Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

IIAELLi Moto rc y cle T ires Lowering the high cost of racing The everyday t ires that a re used as professional racing t ires. West Coast Distributor Three weeks back a motocrosser by the name of Tom Bice wrote Cycle News about th e high cost of racing. He'd put out over three Dealer Inquiries Invited MotO'l.cyci: 360 15406 Cabrito Rd .• Van Nuvs . Calif . 213·780·152 5 SPECIAL OFFER I thousand do llars on his last four bikes to keep competitive, a nd not coming from a well heeled family wh ere dad pays for an ything JIM DAVIS MOTOCROSS EQUIPMENT C ENTURION MOUTH .::..UARO.... . . 5.95 S HOULDER PADS. ..... UI.60 S HIN AND KN EE ::;U...RO... ... 19.Z' DELu xe: CHEST P ROTECTOR. ... 16 .2 5 CHILDREN'S S HOULDER PAD S. .. CHILDREN 'S MOUTH ::;u RD. . . .. ... 11.'5 4 .1' 12 .' 5 7.95 CHILDREN'S SH IN AND KNEE. .. . YOUTH ELBOw ~U...ROS.... BILL JONES BO X 2A2. ," - - N~ ""OT05 ~ T HOLLYWOOO .CALl F", 9 1603 -;;e'F:'d:;;n:; ;;;; ~;;;:.~, Y AMAHA/HUSQVARNA ,.,• . servica- Parts • A_~~ I I ~ Cal ifo,nia 2100 E. McFadden I I, ' " Cvcle Centor Santa Ana (7141558 -1511" ------------ .... Goodyear Carroll Shelby IS 2 13-821-3436 r\'''\~ ~ .~ll~~\': "·:'1·1," , ~ ~ , " ..... P .O . 80 _ 4 44 , Cvpr"". CA 90630 ( 11 1 821 ·14 21 4 COMPETITION MOTORC VCLE WHEELS DES IGN ED, BU lL T AND REPAIRED . SE NDSO«'OA CAT ALOG' 1 6 J Jun ior wan ts or needs a nd no t having a sponsor th e sit uation had j ust plain gotten to him. An yone who race s knows th at competing isn't chea p. it's expensive. The editor answered T o m 's letter with the suggestion of a stock class such as the production divis ion in ro ad racing to keep ra cing costs down fo r th e little guy, This has long been a p et project of mine so I'll pull out the ol de soap box again and kick this problem around a bit. O nly a few years ba ck the AMA ha d r u l es r e gar d in g bikes ridden in Sportsmen classes. You co u ld n ' t ad d anything that di d n't come as a factory part, Ex ce pt for minor changes such as hand lebars, etc. a nd m a yb e cleani ng up the engine a bit you came t o th e lin e o n the mach in e t hat was just ahout out of th e bo x. Eve n so , to be up with th e fro n t-runner s wo uld cost yo u a bit to keep yo ur bike in peak tune. No, I do n't believe in th e to o th fairy and I di dn't believe th at all of th e ma chin ery be ing rid de n in those d ays was stock either. I saw so me of it w he n some fair-minded soul or other or an alert referee took a look an d p ro test ed a b ik e, Word gets around qu ick ly in the racing gra pevine and most riders knew who was playing t he game fai r an d w h o wasn't. To fin d so me ex tra p o rts wasn 't un usual a nd sitting in the line fo r p ractice gave m o re t han one of us watery eye s an d coughing fits from exhaust fumes th at weren ' t good o ld petrol and tw o -stro ke oil. A couple of 125's ran in the 100 class, two of 'e m we re caught a t Corriganville one year. A nd who w on't fo rget th e fla p in th is Dist rict abo u t reed val ves? Under th e AMA rules a reed was no t legal, b ut lik e m agic it appeared on m any a scoote r, No one really m ade a st ink ab out it despi t e th e fact th at it m akes the fast bo ys eve n faster . It's a funny th ing, but people will grouse up a st o rm ab o ut something go ing on th e y kn ow is illeg al but for some re ason th ey lack th e courage t o d o so me thi ng ab o u t it. Could be th ey themselves have so me th ing to hide ? Or maybe they just don't want to be th ought a fink. Anyway, re ed s fl ourished . When m an y a bik e was eq u ip ped w ith th em a co m p laint was lodged and th e Compe titi o n Committe ru led th at as so m any o f th em were n ow in u se it seemed sill y to m ake all th ose riders tak e them o ff, so th e reeds stayed , Th en th e A :'.IA d ropped a clanger. T hey change d th e ru les so you could d o an yth ing yo u ple ased to a bike being used in scram bles, a nd tha t o pened th e doo r w ide, T he little guy was h u rt, just as th e lit tle gu y in sp o rts ca r racing go t hurt wh en m oney came in to th e sp ort to th e ex te n t that rac ing th at ho ned th e skill s o f dri vers like Dan Gu rney a nd Ph ill Hill no longer exists. T here are literally thousands of sportsman riders who nei t her have th e m oney nor the desire to tri ck out a bike into a ro cket. They just want to ra ce fo r th e sheer thrill of competing. T hey 're not point-hungry, they don' t co nsid er a future as a p ro fessio nal rider, th ey just want to have so me fu n. This especially ap plies to Novi ces. A no vice with m o ney behind h im is goi ng to t ransfe r to Junio r and Ex pert a h eck of a lot faster than a kid wh o rides his stocker week after week h oping o n ly fo r a lower num ber a t the en d of the y ear. A t times a p romising you ngs ter is noticed by a sh op owner a nd ge ts some help, bu t he still h as to be ar th e b ru nt of the ex pense. It's been a lon g tim e since a numbe r o ne p late h older could sa y he'd ea rn ed th at pl ate b y himsel f, p aying all h i s hi lls. We all k n ow th at, o r ma ybe yo u still believe in the good to oth fair y. Some sportsma n Experts actually get a be tte r sp onsorsh ip th an so me of o u r professional Ex perts. I'm no t go in g t o nam e names but if y o u' re part o f the racing scene you ought to b e able to figure some o f them out. Now the ra cers who a re being hurt by this sit ua tio n aren't sn iveling about it and neith er am I. Life is lif e but to keep AMA sportsman ra cing healthy it wouldn't be a bad id ea fo r the Competition Con gre ss to kick aro un d th e ide a of having two classes. A st oc k cla ss where o n ly ce r tain c hanges co uld be m ad e a nd a " m o di fied " stock. E xp erts h ave th eir difficul ties too. If y o u' ve ridden sc ram bles or motocr oss fo r a few seasons vo u no d oubt have no t iced tha t q ui te ' a few rid ers sto p ra ci ng whe n they make Ex pe rt. T he fu n goe s o u t of it w he n yo u kn ow you' re bei ng beaten b y su pe rio r m achin ery a nd not b y ri d in g skill alone. It's all well and good t o sm irk and co me o u t with, "If yo u can't stand the pace . don 't race" an d this adage usually co me s fr om so m eo ne wh o isn ' t p aying all the b ills him sel f. But no t co nsid ering th e little guy won' t keep th e sport growing. It wo uldn't hu rt for man ufactu rers to give a c ust o me r a break either, by p ro vid ing fo r p urchase m achinery tha t co mes already equipped with the tri ck stu ff a works m ac h in e h as. Sure the co st of su ch a bike would be mo re th an a st o ck model b ut a ride r c o ughs up lo ts of m oney to fix so me th in g that th e fac tory co u ld do eas ily on t heir p roduction lin e, no t to me n tio n paying for all th e hand wo rk that goes wi th porting chan ges, re-wo rking the forks, frame mod ification s et c. I kn ow I'm n ot th e only o ne wh o is aw are o f this , but this is my colu m n so I can say it again eve n if it has been wri tte n abo ut alread y. On most st ock mode ls th e r e ar suspension on motocr os s models leav es much to be desired, Last year all works ra cers cam e w ith th e sho cks mounted in the middle of the sw in gin g arm to in crease wheel travel. The replica you b uy has the shock a t the end of th e arm and to get the superior h andling you have to do quite a bit of welding and fiddling around and maybe even replace the swinging arm. The works bikes u sed the cen ter m ounting a ll last season, but this year we h ave y et to see this system put onto a co nsumer model, on e available to the general public, (Possibly because it is hard er to rid e and to set up f or th e individu al rider... Ed. ) A bi ke that see ms to h ave lost it 's popularity for a bi t b ecau se the public always see ms to start bu ying wh at the winne rs are riding. not always thinking th at what th ey 're b u ying isn't exactly wha t the win ner is o n , is the CZ. But CZ had a n ice little list o f all th e good ies you cou ld ge t from the m , m ad e specifically for the job to in crease performan ce. Hod a ka has a raci ng kit t o o. Sure you had to bu y th ese but the y wo rke d and d idn ' t put so much o f a strain on the e ng ine th a t they blew or became u n reliab le. Too often this happens when amateu r m ech a n ics try to o u t-do th e fa ctory. S o we'd like to see a major effort m ad e to kee p the cost of racing d own o n th e dirt sce ne as it is kep t d own in production ro ad racin g. The system works and p eople wh o show promise on pro d uction equipmen t usu all y ge t offered m odificed stu ff a nd sponsorship of som e kind w he n the time is ready for th em t o m ove up. This sys t e m worked in spo rts cars, as I said earlier, until m oney ca me o n the scene, The point that I really wan t to get across here is that star t ing in the production class where a lot o f m oney w asn't needed to keep you co m pe tit ive gave many a driver his start to mu ch better things. It gave us an American Wo rld Champion in Formula One, Phil Hill. We see m to be a bit short of them now as starting a ca ree r of car raci ng in the so -called production class now costs more money than y ou'd ca re to think ab o u t. We'd like to see an Ameri can 250 or 5 0 0 World Moto cross Champion mo re th an a ny th ing. What better way to ge t people in to racing than to establish a stock p roduct ion class in dirt bikes. Oth er spe ed spo rts have, and we're behind t im es th er e. Dwell o n it a bit and if yo u agre e, th en let our AMA Congr essman Lynn Win eland kn ow so he ca n b ring th is u p next time the Congress m ee ts. Maureen Lee

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