Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125811
MAKE THAT MAN WEAR A HELMET: Assemblyman Edwin L. Z'berg, the California legislator behind the helmet bill and the no-bikes-on-public-Iands bill was arrested for drunken driving recently after he was involved in an accident where he rear-ended another car. Officers said that it appeared Z'berg was going faster than .the legal limit. No one was seriously lqjured. This was Z'berg's second drunk driving arrest, and he pleaded no 10 contendre. * * * We noticed that BMW' is putting out a neat little magazine for all BMW owners. If you have a BMW and don't start receiving your magazine soon, you can sign up for it at your dealer. • • • THE HIDDEN MENACE: If you're a Simi Valley bikie: you'd better ride only where it's legal. '(It's a good idea even if you aren't from the Simi Valley.) The Police Department out there has started using undercover agents on bikes to bust illegal off-road dudes. The Van Nuys HNews" termed dirt bike riders as "dare deyils" and said that the police are doing this on a volunteer basis. We haven't heard of volunteer work for a lot of other things that need it even more. Maybe the officers just want a chance to go riding on private property. * * * RIP OFF A PIECE OF THE ROCK: For the first time this year, the San Gabriel MC was forced 10 cut off entries to the Barstow·to·Yegas trail ride. They didn't do this completely by choice. (The BLM may have had a hand in persuaqing them.) They did point out to those who had missed the deadline that there was nothing keeping them from riding out there along the same route at the same time. This would seem to h ave several ramificadons. First, those who had entered were not covered by AMA . insurance while those who were just "riding along" would be" If the BLM was unhappy enough about the event to arrest those involved, then those en tered could be arrested while the trail followers would have to be let off' - if they had green sticki'es - since they were just out trail riding and not involved in an organized race. Think about it. * * * CARABELA PAYS WINNERS, TOO. Carabela Moto Imports notched up a big victory at the hands of Bob Brooks, winning the talent-loaded 125 Am/Ex class at the Dirt Diggers I-lopetown Grand Prix. The little red screamer from Mexico finished first under Brooks' prodding and the Carabela people were so happy that they came up with a luncheon and a very nice bonus check for Bob in appreciation for his ride. Now that's showing the kind of gratitude an Expert rider can understand. Carabela is to he congratulated for looking after their riders and preparing a bike that held together for 45 minutes on the Dirt Diggers' course. • • • Some other people that have been helping out racers are the Bel-Ray Lubricants types. They are picking up half the tab for Team Maico which, . needless to say, has been a rather successful venture with Ake winning the series and Hans Maisch currently fifth. Bel-Ray are makers of industrial lubricants and trying to break into the motorcycle market. Well, Ake's Maico hasn't quit yet. But th·en it didn't cough up too much in Europe during the GP season, either. * * * * • • CMC is going to have a gi:m t prize giveaway and t'vo hours o( cycle films on December 5th at 7:30 P.M. at Mission Viejo High School (Take the La Paz off-ramp from the San Diego freeway south.) Everybody who thinks they should get a prize as a result of the CMC Hi-Performance ough t to be there. It now looks like the between-rides Mr. Tripes will campaign a privately-owned 360 Yamaha in a Boyd & Stellings frame at Carnegie and Saddleback. It's Mark Rodman's scooter and Jim Pileggi is doing the tuning. Marty really did want to ride in the 500 International class. • • • The trophy for the World Speedway Championship, currently held by New Zealander Ivan Mauger, is a 22-inch Barum speedway tire with silver wings on it. Novel and different. • • • NORTON ADDENDA: If you read our Norton test last week, you are still waiting with baited breath to find out what happened to it so here it comes. It broke a wire in .the electrical system. Hence, the lack of go. A few minutes would have fixed it. It's too bad that we didn't figure out what was wrong. It was so much fun to ride ... * ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE SCHIFF Suzuki is planning to re·enter international road racing, beginning with at least one prototype 750 contesting the championship Formula 750 events in Europe this coming season. 1974 should see a full-blown factory effort with support from the japanese factory, mechanics, the whole bag. Suzuki has done very well in the past in the 50cc and 125cc formula classes in International competition with a number of world championships some years back. • • • Paul Rulev and Gunnady Moiseiev are signed with the Austrian KTM firm to campaign the mach ines in next year's 250 World Championship class. The Russians have started an intensive winter training course near the Black Sea which features riding on four different course types with the KTMs: mud, sand, grass and rock. in preparation for the coming GP circuit~ Both Joel Robert and Roger DeCoster figure that the Austrian KTM is as fast as the World Champion 250 Suzuki. It remains to be seen if the Russians are as fast as Robert and Geboers in the coming Championship rounds. * * * * jim Weinert, in the pits at the end of the day, revealed that he now plans to . go South for the win ter and will be campaigning in the Winter-AMA s.eries in Florida. Also invading Gary Bailey's turf will probably he 1972 AMXT Captain Bryan Kenney, whosc motor sounded worse at Carnegie than it did in Phoenix, wherc it sounded pretty sick. It is, needJess to say, not as strong a Maico as Ake's. The two people with the least mechanical problems in the series would seem to be Ake and Brad Lackey. A RIDE! A RIDE! WHO HAS A RIDE? At the moment, it looks like Paul Smart doesn't. The Kawasaki team will be made up of rO.ad racers Yvon DuHamel and Art Baumann. Baumann was with ·Suzuki. Suzuki will have a new face on its British team: Tony Jefferies, formerly with Triumph. Smart seems to be out in the cold a.fter pulling off a win at the biggest road race going - Ontario. If 2.50 World Champ Joel Robert ever gets to finish all three motos, he might be inspired to get it on with a bit more vigor. He is still wisely saving his knee. Seems as if we wandered into the playground of the Honda Fours Cafe 'Racers club over Thanksgiving weekend. While proceeding down Angeles Forest H ig hway, a rather blurry figure happened by, seemingly very intranced with goings-on. A little farther down there was a group of three more beside the road, looking at their watches. What :ould they have been doing? No doubt an economy run. • • • * * * An on the road survey of slipstreaming techniques has revealed some of the finer poten tial hole-in·the·air makers . Overall winner of the .survey was the Yolkswagen Camper. Later models were found to be preferable due to their higher top speed. American vans proved to be generally undesirable due to a buffeting effecL Of course tour buses are nice for wind. but bad for smell. The largest pickup campers punch a fairly decent hole, but! settling into their draft seems to cause untold amounts of paranoi~ upon the driver's pan. Volkswagen drivers seem to understand and occasionally waved in recognition. The only problem with the YWs is avoiding fIying parts from occassional explosions. • • • In a film being made by Doug Grant about motorcycle racing, etc., there is a section about how bikes improve wildlife. The theory is that the passing of bikes over ground aerates the soil, causing wildflowers to be more prevalent on occassionally used motorcycle trails, than on virgin earth. * * * Oul at lhe Barstow to Vegas run was a film company from Germany, making an eigh t minu le short to be shown in Europe. It apparently wasn't a low budget number either as they made liberal usc of helicopters. * only a '" * third of Last year the starters in the Barstow to Vegas finished. This year there were 2,SOO starters and the SG VMC ran out of finisher pins at the 1,000 mark. There were 1,617 finishers this year. You can f,igure your own fractions and they might tell you something about this years run. * * * * * * \·Vhich reminds us, has anyone given something good to Cliff Carr and Kevin Cameron? '" * • • * * The European sidehacks put on one of the most crowd-pleasing exhihitions evcr at the Carnegie TransAMA. The spectators wen t more berserk at the sigh t of thc yellow-shirted 750 class m otocrossers caroming around the course than anything else all day. Those guys actually race, not just try to survive on a motocross course. The Honda-powered Wasp seemed to have more horses as it showed on the straights and hills but was'also heavier as it showed in the corners and Over jumps. where the Norton-engined hacks really flew. The Honda won both exhibition motos much to the delight of the crowd. Those guys are very fierce racers, all of them. The American hackers were in a different class entirely. It was almost like it used to be with the solo motocrossers. The best racing action of the day was the battle between the 1I0nda of the Haller Bros. and the Norton oJ Lubbers/Notten in the final motQ. • • • The only two-stroke in the sidehack exhibition was a Yankee 500 twin. * * * YEAlt. BUT IT'S A LONG ONE: Overheard at Barstow to Vegas was a motOcrosser who was tclUng his desert riding cronies, "I don't see what all the fuss is about, it's only one mota." * * * * All you girls who want to get cl.ose to Joel Robert can do so by attending the MX school tl,at the World Champ is conducting for 'puffers only at Indian Dunes this Saturday (Dec. 2). Not only will you meet The Man. but the five-dollar fee goes to M.O .R.E. Call john Grout at 805/259-8000 for information and reservations. 1t's a good thing for a good thing. • • • Marty Tripes has not signed anything binding with Honda for next year. He hilS been invited to enter into discussion about a CZ ride with what one gathers will be very adequate support. Of course, Honda dO.es have just a little more money. * * * :IALS ACE Malcolm Rathmell won ...le brutally difficult British Experts Trials mounted on his Bultaco Sherpa T. Riding in hail and slee t on a rain-soaked course that had been purposely designed to defeat the Experts, Rathmell was 23 marks ahead of the next finisher, Dan Thorpe on an Ossa Plonker MAR. They even have a sidecar class in British Trials and we can't figure out how they do that. • • • Gorden Farley, British Trials Champion, is considering taking up road racing next year and has been practicing on a Yamaha road racer. '.J J * * * , I ~.. I I. • The ~alfreyman/Tomlinsonhack had a blown crankcase and a front whe~1 like a oretzel...hefore the hilI. It then succumbed to gravity just before getting lapped by the winning Honda Wasp. . t. .