Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Suzuki P R departments in the past about unrelated things and never received a response. I wonder if th ey will ign ore me o n th is very serious matt er also? I a m send ing copies of th is lett er to AMA a nd Tea m Green 's PR deptment. FRAN K S. FICK Snohomish, WA WEST ~ 00 ...... .... v .D 8 v u v o Reefer madness America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Sha ro n Clav ron . Publisher Mike- Klin gt"f,Comptrollt"T Skip Johnson . Associate Publ ishrr t Na tiona l SQ 1~s Ma"Q.~ " Caroli ne Oendrv. Execu tive Secretary 1o lht"Publish" Editorial John ( !I rkh . Editor Kit Pain u-r, ,'h.-oe-inll"Editur o Mall Paul H iJ~( 'nbt·r~ . A .~.\O( · ;n'f' Ed it or (:;, UT UIIU'l's , A . willlf' Ed itor u Advertising Terry P ratt Sa les Managn T im Ryo n , Salt'S Mana gt'T a Mark Thome. Sales M ana"," L inda Brown .-fdl,"lising Coo rdina tor Na ncy Wa ~I("II . Ad vertisin g t Eduoriat Assistant G,.phica and Production G in ger Devaul , Prod uction Maruzgt'T Malcolm Wilson . Graph ic Artist Mari on Hatashna, 1 'y~s,tt" Carolyn Branham. T yprsrttn DmQl5 G reene, Leb , T ech, Account ing /Date Processing Don na Bryan. Accounts Rect'iVGb~ Coordi nator C"t> va Repa ss, Assis tant . n(" Fra n Ham wey, Crt"dit Circulation Rhr ba Smith . Md nagn' Sarah Tay lor. Assistant Lyna Hood . Assistant Rebecca Braak , Assis tant Alma Angu iano. Assistan t Want Ads Candy Ha nd . 1V t A d Sales •• Service and Support Oris Aitch~. Reuptionist Leonard Herring, SirS West 220 1 Ch erry AV<.. Long Beach , CA ach 90806. P.O . Box 498. Long Be . CA 9OSOI ·M98 (2 ") 427·7433: LA. Lin. 636-8844. East 4190 Firat Ave.. Tucker, GA. 300tH, P.O . Box S05. Tucker, GA 30085-0805. (4M) 934·7850. Cycl. Nrw. /Wrsl (U SPS 141-340) is published w("('kl yexcep t the first and la sr week of the ca lenda r year for $25 PM' vear by Cycle New s. Inc.•2201 0lC'fT)' Avm u~. Long Bc.lCh. CA 90806. Second class postage pa id at Long llt- Kh . CA. o POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to Cycle N_s, P.O. 8011 498, Long Beech, CA 90801 -0498. Subscript ion roUC'S: O ne year, second class mail . $25: two years, seco nd class mail. 145; three years, second class. mail , $68; 2S weeks, $15. Foreign rates available o n req uest. Cyclr S cws welcomes u nschcited edi torial ma tttiOiI incl udi ng stories, cartoons, p hot os. etc, Suc h ma teria l, if published, becomes the exclusive propert y of Cycle' N~w s . Suc h accepted mat erial is su bject to revision as is necessary in the sole di scretion o f Cycle News. Unscliched mat erial wh ich i!io n OI usaf will be ret urned if accompanied by a S(' f l addressed sta mped envelope. All unsolicited ma teri al will be handled ....rith reasonable ca rr. however. C ycl r N ~w s ass u mes no responstbif uv for the sa frly . I0S5orda ma.~to such material . Reprin u ng in who le or pan only by permission of the publisher. AdwnisinR ra tes a nd ci rcula tio n info rma tio n w ill be scm u po n request. S« S.R .D .S. Copyright ® Cycle News, Inc. 1985. Trademark Cycle News registered U.S. Patent Office. All rights reserved. ON THE FRONT PAGE: The contenders are the Honda CR 500R, the Kawasaki KX500B2 and the Yamaha YZ490S for t he 1 8 9 6 big -bore MX showdown. The battle begins on p age 10..Photo by Kit Palmer. 4 Supercross Disgusted with Lechien I am a long-time supercross fan a nd motocross racer and I think supercross is a great sport and it deservesa lot of recognition but doesn 't get it. It doesn 't get it because the news media outside the motorcycle industry does n 't take it seriously as a sport. Why should they? The ads run on TV and on the radio for the November 9 supercross were a joke. The announcer so u nded like something out of the Exorci st, and the constant heavy metal music in the background made it sound crazed. The racing footage was the same stuff we'd seen for a couple o f years highli g hti ng mostl y cras hes. This is the same a n nou nc er who does the mud bogs a nd tractor pulls. I think a lo t o f peop le put supercross in the same league as m ud bogs and track p ulls a nyway a nd I don 't think having the same type o f ad helps su pe rcross as a sport a t all. So methi ng else that hurts supercross is that every rider in the top 20 seems to get a nickname that sticks fo r the rest of his career. The top 20 European riders don't have nicknames but I'm sure Larry Huffman is working o n th e list. Larry is a good anno u ncer and has done a lot for the sport bu t he doesn't need to giv e every rider a nickname. I didn't go to the Rodi l Cup race at the Coliseum because of a couple of bad experiences I had at the Superbowl o f Motocross and the supercross finals earlier this year . They both involved people who took too many drugs or drank too much beer. I took two people who have never been to a supercross and I don 't think th ey will want to go to another one. This is the first supercross I've missed this year an d I think it's a shame. . Supercrossshouid bea major sport in the Uni ted States but instead it's so mething that blows into town a couple of times a year, gets a little attention and fades away u nt il nex t year. The only people who can change this is Pace Management, the promoter. I hope on e da y su percross will su rvive as a sport a nd not a spectacle. FRANK HART SELL Temecu la, CA Being a Kawasaki dealer that is al so a part of Team Green, I am ver y concerned and depressed over Kawa saki failing to respond to the Ron I...echien drug abuse incident by cancelling his contract. I am a Team Green deal er and know for sure the y ha ve a drug abuse clause in their contracts. I am ashamed for Kawasaki and the sport of motocross over this incident. Kawasaki a nd Ron I...echien must think they a re above the ru les governing drug abuse. I. for one, think Kawasaki's decision to keep I...echien on co ntract stin ks. I do ubt this will ever see print , but I feel better for writing. CO R KY N IDAY Parso ns, KS Drug concern I am a lso concerned about Ro n Lechien's/Tearn Honda, and now Team Green's, nonchalant attitude towards the use of drugs (pot) by th eir former and present team member. I am also alarmed that th e AMA and other pro rid ers hav e not spoken out on this serio us matter. In a time when the sport is struggling with its public image, outside sponsorship, spectator su pport, and National/Supercross formats, I would think that the use of drugs by the riders (with no objection voiced by anyone) would just be another "Thorn in th e MX Paw." While discussing th e R.L. bu st with Local Pros a nd Amateurs the feeling seemed to be " Ro n Lechien 's o ne of th e fastest racers in the world, pe rhaps the pot is doing him good rather than bad ." I a m the father of two MX racers ( IOan d 14 years old) who look up to the Ron Lech iens o f MX as ro le models. I al so use th ese to p sta rs and athletes as examples to my boys in our training, p ractice, and dedication for the ir MX future. Not onl y ha s Ro n been a hypocrite to himself but he ha s mad e my teach in gs h ypocriti cal. I feel more MX people need to speak out now a bo u t this problem. I have wr itten to the Kawasaki and Rega rd ing th e Lechien affair; as a Dutch citizen I'v e been expos ed to virtua lly legal ca na bis products all my li fe. T o dat e, like NAT O all y Spain , they a re over the cou nte r legal. We (H o lla nd) have a viol ent crime rate less than one percent of that of the U.S . Most of our "pothea ds" are literate in German, French, English and Du tch . I could go on with our educational standards etc., but th e point has been made; pot is far from th e evi l Ed Meese co ntends. " Boogey ma n " drug law s tend to : be ineffective, make crimi nal s of non -cri mi na ls, and be very expensive (dru g en forcement is self-promoting too). Ro le models, what ever they are" a re associated with sports people. But why shou ld these fo lks be hel d to a high er standard th an President ial appointees? Ra y Do novan - in dicted, Rita LaVell e, Ann Bu rford - con victed , j am es Allen, j a mes Watt resign ed under a cloud and many more like Ed " Sweethea rt " Meese himself . I di scourage pot use, but contend alcohol a nd tobacco are far and awa y the most distructive and addictive su bstances of them all. I am enco uraged Am ericans are again ahead of we Europeans in beginning to realize this. Remem ber when the Ara bs fig u red out the earth was ro und, hundreds of yea rs before the Europeans, it was alcohol that was for bidden , no t hemp . Muhammed Ali an d Lenny Bruce both di d things th e authorities did n 't like. Bo th were impeded from perform ing. Now years la ter wha t purpose did it serve? Ron broke no U.S. law and I feel the j apanese are going to su rvive. I therefore urge Kawasaki to keep hi m raci ng. Regarding yo ur p ubl ish ing of a na meless letter (November 27, 1985); exce ptionally poo r jo urnalistic practice. or co urse if I had written that drivel I wo uldn't have wanted my name by it either. Ron is a danger to his competitors though, he beats them. Ora nge County? Give me a brea kl JOSS VAN DER MEER San ta Monica, CA T his new spaper does not publish letters from anon ymous sources; letter wr iters who sign their letters and p rovide th eir cor rect address and p hone number may req uest that their name be witheld if the letter is p ublished, but must state some compelling reason for such spec ial considerat ion .. . Editor. Champions, rookies and drugs First of all, I ca n' t believe the American Mot orcyclist Association wo uld praise just half o f the Rookies of the Year. Pictu res of j eff Ward, Ron Lechien a nd Broc G lover are fine , bu t what a bo ut the I 25cc class of Bill y Fra nks , Scooter Stafford a nd Kevin Fo ley? No pictures of th ese th ree, just the top three. Especially Ro n Lechien , he needs to hold his hand up but sh ou ld keep his hea d down for h is habits. I'm su re these other three should have been pictured also , but I guess

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