Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

If you like sidecars, or think you might, You're invited to a free PICNIC (!) with others of like disposition at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Be at the Mineral Wells Picnic Grounds from 11 a.m., October 15th until you want to go home. Bring your own lunch and a friend, or make a friend there and eat his/her lunch. • • • for the Ontario Champion Motorcycle Spark Plug Classics is Bryon Farnsworth, former ''Cycle'' magazine staffer and presently an employee for Kawasaki where he has been developing the 903 four. It's scheduled for November 25th; that's a Saturday. One big change is that there will be MAlI: ENTRIES ONLY. No post entry. Same start area and finish area bu t no specific course ou tline is available yet. Boots Enterprises, a printing firm in North Hollywood, will give ten percen t of their ree to M.O.R.E. (Motorcycle Owners, Riders, and Enthusiasts) when someone comes in for prin ting and mentions M.O.R.E. You can tell them after he sets his fee. M.O.R.E. is California motorcycling's legislative watchdog and should be supported wherever possible. Boots can be reached at 11415 Chandler Blvd., in North Hollywood 91601. If you want to communicate through wires: 213/985-7700. Wh ile on the subject of new machinery, the possibility of a BSA speedway engine is still under discussion. It seems that there would be a good potential market for it in the Stand inavian countries. Nothing is firmed up on that, however. • • • • • • • • • • • • A bunch of the troops from Kawasaki (or working for 'Kawasaki) were at Arroyo last Sunday participating in the 0-37 motocross for an upcoming combined Kawasaki promo and (separate) TV series to air early next year. Jerry Greene, AMA Junior class rider of considerable note who will be an Expert next year, writes with green ink. '* '* *- Both Bill Wirges and Don Vesco are returning to Bonneville for another assault on the motorcycle land speed record. Originally they were to meet on the salt together, but Vesco is still sorting out the Yamaha 750 four strokes and won't be there for another week or so. The double Kawasaki 750 streamliner of Wirges should be streaking down the flats shortly after you read this. There is no doubt that Wirges can do it. His streamliner went 197 MPH on one engine in fourth gear (instead of fifth) during speed week, and he can probably approach the 300 mark if everything is basically righ t, even without fine tuning. • • • • • • If turn workers (traffic con trol) at Ontario spenl as much time cleaning the track as lhey did hassling photographers, we migh t have missed a neat picture of Mark Brelsford crossed up on a piece of Red Pridmore's windshield. 150mm lens was finally enough to persuade workers lO pick up the motorcycle junkyard at the apex of Tum Six. • • • Long Beach, our Home Town, is on the way to getting itself a motorbike park, praise be. A committee of the L.B. Safety Council announced that the Ci ty and the U.S. Navy are agreed on the site (N avy land) and the park will be in operation in the near future. Our own Tom Culp and Honda dealer Charlie Schott served on the committee. It shoull:! be a neat place to ride, near the Queen Mary. • • • The week of October 22-28 is proclaimed "Cycle Awareness Week," 'by Ken Milier, Mayor of Torrance, Calif. His Honor calls upon "all our citizens organizations, churches, schools, hospitals and lay groups to recognize this week through appropriate programs." Gimme those lay groups! A cycle safety clinic at Ascot Oct. 28 is part of the show. More on this later. • • • DiffBrake, the guys who brought champagne and non-con tingency prize money to AMA roo tacross, are au t to conquer the desert by offering 5,000 to finishers of the Barstow-to-Vegas classic. If you win with a DiffBrake, you're bucks-up. If you just finish, DiffBrake will pay your entry fee. The $21.95 gizmo, engineered for most bikes, is available through dealers or DiffBrake, Box 94, Troy, Mich. • • • We were looking over the products at a European show and noticed some of the neat things coming out of Europe. There a1'e several three-cylinder two strokes on their ways. From France comes the 3S0cc Motobecane with a disc brake. There is also a Munch with a 700cc two stroke three cylinder snowmobile engine. Munch has also fitted fuel injectors to their big four stroke fours. The three cylinder Laverda 1000 was displayed as were the new Triumphs. The new Bonneville and Tiger models have had a displacement boost to 750cc and have been given (hooray) disc brakes as has the Trident. Zundapp showed a water cooled 50, and Hercules displayed their Wankel which will go into'production next year. • • • The new SOOcc Yamaha motocrosser will be their only big bore MX machine for 1973. They are dropping the 360cc model out of their line. That 500 is more than a handful. Just ask Tripes or Jones or Weinert. Of course, that won't stop every squirrel in the world (and probably a few good riders) from trying to get his hot little hands on one. For some reason, the European riders don't seem that stoked by the 500. • • • At the other end of the scale, Yamaha is also building a 49cc reed valve 'that looks a lot like the rest of their enduro models except with, a low pipe. The designation is MR50 and it produces a claimed six HP at 9000 RPM. Probably have to buy it in Japan, though. • • • COMING EVENTS: Next week see Pigman strangle the cop who starts up .his unmuffled Corvair at 11 :23 P.M. every night. Right after he gets through with the guys that play the mariachi music at 2 A.M. and then get drunk and sing along. • • YOU CAN'T VOTE! If you don', register ... and that's the truth. Registration for this year's Presidential elections in November has been extended through Sunday, October 8th. Since not too many of you will want to bop down and find a registrar on Sunday, your last effective day register is this Saturday, the seventh. Voter registrars are located at U.S. Post to Offices, on the sidewiIk at most big shopping centers and at your neighborhood Democratic and Republican campaign headquarters. How you vote is important to you. That you do vote is important to the country. If you want the things and candidates you like to "actually happen, then you better do something about it. Nobody else can vote for you. • • • • • • • WHO'S ON, OR IS, FIRST DEPT. Keen-minded readers will recall that this paper proudly notified the world that Brad Lackey finished nin th overall m the recent Motocross des Nations in the Netherlands. The other paper said that he finished eighth overall. Now an official Kawasaki press release (That's Brad's sponsor.) says thal he fmished tenth. The same press release notifies us that Peter Lamppu finished in the fourth position in the recently completed InlerAMA. Monlesa, his sponsor for that series, claimed a more modest sixth place finish for Peter. What does it all mean? * • * Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, it seems that Jim Pomeroy (Bul) was 22nd overall and the Yamaha contingent of Jim Weinert and Gary Jones were 26th and 36th in the final tally. Belgium, Sweden and Holland seem to have been the top three country teams with the US of A seventh overall amongst the nations competing. • Former world 250cc road racing • * champion Rod Gould is retiring from There has been changed ruling regarding competition. • • • the AMA-sanctioned Indoor horl If you have been thinking about Track at the Oakland Coliseum on subscribing to us or giving someone a October 7th. Novices will be allowed to gift SUb, it would be wise to do it soon. participate, compete, and otherwise do Our mailing costs have gone up 135% their thing indoors. The shOW was and that means our cost will also. Our previously restricted to Juniors and cou nter price will probably go up to Experts only. fifty centavos. Still, we're a bargain at ~ twi"e th. price.; just compare ..• , - •••• .' -., - • I' ...... '" *' .... ' * .• \>, ... , ... " Des~to any.Jrumofti you may have Ttie fe\toW y~u se:'011 tt:e'billb~~rds ., 'Heard, BaHfbW-to-V<;gi\S j,s - U

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