Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Phone 7141&28-3007 for info. Round two moves to the Merced Dirt Riders' CIHr Lake Enduro on Mar. 8; you may phone 209/524-6&89 for details. After a long break. the action resumes on Nov. 8 with the Hayward M.C:s Cowbell Enduro IInfo at 415/651-64131 before wrapping up with the Dec. 5-6 California Enduro Association's last Chance Enduro. For details on thet one, phone 213/333-8594. C..... will be as follows: 2OOA. 250A, Open A. Four-stroke A. Senior, Super Senior and Overall Champion. Gamblers M.C. Will run their sixth annual hare scrambles next Sunday. Feb. 15 with a 10 a.m. stan, limed from Searchlight, NV. There'll be two 57-mile laps; phone Bob Maichle at 7021451-6804 for details. HosPITal STOP: NeY8c18 dez racer Benny Brown crashed at the Chargers West M.C. hare and hound a couple weeks ago and suff-.cI a broken neck. No danger of paralys1s, but the 12&cc c.... rider hi recuperating In tr8Ctlon at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, Roon 470, 1800 W. Charleston. Las Vegas, NV 89104. Some get-well cards and letters would make It a little ...Ier. A tip of the Cycle News helmet to two Houston, TX motorcycle dealers. Hunziker Cycles loaned us a new Honda CR450R and K's Humble Yamaha loaned us a new Yamaha 550 Seca to display in our booth at the Houston Expo last week.end. We appreciate it! Thanks again. HosPITal STOP: Joe Price, the California Racing Club's number one Open Pro in 1979, is in Rancho Los Amigos Hospital with serious beck Injuries following a crash at the Lake Madera Golden State Series round. If you'd like to ~ him up with a card or a letter, send it to him at Ward 703, Rencho Los Amlgos, 7801 Imperial Highway, Downey, CA 90241. The AMA Board of Trustees met over the Feb. 7-8 weekend in Houston, TX, welcoming a new Class 8 (industry) member into their midst and electing new officers. The new member is Wayne Moulton, presidem of Triumph Motorcycles of America and he replaces Roben T. Craig, Jr., of Goodyear, who is stepping down after serving six years on the board. In the elections. Gene Trobaugh of Suzulr.i was voted in as president, Charles Larsen of Kawasalr.i was named vice president, and Class A (public) members John Hasty, Lynn Wineland and Hazel Kolb were elected treasurer, assistant treasurer and secretary, respectively. AMA Pro Competition Manager Bill Boyce Informed Pape at Houston that the scheduled AMAJ Winston Pro Series half mile lICheduled for June 13 at Roo8eveIt. NY, has been cancelled. A Maico 490 TT bilr.e? True, one's in the worlr.s, and when Jerry Greer (who built the Honda CR250R and Kawasalr.i KX250 TT bilr.es for us) gets through with this one, Maico will offer their motors for sale to interested din trackers, probably sometime in May. With an out-of-the·crate motor dyno'd at 50 horses, it should be Yer-r-ry interesting. Effective in _rly March, Reiner Schulz will _me the position of President of Maico U.S.A. He'll ov. . . . the two CIffices from the Suffolk. VA facilty. Mr. Schulz comes not from the motorcycling fraternity, but from the German international bu.u-s community; he's presently undergoing orientation beck at the Maico faetory. HosPITal STOP: Freddie Ephrem, everyone's favorite Florida Winter· AMA referee. suffered a bran attaclr. recently, but he's out of intensive care now and recuperating in Memorial Hospital of Jaclr.sonville, 56!5 UniVer' sity 8M!. South, JacboovilIe, FL 52216. 01' Freddie could use a basketful of ~-wdl wisbeI from his MXing friends. ~ican MoIDicyc:liat A8eD ation _ 1 - . 1 it wlI co-sponsor a frM program to refine the road riding . . of .....iellC8d ...... cbing motorcycle Speed Week in Daytona. CaIed the Rc.d . . . . P,oficiellcy Drill. the progt_n wlI COI _ _ of .... 0lliI' , e fivoe..hoI.w courae. IIIl1l1idWily twlce daNy Wednasdey end ThundIIy, M.-. 4 end &. end once FridIIy, M.-. 8. The Haione will conclude Frldey eftemoon with the Orange County Cruisers' AnnueI Deytona Road Event. Ed C81men. 'AMA's road riding coon• •tor, said the program w1I _ for naadad in "potentieIIy encount. . ." incIudng --1I8I1CY stIDppiIlgo COiibolsd skidcIng. adjust. ments end count8l ing. The s_ions will ~ be eveIu8tIId by a panel of IegisIlItors and U1Iffic experts dirac:18d by Neil Rober, who _ recently eppoilit8d F1oricIe's motorcycle ufety CChN• •tor. The ~ i Momi~t Aesc iIIlicwi will aIeo ... the 1.lliao. _ a pr0totype for other pc JHe PI ograms they pIen to leunch ...-.g motDIcyde diD, a""oni"g to CaInwn. Regisbation for the pr0gram is scheduled to begin T..... dey, Mar. 3, at 1 p.m.. end Wadi. . dey, Mar. 4, at 8 a.m.. at the perking lot of Vale's Steak HOUR, U.s. !12. e half mile east of 1-16. Registrants must ettest to IegeI . . . .nce coverage on their moIDicydeL CaIman estimeted between 200 end 300 riel. . from around the country will perticipete In the program. which will be CC)oepoIi8Or8d by the Orange County CnIi8era MoIDicyde Club and the Motorcycle Safety The ,.tioneIIy Founcletlon. Bombardier, Inc., manufac:tuJeT of Can-Am motoreydca, is consolidating its two United States recreational pr0duct distribution subsidiaries in a move to reduce rising freight, transportation and other COBb. Lou Hollander, president of Bombardier, IDe., said Warren Daoust, president of the company's Bombardier Corporation distribution .,Jwidiary in Duluth. MN. since its formation in 1975, baa been named president of the new U.S. subsidiary, called the Recreational Products Division of Bombardier Corporation. Operating divisions of Bom· bardier's Duluth subsidiary and its Elliott &: Hutchins, Inc. subsidiary in Malone, NY. will be consolidated under the new subsidiary in Malone, which is only 150 miles from the company's recreational products manufacturing facilities in Valcourt, Quebec. Pennzoil is spoIi8OIioig and distributing a eeriee of abc. 23-m1nute ~ specie" called .,.. ....,. £xpeIfuce. They include such interesting point.of-view sequences _ from the ~ of a bucking Braham bull. from e skydiver's helmet and from e jockey of e ........ racer at HoII)woocI Perk. So what. you ...,1 Hera's whet: The films are clone by Peter S1err who ... produced meny of the beet motor- cycUng films in existence, and one of them will be included in the series: Mik. Heilwood's polnt-of· view _ he negotiates the infamously dangerous Isle of Man road race course. A future segment from the viewpoint of a passenger on a r.oad racing sidecar is planned. U.S. National Speedway champion Bruce Penhall will host a new riders school at Inland Motorcycle Speedway in San Bernardino. Penhall, who fin· ished fifth in the World F'mal in Sweden, is offering sessions to bothJ'unior and senior riders. The junior ri ers class is scheduled for Feb. 15 beginning at noon. Cost is $65. The senior riders class will be Feb. 21-22 with both ses· sions scheduled to begin at noon. Cost is $150. All riders will receive clasaroom instruction as wdl as on-the-traclr. training. All riders will ~ videotaped and their performances will be reviewed. Riders will also get the opponunity to ride under the lights at San Bernardino. Registration fee includes full insurance, but riders must supply their own equipment. For further information, call 714/675-6041. Hot rumor of the _ k : HarleyDavidson is expected to produca three al!-new motors (and, one must 88SUme, motorcycles to matchl: a V-l. V-4 and V". Each cylinder will supposedly be 250cc, giving them 500, 1,000 and 1,5OOcc displacement. When 1 The rumor wasn't thef good. e WASltiNGTON, DisCLOSEd Let'. get down to (safety) business I BMW riders wear helmets more often than any other motorcyclists. Following them, Moto Guzzi enthusiasts don their top hats most often. Ranking third is "other." Then come the Japanese malr.es: Suzulr.i, Kawasalr.i, Honda and Yamaha owners respectively ride. with helmets. Harley riders, it appears, follow the quest for freedom to exaggeration by placing last. The above is fact, at least according to a survey developed by Applied Science Associates, Inc. of Denver under a NHTSA grant program. Along with MSF teChnical assistance the research group .-surveyed thousands of motorcyclists to gain information on helmet use. MSF Education Director Dielr. Thaclr.· ray presented their findings at a recent uansponation conference in Washington, D.C. Most of the panicipants were state and federal bureaucrats who conduct rider education and research programs, although a few academic and private industry representatives also were in attendance. It was "textbook motorcycling" at its finest: Motorcycling was discussed in abstract terms and judging from the tone of discussion, it seemed few of the bureaucrats actually owned and rode motorcycles them· selves. Overall, the MSF presentation was the best of the lot and had some "statistically significant" bits of infor· mation. An almost audible hush fell over the room when Thackray announced that a full 50% of those surveyed believed that, "Motorcycle safety experts are selfserving and only interested in keeping their jobs." The bureaucrats also didn't lilr.e another fmding: "Govern- ment experts on motorcycle safety are not highly experienced motorcycle rid· en." Thackray said that there was a direct correlation between the above responses and non·helmet use. These people were dumped under the "Resis· tance to Regulation" category and were pan of the study's "regression analysis." Thackray attempted to ex· plain to the bureaucrats that bilr.ers are an independent son, which is one of the reasons they ride in the first place. Nonetheless, the Applied Sciencel MSF survey should help safety experts in developing education programs. They found that only three percent of the survey respondents did not own a helmet. However, only 58% of the males and 51 % of the fetnales involved always wear them. The survey also found that older riders wear helmets more often; college educated riders wear helmets more often; higher income riders wear helmets more often - which led Thackray to explain that, "Those interested a lot in life, careers and education are much more likely to protect those investments. " It was found that most of the survey respondents do not believe helmets restrict vision, cause neck injuries and interfere with the_feeling of freedom. They weren't too sure when it came to the question of whether helmets restrict heanng. Some of the study's recommendations to the bureaucrats included tar· geting pro-helmet-use promotional material to the low-use crowd, use a non· authoritarian 1 non·government medium to deliver this message to the "resistance to Tel{U1ation" people, get riders to see the liigh rislr. in not wear· ing helmets during shon rides in urban settings and work on motorcycle dealers to influence riders to wear helmets. "Those who routinely wear helmets are thinlr.ing beyond this coming Saturday. Those who don't are not," said Thackray. Clay Hall, the NHTSA contract manager with the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, which is using a MSF developed rider education course, stated that, "Most living safety authorities believe education is an effective safety measure." Perhaps this sentiment adds credence to NHTSA's recent ovenures toward education rather than mandatory helmet use as a safety measure. What is especially con· vincing is the fact that NHTSA is spending $2 million over five years to evaluate the effectiveness of rider edu· cation in New York state. MSFs 20-hour Motorcycle Rider Course and its three-hour Rider Slr.ill Development Program were used in a NHTSA-sponsored study in California. In New York, the Motorcycle Rider Evaluation Project is intended to evaluate just how good the MSF rider educa· tion program is. In addition, MSF and NHTSA want to know whether malting education a prerequisite for obtaining a motorcycle license is feDi ble along with the cost of effectiveness aspects of the program. All these studies are fme and well, yet at times it seems the American people are. going to be studied to death. Action is what they want. This sentiment was expressed by a Republican senator when a newsman asked him what he t~ought of President Reagan's measures to put a 60-day freeze on all new federal regulations along with a federal hiring freeze. "President Reagan isn't going to use studies to prove these are proper measures," the senator said. "He's going to use common sense... The same goes for rider education programs. We can study their effective· ness forever. Yet, I believe that all of us already know that an educated rider is a better rider. Why don't we just get down to business? JimZoie 3

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