Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I SIDE Yes on One The Distric ts California Council of AMA re commends aYES vote on state Pro position One, the Parks and Recr eation Bond Issue. As no ted in Ron Schneiders' article in a recen t Cycle News, there is co nsid erab le opportunity for us in the development o f motorcycle trails througho ut t he st ate in co nj u nct!o n with the state Parks and Recreation program. But it takes mone y and a glan. So first we hav e to pass the b ond Issue. National Endu ro , ,7 T he hom is green National Half-mile 10 ·· Mer t bumps to win Int'l. MX 11 Bra d and Bimbo More MX .. ..12, 22 , 29 , 35 $2000 CMC bash , etc. CHARLI=:S BLOmlER, JR. Secretary Cal if. Counci l of AMA Dist. Virginia City GP .. ... , . .14 Nevada's way to go Speedway , ,17 Fuelin'it Greeen St ickie insurance ramifications Tech Sorry about that - in drafting the off- highway veh icle legislation, the aut hors we re very careful t o refer to t he progra m as one: of identificatio n, no t reg ist ratio n. There was believed to be a d iffer ence. I now have word from DMV and CH P th at they m ust reall y be the same t hing. Owners wo uld be w ise to chec k wit h thei r insurance: agent o r atto rney on wh ether thei r b ike is covere d. RONA LD D. RA WLI NGS, Supervisor Off-Hig h way Vehicle Program Sacrame nto, Calif. Pit racers out of hand The last CMC race at Rawhide Par k was out of hand . As a spectator, I fo und it hard to concentrate on the: race for fear of literally being run over by sight seeing cylists, In one in st an ce two young boys crossed the track o n a small m ot orcy cl e an d nearl y got zapped by a participan t in the race. Upon reaching the top of th e hill they didn't look and ran right into me. What happened to the "No Pit R id in g" rule? A flagman was too busy talking in anot her case: when an accident hap pen ed o utside the m udhole and d idn 't see it for several seconds. T his coul d have led to the inj ury of th e rider. T he race starte d late , leavin g many up set. T hey left early. What's the use o f racing if th ere's no co mpetitio n? T his day left m e very angry. If we'd give a little atten tion to th e grea t guys who bus t th eir butts t o w in out th ere and less o n see ing how fas t w e can rid e fr om one p it to anothe r , I feel the Sundays we sp end t ogeth er wo uld be m uch more enjoyable. Honda CB550!Yamaha TX500A Test Co uldn't agree mo re with all th e statements in the CB550n'X500A mee t observations about each bike's pe culiarities seem to fit well with m y experien ce . Only problem : las t time I ro de a CB550 I fell as leep and almost smashed into a Winchell 's Donut Shop. The mo to rcycl e co uld n ' t produce enough excitement to keep me aw ak e. To the other extreme, the: last time I · ro d e a TX500A I found myself in a tre mendous speed wobble at something like 80 MPH (no particular criticism of the bike) and almost rear -ended a Jaguar that co uld n' t produce adequate speed in the corner. Test: H-D 175 Desert . , Politics . , CMC Consp iracy I've bee n hearing that yo u 're taking local news o ut of yo ur paper. That's too bad , because so me people want to hear about wha t's going on here and about th em selves. . If yo u decide to go local I'll re new my subscription and m y friends will do the same. BILL LANKFORD 5 38 Cl\IC A s anyone w ho reads the pap er can see , Cycle N ew s isn 't "ta k ing lo cal news o ut. " R ecent mailings f rom the C.UC gives th e im pressio n that they are pa y ing us fo r coverage of th eir races and not getting an y. Not tru e. Quite th e co nt rary , we pay correspondents t o co ver lo cal even ts. Th e truth is, there are m or e local races now than we can handle every w eek in the pap er. So we have to rotat e th e coverage in order no t to leave an yone ou t co m ple tely. We will b e adding eight m ore papge s to our normal-siz e paper (up to 5 6 from 48) t o tr y and crow d in more local news. .. CC. A personal prejudice, . . Wha t do yo u have agai ns t road raci ng? Mo tocr oss may h ave m ore: p articipan ts b u t road racing is m o re exci ting (a p ers on al prej ud ice, true.] BARBARA ZI=: NK WI LL SOLIS Cardiff, Ca lif. They .th ink not We are w rit ing this letter in protest to the biase d co m parison test ap pearing in your May 14th issue. The Yam ah a TX500A suffers mostly from lack of proper testing by your staffers. This article was high ly inaccurate and sla nted. The test wo uld lead you to believe that to ride this m o t o rcy cle you would have to be a rodeo star to keep up wi th its bucking, a roadracer to get it thro ugh a tum and a m agician to stop it. Also it would hel p to have a degr ee in engineering to chec k the oil. ls i t possible that Yamaha, world's cham p io n at just abo u t everything co uld build su ch a ma chine? We think not. HAROLD OLSON MA RV IN WINI=: PA UL SIMON TI=: R RY JUDD T & 0 Yamaha Lo m ita, Calif. would rather ride: the o ne . t hat ca uses m e a small amount of excitement if n o t Read er o f every sixth issue Publisher Managem ent Corp. Ca noga Park, Calif. Funn y, Fred Walti d idn't seem bored wh en he TOad raced a Ho nd a bef or e he got his Z·/. .. Ed. ,24 Two st rokes Conclusion: if I were going t o ride a street b ike, which I have decided would not be he alth y for such a prolific crasher as myself (o nce is enough) , I mo re. Life is, aftc ra ll, only an ongoing experience of receiving and dealing wit h stim ulus. Without stimulus it ain't much . Po in t : t ruth is in the eye of th e beholde r an d he went o ut to lunch. 20 , Real competition Readers, what do yo u think we should answer ? . . Ed. Your 19 . North MS. V ENI TA BRAGG La Verne , Calif. o ut. , I=:.C. spits it out Yamaha built th e TX750 , t oo . . .Ed. career, b ut ne ver an y th in g like th e disas te r t hat yo u put in to p rin t. Do yo u rea lize that so me pe ople act ual ly believe wha t the y read? Also, so me of t hese people buy motor cy cles! They compare an d scrutinize before they lay ou t th e ir hard earned money . Your road tes t of the Yam ah a 500 presen ts this pict ure : • III handlin g • No power • Hazardo us brakes • A dangerous bike to ride DAVIDJ. DUNN Lomita, Calif. Th e TX500A and CB550 are aimed at and so ld in the sam e size and price market. Cycle Guide once knocked th e T X 6 5 0 . T he results included an investigation by th e U.S. Depart m en t of Transportation and a total re-design of app lica ble ' parts of t he m o tor cy cle by Yamaha. The TX5 00A we test ed never won Yam aha a cham p ionship. . . Ed. Hats off to Foxes! I wou ld like to th an k the Deser t Foxes MC for the man ner in which they so gra cious ly received t he members of the National Advisory Board to th e Bureau of Land Managemen t at th eir Hare Scrambles on Sunday , May 19, 1974. T he cl u b mem be rs are to be highly com m end ed fo r th e o utsta nd ing pu blic relatio ns that they we nt ou t of their way to achieve to show t he Board that use of the Mojave Desert is a legi timate recrea t io n al use of the p ublic lands. A special " vo te of thanks" to George . Kirker and Jay Ganong who accompanied th e group on th e buses t o the site of the race. Hats off to the Desert Foxes !\lC for a job well done ! MIKE HINSHAW Western R egional Manager American l\Iotocrycle Assoc. Two I would like to correct y o u on the Parker ra ce. There were two 125cc motorcycle entries. Preston Petty broke o n the second lap . CU RT S KINNER Oh I do not wan t to re new my subscrip ti on to Cycle News. between these two wo uld have been a lot faire r. I have read a few ro ad tests in m y 16, 27 , . , .30 V o te, wh ile yo u can Results 32 Get 'em w hile th ey 're h o t Calendar 38 Mo re t o come Motokross Kat 42 • A real piece of manure I find it very hard to believe th at you people, wh 0 are supposed to be aut ho ri ties on b ikes, could find the TX500A so appalling. Never have I seen , in any publication one particular m o torcy cle scorned the way you have p ut down the TX500A . If the Yamaha motorcycle handled as poorly as you fo und it tc , how did they beco me world champions? What's the joke? Why did you co mpare tbe twin 10 the four - what's the joke? Honda's 450 tw in has been aro und fo r a lo ng ti me and it is nea r ly identical to the TX500 in basi c co nfigura tio n. A test ,, RON BLANTON La Mirada, Calif. Write ! Address all letters to Vo ices of th e We.rt, c/o Cycle News West. Be as brief as possible. We reserve th e right to edit letters d ue t o space limitation s. Sharon Clayton; Publisher Thomas R. Culp ; General M an a g~ r ; Edna Mewto n : Secretary to Publisher, Advertising Thomas R. Cu lp; National Director Trudi Cu lver ; Assistant. Ed itorial Ch ar les Cla y ton ; Editor. John D . Ulrich; Associa te Editor . J oh n Hu e t t er; Pe a tu r e Edito r , Lane Campbell ; Calendar Editor. Art & Production Catherine Lam pt on; Art Direc to r. Nan cy G ray ; Advert ising Art Dire c to r , He cto r Aguilera; Lab T ec h n ician. Marion lI at ashi ta; Typograp h er . Melvin Phel p s; Assistan t T ypographe r. Circulation Rhe ba Smith; Manage r. Pam Hob b s & Chris A nd rews ; Assis tants. Account ing Gaye Zaion z; Manager. Chris Kolbet &: Twila wheeler: AssisIan Is. Rosemary Chandler; Co llection, Daryl Ch ris ti an ; Assistant. Services & Support Milte Co likas. Randy Davi s. Bill Runyan, Jeannie Dunivan; Receptionist. West P.O. Box 498 , Lo ng Beach, CA 90 80 I (2 13) 4 27 ·7433 : LA 636·8844. Eas t P.O. Box 805, Tucker, GA (404) 934·7850 . Cen tral P.O. Box 13245 , Austin, TX 78711. Subscrip tion On e year, second class mail. SI 2.5 0 ; 2 years. seco nd class mail, S22.50 ; 3 y ears. second class mail. S3 0 .00 ; S ingle copy p rice. 50 ce nts. ~I CopyriJ(ht Cy clf' Nf'Wli, Inc. 19 74 . Tude' m ark I'l" tf" d U.S . Pat C'nt O ffic e. All rightll'l" K'f'V('d. gil n: Pub lish ed wet \ly ex cep t the ran t and lilS wee k t o f the cal en dar yur by CycJC' Nf'ws , te c ., P.O. Bo x 4 9H, Lon ,ll: BC'.u:h, Cillifomia. Se cond c1,u1 po. U«C' paid at long Be ach , CA . Edi to ri;,tJ I(ori"" cartoons. ph ot os, etc, arC' we tcome, AddrC'lSC'd, lI alDpC'd envelope assurcs re uen of unpurcbased C'di torw m auee. Reprinting in whole or part o n ly by penn rui on of the publiUlen. Ad wrtil in g fill" a nd c ircul a tio n information will be lC' l u pon request. Sf'f' n S.R .O .5 . 5

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