Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

More involvem ent not less T he attac hed answer to Mr . Pre st on Petty's Guest Editorial was wr itten after the appearan ce o f the Jan. 2 2 issue o f Cycle New s. It was n ot sen t to yo u. I t see me d eno ugh t o put down th e di ffer en ces (m in e) o n paper and then forget them. However, th e answers publish ed in yo ur la test issu e turn ed m e o n again . Cycle News out o f pol iti cs? Don 't y o u listen ! \\'e o ff-road enth us ias ts are lo sin g o u r collective - es because of po litics . It is bec om in g d iffi cult to separate business fro m po litics , i.e, Gulf Oil co m pany. wh ile promisin g under oath to in ves t windfall profits in dome st ic o il ex p l o ra t i o n w a s negotiating th e purchase of th e Ringlin g Bros . Barnum and Baile y Circus an d was purchasin g large tracts o f land for tr avel parks. Also . th ey are now buyin g all the motorhomes th ey can get. Nciw t hat's a good move. Withdraw the fuel , p ut the moto rhome manufacturer out of b usiness. T hen buy him out fo r te n cen ts on the d o llar . And now of co urse, blame the cris is o n international politics. Jus t a little old fashioned A merican free en te rprise. T he lesson here is, per h aps that we IlVTBRNIL Desert: Sandlbasters' Hare Scrambles . . . . ..7 Worth the gas pains Motocro ss: High School MX All the army co uld do was race Dayto na Preview . .. . , . . 15 As America n as Mussel Pizza with Ri ce Tea End uro : Arizo na 's Mowry Mtn 16 It not o nly looked to ugh . it was Test : Kawasa ki 500 MACH III 24 Better b u t it's sti ll a my stery Technical: Hotter Yamaha. 30 Ho les eq ua l ho rsepow er Personal ity : Do lly Hayes ..36 A rose among thorns Results Calendar , 34 37 COVER: H.S. MX Night co n fusio n cap tured b y Buz z Baty. had better get more into polit ics, not less, JOHN C. CLAUSEN Tujunga, Calif. In fr iendly d isagreement T he foll ow in g is an attem pt to an swer ~Ir. Prest on Petty 's Guest Editorial. T he seven points list ed b elow are necessaril y out o f con tex t. They will not d o a n i nj us tice to Mr. Petty's co m ments : I. Ron Sc h ne iders - - " irr ational state ments " - - (re, t he su pp osed o il crisis) The answer t o this wo uld b e t o refer Preston to th e curr en t p oll s regardin g the cre d ib ility o f the Whit e. House and th e oil " cr isis." There sure are a lot of us th at have " ir ra tio na l " thou ghts. Also recommended : Read Adam Smith, on page I 0, New sw eek of January 28,1974. As an afterthought, why not read t he entire magazin e, and The Wall Street Journal. Chris tian Sci ence Monito r and the financial section of any large newspaper except Pravda. Pravda co nsiders Nixon a benefactor since the Great Grain Deal. 2. "I do n 't know that the White House is a h ell of a lo t d iff e ren t f ro m any o ther divis ion of Govern me nt (e.g. EPA, BLM. etc.)" Yo u said it Preston, I didn't. But let's both refresh our memories. And you are co rrec t. W e off -r o ad motor cycl e enth usiasts had a good working relationship with both the Bureau of Land Management and th e Un it ed States Forest Servi ce un til th e Whi te Hou se issued Executive Ord er 11 644 early in th e e lec tio n year a s a s o p f or t he enviro nmen talists. T o quote one govern men t emplo yee "That blew th e - - - - - g lid off. " As he forecast. ORV enthusiasts hav e had trouble ever since. 3 . "- - - nationalization of th e oi l industry ." Be fair Preston. Did y o u re ally read Gambit, December 18 ? As I re -read it, Ron said, "nationalization or public controL n National ization is distasteful to m ost of us, but what is wrong with so me control over so vital a ne cessity as that which fuels m o s t of our industry and transportation. All of our plastics, and m ost of our medicines are fro m petr oleum . These and mo re would in my opinion classify the ind u stry as a pu bli c u tili t y. A fe w lar ge o il companies con trol th e o il fro m the bottom of the well to the filler of your gas tank. And the manufacture of th e plastic that goes into the mold to make Pres ton Petty fenders. T hose ar e good fenders, Preston . ( Free Ad) . 4 . " G o vern m en t can ' t hand le their existing tasks properly - - -. " The United States Government wiII rarely " ha nd le their existing tasks properl y." Who does? Fifty percent is a fair co untry ave rag e in a m an ' 5 total en deavo r. T he United States Go vernmen t is us. S o d o n ' t opt fo r p erfect io n un less we want to try d ictato rsh ip. We have stayed free to express ourselves in G uest Editorials by m uddling along fo r 200 years this way, so ' hang in there. Our democracy is an experiment. Experiments generate successes and failures . As long as we learn from both and apply our knowledge it will remain viable. \Ve are, this year, about to experiment with a very loosely defined part of our Constitution, Impeachment, Let's hope we all keep o ur cool. 5. "Oil Industry ...:. - most efficient - - least increase in in fla tio n (good handling of su p p ly and demand). "Good handling" - well as k the independent dealer - refiner. His an swer will c url y o u r Cy colac fender s. He just went ou t of business. 6. " Th ose people th at are associa ted w ith a particular business ar e best able - - - - ." You betcha! Appoint officials of co m panies th at p ollute th e air t o the A nti-Po llu tio n Control Distric t a nd yo u have smog fo rever. Appoin t officials o f co m panies that pollu te the wa ters to the State Water Co ntrol Boar d an d yo u co ntin ue to ha ve dir ty wa ter. Appoin t o fficials of th e lar gest grain co mpan y to th e Un ite d S ta tes Depar tm ent o f Agricu lt u re an d they use inside info rmation to buy grain fro m Ame ric an fa nne rs at bargain p rices (about S 1.00 per bushel) and rese ll it to Ru ssia at $1.50 o r m ore. T he insi de infonnatio n was that Ru ssia had su ffe red trem endous cro p failures. Prest on, much of yo ur ed itoria l st ruc k me as negative to wards yo ur go vernmen t and positi ve towards business. Why not ju dge both b y fair stand ar ds . Neither is all go o d or all bad. Both are a refl ection of us. It is difficult no : to recall a young CPA telling me, "You know, I have found that most all businessmen try to lo ad th eir business expense wit h it ems th at are in appro priate." In Fr iendly Disagreement J OHN C. CLAUSEN America's No.1 Weekly Mot orcycle Newspaper Sharo n Clayt on : Publ isher Th omas R. Culp : Ge nera l Manager Ed na xte wton : Se cr e tarv 10 Publish er Advertising T h omas R . Culp : Nat ion al Dire ct or Wendy Blant o n : A ssist ant T rudi C ulv e r : Assistant Editorial J ohn D. Ulrich ; Associate Editor John Huetter: Fe ature Editor Lane Campbell: Calendar Editor Dan McCue: Managing Editor Art & Production Cat herine Lampt on : Art Director Na n cy Gray: Ad ver t ising A rt Direct or Hec t o r Agu iler a : Lab Te chnician ~larion Ha tas h ita : Typographer ~ Ielvi n Ph e lp s: Assi stant Typographer Circulation Rheba Smith : Manager Pa m Hobbs; Assistant Cheryl S tei n berg: As sist an t Accounting Gav e Za io n z; ~lan a g('r Chris Kolbe r: Ass istant T w ila whe ele r : Assi stant R o sema ry C h andle r: Assi stant Jim Squ ires: Collection Services & Support Mike Colikas Chris Andrews Randy Davis Bill Run yan J eannie Dunivan ; Re ceptionist West P.D. Box 498 , Long Beach. CA 90801 (213) 427·7433: LA 636-8844. Telex No. 6 73-474. East-Dixie P.O . Box 805 T u ck er, Georg ia. In me moria m (404) 934·7850 I have read your article o n the 1974 Moose Run and would like to offe r some comments. This fine old fashio ne d hare and hound ca me in to being as a result of a very sad incident. I believe that it was in either the 1949 or 1950 Big Bear Run that Mason (Moose) Page received injuries that were to prove fatal. He was a member of both the Four Aces an d the Southern California Motorcy cle cl ubs, and was a favorite of everyo ne. Lik e man y o thers in those days, Moose did not wear a cras h helmet . He was a tough co mpetitor but a very happy one. I can still see him on his big thumper, hair flying in the wind and singing at the top of his voice. On that fateful day he got off hard, hitting his head o n a rock. The Four Aces organized th e first Moose Run several weeks lat er with the proceeds to go to his benifit. When we arrived at the finish line we were told that Moose had passed away. The purpose of this letter is to remind today's Crop' of racers that as lo ng as the Moose Run is held it will be a living memorial to the Moose Page s of our sport. BILL MARTIN ' Baj a, Mexico Central P.O. Box 1324 5, Austin. Te xas 7871 I. (5 12) 444 ·7548. Subscription One year. seco nd class ma il• .s 12.50 2 y ears. se con d class ma il. $22 .5 0 3 yea rs. second class mail, 530.00 Single co py pr ice. 504 ~ \ -'C! Publish~d weekly exce p t fo r th e first and las t wee k of the ca lendar year b)' Cycle :\'c:-ws. In c . Pose Office Bo x 4 9 8, Lo n g Beach , Ca lifornia . Second class pos ta ge paid at Lon g Beach . CA . Edi to rial stories. car t o o ns, ph o t os, e tc. arc w e lcome. Ad dresse d, stam pe d en vel ope assu res re turn of edit orial m at ter, Reprinti ng in whole o r pan only by permissio n of the p ubl ishers. A dv e r t i s i ng rat es and circ ula tio n in forma tion will be sen t upon request. Sec S .R. D.S. Copyright Cycle New s, In c .• 197 3. All r i~hts reserv ed . Bro ken thanks I'd like to than k all th e people at Escape Country on the MX tr ack who h el ped me with m y broken leg (bummer). High School Motocross sounds great and I sure hope we get it here at Los Alamitos High School. Keep up the good work and may the Bird of Paradise 1' - - on Hazlewood. BRIAN HOFFMAN E.C.R.A .60x Los Alamitos, Calif. 5

• Cover