Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

We thank Eraldo and Pete for their cooperation. We will miss Bard, and wish him well. ROB IANNUCCI Team Ob sol ete Brooklyn , NY If you say so - . America's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXVI Sharon Clay to n, PvblisJan M ik~ Klingtt, Com ptTolitT Ski p J oh n~ , A. s.wcuu~ Publishn l Nationa l S41~s Managn Man ~ .. "ssoci4l~ Publuhn l Editor RhebaSm ith, CiTCu l4lion MtuUlgtT C u oli ne ~ndry. b~cu~ &C Tt'ta ry to , t h ~ Pub/isM l ack Editori.1 Jack Mangu s. Editm Kit Palmer, Assocuue Editor Paul Ca rruthers , A s.sociat~ Editor Nate Ra uba , A.uoci41~ Editor Brian Catterso n, A .ss oOak Edito r Ken Faught . Assistarll Edi tor :. Edwi na Ma ngu s. Calmda" Editor Adverti.ing Skip j ohn sen , N41'1SilUs ManagtT Mik e Ch u rch. Smim Sa les Ma n ager Te rry Pratt , Sen ior Sa les M ana gtT Mar k Thome, Wej lt'Tfl Sales M anager R on Davidson. W e,S ltTn Soles ManageT Mark Mitch ell. EAst"" 'S4les M41J4gn Thomas R. Comer. Eastern Sa k s Man dgn Debbi e Welln-. Wt'stt'm Ad COO1'd inalm Ca rla Bonini. Eastern Ad COOTdin4lor • Graphics .nd Production Ma lcol m Wilson . Prodtu:tion Man aKtT Dnlnis Grttne.LAb. T ech: Sua, C UnL. G rap hic Artist J immie O· DelI. G rap hi€ Arti~1 M~ nd y Loo, Grap hac A rtUt Michael C ru uka. Graphic Art ul · Carolyn Bra n ha m. T .,fHsettn Arierme Telias, T YlNseltrr Accounting/D.ta Proceuing Donna Brya n. A ccl.$ Rt'uivab k Coo rd inator Repass. Assut4nl f ran H am wry . Crft1il ~ Circulation Sarah T a ylor, A SJUlGnl Alma Anguia no. A.uis ~nI Mar ita Adam ~ A.uistant Herlane Richmon d • ..Anutant Carol Sca nne ll. Assuta nt Circul.tion Development Ron Dav idso n. Man4ger W.ntAd. J oa n Ru ssia n . W4nl Ad Sak~ S.rvice .nd Support Chris Aitchnon . He4dq U4rl""~ Rt'c~ I iOt1 ut Leo na rd Herri ng. S eTVlU and Su ppcwt N.tionaIHeadqu.rteB 2201 Cherry Ave.. Lo ng Beach . CA 90806. P.O. Box 498. Long Beach . CA 9080 1·0498 (213) 427·7433; 2 13/6.'6-8844. FAX (213) 427 ·~ Eaatem Offic. 419(l' fi n t A~.• Tucker . GA. W084 ; m aili ng address P.O . Sox R05. T ucker. GA 3008S-0M05. 1404) 934·7850. FAX (404) 93405112 Cyd~ N~ws (USPS 141·340) is published WC'tkly except the l iDi a nd last week of the calendar year lor $50.00 per year by Cycle N('W Inc .• s. 2201 Aven ue, Lo ng Beach. CA 90806. Seco nd class postage paid at Lon g Beech. CA. a nd additio na l ma ilin g of ficn. o.erry , POSTMASTER: Send lonn 3579 to Cycle Ne... P.O . Box 498. long Be.ch. CA . 90801-ll498. To determine the expi...tion Ubi of your aubacrlption. check the four numbera on the first: line of your add,... "bel. 'The first two digiti indicate the I.at issue number you'. receive 8ftd the lui two char8cten indicate the yur of th...... issue. Subscrip tio n roues: Ra tes (or Lhe United Stat es a nd iu possessions for om' ytar. (SO issues ). · $50.00; two yean (100 issues ). $95.00: six months. (25 w un). $26.00; tri a l sub (15 issun). $19.00. Ca na da and Foreign. o neycar (50 issuel). $90.00; two yran (100 iuun.). $175.00: six mondu (25 iuun). $4.5.00; tri al sub ( IS iuuo). $38.00. Cycle N~ ws wel com es u nso licited edito ria l material incl uding stories. cartoons, photos. etc, Such ma teri a l , Il p ub li shed. be comes th e exclusive pro per w of Cydr N('W$.. Such accepted materi al is subject to revision a s is necessary in the 501~ d iscretio n of Cyde New s. U nsolici ted mat erial wh ich is n OI used will be retu rned if accom pa nied b y a sel f ad d ressed sta m pe d en velope. An unsolici ted m a teri a l will be handled with reasonabl e care, however. Cycle N C:W1i assu mes no responsibility (o r th e safety. loss o r da mage to such mat erial. Rep rintin g in wh ole or pa rt o n ly b y pe rm ission of th e p ub lisher , Advertisin g rat es and circu la tio n in for ma tion will be sent upon req uest. See S.R. D.S. . W/ "if BPA AUDITED CIRCULATION CopYrivh t" Cycle Newa. Inc . 1989. Trademarte. Cycle N8Wa regllt8red U.S . P.tent 0tI"1C8. All righu _ . Godspeed, J erry H ow many motorcycl e deal ers cou ld yo u walk into and get help fitting a Suzuki ai rbox on an old Yama ha? How many dealers would say take it home and try it? From the first tim e we went into Harry's Suzuki in Memph is, T ennessee, j erry Mathews made us feel we were very important. In fact, a lot of people did business with j erry even though they didn 't ride th e brand of motorcycles he sold. j erry had a way abou t him that made you feel like yo u were at your own shop, not his . . The motorcycle riders of Memphis a nd surro unding areas waited too late to show jerry our appreciation for all the years of personal service to each one of us. It's too bad we didn't pay any attention to th e signs our friend was leaving before his death. Motorcycles for us will not be th e sam e. We will never forget his memory and our gr eat loss. MEMPHIS TRAIL RIDERS ASSOC. Bartl ett, TN Show biz What happened to Supercross? Did Mike Goodwin take all the fun with him? This last (o ne) at Anaheim was boring, boring . . . I almost mISS th e drunken fights. Almost. I do m iss the halftim e fu n. The di sc jockeys. The trophy girls. The crazy ra cing. The fireworks. The bands. T oo bad. MIKE SALISB URY Mike Sal isbu ry Communications T orrance, CA Thanks, guys lwould like to thank Mark j ohnson, Reid Nordin, Dave Pyle, j am es DeGaine and the rest of th e T eam Green crew for th eir help during th e recen t SCO R E Par ker 400. Our team suffered mechanical problems during th e event but with T eam Green 's assistance we were abl e to finish. They are a terrific bunch of people who are truly ded icated to the sport. TIM MORTON Solana Beach , CA Inside sponsors There is considerable ta lk about th e need for " o utside sponsors" in motocross today. I agree this is a good idea whi ch needs to be pursued. However , I think th e motorcycle manufacturers should a lso take a look at th e " inside sponso rs" already present - and not try to driv e them awa y. Recently, for exa mple, Kawasaki has been acting in a most unfriendly manner toward clothing companies. Kawasaki's lega l-arm has threatened legal action against clothing co mpanies that use th e Kawasaki logo on motocross clothing. This threat applies not only to clothing sold to th e public, but also to clothing given to professional rid ers wh o are co ntracted to ride for Kawasaki and als o con trac ted to wear clothing from an independent clothing company. Mean whil e, Kawasaki 's r acing department demands that clothing compan ies put the Kawasaki logo on professional riders' pan ts and jerseys. Obviou sly, clothing companies lik e Fox can not sim ulta neo usly satisfy both Kawasaki 's racing team and Kawasaki 's legal ann. I estima te that clothing companies suc h as Fox , jT, etc. contribute between one-half and one-m ill ion 'dollars per year to riders in the form of co ntracts, bonuses and free cloth ing. It is disgraceful but true that. ' a rider earns more in bonus money from his clothing sponsor for winning a National or supercross event than he does in prize money from . th at even t. And yet th e motorcycle manufacturers are not acting in a friendl y wa y toward the clothing manufacturers. They seem to be doing all th ey can to try to drive th e clothing companies ou t of supporting racers. I don 't bel ieve this is in th e best interests of the sport of motocross. The bike manufacturers also sell motocross clothing. They put th eir logos o n their clothing. If th ey want riders to display th eir logos th en they should make clothing which riders like to wear as much as th ey like to wear clothing made by th e independen t clothing manufacturers . And th ey sho uld be will ing to pay riders as much or more as we independent manufacturers are will ing to pay th em . We are not afraid of an open and free market in clothing. But instead of open co mpe titio n, we find some manufacturers telling rid ers th at if th ey want to ride their mot orcycle, th en th ey must wear their clothing. That was the essence o f the re cent dispute involving Honda, Ri ck johnson a n d Fox Ra cing. Every other rider on (T eam) H onda went along wit h the ultim atum and is now wearing Hondaline (clo th ing) . Only Rick johnson had the courage and horsepower to sign a n independe nt clothing contract. In closing, I hope that th e motorcycle man ufa cturers wake up and real ize th at th e independent clothing manufacturers are a vita l ingredient in a healthy mo tocross market. GEOFFREY T . FOX Presid ent, Fox Racing USA Campbell, CA Sw itching cam ps For th e past two years Bard Donova n has worked as a race mechanic for Team Obsolete. H e ha s been a co nscien tio us and methodical tech- . ni cian and a trusted and loyal friend. And Dave Roper's 1988 AHRMA 500 Premier and 750 GP champ ionships speak for th emselves! Eventually the lure of working on co n tem p o rary ra ce bikes proved i rres istible. Last November Bard agreed to join Fast by Ferracci, where h e will ser vice Pete johnson 's machines, both vintage and modern. If Bard had departed in November, this would have left us without the ben efit of his services during the critical winter overhaul months. All concerned parties were consulted and an agreement was reached wherein Bard would complete all critical work at Team Obsolete and then join Ferracci in january. The specificati ons listed for the Ca g iva V588 (Feb ru a ry 8 issue) provide enough data to illustrate th e engi neeri ng ch all enge of designing tire co mpounds for 500cc GP bikes. Assuming that the 150 rear wheel horsepower and th e 179.5 mph top speed values are accu rate, the force on the r ear t ire co n tact patch required to push th e Cagiva at 179.5 mph can be calcula ted by dividing p ower by velocity: Forc e = ( 15 0)( 5 5 0) /( 179.5 (88 / 60)) =313 pounds. The dead weight force on th e rear tir e is roughly half that of motorcycle plus rider weigh t, estimating this sum to be 480 pounds, Cagiva has approximately 240 pounds on the rear tire. Obviousl y, then , the coefficient of friction between tire and tarmac must be substantially greater than on e. Thus the light weight of these bikes is .so mewhat of a liability with respect to tra ction, perhaps this .: partiall y exp la i ns why Wayne Gardner had difficulty last year in getting th e rear tir e to hook-up after H onda engi neers mo ved the engine forward for him. TRACY HAGEN Minnetonka, MN Blacklist (Con tinued from page 2) motorcycles prompted State Farm, among o thers, to refuse coverage on a long list of motorcycles. In a meetin g wi th State Farm o££icia ls in june, th e AMA asked the co mpany to reconsider its blacklist and study actual losses related to sport bi kes. Company o££icials asked for help in assembling infor mation o n motorcycle models. and the AMA contacted manufacturers in an effort to ge t that information. In Octob er, following a meeting with AMA representati ves that resu lted in a sto ry published in Ameri can Motorcycli st magazine, State Farm su bstantially redu ced its bla ckli st, but co ntinued to ban largedi splacement spo rtbikes. Stahly sai d th is week that th e i n for ma tio n th e co m pa ny has recei ved durin g the las t severa l month s was ins tru me n tal in th e decision to drop the bl acklist. " We still don 't understand all we'd like to abo u t the mot orcycles," he said , " b u t we're working o n it, th anks to the inpu t from you, from our age nts , our emp loyees and th e manufacturers. AMA President Ed Youngblood responded to th e anounceme nt by saying, " We are aware th at thousands of AMA members have reacted strongly to th e Sta te Farm position, thro ugh co ntact with Stat e Farm agents and letters to compa ny President Edward Rust. " We are pl eased that State Farm has list ened to our arguments, and we'll contin ue to help this company and other insurers who make ' an effo rt to provide better coverages for motorcycle owners. We congratulate th e many, many AMA members who brought abo u t this solution through th eir unified support." State Farm is th e nation 's largest insurer of motorcycles and is considered a trendsetter in the industry. •

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