Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

America 's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXV Sharon Clayton. Publisher Mike Klinger ,Comptroller . Skip Johnson. A.ssociatePublishe-r/ National Sales ManagtT Jade. Man~s l Associate Publisher/ Editor Rheba Smith, CiTCulation Manager Caroline Oeadrv . Execut ive St!cutary to the Publisher Editorial Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Paul Carruthers. Associa te' Edi tor Nate Rauba, Associate Editor Brian Catter son, A ssociate Editor T yron e Van Hooydonk, Assistant Editor Edwina Mangus, Cal~daT Edit or Advertising Mike: Church. Sen io r S ales Manage-r T erry Pratt Senior Sales ManageT Mark Thom e. Westnn Sale s Mana ger Don Stoebe r, Westnn Sales Mana ger Mark Mitchell , Eastern Sales ManagtT Thom as R. C orner, East ern Sales Matu2gtT Debbie Winkler , Wt!stnn Ad Coo rdi nato r Car la Borden. Eastern Ad Coordinato r I1.l Izaquirre, A duertising A ssistant Y Graphics and Production Mal colm W ilson.Product ion ManagN Denni s Greene, La b. T u n. Dian a H il genber g , Grap hic ArtlSt Stacey Gu est, G rap hic Artist J immie O'Dell. Grap hic Artist Mand y 1..00, Gra phic Art ist Marion H ata sh ita , T vp eseu er Caroly n Branh am , T ypesetter Accoun ting/Data Processing Donna Bryan . Accts R eceivable Coo rdinator Geneva Repa ss, Assistant Fran Hamw ey, Cud;t Circulation Sarah T aylor . Assistant Alma Anguiano , Assistant Ch eri Chapman. Assi stant Mari ta Adams, Assistant Herlan e Richmond . Assistant Circulation Development Ron Davidson . Manager' Want Ads Joan Ru ssian . Want Ad Sale s Serv ice and Support Ch ris Aitcheson . Headquarter's R ecept ion ist Leonard Herring. Service and Support National Headquarters 220 I Ch erry Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach. CA 90801 -0498 (2 13) 427-7433; 213/636-8844. FAX (2 13) 427-6685 Eastern Office 4190 First Ave.. Tucker. GA, 30084; mailing address P.O . Box 805. Tucker, GA 300850805. (404) 934-7850. FAX (404) 934-3112 Cycle New, (USPS 141-340 ) is published weekly excep t the first and last week of the calendar year [or $32.50 per year b y Cycle News. Inc. , 2201 Ch erry Avenu e, Long Beach, CA 90806. Second class pos tage ~id 3 1 Lo ng Beach , CA. and additio nal mailing o ffices, POSTMASTER : Send fo rm 3 579 t o Cy<:le New•• P.O . Box 498. Long Beech. CA 90801-0498. To determin e the ex pi ratio n date of your subscription.. check the four numbers on the f irst lin e of your address label. Th e fint two digits indicat e th e last issue number you ' ll receive and the last two characters indicat e the year of the last iss ue . Sub scription rates: On e year, second class mail. $32.50. Cycle News welcomes unsolicited editori al material including stories, cartoo ns. ph otos. etc, Such material . ifrublished, becomes the exclu sive pro~ty 0 Cycle News. Such accepted material is subject to revision as is necessary in the sole discr etion of Cycle News. Unsolicited material which is not used will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed stamped envelope. All un solicited material will be handled with reasonable care. how ever. Cycle News assu mes no respo ns ibi lity for th e safety, loss or damage to such material. Reprinting in whole or part on ly by permission o f the pub lisher. Adverrising rates and circulati on infonna. w i ll be sent upon requ est. See S.R.D .S. 8PA Consumer Audit D ivision Member- s hip Applied For. Copyright" Cycle News. Inc. 19 8 8 . Trade-marte. Cycle News reg istered U .S . 4 Petent Office. All rights reserved. Good image Three cheers for Honda's recent ads in Peop le magazine. They featured real mo torcyclists who just happen to be everyday people. Yamaha, Suzuki , Kawasaki, and even Harley-Davidson cou ld learn something from these ads. Forget the lea th er clad macho mage and emphasize the fun that motorcycling vide to almost ' anyone. T he can p roof motorcycles image in the public eye is not good and sometimes it looks as if the industry doesn' t ca re, b ut maybe that is changing just a little. It seems that Honda has realized tha t broader appeal just may translate into more sa les. A pos itive image will sell more motorcycles than all the ho rsepo wer in the universe. I hope I ca n look forward ' to more positive ads from Honda and some healthy competition from the other manufacturers. BUTCH HUSKEY Green Cove Springs, FL Arrivederci The time has arrived for us to return to Italy and be home again. After four years in the United States, we look forward to this moment with" a combination of happin ess and sadness - happiness as we return to our real home, and sadness because we will be leaving behind all the friends we have met here. It is very difficult for us to find th e right words to thank a ll of you for the support and help you have given us in the last four years , but we do thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have all made our stay in your co untry very wonderfu l. We wish to th ank a ll of the Cagi va North America a nd Husqv arna employees who he lped to make Cagiva a rea lity, a nd a ll the Cagiva North America dealers for their support and belief in Cagiva. We thank all of the motorcycle press for supporting our product and all the American motorcycling publi c for recognizing Italian motorcycles. Best wishes and warm thanks to all of yo u. Ciao! DAN IELA AND ALBE RTO CARNELL! Cagiva North America, Inc. Gardena, CA What's going on? Can you guys shed any light on just what is going on at Cagiva North America? I just read in today's Cycle Netas that they had three more people resign. I had spoken with the same th ree at Daytona in the last several years and all were enthusi astic a bou t the product (Cagi va motorcycles) and the merger of Cagiva and H usq varna. My local dea ler was originally a Husqvarnadealer and jumped on the Cagiva p rogram when it became available. After two years of problems of a ll sorts, the dealer called Cagiva and rel inquished the fran chise. This had happened quite a bit as I understand. How can a company with a fantastic product, many talented employees and a very enthu- siastic dealer network continue to ,provide mediocre service? Did Cagiva intend to lose most of their enduro team and the National enduro title? I have been an active supporter of the Cagiva/Husqvarna product for many years, but after the horror stories from my dea ler and the Cagiva doubletalk, I'm switching . camps. Sorry guys, it rea lly does h u rt me more th an it hurts you. I feel like I've lost a member of my fami ly. And in thi s sport isn't that what it's all about? BILL RA YMOND O rl ando, FL According to Eric Lehmann, the new Director of Service Opet tions of Cagiva N orth America, Cagiva is in the midst of a " big reorganizat ion of th e w ho le com pany . The previous managem en t had a contract wh ich recently expired, and a new crew isgoing to take over," said L ehmann. L ehmann ex pects th e com p lete reorgan izatio n to be com p leted in approxi_mately three m onths . . . Editor. It's not over yet Who wou ld have gu ess ed the future of our sport after reading the double whammy headlines in Cycle News, June I? There, in one inch letters, all motorcyclists were told: " Wilson set to sell out oil S7" and " Ca lifornia Senate approves Helmet Bil l." Most of us would have just give n up and take n u p hiking, bu t due to the feverish efforts of concerned enthusiasts, Governor Deukmejian vetoed the H elmet Bill and just last week Senator Pete Wi lson to ld Senator Alan Cranston, " no way on S7l" Both of th ese pieces of legi slation will undoubtedly retu rn, however, for now we have wo n! We wo n o ur helmet freedom because these concerned people flew, drove, and rode to the capi tol to pro test. We wo n th e desert battle because those same dedicated people took ti me out o f their personal lives and hosted Pete Wilson on a n information- tour through the desert. Whe n Senator Wi lson saw that the Sierra Cl u b ha d lied about access and generally lied about the economic tragedies of S7, he beca me vis ibly changed. Pete Wilson is standing up for our rights to have vehicular access to the desert, This decision was no t popular with the Sierra Club , in fact the day after Wilson and Cranston met, the Sierra Club endorsed Leo McCarthy, who is a nd will be an Ala n Cranston clone. O ur vehicu lar recr ea tio n co mmunity screwed up big ti me in 1986 by letting Ala n Crans ton back in off ice to do his dirty work. Cou ld we have made a difference? You bet! Cranston 's oppone nt Ed Zcha u lost by a mere 150,000 vo tes. Tha t m ight sou nd like a lot of votes until you rea li ze there are three million motorcyclist in California. If only 5% of those riders had voted against Cranston, we would n 't have to deal with · S7 at a ll. In November the choice is clear! McCarthy was part of the State Assembly that allowed Governor Bro wn to ri p off our off-road veh icle fund, which by the way has still not been re turned. McCarthy has a very poor rati ng in th e business comm unity as a consistent a nti-business vote while in the assembly. If elected to the Senate, McCarthy will continue his 'a nti-b usiness, anti-motorcyclist stance. The bottom li ne is th at McCarthy is merely a young Alan Cranstonl If elected McCarthy will have six years and Cranston will have four years left to find new innovative ways to restri ct our freedom. I call on a ll motorcyclists whe ther you ride stree t, dirt or race courses to join me in ca lling Wi lson 's campaign office a t 213/785-0577. To preserve m y future freedom, I'm going to register voters, wa lk precincts a nd hel p ou t financially, how abo ut you? MIKE BISHOP Santa Barbara, CA Not happy We, the members of Anderson R acing En d ura nce T ea m , a re ex tremely disappointed wi th th e treament we received at the 6-Hour Regiona l Endurance Race and open p rac tice hosted by WMRRA on June 11-12. Firs t we paid $75 for Saturday practice that was schedu led from 9 a.rn. to 5 p.m. By the ti me they procured an a m bu lance to start wi th, it was 10:45 a.rn. , so there went the first two hours of practice. Then the y started giving us 20- 30 minute sessions of practice foll ow ed by 3040 minutes of New Riders School. I realize that you hav e to make ends m eet on a rac e weekend, but when vou attend a n endu ra nce rac e, and pa y for open practi ce, you expect more than two-and-a-half hours of track time for you and your team to learn a track that none of you have ever seen before. Not only did the practice start late, it ended at 4 p.rn., one full hour before the advertised close of practice. Things went from bad to worse when one of WM R RA's workers controling the pits quit in th e midd le of practice. T hen, whi le loadi ng u p after p ractice, we were informed that th e " team o f three riders in the next p it were entered in Sunday's race with o nly o ne rider act ually hol ding a val id road racing license. T h is did no t make us co nfi den t or comfortable wi th th e orga n izat ion, 'yet we felt that since th is was a WE RA -sanctioned club, the re wo u ld be a better crew on ha nd to run Su nday's race . This was not the case. P ractice was shortened to just 25 mi n utes, several local ' ru les were broken and protests were not a llowed in scoring. In comparison with a ll the other races and race organizations we have been a part of , this was defi nitely the worst overall event we've ever seen . In 10 years of racing with SN R R, PRR O , CCS, AFM , AMA a nd WERA, we have never seen an event handled so badly by the race officials or the blatant favoritism shown the loca l racer s who hol d positions with WMRRA , by th e rest of the off icials. This -was th e last time we will ever drive 1500 miles from Phoenix to race a WE RA-sanctioned eve n t hosted by another club. T HE AN DE RS ON RACING TEAM Phoen ix , AZ Published letters do ' not necessarily reflect the position of • Cycle News. Inc. Letters are subject to condensation due to space limitations. Anonymous letters will not be published. Send letter to Voices. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CJ. 90B01 -0498.

• Cover