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/125998
a 'p rim it ive G EV ?" Th ere 's n o way su ch ani mal can be de fin ed in terms o f the 1980 Compro mise." "Good God, Jim. Do yo u reali ze wh at we 're do ing? Has it been th at lon g ... ?" And the two men stood t ransfixed , th eir eyes meeting across th e aisle th at th e Const itutional an d sepa rates Lib er tar ian side s o f the House. Then th ey both began to lau gh , softly a wry chuc kle th at gro ws in to uncontrollabl e, rac king fits o f laughter th at bring tears to th eir eyes. When th e lau gh ter fin ally su bsided, leavin g them. both physcially draine d, th e t ear s remained. ~ an Lane Campbell The debate The galleries are unusually crowded this day In the U.S. House of Representatives, as the House leadership, in a rare, though not unprecedented m ove, has yielded 20 minutes for a sp ec ial deb at e on certain aspec ts o f the Cali fornia Desert Wilderness Act o f 1990, already p assed b y the Sen at e . Two o f California 's Congressmen have pulled no sma ll amo un t o f st rings to get segments of floor time in th is deb ate. The Hon or abl e Kenneth Rober ts o f Modesto is s,,?ea king : . . . th at to deny access to ground-effect veh icles (o r GEVs ) in all Federally adm iniste re d Mojave Desert lands through a blanket wild erness designa tion is un fairl y discriminat ory , an d an example of po or land man agem ent, being in effe ct, a refusal to manage at all. " In Californi a alo ne, there are ov er t wo million re gist er ed GEV owners. Th ese people m ust be provided fo r in any kind of in te lligent land-use planning. I m ight also take this opportunity to insert in to the record a survey wh ich indicates that G EV recreationists spend over 1.2 million dollars each wee kend in desert co mmun ities. There should have been an in-depth eco n o mic analysis made of this act as to the loss of this co m merce to desert eco no m ies, pursuan t to the .. 38 prov is ions of the Economic Stabilizat ion Act of 1984, as amended. I sub mit there has n ot be en full and satisfactory analysis of the economic impact. "Surely we must modify the authority o f the Bureau of Land Management to properly regulate GEV use in the California de sert. These tax-pa y ing citiz en s deserve some fair share of the recreat ional resource s in the desert, and this can be guaranteed with proper management. But a blanket closure ? A designat ed wilderness ? I assure my colle agues in this House that the GEV enthusiasts will never stand for it." A red light blinked on Congressman Roberts ' console, sign ify ing a reque st fo r ex change of debate time. Th e liquid cry stal an nunciato r lit up with co ded symbols indicat ing th e so ur ces. "Mr. Sp eaker, I y ield two minutes on exchange to my co llea gue from Barstow. " 4 ' Th e ch air recognizes the Con gre ssman fro m Cali fornia, Mr. James Fishb ack. " " I wish th at my co llea gue fro m Modesto, as well as ot hers in th is House, lived closer to th e deser t , as I do, and co u ld see first-hand th e havoc ca use d by G EVs, managed o r not. Laymen view these things as " ing o n a cushio n o f rid air'. Un fo rtunately , this 'cushion' is act ually a powerful recir culating draft from th e vehi cle 's lift fan s, whic h blasts away to psoil d own to hardpan o r rock undern eath th e craft . Even with dust shrouds and rec irculat io n filt ers , th ese things kick up amo un ts of du st tha t wo u ld ha ve bee n unconscio nabl e 25 years ago . " The big o nes, th at sleep six and carry four lif t fa ns, leave a swa th 30 feet wide whe reve r th ey've bee n . And because th ey travel o n their cushio n s from six inc hes to two feet off the ground, there 's no pretense of co n fini ng them to existi ng veh icle routes ; they can travel anywhere the gradient is 25 % o r less. And the sports models with auxilary propulsion units (AP Us) can climb practically any existin g grade. " Let's face it, gentlemen - they leave a sh ambles o f the ground where they've been . By all precedent in land-use planning, the desert has been recognized and confirmed as a primitive, relatively unspoiled area . The claimed rights of these people must be ab ridged in the public in tere st to preserve this area for the kind of wilderness re creational experience this lan d will b est support. As a designated wilderness, it should be closed to all visitation o t her than foot , horse, or primitive motorcycle in order to preserve this rare and frag ile resource. " "What's a 'primi tive motorcy cle ', Jim?" "Order, please, the gentleman from Barstow, California has the floor." " No matter, Mr. Speaker, I y iel d the floor for that on e question, even if it was ill-considered. In answer, I say co me o n , Ken, quit tr yin g to muddy t he water. You an d l ' bo th can quote t he definition word-for-word, in all its technical co mplex ity, as co n taine d in app lica ble sections of the Compromise Land-Use Act of 1980 . As well, you and I both know that n o such co mpro mise is possible in this case. I ask you - what is Rem ember wh en I first wrote of th e West Coast Invit at ional Scram bles I was a b it unhapp y that th e minis had no t been included in the classes? Well minis, you ge t to go , so start m ak in g yo ur pl an s for October 18 th in Tulare. Scramble s steward Clyde Reese came out to the J ac krabbits ni gh t run and we ro ost ed up in the stands and had a lon g cha t, an d Cly de has rea lly been working ove rt ime trying to ge t this thing go ing. \\11en th e ini tial pl ans for th e event were ma de it was th ought t ha t o nly ex perts wo uld get a bi d for a pl ace in our Dist rict team. Well, 1 immedi ately (wi th my mind) tho ugh t o f all the exp ert riders wh o had no t been really su pp or ting scrambles th is year who would sud denly show up and want to rid e this glamo r run an d th ought so me unkind th o ughts to my self abou t it. Ap parently th e ste wards di d too and if yo u are a top runn ing junio r yo u may get a place. After all, if yo u 've been racing Distri ct races all year yo u should co me be fore an ex pe rt who has n't sho wn up at all thi s season o r maybe o nly race d once o r tw ice. Un ha pp ily, scrambles interes t is still in a slu mp, an d we n eed so me help. A look at the District ca lenda r shows we' re in sorry shap e. ]f it wasn 't for Sandak yo u District scr ambles ride rs would have had four runs to date . Four ! Two J ackrabbits, a Gripster and a Hilltopper run, the last two clubs can celling th eir second run and a glan ce at y ou r ca lendar will show the o ther clubs wh o bombed o u t on you, Huntington Beach and the Powder Puffs. So here we are in June with two more po int runs. Points will be given fo r t he remaining GP 's of course , but should Simi Valley cancel ... ! So what's wrong. For what it's worth here are a co uple of observatio ns from me . Clyde made the observation that riders today are not club oriented. How true. There was a day once when to belong to a top scrambles club was an honor and you paid y our dues to your sport by belon ging to one and helping to t hro w your share o f the races. Clubs were a lo t of fun in those good old da ys and a lot of them held their meetings in bars and a very good time was had by all. No wadays, many of our top riders aren't even old enough to step in a bar. Youth ma y be riding but, unfortunately yo ut h isn 't contributing mu ch to keep the sport go ing . Another thing is th at District runs have to co m pe te with a lot of other races for rider dollars . Riders no longer have to race District or not at all. There are night races at all the tracks, or daytime ones too, all taking money away from pure AMA Distr ict 3 7 races . T he A MA its elf isn 't entirely blam eless eit he r. I t hin k th e big b o ys did a disservice to the District clubs whe n they d id away with ce rtain license requi remen ts. An expert ' o r high junior rating was re quired by th e Al\IA before yo u co uld o b tain yo ur p ro fessional licen se. Just as k o ld-ti me r stewards like Sam Croo ks o r Dick Kouns h ow m an y letters they wro te o n behalf of a y oung rider m ak in g hi s license applicat io n to sho w th at ri der had p aid his du es by comi ng up thro ugh the ranks in AMA-san ctioned sp ortsman ra ces. Th at requirement, was to me, a safeguard and established the fact that the rider sittin g alongside yo u on the lin e your firs t race as a professional novice had th e sa me train ing you h ad and you were at least eq ual there. No w, if y ou are so incl ined and are sixteen years old yo u can have daddy b uy yo u a flat-track er an d just go at it. Yeah, that's a bit far fetched, but I know of a guy wh o got a pro fessio na l license with out ever ridin g a race so how would you like to honk into Ascot 's turn one with him next to yo u? Now before people start getting mad, ye s I kn ow riders who have co me from trac ks like Corona who are well trained and with pl enty of experience but that isn't keeping District 37 scra m bles going and t ha t's wh at we are talking about no w , an d we 're lo oking fo r causes o f th is malais e. Some o f t he District clubs ain ' t (sic) blam eless either and I'm not going to men tion nam es, but you know who I mean . We do n't have big ride r turnouts anymore an d ju st be cau se y ou can' t ma ke eno ugh m on ey after expen ses for so me t hi ng or ot her; lik e thr o wing a dese rt event doesn 't mean to say you shou ldn't su pport the scrambles. And . from the way things are going in the desert yo u m ay find y ourselves back on the tracks again and don't think we won 't for get ei ther ! Both the Burtons at Perris and the Fort unes at Elsinore have told me the y wouldn 't see a club go in th e hole fo r a race if they co uld help it by even re fu nding p art of the track rent if necessar y so don 't bring th at one up as an excuse. An obse rva tio n was m ad e th at th e M IA-pilo t pro gram at Ascot didn 't help District clubs eithe r because a rider migh t then decide to spe n d his rid ing doll ar there (and we all know money is ti ght) and n o t a t a District-s an ctioned rac e. Maybe. Rider support was bad th ere too . In the co urs e ' of all this go ing on w e 've h a d som e interestin g conversatio ns and here is wh at is on deck now. On dec k mind y o u , not yet in the arena. Would yo u, as a District scrambles rider ride a sp o rts man race at Ascot for District points? So now it's your tum. Chub Kellum, who by vote is the favorite referee of the pros for the whole country, is willing to help in co-ordinating this thing but we have to know what you, the rider think of it. Clyde and, no doubt, Diane Connolly the other scrambles steward will have to make a pitch to t h e sports Committee for such an event to be thrown and I will, of course, help in any way possible, inclu ding bitching at you if you don't care enough to do something abo ut this sorry state of affairs. At the last National a neat chap from up north said hello and that he enjoyed reading my stuff and that we should move up there. Northern scrambles aren't in any troubles. Wish we 'd had a ch an ce to find out wh at their secret is. So , let 's he ar from y o u on adding an o t her point run to the ca lendar at Asco t and you would do me a service if you'd let me know what your views are on the current situation. What are your ideas on why scrambles have deteriorated so badly and what you would like seen done to bring them back to at l e a s t something worthwhile. Any comments (if printable) will get into this col u mn but Clyde, Diane and I will be wait in g for something from you. We're willing to work for you, but need a little encouragement. Maureen Lee