puss. Then from somewhere deep in the bowels of Long Beach there came rumblings.· The rumble spread to the greater LA area and then throughout California and the West. Rumble, rumble. Finally we became aware that we were in the midst of a full scale disaster. NO CYCLE NEWS HOT HATS IN SIZE MEDIUM! Thousands went without and the outcome of the situation is still not·known. But we're working on it. Stay tuned. * * * It is hoped that Harley-Davidson will import those 250 and 350 two stroke twins that are being built by their Italian Aennacchi division. The racing versions have been beating the works Yamahas over there and it would be nice to see them produced fOT the privateers on this side of the pond. * * * * Carl Cranke, NorCal MX rider, has been switched from the Vase Tea", representing the US in this year's ISDT to the Penton-mounted Trophy Team. This will be a real challenge for Carl as he joins the Penton brothers, Bill Uhl, and Dick Burleson as the only Westerner on the Trophy Team. * * * Is "Cancer of the WheeLie" a dirty story? * * * * * * CZ stands for Ceske Zavodny, doncha know. . There should be some goodies coming your way from Harley·Davidson pretty soon. They have switched a whole plant over from snowmobiles to motorcycles and they are going all ou t in the development of new models. Them furriners are gonna have something to worry about. But it will be a year or so yet. * * * Giacomo Agostini has already won the 500cc World title, and in Anderstorp, Sweden he increased his 350cc lead over Jarno Saarinen. Kent Andersson won the Formula 750 race on a Yamaha 350. Phil Read was second on a Norton. Rod Gould took an easy victory in the 250 class, over 30 secorlds ahead of Saarinen. Gould, riding a Yamaha 350 in the SOO class bu ilt a large lead. on Agostini in the early going. But Ago caught and passed him near the halfway mark, and went on to win by 27 .seconds. Europeans continue to speculate on the possibility of an Agostini/Rayborn showdown. The English are crazy about Cal, and would dig seeing him and Ago race in the mother country, or in Italy, or America. Anywhere. C'mon Count. Let's get it together. * * * Motorcycle dealers rate Cycle News' three editions tops in 18 out of 21 categories, according to an independen t survey just published by Crisp/johnson and Associates. Seven percen t of the nation's 6,000 bike merchants were selected at random for a study comparing the eigh t leading ~onsumer mags and newspapers. It was revealed that 61% of the dealers who handle Cycle News sell all of their copies of any given issue, 8 1% use Cycle News information in their salesmanship and 82% of the dealers read Cycle News regularly (the average for the other~ is 38%). If dealers could read only one motorcycle publication, 40% said they would choose their Cycle News. The next preferred was "Cycle World" mentioned by iJl%. "Dirt Bike" Magazine beat us as to dealers who regularly sell all of their copies (71% to 61%) and we finished second to "Cycle World" in "generating customer requests" for particular brands or products (39% to 34%) and "building interest in motorcycling in general" (43% to 39%). Thank you, dealers. * * * EVEL KNIEVEL staged a spectacular entrance for his recent performance in Minneapolis/St. PaUl. His pilot had to land Evel's $300,000 twin-engine Duke in front of the grandstands. Coming in for a practice landing, the airplane burned out three tires trying to stop, smashed into Evel's expensi.ve Kenworth "camper'·', totalling the plane and inflicting $70,000 worth of damage to the truck. Fortunately no injuries, but Evel should sell tickets to his practice sessions, they're quite a thrill! * * * Look for a lot of 750 comp.arison tests coming up in the mon th Lies. A t least three are doing them. When do we get an over-750cc comparison test? Kawasaki, Moto-Guzzi, Lavereda, and Dunstall all make them. * * * Any of you BMW owners who saw our test 0.0 the BMW and were stoked out of your gourds by the heat shields on our R-60 can get them for $12.50 per set (including clamps) from your BeeEm dealer. * * * Don Woods, AMA Competition Honcho, looking a trifle pale, told a member of the CN staff about an adventure he had while riding the biggest Kawasaki at a recen t press * NATIONAL POINTS QUIZ NO.1 (Does not include Roosevelt Half-Mile) 1. One National run so far is common to each member of the Current Top Ten. That is, each of the top 10 riders scored points at it. Which National was it?: a. San Jose Half-Mile b. Ascot TT c. Colorado Mile d. San Jose Mile 2. It should now be apparent that Gary Scott has scored National ppin ts in each of the previous 12 Nationals. Surprisingly, anOthe,r National rider is also on a hot streak, having scored points in the last eight Nationals. He is: a. Kenny Roberts b. Gene Romero c. Cal Rayborn d. None of these. 3. After five Road Race Nationals, one rider has' a clear dominance of points with 97 more points than that of the second place rider. The leader in Road Race National Points with 430 is: a. Cal Rayborn b. Gary Fisher c. Yvon DuHamel d. None of these. 4. Mark Brelsford leads all National riders with three wins this season. Jim Rice and Cal Rayborn had each won two with the remaining eigh t going to eigh t separate individuals. The battle for the most second-place finishes is just about as close. The rider with the most seconds (2) is: a. Gary Scott b.Jirn Rice c. Mark Brelsford d. All of these. 5. Frank Gillespie, currently ranked 20th in the National Standings, has scored points at seven Nationals. In those, the highest position he has finished is: a. third b. fourth. c_ fifth d. sixth SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION: Both Dave and Doug Sehl scored points at the Louisville Half-Mile National this year; , Dave finished second and Doug fifth. The Palmgren brothers did it even more spectacularly last season. At which National was it and what did they do? (answers on page 49) * * * * DISCRIMINATION: Traffic lights discriminate against motorcycles. The little doo-dads that trigger signals don't respond' to motorcycles and the light won't change until a car comes along. If you are out in the middle of the nigh t it may be hours until a four-wheel frammus shows up. You can always tum right unless it is a one way street. Then your only recourse is to make a U-turn or run the blinking thing. It is also a pain when you are trying to tum left and no one else is interested. By the very physical set-up you are forced to hreak the law. Maybe if you carry a whole mess of ferrous material around with you it will set off the magnetic trigger. Heard recently that the CHP ticketed a guy who had two bikes without the green negistratlon stlckies on them. He was carrying them in the back of his truck. Hmm. Is the stickle going to be another Instrument for hassling bikers or is the CHP confused about their authority in this area? What If you're carrying your n_ bike home from the dealer's? •• « ... 1 .,~ '*1' , , ,I. • •• ,,; ... '. , • t 't •, II II , •• , t », ~ t •• I N .... Cl ~ ex; a. " ~ ~ w Z w -' U >- U DID YOU KNOW: If all the film that Cycle News personnel shot at Laguna Seca was put end to end it would reach from Long Beach to Wilmington, Delaware. * * (Please tum to page 13) ~". * * The publisher's favorite dirt bike now resides at Executive Services Co,) a new company founded by Ed Wight to provide "competition and off-road '".8 Q. '" told you that that mustache was getting too long!" • ' •• _C, " • . , . If'

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