Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I would greatl y appreciate any help you can give m e on th is matter. Mark Ru sche A rlington Heights. III. The Barnt bike top end would cos t y ou so me pa pe r route money , ab o u t $5 00 co mplete. It sounds like you hav e a ll the tr ick st uff already. Different dimensions I recen tly read y ou r artic le ab out go f ast modif ications fo r the [a ckpin er. I o wn a Jackp iner and am interested in building an ex pansion cham ber f or it. Ca n y o u gi v e m e d im ens ion specifications, also can I use th e front half of m y oid pipe ? L ouis Bondurant A tlanta , Georgia Yes , y o u can use the front half of your old pip e. To make a pipe section for your pipe y o u make a new co ne for the rear that is 9.500 inc h es long with a small e n d of seven-eighth in ches. Remove one inch from the center sect io n and weld the new cone back on. Replace th e buffer silencer with a silencer from Fun 'N Fast or J&R weld o n with a seven -eighth inch co re. More pow for the Penton I recently purcha sed a 19 74 Penton 1 75 cc. It handles great and all that but lacks a little on th e low end. I race desert only and am w ond ering how to get a lit tle m ore powe r d own low withou t having to d o any po rt ing. Th e engin e is box sto ck , also the ex haust. Would just adding a pipe and cleaning up all po rts and po lishing th em help ? Also, ho w ab ou t a reed valve ? Where can I get one tha t would bolt right on, and wo uld th ere be any need for additional portin g o ther than th e window s in th e back of th e piston ? Also, would a larger carb be nec essary ? Wesley Arita Indio, Calif. Do th e pip e mod as I pointed out to Lou from Atlanta, cleaning up the ports and polishing will help but not th at much , G. E.M. makes a re ed valve for the 175 Penton that would be the bes t th in g that yo u could do fo r torque and mid-range, Also , it will bolt righ t on. If you pu t a reed o n y o u will have to do the boost ports and m achine the piston for the reed, done right it's no problem. We ca n do t he necessary machining for you if you want. This serv ice will run you $30 plus th e reed. Your Penton has a 32mm Bing on it so use it , th ere is no need for a bigger carb o Mono breath I have a YZ 250 B and I am pu tting a 36mm Mik uni carb o n so I can have a little top end. What I w ould like to know is wha t setting to use. The st ock 3 4mm on it co n tains the fo llo wing: Slide 3.5, needle jet P 8, m ain je t 34 0, pilot je t 70, air screw o ne tu m . Please t ell me what jetting yo u think is close. Gary Ogd en Escondicle, Calif. With a ne w carb that you know nothing about, sta rt fro m the to p. Pu t in th e largest m ain je t yo u have, at least a 350 , and go fr om t he re . Work with th e top end only until you ge t it so th at it's jus t a ta d on th e ric h side (be sure needle clip is in the middle ). Next af te r y ou have t he top end a to uc h on the rich sid e go to the p ilot, if th e bike is hard to start co me up o n p ilot. If the air screw has to be turn ed o ut a long w ay to get th e bike to idle it 's a sign th at you are too ric h, co me d own on p ilot. If the bike stu mbles or b ogs ba dly wh en yo u co me off line or o ut o f a tum it co uld be th at y ou are too lean, co me up on th e pil ot . Mid -ran ge or ne edl e je t is tr icky. Move the n eedle aro und and see if you can get it to run rich at o ne -q ua rte r t hrot tle , th en lean it o ut one notch with th e clip. If it runs cle an th ere forget it. After you have go t th e mid-range and th e bo tt om end wh ere you want it, go bac k and chec k t he top end an d be sure th at it 's rich enough. You're close to Los An geles and if yo u need an y more help, give J erry a call at Vale rians (2 13) 47 5-4 54 1. An environmentalist Guest editorial looks at dirt bikers The danger of Part 'II: Why "close" the desert? Mo torcy clists wonder, "why IS so much of the desert being closed to us? We come from the city, to o , and love the out-of-doors. There 's an awf ul lot o f public land o u t here . Don 't we , as citizens , have as much right to enjoy it as any othe r gro up? " I 'll try to an swe r th at. Fro m th e beginning of tim e up until abou t a de cade ago th e So uthe rn California de sert was largel y undisturbed. Th ere we re some major di sruptio ns earlier in the cen tury , o f co urse. Gen er al George Patt on 's tanks cu t an indelible swath across portions of th e Moja ve in th e su mm er of 1942. Projec t Desert Strike (a S61 milli o n maneuver employing 100,000 men ) came in May , 1964. Much earlier, miners began pokin g th e land for gold and othe r minerals. There were even a fe w bikers o u t there in the old da ys . But it wasn 't u n til the late 19 50s or 1960s that vast nu mbers o f people began streaming out for the "desert ex perience ." Not j ust O RV enthusiasts - campers, ro ck hounds, hun ters, land develop e rs an d weekend ho m eowners, too. With th e inc reasing vo lu me of use, less an d les s of this vast area has bee n left to enjoy in it s n atural state. Even th e O RV people are getting nervous about th e ra te of con su mptio n, as if we co nservatio nists we ren 't enough or a th re at to them . The Bureau of Land Man gem ent, as we all kn ow is no w imp leme n ting its p lan to be tter manage the desert an d designate ce rtain areas for ce rtain types o f use. The BLM says it 's try ing hard , b u t nei t he r ORV pe o ple n o r co n servatio nists are totally sat isfie d wit h th e results. Enviro nmen ta lists say mu ch of wh at th e BLM is doi ng is too little an d too late. In the min ds of many off-road vehicle bu ffs the BLl\!'s pl an is discri minatory. So yo u ask, wh y do people like me o bjec t to O RVs driving across th e o pen desert? You ma y have he ard it before, but here goes : The Southern California desert is not a wasteland. It's a treasury of life forms (p lan ts an d an im als ), arc h aeological wonders and histo rical remai ns . It has great scenic be aut y. When vehicles leave the ro ad th ey im me diately threaten these values. Th is may not mean m uch to the biker but it does to a lo t of o th er people, and the "other people " are n 't just posy pi cke rs or un iversit y types. Th ey 're folks who want to get aw ay fro m t he turmoil o f the big ci ty and experie nce the pe ace o f the nat ural open spaces . It 's jolt ing , after leaving th e smog of L.A., Lon g Beach or Riverside . to discover in the deser t so me of the uglin ess yo u'v e left behind. O RV people argue th a t he cause th ey represen t a " larger use r group" t heir rights sho uld he given to p co nsi derati on . Is that really a valid arg umen t ? Ot her users are n't ne ces saril y le ss nu m ero us. Th cy ' re ju st less co nspi cuo us because the y are less no isy an d go o u t in sm aller gro ups at one time . An d wha t ab out t he vast numbers who wo uld like to cnjo v the soli tude of the dese rt and for some reason or another carr' t ge t out so often , or th ose who do n 't know th e de sert at all but favo r protecting any pre ciou s res o urce on our shrinking pl an et? Sho uld n't they be heard? Some as k, "who's more impo rtant, the people or a lo t o f creoso te and lizar d s?" It depends on yo u r values. So me folks m ay love their pe t ca t mor e than an in-law . So far as th e dese rt goes , I'll o p t for the humans be ca use th ere are just as many o f us (probably m or e ) who wo uld ra the r enjoy the desert in its natur al sta te than see it over-run by mach ines. \\'e wan t to spare the desert, warts an d all. I don 't thi nk dirt bikers want to upset the desert eco logy, b ut that's just what mos t of the m are doing, alo ng with the dune buggy freaks, so me po t hu nters and a lo t of careless car-campers. There 's a whole life cy cle wo rki ng out th ere - fro m minute plant fo rm s th at in sec ts fee d o n to the sm all creatures th a t ea t the bugs, o n to the larger predators th at live off th e little animals. A lot of kids wo u ld give the ir eyeteeth to see a kit fo x or a coy o te . l\!an 's m achines are getting in the way. A th ousand-or-m ore years of hi story in the form o f petro glyphs and potter y is o u t th ere to te ll us something abo u t life years ago , an d m aybe give us a fe w lessons abo ut ours el ves. So metimes these treasures are wip ed ou t in a matt er o f m inutes. Fo rever . I'll say this for a lo t o f ORV gro ups: therS:s an encouraging mov e to ward co nservatio n . People are trying to pi ck up litter and th ey 're wo rk in g with th e BLl\!, Fish an d Gam e and o ther go vern me n t agencies to fen ce off h a z ard ous m in e s ha f t s, protect pe troglyp hs an d restore spri ngs and o ther wat erin g areas for wildli fe. But th ese are o ffici al, club-oriente d efforts . I wo nde r about the rank and file - those individuals wh o bo mb o ut on to the desert on a priv a te outing and break all the rules. What are we goi ng to do abo ut them ? As for o rganized even ts, I had hopes th at the racers would stay pretty close to th e co urse in the Barstow-Vegas rac e next fall. I kno w it's pre tty hard to manage an even t to a T when several tho usand are invo lved , and th at 's th e whole pro blem. That many people sho uldn 't he toolin g across t he wild and fra gile desert in the first place. Aside fro m so me rare vegetati on and precious archaeologi cal sites, the co urse included portions of the old Moja ve Road . Fragments o f the trail are still untraced and last Nove mber 's blit z has made th e job even more difficult. According to des e rt histo rian Dennis Casebier the Barst o w-Vegas eve nt pre ttv well wip ed o ut most kno wn tr aces of i t in the Soda Lak e are a. Br idge in L ike Con co rd l\lassa chusetts, the Alamo in Texas and Ft. Ross in No rthe rn California, th e Mojave Ro ad is a hi storical monumen t. Yet, in th e Bicen tennial year of 19 75 (the 20 0 th anniversa ry o f - the Sp anish padres ' pilgrima ge acro ss th e Southw est in to California ) this histo rical byway is now criss-cro sse d an d badl y dam aged by motorcyclists . Doesn't someone o ut there care? Donald Murchie lights on in the daytime Some co m men ts on Melvin R. St ahl 's letter in the July 22 issu e are in orde r, I h ave studied th e visibili ty-i'Iigh ts o n " situatio n for many years now. In th e last several years I hav e checked into th e . detail s o f m ore fatal motorcycle accidents than all the police officers of a typ ical ci ty will investiga te in the ir co llective careers. You can e x amine each accident inv olvin g a rider w ith hi s lights on and al ways pi ck ano the r fac to r re sponsible for th e acci de nt. Af te r all an acc ide n t in vol vin g o n ly o ne fac tor would be ex tre me ly rare. Collectively ho wever you must co me to ' the inescapable co n clusion that the ligh ts o n rid ers are havi n g consi de rab ly m or e fatal acci de n ts than th eir numbers would in dicate. The acci de nts and th e fatal acci de nt statis tics may not be co ncl usive proof fo r Mr. Stahl bu t it pu ts him in the same posit io n as the heavy smoker with lung cancer who believes his heavy sm o king di d n o t co ntrib ute to hi s diffi cu lty . Why should th e rider bu c k th e odds? In partic ular why should he tolerate a wiring sys te m th at forces hi m into th at posit io n? In my vie w th e wiri ng syste m of some of the Honda models is a haz ardous mess. Moreover a he adligh t failure on some of the models pu ts o ne in legal je opardy (V. C. Sec . 24800) . 1 agree th e modification should n ot be do ne by the rider. It should be co rre cte d by Hon da and at their expense. As fo r Chuck Clayton 's suggest io n th at th e rear turn ligh ts stay on during normal da ytime operation, this is not only a poor idea and outside stan dard 108, it is illegal as well (V. C. Sec. 259 50 ) if th e tum !igh ts are amber. In my view th ere sho uld be no co n tin uo us burnin g ligh ts o n during th e day. The only other ligh ts sh ould be those warning of turns, deceleratio n, o r in dicating police o r o the r emergency op eratio n . At night the only additional lights to come on fo re or aft should be th e headligh t (s) in fro nt an d th e tai l ligh t (s) at the rear . If more than o ne headlight is involved, the y should no t be m ounted ho rizo ntally unless they are spaced close eno ugh so that they cannot possibl y appear similar to a distant car. The num be r of tail ligh ts sho uld n ot ex ceed the num ber of ligh ts warning o f de celeration. A possible excep ti o n to this would be low can dlep o wer lights used for tr im . I have no stand a t presen t to ta ke regarding side ligh tin g. California law does n o t require da y time headlight op eration or fo r that m atter the presence o f a headlight. Some summaries indicate o therwise. OM V pub l i c ation s a lso indicate otherwise. Apparently they wen t to p ress befo re V.C. Sec. 25650.5 was deactivated by co urt o rder. Testimony on wh at is now V.C. Sec. 25 25 1.1 co vere d the value of in creasing b r a king co n trast pretty well . No reputabl e inve sti gator wo uld require all of the restrict ion s men tion ed in Mr. Stah l's letter, James Leonard Not e: . Th e urriter is mf et y advisor to The S ierra 'R oad Riders Ass ociation and has recently bee.. nam ed chairm an of th e CCM Saf ety Division [Forme rly th e Contra Costa Coun ty Health Dep t. Comm ittee on Mot orcycle Saf et y ). 39

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