Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

If this co ndition doesn't change th e riders sho uld get together and deman d good courses. I also thin k that Cycle News could use their influence to get things changed for the better. LES SCHULZ Pasadena, Calif. We 've felt th e same way for some time. It's hard to say why this situation exists, houieucr, Is it because the riders want scram bles tracks o r is it beca use the promoters and track people won't give th em anything else? That th e "good " tracks have gon e under suggests tha t the riders don't really wan t motocross courses. We do disagree with your state m ent that fast tracks don't require any skill. They require sleill of a different sort , but they don't require motocross talents as much as they require scrambles skills. Nor are real motocrossers what are required in the way of machinery, We are sort of surprised that there aren't any demands from the riders for th e more demanding European type of course...Ed. America's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper Sh ar o n C lay to n: Pu bl ish er Thomas R. Cul p ; General :\Ianager Edna xtew ton: Secretary t o Publisher Advert ising Thomas R. Culp : National Direct or Dani el McCue; ~fanagcr Wendy Blanton; Assistant Trudi Culver; Assistan t Edito rial Art Friedman ; Editor John D. Ulrich; Assistant Ed it or John Huerter: Feature Editor Lane Campbell; Calenda r Editor Art & Production Catherine Lampton; Art Dire ct or Nan cy Gray; Advertising Art Dire ctor Hector Aguilera: Lab Te chnician Marion Hatashita: Typographer Melvin Phelps; Assistant Typographer Circu lation Rheba Smith; Manager Pam Hobbs: Ass istant Cheryl Steinberg; Assistant Accounting Ga y e Zaionz: Man ager Chris Kolber; Assistant Twila Wheeler: Assi stan t R o semary Chandler; A ssistant Jim Squires : Collection Services & Support ~I ike Colikas The high cost of racing I have a re al bummer problem, I wonder if yo u co uld help me o ut? I own a Suzuki TM·125 and am not at all satisfied. I don't know if it is the bike's fault, but the reason that I am writing to you is because I just spent fifty five dollars down at Cole Bros. to get it ready to race th is weekend. Well, when I brought it home and started to work on it I began to realize just what I have been doing these past years. I am so depressed that I almost want . to stop riding. I must have spent over three thousand on just repairs to the past four bikes that I have owned. I love MX, especially Grand Prix and I love to co mpe te, but I am not made of money and neither are my parents. I was just wo ndering if you had any suggestions as to how I could race but not have to worry about DNFing or having to spend money to get it ready for next weekend. Chris Andrews Dav Pauli Bill Runyan Jeannie Dunivan; Re ceptionist West P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 (2 13) 427·7433 ; LA 636-8844. Telex No. 673·474. IITHIlNIL East-Dixie P.O. Box 805 Tucker. Georgia. (404) 934·7850 Central 1'.0. Box 13245. Aust in. Texas 78711. (5 12) 444-754 8. 3 years. second class mail. 530.00 Single copy price, 5 04 Trials Schools , .8, 16 Profs Yamaha and ITA Enduroing 10, 11, 12 Ever ride an Iron Horse? Personal ity , .17 Trialer Gordon Farley Publi shed weekly ex cept fo r th e first and last week o f the calen dar year by Cycle News. Inc. Post Office Box 49 8. Long Beach, Calif ornia. Second class postage paid at Long Beach . CA. Editorial sto ries. car too ns, photos. etc. a rc welcome. Addressed . stamped envelope assures return of edi tori al matter. Reprinting in wh ole o r part on ly by permission of the publishers. Advertising rates and cir culation information will be sent upon request. See S.R.D.S. Copyright Cycle News, Inc.• 197 3. All ri~ts reserved. Pros Crossing 18 , 19 At Tustin and Somis North ....•...•...... . 20 Speedway Tests 21 22, 26 KTMYZ More Schools 28 By Master MXer Bailey Desert , 30 Darn upstarts! Registering your racer . . .32 For the street Showtime 36 No fair peeking COVER ; Wow ! A wheelie. Tester tries out the YZ -12 5 and the mud. Test starts on page 22. Photo by Art Friedman. 4 TOM BICE Granada Hills, Calif. Anybody who has ever done a season of racing has bun where you are. To be competitive you have to have competitive mac hinery. The problem is that the standard for competitive machinery is constantly being raised . Somebody gets a slight edge by tricking out his bike, and everyone has to pour more time and money into their bikes to kup up. Th e hairier the engine gets, th e less reliable it becomes and the more strain that it puts on th e rest of the bik e. This means that you have to put more money into the bilee to leup it running. Here's a possible solution: create a "stock" classificatio n. R equire stock frame, shocks, carburetor, exhaust system. gas tank, whuls, brakes, and ex ternal engine pieces - anything that you can see, They do this in road racing, and - whim the "stock" classification is strictly adhered to - it makes a cheap, practical f orm of racing that stresses rider skill. The problem in production road racing is that the rules have bun stretched, first by cheaters and then by official sanction. As a result, production r o ad racing in ever -competitive California is becoming increasingly expensive an d losing its appeal. But the idea is a good one and could possibly be applied successfully to other forms of competition to lower the high cost of racing...Ed . Do you like motocross? I mean really? Subscription One year, se cond class mail, S12.50 2 years, second class mail, 522 .50 I am t hinking of giving u p racin g and buying a good, dependabl e trail bi ke . I have been riding motocross Ior about three years and have personally seen and heard about European motocross. Now, it has co me to my atten tion that the motocross capitol of the U.S ., So. Cal., p robably has the worst motocross courses anywhere (ask any good rider) . The ones in operation now seem to be like glorified scrambles tracks, and anybody can go fast on them without any skill. We are ruining the idea of what motocross really is, like; lots of off-cambers, steep down-hills, and good use of the natural terrain. The problem is we are grading all of the time instead of rerouting courses. A good motocross co urse doesn't have to be dangerous to be hard. T he way good motocross courses have gone under lately (like Osteens, Arroyo, Bay Mare), it seems that So. Cal. motocrossers do not like good motocross and probably don't even know what it is. Indian Dunes, Escape Country, Mu ntz, and the n igh t time co urses are terrible. Carlsbad is pretty good, but Saddleback is always the same and getting worse (except when it is set up for the Trans-AMAl. It seems as though organizations such as AME and CMC should give riders what they advertise about, motocross (esp ecially since Stu Peters and others have been to Europe! Well, you know how organizations get corrupt when they become big.). The Elsinore isn't dead, sez them Your article in the January 22 nd edition of Cycle News causes me great concern. The article I feel most concerned about is the one su b-heade d, "End of the Elsinores." In a po rti o n of the article, you state th at Honda, Ltd . and , indirectly, American Honda Moto r Co., Inc. have discontin ue d produ cti o n of the highly successfu l CR series Hon da motorcycles. This, in fact, is not at all correct. The Honda CR-125M an d the Honda CR·250M are both still un der production in the Japanese manufact uring facilities of the Honda organization. Continued su pply of both models will be available throughout th e 1974 sales year . Des pite the unquestionable difficulties DOW being experienced throughout Japan, these excellent motorcycles will continue to be produced in the foreseeable future. I am sure that you can understand., my particular concern and desi re to see that this incorrect information be counteracted at the earliest p ossib le time. A belief in the min ds of the readers that Honda will not co ntinue this series of motorcycles can very possibly have a disastrous effect on the con tin ued sales and improveme n t of th is series of Honda m otorcycles. May 1 ask that you please mak e a special e ffo rt to sec t hat the ne x t Cycle News publication bri ngs to the attention to all of your readers that, in fact, the C R·125M and the C R-25 0M will con tin ue to be available a t Honda dealerships across th e na tio n. We cannot, of course, assure im mediate deli very in the face of an overwhel ming de mand. B. W. PULSKAMP National Advertising Manager American Ho nda OK, BilL We just hope you're really right. We rem ember that Gary Jones was still riding for you, too... Ed. A start This letter is being wri t ten in an attempt to clear up so me confusion left by the article written on the First International Trials. First, the cover photo is of Jeff Koskie of La Crescenta, Ca lifornia, no t a Bri tish Bogwheeler as indicate d on page three. Jeff has been a master class rider in Southern Cali fo rn ia fo r a fe w years no w , as any observer or observed trials should know. Second, it was in dicated that so mething was wrong because of th e scores. This remark might have b een aimed at the twelfth place rider who had been penalized an extra t hree h undred points for missing the last six sec tio ns of t he final loop. T his rider should not be criticized for using his head to preven t himself from becoming a DN F. Other riders tried the same tactic, but couldn't make it back to the start-finish line before their t ime ran out due to tough going in rain and partial darkness. Third, the nasty weather see med to favor the riders who took the even t

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