Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127712
..VOiCES·.··. · L etlersto the ealto r: America's weekly motorcyclenewspaper Volume XXXII Sharon Gayton, President MichaelKlinger, Publisher Editorial Paul Carruthers, Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Donn Maeda, Associate Editor Chris Jonnum, Associate Editor ScottRousseau, Assistant Editor Mark Hoyer, Copy Editor' Graphics and Production Ree Johnson, Production Supervisor Mandy Loa, Production Mana ger Dennis Greene, Lab Tech. . Stacey Guest, Graphic Artist Amy Faught, Graphic Artist Administration Judy Klinger, Coordinator Peggy Rivera, Secr etary to the Publisher Advertising Terry Pratt, National Accounts Manager Mark Mitchell, Eastern Accounts Manager Mark Thome, Western Sales Manager Thomas Gonter, Western Sales Manager Forrest Hayashi, Western Sales Manager Greg Mitchell, Eastern Sales Manager Rick Matheny, Eastern Sales Manager Rhonda Crawford, Western Ad Coordinator Carla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Want Ads Laurie Snow, WantAd Sales Marketing &: Promotion MarkThome, Manager Dealer Sales Kelly Branscome, D"'ler Repr esentative AccountinglData Processing Donna Bryan-Diamond, AIR Coordinator Geneva Repass, Assistant Herlane Lewis, Credit Circulation Rheba Smith, Manager Alma Anguiano, Processing Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Coordinator Carol Begovic, D"'ler Coordinator Kim Mazenko, Data Entry Coordinator Service and Support Chris Aitcheson, H"'dquar ters Receptionist Leonard Herring, Servi eand Support c National Headquarters 2201 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 9OSOHl498 (310)427-7433; (213)636-8844. FAJ« 310)427-668 5 Eastern Office 4188 FirstAve.,Tucker, GA,30084; mailingaddress P.O..Box 805, Tucker,GA30085-0805. (404) 934-7850 . FAJ( (404) 934-3112 The battle continues.•. Thanks fro m the Emde family On behalf of m y entire family, I wan ted to say thanks to everyone in the motorcyle fraternity for all the sup p ort and kind words followin g th e p assing of my father, Floyd Ernde, on Christmas Eve . Even with tw o years to prepare for that moment, when it happened it was still a very hard th ing to handle. The supp ort of Floyd's many friends in the sp ort and bus iness helped us all a great deal. We wanted to especially say thanks to the following peo ple: To th e m embers of th e San Diego An tique Motorcycle O ub for the ir help in getting the word out about the services. It was a g reat turnout. A lso, thanks for the checkered flag bo uquet . it was perfect. To "New York Mike" and his crew at San Diego Harley-Davidson for turning out at th e services on their bikes. . Also fo r d edica ting the ice races to Floyd. To Boi!> Tryon and Tom Hensley for b r ingin g o ut Floyd ' s race bikes . It added a lot of character to the event. . To all of tli.e other motorcyclists who rode to the services and participated in the last roar of the engines for Floyd at his grave site. He would have loved it. To everyone else w ho ca me to th e services, sent flow ers , donations and!or cards, or for the nice phone calls. It all helped. I feel very lucky to ha ve had a dad like Floyd who I could share so much with throughout my life. The same goes for my brothers and sisters . Motorcycling was a common thread that wove through us all and we sha red SO many great moments tog ether at motorcycle events and! or in our motorcycle stores in the San Diego area . He loved the motorcycle spor t and busin ess so m uch... it's all he rea lly ever did . We felt it was fitting to decorate his coffin w ith AMA, Ha rley-Davidson and Indian decals for his final send off. It was so reflective of his life. I'm not sure everyone at hi s service knew why we wanted to d o this and I think if I tried to explain it, th ey wouldn't understand anyway. Thanks Floyd for all you did. God- speed. CycleNews (USPS 141-340) is published weekly except the last twoweeks ofthecalendar yearfor$50 peryearby .00 CycleNews. Inc., 220 CherryAvenue. Long Beach. CA 90806. 1 Secondclass postagepaid at long Beach. CAand at additional mailing office CanadaPostInternational Publications Mail . '546615. Don Em de Laguna Niguel, CA POSTMASTER: Send iIIddrns ch.lngrs to Cycle News, P.O. BO ll498. Long Beach, CA 90801-0498. CycleNewswelcomes unsolicited edi to~a1 ~~ I including stories, cartoons, photos, etc. Such malenal, If published, becomesthe exclusive property of Cycle News.Such accepted. material is subjectto revision as is ~ry in the sole discretion of Cycle News. Unsolicitedmaterial which is not used will bereturned if acrompanied by a self addressed ~tam ped envelope. All unsolicited material willbe handledWIthreasonable care, however, CycleNews assumes no responsibility for the safety, loss or damage to such material. Reprinting in whole or part only by permissionof the publisher. Advertising rates andcirculation information willbe sent upon request, SeeS .R.DS. W§P,a ~~T10N Printed in U.S.A. 4 COfyright* CycleNews, (nc.I995. Trademark Cyde News repster«! US. Palmt Office.All righls ...erved, Jeff Smith Executive Director, AHRMA Wausau, WI Dual sport dilemma I have been an AMA member fo r 30 years. I have enjoyed m y mot orcycling experiences, along wi th other members of my family, immensely. During these years I have enjoyed particip a tin g in endures, fla t tra ck, motocross, trials, and hare scrambles. Re ce n tl y , my friends and I have been going to so me of the Na tional Dual Sport rides. It is now my understanding tha t in 1996 only manufactured dual sport motorcycles will b e allowed to be entered in the National Dual Sport events. I am deeply Terry R. Flynn Fort Wayne, IN Letters'to the editor should be sent to Voic, es, Cycle News, P.O. Box 498 Long Beach, CA 90806-0498 or faxed to 310/427-6685. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters should not exceed 200 words and all letters are subject to editing Anonymous letters will not be consid ered for pub lication. All lellers shou ld con ta in th e write r's name, address and daytime phone number ... Editor. ·IN ID .. S E To determine the expiration date of your subscription.,check the four num be'rs on the firslline of your .Iddrns label, The firsl two digits indic.lte the wi issue number you11receive and the last two characters in dicate the year of the lasl issue. . Subscription rates: Ra~ for the United States and its.possessions for one year, (SO Issues), $50.00 tw.0 years (1~ issues), ; $95 : six months, (25issues), 526.00; mal sub (15issues) .00 , $19.00 Canadaand Foreign,oneyear (50issues), 590 . .00:two years (100 issues) 5175 ; six months (25 issues), SlS trial , .00 .1lO; sub (15 issues). $38 . .00 . AHRMA is the registered owner of the term "Battle of the Legends" which is s ponsore d b y BMW . AHRMA m akes the decisions as to which riders we will honor by inviting them to ride in th e "Legen ds ." Our choice ha s already been made before we meet with th e BMW and Daytona management. O ver th e fou r-year life of th e even t we have had 21 riding Legends. We on ly h onor 10 riders at e a ch e ven t. Hence you will under stand that w e rotate people in and out. Each of the Legen ds is considered for all events but we d o like to bring one or two new people in each yea r. No one ha s a guaran teed pla ce. This year the Legends who will not be riding are Hugh Anderso n, Wa lt Fulton, Dick Klamforth, Ku rt Leibrnann , Dick Mann, Bart Ma rkel, Reg Pridmore, Phil Read, George Roeder, Wa lter Villa and Walter Ze ll e r . We t ry to pay homage to those people who have con-: tributed in a meaningful way to motorcycle road racing h istory and can s till turn a reasonable la p tim e. No rider has yet complained about making roo m for someone else to sha re a li ttle of the limelight. You r corresp onden t (Voices, Issue #1, Jan uary 11) has chosen to use words such as "mean spirited action," "nas ty behavior," and "destructive." I th ink he misunderstands what we are trying to achieve. The Legends is not run so riders can rebuild or repair car eers, it's too late for that! It is run for the fans to have an opportunity to applaud these gr eat men out on the track again. Nostalgia comes into it all and some echo of the pa st is brought into the fan s and riders presen t. The w hole id ea is intended to be fun - no on e should tak e it too seriously. concerned that this 'is a short-sighted decision. I have jus t purchased a 1995 Ho~da XR250. This is just perfect for me to nde endures, hare scrambles and dual sport. My daughter is just beginning her riding and we are planning to go together with her XR200. We put lights on it , plated it, added a hom and mirror and are looking forward to spen ding some weekends at se lected National Dual Sport rid es this year and beyond. These motorcycles are quiet and environmentally friendly. I know these are not 100 percent s tree t legal, but we can do some more alterations if necessary. A fri end of mine just bought the complete dual spo rt con version kit on hi s XR for th e upcoming season. H e . .would also be closed ou t and I cannot understand why. Other typ es of events do not have these r estricti on s . Motocro ss bikes are allowed in en d uros w ith a few alterations and there are a lot of exa mples like tha t. Suz uki has do ne a wonderful job of p romo ting thi s new type of event and I would hop e they d id not put pressure on the AMA to gathe r a few mo re sales. If I cannot rid e the four or five even ts I am planning to ride, then the AMA has jus t closed me out of about 1000 miles of trail. The government has been closing us out for years and now SO is the AMA. Finally, I have a few suggestions for the AMA to consider. 1. Give club s guid elines but not mandated rules. If a club feels it needs to have only manufactured dual sport bikes then so be it; 2. If you are going to have a rule, modify it, don't make it so sweeping. There is almost no difference between an XR250 and an XR250L; 3. Please be open to su gges tions . We ha ve a year to hash this out and make changes before this rule goes into effect. I encourage everyone who has an interest in this ve ry enjoy ab le type of motorcycling to send the ir commen ts to the AMA - as I will . Issue#3, January 25,'1995 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS SUPERCROSS McGrath takes Orl and o Here we go again Supercross dream machines NEW PRODUCTS 21 EVENTS 26 CALENDAR 29 WANT ADS 33 RACER TEST Belgarda SDA Yamaha Y2F750 MOTOCROSS Decker, Manneh conquer CMC Golden State MX Chester, Johnson get down at . Florida Winter AMA 6 ;.14 18 22 INTIlEPADDOCK. ; 24 LOOKING BACK.................................. .•.• . .•••••.••.••••.47 47 ONTHE FRONT COVER Team Honda!1-80O-COLLECf's Jeremy McGrath s ta rted the 1995 supercross season just as he did in '94, with a victory at the s ea s on -op en in g Orlando Supercross. Inset photo: Tim Ferry (23) .and Mickael Pichon (101) battled for the liSec honors. Ferry scored the w in. Photos by Kinne y Jones.