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/126261
Enduros take a tremendous amount of planning. When running the course over private land permission must be secured. The Burr Oak Enduro in Illinois was marred by some active resistance to riders crossing private land. Pictured above is one land tenant's response to not being informed that the co..rse crossed a corner of " his" land. Another farmer used a shotgun to discourage riders from finishing. Good old American violence still lives. And Californians think they have it tough. Honda discontinues CB400F; builds 400cc DOHCt~ins Honda Motor Co . . Ltd. of Japan has halted producti on of the CB 400F fou r-c ylinde r due to h igh produ cti on costs. a nd will intro - , duce a d ouble-overhead -earn twin cvli nder 400cc four stroke to repla ce it. according to informed sources in J a p an . Th e C B400 F e ngi ne costs Hon d a al mos t as much to bu ild as the la rger and m ore popu lar C Bi 50 po we rp la m , yet so rn e ' Ho nd a deal t·.rs st ill have 19i 5 m o d el C B400 Fs In 'Stock, in so me cases m'a rkcd do wn to less t han 5J .000 . T' he mos t co rn pet it ive dea lers se ll Ho nd a C Bi50s for at least Si O more than the C B400F . • O Photos of the new rop -of-rh c-Iin c 400ce twin appeared in th e June . 19ii issue of t hc J ap a nese m a g a zin e A ut ob». H o weve r , t he in form a t io n th ~t (I o nd a h as sto pped b u ild ing C B400 Fs is not ge nera lly kn own , and was relayed to Cycle N ew s by a n employee of the firm in Ja pa n . T he new 400s will com e in severa l versions. much like the 360ee Ho nd a twi ns do no w. Customers will have a c ho ice between eco no my a nd spo n models. with t he new Co mS ta r wh eels and a front disc brake appearing on the spon model . Deal er s sho u ld see th e bikes be fo re Jul y 15. Pr odu ct ion m od els will rea ch t he Uni ted Sta tes in August. 22. Privateer Tarao Suzuki (Suzl won the 250cc Austrian Motocross Grand Prix round _May 15. Suzuki went 5-2. while Andre Malherbe (KTM) scored a 4-3 in the extremely muddy race. Suzuki won overall on the basis of fastest time. Guennady Mosieev (KTMI won the first rnoto, ahead of Antonin Baborovsky. Hans Maisch (Mail. Malherba and Suzuki. Vladimir Kavinov won the second mote. with Suzuki. Malherbe. Ovchiminnakov and Jean·Paul Mingels following. American Marty , Moates (Oss) finished 11th overall in the Austrian mud. which he described to his mother as "the kind you sink into." World 250 GP points standings aft er the Austrian round : Guennady Mossieev ( 11 1) ; Vladimir Kav inov ( 103) ;' Harry Everts (80); H ans Ma isch (5i); Antonin Baborovsky (51) and Andre Ma lh erbe (5 1). 2 Marty Moates will not compete in the Russian round of the 250 motocross championship. due to " t he hassle of getting riders over I 500cc World Champion Barry_ Sheene won the Italian GP at Imola with his Suzuki RG500 , beating Virgin io Ferrari [Suz ], A rmando Toracca (Suz), Steve Baker (Yam), and Giacomo Agostin i (Yam). The fact that Baker and Ago' were fourth and fifth behind relatively, unknown Italians Ferrari and Toracca may say something about the competitiveness of the new Yamaha 500cc racers. Success a tt racts all typ es. Ta ki ng ad va ntage of the good name and po pu lari ty of m otocross, in particu lar Rib Bravo's track in Texas, Fa rrah Fawcett -Majors and Li nda Lovelace ad orn ed th e same p age as a m otocross ite m in t he , " Houston Ch ronicle" . Peopl e sec tio n. on Monday Apr. 18. Keep your eye out for a new gas Girling shock with a remote reservoir. Maximum stroke travel is five inches which can be increased by leverage in swingarm geometry. Girling cla ims absence of fade and less unsprung weight. . .. .... .. .. . . . . .. . Husqvarna-mounted, Cycle East· sponsored Dick Burelson won the Burr Oak National Enduro by one point over Can·Am's Skip Olson. Burleson dropped only 11 points over the 146-mile run which covered sand trails, thick woods .and washboard roads. Whi le th e Burr Oak ran into a lot of tro u b le with u n coope rative land own ers , Dick Drost , t he owner of Nake.d City, a n udist cam p . was very helpful. T he lan ding st ri p fo r the cam p has served for seve ra l yea rs as on e of the ga s SlOps a nd tr ail s within the camp have be en ut ilized for t he enduro . there." He will stay with relatives in France and ride a South France international motocross on May The Desert Vipers Me will ho ld a Dist rict 3i Gra n d Prix thro ug h t he st reets of Barsto w on O ctobe r l st a nd 2 nd . T he city ha s even picked up t he ta b fo r the cost o f th e environ me nta l impact stu di es. Fi nal ly, m ot o rcyclists a n' ge ll ing som e loca l coo pera tion . Papa tips his hat to Ba rsto w. a C\ty after o ur own hearts . H e ik ki M ikk ol a ( Ya m) wo n th e Swed ish 500 "c Mot ocross G ra nd Prix a t Edsbyn o n May 15 . Brad La ckey ( H o n) wo n th e first m ot a , with Mikkola seco nd an d Roger De-Coster (Suz) third . La ckey's Hon d a's ch ain broke in the seco nd mo ta ; Mikko la won , foll owed by Gerrit W olsin k (SUI) and DeC ost er. Overall it was Mikkola (2- 1). DeCosr er (3-3), and W o lsin k (8 2). Mikko la thus stretched his points lead aft er t hree of 12 Grands Prix to i3 o ver DeCost er's 65. Wolsink (53). La cke y (39), a nd Grabam Noyce (3 2) trail. Readers are ' invited to submit suggestions for the California Desert Plan currently being developed by the California Desert Conservation Area Advisory Committee. By suggestions, we don't mean a simple " m ore land" statement. The suggestions will be tabulated and given to the BLM and the committee. Please state whether you are a recreation or competitive rider. Send them to Cycle News, Dept. Land Survey, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801. Brad Lackey has been racing In Europe with a crack in the lower corner of his left shoulder blade. suffered in a race In West Ger· many. .. In Speedway action on May 10 at Ve ntura . Jim Fishback ' won the Scratch Mai n . Ma rk Che rf took the Handicap Main and M ike Bast was on top in t he Feature Ma tch Race . In Costa Mesa on May 13 it was Bruce Penhall in the Scratch M ain. Dennis Sigalos in" the Handicap Ma in and Alan Christian in the Feature Match Race . Rounding ou t the speedway news. at Irwi nd a le on May 12 , Alan Christ ian was on top in both the Scratch Main a nd the H andicap Main while Bruce Penhall took the Fea ture Match Race . Complete coverage and photos next week , Talented Rookie Expert Scott Pearson will probably spend most of the season on the sidelines. He is scheduled to have a bone graft in his left wrist. which was broken in a crash at Daytona. Reduced blood circulation while the bones were healing caused the bone to "die." Mark Brelsford put to rest rumors that he might be co ntem p la ting a comeback after his hot laps tu rned in a • specia l San Jose practice session the Thursday prior to the National. ' San Jose was filmed by the crew from CBS Television 's The R.cers for showing' in five or six weeks. If they caught the action. the program should be dynamite. Although ' it hasn 't been officially re leased yet. loo k fo r the Race of Champio ns to m ove to San Jose on the m ile th e week after th e National season cl oses a t Ascot. O o ps . W e forgot to tell you where to ge t m ore info rma tio n about the Keith Code Rid er Impro vement Pro gram fea tured last wee k. T he a ddress is 64 16 La Mi rada Ave . , .Los A ngeles . CA 90038 . Jay Springsteen's practice times were way balow the track record of 37.15 he set in last year's fall event. However when Springer qualified he somehow ticked the choke open on one carb making him run his slowest lap of the day. The May 15 Cherry Creek Hare and Hound held near Ureka. Utah was a killer, 260 riders started, but by 5:00 p.m., only 35 riders had finished." Rain. snow, and hail hampered search and rescue operations. One dry lake bed is said to have claimed over 50 bike.' as sacrifices. Chuck Pettigrew of Lucerne Valley. Calif. won with his 450 Maico. Full report to follow . . soon. .. "" . ... .. .. ~ . . . . Dick Sm others, T V com ic . four .wheel racer, wine grower and collector of new a nd restored bikes. was on hand to take in the a ction at San Jose. .. Skip Aksland will be aboard a Harley tuned and sponsored by John Apple of Tennessee for Oklahoma City and the rest of ttie eastern National swing. (Contin ue d on pag e )7)