Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

N N " '" '" "- ,.. N ~ ,,; v " 0 V> ;: W Z W ...J u > u DO YOU HAVE MANAGER CAPABIliTY? Come work (and grow) with us, not for us, but with us, as part owner. If you are willing, capable, and bondable, we will ~rain and back you in a cycle related, route distribution program. Earn a good living, status, arid part ownership, calling on cycle dealers in your own area (home every night). BE READY FOR SPRING RUSH QUALIFICATIONS AND REFERENCES TO: CYCLE NEWS P.O. BOX 498-Y LONG BEACH, CA. 90801 tED E •~ LET US MAKE YOUR BIKE GO FAST! (TRICK STUFF) WE CARRY ALL OF THESE BRANDS: ~ 1t '* MARINA DEL REV 1t ,,. '* I~ 13347 W. Washington Blvd. (213) 390-3406 ,,* -* Most NGK plugs 75e NEW (House of Suzuki) Nylon Racing Jerseys assorted colors Re~. one Day Only) Dec. 16th) / 9am -9pm) -.tsd-no Iogglri ellil 56.99 comes with clear & Jlflliow lens 5PME tENS AVAlt:tlelT.yeIlow.roolbeef.............ber, a:rHn l blue Rebll .89c $3.95 Have your name, bike logo & racing number put on. while you wait by I AD House of Suzuki 16112 Harbor Blvd. IllDOlE·X CARRERAS: Rotlil 55.99 Fountain Valley, Calif. ~-~ JOU.A.CA. $2037 ( 14 (714) 531-8540 BOX 1l582. LA ."~~ ~: ~~~ $7 .95 NGKSparkPlugs i. • 57¢ Torco 2-cycle oil .. : 60¢ Toreo 4 Cyele 001\ ~... .. . 55¢ Toreo CRha!n SFPorarY . 'I" .. - .. '':''; ".~ :. '. : : '. ~ ~l~~ Toreo acong "ff?" w.......... .. ,. 60¢ Castro I 30W 2-c¥c ~ -< >.~ . . • ••••.• 60¢ Castrol XLR 20~,9 ~", <1'•••••,... • ••••• i 45 Bendzall 2-cycI!': 0,1 ':'•........• ;. . . . • • ..•. - •. 1 '25 Paulson Face SIl'oeld .- /''!> . . . . • . $$4'95 MX Gloves .. ;... . .&\t. . .. . . Vessel Impactl' rivers \ _.. t"fM. • • $7.95 Preston Petty rontA'Re:t.~~.................... . $:~~ Preston Petty. ear Fe~.r .. .. .. .. .. $7 50 Bates Rid ing !felts ~2 '95 P.M.C. MX N~ber~Jates (3) _ .. :.. .. .. .. . Torsten Hallm'~n. Cll'est Protectors $122.9.95 3.50X18 Chen S""n 4 ply Knobby $1 5 4.00X 18 Chen ~ Ii ply 'lnobby $14.95 4.50X18 Cheng ~nobby _ $1~~~ Hercules MX BOO~ : . :~ _ $4 S'.. .. . <$'" 7ie~ShJp M-F ~to 8.,,5at. 9 to 6 127 N. Mac~'MI " "sill. Fernando, Calif. (Corner 0 2nd & 'Maclay) (213) 361-7818 • . gam by Ron Schneiders On Politics and Motorcycles In my last column we established, I hope, two principles.. 1.) Motorcyclists are not necessarily apolitical. They can and will become involved in the political process under certain conditions. 2.) The fact that a particular can?idate is committed to motorcycles IS not enough to induce people to vote for him and certainly not sufficient to get people to work for him. . From that last statement I thmk--we can go one step further and state that, except in very rare: cases, the issue of motorcycles is not going to persuade people to get out and work in the political arena at all. There are a few people who work in the political arena who are primarily committed to motorcyclists, but most of these are basically non-partisan. The people who are likely to help candidates and thereby make friends for motorcyclists are people who have an iJ)terest in politics on a more general level and thus can combine two interests in a productive effort. You can .rate a person's political activity potential on a scale of zero to 10_ At the zero level is the person who changes the topic when the conversation becomes even vaguely political. At the two level is the person who migh t give a $5 donation or an hour or two of time. At the 10 level is the person who becomes so enthusiastic that he quits his job and starves his family to help a candidate in whom he believes. It doesn't do much good to become self-righteous and try to convince people that they should "do more." On the contrary, it's self defeating. The person who is preached at generally tunes you out. The trick is to be able to make an accurate evaluation of the person's position on the activity scale and then utilize whatever he IS naturally inclined to give in the most efficien t possible manner. Someplace around activity level six are the self starters, the people who can get an idea for something constructive and get out and do it without persuasion Qr guidance. In your club you can spot these people right ~way. T.hey will be officers or race chairman or in some other such role. Such people are often very resourceful and very clever. Perhaps you "drafted" one such individual to be race chairman over h·is protests and seeming reluctance. Then you became surprised at the enthusiasm with which he jumped into his new task. 1 won't ask your reaction when, after a few friendly beers with your "drafted" workhorse, you suddenly realized that you had volunteered to man a check, help sort entries, paint two bann~rs, build an ou thouse and do the sconng. The people who can do this sort of thing are organizers, whether they work in a dub, in politics or in labor unl.ons. People who are natural organizers generally have more than a passing interest in politics because they recognize politics as their natural medium of expression, but you might never hear a word about politics from them in the motorcycle environment. The natural organizer enjoys his relationship with all the club members and doesn't want to antagonize anyone who holds a different view. However, it wbuldn't take much more than a word or two from a couple of club members to B turn him loose" so to speak. He thrives on organizational projects, and politics offer some of the most in teresting species. Motorcycling needs some friends in Sacramento and Washington. The natural organizer can get these friends for us. It's to our advantage to spot these people and let them know that they won't be ostracized from their mo torcycling society if they ven ture into politics, no matter what persuasion they happen to hold. Let's take an example. Ron Sloan, past president of District 37, was involved to some extent in the support of President Nixon. Ron Sloan has presumably earned 'Some poin ts with him for motorcyclists and to this extent Ron Sloan has done me a favor. More in fact; he has done something for me that I could not and would not do for my;"lf. For th.is I can regard Ron Sloan as friend. This is a subtle sort of distinction and it becomes quite easy to lose yourself (and your ~rinciples). if you get too carried away With AqUlDlan hair-splitting. But it does have the advan tage of a1Jowing you to hve 10 some sort of harmony with your feIJow club members who hold differen t views. Let's suppose for a few moments that you are an organizer of some sort and that you are considering doing something in politics. What's your first step? Surprisingly, the first step IS not to do anything. Above all, don't start talking about it. You'll need information and lots of it. You'lJ want to find out when the next elections will be held, who is going to ru~ and something about each of the candIdates. After a bit of research you should have some idea which candidates you migh t be able to honestly support and which ones you could not support under any condi tions. It may be that in the next election there are no candidates that you can support, or possibly th~re is only on~. In this case your Job IS slffipler. But let s suppose that there are several possibilities. Let's suppose th at there IS a candidate for mayor, for assembly and for state senate that you feel you could support. Look at each of them in tum and ask yourself some questIons. Fmt, does he stand a good chance of winning? Secondly, is there a possibility that you can do him enough good that hew ill remember you? Thirdly, assuming that he will take a pos.ition on motorcycles that's favorable, IS he. m any position to do anythmg constructive? The mayor of a small town might be very enthusiastic, but there might be nothing important that he could do either for or against you. Fourth assuming that most of your organiz~tional efforts wiIJ be among members of your motorcycle club, or motorcycling friends, is this a candidate that you can sell? For instance, if several of your friends live in the path of a proposed freeway and your candidate is strongly backlOg the freeway, you're going to have quite abit . of trouble getting support for him, regardless of his attitude toward bIkes. These questions should narrow the field quite a bit. When you're down to only one or two possibilities, take another really thorough look at them. When I was quite young I got involved in the contest for the mayorship of our town. The man I was helping was the friend of a friend, very idealistic and personable. Many of the. young people in town were backlOg hIm. He wilS an independen t running against two party machine politicians and everyone Said he had no chance. We kids got out and really went to work and he was elected. It was a pretty thrilling experience. The guy turned out to be the worst mayor the town ever had. He wasn't corrupt, just inept. EveryT.hing he. touc~ed turned to garbage. That expenence IS a lot worse than losing. Once you have selected the candidate, you should arrange to meet him and discuss the problems of motorcyclists in his area. Since he's not likely to have much knowledge to start with, it's a good idea to prep~re. a written briefing for him contaJDmg background material. an explanation of problems that you think he migh t be able to help with, and an example of the kind of statemen t that you would like from him. Make it clear that it's only an example and that you would appreciate any ideas that he can add. From that point on, you're on your own. You're going to have to figure out some way that you and your friends can help the candidate get ejected. You'll have to evaluate the talent that you have at your (lisposal to see ~hat:s possible. From the candIdates standpoint, the best thmg you can do IS raise money. Very few candIdates ever have enough campaign funds. But be realistic: If your candidate is running a million dollar campaign, your $500 contribution will hardly be noticed, even if you had to sweat blood to raise it. On the other hand, if he's running for office in a small assembly district and has a war chest of $2,000, a '$500 contribution would make you a member of the family. What has been described so far is a general ·and non-offensive approach to special interest politics_ It works. . '

• Cover