Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

uil lages, on their bik es, where th ere are n o roa ds or anything. I didn't eve n get to work on my bike until three we eks ago. It's just about do n e noY'. I'll finish it tonight, crate it up t omorrow an d ship it to Cleveland. So the Trophy Team is really hurting because their competition's stiffer? Yes. Their competition's stiffer and they hav e a lot of untried gu ys ove r there. Take Mik e Hann on , he 's on e hell of a rid er, probably as good as Ja ck Penton , but I hope he lasts six days. The bike usually do esn't last that long. Som ething happens to i t. Look at a lot of th e ' other guys - they ju st don 't have th e ex p erience yet. I don 't know what th e AMA co u ld d o, but right now it's w h o can go th e fastes t f or three miles down a dirt road. I can look at th e list n ow and tell y ou who's go ing , to get gold s based on past expe rie n ce. Last y ear I only missed one gu y, the year before that I go t th ema/l right, an d that 's before th e competition ever started. • Were you asked to be on the Trophy Team this year? Yes. Burles on was too. He 's probably th e bes t rid er there is, but wh y be on an odd ball t eam that do esn't cu t it? Our Club Team at least stand s a chance. Last ye ar w e finished th ird out of 35 t eams or so. Th e Tr ophy Team is a bunch ofgu ys wh o have nev er been there and no matter how good a rid er is, if he's never been to the Six-Days, he's go ing t o have t rou ble. He has to know how to pa ce himself and figure ou t w hat 's really happening. .J Why do you still participate in the ISDn I really enj oy it. I like to go over and m eet all those guys I've ridden with bef ore. It's just a real cha llen ge. You can't be just a rider. Yo u have t o be a mec hanic, y ou have to bu ild th e bik e beforehand, be able t o ta ke care of it, and you have t o th in k all th e tim e. Th e Isle of Man in 1971 w as so easy. It w as th e easies t one I've ever rid den , th e sp eed sch edule was so slo w. B ut I'm sure Austria won't be. What did you think of the ISo T held in the U.S.? It was one of the best eve r. If yo u talk t o an y of th e Eu ropean riders, ' th e y really lik ed i t. But if you ask S up er H un k y , h ~ th ought it was a terrible thing. If and when another ISo T event is held in the U.S., whe re would you like t o see it take place ? Th e Nevada desert! It wou ld just blow th em away. They do it to us. Th ey tak e us to the p lace they can ride th e best. If we can do it, why don't we pu t a Troplry Team together utith R oeseler and May es, Hann on and Brook s, something like th at, put it in the rough Nevada desert - why not do it t o them? I saw an East German Trophy rider try to race the M in t one ye ar and he was the slourest guy out there. How do yo u feel about th e ISoT in ter ms of impo rta nce, like sales of motorcycles, etc? _ I don 't think it m akes a lot of d ifference. I think it helps KTM, but I don't t hink it helps a lo t. It doesn't make . nearly as big a difference as R o eseler winning Baja or Mart y Sm ith winning a m o tocr oss. But do you think race wins sell bikes? Oh yes ! Take a loo k at h ow many Suzukis are around now. We got off the subject of the ISOT and asked some qu estion s that Malcolm had some very interesting answers for. You've seen every kind of motorcycle race and competed in most all of them. How's it going? Where do you see the growth? Motocross. Class C is dying out a little. Most kids see motocross as th e way to go, but I don't like the big bucks deaL B ik es are to 0 expensive and I read in Cycle News where a guy will try to claim a bike and he 's put down because he wants t o claim it. But, that's wha t th e rule is for. That bike is supp osed t o be of so much value and no more. I wish it was reall y that way. . Do you think that may be that's why Class C has started to die out? Because of the expense involved ? Yes, I think so, but a gu y cou ld race motocross on a limited budget on ce too, irut he can't no w. People are claiming bikes and factorie s are getting all their UJ I/) UJ ;: > c o ~ own riders to claim th em back . If the bik e's fast, then th e guy- that claims it is a di rty so and so. Let th e fa ctories lo se a f ew of th em to a p o or kid w ho on ly has a 125 Yamaha an d is s till trying to co m pe te. There's a l ot of go od riders aro und. Lo ok at B ob Han nah , all of a sudden he ge ts a fac to ry ride and he's win ning. A lot of guys like th at do n't ha ve the equipmen t an d don 't have th e money. So , how are the cars, really pleasant? Yes, but it 's reall y fran tic too. It 's lik e wa tch ing a moving pictu re at three times speed. Y ou never have a chance to do anything, it's sideways, way in the air, or landing, it's really scary. The car 's try in g to tip over and you're going abou t 75 MPH. . Do y ou prefer driving a car t o ridi ng a bike? No . At R iver side I do. The young guys are just flat t oo fast. A t Six -Days I can out-sm art th em or so me thing. Did your life change much after "On Any Sunday?" Did the movie increase expectations of you r winn ing? My life didn't change that much, except at the races. I n California we ha ve so m an y heroes no body eve n notices yo u. B ut in Australia it did, th e movie was m uch bigger th ere. It increased winning expecta tio ns a lot more ! That's probably wh y I don 't go to a lot of sp orting even ts, because if yo u d on't win you're a dirty guy. I go t a secon d at S oboba this year, but· p eople th ought that was ju st terrible. R oeseler beat m e - an d if you tak e a lo ok at th e o the r gu y s I was racin g against - I hadn 't even ridden for a while - I was happy with a second. Looking back, do you ever wish you had taken your riding more seriously? I'm glad I didn't because it never ru in ed it for m e. I see so m any peop le ge t bu rned out. The y go at it ev ery week en d an d thr ee tim es a week. It 's th eir What about t he Baja? It's da nge rous, th e bik es. I used to be able to ride wh ole lif e, they don't do an ything else. They sp end fla t out, wide open, across the de ser t - I can 't all th eir time wo rk ing on th eir m otorcycles, going to th e races, th en ' th e y ride f or a y ear or so and an ymor e - I ju st won 't d o it. disap pear. Bu t I've done it 20 years now and I st ill Is it age or bus iness? really enjo y i t. And eve n now, before a race, my I Ih in k it's experience. You have so much stoma ch is so upset I'm about to throw up. I t hin k, expe rience, y ou kn ow wh at can happen. Yo u get hurt this is ridiculous, I've been doing this so long, but I so many ti mes and pre t ty so on y ou start thinking - still get just as shak y and scared. I think it's scared of I've bee n so luck y so m any times . . . n o t winning - not th e fear of getting hurt. I rod e Do you th ink maybe the last time you broke your leg Class C on e year as a Novice, when R om ero was a (for the fourth t ime ) in Baja it might have had N ovice too, at Ascot. He would win one week and I would win th e next. I was going to buy a new something to do with your switch to cars? Triumph but something came up and I just started . When I was ly ing th ere in Baja I k ept thinking how am I going t o ge t out of here . . . it's just . . . I going out on a few weekends cowtrailing. I think now don't lik e to not win and to win y ou have to go so of all .th e guys I knew closely then tha t are dead n ow. fast. There 's a lot 'm ore good riders now, so many I d on't know . . . I'm Iillppy . . . I don 'tthink I'd do anyth ing differen t . ' . more than the re used to be. Do you th ink t he SCORE payoff regarding overall wins is fair? . No abs olutely n ot. I think th e overa ll winner shou ld get more mone y than any one else down the lin e. N o matter if yo u t ak e $10-$ 20 out of each entry, the first p lace guy sho uld get the most money. Th e cars and th e bik es are so close now, and the gu y rid ing a bike is taking a m uc h bigger risk. I don't th ink it's righ t that th e bik e fin ishes first and gets $ 1,50 0 an d I finish second, in a car, and get $IO,OO'!. In just a couple of weeks . September 20 to be exact. Malcolm Smith will be somewhere near Zelt weg, Austria getting up at 5 :00 a.m, every morning to test his skill. physical en durance and mechanic abilities again st 20 0 mile s of unknown, challenging and sometimes body-breaking terrain. He will probably be just as scared. shaky and nervous as he was when he rode , his first ISOT. And, mo re than likely. he will return to Riverside, Califo rnia with his eighth gold medal . • 13

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