Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

..... • "You're not going to believe this, Miss . Mendergast, but, uh, the reason that my Biology term p.aper wasn't turned in is because I was late for school this morning y'know, and I strll1ped my books on my bike - my motorcycle - in a hurry, y'know, and, uh, they fell off while I was crossing Main Street and all my, uh, papers blew all over the place, and, uh, the last time I saw my term paper it was on the grill of a Peterbilt truck with Wisconsin plates heading north. So I was wondering if I could maybe have an extension." * * l 1. N ..... Ol .... N t> o ~ w Z W ...J VAT IS DIS: You can now get BMW's ~ in red and lime green. That makes six u colors besides black. * I used to have a 750 girlfriend but it holed a piston. * * * * present member The only that will be on the Yamaha racing team for sure next year is Kenny Roberts. New faces on the team will be Gary Fisher and Don Castro. All three are real.ly good ill-rounders and anyone could win the Number One plate. Both Castro and Fisher have been riding private Yamahas with occasional factory assistance this season. Kel Carruthers is being negotiated to come back next season as manager for the team. Kel wants to hang up his leathers and is going to phase himself out next year, which seems awfully strange since he won several 250 class road races this year and won the first segment at Ontario and had a good shot at the second until his engine quit. In other words, Kel is still one .of the best road racers in the world. * * * * Speaking of Yamaha racing stuff, Yamaha has generously thrown four Cold Cup races ",ext year: indoor short tracks at the Astrodome and Madison Square Cardens, the Mile at Pike's Peak, and the half-mile at Salem, Oregon. * * * * * * Derbi (a kind of Spanish motorcycle) in the capable hands of Angel Nieto has won world titles in both the 50cc and 125cc road racing classes at the last GP in Spain. NEWS ITEM: One of the stars of the Kentucky Fried Theater was thrown out of the fourth grade for doing an obscene impression of an Osterizer. * * * interesting, and a little It is scary, to note that of 54 different brands and designs of motorcycle helmet tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, only eight passed the tests, meeting the minimum mndards of the American National Standards Institute for safety equipment. It is even a sorrier comment that in states' with mandatory helmet laws (which is most of them at this point), these states do not have any standards set for motorcycle helmets. Presumably, you could avoid being ticketed in. these states by wearing a coconut shell with a chin strap ...just so long as you were wearing it. Mandatory helmet legislation by ignorant legislatures can be hazardous to your health. We'll try to find out which ones passed the test and why the others did n't. * * * The Qualifier for a site for next year's ISDT in the U.S. is now being termed the In ternational Two-Day Trial by the M.tA under FlM sanction. This is the one that will demonstrate the Berkshire venue for the FlM represen tatives from Europe, principally Senor Ignacio Bulto. Rumor and speculation was made last issue abo u t a Harley -D avidson manufacturer's team for the ISDT next year. According to the official AMA entry list, this is looking more like a reality. PreSton Petry, Jack Krizman, Mitch Mayes and Wayne Cook are entered in the Two-Day Trial on 125 Harley-Davidsons. * * * Some other interesting entries are the 450 Kawasaki ISDT machines and Mick Andrews, yes, the Trials rider, on the 250 Ossa that's named after him. There is also one Zdenek Cespiva from Prague, Czechoslovakia. Guess what he's riding. He was one of the more outstanding members of this year's winning Czech Trophy Team and probably one of the top 10 ISDT riders in the world. He has more FIM gold than Ft. Knox. Rokon, the bike with the torque converter, isalso entering a team. ~ * * * The Dunecycle'company is giving the JUNIOR winner at the Race of Champions aD unecycle. Somebody is remembering the Juniors. * * * . * * * Randall "Speedy" Gonzales of Cedar Rapids Iowa the Open class at the Canadian National Hillclimb. He was aboard a Norton. His was a little different than Phil Read's. * * The ACA has arranged to have a road race for two-wheelers at the Times-Mirror Crand Prix on October 29 at Riverside. There will be an estimated 100,000 sporry-ear fans on hand, and it will do something good. This will be a real race, too, and not an exhibition like the A FM had at the Ontario 500. The ACA is only accep ting 45 en tries from Seniors and other qualified riders. They need your entries by the 20th. This means that their six and twelve hour production enduros will be rescheduled for later in the year.. Yes! How did you know I ride a motorcycle? Triumph's Vice President E.W. Colman is thinking about entering factory teams in the U.S. Six Days Trial mounted on Rickman and Triumph. * * * Long Beach, California is one of the first (if not THE first) city to offer a class in basic motorcycle maintenance as part of its recreation program. The class will run for seven wee.ks, two hours a week for a fee of $7. "While I think the world' would be a better place if they had never invented the motorcycle," quipped one Recreation Commissioner, "I think this is a good service for young people." America's * new * * Grand National _Champion Mark Brelsford says he earned S 100,000 racing motorcycles this year, including a nice surprise bonus from sponsor Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Now, with a business manager, Mark is negotiating for endorsements, guest appearances 'aIld movie roles. He is 23 years old. * * * Pardon the short notice, but on October 20 (this Friday) at 9 a.m. there is going to be a public meeting of the State Park and Recreation Commission at 217 W. First Street, Los Angeles. Subject: Whether Red Rock Canyon should be locked up as a park (no motor vehicles) or preserved as a State Recreation Area (where you can still ride). The eco-freaks will be there in full force, so if recreationists want to continue using Red Rock we must attend and be heard. * * * Triumph is getting out of racing - in England. The U.S. company will continue to race next year, but with a smaller team than the previous BSA-Triumph effort. There will be no BSA team because the only BSA made in 1973 will be the 500 MX. The likely members of the Triumph team will be Dick Mann, Cene Romero, and Cary Scott. * * * Phil Read, aboard a John Player'Norton, won the final round of the Superb ike series over in England. Ontario winner Paul Smart on his Seeley Kawasaki was second. * * * * * * Some people actually took the time to write to ABC Television about the "Mod Squad" episode that featured the dirry, evil dirt bikers. That does more good than writing us. We like motorcycles and motorcyclists of most every persuasion, already . SB 921, which is actually a BLM-sponsorea bill drafted within the Dept. of the Interior, has the effect of repealing all laws regarding the public domain. It also adds that anyone on public lands withou t permission is subject to a S 1000 fine and up to six months imprisonment. Are you ready for that? Permission from who? * * * It was pointed out that some might interpret the blurb in last week's column about the Cycle Safety Clinic at Ascot as allowing the clinic participants to ride in the afternoon, as well as the A.M. Not so. The afternoon will be devoted to demos and the like by professional riders and bike cops. Watch and learn. * * Early reports of a Team Turkey en try in the 160 mile desert classic proved erroneous as we felt it was just too close to Thanksgiving to risk it. * * * The "Hang Ten" sponsored Trans-AMA at Carlsbad on November 5 will be televised by ABC's Wide World of Sport, since their last TV show of the same ilk was such a raging success. (Of course.) ToO- bad they're not as together with their weekly programming. (Ref. "Mod Squad") * * * Our sister publication, Cycle News East, has the brazen audaciry and perverse perniciousness to run a Pit Tootsie of the Year contest. If your secret desire is to have a year's subscription to CN East or an autographed photo of that paper's . editor, get your entry into them. Frankly, the average California pit tootsie is probably far superior to anything their lustful camera's eye has ever seen. Any Western pit tootsie can undoubtedly blow off any Eastern pit tootsie. * * * * which we're near-freak accidents, at the Check Chase, Dave Massey got off in the sandwash after the smoke bomb and was severely injured. He's still in a coma and the medics can't figure out which way to go. They hope that anyone who saw the get-off can provide them with information as to the circumstances, so Dave can be helped more in telligently. His plate was No. 1268. He was riding a 360 Yamaha and wearing a Masterlinks jumper. If you saw what happened, contact Don Willey at 714/827-7427. * * * * * * * * * * The entry blank for the S.G.V.M.C. Barstow·to-Vegas H&H printed last week was too small for most people to use. The ad has been changed to provide a much larger blank to write on. As everybody knows by.now, this one is a mail entry only. Curley Maxwell of the San Gabriel Valley M.C. advises that if you need additional entry blanks you can make use of the standard District 37 blank. . * * In addition to the unfortunate fatalities, Pittsburgh police bumped into a guy who'was creeping around his house with a smoking .357 magnum pistol in his hands. He confessed to the awful crime. "1 just killed my motorcycle." Neaby lay the bike, with five slugs in it. The guy told the judge the shooting followed an argument with his wife over the motorcycle. Some guys just don't have any sense of values. they get $12.50 a day for appearing. If you lose, you pay him. * Norton-Villiers of England is presently in the final stages of putting their 500cc (or so) monster-erosser under the AJS tag. Decisions on tuning and frame design are yet to be made. Right now it boils down to a flat power band torquer (which is the one that attacked Doug Grant's leg a couple months back); a million horsepower screamer (a la Yamaha); and a third proto with an lsolastic frame configuration. Isolastic means the engine, gearbox, and swing arm assembly are mounted on the same resilient polymer mounts. This keeps t!le whole power train on the same plane and red uces the vibration that plagued the 410 AJays. One of these rockets was supposed to be ready for the Barstow-to-Vegas thing but it looks as though there will be a few more months of coin.flipping in England before we see one here in the colonies. * * witness is invaluable to your case but * * Contrary to what you may have read anyplace else, including elsewhere in this paper, (Only Papa Wealey and Barkfeather know what's really going on.) the post entry for the Dirt Diggers' Grand Prix is $100. Yeab, a giant bill. Mail entry is still $10, if there are any slots left in your class. If you're an Open Amateur Sidehack, there might be a ehance ...Don't give up. Write the DDMC today! One word of warning pertinen t to the article in this issue about faulty service and claims by John Ulrich. An expert * * * The Chinese are doing it. From Taiwan come motorcycles ranging from a 50cc roastry valve two stroke to a Wankel powered roadster. They are the Shin San Ton (SST) machines which presently market minibikes. * * * I NEXT WEEK: RACE AND PHOTO COVERAGE RACE MX at Corona AMC MX at Saddleback Bay Mare MX Live and in Black and White

• Cover