Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1974 02 26

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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America's No.1 Weekly Motorcycle Newspaper Sharon Clayton; Publisher lbomas R. Culp ; General Manager Edna Mewto n ; Secretary to Pu bl isher Advertising Thomas R. Culp; Nat io na l Director Wendy Blan ton: Assistant Trudi Culver: Assl stan t J ~hn Ed it oria l D. Ulri ch ; Associate Editor John Huerter: Feature Editor Lane Campbell; Calendar Editor Dan McCue: ManagingEditor Art & Production Cat h erine Lampto n; Art Direc t or Nan cy Gray ; Adver ti sing A r t Dir ector Hec t or A guilera: Lab T ec h n icia n Marion Hatashita ; Typographer Melvin Phelps; Assistan t Typographer Circulation Rheba Smith ; Manager Pam Hob bs ; Assistant Cheryl Steinberg: Assistant Accou nting Ga ye Za io nz; Manager t::hris Kolbet; As sistant Twila Wheeler: Assi stant R osemary Ch an dl er; Assistant Jim Sq uires: Collec tion Services & Support Mike Colikas Chris A ndrews Randy Davis Bill Runyan J can n ie Dunivan : Re cep tionist West P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 (2 13) 427·7433; LA 636-8844. Telex No. 673·474 . In defense of seeing I fee l compelled to respond to a letter recently p ublished in your Cycle News West, February 5, 1974, The letter written by Scott and Randall Herrst regarding political overtures prin ted by Cycle News was to say the least, very disturbing. First of all Messers. Scott and Randall Herrst sh o uld realize it will be poli tics that will further th eir fonn of recreation o r it will b e p olitics th at kill it. It would seem to me th a t it would be a journ al istic acco mp lish men t to prin t ar ticles that are fa ctual as well as co nsisten t, when in fact our presen t system of governmen t seems to employ neither. I would agree t hat a responsible newspaper should re p o rt as fac tu ally and , m ost im port an t, o bjectively as a t all possibl e! Freed om of th e press is still a p rivilege and should n o t b e taken lightly , fortunately it is o ne of t he fe w free doms that st ill remain. The salva ti on of motorcycling relies heavily o n th e ed uca tio n o f t he motorcyclist regardi ng excessive noise, land ab use, etc., as w ell as ke eping him in fo rmed of all pending and present le gisl a ti on regardin g his form o f recreatio n. In t he p ast as well as presen t, I have fel t th at Cy cle News should m ak e every East -Dixie P.O. Box 805 Tucker, Georgia. (404) 934·7850 Central P.O. Box 1324 5, Austin, Texas 78711. (5 12) 444· 7548. :llVTHBIL N Subscription O ne year, second class ma il. S 12.50 2 years, seco nd class mail, 522.50 3 yea rs. second class mail . $30.00 _ Single copy price, 500/ ~ ~ Published weekly except fo r the Iirs t and last week of the calendar year by Cycte News, Inc. Post Off ice Bo x 498. Lo ng Beach, Califo rn ia. Second class pos tage paid at Lo ng Beach. CA . Editorial stories, cartoons, ph o tos. et c. a ee w e lcome. Ad dresse d, stampcd env elop e assures re-turn o f editor ial matte r. Reprinti ng in wh ole o r part only b y pe rmission of the publisher s. Ad vertisi ng rates and circulation in fo rma tion will be sen t upon req ues t. See S.R.D.S. Copyright Cycle News. Inc., 1973. All rights reserved. Poop 4 Pirated Pundits from Pap a SHARR EN JACINTO Secre tary, Stan islau s Trail Bike Assn. Trials rider t racks lost herd Saturday, January 26, a t abou t dusk , a herd of ca t tle broke out of their co rra l at a ran ch adj oin ing Red Rov er Ranch in Acton. All lo cal resid en ts were aler te d and a search began in the darkness. After four ho urs , the sear ch w as abandone d , t he n resumed a t sunrise ; but sti ll th e ca ttle co uld n ot b e found . Lee an d Diane Haire , o wners of Red Ro ver Ran ch, decided to join in the searc h ab o u t noon, Sunday . Diane, who rid es trials, saddled up he r She rpa T and took o ff tow ard the moun tain s to find th e missing herd. After an hour's ride through t he hills and valleys, Dauntless Diane finally came upon fresh tracks wh ich led to a boxed-in canyo n - and th ere , huddled togethe r, tired and th irs ty , Was th e miss ing herd o f ca t tle! Dian e pat ted her trusty Sherpa T , gave it a mothball, and headed b ack to th e ranch for help. In a no ther hour, the round -up a n d cattle -d rive we re completed and the herd was sa fely home in their co rra l LEE HAIRE Indians: Soboba 100-miler .6 Living in glass houses Easy sitting, bull ! I'd like to make some poin ts on the logi cal debacle Ron Schneiders has crea ted in his vendetta wit h Preston Petty. Firs t, Schneiders ci tes an L .A . Tim es editorial which (very rh etorically) a s k s wh ether or not t he U.S . government sho uld "get in to" the oil bu siness. This is a ridi culous question, as recent oil industry te stimony before th e us u a I blizzard of Washington co mm itt ees has revealed a plethora of lega l, po liti cal and financi al "c o n s id e r a t ions" that have been legislated by the g overnmen t in fav or of various oil in te rests. From tariffs, to parity pri ces, to depletion allo wanc es, th e list of government participation in th e oil busin ess has been gro wni ng for decades. Perhaps this quote from Sen. T ho ma s M eln tyr e ca n m a k e i t mor e co m prehensi ble: " For the first ti me , a ll th e go odies we gave th em o ver th e years are beginning to show up publicly." Read that little gem aga in, Ron , be caus e wit h in it are co n ta ined both th e ro ots Motocross: CMC and Winte r-AMA 8 Staten's day and DiStefano's b lit z Enduro : Ghost ly happenings 14 And spirited riding Test : 360 Pursang Mk VII 20 22 Desert: 0 -37 H& H Makin' Bakken Calendar , , , .26 Make a d ate Technical: "B irt " Squirt - Pt. II .. .. .' ....30 How to breathe fire in to a Hodak a Results 32 Annals of yes terday COVER ; S tar te d by Tony Bell. Finis hed by Cath eri ne Lampton . In livin g color. 2 effort to report on as much legislation as possible, as w ell as the steps that should be taken b y the motorcyclist in so far as letter writing , calling their Assemblyman and keeping in constant touch with their lo bb yist , Russ Sanford of M.O .R .E . It wo uld do well fo r Cycl e News to turn a few more of their pages to legislation. education , etc., because without it, there won' t be any more bike riding, therefore, no events for a newspaper to cover, t h erefo re n o advertisement, t herefo re no newspaper. It might be well for Messers. Scott and Randall Herrst to read their own paraph rase : "There is none so blind as he who will not see reali t y because he has a political hang-up." It would b e in terest ing to kn ow j us t h ow mu ch th ese gentlem en have done politically t o further their own fonn o f recreation! of, and the solution to, the present energy crisis. When you figure it out, write a letter to th e tim es. Secondly , Sc hnei ders h as declined to answer Petty 's most telling point, Why Ron , if you feel the government "slaugh ters Vietnamese ba bie s," would you propose to gran t to th at same governmen t monopolistic co ntr o l over ye t anothe r segment o f yo ur life? Do you th in k that such an ac t io n would clea nse and re h abili tat e t he bead y -minded bureauc rats who are Washi n gto n? Do yo u hon estl y feel th at 2 5 se mi -mo no polies ar e mo r e threatenin g to you than one gian t , na ti on a l i z ed, power -or i ented co nflagratio n? And would yo u, sin ce the "Fourth Estate" can in many way s be d eclared a national resource, subjugate it to t he same strict governmen t r egulation that you advocate for th e oil industry? If not, wh y not? Try to co nsisten tly apply your co nclusio ns. Finally, Schneiders makes some rather generalized statements about the American businessmen, and inferentially couples Petty to the buffalo hunts of the 1800's and the San ta Barbara oil s pill of the 1960's . While this juxtapositio n is indeed entertaining, and while I've often been am used by th e seif-fiaggelatio n practiced by Ame rican pseudo-liberals, I must re m ind Ron th a t he is every bit as "business-oriented" as the rest of us, except that his chosen vocation requires the deforestation of large areas 0 f forest , and the construction and operation of enormous pulp and paper pIan ts . These last are very messy, and very commercial, and probably very glad that Ron sees fit to help make their co n tin ued operation possible. Beware the accusing finger , Schneiders , fo r it can make an uncomfortable ch air. KIM CARDIN Lafayette, Cali f. That bottomless money pit - your racer You amaze me . Tom Bice's letter to the effe ct that racing had cost him a few thousand dollars in a few years, and so disheartened him that he almost wanted to quit. w as given two wrong answers. First, th e editor sa id it Was the high cost of staying co m pe ti tive and the answer Was a st o ck bike class . Then a columnist took up th at line and wenf on longer and , if you'll forgive me , irrelevantly. I don't know T o m's skill level, but of co urse if you're a co mpe tit ive Expert you pay through th e n ose. But nobody touched o n the basic problem, which is th e crunching and unreasonable cost of the sp o rt itself. Items ; How can a " set-up " one-cyclinder, tw o-stroke bi ke cost as much as (or clo se to) a full dress, street four -s tr ok e t w i n , or even a four-cylinder ? They do ! How come a pair of co mpe tit io n shocks th at have a life time o f o nly months, cost $60 wh en I can outfit a 5000-lb. car with a set o f fo ur fo r less than $4 0 th a t will last a yea r o r tw o. Why can 't chai ns be made th at w ill las t on e seas o n, and sell for an affordable p rice ? CZ ch ain s are now over $3 5. How can it cost $ 28 to tune a one-cylinder engine without valves , when I can ge t a V-8 engine tuned for $32 ? Why can ' t the manufacturers build anything th at gives reasonable service, like one racin g season? My son and I hav e had seven bikes in three years, and we tak e absolutely immaculate, super-m aintenance care of all of them. ( The, d etailed history was truly bank and heart break ing but too long to print.) I 'll summari ze simply. Importers, distrib utors, and dealers simply charge too damned mu ch for too d amned little, everybody o n the ba ndwagon riding the juice out of th e customers while t he y can. Too many dealers and me chanics simply don't kno w what the hell they are doing on my money. Factories putting out ma ch ine s that can perform but never last eve n a rea so na ble time (like m or e th an a couple o f months). I still lo ve th e sp ort. It ma y not make Tom Bice feel any better bu t we hav e cancelled ch ec ks for $6600 in th e three years we've been riding. Now get this, over $ 4 000 of it is for replacemen t of

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