Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

could have built hemis. If they had, we would be driving hernis today and getting better mile.age. There's no place in racing for restrictors unless a person wants to think all the competitors should be on equal equipment and the racing is to see who's the best rider or driver. The factories aren't in it for the rider. They want to prove their machines are best. That's what racing is about. Otherwise, why would the factories even bother? o 00 0') SAM C. SATTERLEY Cartersville, .GA Just call me Joe•.• America's only weekly motorcycle newspaper Sharon Clayton, Publish~r Tom Culp. Mark~ting Director Caroline Gcndry. Sec:. to the Publisher Nancy Gorak, Sec. to the Mhog. OiT. Editorial Charles Morey, Managing Editor. nale Brown, Editor, Bobi McCann. Editor. Mark Kariya. Editor. Advertising Skip Jobnson. Sal.. Managl'r. T.rry Pratt. Sales Manager. Linda Brown, AdvenisinK Coordinator. Duane-Johnson. o.,aler Sal.. Mgr. Graphics and Production Judy Klin~r. Production .Manager. Pamela Wood. Production Assistant. Marion Halashita. Cindy Torres. Typography. Dennis Greene, Laboratory. Accounting Mike Klinger, Manager. Jeanne Hammond. Accts. Recdvable. Donna Bryan. Aut. Accts. Receivable. Terry Dailey. Credil Manage.r. Circulation Rheba Smith. Manag<.'. Shirley Shon. Sarah Taylor. Michdlr Allan. Assistants. Want Ads Gin Harpe'T. Wan! Ad Sa-Ies. Service and Support Chris Aitcheson, Receptionist. Jim Leal. S&S. West 2201 Cherry Ave.. Long Beach. CA P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 (215) 427·74": L.A .....in. 6'6-8844. East 4190 First Ave .. Tucker. GA. P.O. Box 805. Tucker. GA '0084. (404)9'4·785"0. Cycl. New,/W.., (USPS 141·'40) i, publish~ weekly except the first and last week of the calendar year for S18 ~r year by Cycl. N.ws. Inc.. 2201 Ch.rry Avrnue, Long Beach. CA 90801. Second class postage paid at Long Beach,CA. POSTMASTER: Send form 3&79 to Cycle News. P.O. Box 498. Long Beech. CA 9OlllI1. SUb5CTip~ion rates: One year. second class mall, S18: twa ~ars. ~cond class mail. $$0; three years. s«ond class mail, $41: 25 Wttks. $10. Cycle N~ wdcomes unsolicited edilorial material including slorio. canoons. photos. etc. Such material. if published, ~omes the exclusive proprrty of Cycle News. Such accepted material is subj«t to r~ision u is n«essary in the sole discretion of Cycle News. Unsolicited material which is not u~ will be' returned if accompanied by a sdf·addrnKd stampni envd0lX'. All unsolicitated m:uerial will ~ handl(,({ with r('asonabl(' car('. how('v~r. Cycl(' N('ws auum~ no rt:'5ponsibility for th(' saf~ty. loss or damaj(" to such mat~rial. Repri.Dt.ing in wholr. or pari only by ~rmlsslon of ttl..- publlsh~rs. Advt"rlising rall"5 and circulalion information will Ix 5("nl upon re~uesl. Stt S. R.D.S. Copyright Cycle News. Inc. 1• . Tredemllrlt Cycle News "'9latered U.S. Petent Office. All rights reMrYed. ON THE FRONT PAGE: Mike B"I's graceful style, here being displayed lit the Sears Pok1t Trans-USA. was c:apIUr8d for posterity in this Charles Morey photo. A Mike Bell interview begins on p. 10. 4 Class D racing for the'80s? I enjoyed the "750 vs. 500" editorial by Charles Clayton, having raced both H·D flatheads and an occasional BSA 500. I'm no longer involved in any way whatsoever. but hate to see dirt track racing fade out. Perhaps, hopefuJly, the recent upturn in thoughtful letters and editorials will help save it. I'd like to offer a thought if I may: An accurate and very thorough history lesson should be the first order of the day in order to eliminate may misconceptions. which seem to intrude into many letters. Cycle News would be a good sounding board for hashing over what history tells us, but the facts should be assembled first. Why Class C? What were original equipment rules? What years were they changed? What were the changes? Who held voting majority each year? Who won #1 each year? Who voted for 750cc OHV? (It wasn't H·D. they voted for 350cc while having in the back room an aluminum 750cc OHV engine which pumped 75 bhp back about 1961. So who stacked the deck against themselves? Dick O'Brien and H-D didn't get on top without planning for it and putting .a lot of money and effort into it. The voting record at AMA should tell if they have stacked rules in their favor and should give ground some to allow other brands a better chance or not. Whatever. H-D will be the one to bear the cost of saving dirt track. But they've had to change before to give other makes an easier shot at it. They may get beat a time or two. but in another 10 years you'lI see the same problem again. In 1990 should we restrict the H-D 500 to give the 350cc Japanese bikes a chance? II would be nice to see a lot of the completely wrong self·serving arguments removed from the issue. For instance the booming 750 theory of spectator attractions. Any size bike can produce the I 10dB muffled limit. The number of impulses per second as well as the pitch of a 750cc twin would fall somewhere in between a 500cc twin and a 500cc single. My ears would prefer t he single. What I feel should be given serious consideration would be another class formed to race at the Nationals as a support class as well as being incorporated in all dirt track programs. It could be called class D and should be based on the original concept of Class C for the same reasons Class C was formed - to make it possible for people with limited funds to buy a bike off a showroom floor or whatever, do some modifications and go racing. II would put an assortment of makes on the track. creating more interest to the spectator. For a bike to qualify, there should be 2000 street machines sold, or a percent of the manufacturers total U.S. sales. Stock frames, with additional bracing allowed for safety, should be required. Allowing changes in rake and wheelbase would make it possible to have very good handling at the cOSt of additional weight over special frames. with lighter engines balancing a lot of that out. Riders who aren't faring too well in the big class could drop back to this class and to this cheaper form of racing rather than hang it up. This would allow the 750cc class to continue as is for those who can afford it. with an alternative to those who can't. II would give the factories who don't have the dirt track expertise of H·D to get their feet wet in a class where they would have a chance of winning while learning. There definitely should be a claiming rule to hold down the use of exotic metals by the manufacturers. Of course, the manufacturer won't like that and would want the price raised e,ery time someone claimed one. at which they could be invited to go Class C if they wanted more freedom in what they could do. Who knows? Maybe someday you would see a Yamazuki trouncing the XRs. But they need, to do their homework first, and class 0 would be a good place to do it without losing face. Restrictors are the reason most people drive a less efficient wedge. or whatever, engine design in their cars instead of a hemi·type. NASCAR restricted the Chrysler hemi to allow other makes to be more competitive with less expensive to build engines. Chrysler didn't hold patent rights to a hemi combustion chamber. The others Just caLL me "Joe Nerd." but 1 buy (subscribe. no less) to Cycle News. Bill McLain of Albuquerque who says he has worked in cycle shops tells us what we should like. This jerk probably hasn't the brains to realize there are those of us wbo ride dirt bikes who might want to take a ride on some pavement once in awhile. His idea of a street bike is about as useless for taking a real ride as my wife's car is for racing. Four-into-one pipes and low bars do not make a street bike. An RD350-LC is fine for bar hopping. but I have yet to see one on 140 100 miles from nowhere. I have the following bikes in my garage: 1976 Honda CB 4ooF, 1976 Honda XL350 extensively modified to ride enduros, 1974 Bultaco Alpina. 1955 Triumph lOOC factory racer. None of these machines will bold a candle to tbe Y~:aha XS650-SG for highway cruISing. Give me a Harley any day. 1 would trade my 400 for one after 50 miles. Keep your newspaper a newspaper. and ignore Bill and bis type. 1 think tbey are the ones who wake me at 3:00 a.m. with loud pipes or the ones wbo roar by my mobile home in Arizona with unmuffled din bikes making noise enough to help kill off dirt riding. TED LA ROUCHE Temple City. CA To the SoCaI motocrosser .•• Sir, you are in grave danger. Your sport, along with desert racing. is on the brink of destruction. 1 know, you don't ride in the desen. So what does the fight over the desert have to do with you? Why sbould you be interested in the Pbantom Duck and the crew of crazies fighting for the Check Chase. B-to·V. and land use in tbe California Desert? Let me explain. Where do you ride? On a privately owned motocross track. Where? Racing World? No, it is a housing development. Corona Raceway? Hurry, next year it will be a shopping center. Saddlebaclr.? For now, but for how long? The bottom line. Mr. Motocrosser is this: you are losing your riding areas. You are in the same boat as the desen racer, except for one thing. Your riding areas are privately owned, oun are public land. Your areas can simply be sold by the owner, ours have to be stolen. Then you will have only two choices. Stop riding or move onto public land set aside for this purpose. And that is what we are figbting for. We want to make sure that our righu to use public land for dirt riding (wbether desert racing or motocross) are not talr.en away. I urge you to join us. Help us keep our lands open. Help us regain our lost races. Help us defend the future of your span. Who lr.nows, someday you may ride motorcross on a track tbat was built on public land and leased by an operator-promoter. THUMPER FREAK

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