Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

INSIDE Indy Mile 8 Th e TZ co me th. Rober ts winne th 125 MX National 12 Wise gives Smith some trouble SOO MX National 14 . Nothing Lackey-ing at Ax ton . Va. Dez 16 Speedway . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Prototype 19 A J ones /Islo for th e road? International ..... . •... 20 Catching up with Sheene and th e F750 circ us 22 Hotline North Two scoops 30 36, 38 Firs t look at all-n ew 5-speed Maico, RM 250/3 70 Suzukis 41 42 Opinion Desert People Hey. Smokebomb . Results ...•.. .•.... ..•44 Calendar 48 Cat 51 Reasons not to cheat ON THE FRONT PAGE: Letter from Steve says. in short. get off your butts and write. Full text in "Voices, below. U Sharon Cay ten , Publisher Robert L. Nor Velle, General Manager Edna Mewton, Secretary 10 Publisher. Advertising Uncia Cark. Advertising Manager. Qui. Kolber, Advertising Anistant. Editorial Clule. Oayton, . Editor~in·01icf; Lane Campbell. Jeff Peck, 'and Bobi Scott Editon. Art and PrOduction Catherine Lampton, Art Director; Barb Mizuno. Advertising Art Director: Paul But le r, La b Te chn ician ; Marion Hatashita, Typographer. Circulation Rheba Smith. Manager; Pam Hobbs and Cui. Andrew, Assistants. At:countirig Gaylene Zaionz, Manager; Judy Fouts. Mike Klinger, Jeanne Hammond. Assistants; Tom Hunter, Rhonda Van Doren. Credit Department. Sem. . a. Support Bill Runy.... Tom Luehmann; Jeannie Dunivan. Receptionist. West P.O. Box 498. Long Beach, CA 9080 I. (213142 7.74 33 ; L.A. Line 636-8844. East P.O. Box 805, Tucker. GA 30084. (4 04) 934-7850. Central P.O. Box 13245 , Austin, TX 7871 1(5 12) 444· 7548. Subscription One year. second class mail Sl2.50 : 2 yean, second class mail , 122.50: 3 yean, second class mail. 130.00; Single COPy price, 50 cents. Copynght l.:yde News, In c. 19 75. Trade mark regisrered U.S. Palent Office. All righ t reserved . Published weekly except the first and I;ut week of the calendar year by Cycle News. Inc.• P.O. Box 498. Long Beach , California. Second cb n postqC' Jnid .at Long · Beach. CA. Edil ori .ll ItOritl. ca rto o ns. photos, e tc. art wet ceme. Addressed, ltampc'd envelope assurts return oC unpurchutd editorial . matter, Rtprinling in whole or part onl y b y permission or the publishers. Advcnisinr ralts and ctrcul ..l io n information will be sent upon request, See 4 S.R.D.s . A letter to motorcyclists from Steve McQueen Dear Fellow Motorcyclists: , The United States Department of Transportation is trying to blackmail California, Illinois, and Utah into enacting a motorcycle helmet law by threatening to withhold those states' highway safety funds . .The power of your letter or postcard can stop this. Write to: Docket Section National Highway Traffi c Saf ety Admin. Room 5 10 8 400 7th Street S. W. Washingt on. D.C. 205 90 before September 14 . 1975. Tell them that California. Illinois, and Utah should not lose their Federal Highway Safety Funds. Put it in your own words. I think people ought to be ab le to de cide for themselves at the state level whether to have a motorcycle helme t law or not. To fix the De p artm e nt o f Transportation so it can't co n tin ue to blackmail states co ncern ing mandatory h elm et laws. wri te to your Congressman. Ask him to support House Bill No. 3869. If you do not know who y o ur Congressman is. write to instead : Robert E. Jo nes. Chairman Committee on Public Works and Transportati on Room 2165 Rayburn Hous e Washington. D.C. 20515 Look. I know you don 't like to write letters. Neither do I. I am not a politician. I don 't know anything about politics. I just know about motorcycles and I believe ' what the federal government is trying to do is wrong. I am going to write and I think you should too. The issue is not whether you sho uld ' wear a helmet or not. The issue is whe th er you are going to be able to con tin ue to have a say in motorcycle laws at the state level or be told what to do by some bureaucrat in Washington who h as no concern for y o ur opin ion and knows nothing abou t motorcycles. When I first learned of this situation. I called several organiza tions. co mpan ies and publications to fmd out their position. The American Motorcycle Association was the only motorcycling interest whose answer was th at it was going to take a firm stand. Maybe the MIA is a little old -fashioned. but it is straight and it is honest. It only has one in terest and that is motorcy cling. What Youngblood. Wirwahn and Rasor are doing can save motorcycling. That's why I am backing the MfA's play. Anyone who doem't take a stand now will be casting a vote against motorcycling because if this is not stopped. I believe you will be seeing the beginning of the end of motorcycling as we know it today. This thing has a lot more to do with this country than just motorcycles. It , has to do with the federal government telling the state and their citizens a lot of things it has no business doing. I love this country and I believe in it. It allowed me to start from the bottom and work my way up to a fmancially successful position in our society. I p ay a lot of taxes. So do you. I don't believe the federal governmen t has the righ t to tell any American citizen what to do unless they or their elected representatives have the right to vote on it. That's what the Constitution is all about. If we all unite and write , we can save the fu ture of motorcycling. We can work for a total solution to motorcycle safety. not just helmets. We wield a very big stick. we've just never used it before. Together we can get the respect for motorcycling it deserves. We have the right to be heard. So please write those letter with me right now. Our letters must be received in Washington before September 14. 1975. Even if you think your letter won't get th ere in time. write anyway. Thanks. STEVE McQUEEN Old faithful We would like to thank you for your faithful coverage of Speedway. We think Speedway is the most exciting form of racing there is. The riders are extremely talented and hard working Professionals. How about an interview with Rick Woods. he just may be National Champion for the fourth time in a row. BARBRA & HOWARD HOFFMAN Costa Mesa. Calif. lo aded inlo th e meat wagon presumably dead. Ab out a minute or two af ter he fell, a man wi th a fife extinguisher waI ked by him abo u t 10 feet away . and a few minutes later an am bul ance attendant walked across the track and quickly circled the vic tim for a cursory view and left. Th e t wo ambulances were parked acr oss and down the track and the atte n dants proc eeded to care for the three other ri ders wh o had crashed but were alrea dy sitting up or walking. Then the doctor sauntere d on over for a pe rfunctory glan ce and left af ter a few sec onds, leavin g th e victim lying stomach down with h is head turned to th e side. hardly in a position to care fully observe the breathing or the heart be at. Our ra cers deserve the best and the latest in emergen cy medicine and critical care when th ey are injured. At each of the three previous years' even ts at Laguna Seca I was tlismayed by the length of time a fallen rider lay on the track unattended. but I tlidn't write. LELAND R. HOUSE.JR. MD Huntington Beach. Calif. Sack out The back end of my '68 Bultaco bounces around a little bit. My ritling partner can get his '54 NSU Monoshock 12 Sec over the bumps better than me. He sez the reason for this is that my shocks are "sacked out." What does this mean? Could it be caused by using too many 35t' car washes? Also do you know where I can get some lightweight solder to fix these fine units. J .C. Whitney is out of stock? . You 're welcome . . . Editor - C. SQUID Ventura. Calif. We've got a long way to go As I unloaded my trusty Husky, near the babbling brook surrounded by the tall pine trees. I became amazed at the wide range of taste the American public has cultivated for cooling refreshments. Surely we must be the world's largest collection of connoisseurs of liquid libations. for neatly distributed under one magestic pine was a collection of empty cans from that Southern California favorite . Coors. Not to be outdone. skeletons from Olympia. Budweiser. and Miller resided nearby. Now this leads me to believe that only consumers of alcoholic beverages manage to litter in such a manner - but I was immediately proven wrong in my hypothesis as I unhappily noted Coke, Pepsi, Tab, etc., etc., etc., were more than adequately represented. My point is. fellow bikers and ORV owners, if we continue to treat our recreational arcas as garbage dumps. that's exactly what they will become Pick Up Your Trash and perhaps a few extra pieces - we must protect what we enjoy most. ROBERT C. MENNELL Redondo Beach. Calif. Listen Squ id. you can 't [o 0 I us. we 're high paid motojournalists. We knew that your letter was a fake when you asked about the 35t car washes. Everybody knows they cost 50t now . . . Editor Dear C. Walter After reatling your reply to my letter I tal ked to a Rincon District Forest Ranger. He classified the Rincon fireroad as a, "Dual purpose recreational fireroad." Get it. Wreckreational. DAVID MARSHAL Covina. Calif. Seize you on the trail ... Editor Minor correction We noticed in the August 12 issue that you had Ron Pierce ritling a BMW West production racer. Actually. it should have read Ron Pierce on a Production BMW. sponsored by Johnny's Motorcycle Co., Bakersfield. . JOHNNY'S MOTORCYCLE CO. Bakersfield. Calif. Delayed reaction There seemed to be a callous tlisregard for life evidenced by the doctor and the ambulance crew at Laguna Seca during AMA National Road Race on August 2 and 3. There was a fallen rider lying on the outSide edge of the pavement near turn three who was essentially neglected and ignored for 20 minutes until he was The views expressed in this column and columns appearing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Cycle News West or Cycle News. Inc. Qualified readers wishing free and equal rebuttal space should contact the Editor. o th er

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