Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

conceivably, trading off twice. !1!l!lV are you going to control it? Should the BSC try to? The phone calls that always blow our minds are the ones like the one from the guy who finished 14th 250 Beginner in a recent race and was upset because his narne as it appeared in our results section had the wrong middle initial. . Don't let anybody tell you that Cycle News doesn't support the sport. The other day one editor went out to Saddleback with Roger DeCoster and bou!tlt him a fish sandwich at one of the burger stands on the way. Cycle News agreed to pay for hatf. NO, BUT I'LL BET YOU FIVE BUCKS THAT HE'LL BEAT SYLVAIN GEBOERS OVER THERE: There's another good story that comes out of our staffer's trip to Saddlehack with DeCoster and Sylvain Geboers. About the only other riders out there were a bunch of little kids who kept coming up and asking if that was really Roger DeCoster out there. Eventually one little three and half foot tall rider swung a leg over his SL-70, kicked it to life, and turned to h is friends. "I'm goin' ou t there to tangle with 'em," he said grimly, and set out the wrong way down the course. We've gotten a couple of calls from folks wondering where they can get the KONI 80-0 shocks that came out on top in our shock test. The only place that we know of that carries th.m is Pacific Customs in Burbank. Unfortunately th.y just stopped carrying KaNis, but they have a bunch left. Hurry. This is an .xperimental muffl.r installed on a Yamaha 650. It is manufaetured by Murphy MuffI.r Inc., 10ClItIId in Los Angeles. According to Mik. Murphy, if the engine is tuned for use with the muffler, a 10% horsepower i _ can be heel with the system. At ill., it sounds quieter than stock, and we were amazed at the low sound levelev.n when rollirlg. W. don't know how it works, .XlICtIy, but it does. Both Yamaha and Kawasaki are experimenting with ~ system, on both four and two~okes. Promoter Mike Plunkett has reportedly bou!tlt up a six month I.ase on the Baymare motocross course and will apply for a National Championship round to be held ther•. District 37 clubs throwing points-paying motocrosses will also be able to have th.ir events at Baymare. Don't forget the water trucklsI. A new Cycle Park with an old name has opened 12 miles east of Bakersfield on Highway 17 8. The' narne is Rio Bravo Raceway, like the Rio Bravo Cycle Park in Texas. They had their first motocross this past weekend. quite a few motorcycle accessory manufacturers were in attendance and that more and more auto (fuel-eating old things) accessory manufacturers are getting into the bike-bits racket. You are beginning to swing quite a bit of economic-weight, you know. Something that may be successful in th.se days of dirty air and lack of gasoline is the six stroke engine. This engine has the normal four strokes lintake, compression, power, exhaust). but then has a little bit of water injected into the combusion chamber which turns to steam, adding another power strok•. It's c1.aner, less demanding of gas, and runs cool.r, we hear. For a number of years riders of small displacement road racers have been unhappy thet, after putting a good deal . We are pleased to annoWl£e that Steve of work into their GP bikes, they're - Bridge rode with Lynn Wilson and Mary McGee in completing the recen t Baja only allowed to ride six or eight laps at 1000 rather than Bobby Wilson as was local road races. But now the ACA is indicated in the riders list and reported planning a "100 mile Championship in our story. We also did not mean to Li!tltweight Grand Prix" to be run at imply that Lynn wasn't a fast lady, Willow Springs in the early part of next er...that is...well... year. GP bikes only. More info may be , had by contacting Aaron Zimmerman at It's becoming increasingly clear that, 213/691-8822. like in any oth. form of competition we cen think of, a Baja win favors the We dropped by the Specialty rich. For instance, the ..three rid.rs" Equipment Manufacturer's Association rul. might In fact b. two riders with one (S£MA) show at the Anaheim of them taking a rest and then flying to Convention Center and noticed, when we could tear our attentions away from the designated checkpoint to finish the the well developed young ladies, that rid. if he has an airplan. or, .... P .,.p- '"'~ ~ ••••. It's sort of ironic that motocross is so popular in Soothern California bJ'cause there are so many things going against it, mostly poor courses and huge crowds, making for short motos and poor track conditions. There are only three courses that qualify as good motocross courses within a two hour drive of our offices; Baymare, Arroyo, and Rawhide - and all of them are in fmancial trouble. Carlsbad is okay, but it is not maintained as well as it needs to be. Southern California motocrossers could make an enlightening summer vacation ou t of a racing tour through other parts of the country, stopping to race in events outside of their 'usual sphere. Might fmd that you're missing something. Everybody is getting on the Wankel bandwagon, but it may be too late. A p p a rantIy, contracts signed with Mazda put the ceiling on hors.power at 80 for motorcycle applications. Suzuki showed their twin rotor RX5 at the recent Tokyo Motorcycle Show. If the bike is reI.ased in the form shown, we're afraid thet it's going to be a resounding failure. Tha bike is generally ov.rstyled with one of ,the most outlandish instrum.nt pan.ls imaginable. Th. engin., too, is pretty awful to look at. It is v.ry busy with the added visual burden of water cooling. Furth.rmore, the Wank.1 is a "dirty" engine and may meet with smog probl.ms. The AMA unofficial December the whole has decided to have a final, Trans-Am in Hawaii on 9 with a $10,000 purse, and staff is fighting over who gets to cover it. Tony Jefferies, one of England's top road racers, was permanently paralyzed from the waist down in a crash at Mallory Park. Do you realize that if Prez Nixon's 50 MPH top speed recommendation is carried out a Kawasaki 903 will be able to exceed it in every gear? John Banks may race a Cheney framed Honda four-stroke n.xt year. Th. ,engine will be prepared by Pop Yoshimura. The ABC television network has announced that the videotape broadcast of ,the United States Grand Prix Motocross held at Carlsbad, .California, June 24, will be shown on the network's "Wide World of Sports" program Saturday, December 8. The program will be aired at 5 p.m. EST, 4 p.m. CST, 3 p.m. MST and 5 p.m. PST. Three representatives of the American Motorcycle Association were elected to committ... of the Fed.ration Internationale Motocycliste (FIM) at the international .... motorcycl. sanctioning body's recent Congress in Mad~id. Bob Hansen, AMA vice-president, was named to the road racing committee; Gene Wirwahn, AMA legislative director, was named to the track racing committee; and Ed Youngblood, the AMA's acting executive director, was named to a position on the technical committee. .- • .• • = ~ g In response to increasing pressure from environmentalists, the FIM technical committee has institu ted studies on the subjects of low lead fuels, exhaust emissions 'and limitations of fuel supplies. Bill Boyc., AMA manager of professional competition, reports the difficult job of licensing more than 4,000 AMA prof.ssional racers has gotten underway again. Licensing procedur.s have been changed this year to require ~hat rid.rs be licensed separately for the various forms of racing such as dirt track, road race, motocross, etc. Riders now apply for their initial license for that area in which th.y anticipate their major racing activity. They may then apply for SCH:lIlled "add-on" license at a cost of $10 per license. Purpose of the new syst.m is to provide the machin.ry to place a rider in a classification commensurate with his ability in each type of eompetition. Applications for 1974 licenses were mailed November 1 to the more than 4,000 riders licensed in 1973. In case you didn't notice it in last week's issue, aU motorcycles, in fact all wheeled vehicles, have to have a license plate or a green stickie if they are to be ridden anywhere in California or carried in a van or trailer. We wonder what effect this is going to have on bikes brought in from out of state. To begin with, you can't get a green stickie until you get to a DMV office, which you have to enter the state to do. Secondly, the DMV probably won't issue you a green stickie unless you have a California address. The guy who is just passing through tIle state with his bike in his van stands a chance of really getting screwed. It doesn't seem very sensible to us. Joe Petrali won about 60 National Championships back in the 1930's. On. year Joe actuelly won all the Nationels. Of course, th.re were quite a few less events in those days. Petrali wes a close fri.nd of Howard Hu!tles and was flight engineer on the only f1i!tlt of the ill fated "Spruce Goose." Last week we received tile sad news that Joe PlItrali, one of"" Am.rica's motorcycling greats, died of a heart attack in Case Grande during a Buick .conomy run. The Rainier beer folks were heavily involved in the aClvertising for and of the TransAm at Puyallup, Wash. last week. They are getting more. interested in motocross in an apparently sincere, no-nonsense way and their beer isn't half bad either. It's what most everybody in Tumwa ter actually drinks. Not to mention Puyallup or Nisqually. One good way to digest Thanksgiving dinner would be to wander around C Y C LEX PO at the Los Angeles Conv.ntion Canter, open 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Thursday 'throu!tl Saturday, and 11 to 7 on Sunday. . Eve! Knievel is usually a one·man parade, but this year he'll ride in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Rumors that be plans to jump the_ Empire State building are unfounded. Channel 4 will televise the festivities at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving. 5

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