Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

NEW MOTORCYCLES: ' 9 0 Suzukis revealed in Palm Springs . •. 6 TEST: 1990 Kaw a saki KLR6 5 0 and Tengai dua l-pu rpo se • . • . • . . 8 MOTOCROSS: Bowen st a rs at C olumbus Ind o o r C 'sh ips 10 Mike Tripes le ads th e w ay at Ca rlsbad Santa C laus GP 14 INT ERVIEW: Ken ny Ro be rts - Fo rm ing of a pow erhouse team . .1 6 RACE TEST: Ed d ie Lawson's Honda NSR500 ro ad rac e r 20 NOSTALGIA: Ho uston Ast rodo me - The circus is coming ! . . •• 24 ENTERTAINMENT: Vid eo a nd book revi ew. ; ..•. •.•.. ...• •• 26 FACTS : 1990 Na t io na l nu m be rs 30 CALENDAR : Pla nning a head · 38 America's motorcycle newspaper Volume XXVII ON THE FRONT PAGE : Kenny Roberts t a lks about his new Marlboro-sponsored GP powerhouse team; the ex-Eddie Lawson Honda NSR500 tested; on"t he road a nd on the di rt with Kawasaki's new Tengai and KLR650-A4 d ual purpose bikes. Photos by Paul Carruthers. Patrick Gosling and Kare l Kramer/Dirt Rider. Sha ron Clay to n, Pub lis h,.,. Mike Klin ger, Co m ptrolln Ja ck Mangu s. Associtd e Publ ishnlEditcn Rheba Sm ith. Circulation Mana gtT Caroli ne': Gmdr y, Ext'cu tim: St'CTrLary to th e Publishn Advertising' Terry Prall, Sen ior Sales Manager Mark Thom e. Westt"Tn Sales Manager Ron Dav idson . Westt'm Sales ManagN 1110m as R. Comer, West"" Salt:s Managn Mark Miech ell , Eastern Sales Man agn G r~ Miu:h t'lJ. East ,.,.n Sales Mana K'" J oan Ru ssian. Western Ad Coo rdinat or Carla Borden . Eastern A d Coo rd inato r Graphics and Production R ~ j ohnson , Prod uction SUpnvUOT Mandy Loo, Productio n ManGgt'T Den n is Greene, Lab. Tech, Stacey O uesr , G rG hic Artut p Jimmi~ O ' Dell, G rG hic Artut p Ca ro lyn Branham. T"1Prsdtrr Lump in throat Few individuals in our spo rt hav e given of th emselves as ha s Walter von Scho n feld. When I h eard of hi s retirement from Castrol, I go t a lum p in my throat. Walter was the first per son wh o ever gave me anything at a race track. Hi s con tinued support through out my racing career meant a gr eat deal. Castrol has had an em issary wh o sincerely loved the sport and always said " good luck" to all . wh ether or not the y ran his prod uct. Although his pr esen ce will be mis sed at the Castrol tru ck. I hope th e aroma of hi s pi pe graces th e pi t area for many races to come. Account ing /Data Procassing Don na Bryan. Accu R~uiVG bl~ Coord inator Geneva Rf:P3S5 Assu tGnt . Fra n Hamwey. Cu di l Circu lat ion Sara h T ay lo r. AssutGnt Alma An gu ian o. A ssutan t H erl an e R ichmond. A ssutant Carol MilKR . ..fss u tGn t io Dealer Sales Eric Reece, Managt'T Wa nt Ads Debb ie Well er, Want Ad S alrs Service and S upport Ch ris AilChC"'50n . Heada uon ers Rt'u ption ist Leonard H err in g, S rruice and Suppo rt Nat ional Headquarters RICH AR D CH AMBER S Spottswood. VA 220 1 Ch err y Ave.. LOIlJ; Beach . CA 90806. P.O . Ro x 498. Long Beach, CA 9080 1-0498 2 13 / 427· 713 3; 213/636-8844 . FA X 2 13/127· 6685 Katella Avenue or Rodeo Drive On December 8 I rode my motorcycle to the motorcycle show a t th e An ah eim . Conventi on Center i n Ana heim, Ca lifornia. When I p ulled up to th e parking lo t ga te, th e attendant to ld me it would be $5 to park my bik e. After the shock, th e attendant said th e Cit y of Anaheim establishes th is fee. I guess th e City of Ana heim wants to turn Kat ella Avenue into ano ther Rodeo Drive or all the city councilmen want allexpenses pa id ski trips to Europe for them. th eir fami lies and friends. I thought I had seen everything. By the wa y, the show was grea t. Eastern Office F i r ~t Ave.. T ucker . GA . 300B4; mai ling add res.. P.O . Bo x 805. T ucke r. GA 30085·0805. 104 /93 4· 7850. FAX 1(H/934·3 112 Cycle News (U SPS 141·340) is p ublished weekl y exce p t th e last two week s of th e cal en da r year (o r $SO per yea r by Cycle News, Inc., 220 1 .OO Cherry Avenue, Long Brach. CA 90806. Seco nd class post a ge paid at Long Beach . CA. a nd add itio na l ma ilin g o ffices. POSTMASTER: Send 1o,", 35 79 t o Cycle News. P.O . Box 4 9 8 . Long Bea ch. CA 90801 ·049 8 . To dete rm ine the ex piration de te of your subscripti on. cheek the fo ur numbers on th e first line of your ad dress I.bel. The first two digiu indicete the 1.$1 issue number you·1I receive e nd t halest two ch. ra ete rs indicete the ye.r of the I_st issue . Subscriptio n rates: Rat('!l for the Uni ted Sta tes a nd irs possessio ns for o ne vear, i50 issues}, $50.00; tw o years (100 iMun). $95.00; !lix months. (25 ismes) . S26.oo ; tr ial sub (15 issues) . SI 9.00 . Ca na da a nd Fore ign . o ne year (50 issues). S90 .00; two years (100 issu(" S175.00; six months (25 s). issu" ). S45.00; trial su b (15 issues). S3 .00. GARY WAYN E PARTI N Riverside, CA Cycle N("ws we lcom es u nsolici ted ediroeial mater ial ind udi nR sto ries. ca rtoons , ph otos. cu : Suc h ma terial. if p ub lishe d . becomes th e exclusive property o r Cycl e Nt"W!I Suc h accep ted . ma ter ial issubject to revision as is nt'(t'S50lry in tht' so le di scretion o r Cycle News. Unsolici ted ma terial wh ich is not used will be returned if accom pa n ied by a sel l ad dressed stamped en velo pe. All u nso lici ted ma te ri al wi ll be ha ndl ed with reason able care. ho wever. Cycle:" Nrw fo assumes nn rf'.\p oll sihilit y Cor th e ~ (t'IY . 10000s o r dama ge to suc b mat er ia l. Reprtming in whole o r part o n ly by pe rmissio n o f th e pu b lisher . Advert isin g rates and ci rcu lati o n informauon will be sent upon req uest. See S.R .D.S. 'f'BPA ROBERT F. (BOB) SMITH Congress of the U.S. H ou se of Representatives Washington, DC Th omas P, A dy of Ontario, Oregon, received th e above letter from Congr essman Smith of Or egon .. . Editor. Editoria l J ac k Man gu s. Edi tor Kit Palm " . Assoc iate Edi tm Paul Ca rrut her s. A ssociate Edi tor Nail: Rauba . Associate Editor Brian Catterson. A ssociate Editor Ken Faugh t. Assistant Editor Edwi na Man gu s, Calen dar Ed itor 4 190 of those areas by many of our citizens, esp eci a ll y ' the elder ly o r handicapped. I beli eve closing these areas off to multi pl e use would ignore California's number on e resources its people. As a mem ber of th e H ouse Comm ittee on Interi or, wh ich is holding hearings on this bill, you can be certain I will include your views in my ana lysis of the Ca lifornia Deser t Pro tectio n Act. I loo k forward to co nt inuing m y wor k towards fair and practical federa l po licy for th e enviro nment and public inte rest, and apprecia te yo u r in p u t into thi s pr ocess. AUDITED CIRCULATION Co py righ te Cycle News . Inc. 1990 . Tra de· merk Cy c le New. registered U.S. Petant Off ice. All rig hts re served. . Welcome to th e big city. Gary. M y personal record was established six years ago w hen I paid $12 to park for half an hour (rig ht, 30 m in ut es] in Man hattan. A dm ittedly, that was on u p per-crust Mad ison Avenue. bu t sim ilar prices prevail in the area surrounding th e Jacob ] avit s Civic Cen ter, site of th e Februa ry 23-25 N ew York City International Mot orcycle . Show. H ow does $10 for th e fi rst hour of indoo r park ing sound? Or $20 for two ho urs? T oo steep? Th en try ou tdoor parking that'll set you back $24 for thr ee hours. Th e $5 you -paid in A naheim pales in com parison. Keep in m ind the fact th at parkin g garagesllots occu py valuable hunks of real estate and unlike CIV I C centers, arenas, stadiums, etc. don't generate any revenue oth er than that garnered from parking fees . . . Editor. Extra special Dall as Honda and H&:W Honda h osted a CR Fun Da y at Lake Whitney Cycle Ranch on December 3. All th e new 1990 CRs were availabl e for test rides. Specia l th ank s to Am erican Honda Regional sales representative Bob Moll for his support. Bob was o n hand to give out Honda cleanup bu ckets a nd supp lies, plus Honda pi ns to all th e rid ers wh o test rod e the new CRs. The effort a nd pl anning by Dall as H onda a nd H&:W Honda mad e this reg ular race Sunday extra spec ial. JOYCE LADD Lake Whitney Cycle Ranch Whitney, TX Failed to mention . I enjoyed th e interview with J eff Ward in last week's (#5 0) Cycle News. Congratu lations are in order o n hi s la test title (too bad R.J. co u ldn 't catch h im ). Perhaps I overloo ked it, but I cou ldn' t fin d any mention of Ward 's mechanic. Isn't he T om Mor gan of Carl sbad , Cali forn ia? Does Jeff wash and pr ep his o wn bikes? It 's too bad ' that th e number o ne pers o n respo nsible for Mr. Ward 's success wasn 't included. BRIAN SAL L EY Car lsbad, CA Dear C ycle News reader: Thank you for co n tac ting me regardi ng HR 780 , th e Ca liforn ia Desert Pro tect io n Act of 1989. I a pprecia te the time you have taken to pro vide me wit h your th oughtfu l com ment s o n th is legislat ion . As yo u may know , I am a strong advoca te for mu ltiple-u se management of o ur public lands. Sou th ern California is a rural , ru gged area. It is a pl ace fu ll of un iq ue and beau tiful scenery, wit h world class op po rtun iti es for ou tdoo r recreatio n. Wild erness is a very restrictive single use desig na tio n that is ap propriate for certa in areas but precludes the use Shame, shame To Cycle N ews and KT M: Shame , shame for the full page enviro nmenta l attitu de on page 29 of the Jan uary 3 issue. This picture will probably be worth abo u t 100 acres of my favorite riding spot. T he environmentalis ts don' t need to hi de behind every other cactu s with a camera tryi ng to stick it to us, the " professionals" in our sport will take and publish the pictures for them. T his picture is going to hurt all of us. LOU SELBY Wittma nn, AZ P.S. You know wh ere I' d like to stick that cactus, don't you ? Godspeed, Charlie Charles Ion Sr., father of New England MX champ and factory H on da and Can-Am racer Charlie Iott jr., pa ssed away on November 26 of a heart a ttack. H e was Charlie's factory motocross mechanic and was well known on both th e National and New England MX circuits and will be miss ed greatly by many. H e is survived by three sons, two daughters and hi s wife. Letters of sympathy can be sent to Vivia n Io tt, 2350 Plum Ave.• Auburndale, FL 33823. BOBBY FIELD Auburndale, FL Seeking photos . I ho pe that you or your readers ca n help me. I wo uld lik e to ge t in tou ch wit h any photogra phers who may have covered the AFM road races at On ta r io , Ri verside a n d Will ow Springs du r in!? the 1978 and 1979 seaso ns. My bik e was a Ri ckm anfram ed H onda 750 whi ch I rode in the Open Super Street class carrying . n um ber 265. I never purch ased any photos, but today I wish I had . If anyo ne ou t th ere ca n h elp me obtai n so me pho tos, p lease co n tact me at the address below. KURT A. NELSON 19301 Via de Olivos Q ueen Creek, AZ 85242 Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Inc. Letters are sub ject to condensation due to space limitations. Anonymous letters will not be pub lished . Send letters to Voices , P.O. Box 498. Long Beach. CA 90801 0498.

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