Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1976 08 03

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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, Charles Coutard, Fre nch trials champion and works Buitaco rider , had reason to he a little late in fro m the second loop at Gold Bar. He clobbe red a tree tappe d out in fifth , crashed again and broke the shift lever off at the root. He used a vise-grip to pick a gear for each section, an d con tin ued. Wor ld class trials riders do know how to boogie. Malcolm Rathmcll will instruc t a free . (yeah, free) Montesa-sponsored tr ials school near Colorado Springs, Co. at the site of th is year's Na tional round. Saturday, J uly 31. There 's an RMTA trial Sunday, and survivors will takc o ff Monday, Aug. 2 fo r a little timberline trail riding with Ras tus . Call Bill Brokaw at ,(303) 473:3277 for info. Barry Sheene (Suz) clinched the 500cc World Championship with a win in the July 25 Swedish GP. He led Jack Findlay and Chas Mortimer to a 1-2-3 Suzuki sweep. Takazumi Katayama (Yam) topped the 250 dass; Pierpaolo Biandli (Mor) the 125 race ; and Angel Nieto (Bul) the 50cc division. No-shows induded Agostini ' and Cecotto_ American Pat Hennen was a DNF in the 500cc raCe. You neve r know the seeds you plant. In this case the Indian Motorcyde Co. fortune - all seven million dol lars of it - is to be divided among three New England health care facilities. Baystate. Medical Center, Shriners' Hospital and Connecticut Institute for the blind were named . in the will of ' Edith Hale Moriarty, wife of the late Ind ian Co. founder, George Hendee, who died in 1943. Hendee, in addition to his motorcyde building, was a civic leader in Springfield, Mass.; and was one of the co-founders of the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, the one named in Mrs. Moriarty's will. Tom Brooks won the .Spokebenders 'Bota Bag Contest (nigh t before the Bota Run) with a time o f 5 minutes fiat , followed by Dirty Dick Watson (Desert Squirrels, 4: 25) and Ron Hall (SoCaI, 3:00). Times were taken on a donat ed watch, and th e donor musta' been in th e contest, to o ; bec ause th e club's still got th e watch. Call (714) 897-9745 and give a description (after 7 p.m.) , The race , and other dull stuff is in the - Desert Sect ion . W/E RA an d the Bob Sharp Foundation announce ap p licatio ns are open fo r t he Bob Sharp Sch o larships, $500 awards to th e two m o st -d e s er vin g roadracer /stu dent s in the co un try' (one East, one West ). Contact W/ERA Na t' HQ, 174 2 Add ison St. , Philadelphia , PA 191 46 , (2 15) 732-2128 fo r details on how to app ly. . Almost only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes, but an American almost made history in the PNTA's world dlampionship trials round, at Gold Bar, Washington. See story, p. 10. Thin gs th at annoy : You're attending a world cham pionship trial in lush , gree n Nort hern woods, tinkling wa te rfa lls mixed with hushed spectator tal k, punctuate d by th e pu cka-pucka of trials bi kes at work, ~ when " Branga !" here comes som e unmuffIed squid MXer down th e ro ad , scattering wal king family groups an d spurting gravel - Way to go, turkeys. Really out of place, yo u m~, were. -. Bassani Day exploded after Sunday's AMC MX at SaddlebaCk. The . expected turnout of berm buster big names failed to materialize, but on hand were some of the celebs of the flat track/road race circuit. Spotted viewing a get-down wet T-shirt contest were Gary Nixon, Chuck Palmgren, Greg Sassaman, Ted Boody, John Hateley, Doug Sehl and Jay Springsteen. PireIIi MT 13s seemed alm ost the un iversal choice for the Gold Bar U.S. trials round - even Mick Andrews with co nspicuous Dunlop st ickles on h is proto Yamaha. Said Mic k , " I've been using some new Dunl ops, whi ch are definitely better, but we ran ou t and couldn't get more. " Hence the Pirellis, AI Eames to Mick Andrews at scrutineering Saturday. "You going to ride the ISDT, this year?" Reply: "No, gettin' too old '. . . " (nudge, wink) "We've quit, haven't we, Malcolm?" As if to prove a point, Bulta co sold the "works"Bultacos o f Charles Coutard, Yrjo Vesterinen, Mar t in Lampkin an d Man uel So ler after th e Gold Bar, on the spo t, for dealer list ($ I4 9 ~). Th ey were snap pe d up immedia tely by perso ns unknown who no w own som e very carefully , assembled b ut very th rash ed 3511 Sherpa Ts. Mick Andrews' 360 (or 370 or .. ?) Yamaha trialer is also a developmental waystation not destined for production. Mick says he will build one more like this one, then concentrate on a 500 thumper. Asked if he and Yamaha plan a special -short-barrel four stroke triels engine Iik,e Honda's, Mick Andrews replied, "No, it will be largely based on the XT ... we know it's 'a tall unit, but we intend to do some interesting things with it to solve that." 2 EPA, in further "refming" of th eir motor cycle emissions proposal , threatens to chop of f all two stroke enduro machinery with the fo llowing ALl MEN, CAUTiON, LOOK HtRE 1 C. AUT) oN l G- R E"'f\ T ' D E5 E R T: ' Desert petroglyphs are really eReient African characters, says Dr. Barry Fell, of Harvard University. According to Fell, who translated it, the language is ancient Libyan, and the characters found on a rock between Blythe and Needles, Calif. are over 900 years old. Were they left by some ancient North , African sailor, who somehow trekked up the Colorado River and left a warning for followers to read and heed? long 'Beach archeologist Willard Bascom has asked the help of desert bikers and other desert travelers to find and identify more petroglyph sites for study. He can be contacted care of the Epigraphic Society, 121 Linden Ave., long Beadl, California 908Q2. wording to their definition of "covered " m ach in er y .. . . . all vehicles man ufactured for road - use , incl uding th o se off-road mach ines which could be mod ified for road use. " And th at 's a can of worms, indeed. Don't say we -didn ' t warn you on th is one - we started Utah State Multiple Use Advisory Board meets September 15-16 in Moab, Utah. ' The second day's meeting at the Moab Ramada Inn will consider, among other things, management of Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway. To make an oral or written input, contact Utah State Director, BlM, University Club Bldg., 136 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 or call 524-4227 for info. Yet to he decide d at presstime (it may have to go to an FIM jury) was the . question of whether Marland Whaley actually receive wo rld w 0 u Id . championship points for his seco nd at Gold Bar. AMA's Al Eames, presen t as an observer, was of the opinion t hat, under FIM ru les, the AMA had th e host -cou ntry 's right to qu alify Whaley, even thou gh he did not hold a curre nt FIM license . Marlan d reached th e gene ral ly-accep ted . but ofte n vio lated minimum age of 18 o n J uly 5. An o bviousl y in te rested party is th ird-placing Yrjo Vest erin en; going into a three-way tie for the cha mpio nship, Yrjo wou ld receive seco nd place poin ts if Whale y's finish wer e d isallowe d by FIM. Pacific Northwest T rials Assoc., th e host club, will cub mit .th e resu lts to FIM as poste d. All you guys who bitched to Betty lasker because the trophy paybaCk at AMC's Bassani Day was 30% instead of 50% like our ad said - now you can bitch to us; because we put 50% on the ad. August Fool! W/ERA Race Director (semi -retired) Lance Weil is still nursing a broken shoulder suffered wh ile breaking in his just -purchased RZ700 Yamaha, Who'd he buy it from ? Bombardier. Think about that. Don"t m iss read in g Kevin Cameron's excellent. poignant, e ve n poetic report on a ro ad race p rivateer's odessey in California's CAM-AD Council has picked October 2 as the date for the State TT Championship at Tulare . All four California AMA Districts will send their top . 10' sportsmen racers in 80-100-125-250-500 and 650 Expert dasses to the saturday night run-off. But if we lived in the East, we 'd probably miss California: Absinthe maketh the head grow softer, or something like that .. . Europe. It 's in the current issue of Cycle, and if you live in California, it will make you homesick for the . East, where they still care abou t such things. warning yo u a year ago . Notes that didn't make Dates & Data: That Can-Am Amateur MX Qualif;er scheduled for FastTrack at Phoenix has a new date, as well as a I;'8W site. That's August 28 ' at Sunshine Cycle Park, Tucson, Az. A Pacific Northwest Can-Am qualifier slated for Straddle Line August 22 has been cancelled. . Bart Barfl y and Sonny Kenyon's Cycles are having a two d ay trial of thei r own as a fund raiser for Ben Bowers' ISDT trip . An indoo r two day trial, co mplete with keggers, flicks, two minute tire changes and Indi an wres tling. Starts Tuesday eve ning, August 3: ends so me time before the shop opens Th ursday morning. T ha t's a t 19 21l A Old Midd lefield Rd. , j ust off Hwy. 101 . in Mt..View, CaIifotnia.. _ ••. . .. •• ..•• • Concerne d pare nt s have implicated the Sierra Club in the clos ing of a bicycle MX track near Merr itt College in Oakland, Calif. Wc 're . chec king it ou t, because if it's true it 's abo u t as low as the po sey-sniffers have gone to date. Two time U.S. Speedway Champion Steve Bast has "retired" from . competition to .work full time at his father's welding shop. A heart condition that _ aggravated by the stress of racing became too serious to put off any Iangllr• • . Hallelujah! It just rained. Mitch Mayes replaces AI Baker on the long Beach Honda off road team_ The team, along with Bill Bell, will fly to Africa in September for the Roof of Africa Rally (won by Malcolm Smith last year) to contest the 300-400 mile bash (length depending on flooding conditions) on a brace of Xl Honda thumpers. More later. .If, in last week's W/E RA Nati on al res u lts , yo u n oticed some e rrors ; you 're right. Lan ce Weil and Bob Crossman are wor king th is wee k to try to straighten th ings ou t .

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