Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Suspension by Jake America's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXV Sharon Clayton. Publ ish" Mikr Klinger.comp trolkT Skip Johnson. A.,ociate Publishrrt National Sal es Mana gnJack. Mangus. Associate Publ ishert Edi tor Rheba Smith. Ciuu la' ion Manager Caroline Genrlry, Execu tive Secutary to the Publ isher Editorial Kil Palmer, A ssocia te Ed itor Pau l C arruthers, Associate Editor Na te R.;1uba . Asso ciate Editor Brian 'Ca n erson , A ssociate Edi tor T yrone Van H oovdonk, Ass istant Editor Edwina Mang us, Calendar Editor Advertising Mike Church. Senior Sales Man agn T(1T)' P ratt Se nior Sales Man ager Mark Thome. Western Salt's Mana gn' Don Stoeber. West"" Salt's Ma ndg n ~f ark Mitchel l, Eastern Sales MarUJKn Thom as R. Co mer, Eastern Sales Ma PU1.Kt'T Debbie Winkl er. Western Ad Coordinator Carla Borden, Eastern Ad Coo rdina tor Graphics and Production Mal colm Wilson.PToduction Mdn dgM' Denn is Green e. Lab. T ech: Diana Hilgen berg, Graphit: Ar tist Stacry G uest. G rap hic ,frtist J im mie O'DeIl , Graphic Artist Man d y 1..00, Grap hi CA rtist Marion Ha tash ita . Tv peseuer Carolyn Branha m. T'Y~$e" t'1 Ari en ne T eli as. T yfJt'sd tn But where's my jersey? Well, if anyone o ut th ere had any q u es tions a bo ut w ho the b est U na di lla ride r o f all time was, th at question was answered o n july 24. No, I a m not talking abou t Rick j ohnson, wh o won overall, an d I a m not tryi ng to ta ke any thin g away fro m h is gr eat perform a nce. Wh a t I a m talking about here is a 31-yearold m an who has refused to give in to old age. I h ave been goi ng to U na d illa since 1973 a nd have seen many great riders co me a nd go, bu t Bob Hannah just keeps ha n ging on and on. I prob ably -won ' t ever .get to see h im fly arou nd th e U na dilla tra ck al?'lin , but I have p lenty o f good pi ctures .10 remind me o f th e thrills that H annah ha s given us. I spe n t two hours hanging around th e pi t gate just to get one last pi cture o f Bob, and he was good enough to ta ke th e time to a u tograp h eac h a nd every photo o f himself in m y p hoto al bu m! I kn ow there are ot her peop le all ove r America who feel the sa me as I do wh en I say th at U na d illa will never be the sam e. So , h ere's to you, Bob " Hurricane" H a n nah . Tha n ksl Accounting /Data Processing G REG G OSS 8 Alp ine St. Ren sselaer , N Y 12144 Donna Bryan. A eets Receivable Coo rdinator Geneva Repa ss, Assistant Fran Hamw ey, Cu di t Circulation Sarah Ta ylor. Assistant Alma Angu ian o. Assistant Cheri Chapman. Assi stant Marita Ada m s. Assistant Herlane Richmond . Assistant Carol Scan nell. Assistant Circulation Development P.S. Bob , thanks for sig n ing a ll th e pictures in m y photo a lbum a nd for th e goggl es, but you still owe me that raci n g Jerse y yo u promised m e a t Unadilla. You can send it to me. Ron Davidson. Man ageT Want Ad. Joan Russian. Wan t Ad Sales Service and Support Chri s Ahcheson. Headquarter s Reception ist Leo na rd H erring. Service and Su pport National Heedquarters 220 I Cherry Ave., Lo ng Beach, CA 90806, P.O . Box 498, Long Beach. CA 908O1.()498 (213) 427· 7433; 213/63&-8844. FAX (213) 427· 6685 Eestem Office . 4 190 Fir st Ave.• Tucker. C A. 30084; mailing ad dress P.O. Box 805, T ucker, G A 300850805. (404 ) 934·7850. FAX (404) 934·3 112 Cycle News (USPS 141-340) is pub lished weekly except the Iirst and last week o( the calendar year lor $32.50 per year by Cycle News. In c.• 2201 O1erry Aven ue. Lo ng Beach, CA 90806. Second class pos tage paid at Lon g Beach . CA. and additional mai fing Fast ball We were at a Dodger (baseball ) game a few weeks ba ck and Alan " lc habod Crane" Cranston was there with Mike Dukakis. We yelled at them to ban S7 and a number of others joined in. I'm sure i t impressed the potential president of d ie knowledge of the California voters. Vote for Pete Wilson ; Leo McCarthy is a junior Cranston. CHRIS VERHAEGH Canyon Country, CA offices. MX thoughts POSTMASTER ; S.nd form 3579 to Cycl. News. P.O. Bo" 498. Long 8eac:h. CA 90801 -0498. I thought I'd take a moment to address two situations that have been on my mind. The first is the current sta te of professional motocross, or rather , th e Improvement of it. Roy jansen , the new AMA Professional MX Manager , is doing one heck of a job. This isn' t just me talking; rid ers, team managers and promoters have been noticing and mentioning Roy' s creditable efforts. The other situation is th e noalcohol ruling at Unadilla. I just got back from the U.S. GP and the crowd just didn't produce the "T h ri lla" I'm used to seeing there. I'm not an advocate of drunkenness, or th e outhouse demolitions experts, but I would like to see th e Hill People ro ar, a nd some level o f pandemonium resume - it's just not Unadilla witho ut itl One possib le solu tion would be to retain th e n o alcohol thro u gh th e ga te rule, then sell beer on-site th ro ugh vendo rs. Former ISDE rider To d8tennine the expiration ate of your . subscription. check the four numben on the first lin. of your .dd.... label. Th. first two di9,its indicllt. the Iut i..... number you II receive .nd the Iut two cholr8Ct... indicate the year of the 1_ isoue. SubsaJption roues: O ne year , seco nd class mail. $32.50. Cycle News welcomes unsolicited edi torial ma terial including stories, cartoons, photos. etc. Such material, if p ublished . becomes the excl usive pro~rty of Cycle New s. Such ac cep ted ma terial is subject 10 revision as is necessary in the so le d.iscrc1.ion of Cycl e News. Unso licited material which is not used. wiJI be returned if accompa nied by a scI( . addressed stamped envelope . AU un solicited material will be ha ndled with reasonable ca re. however . Cycle News ass umes no responsi bili ty for the safety. loss or damage to such m.uerial. Reprinting in whole or part only by permission of the publisher. Advertisi ng rates an d circu lation in forma tion will ~ 5(' 0 1 upon req uest. See S.R.D.S. WBPA Copyright. Cycl. N.ws. Inc. 1988. Trade-mark Cycle News regist.red U.S . Patent Office. All rights reserved . 4 jack Penton m entioned this idea to m e at U nadi lla, an d I th ink it 'll work. Like j acki e said, yo u ca n refuse to serve those wh o are drunk, an d cu t o ff beer sales a t a n early hour in the even ing to restrain what would be tro ubleso me campers. Hey, promo ter War d Rob inson mi ght even land a major beer sponsor for th e event, as they wo u ld reap bi g sales as the excl us ive beer sold o n prem ises. TOM MUELLER Greensboro , NC Legislate good sense Th e (Ca li fo rn ia ) m andato r y motorcycle helmet law bill ha s come a nd go ne agai n, but not for long, I would think. Next year wi ll co me a no ther effort to enact such a b ill. I f not next yea r, ab solu tely for su re th e next ti me a Dem ocratic governor is in o ffice h ere in Ca lifornia. I was so surprised that Governor Deukmejian vetoed th e helmet bill I wrote h im a tha nk you letter . I incl uded a proposa l for an alternative bill. Somethi ng is goi ng to be done , perhaps we can in flu ence to so me ex tent what. Some will feel m y proposal is too ra dical, so me will say it isn ' t enough . . . so be it. Informed cho ice is what I a m talking abo u t. Yo ung or ine xperienced riders ha ve no time to learn th e basic ski lls of stree t surviva l if th ey begin riding wi th a bike that simply overwhelms th em. We must attempt to legislate " g o o d sen se " until i n d ivi d u a l in formed choice ca n be m ade. This will co me with riding experience and the in creased maturity that comes naturally with years . The most at risk are protected in a very practical way and freedom of choice is preserved when it has been earned. My proposed motorcycle bill: I) Motorcycle Safety Foundation training course (or similar) mandatory for Clas s 4 driver 's license. 2) Helmet req u ired for rider s under 21. 3) Horsepower limit by age or riding experience. For example: 16 to 18 years old or zero to two years experience, limited to 20 horsepower; 19 to 21 years old or three to four years experi en ce, limited to 40 horsepower ; over 21 years old or over four years experience, no limit. WESLEY SWIFT Newhall, CA After working with Showa's Racing Service for th e past seven years, it's time to go on my own, but not without saying thank you to: Showa Am erican, Showa japan, Honda Racing U.S.A., HRC in japan, and Honda R&D Am erica. Special thanks to: Mr. Kodaka of Showa Ameri can, Roger DeCoster. and Dav e Arnold of Honda Racing, Max Suzumoto of Honda R&D, Bob Nicelsen of Am eri can Honda, and all th e world class riders and technicians for their I ()()% effort. JAKE THOMPSON T orrance, CA .: Th ompson 'has opened his ow n . bus iness, Suspens ion by Jak e, 2909 Oregon Ct. C-3, Torran ce, CA 90503, 213/ 533-8122. '. ' Edi tor. Helping hands My husband and I belong to th e Mt. St. Hel ens M.e. , In c. We were recently th e ho st club for th e AMA You th/Amateu r Nation al D irt Track TT a nd Half Mil e. We want to ta ke this opportu n ity to .ex p ress o u r since re than ks and grati tude to th e Lodi (Californ ia) Cycle Club members wh o gave us suc h a boost p reparing th e half m ile tra ck. Witho ut the help of these fell ow rac ers, the track would not h ave been in th e great shape it was. Fol ks like th ese are wh at racing is a ll a bo ut; th ey showed us th at th e racing family is th e same na tionwide - close! We a lso want to th ank th e product sponsors - th ere are too many to mention th em all - wh o so kindl y donated so many ni ce gifts to give . to the riders a t both even ts. We had a great time, met a whole lot of tal ented racers and their families fro m all over th e United States, and hope that they come back to race with us again. They were all great. We hope th ey enjoyed seeing our Pacific Northwest. MIKE & MARILYN WAGGONER ' Mt. St. Helens M.C. Castle Rock, WA Tarmac to dirt Looking at the Camel Pro Series point standings and my event calendar g ives me the feeling that the road race-only competitors will have to show dirt track ability to place in the top 10. Hmmm, Polen, Renfrow and McMurter on the mile? RICK FOLEY Martinez, CA When you care enough . We've barely avoided a disaster for one more year with S7, thanks to all th e letter writers. Everyone needs to spread the good word about Senator Pete Wilson, keep writing him, and vo te to"get him re-elected, I, for one, am tired of being on . th e defensive just because I'm a motorcyclist. Maybe we should get some' of oUT friends in government to sponsor le~slation to get the environ men ta lists on the defensive and off of our backs. . An idea I have is to open the entire J ohn Muir Trail to motorcycles o n ly! Sound absurd? Well, how abo u t S7? I would like to thank Gary Forster at G&G Cycle in Albany, Oregon, for h is help at the recent Oregon Old T imers National. Gary was up until 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, installing parts in my bike that had been back ordered for several weeks. Unfortunately, he wasn 't able to ~t me going so he let me ride his bike and I was able to enjoy two days of great racing. There aren 't many shops around that would do some'th in g like that and I greatly appreciate it. . I would also ·like to thank Jim Woods at Cagiva North America. He is the first one I have dealt with a t Cagiva that has shown an' interest in helping custo m ers. Maybe things are changing at Cagiva. KEN HAYDEN Sunland, CA FRITZ MARTIN Medford, OR Tired of being on the defensive

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