Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

clique too t ightly to car e about others. They change the name of the club to the San ta Barbara Stallers, IINSIDE i Belgian GP RICK SIEMAN JIM LEARNAHAN 6 Bimbo boogies for the win ! Murphy's Marauder to the rescue Cal Rayborn Memorial .... 8 Ho c kin g and Ro berts gas it. Sometim e in the past year or so y ou Bad Rock ISDT Qu al .... 10 ran a co m pari so n t est of some (or most) The sun breaks through & Cranke win s. o f t he leading silencers. On e such product that I re call , seemed to best fill the needs o f a 3 6 0 or 500cc single Yamaha with a stock expansion ch amber was cal led Mu rp hy's Muffler can you t ell me where I might obtain one? JAMES M. WILLCETI Speedway 12 Ventura's open and th e b ikes ar e fly in g. Ascot 15 Guess who did it again? Local 16 Around town racers . TS400 test Information con cerning Murphy 's Mufflers can be obtain ed from Murphy Muffler Co., In c., 5312 East Beverly Boul e vard, Los Angeles, CA 90022 . . . Ed itor 24 What's this about a flat fr on t tire? No rth 26 It 's thawing out up there. Enduro scene .. . •.. .. ..30 Nat'l Drags . . . .. ... . . .•3 1 T.C. wh o? Results •. • . •...• .. ....32 Opinion 36 Calendar 38 Want Ads 44 MX Cat 44 O N THE COVER: Bimbo - th e pic says it all . Photo by Hu erter. CMC truckin along with the Ascot opener. Photo by Klinger. Eureka ! I've struck gold! Problems in Cal. City My fam ily and fri ends atten de d the D.R.A. California City Gr and Prix, May 3-4. In all our experiences , des ert rac ers are very considerate p eople. But , I su p p ose wh en y o u ' ar e in a t own , y o u must act like you are st ill a t home . My h usband wa s riding m y so n 's 80 and so me turkey came ou t of his camp full thro ttle ca using him t o pan ic brake and d o a sp ect acular en d o. This ride r di dn't even st o p! A friend of ou rs was riding a new Honda 125 on th e street and a bl ue dune b uggy cut her off ca using h er to crash . Th eir reply " Hondas don't m a ke . it ," and ro de off. Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt ! He re we are trying to keep this Grand Prix alive and well , but with this and othe r kinds of inconsid erations we m ay soon have to kiss it goodby e. J EANNE HAMMOND Sharon Clayton , Publisher Edna xtewton . Secretary to Pu blisher . ' Ad vert ising Linda Clark. Advertisin g Man ager . Gil Brown. Nati on al Adverti sin g ~ Ianage r; Chris Kolb er . Advertisin g Assistant . Editorial Rich ard Cre ed . Seni or Edi-tor; Lan e Campbell . Edit or : Jeff Peck. Assistant Edi to r: Bob i Sco t t. Secretary and Calendar. A rt and Prod uct ion Cat herine: Lampton , Art Dire ct or ; Kaki Art Dire ctor ; Reeves. Adver tising Lab Tech n ician ; Hect or Agui lera. Marion Hatashita . Typographer. Circul ation Rheba Smi th. Man ager ; Pam Hobbs and Chris Andrews. Assista nts . Accounti ng Ga vtene Za i o n z , Ma n ag e r : Twi la Wheel er . j udy Fouts. ~ t ike Klinge r. j e a n n e Ha mmond. Assistants : T om Hun ter. Lani Sienk . Credit Depart ment , Services & Support Mike Col i kas : Bruce ~ t a c C r C' go r ; Bill Runyan : j ean n ie Dun ivan. Reception ist . West P.O. Box 498, Long Beach . CA 9080 J. (2 13) 42 7· 7433 ; L.A. Line 636-8844. East P.O. Box 80S , Tu cker, CA 30084. (404) 934· 7850. Centrol P.O. Box 13245 , Aust in . TX 7871 J. (5 12) 444· 754 8. Subscription One y ear . second clas s ' m ail 51 2.50 ; 2 yean, second class mail, 122.50 ; 3 year s, second cla ss m ai l. S30 .00 ; Sin gle copv pri ce . 50 cen ts. Co py ngh t u vcle Ne ws. Inc. 191~ . Trade mark registe red U.S. Pa ten t Office . A ll righl reserved . Pub lilh ed weekly ex cep t the first and last wee k of t h e calend ar y ear by Cycle Scows. Inc .• P.O . Box 49 8. Lo ng Beach . Ca lifornia . Second clan postage paid .1.1 Long Beach. C A. Edit orial Iloriel. carto o ns, pho to s, et c, ar e welcome. Addrelled.. lI ...mp ed envelope usu ~ . retu rn of unpurch ased edir cri... ma tt er. Reprinting in 1 whole or piAn only by p er missio n of th e publishers. Advertising race s and circu lAtion informati on wilt be sent upon reques t. Sec 4 S.R.O.5 . The Outdoor Nation needs your help Your May 6 issue of Cy cle News co n tained an article written by Lesli e Richards that may well be t he salv ation of outdoor recre ation . TI, e article co ncerned " The Outdoor Nation " and wh a t its main points are. 1110se who are invo lved on a daily basis wit h attempti ng to keep th e lan ds open for vehicular recreat ion kno w that un der th e present di rectio n we are d oomed t o fail ure. The solution is no t a new o ne nor is it all that d iffi cu lt t o attain . Unit e and win ! Sim ple, so sim ple th at it is beco m ing th e single mo st co m plicated effo rt ever underta ken in t he world of o utdoor recreat ion. I will no t dwell o n the virtues of "The Outdoor Nation" fo r they are very well co vere d in yo ur article. I will, however, dwell on th e fac t that if th ere is ever ano ther Barstow to Vegas race it will be the very last one.- The word is that th e B t o V is over an d done with. Rid e n o w, fo r tomorrow y o u won 't have t h e ch ance. We have lived thro ugh an era o f implemented res trict ions , desert plans, slup 's e tc. If y o u think there is nothing more they can d o to you, you 're wrong. How abo u t a clo sed des ert or all roads designated or individual permits (o ne pe rmit for one rider ). Th e last two st atements ar e not guess work, they will soo n be fa ct. Go ah ead, check it out. All we are asking fo r is a little h elp to save your de sert. We ne ed t he co nc epts and unified fo rce o f " The Outdoor Nation." Is 5 0 cents t o o mu ch t o ask t o kee p y o ur riding area s open ? We think not. Is there someone, so me wh ere willing to hel p ke ep th e lands op en ? So far the response ha s been em barra ssingly po or. If we cannot un it to gether, we will most assured ly los e wh at we enj oy m ost, a pl ace in th e desert. RAY MOON Vic e-President, CA4 WDC , Inc. Th ank s from John t o John Man y sp eci al th an ks t o J ohn Gregory an d his gro up for th e assist an c e and first-aid they gave me after my giant crash and bum endo on April 12th, the day before the D. R.A. Hare Scrambles. John turned around and came back to help m e get back to camp and then his group wr apped m y broken ribs and shoulder sep ar atio n and took care of m y son 's and m y motorcycles while I went to the hospital. Their action proves again that desert motorcycle people do care an d do not have to know yo u to give y o u aid wh en ne eded. JOH N DRAKE Anaheim, Calif. Santa Barba ra, then and now Sun day, April 20th, I attended the District 37 Mo to cross held in Santa Barbara. One year ago , I also attended a District race at the same trac k. Back then, we were informed th at we 'd be allowed fo ur lap mo tos (whoo p ie !). After showing the organ izing club (San ta Barbara Starters) t he ru le book, they rel u ctantl y a llo we d t hree to 15 min ute m o t os, Th is year was a bit diffe rent ... the plan wa s for everyone to have two 20 minute m o t os. However, the cl ub spent so much time frittering aro und with sound systems and trac k prepara tion, th at the actua l racing st arted m uch later than the proposed n ine sta rt ing ti me . Practice was lim it ed to two laps. Two whole laps! The reason for the b rief practice session was given as, uWell, we have so many en tries th at we might run out of ti me. to Even th o ug h t h is was a " Dist rict" race, at least half o f th e riders presen t were loc als running as p ie p lates . District race my flaming buttocks ! The final race o f th e fir st ro un d st arted ar o und th ree. Na tu rally, the second motos we re all sh ortened in order to be at darkness. Much of the time was diddled away by the heavy equip me nt boys running a grader over the trac k several t imes, in order t o "get co me o f t he m bumps off the track." Th e re st o f th e t ime was wasted by Joe Wat ertruc k in a dazzling display of six -wh eeled dex te rity . For t he fir st time eve r, I left t he track in co m plete disgust aro und 12 :3 0. My first race would hav e started by 2 :3 0 or th ree. Some of th e club members su ggested that if we didn 't like the set-up, th at we rac e somewhere else . One of them said that t hey didn 't mind sp ending the whole day at the track, " because we all hang around and drink beer anyway aft er the ra ces. " This mi ght be fine if yo u live down th e street, but many of us faced a two and one-half to three hour drive. Th e only reason we came to their track in the first pl ace, was because it was a District race . I sort of like t heir su ggestion about racing somewhere else, because th e wa y the San ta Bar ba ra St arters run a race takes all t he fun out of racing. They ar e indee d , m ast ers o f the ar t o f wa st in g t ime . May I hum bly sugge st tw o things: They d o no t ever aga in be allow ed t o ru n a District 3 7 race. The club appears to be locked in to th eir own funky little I gave so me thought to writing Cycle News just to say than ks to the Pr ospectors Me fo r what I tho ught was a su per enduro (The Gold Rush ), b ut t hen I'm like most people (lazy). Then aft er looking at one of the nicest enduro finisher's p ins that I've seen, I thought again , but instead grabbed another beer and grew lazier. But now after cleaning my trusty turkey and reading the results I've found that I was lucky enough to pick up a couple good size nuggets under my skid plat e (2n d " CH" an d Is t " C" -Team }, . If I tho ugh t the run and pins were super th en the t roph ies are fan tasti c (o ver two feet tall) . Still no t wan tin g to ruin my image or actu ally hav e to do someth in g co nstructive, I'm having my o ld lad y wri t e y o ur rag to give m y thanks to t he m fo r a super ru n , p ins and trophies . So here it is, thanks, GI NO T.W.M.C. He rmosa Beach, Calif. P.S . I' m sure glad I m an aged t o get these 'cause I should be getting moved up to "B" an d I d on ' t th ink 111 hav e a ch ance of finding any gol d agai n for q ui te a while . Did Cycle News cry wolf? Several m on th s ago in Cycle News yo u m ad e several sh ort, morbid com men ts o n the an ticipated ban on two stroke engines in 1976 in but nothing very C ali fornia, informative. Ot her publications hav e also followed Cy cle News in throwing o ut bits of this " wo n de rful news. Could y ou pl ease prin t more con st ru ct ive in fonn ation on this prop ose d legis lation and who au tho red it? What 's th e sense o f us who ride two strokes wri t in g and figh ting for more land if we can't ri de our scooters ? And I say down wi th Cy cle News' su ggestion th at we all could buy Honda four-stro ke s. I, fo r one, am in th is sport for the fun o f it so I am unable to put out a few grand more to buy a thumper. Please let u s know what is going on be fo re it is too late. As long as the ban is still "anticipated" it isn 't law . fI DALE GIPE The other sh oe ma y n ot be long in dropping. Research into th e amount of m o to rcy cle noise and ex haust pollution is u nde rway now. We will have a report on the testing of m o torc ycl es in an upcom ing issue. If you will rem ember abo ut a ye ar ago th e EPA did propose a ban on two strok es wi thin the L.A. Basin area . . . Editor The views ex pressed in this colu m n and o t he r colu mns appearing on th e fo llo wing pages are solely those of th e auth ors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cy cle News, Inc. Qualified readers wishing free and equ al rebuttal space should contact th e Ed itor.

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