Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ gambit~ ar ... "'- '" " N .... Q. ~ In ,;, :J: By Ron Schneiders 4r. c.o ;;: u:I z- markets to determine the order in which customers ar,e served. The cards will be numbered consecutively. so that turning down the "'3" reveals the "4", turning down the "6" reveals the "7" and so on. At key time fOT that check the person in, charge of the flip card rack will start his job, Every minute thereafter he will (Please I UTn 10 pg. 49) The views expressed in tl1is column and other columns appearing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positIon of cycle News West or C & S PubliShing Co . Qualified readers wishing free and eQual rebuttal space should contact the Managing Editor, John Bethea, by mail or phone stating your position on these matters. The times they are a changin· .... . . Cast year at thIs time the prospects <3 -for enduro riders in Southern California >- I.ooked pretty grim. Many of the events U were technically poor, with inaccurate time checks, distances measured with rear-whee I-drive speedos and just plain sJoppy work at the checks. Terrain w varietv was almost nil. You had a choice of des'ert with sandwashes or desert with rocks. Scoring took forever arid often seemed to bear nO relation to A, competition eerfor:mance. was developing among the clubs to see who could promote the run with the le«st ,"umber of finishers. The number of entrants started declining and continued to decline until the new year. Happily, things are _ changing somewhat for the better. Most of the District runs have been technicallv much better this year. Two clubs, the Shamrocks and the Dirt Diggers, have found new areas with more variety of te.rrain, The CERA is planning to throw its big run of the year in a new area, a m.ilitary res-ervation that they have obtained permission to use. \Ve'rc still lacking anything resembling a wet sJoppy winter run. but maybe some plans are afoot in some unheard from dub house. Night enduros are becoming almost commonplace. One of the most excitin.g new developments IS coming from the Checkpoints M.C. At their enduro which will be held on August 19th, they will be using a new checking system which should enable them to award the trophies on the spot. Here's how it works.' Under the current system, when you get to a check the checker writes the real time on your card. You can thel\ go to the posted card. do a bit of subtracting and if you don't get screwed up with the minutes and hours, you c.an figure out whether you 're early or late and how many points you've losl. Scoring is a nigh tmare, particularly when the numbers run over 60, because then the hours have to be converted to 60 minutes and then the minute$ to points for each check for each rider. It takes weeks, and no wonder. Under the new system to be used in the Checkpoints run. each rider will receive a scorecard with the checks numbered from 1 to 10 or however many there are. Opposite each check will be three blank spaces, On the first of these. opposi,(e each check number •. the rider will write his riding number. Let's say he has number 67. He wil1 then have a whole string' of 67's d'own his 'card, ,\t the check there wil1 be a nip card rat:k simil~lr 'lO those that are used in m.o.r.e. from tile ca~rt~J PART I Council FOREWORD On February 8. 1972. President Nixon issued I::xecutive Order 11644. entitled "Use of Off-Road Vehicles on the Public Lands." Few subjects have aroused the ire of u[f-road vehicle enthusiasts as much Dow-infamous as this Presidential Pro.clamation. The California dirt-riders have responded the greatest, probably du~ to tbe fact that much of the public lands have already been closed to their (ORVAC) was making satisfactory headway with respect to the lands under their jurisdiction,\vhen in 1970 and 1971 several California counti s cnacted "written permission" ordi nanecs. These ordinances, which require written permission of the owner before entering private land. effectively blocked most desert riding in Sou thern My column in Cycle i'\ews was the report the Presidential first to Proclamation, and we suggested a massive letter.writing campaign to let the Presiden t know that he had stepped on OUf toes. And then the confusion started: the AMA and the MIC' came out in public support of the Executive Order. This left a lot of people in a state of confusion: should they be "for" or "dgainst" the Presidential Proclamation? I have closely followed the actions which ,have occured since the Prodama tion was issued. My files can tain enuugh letters and related announcements to fill an en tire book. This material has now been condensed and will appear in this column in a series of articles, beginning this week. GENESIS to use the public lands beca~se we are upon these ~ The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. being the your use tax on the desert l I'm glad this subject came up mid-week so I could blow up over it. 1 know a great many of you don't follow enduros, trials and what have you, just the particular branch of the sport you participate in. But, once a vear the U.S.A. has a chance to meet ~ose to nose with the rest of the world in the ISDT. In past years, we haven't fared so badly, even in the distan t past when just a couple of riders would proceed forth to represent the U.S.A, by themselves, usually footing their ewn bills. Recently. the event has caught more interest and in the past two years, in Spain and at the Isle of Mann. we fielded full teams and came home with some of the goodies. Those. and previous entrants, weiC chosen by men who know what 'the ISDT is. having ridden it themselves. Thi.s year it was chosen by Don 1I'00ds, who doesn't know much about it (to put it mildly). 'rhe A~IA has struck again, I know a lot of this was covered bv Ron Schneiders last week· but 1''';' en titled to my two cen ts worth, and my opinion probably dirfers from some of his statements. BultacD should definitely have been given the chance 1.0 rield a team and the A~I!\ knew it way in advance. Jf they weren'L interested, how come Dave Lkins and company were making some of the qualifying rounds? i'"lv sources tell me: that J\like Vancil. before he left the !\MA knew they turn it over to local govern men t such as the state of California. Alaska. Georgia and probably several more. But, dear friends, that doesn't stop the Government of the United States from levying their own little taxes, and that's what they are going to do. So now we are going to be paying double ante to ride our own land. Before my editor screams because of space limitations I'll just pick out a few goodies from this directive that will make your hair curl if you ride the desert, and remember, while reading it that vou will probably already have spit up the $15 to the state .. Where marc than 2:"'1 vehicles are racing on :l closed course, t)O days before the event you must apply for permission to do it. The 131."'1 must reply within 60 uays. (Puts a bit of a pinch on scouting areas before hand, doesn't it?) Wrjtlcn permission must be received from all private land owncrs if you use their land. As a rule of thumb. a $1,000 bond per lOO riders must be posted. made out to the U.S. Governmen t and repayable when the local officer is satisfied that all damage, 4 etc. to the land is repaired acceptably to him. (Thin.k that one over. too!) The land use I"ee will be $2 perrider shouldn't be Puch. with all uue apologies to that marque. Everyone because they require that 10% before you come up with the necessary knows lheir miserable record in past block the establishing of these areas. Nevertheless, the BL~I, continued with ISDT's where they have the happy tendency to disin tegrate rather rapidly. If pa~t records mean anything, there che,mical johns, ambulances, ,etc. and it also includes any concession stand you may have at your event. After paying all those bills after thai 10% is ripped off. its goes half our "13" learn in the first two lots of luck if you have anything left for clays, if not all of them. Wh ile choosing all differen t policy required ... plus all kinds 01" little teams and the men to ride on tJlem docs things like trash receptacles which doesn't include trash bag pick-ups. safety patrols on the course while racing enthusiast. the BL:\I commenced setting aside large 'tracts' of public I.and for such use. Of course, the anti-ORV preservationists did their very best to erforts to provide areas where conflicts with other users would be minimized. Simultaneously. the US Forest Service was conducting studies to establish fair> and equitable regulations for use a f off-road veh icles on National Forest lands. This was pretty much the condition throughout California at the beginn.ing of 1972. regardless of who is them, all trophies. There's a horrendous insurance the tend to get confusing, (Ron explains how that is done.) I still can't for the lire or me, see how Don Woods could have left out such riders as the East Coast's top enduro rider Dave Lathem; Dave Ekins. who has plenty ",f golds to his credit and is eurrently Number Two PROCLAMATION ISSUED meeting of February 7, issued a resolution declaring that "the operation of off-road vehicles should be presumed to be detrimental to all areas and should accordingly be prohibited on all public lands unless proven otherwise by competent, impartial investigators". if you memory. Our major care to refresh objection in District ~ i and sixth nationally, and Bob Steffan who is second nationally; not to mention several others who should have had a berth. . I 'ni starting to get vibrations that pick out all the good parts from District 3i's supplementary rule book and then added all the other stuff they could think of, plus getting some more money out of us riders and other ORV enthus,iasts. Mosl of us are just regular working people, not people in the current tax not right experienced Lrials and rna tocross rider couldn't make it, The rirst rider bellied-up on the first day and that was the last we heard of him except for the lovely travel movies he got of Europe. the than an entrant for the ISDT should be a top enduro rider. At one time. I though t 4 and clean-up arter an event. '''hat they've done on this directive is although I hate to call foul when it's uncalled for. In past years I saw some muscle brought to bear to put one totally incompetent rider (for ISDT competition) on the team while another is There is also a common error made to is going on, much 01" which is already covered by District 37 rules fur safety somewhere, someLhing your Presidential Proclamation is not its agencies having jurisdictional administration of the greater areas of _ intent, but its wording. II~ esscnce it directs the various federal land use public land. suddenly found themselves faced with the problem of agencies to "stamp Out orr·road so too and was forced to eal my words when a couple of chaps who were desert rats came back with medals. The best user-conflicts, To this end, the problem vehicles" unless they can find any area material is a good motocrosser or desert rider who can do his own mechanicaJs, was morc or less resolved by establishing tbat isn't in conflict with some other user group. so the boys who leap on sponsor-prepared bikes every week and can't change a tire in four minutes or turn a wrench are goin-g La be out, The motocrosser and the desert rider, travel is restricted to designated trails It was in the beginning, and still is my fear that the land-use agencies are approaching the implementation of Execu tive Order 11644 in just that and roads. manner. dof thi~ ~erie.s. , on scouting an area to hold one before three categories of public land: 1. Wilderness areas in which nO vehicular travel is allowed. 2... Restricted areas in wh"ich vehicular million acres of .land we have here so or 10% of the gross, wh ichever is greaLer. That's the rea! sn ... ke in the grass Ncws, transportation when S10,OOO to help with the sludy. so just rattle that one around in your head when you think where our lax money goes! After a ph1>ne call last night, I felt like I'd been clobbered with a sandbag, or coshed as they say in London.as to the Land Use fee our Government has come up with to ride or drive ORV's on public land. First, we are supposed to pay the state our $15 to ride on public lands. I complained bitterly about that, how come they can charge me to ride on Federal land? _ Seems the Federal Governm"nt just can't pony up' enough money to hire enough rangers to police the 20-odd it Recogniling the impossible situation this caused for the off-road vehicle common. of week properly run, Don Woods shoul.d have known th is when he took over the job. If any machine is to represent our International Silver Vase "'B" team, public lands, connicts between user groups began to occur and become more forms one distinguish between public and private land which is nut fenced, posted, or The following day, President Nixon issued his I';xecutive Order 11644 which closely paralleled the Sierra Club's policy statement of the previous day. A copy of the Executive Order was published in its entirety on page 3 of the 22 February 19i2 issue of Cycle pa<.l of that public. Of course, other members of the public are also en ti tied to their use of these same public lands. And, when we brought our mechanized is Bultaco wanted, in, and if the 1\1\11\ is The Sierra Club. in its San Francisco In the beginning there was private land and there was public land, 'Even though you and [owned private land upon which we built our home" businesses. farms, and other forms of enterprise. we still maintained the right This columnist feels everything is going (or has gone) wrong ar the same time. On one of the issue, the ISDT team, l'm glad my column runs a week late so I can be more objective; on the other, the California because it is impossible to under cultivation. use. By Maureen Lee providing he holds his head together and t rials overrun the clocks is much or enduros from week to week. 1980; not only that, but the Canadian GOVetnme,nt i~ ki~kipg in aJ;ou,nci, structure that helps the rich and to hell with the middle or lower class working man who doesn't own his own business. Another nasty thought has popped into my mind. Have you noticed how many motorcycle parks, new ones, that is, are opening? Their tax structure makes it worthwhile to have a lobbyist or two around to get us off the open land and into their parks for riding. Maybe I'm psychic or something but I can see the day coming. if it ain't really here already. that the unly place you'll have to ride a dirt bike is in a park. That will hurt the dirt bike shops like hell, hurt those of us \·\lho own more than one dirt bike per family because we won't be able to afford to ride them at so many bucks per head. It will hun the working man who works on or in the dirt bike fiei'd. including publications (not the publishers though. they arc in the other tax structure). J could go on. but. I fell orf my soap box paragraphs ago. Besides the tea kettle is whistling and I need a good stron[ cuppa! Cycle News will keep you posted on this current outrage, so read even the pieces in the paper that aren't rilc re uJ,t,s! "

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