Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Hey, AMA- Think bucks, not cc's Hey, am I too late to put In m y! idea for AMA road racing? I'm no so worried about the professional side, most of those guys are big ' boys and are ge tt ing plenty o f mo ney spe nt o n them by facto ries, cigaret te co mpa nies, b rewers and the lik e. ~~~t. 1~ Turtle ~ ~ 1st Over all 100ee Santa Claus G P Suspension New Slant Design COMPLETE Shock Relocation Kit with Float ing only $36.00 Rear Bra ke . . . Ind ian Du nes t st Overall 100ee Yuma ,AZ Brian Myerscough w ins on a Turtle Suspension equipped Y Z 80 (Send Bra ke Ba ck ing Plate wit h order.l Simple , easy instr uctio ns. Save 15% on each pair of shocks when ordering kit. New yz 80 kit . . $16.00 Write or TODA Custom Service Cycle EngineeIjIlg Ca ll Y: 810 W. Hyde Par k, Inglewood , CA 90302 (2 13) 678 -4084 . Dealer in quiries now invited v NEXT WEEK SeI&0,0181 1m MOTORCYCLES ~® a PARTS ~ . _..... COMPLETE PISTONS MACHINE SHOP,REPAIR a SERVICE ON ALL MAKES (7 14) 630-5720 · 12 rY" ll':; OB E Cw:le Enl'lineerintl 8 SUDDh, 1140- A N Kr aemer _ Anaheim eo _ 92 806 WHITTIER HONDA Motorcycle T railers Bell Helmets F uU Bore Products 14324 E, Whitt,.r Blvd. (2 13 1 698.Q065 Complete stock of parts an d accessories fo r street and dirt . DSS~ ['m m o re worried abo ut the st ate of the amate ur side, and specifica lly so-called "Pro d uct ion " road racin g. Yo u know, thi ngs li ke kee pi ng the cheating to a dull roar , keep ing the cos t of it within re ach o f a workin g st if f, th ings like th a t. Some folks want to se e us go the route SCCA did with sports car s, h ave "A" Production, " B" Production, and so on , with a homologat ion committee meeting every year to de cide what model goes in what class. Others want to see the cla sses broken on strict d isp lac emen t lim its, but maybe lo osen up a little to reflect wh at 's ac t ua lly being bu ilt , like stretching th e 350 class to incl u de CB 400 Hondas, o r make an 85 0 Product ion class to sep ar ate th e Gu zzis from the Z, Is - yo u name it. [ lum p all these ideas t ogether as playing po litics with ccs an d makes. Yeah , di splacement matters if you 're sanc tio ni ng world GP classes, b ut wh en yo u 're talking about privateers racing for troph ies , what really counts in separating bikes into classes is d o llars. In the real world, bucks eq uate to speed even more closely than us e of stoc k ri m size s, an d the usual rul es tha t cove r b lata n t alteratio ns to frame , bodywo r k, an d engi ne. O therwise, forget abou t en forcin g st rict "box stock" legalit y . Don ' t even wo rry abo ut it. Thr ow a way yo u r mi kes and meas uring cy lin ders and all your o the r sophisticat ed " cheat er det ect or ' gea r, because m y fin al rul c will ma ke 'em all un necessa ry . ~I y fo ol p ro o f ch ea te r-s to p pe r is, make t he cla iming price (subj ec t to all the usu al con d iti o ns o f the AlIIA clai mi ng ru le ) equal to the retail price o f the claimed motorcycle, plus a fixed sur charge (say ab o ut 5200 ) that covers ma king a stocker fa irly ra cewo rt h y . [ bet it would only have to be uscd a times a seas o n to keep cou p le everybody reasonably honest. If yo u t hin k it won 't work, look t kartin g. In 1964, when I hung up kar ting, there was a S [00 price limit fo r cu b ic centimeters . Ad d to t hat t he fact that cl ubs h ave neither the time. manpower. eq uipment no r (that dirty word again) money to strictly enforce the ru les as to being production legal. So every body cheats, though usually with sufficient finesse as not t o be obvious. The system works with a minimum of friction among the moneyed gen ts who can indulge in it , but in ca se you ha ven't noticed, worldwide inflation is rapidly driving the whole game in the same direction car racing went. And where car racing went, few of us poor boys can affo rd to follow - right? So here 's my ide a , borrowed sligh tly tarnished from t he karting world , Base yo ur class break on bucks. Have a 5750 class, a $ [ 500 class, a 52500 class, and an Open class for the high rollers. Use published suggested retail price to decide wh ich class a given model belongs in . Keep most of the standard supplementary regs as to use o f stock exhausts, retentio n of st oc k electrics. "AU stock engines. \Ve ran "A" Super, an d that meant nin e-p o rting with a sloper manifo ld, just for openers, to b e co mpetitive. In 1967, [ happened to poke my head into a kart shop and saw a new MC-9 I engine apart on the benc h. Th at was I\IcCulloch's latest "A" St ocker at the time. My eyes bugged. A factory nine-port with a slop er manifold - b ox St ock ! And it was still produced to a S [00 price limit. In 0 ther words, the price limit, combined with the normal forces of c o m pe ti tio n, had forced the man u fact ur er to produce in creasingly t ric k m achin ery to a fixed price in spi te of in flation ! Now that's a feat tha t J can get my teeth into . One mo re thing, AMA. While we 're at it, how ab o ut a "Cheapo Grande" class in which any t hing goe s but th e clai ming price is 55 00. Ya ' see, I still can't afford the pri ce of a ncw bike . .. Lane Campbell

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