Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• • 11II ~ t WAshiNGTON, DisC ossd o 00 en How long has it been since you've seen a CZ at the races7 How about a halfmonocoque-frained CZ7 Mike Crumet's 250cc mount at Race Place in Chapman. KS. was ultra-trick. reportedly ultra-fast. but was an ultra-letdow n when it defied all efforts to start it for the first moto. Photo by M itch ~ora ba u g h . AM E. since America n Hond a has arranged for newspa pe r , radio and television coverage. An,.,.s, Los a monthly magazine which is only surpassed in thick· ness by LA:s metropolitan area phone book. had an int eresting tidbit in their July. 1980 issue. Seems the director of the California Office of Traffic SafetY, Tom Lankard. was invited to a motorcycle safetY conference in Washington. D.C. by the federal government Lankard flew from Sacramento to L.A., bought a bike. and rode it to Washington. Said Los "And although the feds are widely acknowledged to be enemies of even the tamest little Honda. thera _ no hidden ~ge in Lankard's mode of transportation. Says one insid er. 'Tom j ust likes motorcycles : " The headline on the article read. " W ait Until They Have a Drug Conference: ' An,.'.s: Road racer Va nc e Breese was planning on entering a 1015cc HarleyDavidson with XR road racing fr ame and fairing in Laguna Seca 's Formula I event . b ut a broken a nkl e suffered in a sideca r crash will keep him from com peting. Va nce, who has terrori zed the Ope n GP class on a n un -faired 1200cc Ha rley in local events. said the doctor told him he'd be out of action for at least six months; Breese hopes to mak e it back in three. Kawasaki riders planning to make the trip to the Aug. 6-10 NMA Nationals in Ponce CitY, OK, take note of Kawasaki's contingency postings for the event A Kawasaki rider winning one or more of 20 specified classes - ranging from 83cc Modified 6-8 to 250cc Expert - will get a cool grand. The rider will receive a $600 savings bond. and his/her parent or guardian will receive a check for $500. If you' d like to ta ke a q uick peek th ey don't stand still very long - at the likes of Pro Stocker Bob Carpenter or T erry Va nce, or the ultra -poten t T op Fuel machines of Frog Thacker . Bo O'Brochta, Elm er Trett, et a l. , then mosey on over to Fremon t Ra ceway. Aug. 9-10 for t he NMRA Golden State Nationals. Saturday will see tech inspection. qualifying, time tria ls a nd NMRA record runs. On Sunday, sportsma n class eliminations begin at 9:30 a.m. and championshi p elimi nator action sta rts at 2 p .m. The Colorado Medicel SocietY (CMS) collected only 46.200 signatures by the July 7 deadline of the required 65,234 needed to get a helmet law reinstatement on the November ballot in that state. CMS took command of the reinstatement crusade after the Colorado Highway Department IlCHDI abandoned its plan in March to devote $6.000 of federal funds to CMS for a petition drive. The High· way Department withdrew the funds because questions were raised by the AMA, the state legislature and the Mountain States Lega l Foundation concerning the legalitY of using federal money for lobbying purposes. Last spring. the AMA applied pressure to the CHD to withdraw federal funds and sent telegrams to Governor Richard Lamm blasting the state for its obsession with helmet laws in the face of general neglect toward a comprehensive safetv program for motorcyclists. In conjunction with th e Elks West Central Coast Council, Sp illwa y Pa rk in Santa Maria , CA . will host the 6th An nual 100 % Ben efit Motocross for Cerebral Palsy on August 10. Last year's la rge rider tu rnout enabled t he donation to the California-Hawaii Cerebral Palsy Foundation to exceed $9. 0001 As all costs of advertisin g, contin gencies. course pr ep , etc. are do nated, contingency donors are still needed. Contact Gene Dunne a t 805 1 937-4043 or 6171 for m ore info on the race or regarding do na tions . The rumor m ill is churning away while the nat ion sweats out the current heat wave. In the w ind are predictions of what the 1981 model lines will offer. Included are such trick items as a Yamaha V-4. a monoshock Honda CBX. watercooled twln-eylinder motorcrossers f rom Yamaha. and an ultra-high horsepower rocketship KZ1000 from Kawasaki. BMW dealers have been info rmed t ha t effective Sep tembe r 31 Bu tler & Sm it h will no longer be th e BMW d istributor for th e U.S. BMW of Nort h Am erica , a part of the pa re nt company. will ta ke over di stribution of the German moto rcycles the following day, Octo ber 1. According to one BMW dealer, " BMW of North American will review the present dealer network and retain only those dealers they feel are getting the job done." "Costs be damned , let's regu late," often seems to be t he battlecry of the Envi ronmental Pro tection Agency once it receives a clear mandate from Congress. And often. as in the case of the agency's forthcoming motorcycle noise standards. the reason for the rules promulgated becomes estranged from the original problem that needed resolving. The noise regulations will set decibel stan dards for motorcycles and cost the in dustry millions of dollars. Yet , th e majority of motorcycle manufacturers are already in compliance with th e decibel levels prescribed in EPA 's proposed regulations . Perhaps EPA Administrator Douglas ~tle best explai~ed the bureaucracy's philosophy on t~lS type of regulating best when he said that "on occasion 1 have run into fed eral employees who seem to have an ideological repugnance [to certain private enterprises) and an evangelical zeal to regulate them . " Joan Claybrook, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and her mandatory helmet law crusade also fits this description. In Claybrook's case. the " ideological repugnance" appears to be solely ai med a t motorcycles, and there is no doubt she holds a n "evangelical zeal" towards regu lating them. EPA, on the other hand, does not ho ld motorcycles as a prime concern. Yet, due to the various authorizing acts passed by Congress since 1970, the agency's jurisdiction includes just about anything that clangs, clanks. chugs. bellows. blows , whistles, spews . seeps and flows. Motorcycles at times clang and clank. and so EPA devised its proposed noise standards. In this case , the mandate to regulate comes from the Noise Control Act of 1972 , an ambiguous document designed to protect the "pu blic health and welfare from no ise pollution. " The agency originally issued a notice of proposed rulemaking back in March of 1978 . but only recently were the regulations sent up to the EPA admin istrator's office for approval. Thus, according to in formed sources, the final standards should be issued som etime this fall . Throughout the public comment J,eriod on the noise regulations. motorcyclists from across the country spearheaded by the American Motorcyclist Associa tion - told the bureaucr ats th at thei r rules wou ld increase prices wit hou t providing any benefit 10 the consumer. By the agency's own estimates , the cost of compliance industrywide will be $224 m illion in 1985. EPA wanted noise standards set at 83 decibels by 1980 , 80 decibels by 1982 and 78 de cibels by 1985 for street and off-road motorcycles ( 170cc or less for off-road) . And for off-road bikes over l70cc, 86 decibels by 1980 and 82 de cibels by 1983 . However. in 1978. AMA's Ed Youngblo od told the agency . " W hen one realizes tha t a number of 1978 models already are ac hieving EPA 's 1983 proposed st andards, and that some are approaching 1985 proposed standards. it is evident that th is program is unduly inflationary and that it is not cost effective." Later, during a 1979 meeting with representatives of th e U.S. House, Youngblood warned . "W hi le the average American motorcycle owner may not be an econom ist or an acoustical engineer. let me assure you that he has a very accurate awareness of what is fa ir. what is realis tic . what is reasonable and what he can tolerate economically." Because of the overwhelming nega tive comment to the proposed regula tions , EP A began to delay the pr omulgation date. The standards sent up recently to the EPA administra tor place the 83 decibel level at 1982, instead of the planned 1980 da te. An ag ency spokesman said that over 2,500 sepa· rate comments wer e received from motorcyclists, giving bikerS the distinction of being more concerned about an EP A p roposed regulation than any other group . . T he cost of compliance associated with the noise standards - a nd the cost motorcycle consumers will ultimately have to pay - stems from a la beling p rogram designed for exhaust systems . Let's say you buy a 1982 Gold Wing and after a few years need to replace the exhaust system (wit h either the manufacturer's original or one of the many after-market products.) The exhaust you buy in eit her case must be marked for a 1982 Gold Wing. No other exhaust could be used by law . Thus. manufacturers must re-tool and dealers will be forced to keep a larger inventory of parts. If t he labeling pr ogram is violated. the noise act contains an enforcement provision that ca rries a $10 .000 fine . All this leaves the motorcycle consumer with the prospect of paying even higher pric es in the future . To make mailers worse . they will get no benefit for that cost. EPA , you see. in these in flationary times is free from considering the economic impact of its regulations . So the fina l result of the new standards will simply create. a certification program for manufacture r's to show th a t th ey are in compl ia nce when they have alread y been complyi ng for years . However , th e noise stand ards a re proba bly th e most reasonab le motorcyclists co uld expect from the EPA. an d since the labeling program as it now stands does not take effect until 1982 (still subject to change u n til the adrninistrtor actually approves them). the full economicimpact is still at least two years down the road. • Jim Zoia 7

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