Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

THE 00 0') Own~rs of 1977 and lat~r 390cc Husqvama's will b~ happy to know that Barn~tt Tool and Engin~ring has introduc~ a n~ six plat~ clutch kit for th~ir motorcycl~. This kit is specially design~d to improv~ performanc~ by r~ducing clutch drag. For mor~ information on th~ compl~t~ Iin~ of Barn~u clutch, cabl~ and spring products, ~nd $3 for a compl~t~ catalog to Barn~tt Tool and Engin~ring. Dept. CN, 9920 Fr~man Av~., Santa F~ Springs, CA 90670. H~r~'s a Super Jack~t for super peopl~ from super Malcolm Smith, This wint~r w~ight jack~t f~aturn doubl~ ~ntry front pock~ts with V~lcro fast~rs, a zipper~ front and full collar. It comes in bl.ack with a silv~r grey yok~ and is highlight~d with r~d piping. For comfon. warmth and styl~ ~ your Malcolm Smith Products d~al~r. Dress up your Honda GL 1000 or 1100 with Custom Chrom~, Incorporat~'s chrom~, di~-cast floor boards for rider and/or pa~n~r. Pictur~ is th~ p~n~r application. Th~ Tour Ea~ Floor Boards also com~ complet~ with shift~r ana brak~ adaptor. CCI floor boards ar~ availabl~ from your local d~al~r at a suggest~ pric~ of $35.50 per pair. If your d~al~r doesn't carry th~ CCI lin~ hav~ him contact KK Motorcycl~ Supply, Dept. CN. 431 East 3rd. St.. Dayton, OH 45402. .. • 20 Her~'s a nifty answ~r to cold hands whil~ cruising down th~ road. Th~ Polly H~at~r Kit from Fland~rs distributes th~ h~at from insid~ th~ handl~bar and radiates it to your hands. Any motorcycl~ with a 12 volt syst~m can hav~ warm bar ~nds aft~r about tm minutes riding. Th~ kit puts two low amp b~ating el~m~nts insid~ th~ handl~bar and uses an on/off switch to control ~a~, For mor~ information contact Fland~rs Company. Dept. CN. P.O. 22970. Pasadena, CA 91105. Box Th~r~ ar~ two v~rsions of th~ Laminar Sport S~ries Fairing. Th~ Sport 1 f~atures a r~ctangular quartz ~dlight whik ~ Sport 2 is desi~ to b~ ~ with th~ factory r~ctangular h~adlight on th~ Suzuki 1100. Kawasaki 1300, Yamaha 1100, ~tc. Both fairings. f~atur~ gloss black ~lcoat finish, int~al tum·signal mounts and thr~ int~rchangabl~ windshi~ld options. Smok~-tint~d shields ar~ also availabl~. Th~ Sport 2 retails for $137 .95 whil~ th~ Sport I is $167.94. For mor~ information s~nd $1 to Laminar, Inc., D~pt. CN-NE, Box 12332, 1514 Fairvi~w. Columbus, OH 43212. NATIONAL PAPERS Thoughts about the Houston Nationals ... The whole circuit is in trouble now that Jay Springsteeri and Steve Eklund have split the wins at the 'Dome. Th~ two guys that battl~d it out for th~ titl~ in '78 and '79, tb~ sam~ two that fail~d to win a singl~ National last ~ason, now find th~mse1ves rank~ 1·2. Springsteen's two race total is his best at Houston. For Eklund it is his second b~st. Springsteen came from the back both times to finish in the top two both nights, erasing any doubt as to his health. Looking at Jay ride at Houston, you know he is not sick - but more like mad as hell and not going to take a back seat anymore. As usual a lot of bits and pieces floating around Houston. F~die Spencer has again request~ that there be no more "testing" untried combinations at Nationals. Dick Mann said they wanted to try for three in a row of having Mike Kidd's short track~r quit right ~fore the finish line. We assur~ him that he now bas the record for two in a row. The AMA start~ to enforce rear number plate location after many months. All riders wer~ advi~ it was a must - or a fine. When they came up to Gary Scott before tb~ TT and told him they would ba~ to ~ cban~, Gary ask~d "How mucb is tb~ fin~ if I don't?" The t~ch man said $20. Gary whipped out his wallet and said, "Here's the $20. To bell with it, 1 am too busy." After all tb~ races of always qualifying for th~ program the streak carne to an ~nd for Randy Goss in th~ TT time trials. Maybe tbat big numb~r one weighs heavi~r than w~ think. Randy went for two years with "Lucky 13" and nev~r mi~d in time trials. But one guy said that th~ refer~ cam~ up and told him that Goss had failed to qualify but not to let the word out(?), We might miss or ov~rlook a lot of riders and num~rs at events but how do you hide the num~r one guy? 1 observed what has to be the small· est and youngest looking Iice~d rider since Freddie Spenc~r and Pee Wee Gleason were trying to pawn themselves off as young adults. This is a Minnesota Junior rider, no less, who looks like he· still has about five years to go to be old enough to be a Novice. Speaking of age, Darryl Hurst again entered the short track and one of his pit cr~w came up to me before th~ race and said that now Sonny Burres is finally retired, Darryl has to be th~ oldest rider at 36. We ask~ Darryl about this later and he had to think for ~~ral minutes because he said he had lied for so long about his age that he really had ·to stop and think. But he did say that when he won his only National, the Houston short track s~veral years ago, that he had to be one of, if not th~ oldest rider, to ever win a first time National. H~ thinks (?) he was 30 at the time. Hurst is th~ same rider who a f~ years ago tried to brin/{ back from a ev~r ~ffort Yamaha deal~r trip to' Japan something like 16 wrist watches, two dozen pocket calculators, fiv~ miniatur~ TVs and an unknown number of stop watches - all on his person. H~ was caught at the custom gate and the whole planeload of fellow Yamaha dealers had to wait hours to . clear through whi1~ they took in~ntory of what Darryl had strapped, taped, etc., from top to bottom. His store, by the way, is called Hurst Supply. Retired dirt trackers Dave Aldana and Rick Hocking were at Houston jus.t watching. Gary Scott was more than just a little u~t about an article in the program saying that he was may~ too old to be a contender - or words to that effect. Gary is now busy tracking down the author, who I am sure will have to aplain how h~/sh~ arriv~d at that conclusion. Gary and K~nny Roberts are both the sam~ a~. Each is now going into their 10th year as an Expert. 1980 titl~ cont~nd~r Ricky Graham was also at Houston watching, sin~ his hand has still not healed from that offtrack crash last fall. 1t was a costly p1aytim~ period. Rick, says he will be back by the Apr, 4 Ascot TT National. Th~ non· National dirt sc~ne now moves to Florida. th~ time of the y~ar when a couple of hundr~d kids skip school to rid~ as Novices in a raft of ev~nts. We 'will try and compil~ a list of what excuses are given by both the kids and the par~nts when we ~t down th~re n~xt month. Th~ list will be published later in the y~ar. The National dirt sc~ne picks up with four ev~nts in April and May at Ascot, Sacrarnmto and San Jose. Ascot will also host a ~ries of non-National Friday night half miles. starting Apr. 3 and running w~kly to th~ middle of May. The whole National/non·National ~ries totals I0 ev~nts on th~ half mile, mile and TT courses. Somewhere in th~re, ther~ are going to be "Junior Invitationals" and perhaps some "500cc Invitationals," so all interest~ parties should contact the Agajanian headquarters at 213/321-5323 and the San Jose offices at 408/438-3210. In the past, Junior riders were invited to San Jose and Ascot Invitationals on th~ basis of their main ev~nt results at th~ Friday night Ascot non-National events. Call now to fmd out how. Next report will be a rundown of all that racing coming up in Daytona. If th~ pace k~ps up down there the race w~k will consist of eight 26-hour days in the week. Th~ only thing missing as of now is a minibike event. Anything and everything on two wheels is slated to appear in something the first w~k in March. A parting thought: Springst~n is just now three away from a tie with Roberts for the most National wins. The way he has start~d out the n~ ~ason he is just about a cinch to take the lead before th~ ~nd in Septem~r. Kenny is only slat~d for Daytona, ~v~n though his name is not on th~ entry list, and th~ Laguna Seca event next summ~r. Roxy Rockwood

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