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/126012
either . . . But we have ways. heh, heh, Look for a test on the MR 250 to app ear in the ve r y near future . . . Ed it or 51NSI E ~ t Race of Champions Goodbye Red Dots 6 Adios Amigo s! We regret to an nounce that as of October 9 . the Red Dots M.C. has disbanded. May all of y o u fantastic desert people always remember our annual Mothers Day function as gre at fun. We are donating the balance of our treasury to Re scue 3 in the memory of Marvin Le Blan c . " The Silver Fox. " Mike Kidd tunes for 1976 Bast is Cal Champ. , Double dirt 10 12 Speedway Week & J orgy 's Ascot clincher Dez 16 Chasin' checks on th e reservation Hotline H-D crosser 18 22 RED DOTS MC Van Nuys, Calif. First ride on the MX piggie HosPital Stop: North 26 Ask E.C. .••• • . . . . . • .. .31 Big "0" reflections 32 " Wha t 's a nice make like you doing in a pit like th is?" Results Harley & Davidsons 33 36 Coffee with th e boss(es) Hangin' out . •. . ...... . 14 On th e road with Gary Scott Calendar Cat 40 44 Slight mix-up O N TH E FRONT PAGE : Still the Great American Motorcycle . .. . Sharo n Clay to n . Pu bli sh er Robert L. No r Velie. General Manager Ed na Mc w to n, Secretary to Publisher. Advertising C ha rles Clayton. Ed ito r-in -Chief: Lane Campbe ll, Se nior Edi tor. Bobi Scott Editor & Hale Brown . Ass ' t. Edi to r. Art and Produ ction Ca t he rine Lam pto n . Ar t Director ; Barbara Mizuno. Ad vertisin g Art Dire c to r ; Paul Butler . Lab Te c hn icia n ; Marion Hat ushita , T y po grapher . Circulation Rhc ba Smith . Manager; Pam Ho bbs and C h ris Andre ws. Ass istants. Accoun ting Cay len e Z aiona , Man ager: Judy Fo uts. Mik e Klinger. Jeanne lI a m m o n d. Assis tants ; Tom Hun ter , Rhonda Van Do re n . Credit Department. Services & Support Hill Runyan . Tom Luehmann. Juanita Blan Ion. re ceptionist. West P.O . Box 498. Lung Bea ch. CA 90801. (2 13 ) 427·7433 ; L.A. Line 6 36-8844. (T e lex 6 56-330) East 1'.0 . 1I0x 8U5, Tucker. GI\ 30084. (4 U4 ) 93 4 · 78 5 0. (T ele x 5 4 2-777 ) Subsaiption Une year, second c lass m ail S 12.50 : 2 years. sec o nd cl ass m ail. 122 .50 : 3 ye a rs. sec o n d class mail . $30.00: Sin gle co py price . 50 cc n ts. Copyright Cycl e Newsv Inc. 197 5. Trade mark regis te red U.S. Paten t Office. AJI righ ts rese rve d . Pu blish ed week ly except th e first an d last wee k o f th e cale ndar year b y Cycle News. Inc.• P.O. Bo x 49 ~, Lon g Bea ch . Cal ifo rnia. Second class postage p aid a t Lon g Beach, CA . 9080 1. Edi torial sto ries . c artoo ns, photos, e tc. are wel come. Ad dressed . sta mped envelope assu re s return of unpurc hased ed ito rial mu t ter. Re printing in whole o r part o nly by permission of the publishers. Adve rtisin g ra tes and circ u la ti o n information will be sent upon request, See S .R .O .S , 4 The electronic single I 'm a Gold Star rider . broke now but n ot for long (I hope) . I noticed yo ur last co m men t in " Se x and th e Singl e Cylinder :"..• . . . a well th ought-out sin gle . with an assortment of t op e nd co m po nen ts . can do any thi ng from trials t o ro ad race . , . " My buddy and 1- have be en kic king this ar ound: Why not throw aw ay ca m shaft . valve springs. pushrods, cam lifters. bearings. casting chains, acc o m m o da t i o n s . In stead use solenoid-actuated valv es wi th an infinitely adj u sta ble "cam" profile co n tro lled by SCR units and a black b ox. Magn etic fields wou ld replace valv e springs. and valves could open an d close fo u r tim es faster than any me chanical co n tri vance. Opening profile co uld be optimum at all en gine speeds, no co m p ro mises. We're short R&D t im e and money (aren 't we all . . . Ed.) but in case someone is interested, th ey can write. H . H. STEVENS P.O. Bo x 745 Oregon City . OR 97045 Well. th ey laughed at Fulton . . . Editor Solid·Ox rebuttal I have used one of t he So lid -Ox outfits for about two ye ars and have found it very satisfactory for light welding. It will not replac e a conventional ac etylene welding outfit, but it can be u sed su ccessfully in man y types of small repair work. Propane canno t be used to do st eel weld ing. but if you ge t a tan k of Mapp gas. at Sears. ligh t gauge st ee l can be welded with it and the So lid-Ox unit. I experi men te d on bu ildi ng ex pansio n ch ambers for m y son ' s Y Z· 80B by weld ing t wo chamber s usin g t he Mapp gas and the welds are ho ld in g up . With the propane gas. th e So lid-Ox wo rks well using silver so lder rod. The ro d is par t silve r. but the weld is not so lde red. it is a metal bo ndin g or fu sio n weld . On e caution o n light work ; the ro d m at erial can m igrate into the steel o n overheat in g an d the me tal becomes brittle. Ten sile str ength of th e weld is 6 7,0 0 0 PSI . st eel runs about 62.0 0 0 PSI. I even welded m y Bultaco fra me wi th silver solder and it hasn 't failed at t he weld . My son bro ke his fork stop at the frame and I re paired t he break with silver solder. Recognizing wh at yo u are welding and t he purpose and str ength o f th e final weld will. in a lo t of cas es justify the use of the So lid-O x unit. If I would . est im at e wh at the shop cost would .b e fo r all the successful re p airs I have made. my Solid-Ox unit has paid for itself many ti mes. PETE HOLLACK West Covina. Calif. Love those minis I would like to say a fe w kin d words abou t th e co m ing cro p o f co mpetition riders. (Pit racers drop de adl ) I refer to th e unheralded and ofte n unl oved mini-cycle riders who . in AMA desert racing. must pit th eir 17 inc h wheels and 72cc engines against grown-ups on full -sized 100cc motorcycles: The kids put on so me of the most exciting and hard fought motocrossing I have ever see n . On e national ra cing organization boasts some 5000 of these " lit tl e " guys and gals . going after national poin ts and sponsor recognition. They are serio us racers and deserve th e reco gnit io n they ride fo r. BOB CURNUTT Canoga Park . Calif. Gone, but not forgotten I would like to th ank the gra y he aded man who ran Rawhide. My family was greeted like our bu siness was ap pre ciated . Several times he loaned the boys parts or tools so they co uld finish a race . He cared abou t young people. I understand that t he gentleman also prepared the track. I t ake my hat off to him, for that was a true motocross co urse . It would be a shame for Rawhide Par k to be closed for good. I am sure that a lot o f motocross racers agree with my family and m e. Please write m ore about Southern Califo rnia tracks and eve nts. Most of us who ride di rt bikes care nothing abo ut what is goi ng on in Washington and Oregon. ROBERT L. FISH Arcadia. Calif. Shrink st rikes : I sugges t th at we dirt biking clinical psyc ho lo gists organize a ne o-Rolfian Ins titute and pro v i de fre e co m plemen tary services to BLM employees. Instead of using manual hand manipulation of th e body. we wou ld u tilize a 50 I Maico with a 4. 75x18 rear knobby . One o f our more verb ose co lleagues co uld au th or an analo gy to J anov's Th e Primal Scream: The Cure for Neurosis an d title it The BLM Bellow: The Cure f or Chr onic Assh oleitis. My check is o n th e way t o SGVMC. " SH RIN K" VOGT. PhD. Reno. Nev. Any suggestions Clu b ? .. . Editor fo r the Sie rra Undercover agents I am patiently waiting for the new Honda MR 250 to m ake its debut . I would enjoy reading a Cycl e News test-impression of the m achine before making any plans to buy. Is there anyth in g forthcoming regarding a test? It 's real ly hard to ge t a real good test of a dirt bike in th e parking lot of a mo to rcycle shop. Your tests ar e alway ! a pleasu re to read and seem to be a very fair evaluation of a product . . JOHN SHUBER Canoga Park. Calif ;Ve unde rstand yo ur problem . J ohn. They won 't let us out of th e park ing lo t Frank Gill espie sustained serious head injuries and fr actures of the right arm and leg at th e San J ose Mile . September 2 1. For th e next seven days Frank was in a semi-conscious sta te. On Monday m orning. Sep t ern b e r 29 . Frank awa kened and said . "Where the hell am I and what happened?" We im med iately relaxed with relief. Fran k was back with us! All of this h appened just in tim e for him to discover th at he was going into surgery on Tuesday morning to have his arm and leg sh aped. After fo ur an d one-half hours of surgery th e . doctors have put him back to gether and feel the operation was successful! Frank now has a trick plate in his right thigh and a super-light alloy pin in his right arm . I have just returned from the hospital. an d he is resting comfortably ; anxious to leave the Intensive Care Unit and get into his own room so he can have visito rs and a T V! Mark Williams. w ho was injured at San Jose th e same date. is also a resident o f Alexian Brothers Hopsital in San Jose. Both share t he same doctors and room . God help the hospital! Mark's spirits and a t ti tu de are fantastic. With this kind of determination hopefully he will prove the doctors wrong! They both really lo o k forward to Mail-Call eve ry day - so keep the cards coming! Thanks to all o f you for caring so much. and 1 hope y o u will dr op by to see him now and when he gets home it's going to be a long winter! MRS. GILLESP IE Frank's Mom Hayward. Calif. Thanks I wo uld · like to thank Ge ne Dunn at Spillway Par k. San ta Mari a . Cali fornia. for letting us put on the AMA Can- Am Regional Qualifier when the first race at Richmond was cancelle d. 1 cal led Mr . Dunn to see about using h is motocro ss track with only four weeks notice , and he can ce lled his regular even t for th at day to let us come in with th e Regional. He went o ut of his way givin g us excelle n t trac k prep (wa te ring all d ay Saturday and ambulance service ). Everyone helps th e Pros bu t not too man y people think ab o ut th e Amateurs anym ore. Than ks to everyone who hel ped make it a su ccess. BUTCH LEE San Die go . Calif. Happy wanderer rescued I wan t to exp re ss my spe cial thanks to Rescue 3 and Capistrano Valley M.e. for my rescue afte r th e Jackrabbits race . It was on th eir beh alf th at I wasn't left spending all night in the desert. This was especially important bacause I am abnormally fearful of the night and its creatures. RANDY HAVILAND Orange . Calif. The views ex pre ssed in this colu m n and a th er colu mns appearing on the following pages are solely those of the authors and do not ne cessarily refl ec t the official po sit ion of Cycle News West or Cycle New s. Inc. Qualified readers wishing fr ee and equal rebuttal space should contact the Editor.