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/125871
.. T he Fe de r at ion l n t e r n a t i o n a l e Motocycl iste is looking fo r delegates to wo rk up rules fo r ~ loto·Ba ll. Mote-Ball? On ~ IOTORcycles?! Those French! In d e p end ent e x t e n s ive res e a rch ind icates cond usively t hat Gato rade is no t proven effective in ext in guishing Ford Econoline e ngin e f ires . The aroma of bur nt Gatorade d oes, however , cov er up t he o dor of scorched synthetic blanket rath er well. Four out of four road racers surveyed run like hell in the event of said Fo rd fires . Pit toots ies make swell fire fighters, however. Poo r Yvon. The Laguna Seca c~rkscrew attacked his right han d in practice J uly 24, three days be fo re the National. . Kawasaki invited a' bun ch o f non-biker sq uids fro m big city slicky rags (li ke Oui) to their 1975 model preview, Part of the sh ow was a chance fo r everyone to ride 175 Kaws around a "co urse " run along Laguna Seca access roads. The tailored sui t b unch complained to Kawasaki reps 'cause Papa passed them. Roadracing in Aspen is heaven. T ight? Where else can someone take the DKW 125 they rode in the Greenhorn National Enduro. install road t ires. and take second in the 250 Cafe dass? Silver medals are neat . Gordon Farley is back in th e U.S. o n a whi rlwi nd ro und o f tri al s demonst ra ti o ns for Su zu ki. After having blown everybody away while ridi ng as a gu est at ~ITA's Co lorado St at e Championship July 28, he'll co m e to So u thern California to t eac h in at -rb e IT A/CT A trials sch oo l at Saddleback, Aug. 4 . Brya r Holcomb has switehed f ro m Bultaco to Maico . There have been a lot of races where Bryar was undoubtedly the fastest dude in his class . but most of 'the time his bike would bre~k. We hope he has better luck with Maico. Ben Bower will be at th e regular CE RA meet ing at VISta Grande Sch oo l in Danville, Ca . to give a b it of an inside preview on the 49th ISDT. Th e fo rm al Go ld Medalist will have his IS DT ma chine along, and will delve deep ly into prep arati ons for th e Six Days. Well, somebody's try ing to put o ur California Green Stickie money t o good use . The City of Cerritos. Ca . will apply for $56,250 in' state f unds (putti ng up S18,750 o ut of its o wn kitty) to develop Cerritos Motorcyde Park on Bloomfield Avenue. In Nevada, the BLl\1 office has a new maili ng address : P.O. Bo x 5400, Las Vegas , Nv, 89 102. O ffi ce loca ti o n is 4 765 Vegas Dr., Las Vegas, Nv. 89108. Ph on e r e m a ins th e same, (702) 38 5· 6403. " H ELMET LAWS SUCK" is th e message of the 44-ineh, viny l st ick y sold as a fund -raiser by C.O .O.L., Ka nsas ' equ iva len t of M . O. R . E. T h e black-on-yellow message will be sent for $2 each or ten for ten dollar s by C.O.O .L., Box 8113, Topeka , Ks. 66608. They also offer a " mo re conservative but less popular supe r . UNCONSITUTIONAl" st ic ker. FACTO R Y rider Bengt Aberg finish ed bo th moto s of t he U.S. Grand Pri x in th e to p lOo n th e 360 Bultaco of Western Rep Mik e Hannon. Which wo uld seem to a fair ly stro ng argument th at th e Bul Mik e has been using to win all th e 0 ·37 moto cr osses J irn Connoll y doesn't win is ac tually a Grand Prix bi ke, no matter how stock or non -stock it is. Is t his - a ' t ur ning po int ? Cafe bi kes actually o ut nu mbe red choppers p arked in the sp ectator area at Laguna . Dunlop has a new "endurance" t ire , the KR 91 , whi ch got its baptism at the 24 Hours of Barcelona and at the 1000 Km. of Le Mans . Pete St arr 's "Bad Roc k" film "ill be re-run on KTTV Los Angeles so me ti me later th is year . For viewers in our gr eater reading a rea , we11 soon have a rundown on channel , date and ti me of some of the 37 TV sta tions that have co n tracted to run th e film . It 's worth MV Agus ta tried so me small downforce airfoils durin g practi ce for th e Belgia n GP . b ut removed them fo r the ra ce. Experimentation continues in both MV and Yamah a ca mps as they pull o ut all th e sto p s for ' th e last fe w World Championship road races. Rick Woods is back - sort of. Took a few hot laps at OCIR speedway and picked up hi s renewed SRA license. He says he needs to practice a bit and then get back into the thick of things . OHMIG AWD ! T he Federal Government is into track safety standards! Ho ld o n, don't get hy st erical . . . it 's ra ilroad t rac ks - so far . (Whew. So metim es rea di ng Th e Federa l R egister ca n give yo u borde rline heart fail ure.) 2 Political End uro pr izes are slo wly but surely be ing shipped out. Finisher pins will be mailed in two o r three wee ks. We never mentioned that Bill Henry picked up $50 by winning the 350 Production class at CMC's rescheduled July 14 OC IR road race. Wonder wh ich dass they11 p ick to run for the bucks this next time? seeing twice. The British papers say MV Agusta is (are?) planning to market a 125cc Four! What a far-out little scre am er, if it's t rue. Next tim e you get an urge to go fly a kite, pi ck up a co py of li an g Gli der, a new S 1.50 quarterly magazine by Cowboy Star Pu b lica ti ons, 3333 Pacific Ave. , San Ped ro, CA 90 731. Lo o ks like dangerou s fun . Corona, Californi a Raceway owner Fe lix Lipa ri wa nt s riders to kn o w t hat the S3 coll ected per motorcyc le at t he recent Mini World Championsh ip was do ne at the request of the promo te r: Mr. Bennet t , and t he money was t u rned over t o him. Do n ' t blame Co ro n a Raceway. lightweight Production winner Wes Coo ley had his t rou bles at laguna Seca. In addit ion to his Junior race getoff, he also crashed spectacularly in a Jr/Expert Lightweight heat Saturday , explod ing a haybale off Tum Six. He had just blown past a group of riders and reached for his fro nt brake to find the leve r m issing ! Kawasa ki d id no t have the much ru mo red "Lob ster " b ig four stro ke singl e in th eir 19 75 model lin e. We can't tell y ou what th ey d id have until Sep tem ber. b ut t he o nly all-ne w th ing is a very slow m od el with th e fu nniest mo tocro ss frame geo metry we've e ver seen. It's gree n. New candidate for an " lronman" title should be young Larry Roeseler who finis he d third 125 in t he Baja Intemacio nal, th en ca me back th e next da y to win the T rai lbike class in a 0 ·3; EuroScrams. T umin' some revs. we 'd say. There was sur pr isin gly little thumping at the official halfway point pits during the recent Baja bash . What happened? The four-strokes have had ' the longevity edge in these things, as ide from Team Husqvama ring-ding e ntries. Gary Hy mes pushed his bike uph ill into a ch eckpo int o f th e Baja Intem aci ona l wi th a flat fron t tire, o ne shoc k shaft broken , th e o ther damper not damping, th e rear subframe br o ken an d an engine seized abo ut hal f a do zen times. "You gotta h ave a goal in these kinds of ra ces, " gasped Gary , " and my goa l was to get h ere ." An hour and a half later he was off aga in. His experien ce, and attitud e, were typical o f a lot of o th er riders in th is even t. Wish we co uld tell all th eir sto ries. 01' Papa is gratified to see the cafe racer coming on as a reasonable alternative to the ehopper . . . we'll also be glad to see the chopper goodiemakers qu it trying to push re-rnercha ndised chopper and drag bike parts as cafe racer accessories. Billy Uhl an d Carl Cran ke will try to ma ke it to Sand Hill Ra nc h Aug . 4 to race in the Benefi t Scrambl es fo r the 0 ·36 ISDT team riders . Montesa called back their 310cc prototypes from the world championship trials circu it "t o fi t the eng ine to a new-concept frame. Factory riders Edwards and Shepherd will make do with availa ble 250's until the new machines are ready. Something sti ll bugs Pap a about th e 55 MPH spe ed limit. If th e 70% majorit y th at is flagrantl y violating th e lim it (accordi ng to Calif ornia Highway Pat rol sur veys) woulotell their state legislato rs ho w they feel abo ut the lim it, we co ul d have done wi th it in short order. Co uldn't we ? Keep you r eye s o n trials ri ders Ulf Karlsso n and Yrjo Vesterinen next year when it comes ti me to sign factory co ntracts . Th ey are hot. Har old l\lcG ee. a 29 ·y ear·o ld salesman, has decided to d evote all his tim e to Trail Blazer s, an organization fo r off-road sports motorcyclists which he recen tl y founded. For chart er member info. write to Box 2::?094. Greensboro. KG. 27420. See ms o ur North Ed ito r is a little slow, somet imes: Yamaha bo ugh t its fran chise back from F red Dee!ey Imports of Canada some t im e ago. Deeley im po rts Brit ish car s, Harleys , Ducat is, bit of every t h in g, now. When they got the chance to sponsor Ji m Dunn on an R R·250 , t he y snappe d at it. Look for Montesa to ex pa nd its line gradually over the coming year. In th e works for staggered introductio n : A 172cc Cora, a VR·based co m pe ti tio n enduro bike (san s oil injection) , the 31 0cc six-s peed trialer curren tly being developed for the world circui t. an d "T" (T ra ilbike) vers ions of all the Co tas ada pted fo r cowtrailing an d genera l mul ti-p u rp ose riding. Northwe st MX Co rre spondent Jan Newman got a tr o phy. Yup, "F irst in Moto.Joumalism " at Deschutes Cyde Park in Bend , Oregon. Ah , th e English! T heir tongue·in·ch eek ho n esty is re kno wn . bu t it 's hard to top the Har ley ad in t he British wee kIy tha t features a half-page pro file of th e Electra-Glide, boldly ca ptioned: BIG DADDY' S !,1ERE. It's poetic. Tired of stupi d televisio n shows about cops and docto rs a nd fire me n? Write to ABC T V and get so me good old motorcycle s on the tube. The Mountain Roadracing Association is ho lding a fo ur hour road race a t Aspe n in Sep tember. GP bikes over 125cc and production bikes over 250cc are eligib le. Husq varna is se nding Marcia Ho lley to Sweden for six weeks. Wha t for ? Marcia is go ing to be a double for a star in a Swedish stage production of "Annie Get Your Gun. " T he sce ne wh ich usu ally feat ures An nie Oakley rid ing in on her horse and shooti ng up the town will actually be Marcia rid ing a Husqvarna, shooting with he r ha nd s as she steers with he r fee t . Afte r a hard crash at D eAn za Par k July 21. Richard Mata is in ver y serious co n dition in t he Redl an ds , Ca lifo rnia hospit al. He has lost 25 pi n ts of blood , ' ne eds blood donation s despe rately , and has to ha ve a m achine breath e an d clean his blood fo r him . If yo u have in your heart t o help a m ot ocr osser who need s help , call Ra lph Do minguez' at (213) 69 5-4710. Oaus N ilsson se nt the Baiawin'1ing Husky out of the pits. then turned to the other Swedish two-strokes. n oti ng "Ve gott to keep dese pieces of s- - togedder!" He d id.