Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126771
one who figured out what was wrong with my ignitions. He was one of my callers (although the LOne of his phone call was more positive than the LOne of his letter LO Voices). He said lhat I probably had a bad ground, and thai losing the ground to thatlype of ignilion far even a microsecond will cause the ignilion 10 die. It sure makes sense, and I've never 10SI another ignition since I super'grounded my ignilion. According La my nOles from his cal I. he aid he'd lost two ignition. however. Thanks. Dick, for doing what Husky couldn't. Last, my lawsuil againsl Husky should nOl be mistaken as any dissalisfaction with my dealer, Up-Tile Husky in Sama Ana. All of my callers said lhey had no complaints against their dealer, only Husky. WEST America's weekly motorcycle newspaper haro" ClaYlon, Publ;sh~T Mike Klinger. Comptroller Sk.ip Johnson. Associate Publisllt~r. National Sales Manager Caroline Gcndry. Executive SI'CTeLllry 10 the Publi.du·, BRIAN MEYETTE Westminster, CA Editorial Fed up John Ulrich. Editor Dale Brown, Senior Editor Kil Palmer. A.uistant Editor Mall liilgenbcq,'(", Assistant Editor • Advertising Terry Prall. Sales Manager Mike Spencer, S41es Manager Linda Brown, Advertising Coordinator Nancy Danger, Adut!TtisinglEditorial Assistant Kellic Truelson. Advertising Assistant Gnlphica .nd Production Lantt Bryson. Manager Lori Tyson. Graphic Artist Larry Gill. Graphic Artist Marion Hatashi13. Typography Sheila Larsen. Typogrophy Dennis C~ne. Laboratory Accounting/Data Processing Donna Bryan. Accounts Reuivable Coortlin41oT Gt-ncva Repass, Assistant Terry Dailey. Credit Managa Circul.tion Rheb3 Smilh. Managa Michelle Hanna. Assistant Sarah Taylor. Assistant I:>ebbie Walker. Assistant Lyn.. Hood. Assistant Dealer S.....nd Service Tim Ryan. D~al~r Sa-l~s Manag~r W.ntAd. Rolxfl Elliot. Want Ad Sal~s Service .nd Support Chris AilCheson. Ru~ptionist Gn~gory Hanson. SbS West 2201 Cherry Ave.. Long Beach. CA P.O. Box 498, Long Beach. CA 90801· 0498 (215) 427·7453: L.A. Line 656-8844. E.st 4190 Fim Ave.. Tucker. GA, P.O. Box 805, Tucker. GA !IOO85·0805. (404) 954·71150. Cycle News/Wesl (USPS 141·540) is pub· lishro wttkly except the rirst and last week of ,he calendar year lor $25 per year by Cycle News. Inc.• 2201 Cherry Avenue. Long Beach. CA 90806. Second class 1'0" uoge paid al Long Beach. CA. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 tD eya.- . P.O. _498. ~ lleech. CA 90801-0498. Su bs£:ri pt ion r.ues: One year. .second class mail, 525; two years. second class mail. $45: lhret· years. second class mail $68: 25 wttks. Sl~. Foreign rales available on requesl. C\'cle e"'s welcomes unsolicited editor· ia'i material including Stories. C"drloons. - phOios. etc. Such material. if published. becomes Ih(' exclusi\'e properlY of Cycle ews. Such accepu.od material issubject to revision as is nc.--cessary in the 501(" discretion of Cycle (."ws, Unsolicilt~d malerial which is not used will be relUrned if accompanied by a self addressed stamped cn\'c1opc, All unsolicited material will be handlcod wilh reasonable care. howevcr, Cycle News assumes no responsibilily for thcsarcly.loss ordamagc lOsuch malcri'll. RcprintinK in whole or pari only by permission or lhe publisher. Advertising rdtes and circuhllion inrormation will be sent upon r<-quest. See S.R.D.S. Copyright qD Cycle News. Inc. 1984. T . . . . . - Cycle News ralliateNd U.S. _ OffIce. AI rlgllte.-...d. ON THE FRONT PAGE: TAm H....--·.1CMfin........... .......................... wlnnlng 4 .... FooJa Gold .....Il1O in GaD,.. - . c:aJIfonU. Comple"_· ........... on ..... 12. Photo br O"'IlIcC.....,. Amateurs This is a personal opinion on the intrusion of professionalism into the amateur sport of motorcycle road racing. Case in poim being Dave Emde on the Kosman Special. Whal's a professional rider on a professionally buill motorcycle doing blowing the doors off of a group of amateur road racers? I don't think it makes any sense to have pros and non-pros in the same race. Keep amateur mOLOrcycle ra ing for the amaleur. If you don't, soon you will have riders being paid for these weekend amateur events, along with swarms of mechanics hovering around their amateur motorcycles. PAUL HANNAN Hayward, CA Riders paid for weekend amateur events7 The only two men paid to compete in American pfofessional road races are Mike Baldwin and Fred Merkel. And what about "professionals" like Rich Oliver7 He works to pay for his racing, buys his own parts, wrenches his own bike. Emde7 He missed the California Superbike School Challenge Race at Riverside because he didn't have the $88 needed to buy a 1984 AMA Expert license. How do you define a professional7 Who are you to say who can andean't raee7 Emde has an AFM license, he slarted with AFM, he's entitled to race AFM.. _Editor. Good thinking Honda has the right idea by having its dirt lrack team compele on road racers in the AMA Grand National Championship Series. By doing this, Honda has returned LO the way the championship was, and is suppose to be won - by riding in several types of races, not just three or four types of dirt trade What the AMA should do is pay championship points to the Superbike class. not the F I. More riders and sponsors would be able LO find reason to support this class. Kawasaki, Har- . ley-Davidson and Yamaha, 10 menlion a few, could race whallhey sell, and aftermarkel companies could help take lhe bite Out of lhe cost LO race. The FI class COSlS too mucli and serves little purpose. Let's give the mOLOrcycle racing back to the mOLOrcycle industry. Without their support, racing mOLOr· cycles (olher lhan moLOcross) is doomed. Just look at the number of good road racers and fans turning out for events other lhan DayLOna and Laguna Seca. You, the racer, had belter be in it for the fun, because lhere isn'l much of a living in it. G.K. SCOTT Newbury Park, CA Suing Husqvarna I am writing LO let Cycle News readers know the outcome of my lawsuit against Husky for selling an untested proLOlype motorcycle with multiple severe catastrophic defects under the gui~e of a regular produclion one. I won! I sued them in lhe West Orange County Municipal Court, Small Claims Division, for lhe maximum amount of 1500. case #SCI77305, claiming aaual cash losses of over $2400 in addilion LO lhe cost of the motorcycle. I appeared in court againsl Mark Blackwell, (represeming Husky). on May 8. On May 9, I was awarded $800 of lhe claim, plus 20 cOUr! costs. Thank you very much 10 lhe many people who wrote and called Wilh information about the problems with their bikes, and with encouragement. Let me re-c1arify a couple of points in closing. First, r probably would not have sued Husky if their customer service attitude had not been so arrogant, and if they had made a reasonable effort to find the source of my problems and correct it. They originally promised me a fix by the first of January. They managed LO prolong it·until the middle of May. Second. Dick West is probably the OK. I'm fed up wilh all this dialogue about how Eddie Lawson can't ride with the likes of Freddie Spencer or Kenny Roberts. Let's forgel the limes that Lawson beal Spencer on Superbikes and 25Os, and vice versa. Look at DayLOna these pasl few years. In 1982 Lawson led much of lhe race on lhe uncompetilive KR500 before lhe transmission broke. He ran lap for lap with Roberts in '83. and who's to say thai he wouldn't have beat KR, but for a punctured rear tire? As for '84, after one tire change apiece. Lawson led Spencer handily. In the GPs. Lawson had his learning year, just as Spencer did in '82. After running head to head twice this season, the score is even. Will Spencer close a large early-season points gap, as Roberts did last year? ow for the poim. To infer that any of these riders is less than equal to the others (and let' not forget Randy Mamola) in abilily, skill. determination and courage, is absurd. ROLLIN LOFDAHL Woodland Hills, CA Don Emde on BSAs ·and Championships I'd like to pUI my two cents in on a couple of subjects thai were run recemly in Cycle News. On Alan Cathcart's sLOry on the BSA Triples, I agree with David Aldana that Alan has a few things mixed up. In 1971, Dick Mann rode the only new.frame model for the BSA Team. My bike was one of the machines from 1970 and was chassis #1. It was this bike, I was told by BSA, that Mike Hailwood rode at Daytona in 1970. I ran the bike prelty much the same in 1971, with the only modification being the switch toa disc front brake. This bike was very reliable and finished every road face event. I was able to finish third in the season road race poims behind Mann and Kel Carruthers with high finishes at DayLOna, Talladega and Kent, WashingIon. After 1971, the bike was sold to Mike Ninci, who finished eighth with it in Daytona. I'm not sure what happened to the bike I rode. but I believe that the bike Cathcart wrote about in his story is Aldana's bike. As David stated in his column, many pans could be intermixed at BSA and parts stamped with "MK" .initials could have come off my bike. Mack Kambayashi was my mechanic that year but he helped out on other bikes at the factory I'm sure. Whatever the case, the article was (Continued to page 14)