Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Harley-Davidson Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Vaughn Beals said that recent talks with japanese motorcycle manufacturers are an outgrowth of last spring's Williamsburg Economic Summit, but have not produced results to date. The talks are aimed at finding an acceptable alternative to tariffs recently imposed on japanese motorcycle imports to end a major disruption of the U.S. market. According to Beals, "Prior to enactment of the tariffs, we made it clear that we were willing to discuss alternatives with the japanese manufacturers and in fact had been holding such discussions, which centered on long-term loan guarantees. However, those discussions did not result in agreemen~. Then last spring, following the Williamsburg Summit at which the U.S. and japan indicated they would seek to improve trade relations between the two countries, we again expressed a willingness to explore alternatives, in spite of the fact that the tariffs already had been enacted. As before, the latest discussion involves long- term guarantees and I should emphasize that these would befuarantees, not loans. One impact 0 the japanese motorcycle glut has been the delay of certain product plans. While the tariffs ultimately will enable us to get those plans back on stream, loan guarantees would do so more quickly. We had agreed with the japanese that all panies would maintain confidentiality on the specifics of the discussion and Harley-Davidson will abide by that agreement." Stlldium Motorsporta hu ......sed a tentative .chedule of their 1984 events. The schedule WIIS released after the AMA informed Stadium that it would not sanction their events, but at a .ubse· quent meeting of AMA promotars, none of the application. were for dates or location. conflicting with the SMC schedule. The schedule i. Anaheim (January 28), Atlanta (March 3). Dallas (April 14), Wa.hington. D.C. (May 19), Pasadena (June 2), New York (August 11 or 12), San Francisco or Sacramento (October), L.A. Coliseum (October) and San Diego (October or November). The schedule list. the Dalla. gvent ..aco-promotionwith PACE Management. Newly crowned World Long Track Champion Shawn Moran will return to a hero's welcome as the regular speedway season comes to an end in southern California. Moran is scheduled to ride in Costa Mesa's regularseason ender on Se ember 50. As the defending U.S. National Champ, Moran will have just this one opportunity to practice on the track in preparation for the October 15 U.. National. Former Assemblyman 80b tUy.. will be tying the knot on October 8. The only motorcycle desert racer ever to make it into elected off'lCe will be marrying Unda Johnson. A Harley-Davidson Motor Co. official has described as "purely exploratory" a meeting with an official of the Westmidlands County (England) Council concerning company inter· est in Triumph motorcycles. According to Vaughn Beals, Harley-Davidson chairman and chief executive officer, "The exploratory meeting was an outgrowth of Triumph's recent decision to withdraw from the motorcycle market. I think iI's fairly common for a business to at least take a look at the options and opponunities that might exist when a competitor goes into liquidation. Because Harley·Davidson officials had planned to be in England on other matters anyway, we thought it would ~ wo~hwhileto assess the Triumph sltuatlon. It would be extremely premature to speculate on where, if anywhere, these discussions might lead." Honda'. .uper.tar, Danny "Magoo" Chandlitr'. next appearance mey be in front of a judge isnteed of a starting gate. It _m. a few weeks ago, Chandler wa. out practicing whan he and another rider collded. From what we hear, the other rider is suing Chandler for damage•. At lea.t, .ay. Chandler, he h.. a good lawyer. Californian Bernie Schreiber (SWM) won the penultimate round of the World Championship Observed Trials Series which was held in Stock· holm, Sweden, on September 25. The former World Champion won with a score of 48. Finishing second was Eddy Lejeune (Hon) who had wrapped up the '83 title in the previous week's round. Lejeune finished with a score of 51. Taking third was Michaud Thierry (SWM) with a 56. A Belgian MX team won the Coup de. Nation., the World Championship 126cc MX team race, on Sunday, September 25, In Roggenbourg, Switzerland. Led by World Champion Eric Geboers (Suz), the Belgian. were followed In the results by Italy and Finland. The USA didn't field a team for the-.t. Freddie Spencer wa. honored earlier this month in hi. home town of new 600cc World Road Race Champion received the keys to the city and had • day named in hi. honor. Then, Ceddo Parish Sheriff Don Hathawey (above) named "Fast Freddie" . . honorary deputy sheriff. Just the thing every Porshe 911 SC owner neeftI Sh~port. Louisiana. The Herve Moineau and Richard Hubin rode thier Suzuki to a fourth-place finish in the final round of the '83 World Championship Endurance Road Race Series and won the World Championship. The September 25 six-hour Mu~ello, Italy, race was won by the Kawasaki-mounted Cornu/Battistini team. publication for 22 years and servicl a. editor-in-chief for the last c0uple of y.ars. "I'll stay with the company (Specialist and Prohssional Pre.. Ltd.) and continue-to work on other publications, but other steff members have receiVe'd the chop." BMW unveiled their 1(100 fourcylinder .erle. to the world'. motoring pre•• In La Napoule (Cann..), Frence, last week. Check out an upcoming issue for a detailed look at the German marque'. new offering. From what we hear, the mOlocrossers competing in the October 1 Super· cross at Sacramento, California's Cal· Expo track will probably want 10 gear up their machines before heading for the Miller High Life-sponsored event. The outdoor track will-be twice as long as most Supert:ross tracks and will feature a 550-foot start straight. The proposed rule change which caJled for the elimination of works bikes in the 1984 Wranger Super Ser. ies (submitted to the AMA by Yamaha racing team manager Ken Clark) was voted down by the AMA Professional MX Advisory Board in Las Vegas on September 22. The proposal called for the use of modified production bikes in lieu of works bikes. "There simply wasn'tenough time to get the pr?gram properly set up for '84," said AMA MX manager Carroll Chandler. "Many of the parties involved had already set their budgets for the year. If it can be resolved, the rule change may go into effect in 1985." Disclosed at the meeting was the fact that Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Kawasaki plan to retain full factory MX teams in '84. After nearly 80 years of publication, England'.lIotor Cycle WHIr· Iy has celled it quits. In a last ditch effort to save the publicetion, the publi.hers changed from a newspaper format to that of a weekly magazine in March of this year. Circulation continued to drop and it we. announced that thl. week'. magazine would be the final one. "h'. a very sad affair," said Mlck Woollett. who ha. been with the The October 1-2 Pro-Am road riIce at Daytona International Speedway will have an extra event on-the program. A .pecia1760cc extiibition cia.. will be run along With the Battle of the Twin. race. According to officials. the eddition IS a "test" and may lead to-the inclusion of the 760CC bik.. a. a part of the regular BoTT division. There was almost as much talent on the sidelines at the Ascot Half Mile National as there was in th race itself. Among the onlookers was new World Road Race Champ Frcildie Spencer, 1983 Superbike title h01der Wayne Rainey, his teammate Wes Cooley, Honda's Formula 1 winner Mike Baldwin and road race SlaTs Roberto Pietri, Fred Merkel, Da e Busby, Dave Emde and Harry Klj..nzmann. Speaking of Harry Klinzmann, if anyone ha. any extra good-luck charm. send them Harry'. way. Not only did his Suzuki Superbike blow up at last week'. Willow Springs Pro-Am, but the angine in his van decided to heed south for the winter a. wei" Since he had to Ieeve the ven at the track. he

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