Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.~.~.~~._._._._._._._._._.~._._._._._._._._.-.-._._._. _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ . - I and com ing down th e fr ont st raigh t firs t lap it was T o ny Alves, the n almost th ree ab reas t, Dave Lujan, Rich Delacy and Edd ie La wson. AMA referee Chub Kellum was absen t and it wa s obvious his calm ing presenc e was m issing as the fro nt runners we re running wil d. Tony Alves came close to un loading in turn fou r as his legs flew off th e pegs. The inevi ta ble fin ally hap pened on th e nex t lap . T here were bi kes and bod ies fly ing allover th e p lace in turn fo u r and the race wa s stopped. T. Bone Gri gsb y 's b ike h ad the front e nd removed bu l happily T 'B on e m ade it ba c k to th e pits under h is own power. A m o ng ot hers in th e m elee we re Delacy , Junker and Lujan. Junker re ally got the wo rst of it and took a tr ip to the hosp ital , rep ortedly with a leg frac ture. Up cam e the Junior Main and it wa s T ed Davidson, Randy Gibbs a nd Scott Pearson. Coming arou nd again , incredib ly Davidson unloaded ri ght where he d id last week, and th e st rea m of rid er s p assed him up. Re mou nting, he was after th em fu ll bor e. I I was st ill Gibb s leadin g with Pearson ch asing h im h ard, th en Vince Mead , Rich Warr en and h igh p ain t J uni or, Steve Fo rtune. T he fast mov in g War ren, with Fo rt u ne in to w, was th en by Mead , a nd up fro nt Pearson m ade his m ove. lie wen t to th e outside. "cro ssed over " and mo ved in to the lead .. No lon ger dead last, Davidson was really s to rming o n up th ro u gh th e pac k, rig ht p ast Vin ce Me ad, Gibb s wa nted th at fron t sp ot again , and going for it on the last lap , l ap p ed Pearson's rea r wh eel and highsid ed . As the riders took th e n ag, it was Pears on, Warren , Fo rtu ne, and in credib ly in fo urth, Ted David son . Gary Sco tt ne eded some m ech ani cal help on his bike as; th e big boys lin ed up, bu t fin ally th ey were off with Dan :\\cWh orter o n th e Triumph sho o ti ng out front , Romero and Ho ckin g rig h t with him. If one were to beli eve th e earlier lap s, . it sh ou ld have be en McWhorter's "in wir e to wir e, bu t suddenl y a puff of smoke started co m ing out fro m on e side as t he engine start ed to so ur and he was forc ed to drop back position after position. Romero was no w sa iling a lon g u p front and :\\cWh or ter hel d off Ak sland fo r a wh ile. Skip fin ally lo o k over, fo llo wed then by Hoc king, wh o was reall y tailing A ksl and, Ak sland wen t to th e inside on tum lWO, to o k ove r the lead , a nd on tum three it was Ho ckin g b y Rom er o. As the la st laps came u p, Hock ing had it turned up full but cou ld n't qui te gel by Aksland, wh ile Paul Bo st ru m was within passin g range of Ro me ro . Firt h w as St eve Mo rehead and SLX th, Gary Scott wh o h ad really needed a faste r bike. Wh at a race it wo uld have been if he had been o n his T riu m ph and :\\c Wh ort er' s h adn ' t blown. No w t he excite ment ru ns hi gh becau se fo r on ly th e second ti m e in Grand Nation al h is t o r y , t he Championship will be de cided at Asc ot on Oct ober 9. Resu Its in Resu It s Section. IIHow Hodaka helped IDe lose BSO'cc's , (. . . and fin d the real fu n of cyc ling .") H ow? ~ _. " Li ke a lo t of people who get into cycling, I went the big bike route for a while. Enjoyed that - until the novelty of beating spo rts cars awa y from the stoplights wore off. Fina lly had to admit to myse lf that for me , owning a big street mach ine just wasn' t worth the big investment in money an d time . "Didn't know what to do after I sold tha t bike. Even tho ugh t abou t ge tting ou t of cycling altogether. "The n one day my buddy Ch arlie bought himself a new Hodaka 125 Su pe r C ombat dirt bike . I kidded him abo ut getting a 125 because he 's pret ty big. But he jus t smiled and told me to try.it out. "As soo n as I sa t on the bike I knew it wa .s d iff e r en t fr om o t h er lig h t w e igh t s . It f elt d iffe ren t. N ot heavy, but solid. like a b igg e r bi ke . An d when I put it in gea r and too k off, I thought the facto ry must have pu t a 250 engine in it by mista-ke! I ne ve r kn ew ho w gr e a t off-road ridi ng co uld feelo n a mac hine that really handles . "Well, the next da y I wen t but and bo ught my own Hodaka - a 100 S uper Rat. As far as I'm co nce rne d. it's as close as you can get to pure fun. It's mor e hasslefree than I figured ony bike cou ld be. And at the prices they 're selling for this months I'd be crazy to have anything else! "And you know, I never miss those 650 cc 's I lost. " The Ho da ka P hilo so phy At Hodaka , we've noticed off-roa d riding has really opened up, and mor e people are including it in their ou tdoo r activities . We're glad they're discovering the fun of a sport that's been our favorite for 12 years. That's how long ago we se t out to deve lop the Ultimate Trail Bikes . We set up operations in the small town of Athena. Oregon , site of the National Bad Roc k 2 Day Trials and smack in the middle of every conceivable kind of off-road terra in you might run into . Cow trails. Forested moun tains . O pe n dirt roads . Ro c ky st reams. You name it. We've put a lot of miles on Hodakas aro und Athena . And made a lo t of design improve ments based on what we've found o ut. What we 've arrived at is a gro up of exceptionally refined off-road performe rs tha t still have all the virtues of simplicity. Only one plug to cha nge_ No multiple carbs to synchronize. Par ts that don't cost a mint. And ease of maintenance that's des igned into every bike we bu ild. Now we'd like to introduce you to this month's very spec ial offer on two very special Hodakas : the 100 Su per Rat and the 125 Super Combat - the High Performance Adult Trail Bikes . The Mo to rcycles Don 't le t the racy good looks fool you. The se ar en't tweaky, high -stru ng mounts designed to go like hell for an . hOlJr and then be tom down and rebuilt. What they ar e is a happy combination of race -bred performance and hand ling plus traditional Hoda ka reliability - all tucked into tall, tou gh. man-sized frames that are more rem iniscent of a 250 than the 100's and 125's you're used to seeing. The Pe rfo rmance From the minute you firs t sit on o ne of th e se ma c hines an d s nap th e thrott le ope n, you'll know these are no o rd ina ry ligh twe ights . The excl usiv e Hod aka Alumife rric e ngine has a ma zingly qu ick response and gutsy perfor mance over a wide RPM range . And it's co upled to a 5 speed gea r box tha t lets you pick your ratio for-an y kind of ter rain _ and any kind of riding. But do n't ta ke o ur word for it. Check the record Hodaka has piled up in co mpetition. No t only have Hodakas won hundreds of na tional and international events, but the sa me basic engine and frame have won all kinds of events. Mo toc ros se s . Sc ra mble s . Hill climbs . Tria ls. Even road races! Like we said, not ord inary lightweight motorcycles. The Re lia bilit y In November of 1972, big six foot, six inch Frank Wheeler rode a Hoda ka 125 all the way aro und Australia - 10,000 miles - in 21 days! Man, mach ine . and 200 pounds of gear ave raged an incr ed ible 475 miles a day ove r the rugged ter rain. That's 2 or 3 ji('o rs of average use squ eezed into 3 weeks! No t the so rt of pun ishment most light bikes take kindly to . But then , most bikes aren't built like Hodakas. 'The ex tra quality tha t star ts in our advanced power train carries right throu gh to eve ry detail of the Super Rat and Su per Combat. Ta ke the rea r suspension , for ins tance . Its light alloyshock s have cooling fins to prevent fade when you're load ed down and in a hurry. Full knobby tires are stand ard , too. So are super-strong alloy rims that are light in weight to get you over obstac les eas ily. And don 't fo rget the folding, enduro style foot pegs. A braced chain guard_ Unbrea kable plast ic fender s fro nt and rear, with front mud flaps. A responsive prog ressi ve -action throttle tha t comes on smoothly from idle to full bo re. Improv ed b rake linings . And lots more . Something Specia l-On S pec ial We hope you've gollen the picture tha t the Super Rat and Super Combat are very spe cial machines . Now get hip to the ot her half of the sto ry - the price. Beca use for a limited time, these high pe rformance trailers are on sa le at prices you11 have to look twice to believe - just $519 sugges ted retail for the S uper Rat and $549 suggested retail for the S uper Combat! (West Coast P.OE)' If you've been con side ring a 250 dirt bike . you know a good one will cost you around twice these prices and possibly a lo t more . Th ink ab out that for a while: two great bikes for the price of o ne . . Then think abou t the things you can do with two bikes thaI you ca n't do with o ne . , Beca use if one ' Hodaka is a great inve stmen t in fun, tw o Hod a ka s ca n co mpou nd the rewards! But hur ry - this sa le can only last AME Veterans National By Rick New VALENCIA. CAL. SEPT. 25·26 Face it, we 're all ge tt ing o lder and try ing to race against the " kids" gets to be dangero us after a while. Most over-SO riders are ou t to have fun, th at 's what racing is all ab out. " V ete ra ns " are enjoying th e sp ort, n ot tr yin g to be hero s. They race because it 's a h obby , no t their profession , Even though t most o f th ese guys aren ' t professiona ls, y ou co uld n ever tell it by the sp eed s th ey were hitting o u t there. T he fastest rider s were in the 500 Expert class, an d th e tw o m ain comp et ito rs were J im O 'N eal a nd Larry Sh oemak er. Bo th are ro ck e ts and O'N e al, an ex -Pro, still lov es to co me ou t from tim e to tim e to take h ome so me qu ick cash. Both rid ers wer e even ly m at ch ed and th ey wer e a t it wheel-t o-wheel all day. O 'Neal had be en ha vin g som e problems du e to the fact th at he had ridden his bikes on Saturday, in th e GP co m pe ti tio n. On Sunday, Jim had the aid of G ary Cole m aking sure his Maico was goin g to run in th e 25 0 class . Fo r -the Open class , Jim had borrowed an old, tired Suzu ki from Modem Cycle Magazine. He really h ad his ha nds full racing against Shoemaker. 1n fact, ole Lanky Larry was a bit too much for the seasoned vetera n, since O'Neal cou ld . only nab second overall for the day . In the first rnoto, both riders shot off th e line, coo king , goin g for the top spot, Ole John Marone y was right in there as well. making sure either Shoemaker or O'Neal didn 't slow down. During the en t ire mota , Sh oemaker and O'Neal were runnin g neck and neck. Even thou gh Sh oemaker had th e lead, O'Neal gave him n o time a t all . to rest. Coming arou nd fo r th e chec kered . Jim pulled up ri ght n ext to Sh oemaker, bu t he lost the moto by half a wh eel length. Next mota, J immy got the holeshot an d the earl y lead. but it didn 't last long as Shoemaker so on passed h im and took over . The b attle was on as th e two riders tr ied t heir hardest fo r th e lead, Finally, Jim m ade a qu ick m ove and powered past the Yamaha rider re-gaini ng the lead. Out in th e sa nd wash, O'Neal was . co o king along in th e lead when h is bike sp it him off a nd Sh oemak er went on by. T h is little incide n t dro pp ed Jim b ack to third be hind !\Iaron ey. . With very littl e tim e lef t in the moto, O'Neal started his charge and finally passed Maro n ey ' to re gain seco nd. By t he drop o f t he ch ec kered , J im was right beh ind Shoemake r. three bike lenghts back. Sh o em ak er to o k th e win fo r th e 500 Pro class, bu t it w as O 'Neal wh o was cro wned th e overa ll 5 00 Pro, d ue to his fin e fini sh in the G P o n Satu rd ay. O ' Neal also captu re d the overall for t he 250 Pr o cl ass, agai n th anks to h is fi e n fin ish on Satu rda y in t he G P. until c urrent inventories are gone. A Hodaka exclusive : the Alumiferric C ylinder Be fore Ho da ka , t he bes t bik e engines usually had cylinders that were mad e in two pieces: an aluminum outside with a cas t iron sleeve slipped into it. The aluminum was great fo r light'weight and fast hea t dissipation , but didn't wea r well, so the cas t iron cylinde r liner was ad de d for d urab ility, Th e problem is. the iron sleeve has to have "windows" cut in it for the port ope nings . And, with norma l man u facturing toleran ces, these windows often don 't line. up perfec tly with the ports in t he alu minu m cyl inde r. T his c re a tes irregula rit ie s . Irr egularitie s c rea te t ur bulence . Turbu lenc e interferes with the smooth, laminar gas flow tha t's esse ntial for pea k perfo rma nce. Hod a ka 's pa tent e d Alumiferr ic fusion cast ing p rocess elim ina te s t his problem. That 's because our iron liner isn't just a slipped-in sleev e - it includes the por t passa ges, too , so there are no irrequ larities to rest rict flow. The aluminum exterior is then bonded onto the iro n core to form a cylinde r that has the advantages of bo th metal s - with no ne of the disadvantages of co nventiona l engines! Sunday , in the 25 0 Pro class, it was Alan Olson lak in g the w in , ridi n g his Cole Brothers Suzuki. Fo r so me reas on, .l im ju st cou ld n' t ge t h is 250 Maico ru nnin g as stro ng as it shou ld, so he had to be co n ten t with second overall for th is cl ass. In th e O ld T imer s Mast er s class. it was Blacki e Lewis w inn ing the overall on Sun day. Blac kie is a h ard one to beat, and tod ay wa s no di ffcrent, Second in th is class was :\Iarvin O lson . Bo t h rid ers we re on Maicos, In the 25 0 No vice div ision . it was Wiley Sc itzl cr try ing for the win, bu t the bes t he co u ld do was third o vera ll; h e was upse t by James Henry an d "B ig J im" Learnihan riding his Modern Cycle/l\ lid· Valley O ssa. . In the F ou r Stro ke div isio n, ue Fish, th e Wom en's Cham p. had her father ou t there racin g. Ole Pop . a lias Edd ie , w as ab le to brin g in th ird overall for th e day , HODA KA MOTORCYCLES PABATCO Box 327, Sherman Road Athen a, Oregon 97813 · U. S.A. pr ices not including ship pi ng, de aler set up , sta te & local ta x. • ,. .. w 25

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