Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Wind (Continued from page 2) ies or the Honda Hurricane Series. but will concentrate on the 250cc road race class beginning with the first event at Daytona on March 7. Three-time BatLle of The Twins (now Pro Twins) champ Jimmy Adamo will celebrate his 30th birthday at Daytona this year. If you see Adamo around the Speedway on Monday, March 2, say, "Happy Birthday'" Also celebrating his birthday at Daytona on March 2 will be road racer Doug Brauneck. Brauneck, who in the past has campaigned his own Formula One machine and a Formula Two bike owned by AMA Chairman John Hasty, will be eating birthday cake for the 22nd time. Purses at AMA National Champion· ship races contributed over two million dollars ($2,017,820) to riders' wallets in 1986. Dirt track racing led the list ($757,000) ahead of road racing ($686,000), supercross ($354,820) and motocross ($220,000). AMA pro racers were awarded nearly a half million dollars ($486,862) in point fund money last year. This included sponsored point funds from Camel ($275,000 - dirt track and road race), Nippondenso ($100,000 - 250cc Supercross) and Castrol.($16,600 - 125cc Supercross). The balance came from AMA point funds which are accumulated during the season based on the number of entries at the events. The AMA programs were for dirt track Regionals ($32,600), dirt track Nationals ($35,603) and road race Nationals ($27,262). For 1987, theAMApoint fund figures will be substantially higher because of Camel's increase to $475,000 in its program. Castrol will award $40,000 in the 250cc Grand Prix (formerly Formula Two) road racing series, and AMA's newest road race class, ee WRITER How helmet laws set back safety While Assembly Bill 36 wends its way through the California legislature, we have a little time to reflect on what its passage would mean, in real life, to the continuing cause of motorcycle safety. We have seen the pattern repeated in 30 states. Helmet laws that were passed in haste were repealed or modified later. But the setback to the cause of voluntary helmet use may be long-lastirig in some of those states. Once you have been freed of a bad law, you are not so eager to adopt its symbol as your personal choice. In many states, the rePeal of the hat law for adult motorcyclists was celebrated by widespread trashing of t)1eir helmets and going for a wind-in-thehair ride. The results were predicta· Supersports, has picked up a $10,000 point funp sponsorship from EBC Brakes. Nippondenso has bowed out of the Supercross scene, claiming that the dollar/yen situation has caused them to in.stitute budget cutbacks. Taking up some of the slack caused by Nippondenso's withdrawal is the news that AMA supercross promoters have negotiated a $20,000 point fund with Coors beer that will pay winners of qualifying heats at selected supercross events. Also, RK Chai n .has offered a con ti ngency program for motocross and supercross that guarantees a minimum payout of $25,000. In 1986, a total of $286,975 was posted in AMA dirt track and road race contingency programs. By season's end, $112,754had been paid out to riders with Formula One champ Randy Renfrow taking home the most money, $12,600. The '87 contingency postings are up a total of 15 percent to $337,525. Of that, $174,075 is offered in road racing, with $163,450 up for grabs in Expert and Junior class dirt track events. Add Road Atlanta to Laguna Seca Raceway as a possible site for a 1987 round of the World Championship Road Race Series. A West German has reportedly applied for a sanction from the FIM to conduct a U.S. Grand Prix at the Georgia facility next year. The FIM is meeting this week in Europe and insiders say that Laguna Seca will most probably get the nod for the Grand Prix. Team Yamaha's Broc Glover was taken to a Miami hospital following a first-turn crash at the Orange .Bowl Supercross, February 22. According to a Yamaha spokestnan. Glover suffered a couple of cracked ribs and is expected to compete at the opening round of the AMA National Championship 250cc MX Series in Gainesville, Florida, March 1. Northern California's ScOtt Gray will race a Yoshimura/Motul-sponsored Suzuki GSXR in the 1987 Formula ble: Accidents and injuries oared for a while. As the euphoria subsided, bikers gradually began wearing their helmets again, this time by choice, and the statistics improved. I lived in several states that had helmet laws. More times than I like to remember, my helmet has been ripped off in those states. They cu t the strap right off the holder, because all the thief thought he needed was something that looked like a helmet, not one that worked. The first time this happened, I came to theairponparking lot after a short flight to dis over just a D-ring in the helmet holder on my bike. This was weird. Nobody ever stole the seatbelt out of my car. Now what? I couldn't legally ride home bareheaded. After all my advocacy of voluntary helmet wearing, I'{! hate to be caught dead without one. Fortunately I made it home without accident and the ticket was dismissed in court. Have you ever wondered why states with helmet laws have a higher rate of death per accident? Maybe it is because the bikers wear cheap or defective helmets. I hope no~ody got in an accident wearing my ripped-off helmet. A helmet without the strap securely fastened is worse than none at all. Those of us who always wear a helmet when the motor's running might think we wouldn't be affected too much by making it the law of the USA Road Race Series at Rosamond, California's Willow Springs International Raceway. The six-round series gets underway April 4-5. Yamaha will be offering over 100,000 prizes during the Yamaha FreeWheelin' FunStakes that start on February 25 with the Grand Prize winner taking home a Yamaha FlR1000 and a Toyota truck. Sweepstake forms and scratch cards may be obtained at the Great American Motorcycle and ATV show in Atlanta and during Daytona's Cycle Week. AMA Government Relations Department staff member Roy Janson met with Assemblyman Richard Katz last month to voice opposition to Assembly Bill 36, California's mandatory helmet initiative. The bill was pre· filed by Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Gardena) and will be heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee, of which Katz is' chairman, in the next few weeks. Janson emphasized during the meeting that while the AMA and its members stress the importance of wearing helmets~ they are opposed to mandatory helmet laws. The AMA has done a major mailing to its road riding members in California and is urging all riders to contact their assembly and state senators to show their opposition to this legis· lation. Scott Parker, who finished second in the '86 Camel'Pro Series, will take to the high banks of Daytona International Speedway next week. The Team Harley-Davidson rider will compete in the Pro Twins Road Race on Friday, March 6, aboard either Harley's famed Lucifer's Hammer or a Harleypowered Buell. The two bikes are going to be ridden by Parker and defending Pro Twins champ Gene Church. The decision hasn't been made which rider will be on which bike. If you see a new black Ferrari Mondial cruising around Shreveport, Louisiana, look at the driver. The proud owner is probably Freddie Spencer.. land. But I think even our thin margin of safety is eroded a little bi t by the illusion, on the part of some car drivers, that they can bump us and they won't have a death on their conscience. There are no studies to back up this opinion of mine, but I have noticed that the drivers in states that have helmet laws cut me less slack in traffic. Am I being paranoid, or are they really out to get me? If I am paranoid, who needs more paranoia? ow if California, which has the largest population of voluntarily helmeted motorcyclists in the states, enacts a helmet law, will the bikers who formerly chose to go bareheaded run out and buy the best helmet they can afford and wear it properly? Or will LIley follow the letter of the law without acknowledging the spirit, as bikers in other states have done, and wear the cheapest, stupidest hats they can find to keep the police off their case? One of my riding buddies is a college student who needs both a helmet and a new rear tire. He cannOl afford both at this time. Which would improve his chances more? If he asked me, I would advise buying a used tire with some tread and a chmp helmet. But if he chooses to buy a new tire first and a good helmet when he can, I would have'to say his priorities were okay. After all, itisstill a free country. Chuck Clayton Bikes banned; Join the Sierra Club The two riders were cruising along the same trail they'd used many times in the past. Nothing new; no signs posted against riding, no other people. Suddenly, • rangers dressed in camouflage gear jumped out of the bush and nabbed the riders. "You're bustedl" said a ranger. Arguments about what they'd done wrong and an absence of any posting of the off limits area didn't prevai'l. Both riders were handed tickets and $50 fines. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, other riders were having their bikes seized and receiving citations also. In California alone, thousands' of miles of roads and trails have been and are being closed. And it looks like nothing much can ebb the tide of land closures to bikers. Today, in a lengthy discussion with a U.S. Forest Service Ranger (himself a biker), I was given the rea· sons why the land closures have gone virtually unchecked in recent years. , Organized pressure from the Sierra Club, Horseman's Association and other special interest groups. Lack of any organized resistance from biker associations who have any large memo bership or political clout. And no sizable amount oC letters to politicians or government agencies defending the rights of bikers. No support from the enthusiast magazines either. This is a real story. Happening today. But it's mountain bicycles getting the ax. Not dirt or street motorcycles. We are next on the agenda, however. In the case of mountain bikes (bicycles), they are being systematically banned from parks, forests and all wilderness areas across the country. Already, the entire Mammoth Mountain area has been closed to mountain bikes. It only took the environmentalists two years to shut down this superb riding region. Meanwhile;on the other side of the street, the Sierra Club is proudly thumping its chest about their ongoing victories over mountain bikes. It is they that wrote the 1964 Wilderness Act words on interpreting what can or cannot enter wilderness areas like forests and parks. Here's some excerpts from Southern Sierran. "The 1964 Wilderness Act calls for the exclusion of 'mechanized' vehicles from wilderness. A bicycle, though non-motorized, has a mechanical advantage (wheels and gears) and is therefore clearly covered in the exclusionary clause. The Sierra Club strongly supports the exclusion of bicycles from all state and (national) designated wilderness." And on the subject of all other public lands: "Sierra Club policy on mountain bike use ... recognizes that a quiet sightseeing or exercise experience is ... legitimate. However, the widespread use of strong-framed, heavy tired vehicles (mountain bikes) for a violent speed experience has resulted in a concerted effort to re(Continued to page 3.1)

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