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/125984
Product evaluation It's the last foot that counts on the 'Horn By Ann A. Powell ORANG E. CAL., MAR. 23 The Matterhorn is a hill with a personality all its own. Just when it see ms likely that the hill is too easy, the 'Hom takes o ver and tosses a curve at the riders. The first rider to get hi t with that curve was yo ung Dave Powell (Suz). Powell had a great run going, he powered over the sandstone face and p lowed through the loose st u ff at the top. Wit h the front tire over the marker , Po well's b ike ca me to a halt. The wheel co uldn ' t handle that mess at the top of th e hill . He set a high mark for his class at 493 feet, good eno ugh for a first in the Open class, but not enough to keep th e big pri ze from go ing to Kerry Peterson. • Res ults in Results Se ct ion. Neither rain, nor mud, nor ... the climb goes on S UNNYl\IEAD, CAL, l\IAR. 16 Th e hill at DeAnza Cv cle Park is not noted as one of the most difficult to confront th e lo cal climbers b ut today rider a Iter rid- went over. sp un , Powell struggled and pushed, but he was held fast. With the bike m o re th an halfway across th e fini sh line, Powell was stopped just short of an o ver. Dou g Hall o n anextrerne ly p ow erful st oc k 360 Bul ta co had a spectacular run go ing rig ht fro m t he botto m . It di d n 't lo o k like anythi ng c o uld st o p hi m. As Ha ll crested the h ill with hi s front t ire the bike reared in th e air, wen t over the top, but left Ha ll standing j u st be hi nd th e fin ish line still ho ld ing o n to th e handlebar s. He had go ne to th e to p, b ut he wasn ' t as tri de t he bike as th e re ar wheel crossed the line. Wh e n th e fi rs t two ro unds of c o m p e ti tio n w ere co mp le te d , a s ur p r is i ng nu mbe r o f ri der s h ad ad vanced to t he next ro und. As it always does, the hill h ad also changed in the two hours since the start of t he cli mb. Riders who had go ne over fro m the bottom seemed to have little tro u ble goi ng over from this move up p o in t. The next time the starting log was moved it was 50 feet below the base of the sandstone fa ce. In that 50 feet the rider had to get off th e log, gain control and build enough speed to carry him over the sandsto ne where there is absol utely no tr action. The smallest bikes in co m pe ti t io n at t his ti me were two 360s, wh ich quickly fell out of the running. Kerry Peterson, perhaps one of the most consistent winners on the hillclimb scene in the past two y e ars , se t a new high with his 400 Maico of 447 feet. Tom La Rue, on a mo di fied Triumph in the Open cl ass, set the next high mark, an amazing 450 feet. No o ne had mad e it over t he top from th is poin t. Kerry Peterso n was up first, ridin g in t h e 400 St o ck clas s. H e set a d isap poin ti ng 443 ma rk, well below his first run . li e was also th e nex t ri der on the h ill . this ti me fro m th e 400 Mo di fied class. He dropped bac k to t he log, revved his engine, p ulled away slowly and fo ught for co n trol. The fro nt wheel sett led down and Pet erson got his feet on the pegs . Th at was a ll it took. This put all the pressur e o n the 12 riders who fo llo wed Peterson. Neal Mack el was the o nly other rid er to ge t over th e top of the sandsto ne, but even h is f ue l burnin g 80 0cc T ri umph .- By Ann A, Powell er ca me to the line, roar ed o ff throwing mud at th e starters, o nly to grind t o a halt well below th e cre st . It wasn 't un til yo u ng C raig ' M oc k, modified 360 Yamaha, made his run tha t an over was scored. In th e 500 Stock class bikes started making it over the to p. On their first ru n in this class, five of the nine riders Gary Peterson has to work to keep that front end from fly ing up as he turns the power on . Gary was winner in the 250 mod ified class. .- Starti ng from the bottom of a muddy hill is difficult. Starting fro m a mo ve-u p poin t is ne arly i m p ossibl e. Mock dropped o ut of competitio n, his bike fouled by m ud. That made Kerry Pet erson o n his 4 00 l\Iaic o the smallest bike in co m pe titio n. He man aged an over from th e m ove u p o n his first try. Other riders who had gone over fro m the bottom now fell by the wayside. In the end there were o nly five riders still in co m pe t it io n fo r the top eliminator spot and the start was moved eve n higher on the m u ddy hill . By this time the hill was really soupy and the competition was alm ost ended when the rid ers had so m uch trouble just getting to the new starting line . The first man up was Kerry Peterso n on th at Maico. He roared away fro m the log , gained co n t ro l, got his feet on the pegs and we nt over th e to p ! No ne of t he remaining riders co uld come close to reac hing Peterso n's mar k. , A few feet fro m the starting lo g and the bi kes were d o wn. With o ut a d oubt, Peterson was the top el iminato r. • R esul ts in Resul ts Sect ion. Novice night at Elsinore By And i Gangewer ELSINORE, CAL., MAR. 22 The No vice classes were the largest gro up out for the Scrambles races at Elsinore Saturday night. In th e first heat Jim Speagle, o ut of Oceanside, won the race on his super fast 1 25 Y am ah a giving him an au t o mat ic spot in the main . Jeff Wright ( Ya m ) a n d Ron Shumaker (lion) transferred d ire ctly to t he m ain a fte r they rode to a tie in the second heat. The main was a repeat for Jim Speagle as he rode to an eas y win ove r Tom Neider and Ron Shumaker. The 2 50 Novi ce class was mix and mat ch th e wh ole night with first place po sition cha nging each moto. Cha rlie Schlieger (Yam) wheeled in for the first in moto number o ne . Stan Kemp to ok the win in th e seco nd mo t o, leaving the third m o to to Steve Lo o mis. Stan took the overall win with two more sec onds , Charl ie ended up with th e second place honors an d Steve Lo omis in third. The 500 Open Novice cl ass start ed o u t very well b ut on ly three riders showed up for all th eir moros. l. arry l\lcC aul (Ya m) to o k t wo win s and a seco nd which gave h im th e go ld . Allen Po nd (T ri) finished third o ver all af ter fa llin g in th e second moto and T om Mocerin o took home second pl ace with two se conds and a first. • Results in Results Sec t io n . Vivitar Enduro Case (for your camera) If you'd rat her lo o k at a pho to of a nice clea n camera case , Pon d er & Best, I nc., 1630 Stewart Stree t, Santa Mo n ica , Califo rnia 9 0406 can prob ab ly fix you right up. Wha t we' re attem pting to de mo nstrate he re , o f course, is that des pite the ou ter strata o f goo p, crud and regular 01' red Georgia clay, the innards (o ur cam era , etc .) remain d ry and unblemished. If you also hap pen to be the type of fool that lik es to play in the m ud and take photos at the same time, you reall y ought to take a closer look at what V ivitar has made fo r us. T he Viv itar En duro Case appears to have been design ed , and nam ed , with the dirt rider in min d, although skiers, hikers and all will also find it a worthwhile inves tment in camera protection. T he outer case is fo rm ed fro m super sturdy unbreakab le plastic . T he to p is hinged to flip away fro m the wearer and is fastened shut with tw o co nvenie n tly designed clasp s that functio n we ll even wit h gloved hands. The to p has a lip all around where it sea ls agai nst the case and it kept o ur gear d ry even tho ugh it went underwater b riefly at o ne particularly deep creek crossing. Don 't go swimming with it; but it will save your stuff in case yo u do a quick unintentional du nk. The case is foam lined. It's shaped to ac co mo date one 35mm camera b ody with a 50 or 35 m m lens attached and two accessory lenses as well. We feel that the padding around t he case walls should be a bit thicker, although none of o ur equipment suffered any da mage. Of course , we d idn't do an y major get-off's w ith it either. . .One good en do, we think, would give the camera gear a severe shaking up . It wo uld be a se nsible plan fo r the manufacturer to enlarge the case slightly to allow for so me extra p ad d in g. One fina l impro vement suggestio n wo uld b e to di vide th e case into th ree distinct compartments for the ca mera and two lenses. As it is now , when the camera is out of the case in use, the lenses are free to bo unce arou nd inside with onl y two lo ose foam pads to keep t hem apart . Th'e ny lon web strap s, o ne belt and o ne shoulder, are perfect for cy cling usa ge. .T he case can be slip ped aro und behind t he rider's b ack , protected so mewhat fro m mu d and water sp ray, t hen easily be swung ar o und t o t he side fo r acc ess. We've used ours to provide o n-t he-s pot end uro co verage, and quite fr ankly, there just isn 't a better way to keep yo ur equipme nt safe . At $34.95, it's still cheaper t ha n taking yo ur ca mera to th e re pair sho p even once . Look one over at your local camera shop, and yo u'll p robab ly join us in sayi ng thanks to th e people at Vi vitar.