Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

" ENDER championship at Oklahoma City with a broken thumb. I've seen the pressure and the dejection that comes from giving your all only to have a nickel part fall and erase all that effort. I've seen a lot of changes in ten years and some of those changes are evident when you go to a regional four star or. 1,200 half mile now. There are usually just a handful of racers there and sometimes less spectators. Back .when I started riders were guys like farmers who had to be home Sunday night to milk the cows. They didn't travel the ational circuit, but now it seems like every guy who does any kind of business in his area wants to go out and race the Nationals and become a prima donna or something." Bender feels that the solution to the lack of riders at many non-National events could be solved. "The AMA should bave a' regional setup where a man, say does well there in his local area and then he's invited to the Nationals. That way you wouldn't have 300 guys show up at a Houston - you'd only have the guys who qualified in their respective regions. In other words, you'd have the best guys, the very best riders. I know a lot of people wouldn't like that, but it would help the local race scene because what good is a guy doing for himself by going to a Tational and only practicing and time trialing: Nothing. He'd get himself together more by racing a local half mile where he could run a heat and then race the Main he'd get some racing time in rather than just sitting in the pits watching the National after he didn't make the program." Once started on the lack of riders Bender rolled on. "Tuners aren't building th at many bikes anymore. It goes back to the prima donna thing - like a lot of young riders regard themselves way up here and look down on a mechanic as a big nothing - you know the feeling - they say, 'Well he's just a grease monkey and I'm out there risking my life,' Well, back when I started, a racer would get maybe 30% and the tuner, if and only, if he was good, would get the rest: the 70%. If the racer did business, that would be hauling in those big purses, bu t the young guys today feel that they should have their pockets stuffed with money right at the start. "Young riders either have natural talcn t, no talent or they work on what little natural ability they have and either make it or give up. The guy I always thought had a lot of natural ability was Frank Gillespie. He came up the hard way and is probably the world's greatest moocher: he never has his own cigarettes and things: and some people prob'ably just don't like him but he's starting to get it on and I really expect him to take care of business. Gary Fisher is another natural talent. He was too cocky and Nixon and he didn't really hit it off after a year or two, but Fisher is full of natural ability. You can tell the guys who have it - like,they don't make a lot of excuses when they don't win. Nixon's current .Junior, Steve Dalgarno, wasn't a natural racer like Fisher, but he has really worked on what he has and, like Nixon did, he's putting it all together. Here in the Southeast, or I guess I should say Dixie, we have a Ronnie Dottley. Dottley has natural talent and so does Rob Trammell. But Trammell doesn't really want to listen to anyone, so maybe he's lao cocky." We mentioned the increasing speeds in motorcycle racing, citing as an example the I 75 mph trap speed of Art Baumann's Suzuki at Daytona. "Are you asking me if ilie speeds are too high? Well, hell, what is racing: racing is speed. The only thing that can be done about the increasing speeds is the same thing that should be done about non-availability of the superbikes. I'm a firm believer in the theory that each manufacturer should have a factory road race team of let's say three guys. These guys would be the j ixons", duHamels, Baumanns and guys like that. Let them build any damn thing they can and-I<:.t those guys get out there and race. But at the same time - the same day - let's have a true production race for everybody else. All the machinery in that race would be bikes that Joe Blow can buy down at his local dealer. And all the parts in the bikes would have to be available over the counter. The factory race can be as far out as the manl1facturers want it to Ie -- 10 valves per cylinder, whatever. '\\TIr.e"presenl' setup 'of the' ).\'MALluS'C.!sn '['falr Cd . ;:; o ~ w Z W ..J U >U anyone who doesn't have a factory ride," Bender continued. "Like the factory 500 Triumphs had point cams that couldn't be bought anywhere and they had special cast - well, let's say - cast aluminum cases that Joe Blow couldn't buy. They had special frames that the AMA bent their rules to allow. Now a Reynolds frame was great, but individuals built frames that were as good that they weren't allowed to run. The factories with their money could get certain things approved that the individual couldn't. Things are getting better, but we still have Bob Bailey claiming a factory road racer because there's no way he could get anything like it without claiming one, and then th is year Joe Barringer tried to claim Li ttle John Hateley's Triumph at Louisville. Hell, we know why - guys still have things that the other,guy can't buy. I tIs not only a Triumph or a Harley-Davidson, it's all the manufacturers. The only motorcycle I know that you can buy and take out of the crate and win a race with is a Yamaha road racer. Fisher proved th at this year. Bender commen ted on Harleys, "People seem surprised that Harley's V-twin is still, even though it's gone through changes, doing business. Well, when was the last time you saw a car with a straight cylinder engine doing any business or how about a race car with an odd number of cylinders? V-8 's or V -somethings are doing it with cars and ..that V-twin of Harley does it in a bike. Like, Kawasaki probably has more horsepower per pound than anything around but you just can't get it on the ground. Harley puts those ponies on the ground. "As good as I think the Harley engine is, the best engine I ever worked on was the three-cylinder Triumph. You could run that engine two or even three races without really worrying about it. Like the 500 was actually' a 350 overbored to 500 and it was stressed beyond its natural limits. The presen t 650 twin that's stretched to 750 is the same way - it's on the verge, "In 1968 England sent over three of their Trident engines: two for the west and one -for us in the east. Nixon wanted to try a three cylinder on the dirt at Tazareth so we got Ray Hensley, who was Trackmaster at the time, to build Gary a special frame, He widened a 650 Trackmaster and remounted the engine lugs, The setup worked real good except we would just get too much tire spin and we never really did figure out how to slow it down. Gary got a second to Fred Nix at Nazareth on it and the next year Fisher took that same bike and used il as a road racer, the same frame and all. After two seconds in the Amateur or Junior class behind Rusty Bradley at Daytona and Talladega' 'c finally got a factory frame for Laconia but it was ,econd plaee again as a coil bracket broke off. That motorcycle seemed destined to do nothing better than second until the Pocono non-national road race where Nixon beat duHamel on it for the win. Just as Gary crossed the finish line a valve broke. But Nixon and I spent a lot of time and money on that bike and we knew that if we got the combination together 'it would do business. Like at Sacramento with a factory engine, Nixon was picking up a second a lap on the leader who was Romero and then the tire wore down so low that it just picked up the cases like it was on ice and Gary got off. But I know he would have caught Burrito if the tire hadn't H worn out." Bender has a complete shop attached to his modem home in Stone Mountain that has a-.l:endency to become cluttered with bikes but his house bas only the Master of i\1ech",ics trophy and on one wall three, , framed series of photos to give one the idea that the man who travels the Southeast selling motorcycle accessories was connected with the National circuit. Tbe photos show Buddy Elmore winning Daytona, Gary Nixon doing the same, and a third shot that shows Nixon and Chuck Palmgren crossing the line almost side by side for their 1968 one-two finish at the Reading National. "All the time I was traveling with Nixon I didn't think he could be beat - and that's the way you have to think. When we went to a half mile we always had a Markel, Nix, Roeder, Mann or Rall there, but Gary would always be right up there at the finish. After Gary broke his leg Chuck was the number one rider for Triumph and I took care of all his equipment because nobody else at Triumpb really wanted to help him, Like they thought he was just a young kid and didn't have any real potential. Chuck eventually went to ride with his brother Larry for awhile and then got into Yamahas, and I wonder what those people who back then didn't think be had potential think now." Dick's attractive wife Barbara had just returned from a visit to Baltimore with dozens of steamed crabs; we suggested that we wrap up the conversation and feast. But first we asked Bender if he missed the racing scene. "I definitely miss the racing. I see ads for race mechanics and my heart gets up in my throat and I want to go back but the politics of racing has gotten to be too much. I'd like to build racers for some local racer but traveling thousands of miles every month selling for Rose doesn't leave any time for that kind of thing. I helped Fisher with his dirt stuff at the beginning of last year but h.e lives in Pennsylvania and I live in Trickum Junction, Georgia, and we just couldn't get together enough to keep i.t going. "I enjoy calling on the majori ty of dealers because they are really interested in motorcycles and not just makiJ)g a fast buck. I've got a lot of competition down bere in the accessory business but I like the job and the traveling and I figure that my competition has been s<:.lIing down here for years and they know everybody whereas I'm just starting out but f'm getting there. At times I feel I'm not close enough to motorcycles except with the dealers who know what's really happening. Tbe future of this sport depends on the good dealers who support it. It's a pleasure to sell a guy a truckload of stuff from Rose ,aild then take a minute to perhaps help him with some problem he's having on a racer or whatever." I had lived in Baltimore through the same period as the Benders and not having bad steamed crabs in over six months, r tried to drag Bender to the table but he said he wanted to add a bit of advice for anyone who wanted to be a mechanic. "Most of what a youngster will learn he'll Ir.arn tl,e hard way - by himself. The first time I ever wen t to a race I had a non-name rider, and I went up to Willard Wolfe and told him I didn't know what size jet to use. I showed' him the plugs and he looked me in the eye -"';ld said, "Bender, I have a lot of years invested in kaming what size jets Lo use so it's going to COS I yo~oney to have me tell you.' I though t he was a bastafd then bu t later I realized what he mean t. A guy cat> make good money wrenching but the real competition tuners like Axtell and Sifton - well, they are not the normal grease monkey. And the only way I could really be happy wrenching is either s:tying what the hell and go back traveling the ational circuit or having a real competition tuning shop like an Axtell," Dixie dealers: the next time your Southeast Rose Cycle sales rep walks in the door remember that he's n01' just another accessory satem:u"t, "hoe's Dick' Bender, Master of Mecbanics. • , ,

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