Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

and squeeze the handle like you know what you are doing. Lifting the hose above nozzle level gets you the last drop. Don't tell anybody you saw it ir. Cycle News . A 100 Lap AMA Regio nal TT will take place Marc h 24 at Ascot, with Novic e an d Qu alifier runs sche d ule d fo r the evening o f March 23 . T here is ta lk of an In v i t at i o n a l j un io r event to b e sche d u led alo ng with th e Region al, as of no w however it is still only talk. .. .. - Would the ' respo nsible' individual that ripped off the start banner at last week's Soboba GP please return it? The sign was loaned t o the sponsors by the Torco Co ., and the Soboba Youth Foundation is liable for it. Please contact Larry Maddox (7 14 ) 925·2607, if yo u have any information. ..::: :.; ~ Befo re yo u sit back and a cce pt t he p rogrammed inev itable , i.e. "voluntary" gas rationing (like in Oregon l, be aware that accord ing to u n -Official Official statements th e program has failed . Gas station lines a re b ack and lon ger t han ever. Orego n made no exemption for mo torcycles in t he program and there is now a noticeable absence of bikes fr om those long lines. On e c oncl usion be ing th at bik ers ar e having to store gas to get th em by the off days. Now is the time to m o bil iz e, l e gis la t ors a r e the employee s of the people. Nothing w ill be do ne about the ration ing program s un less y ou do it. pump on the island. While the tu rkey on the left is fumbling with his change, and the turkey on the right is fumbl ing with his car keys, you pump in 66t worth of prem ium , ha nd the attendant the exact change, and split. Save a b ig toothy grin for the guy in the Cad illac whose cooling system just blew 'ca use it wouldn't handle the air condit ioner load at an idle. Some days, it feels so fine to be a motorcyclist ! The new Harley will be a 52 inch mo d el. 850cc is not 60 cub ic inches, as Papa dru nkenly assu med last week. Oh, and don't tell anybody - it's top secret. While everybody is p an ic-b uy ing in the L.A. metropo lita n area , wo rd keeps filtering b ac k of good gas ava ilability in the remote areas, where stations still have q uite a bit left of their allotments. T he Chaparrals have determined that gas will be available in and north of 29 Palms the weekend of their enduro March 3. P a p a just had a th oug h t . . . you guys p rom o ting desert events would d o well to line up available gas nearby , and announce it in your calendar item. You do send calendar items, don't you? AT LAST , TH E SECRET IS O UT !!!! The much sought -after Motorcy cle Blue Book, fu ll of soo n·to-be-obsolete used motorcycle p rices, is available fr om Hap Jones Dist rib uting fo r $2. Did you know Mona rk makes a 250cc Mongoose Motocross? Or that a Penton Berk sh ire Motocross - d isplaces 1001cc? Papa didn't either, but it's right there in black and white. Lon don d oubl e-deck er busses ar e fun ky! If Los Angeles' RTD would invest in ab out 50 o f 'em, we 'd have no problem getting people on p ubli c transit, and th at's even th ou gh public transit is cra n ky and slow as ever. Can yo u feat ure th at cobby Diesel engine, a pre-selector gearbox, and all that gear howl . .. luv it, luv it , luv it !! What prompted this outpourin g? A friend dropped by to show us on e, and th e Cy cle New s staff went bananas ! 6 Know how to beat long lines at the gas stations? Ride up between two lines on your motorcycle, right up to the end Speaking of the To rtoi se pre serve , t he signs announcing the area is closed to riding make grea t strecher poles, Larry Langley te lls us. He also says th ey (URA) put them back after using them to transport out an inj u red rider during the Moose Run . Mike Thatcher of Walnut High School in Walnut, California an d his high school buddies are putting on a high school mo tocross at Irwindale Raceway near the end o f May. They're rea dy to take on any school around, (They especially want to battle Arca dia.) and wo uld really like to d o it with five or six other schools. The tenth grader pro m ises cheerleaders th at actually cheer, th e school ban d , a bunch o f hot shoes on exo tic mach inery fo r h alf-time, an d all the tri m mings. In ter este d cha llengers can reach Mike a t 7 14/595-3593 . The Safety Helmet Council of America has begun developing standards for bicycle cras h helmets . "Members of the SHCA have been leaders in the development of headgear for motorcycle riders ," states R.G . Babbitt, President of the he lmet man ufa cturers council, "and we are going to do the same for bicycle riders," Em issio n sta ndard s for moto rcycles d em a nd ed by th e Environmenta l Pro tec tion Agency exclude cycles u nder 50cc. It looks like the mo-ped lo bbyists have done their job we ll. On e thing the co nservation ists say o ften is that rid ing your m otorcy cle in th e desert breaks down th e very thin "crust" or "desert pavem ent" o ver th e sand. It ta kes up to twenty ye ars fo r th e crust to refo rm, the y say , if it reforms a t all. In the m ean time, th e desert turns in to a du st bo wl. Wro ng! T he rece n t freeze-thaw comb inatio n ca used by th e sno w tha t hit th e h igh d esert ha s rest ored the desert pa vem en t in th e are a. Any one can drive out to Califo rnia City near the BLM T or toise Preserve and see for the mselves . Th is masterful all-purpo se exam ple of enduro course ma rk ing was encou nte red du rin g Arizona's Mow ry Mtn. 100. To see ho w t he rest of th e co urse went, read P. 16. We still can't figure o ut what t o do ex ce pt stop. If you buy a California Green Stickie now, you'll get two months free registration. Instead of being good for 24 months. it will be good for 26 months. Why? It's a special deal the Departmen t of Parks and Recreation is working on to help sell the littl e turkeys. You'll have to buy o ne before july first anyway, so yo u migh t as well get it now . Don't forget to go to the Sierr a Club Desert Symposium and make sure they know how you feel about your dese rt . Here' s yo ur big chance to speak d irectly to th e co nservatio nists. It's go ing to be he ld March 9 , in Room 133 of Founder's Hall, USC, Los Angeles, Californ ia, begin ning at 8 :30 a.rn, Adm ission is free. PET ER LAM PPU rea lly was on a bo x stock Montesa VR 250 whe n he won the WinterAMA opener in Flori da. He's looking fo rwar d , n o doubt, to getting a works bike soon. The main difference will be shocks with increased travel. Not a t the axle - longer sha fts will d o the same thing. T he world's wo rst hom awa rd goes to the DKW 125 end uro fo r their AC wonder. T hat wo rld's best horn award goes to th e Peterbuilt rig th at lives d own the street from Papa. What with the space lim itations for test s in a weekly newspaper, and the verbosity of the long-winded write r, some potentially in te resti ng details were left out of the recent 400-450 Maico tests. Like the points are externally mounted now so it's a whole bunch easier to time the muthas and the fact that Maicos are the only undersquare two~roke motocrossers (More stroke than bore, Cornfed.l out on the tracks these days which accounts, in some measure, for their considerable thumper-like grunt at low RPM. FREE GASOLINE - If your motor coughs and you've been on reserve for the last 24 .6 miles and all four gas stations at every crossroad are closed it might be useful to remember that there is usually a penny's worth of f irewater in each dormant hose on the gasoline pumps. Just pull into a "Sorry No Gas," insert each nozzle in turn into your tank The oil sto rage tanks in the San Pedro tank farms near the port of Lo s Angeles are bu lging full - the flex ible tops com ple tel y dis tended. There are still tankers off-shore th at don't have any place to unload their petroleum ca rgos. . Papa ran out of gas riding a 45 MPG motysickle because he couldn't fin d an open sta tio n all day on a weekday . Who's be en had ? Pig Man predicts that as soon as the American public is used to pay ing 60 cen ts a ga llon for gaso line we will suddenly all be able to look back wi t h a laugh at the d ays when we actu ally had to wa it in line for gasoline in California. HOW FAST IS THE TZ750A? REALLY? Yamaha apparently inte nd s to find out with a bid to break Mike Hailwood's 1G-year old one hour motorcycle spe ed record . Hailwood set it at 144.82 MPH on an MV. Either Don Castro or Gene Romero (probably Genel is sched uled to ride a specially t uned watercooled fo ur on the Daytona tri-oval . Over 120 HP can be had f rom the Yamaha by sacrificing some of the flex ible powerband. Chicano power! Fre nch Can ad ian Yvon Du Ham el will co ntest the 500cc class at the World Champion sh ip French Grand Prix at Clermon t-Ferrand. Can " Su perflong " an d the H-I RA bea t Agos tin i an d Co mp any ? A lot o f pe ople say "Yes." Yvon m igh t d o the whole World Championsh ip circ uit in 19 75 . That was Chaffey High School, not Tracy High School that is giving cheerleaders to the winners of the four-school MX near Ontario next month. A Z-2 is a 75 0. A Z· I is a 900. A Z· 2 is a 75 0. A Z·I is a 900. A Z-2 is a 75 0. A Z· I is a 9 00 . . . (etc., for 5 00 time s). Rocket Rex Staten has finally gotten what he deserved - a factory ride. He has sign ed to ride a Honda 400 in the Trans-AMA this season, and may be campaigning a Honda 250 in the Inter·AMA . SEXIST ONCE MORE: We got a no te fro m the Ken Roberts Raci ng Club people. Seems they saw o ur men tion of the incredibly bea utiful Avo n Tire Calendar (Worth fou r b ucks , selling for only three fro m Hap jon es.) , and want a plug for their Calendar. Well, theirs has pictures of Ken ny on it, and is nicely do ne. They only want 1.95 for it at Yamaha dealers, but gosh. guys, it just isn't the same. The re just are n't any naked nub ile ladies o n it. Kenn y's a nice guy, b ut ho w can he co mpete wit h peaches? CRC is going to give TT Scrambles a try at a new tr a ck now under construction at Valle y Cyc le Park. For those of yo u who have been try ing to reach Ned McNab b, Dean of Faculty at Serra High School, co nc erni ng High School MX info rmation, try thi s o the r ad dress and p ho ne n umbe r: Ned McNab b, j un ipero Serra High Sch oo l, 148 30 S. Van Ness Ave., Ga rde na , CA 90249,213/324-6675 o r 213/321-0377. There will be no Speedway races at Daytona. They were cancelled because the Speedway p romoters were afraid that the " ene rgy crisis" would make it hard for th e riders to get back to Califomia in t ime fo r t he International Ch amp ion' s C hallenge Series the f ollow ing wee k. Maybe next year . . . We hear th at Roger DeCo ster , the World Champi on hisself, is satisf ied with the start m on ey an d has sen t in his entry fo r the Astrodome Invitatio nal Motocro ss spo nsore d by Yamaha in Hou st on (Where the Astrod ome is. Handy. ) We 'll bet Roger rid es a works Su zuki n o matter wh o's spo n sorin g it. How will he .adjust to mo to cro ss as indoor sport? Like t o see tha t one. a n Desert Ace Mark Adent will be rid ing a Gringo motorcycle in the future. The Takahashi Yamaha sponsored bike has a Yamaha . powerplant and an American trans. Due to a no t unusu al combi na tion of circ umstanc es, Papa co m mu ted down to the CN offi ces an d ba ck the other d ay on a Norton, a Honda, and Yamaha. To tal gas consumption : slightly less than one gallon. Every bod y should be so lucky. Th e b lue-rin sed little old lady in th e Cadillac sur e looked at him funny , th ou gh. Rid in' all those bikes was tricky with only tw o hands and feet.

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