Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DAY SIX .' B it Palme( . yK co u ld n ' t believe my eyes. According to my plan-a-month calendar on my office wall, I had the upcoming weekend off. Most of my weekends are used up sitting on a n aisle seat in the sp acious emergency exit row of an American Airlines jet, usually heading to the Somedome for a supercross race or to a corn patch outside of Whereverville for a National motocross race, or to whatever motorcycle-related event I've been assigned to cover. When I'm not toting my lap-top computer from one airport to another, my so-called free weekends are usually spent catching up on lost time at home, fixing that leaky faucet, mowing the lawn or trying to figure out how in the hell my dog is getting out of the yard. For some reason, he likes to break out and guard my neighbor's front door, preventing her from leaving her house. I guess he has the right idea but hasn't quite figured out that he's supposed be gu a rd ing my house and keeping the burglars from entering, not leaving. Dogs. But this weekend was different. I was basically caught up on my household duties - though my dog still escapes and goes on unauthorized walks - and my wife was going to be out of town. This all meant I could do whatever I wanted! Wow, what a concept. Extra time on my hands. Since 90 % of my weekends, and 100% of my weekdays, involve motorcycles in one way or another, here was my chance to do something different and get away from motorcycles for a couple of days and simply relax before dealing with another chaotic five o'clock deadline on Monday. I called up a long-time friend of mine, Ron, who also w orks in the motorcycle industry, and he, too, had a rare weekend off and liked the idea of getting away from bikes for a while. We explored our options and came up with the idea of flying to Laughlin, Nevada, to waste a few quarters on the slot machines or get real crazy and blow a few bucks on the blackjack table . Sure, we could've gone to Las Vegas, but the slower pace and less-crowd ed atmosphere of Laughlin sou n ded more appealing. After all, it wa s time to relax and enjoy the warm, d ry desert air, and, yes, I admit, the scenery by the nearby Colorado River, as well as at the hotel pool. Late Saturday morning, we touched down at th e Bullhead City Airport in Arizona, which is located directly across th e river from the row of hotel s and ca sinos in Laughlin . As s oo n as I stepped out of the airplane I realized somethin g just wasn't right. There was a low rumbl e in the air. I really d idn't think much of it until we started to walk from the plane to the small airport terminal, and the rumble grew louder and louder. I looked out towards Laughlin and my jaw dropped when I saw what was making the noise - hundreds, no thousands of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, cruising up and down the highway that ran along the river between the airport and Laughlin. "Oh yeah, this happens every year," said an airport attendant who gave us a shuttle rid e from the plane to the terminal. "It's called Harley-Dav idson Weekend or something like that. They come here and raise money for muscular dystrophy. We expect about 30,000 or 40,000 Harleys. You should've seen it here yesterday, it wa s real crazy." "Thirty or 40 thousand Harleg«," I said. "Yup. You get used to the noise after a while, " said Mr. Airport Attendant. "It's just like Daytona," said Ron. Believe it or not, during my 11 or so years at Cycle News, I ha ve never attended Cycle Week in Daytona. It's not that I . don't want to, but - for us - Daytona is no picnic. Instead, it's a lot of work, and we need peopl e at both end s of the country - here in our offices in California and at the race tracks in Florida - to get the job done. So when it comes time every year when we decide who goes to Daytona and who stays, I usually "volunteer" to stay. After all, after a busy day dealing with Daytona, I'd just as soon go to sleep in my own bed at night. Maybe next year I'll go. But then again, that's what I said last year, and the year before that, and... An yw ay, this wa sn 't the first time I a cci den t a ll y stumbl ed into a large Harley ga thering. The last time was at least 10 years ago when I rod e a racerreplica, Japanese s p o r tb ike to Palm Springs and found myself surrounded by tattoos, denim and black leather jackets. There weren't nearly as many bikers that day in Palm Springs as there were in Laughlin, and the bikers and bikes in Laughlin weren't quite how I remembered them to be in Palm Springs. Most of the bikes I saw in Palm Springs 10 years ago were, for the lack of a better word , ratty looking. Many of them were made into choppers, oozed oil, and had foam protruding out of their torn seat covers. The bikes in Laughlin, on the other hand, were all in immaculate condition. No two bikes looked alike, and I didn't see even one chopper. All the chrome and beautiful custom paint jobs blew my mind . Now, I've never been in to the Harley, or custom bike, scene really, as my interest leans more towards motocross, off-road and sporttype s t ree t bikes, but many of these Harl eys certainly caught my attention. And I couldn't help but notice that many of the Harleys I saw in the parking lots showed relatively low mileage on their odometers. After see ing many of them being loaded on to trailers behind giant motorhomes or shiny new Ch evy Surburbans at the end of the weekend, I knew why. I take it these bikes were just too pretty to be ridden. I guess times have changed. I couldn't help but wonder if people who attend Gold Wing shindigs trailer in their bikes? And the bikers themseIves in Laughlin seemed friendly enough, though a few were reluctant to strike up a conversation with us non -biker types (especially a guy like me , who was wearing a U.5. Supercross Series T-shirt with a picture o f Jeff Emig flicking his factory Yam ah a YZ250 over a jump on the back.) One can't help feeling a little uneasy around some of the biker groups we saw, as some of the bikers looked downright scary, kind of like the majority of the ones I had seen in Palm Springs 10 25 YEARSAGO••• May 19, 1970 and Byers third ...Gary Bailey, Frank Russell and Bently Hardwick dazzled the competition at Gr een Valley Raceway in Texas for the SMRA Cycle Circus. The event featured a three-ring setup consi sting of road racing, motocross and drag ra cing. Hardwick topped open cla ss ro ad racing, while Russell took the Eliminator honors in drag racing . Bailey dominated motocross, taking first in every class. in front of a pair of hard chargers, Ricky Frenchman Jean-Michel Bayle took his Graham and Scott Parker...After crashthird supercross 250cc main event win ing in the final moments of Saturday's of the previous four round s, and supercross action at the Superdome Spaniard Jordi Tarres took his 13th condoubleheader in New Orleans, Mike secutive World Championship Bell remounted to overtake Chuck Sun Observed Tr ials Series win...The first round of the FIM Coup d'Endurance at the finish line and extended his points lead to 32. Sunday, Mark Barnett took Championship was held at Le Mans, France, with Honda prevailing after the win in a mistake-free ride in front of an es timated 4700 fans...Brad Lackey more than 1800 miles of racing. Piloting the RVF750 were Alex Vieira, Jeanmastered the mud in Austria for round two of the World Championship 500cc Michel Mattioli and Stephane MX series beating Hakan Carlqvist, and Mertens...ltalian Alessandro Puzar put Roger DeCoster. Not only ~7iffjf:.J",J:~:.h:im::self the head of the pack in both at d id th e riders battle rain II of the 250cc World MX GP motos on th e weekend, but it held in Schwanenstadt, Austria. even sn owed during the Trailing Pu zar in the overall second moto. standings after round one was America's Trampas Parker, then living in Italy and Michele Fanton 5YEAR SAGO... was third ...the 19th annual NMA M 1990 ay9, World Mini Grand Prix took place at u p e r cr o ss in Las Vega s International Speedway Tampa and Trials with Georgia's Ezra Lusk topping in Arizona, it was 80cc Stock and Modified Expert a cover of Europeans classes and California's Damon Huffwinning in the USA. ma n winning in the Super Mini class. I peed w ay racers Bill Cody and Don Hawley were pictured on the cover, Cody using his competitor's front wheel as a berm... Thursday night was proclaimed Mark Brelsford night at Ascot , as he won both the Thursday night IT and the Friday night half mil e on his Harley-Davidson...ln hare scrambles action, everything went right for Rickman-mounted Rich Thorwaldson at th e Red Dots M.C-hosted event in dusty Mojave, California...At Trojan Speedway, Jim 'Raymond rode an AJS to victory in three trophy dashes and tw o main e vents. During the 250cc IT main event, Raymond battled with Jimmy Stein and Bob Byers, with Stein placing se con d S 15Y SAGO... EAR May 14, 1980 ucked in and on the gas, Hank Scott w as on the cover riding to his second consecutive mile win, this one coming at San Jose. Jay S prings teen battled hard for the lead but was left with a second -place finish, while Alex Jorgensen took third T S yea rs ago. At one point, Ron and I found ourselves stand ing in the buffet line behind tw o "honest-to-goodness" bikers, and according to the big patch on the back of their jackets, they were members of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. I asked Ron, "Aren't these guy s supposed to be...mean?" "I guess it depends which Chapter they belong to," joked Ron. "I would think the Detroit Chapter would be meaner than the Hollywood Chapter." Everywhere we went, there were bikers. In the casinos, in the restaurants, out in the parking lots and by the pools . While walking through the crowds it . was fun try ing to pick out th e true Harley bikers from the poseurs. It was pretty easy, and there were lots of 'em. Poseurs, that is. And then th ere was the constant, never-ending and unmistakable rumble of 30,000 big, V-twin Harley engines that ricochetted off the hotel walls, which didn't do my traditional post-airplane flight headache any good. Every now and then I had to retreat to the more soothing sounds of the hotel casinos . And isn't it nice to know that Harley-Davidson now has - at least temporarily - a patent on that Harley sound? Nobody else can make a motorcycle sound like a Harley. Wow, just think of it - you can now patent a noise. What's next? I left Laughlin thinking that these biker people are pretty smart. What better idea is there than to get together in the warm desert air after a long, cold winter to gamble, hang out by the pool and river, ride your shiny bike (that you've been customizing on all winter long) around and around and around town with thousands of other bikers like yourself, and raise money for a good cause? Sounds pretty good to me. I actually had a good time stumbling upon the Harley scen e and was impressed by many of the motorcycles I saw, though I still have no urge to run down to my local Harley shop and order a Fat Boy. I still lean more towards go than show. Oh well, so much for my weekend away from motorcycles. l:N

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