Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Frances Shriver of Phillip sburg , New Jersey won a last -m in ut e Christmas shopping spree from Yamaha Motors Corp. U .S .A. in a nationwide contest drawing; ent ries were available at about 1500 Yamaha dealerships nationwide. Accompanying Shriver on her flight t? Los Angeles for a private shopping tour of Neima n-Marcus were her husband, Tom, and Yamaha dealer Steve Rohs and his wife Helen of Rohs Sa les and Service in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Shriver deposited her w in ning entry form . Un ited Auto Work ers o fficia ls ha ve filed a seri es of cl aim s o f a nt i-u n io n beh avior against Ka wa sak i Mo tor s Manufacturin g Corp. USA. T he action is th e first use o f wh at so me see as a new tool for labor organ izing agai nst multi-na tiona l firm s. Th e UAW has fail ed to o rga n ize em p loyees at Kaw asaki's Nebrask a pl ant in two el ection s. Another electio n was ca nceled over a year ago . T he UAW o fficia ls have cha rged Kaw asak i with a nti union ac tio ns , includ in g a th reat that th e Nebraska pl ant wo u ld be closed if em p lo yees voted to organ ize. Kaw asaki plant manager Sta n H anson has deni ed th e a llega tio n. Canadian Alan Labrosse, a Formula Two Championship Series road racer. is moving up to Form ul a One for the coming season. labrosse w ill debut h is newlyacquired Honda RS500 at Daytona. T h is year 's Ca me l Pro Series p oint fund will rema in a t $ 175,000, th e sa me as th e 1984 p ayoff. Th ere a re no cha nges in th e wa y th e fund is to be distributed. A $35,000 payout a t the end o f th e first half o f th e season wi ll go to th e top 10 rid ers in th e AMA Grand Nati onal C ha m p io ns h ip Ser ies point sta nd ings at th at tim e. At th e end of th e seaso n , $115,000 wi ll be distributed am on g th e top 15 in th e fin al p oint sta ndi ngs . In add itio n, $25,000 will be d ivided a mong the top five in points in th e Formula One Road Race Series. MISSING: Tiani Imports' phone number in an ad featuring Tr im Products in issue #50. You can contact t he Warrensburg, N ew York, f irm by dia li ng /pushing bu ttons 518 /623-3757. . CRC wiII ho ld its annua l Club Challen ge a t it s February 10 Candy Ass Family Enduro; 12-man club teams are eligible wi th th e best eight scores counting for th e club title and a sixfoot-tall trophy . Entry inform at ion is available from C RC a t 714/689-6114. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation has announced that nominations are now open for its 1984 Awards Program. which honors indi v iduals who have made outstanding con tributions toward improved motorcycle safety in 1984. More inf ormation is. available f rom MSF at P.O . Box 5044, Costa Mesa, CA 92628. Carlisle will be th e on ly tire supplier for Camel P ro Seri es Dirt Track Nationals in 1984. At pr esent, Ca rlisle will provide on ly one approv ed tir e for th e front and o ne for th e rear. R iders may al so choose to use a ny D.O .T. ap p ro ved tir e as so me ri de rs, n otabl y Ted Boody, did la st year. T he AMA has requested Carlisle add a seco nd com po u nd for rear tir es. " We would like to have a second, harder co m pou nd for the rear," said AMA 's Bill Bo yce. " H owever, we don 't ant icipa te any trouble with th e o ne th ey a re manufacturing now un less we run into so me very, very hot weather a nd overly abrasive track conditions." Rider pre-entry forthe February 8 -9 Houston TT and Short Track Na tionals is 85 for each event with the post-entries expected to swell the ranks to more than 10 0 for each race. The Junior Championship pre-entry topped out at 45 , the same as last year. Dropped from H onda 's MX team at th e end of '84 , Danny " Mag o o " Chandler appears headed for a rid e in the 500cc MX G Ps with backing from Kawasaki in Great Britain. If that happens, Chandler wiII be a teammate of Georges Jobe and Laurence Spence. Team Honda has been selling off some of their production road racers from the 1984 season with the latest sale made to Mike Elmore of Indianapolis. Elmore plans to ri de the RS500 in Formula One Nationals in '85 . with backing from Greenwood Honda in Greenwood. Indiana. " P lan n ing is in progress to put together a t least a three-event ISDE Qua lifi er Seri es," said AMA's Hugh Fleming. " We discussed using th e Nati onal Championship Enduro a nd Hare Scrambles Seri es as a selec tion process, but th at plan met with a lot of op positio n so we went back an d beg an tal king to clubs abo u t hosting two day qualifi ers." As it stan ds n ow, the only firm date is a June 8-9 event a t Rose C ity, Michigan . Look for Honda's GP motocross team - Andre Malherbe, Dave Thorpe and Eric Geboers - t o be in the U.S . in February. The trio will be in California for testing sessions with the works machines they'll ride in the 1985 500cc GP wars. The bikes are expected to have only minor changes over the bikes used in '84. Team manager for the Europe-based squad will be American Steve Whitlock. Italian Corrado Maddii , who broke hi s leg in th e fin al rou nd o f th e I25cc World Championship MX Seri es and lost th e titl e to Mich elle Rinaldi, broke th e sa me leg again recent ly. Expected recovery time is six to eig h t weeks . Vehicl e routes in th e Yuha Desert Area of Im perial County, Ca lifornia have been closed until further notice. More in formation is availabl e from th e BLM at 714/ 351-6383. Yamaha 's Broc Glover. who won a pair of Supercrosses in Genoa, Italy, on December 2-3 , had in tended to wear his all -pink -riding outfit in the two race s, the same outfit he debuted at t he Los Angeles Supercross in November. His plan was foiled when all of his rid ing gear was stolen f ro m a rental car; Glover instead wore gear borrowed from Danny laPorte. The California Superbike School will offer an advanced-racer course with guest instructor Wes Cooley at Willow Springs Raceway on February 2. Inf orm ation is available from 213 /484-9323 . Int erna tio n a l track bui ld er? J ohn Sa vit ski, who builds most of th e Supercro ss tracks for P ace Managem ent promoted events here in th e U.S., a lso built th e tra ck for th e G en oa (Ital y) Su percross. Bernie Schreiber, the only American Observed Trials World Champion, will be moving to the Garelli camp for 1985 t o ride a bike powered by a Hiro engine. which Schreiber helped develop for Ga relli. He w ill be j oi ned by Danilo Ca liazzi. The Ita lian Factory is seek ing t o sign Thierry Michaud to the team also . Vance & H in es recentl y opened a retail hi gh -performance accessory and service sto re a t 14232 ·E. Imperial Highwa y in La Mirada, California. The new store, which Vance & Hines hopes will be the prototype for a franchised chai n , wiII be managed by ·Ron Foster, with 1984 MD RA and AMAIDragbike Pro Stock Champion Mark Sauro running the pa rts departmen t. The new store's phone n umber is 213/946-3459. Former AMA Grand National Champions Brad Andres (1955). Carroll Resweber (1958/1959/ 1960/1961). Bart Markel (1962/ 1965/1966). Roger Reiman (1 9 6 4 ) and Gary N ixon (1967/ 1968) have all committed to attending the Camel Pro Series TT and short track at the Houston _ Astrodome February 8 and 9 . More recent champions Gary Scott. Jay Springsteen, Steve Eklund. Randy Goss and Ricky Graham are all entered in both events; one of the f or m er champions will be selected as Grand Marshall for the events. If all 17 Grand National Champions make it to Houston, t heir combined National race wins will total 318 events. Former U. S. Sidecar road ra cing champ io ns Bru ce Lind a n d J ack Hart fini shed fourth overa ll in a seven ra ce ser ies in New Zea land recent lv. Lind/Hart fini sh ed third in th e first ra ce, didn 't pl ace in th e seco n d , took seco nd in th e third a nd fourt h races, didn 't pl ace in th e fifth , an d fin ished seco nd in th e six th and seventh races. Rei gnin g Au strali an Champion s Doug Chivas a nd h is girlfriend Margar et H all id ay won a ll seven rounds o n th eir TZ7 50-powered sidecar. • MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRYS CflANGE Released For h ome vid eo use, th e original " O n An y Su nday" movi e by Bru ce Brown, in VHS a n d Beta format s, by Monterey H ome Vid eo of Canoga Park, California: now ava ila ble th rough video out lets . Wadded A 1985 Virago 1000, by Motorcycli st Associ at e Editor a nd noted BoTT ro ad ra cer Brent Ross, in H ollywood, wh en a motorist turned left th rough traffic backed up at a stopligh t an d eme rged from between two ca rs into Ross' lane; Ross was unhurt. Named Art Director for Answ er Products a nd Silko lene L u br ica nts U.S.A.. Chris H at oun ian , well-known en th us ias t a nd mot o-cartoonist. Born Jean-Paul Petit . to Mot orcyclis t magazine sales rep Bob Petit a nd wif e J amie. o n December 26. Making motocross affordable By Joe Reed I began racing motocross a pproximately 10 years ago . In that time, a great man y things h ave improved on the bikes, including suspension, reduced weight, and wa ter coo ling; a ll of th ese have irnproved th eir abil ity to perform on racetracks tenfold. Along with th ese advances. however, have co me so me serio u s problems for th e beginning racer. I. Co st: Honestly, most entry-level co m pe tito rs a nd those with other fin ancial co m m itme nts a re having a very difficult time trying to come up with the $2000 -plus cost o f a cu rrent racebike . Around o ur loca l ar ea and th e su rroun ding ar eas I have vis ited , th e beginner cla sses (whe re most people truly get involved with our sport ), ha ve on ly a fraction o f the participation th ey once had . 2. Ma intenance: Besid es th e fun o f rid in g itself, a nothe r pa rt o f what m otocross has been abou t is h elping peop le learn mech anical ski lls . But now , man y o f th e technological ad van ces h ave brought so me ap p reh en sio n to in exper ien ced racer s to tak e ca re of. a n d learn a bo u t their motorcycles. Althou gh I do understand th at ha ving th e n ewest a nd la test technol ogy is wonderful, I think th e grassroots level o f our sport needs an alternative. In many ot he r forms of raci n g, th ere a re cla sses with ru les and eq u ipment designed around th e ent ry-level parti cipan t. It 's my feeling th at a class o f m ot orcycles designed with low cos t, and ease o f mai nt enance would be just as va lid a concept for motoc ro ss a t th e loca l level. Below I have listed so me o f m y idea s for motorcycles co m pe ting in suc h a class. Even with suc h rules, giv en th e original ity of th e differen t bike m anu facturers, every b rand would have its own unique personaliti es. I . Air cooling - less cos t. eas ier ma in tenance. 2. Wei ght lim its - pl aced hi gh eno ugh to elimi na te th e need for exo tic m etal s and fragile parts. 3. A m edium-di spla cem ent low eno ugh for sma lle r rid er s, yet enough to make raci ng fun for larger riders, say 200cc. 4. All steel fram e co m pone nts, elimin ating a luminum su b-fra mes a nd swi n ga rrns . 5. Drum brak es- allowing ea seof mainten ance and u se o f exis ti ng toolin g . My desires in writing this a re to get people to think a bo u t a n id ea that I believe would be a real asset a t th e entry level of our sport, possi b ly bringing back m an y racer s who h ave had to lea ve o u r sport due to hi gh cos ts. I bel ieve that if the peop le involved , from race rs to manufacturers to th e sa nc tion in g bodies. got together a n d d iscus sed thi s p roposal or one lik e it , motoc ro ss cou ld agai n become a n enjoyable an d affordable sp ort for everyo n e. • 3

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