Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

policies, but the more serioua protest by concerned people trying to draw attention to the faa that we doD't waDt or need the federal governmem acql,tiring or governing our California land. I penonan,. questioo the ethics of the government body that will purchase land - in the name of the people of the U.S. - and then proceed to figure out ways to keep the people off of it. We are noW starting preparations for B-to- V 'SO. Our usual protest. by riding from somewhere east of Barstow to somewhere __ of Las Vegas on existing roads and traila (of coursel). As usual our protest ride is on the Saturday after Thanbgiving. Once again my children are excited about the weekend.But their uncle is with the USMC, somewhere in the mideut defending our right to make our protests in a free country. The grandfather will be there, as will I. o 00 0') ...... \yIST America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Sharon Claylon, PubJisMT. Carolin~ Gendry, Ex«utivt! Sttr~tary to the Publisher. Susan Kn~cht. Executive: Secretary. Editorial GRANDMA DUCKBACKER P.S. The Phantom Duck needs the .bucks more than ever for the lawsuit against the BLM and the Department of the Interior. It's the least we can dol Bantow to Vegas 1980 - Hope to see you therel QJ1ackl QJ1ackl Charles Morey. Managing Editor. Dale: Brown, Editor. Mark Kariya. Editor. Advertising Skip Johnson. National Sales Manager. Terry Pratt, Sales Manager. Linda Brown, Advertising Coordinator. Graphics and Production Kristin Cooper, Graphic Artist. Barbara Assistant. MUlon Hatashit.a, Typognphy. Dennis Greene. Laboratory. SCORE rip off Trav~rs, Accounting M ik~ Klinger. Manager. J~ann~ Ham- mond, Accts. Receivabl~. Donna Bryan, Accts. Receivable. Terry Dailey. Credit Manager. _ ASIC Circulation Rheba Smith, Manager. Shirley Shan, Sarah Taylor, MichdJe Allan. Awt.anl5. Duane JohlUOn. Dealer: Sales Manager. Want Ads Leslie Tharp. WanCAd Sales. Service and Support Chris Aitcheson, Receptionist. West 2201 Cherry Ave.. Long Beach. CA P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 (21~) 427,74~': L.A. Line 6~6,8844. East 4190 Fin, Ave.. Tucker. GA. P.O. Box 805. Tucker. GA '0084. (404) 9'4·7850. Cycle News/West (USPS 141·'.0) is published weekly except the first and lasl week of the calendar y~ar for $20 per year by Cycle News. Inc.. 2201 Cherry Avenue, Long Beach, CA 9080 I. Second class postage paid at Long Beach, CA. POSTMASTER: Send form 3679 to Cycle News. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801. Subscription rates: One ycar~ second class mail, $20; twO years, second class mail, S5S; three! years. s«ond class mail, $55: 25 weeks. Sll. Cycle ews welcomes unsolicited edicorial material including stories, canoons. photos. etc. Such matenal, if published, becomes the exclusive property of Cycle ews. Such accept~ material is ubj«t to revision as is necessary in Ihe sole discretion of Cycle News. Unsolicited material which is not used will be returned if accompanied by a ~Ir addressCo:d stamped envelope. All unsolicited material will ~ handl~d with reasonable care. however. Cycle News aSlumes no responsibility for the safety. loss or damage 10 such ma.tcrial. Reprinting in whole or pan only by permission of the publishers. Advertising rat~ and circulation information will be sent upon re~uesl. See S. R.D.S. Copyright Cycle News, Inc. 1980. Trade....rk Cycle News registered U.S. Petent Office. All rights re, served. 4 ON THE FRONT PAGE: Yama· ha's 750cc V·twin with shaft drive: the Virago, was one of the new '81 Yamahas unveiled in Las Vegas over the weekend. More on pp. 12-13. Photo counesy of Yamaha Motor Corp. Assemblymen Brown fan You recently printed the names of elected officials that should be, supported at election time. I think you left the most. important one out, and I would like to nominate him at this time. The two mOlt critical issues that have faced the California motorist (that includes two and four wheel) were fint: the outrageous state sales tax on top of the already over taxed gallon of gasoline (yes, we are one of only eight states that force its citizens to pay this unfair tax and that is why you pay less for gasoline in Ariwna even though the gasoline may have heen made in California). Second issue: mandatory yearly vehicle inspection forced on us by the federal government. Cycle News (Aug. 28, SO) mered to some crooked dealing going on in regard to lobbying for the passage of that law by the state legislature. What Cycle News didn't say was that the vehicle inspection program law was to set up a vast bureaucracy costing the vehicle owners billions of dollars - and here is the big plus - the bill started off tallr.ing about an inspection of smog equipment, but then slipped in inspection of the complete vehicle under the tenn of mandatory safety inspection. Do you know how long it would take to get your vehicle inspected? They say it takes tlt,.ee hou,.s now just for a smog inspection; add on to that a complete vehicle inspection and you are really talking about some time. Another plus is you would be paying a starting fee of $15 for the inspection and it could be raised at any time. Vehicle owners would be forced through this waste of time and money once a year. Top this· off by the fact that there was no guarantee the inspection would work, that smog would be eliminated (in fact there is evidence that it would fUlt work), and you can see that forced vehicle inspection is a very bad thing. While motorcycles were initially exemped from the inspection, I feel they would be forced in eventually. And since motorcyclists own vans, trucks and can they would immediately be affected by an inspection law. Now, doesn't this sound familiar? The federal government said either they wue going to ram a yearly vehicle inspection down the throats of California motorists, or they were going to keep $740,000,000 of the IIIODeY you RUt to Washington and were suppoRd to get back for sewers and highways. Guts what happened. Assemblyman Dennis L. Brown (R· Loug Beach) put up a fight for you and me; the inspection bill was defeated in Sacramento. The federal government may have blackmailed us out of $740,000,000, but that was ootbing to the billions we would have been paying under forced vehicle inspection. Assemblyman Brown has abo led the fight to repeal the unfair state sales tax on gasoline. He has not won that battle for US yet - but he will if he receives enough support from the After hearing about big SCORE races with big money to be made, we entered in the 1980 SCORE World Championship (?) off-road race at Rivemde, California. The initial entry fee was $200, plus $50 for insurance and $20 for membership. The announced purse for the motorcycle class was $7500 guaranteed plus, plus, plus... After winning the Open clas& (22) and overall, (McKenna's elapeed times were 20 seconds faster in the first heat, not eight seconds slower than Giger's) we were told that we would receive our money in the mail...and so it came, all $682 of it. Figuring that if there were 100 riden (more or las) at $200 per rider, there would be $20,000 received from riders and maybe $7500 paid back. So, if my headline, "rip off', is not justified, Sal FlIh let me hear from you; but I think SCORE stinksl JAN HOUTERMANS Owner, Euro Cycles Citrus Heights, CA citizeDs. For the above reasons I nominate Assemblyman Dennis L. Brown to the C1Cle NeJI1S list of Iegislaton who should be supported at election time. M. BALDWIN Wilmington, CA. The J- list of suppon-wonhy ccuJidIIles cOflCentnJted on ..aces wlane thne - . J 4 cOftlest in tlte pan] p-mrumes. ~ mcwe complete list will nm bejOf'e Nowmbn...EditOf'. Gr8ndm8 DucklNlcker quacks into the . . Eft!' wonder where the federal government sets the money to expand its empire? In 1965 Congresa established the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The yearly revenue is about $900 million, from Mbusiness activities" such as miDeraI lease sales, motorboat fuel taxes, recreation fees, etc. Ten billion doIlan of fund revenues over the next 11 yean are budgeted for federal land purchases. Interestingly enough, the federal government already owns more than one-third of all land in the United States and is steadily buying more. A lot of people don't realize that that is what the Thanksgiving protest in the daert is. Not only a personal pnxest apiDIt the BLM and their Thanks On August 20, 1980 my son Richard was killed in an accident on Sierra Highway in Saugus. He was on his brother's motorcycle with his friend as a passenger. They were hit by a drunk driver, who was arrested for man· slaughter and felony drunk driving. There was no way Richard could have avoided the accident. I'd like to say thanks to all the people that were so nice to me and my family. It doesn't bring Richard back but it helps to have so many wonderful friends. There were around 250 people at his funeral. He would have been 18 on September 7. He was a salesman for my company, working Newhall, Saugus, Palmdale, Lancaster, Bakersfield and the San Fernando Valley. He was such a good kid. His death was such a loss. Thanks again to those nice people who cared. LYNN WILSON Canyon Country, CA Published letters do not neces· sarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Send letters to Voices. Box • • Long a-:h. CA90801,

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