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/125994
consider this, almost twice as many pedestrians were killed as cyclists! Honda calls it prototype tri aler th e RTL 300. That means (y o u guessed it) 300cc displacement for the 193 pound (d ry ) bike. Frame is totally n ew, cases have been tu cked in more near th e bottom. They go t it light by simply co nsidering every piece (in clud ing engine p arts) in de tail, shaving a few p er cent off the weight of each. Effe ctive travel is four inches rear seven inches fron t, t The ste eri n g heads on the RTLs are cut and rewelded for one degree less ra ke than the factory engineers originally set after Bob Nickelsen and Sammy Miller, with no prior consultation, wrote letters from opposite ends of the earth call ing for the ide nti cal change. Honda spokesmen say that the TL 250 is set for production for the next two years. After that, the RTL 300, or one of its descendents, could be Ho nda's mainl ine trialer, Word the Honda crew received from Sammy Miller tends to confirm the existence, in Europe, of a 17O-pound Suzuki prototype, and that Montesa's latest works trialer is also supertight, somewhere in the 170-180 pound range with a 348cc, six speed power unit. Powroll got serious ab out trials this year. The wen-known maker of bore and stro ke goodies has fielded a team of at least two, m ay be t hree n orth wes tern riders o n punched-out TL 125s. Mark Eggar, NorCal Trials Round winner, will be a fe at ured instructor at th e Intem ational Trials Association 's special trials school at Saddleback Park Sunday, J une I S. The Team Honda star will happily exp ound on all aspects of trials riding , and maybe even sho w of f his new RTL-300. The newly-formed Midwest Cafe Racers Association has chartered as an AMA dub and will host a Midwest Amateur Regional Road Race June 28-29 at Mid Amer ica Raceway Park. For informatio n contact: Midwest Cafe Racers Association, PO Box 886, Aorissant, Missouri 63033. Privateer Sonny De Feo , one of the be st rid ers to co me from th e east, is looking for a sponsor. His novel wa y of attracting atten tio n is a sign lettered SPONSOR NEEDED on the side of his van. Interested parties cal l Sonny at 5 16/883-53 04. Will Dick Mann be baek racing on the AMA Grand National ci rcuit th is year? " Possibly" says Buggs. "If someth ing good comes along." Righ t now Dick is concentrating on the ISDT Qualifie rs. ISDT style events should be the coming thing according to Dick. "They're the most fun thing you can do with a motorcycle:' Th at carnes from a guy who sh oul d know. Entry blanks are now availab le for th e 1975 edition of the 24 Hours of Nelson road race. Th e 7th annual Nelson Ledges pavement scratcher 's enduro will run July 19· 20. Even if you have written o r called Nelson Ledges requesting an en try blank, y o u must do so again. 1974 en tran ts will be given starting position up till first shot at June to . Contact Nelson Led ges Roadracin g, 24 25 Nor th Rid ge East , Ash ta bula, Ohio 44 004.2 16/9 97-4 166 . a Hodaka Motorcycles are on the ve rge of releasing their n ew 250, bu t are having sec o nd thoughts about calling it "Thunderdog". Second run ner-up in the annual Hodie funny name co n test is "Thunderbolt". Why wou ldn't they want to name thei r new model a do g? The new 250 Thunderclap will come in an enduro version only. Hodaka doesn't want to enter in to the 250 motocross Lunde and James Domann are sixt h and fourth in the standi n gs at the m idway point. Saddleback Park informs us th at the y have finished work on th e starting line resurfacing. The operation spread three feet of adobe topso il over two-thirds of the star t h ill and did away with t he bad area just before the downhill. wars. 2 Team Kawasaki rider and South American motocross champeen Wyman Priddy has decided to win the Tex-AMA series inst ead of pursu ing the Nat! . Championship trail. Meanwh ile on the Texas series, Cali fo rn ian 125 riders Tim According to National Transportation Safety Board statistics, motorcycle fatalities ranked th ird nation wide last year. The 3,376 cyclists that were killed in traffic acc idents represent a 12 .4 percent incre ase over the previou s ye ar. If these figures ma ke you nerv ous, Cor ky Keene r and Bart Mar kel ha ve gon e th eir separate ways . The Kee ne r ri d d en/ Mark e l p r ep a r ed Har ley ·Davidson combinatio n was almost u n beatable last year, but repo rted fr iction be tween the t wo caused the sp lit. Keen er reportedly will receive direct help from the factory, wh ile Ma rke l, at least at the May 31 Northville Downs rain-ou t , has Jun ior Ted Boody , Jr. o n his bike. Loo k fo r. a spe cial NMA mini double head er at Irwindale June 2 1-22. Sa turday mini speedway o n th e 1/8 mile o val, Sunday mini MX on the 5/8 mile humpy circuit. Gat es open both days a t 8 a.m, and pre-entries are avail abl e now fro m ei the r th e Irwindale o ffice or N~IA. J eff Ward and other NMA na ti onal mini-ch amps will be making th eir first appearance at th e Irw indale facility . Rubly is q ualified for the Bill " International " class at the Superbowl J uly 18. Record -keepe rs say he 's on the way to becoming th e w inn ingest CMC rider eve r, and he 's doing it rid ing one class on ly . The Federal EPA h as fo rmal ly identified motorcycles as a "major noise source" after extensive study (sic), alon g with b use s, earth-movers and trash . trucks (Federal Regist er , VAO, No . 103, May 28 , 19 75 ). That means th at under exi sting law, h aving studied a problem into existence, th e Federales can now start writing regulations to solve it. Neat, huh? Road riders t ired of the garde n-variety poke r run sh o ul d try somethi ng lifted fro m the sports ca r w ortd, t ime-d istance rallyi ng in the Sun riser ser ies of motorcycle and sid eca r railyes !traditional spelling) sponsored by Encino Kawasaki. There's one a month (Sun riser IV is June 22) in a points championship series runni ng through March, 1976. Start is at June Ellen's Donut Shop, 4578 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks, not far from Ventura Freeway. You 'll need a watch w ith a sweep second hand, some seratch paper, a couple of pencils and some tape. Run solo or w ith navigator, it's challenging and fun . Foothill Dirt Riders volunteer cleanup of Dove Springs netted 10,000 pounds of trash, one abandoned truck and several eyesore shanties, winning general praise from BLM's much-maligned Dick Harlow, who said, " The desert would be a much more beautiful place if everyone acted with th e spirit of goodwill and co-operation that these volunteers exhibited over th e weekend (o f May 17)". "Curricu lum" w as the Ro man word for racetrack. Every motorcycle money. movie Jody Nicholas is a Motorcyclist monthly . has made new editor at ABC tel evision will premier a n ew series in J an uary , 1976 called "Small World of Sports." Minicycle racing and kids' trials will be featured. Charles Fries Productions in Studio City. California is looking for invest o rs to back a featu re mov ie called "Sunday's Ch ildren" abou t minicycle motocross. Should be a blockbuster on the Saturday matinee circuit. Team Kawasaki has shelved plans to en ter the AFM race June 15 at Sears Point as part of th eir 25 0 road racer development program . Instead, they're flying Ron Pier ce and his Kaw asaki to Loudon, New Hampshire for the Can-Am Seri es road race the same day. " !t's possibl e th e fact ory Harleys will be th ere, " says Ron. Pier ce thinks the Kawasakis are re ad y . " We go t a six-horsepower increase on th e d yno o ver the b ike I rode at Rivers ide (May 18) , an d we so lved th e overhea ti ng pro bl em. It's looking real good." AFM will h ost a professio nal GP road race at Rive rside J uly 20. A S1 ,OOO pu rse is gua ran teed , alo ng with a healthy cut of the gate, all at normal entry p rice s. Every GP class from 125cc up will get money, bu t no AFM points. AFM Number On e Rudy Galindo gets credit fo r the idea. Som e new, tr ic k Goodyear s are goi ng along with Team Kaw asaki for testing at Loudon . The rnini -meanies arc serious. Meanw hil e . J im Evans and Yvon DuHamel have th e b ig bo re Kaws in Europe. The U.S. House Committee on Pub lic Works and Transportation has (o r will have) HR 3869, the bill to repeal, at the Federal level, the mandatory helmet law standard. Address to use in support is