Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

INSIDE Racer Test Association (NEMA), T raffic Con tro Systems Sectio n, an industrial group 0 traffic signal equipment manufacturers is currently developing indus standards for such equipment, and . aware of the need for motorcycl sensitive detectors. Although this m atter is not one fo which th e Na ti on al Advisory Co m mitte on Un ifo rm T raffic Control Devices c recommend an im me diate solution, co py o f your letter will be forwarded t th at bo dy for their informat ion. Pleas be . ass ured th a t th e Federal Highway Ad ministrati o n is co gnizan t of t . problem and will co ntin ue to promot the necessary changes in design 0 application of t raffic co n tro l devices t accom m odate the increased populatio of motorcy cle o pe rat o rs. 8 Return of the Phantom Racers Tested 10, 15 At Rawhide, Rivers ide, Carlsbad, and points farther ou t. Trials 17 You shoulda' been th ere . GP 19 Malcolm does the So boba Shuffle. Enduro Scene 22 Sq uid U RA ri der stikes back. Opinion 26, 27 An alyzing th e Sierra Club secret, Gambit, and M.O .R. E. letters to write Products ROB ERT E. CONNER, Chie Traffic Con trol Systems Division Offi ce of Traffic Operations Washington, D.C. 27 Peddle harder North .•. . . ..• . .. .. • . .28 Sounds good, but wha t do we do in th m eantime ? . . L.C. What's snao? . Test Bench 32 E.C. checks out a brace of b ox stock Hodakas Scenic trails Papa Baby! 34 Lady takes a ride Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36 Results 40 Cat • • • • • • •.. •.. . •. . • .43 ON THE FRONT PAGE: Incredibly dialed-in cover design by Ti m Clark. Getting the shaft Volunteer The one thing women's sports seem to forget is that breasts d o have their ups and do wns. I've found t hat a longline bra can serve two purposes (kidney bel t an d flopper stoppe r). There is also an idea we can borrow from the "flapper" era - a binder made of two pieces o f co tto n cloth sewn together with two small darts at the sides and one in th e middle. Then add bra elastic to the sides with hooks sewn like other bras, and cotton straps. Either of these ideas work well, though neither are all that comfortable. Guess you can't have everything . • . A recent Papa Wealey item men tioned an un fo rtunat e accident involving an open mine shaft on BLM lands. I feel that some men tion should be made of a recent p roject of the Califo rnia Association of Four-Wheel Drive Clu bs. In cooperation with the BLM, this gro up was resp o nsible for marking n umer o us mineshafts in the Randsburg-Barstow area. I feel it might be appropriate for some of the 0-37 clubs who race the area t o get together with the BLM in a massive program to finish the work. Unless the vehicle-oriented desert lovers volunteer their efforts, the job will never get done. If we want these "death traps " eliminated, we've got to take the initiative. BOB HAM, C.O .R.V.A. Sacramento, Cali f. A while back in Cycle News, there was a suggestion to im p rove co m munications fo r po liti cal ly active bikers. I'm vo lunteering to take ph one num bers and addresses o f bi kers in the Santa An a area to establish a q uick-reaction unit for dispersing any information that may co me t o my attention. If each local area had a unit like this, we could be much more effective and well -informed. MA RTIN MAEDING 2244 j u di th Santa Ana, Calif. 92706 KATHY HENNE Se attle, Wash. One gripe Sharon Clayton. Publ isher Publ isher. Edna Mewton, Secre tary Adverti sing Lind a Clark. Advertising Man ager . Gil Brown. National Advc rt ising , anag er; M O1ris Kolber, Advcrtisin g Assis tan t. Ed,tor..1 Charles Clay ton, Editor; Lane Campbell, Assistant Editor , Bobi Scott, Sec ret ary an d Calendar. Ar t & Production Catherine Lampton , Art Direc tor ; Nancy Gray. Advertising Ar t Direct or ; Hector Agu ilera , La b Te chnician; Marion Ha tashita , Typographer. Circulatio n Rheba Smi th, Manager; Pam Hobbs and Qllis Andrews, Assistanu. '0 Accounting Gay lcnc Zai onz , Mana ger ; T wila wheeler , J udy Fo uts , Lane Sienk & Mike Klinger, Assistants . Se... ice. & Su pp ort Mike Co likas: Randy Davis; Bill Runyan ; Jeannie Dunivan, Receptio nist . West P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 9080 1. (2 t 3 ) 4 27-74 33 ; L.A. Line 636-8844. East P.O. Box 805, T ucker, GA 30084. (4 04) 934-7850. Central P.O. Box 13 24 5 , A ustin, TX 78711. (512) 444·7548 . Subscript ion On e year, second class mail $ ] 2.50; 2 years , seco nd cla ss mail, S22.50 : 3 years. seco nd class m ail , 130.00 ; Sin gle co py pri ce . 50 cen ts. 6~~ 4 Co py right Cyue New s, [nco 19 75. Trade mar k registered U.S . Pa ten t Offi ce . All dRh t re served . Publi sh ed weekly ex cept th e firll and l,;ast wee k o f the ca lend ar ye ar b y Cycl e New s, Inc.• P.O . Bo x 498 , Lo ng Beach , C.alifomia. Se con d c1.l5!> post age paid at Long Bea ch , CA . Ed it ori al stories, car toons , ph ot o s, et c . are welcome . Addre ssed , stamped env elope assu res return o f unpu rch ased ed it orial matter. Reprintin g in who le o r part o nly b y permissio n o f th e p ublishers. Ad vertis ing ra tes a nd circ u lat io n informa tion w ill be sent upon req ues t, See S.R .D. S. I rode the URA Fros ty Cactus and though t it was one o f the best. However, I have one gripe .. . . . Midway through the second secti o n, there were two bad bo ttlenecks. Tha t 's n o t my gripe. About 45 minut es after I had finished, I went o ut looking fo r a broken-down rider an d to my surp rise found the co urse had been changed , t he bad sectio ns elim in ated, making it eas y to s tay on schedule. I d id n ' t mind m y loss o f tim e here , becau se I tho ug h t 90% of th e riders would have th e same difficulty . There is probabl y n o way to straighten this o ut now, but clubs should remind t heir members that once a race o r enduro has start e d , th e co urse should remain th e same fo r all riders. LEE ADAMS Lo ng Beach , Cali f. Look around The recen t synd icated arti cle by Dr. Hayaka wa prompt ed m uch soul sear ch in g, as I am an avid m o t orcy clist as well as a " concerned citizen." Concerned that we may , in fact, be doing irreparable damage to the desert. Is th ere any accu rate evidence as to th e degree the desert is damaged as the result of a competitive mo to rcycle eve nt? Has the AMA or so me other mo to rcy cle organization spo nso red suc h a st udy so that we co uld ad dress ourselves to specific problem areas, if th ey do ex ist ? There just may be someth in g to wh at keep hearing, but fo r t he we preservatio n of the sport should n't we get off our bikes fo r five min ut es an d look ar o un d us? JOHN C. SUTII ERl.AND,jR. That 's the trouble with cars " Th e Latest Poop" ( Feb ruary 11th issue) stated that Malc olm Sm ith sustained a broken wh eel in the .Parker S.C .O.R.E . race. Malcolm c on firmed that a ball j oint broke and not his Cragar wh eels, wh ich ran th e entire distance. JOHN McNEIL Compton, Calif. Desert downer I read with gre at dismay the articles in the February 4 , 19 75 issue of Cy cle News p ert aining to the cancella ti o n o f th e Baker-to -Vega s race this year. I personally loo k forward to only a few events each year, and Baker-to-Vega s is th e one that we prepare for mo st of all. I believe th at I can honestly say all of us who ride DRA events from Fresno are greatly dis appointed. It seems to us th at the enviro n men talists are winning on this event no m atter what we do . If the race is run, it ·will aid th e lawsui t agains t the BLM , and if it isn't, all of th e riders who would hav e ridden the even t are penalized. Are we ever go ing to win? Perhaps a petition to the BLM would hel p, I don 't kn ow at th is point, but it is very upsettin g to have one o f the fin es t eve n ts of th e year ca ncelled because we have to wait and see how mu ch damage we d o to roc ks, san d, an d sandwashes, Am azin g isn 't it? MIK E PRI SEL ER, 19 3X Go b blernores Fresno, Calif. Mr . Campbell : In reply to yo ur recen t letter co ncerning detection of motorcy cles at sign alize d in tersecti o ns, as y o u sta te, the presence or motion o f mo to rcy cles is not always sensed by the vehicle detect ors. This is a m atter of co ncern since the mo to rcycle is a legal motor vehi cle and mo to rcycle operato rs are sub ject to th e law s gov ernin g au tomobile operators. Un til recen tly the te chnologies used in detector manufacturing has no t included th e sensit ivity n ecessary to effectively detect vehicles rangin g fro m a lightweight motorcycle to a heavily lo aded semi-trailer rig. Fortunately, mu ch of th e detector equipment being installed today does have the ne cessary The Federal Highway capabili ty . Administration is presently involved in efforts which have the research objective of developing designs fo r more sensitive and effective detectors. The National Ele ctrical Manufacturers Easy questions My dad and I want to start racing in the deser t and riding endures, and would like to know what clubs to join. Do you think we should jo in the AMA and District 3 7 or th e D RA and District 37 ? Do yo u think we sh ould jo in a lo cal club? If y o u would print or send so me ad vice and addresses it would be greatl y ap preciated . We would lik e to start racing soon. KIRK DAFFRON W. Covina, Calif. Kirk , th e ansuier is "y es" on all cou nts. See Club Guid e in Cycle News back issue No.3 , 1975 . . . Editor. Reply to Ron Schneiders In your "Gambit" of january 28, you mention a " B" rider winning the Iron Horse as a lottery. Maybe so me endures are won by lottery, but if you'd done some research, you 'd have found th e " B" rider who won isn't exactly a plug, hav in g already a "B" class win alo ng wi th a lot of de sert trophies. No w Ron, I feel an y time a " B" rider wins a district run, he has to be riding : with an "A" rider, key in g off the riders ar o un d him, and knows wh at he's doing in the ri ding department, which t his rider was doin g and did. You seemed to feel th e Iron Horse was easy. I didn 't thin k it was a killer, but it wasn 't as eas y as y o u state. If y ou would ride the whole enduro and stay on time, yo u would have a different outlook on some of th e runs y o u write about. . . . Your ti e-b reaking su ggestion has go t to be th e bigges t laugh since Nixon said he wasn't a crook .. . I'd also like to com m en t on a bad misconception 0 f en d uro danger m arkers. I am always seeing assinine statements that danger markings are set up at cou rse speed averages. Why ? In every enduro I've run, I've had to exceed the average to stay on time. If you mark the co urse as a hare and hound, you have ple nty of warning whether you're going slow or fas t. You have n o th in g to lose if given a warning too so o n, but you'll mash your melon if you get a warning too late. Please don 't take this as a criticism of any person o r club, o nly the stupid policy . . . LEROY M. MI LLER Huntingto n Beach , Calif.

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