Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125860
1st Annual ~ (spark plug) Regional Championship May 17th, 8 p.m. Nov-Jr·Ex Gates open : 5 p.rn., Close: 7 p.m.. Prae: 6 :30 p.m., h t race: 8 A lot of my go-fast" friends seem amazed that Trials is booming, and find it inconceivable that large numbers of people could 'ever bep .rn , come excited by the feet-up game. Anyone with lingering doubts as to trials' po ten tial should watch a PGA golf ritual on TV . I mean , $13.500 Series Money - $7.500 Contingencies $2 .000 purse each race May 3. 10.24 & 31 $500 point fund each race (Point fund distributed end of May) $3 ,000 purse (for Regional) 18300 S. Vermont. Gardena. Californ ia .. .--------------------------. I I Save $1.00 I I I I ~ 1 I I on Adult ticket for any regular AMA event. You may bring a fri end &' save $2.00 I I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,- _ · The Energy Saver's Shirt Walk before you run Then let Rolf Tibblin and Mickey Quade Joseph Newell & Co. has designed a super quality tee shi rt just for the ene rgy savers.. .the bikers. Handscreened in orange, yellow, black and of course. ecology green. Sizes S,M,L,XL only $3.95 plus .50 postage and handling. california residents please include G% tax . Dealer and club inq uiries are invit ed . Send for our price list. Wealso SPECIAL ORDER. Send us your idea and quant ity nee ded and we'll quote you a price. Min . order 1 dz . same size. JOSEPH NEW ELL & COMPAN Y 5125 E. Ocean Blvd., Dept. 80 2 Long Beach, CA 90803 We do Mikuni conversions. ~L-~NO~AS eUL-T~CO 16 114 0 "G" Cypress, La Hebra ,Calif. 714 ' 870 -9910 improve your d irt-rid ing sk ill tune your bod . Beginners to pros. All makes of bikes accepted - rentals availab le. Tuit ion fee of $175 .00 covers all. Contact: tel Husqvarna InternationaI Training Center 933 So. Santa Fe Ave., Vista, CA 92083 7 14 ·724 ~091 74 250 MX CZ's for $895. & 74 400 MX CZ's fo r $995. Special MX & Desert set uP on all CZ's. We guarantee our work. '-~4IIl\ (7 14) 645-8008 '-~J anybody with good sense knows it's ridiculous to pay a guy $30,000 for knocking a dotty white ball around an artificial meadow with a club, right? Vet literally tho usands of people trudge two or three miles a day following t heir stick-swinging heroes in the blistering su n - and even pay money for the privilege. It seems tha t once you co nvince p eople (an d sponsors) that it's suave to do something. they'll watch anyt hing. I no tice that trials "galleries" ar e growing in numbers and enth us iasm. Now that makes more sense, Trials activity up and down the West Co ast is getting he avy en o ugh to im p res s e ven a world tra vel er like Mick Andrews. Locally it 's getting large numbers of youngsters dialed in to trials at th e same age as t heir European co un te rp ar ts or e ven younger . Witnes s the fact th at Marland Whal ey an d Bernie Schreib er have been judged capab le of ridi ng in ternati on al caliber eve nts , eve n ' when th ey we re officially too young to get an LIM. lic ense. Wh at's h ap p en in g is that A me rica is acq uiring a p ool of young lion s not yet o ut of school , anyone of whom could co nceiva bly be come Wor ld Trials Champion. Whe th er any o f them w ill re mai n s to be see n . It ' s like any other sport: So mewhere along the line yo u get to face a nasty career decisio n. Ar e yo u p layin g we ll enough to ma ke a livin g at it , or is that fin al gra d uatio n going t o fo rce you to ta ke a job d o in g wha t you've been le arning in school in o rde r to eat? All of today ' s profession al a thle tes have faced th at decision as well as a lo t of tal ent ed guys wh o ar e now acco un tan ts , salesmen or mechanics wi th tr ophies and lovely memories. I n eve ry gen eration t he re's a p otential champion. Can th e sport sup port h im en ou gh to get that good ? Whether by design or by acciden t, Southern California is favored wit h a two-tier "farm system" for trials riders wh ich can on ly benefit everybody in vo lved - provided t hey understand how it works. Co nsider that in A.T.A. points trials, the top ten Novices (who fortunate ly won' i b e Novices lo ng) can clean nearly every Novice section at a typical meet. Yet the gu y who comes in 73rd out of 78 Novices e xh au sts himself just making it through all the traps. If A.T .A. were th e only game in town, so man y Novi c e riders would get di scouraged and drop out that the sport would soon wi ther away. En ter Bob Grove's LT.A . and Steve Graham's C.T.A. On non-A.T.A. week ends, these two club s h old Novice-Beginne r schools an d meets at Saddleback and Escape Country. The competition is such that the guy who may have fived every section in las t week's A.T.A . trial can come wi thin sniffing d ist an ce of a trophy in I.T.A . or C.T.A . mee ts. What this does for se lf-confidence is probably m ore significant than the riding experience itself. With a tonic like this, riders co me back to A.T.A. points competition an d begin vaulting up the ladder. Racers may consider trials a sport fo r the timid. Bu t aggressiveness goes into making an Expert trials rider. Yo u simply can't b e timid and ride some of the sections they're t h row in g at Experts these days. Ap p roa ching some gre at > 'a: " .J o o ~ o i!l!IO~"""'~..J1- humongous rock, you' re conce n tra tin g all y our psy ch ic p ower: "R ock, I'm going to ride righ t over y ou. " Trouble is, if you 'r e not forceful about it ; the rock's gonna ' say, " Oh , no y o u 're no t !" Learning, t o o, can be forceful. Wear a helmet if y o u expect to encounter anything harder than your head . Do n't start out with a m o t or cycle you can't affo rd to throw against a rock. The guys who make the ir first trials bike the most super-trick thing t hey can afford spend too m uch effor t trying to avoid busting so mething they can 't afford to replace. Best way I know to remain a p erpetual, timid Novice. A Honda TL-125 is probably the best learner's bike unless you w eigh over 200 pounds. New off the floor it costs ab out what yo u 'd pay for a two-year-old Sherpa T. It will ac t ually handle more p recisely than a two-year old Sherpa T simply because there isn't two ye ar s' slop in the suspension . It lacks the brute