VOICES
America's weeldy motorcycle newspaper
Letters to the editor
Volume XXXII
Sharon Oayton, President
Michael Klinger, Publisher
Editorial
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AUDITED
I just read about the new guidelines
being proposed for Formula USA. This
represents a radical departure from the
original intent of the series and can only
be considered a loss for everyone
involved. The "run-what-you-brung"
concept was racing as it should be and a
welcomed departure from the restrictions imposed by other organizations.
Remember the Yamaha YZR500
machines Kenny Roberts brought to the
USA? Where else could you see them
with such regularity? How about the
wide variance in machinery? Turbo
four-strokes, hybrid chassis and motor
combinations, kitted 250cc two-strokes!
In the interest of "close racing" these
ideas have been abandoned. "Close racing" is a red herring. In any form of
motor racing, the teams with the most
money do the best. These proposed regulations will Simply enable the best-funded
tearns to dominate a series that is a mere
shadow of the AMA, only now the fourstrokes won't have to be concerned with
two-stroke competition. If racing has ever
had political correctness, this is it.
Congratulations, Mr. Gonda. You
have succeeded in creating a series that
mimics th~ AMA Superbikes without
their prestige. Just another excuse for fans
to consider doing something else with
their time rather than going to motorcycle
races that feature equal (boring) machinery. The AMA has tried that for years and
the results speak for themselves.
Randy Townsend
.
Vacaville, CA
VR1000 fix
In the VRIOOO racer test (Issue #46,
ovember 22), Alan Cathcart quotes
Steve Scheibe with the following:
" ...don't be afraid to take advice from
people outside the company." Well,
here is my two cents worth, and I won't
even charge a consultant fee.
1. Buy a Britten Vl000
2. Remove cylinder heads
3. Study ports, valves and combustion chamber
4. Duplicate on VRl000
Congratulations, you have probably
just saved yourself another five years of
development time.
Gary Slabaugh
GDSlabaugh@aol.com
More VR1000
I read with interest Alan Cathcart's test
ride of the 1995 Harley-Davidson
VRl000 race bike, and I noticed that the
end of the fifth paragraph reads thusly:
"It also feels more potent at the top end
Printed'in U.S.A.
4
CO{'yrighl Cycle ews, Inc.l995. Tr.ldemnk Cycle News
repstered U.S. P.llent Office. All rights rtservecf.
You are rorrect, Andrew. James was not racing at Brainerd this year as he was still reCOl}eringfrom the hand and wrist injuries he suffered in a crash at Road America. Riding too
many race bikes during the winter has obviously confused Catlicart, who must have
meant Tom Kipp and not James ... Editor.
Safety
There seems to be a debate going on
right now about the issue of safe tracks
for motorcycle road racers. I believe that
a road racer is in a Catch-22 situation.
The racer wants to race at safe tracks,
but the track owner may not be able to
justify the cost of meeting the safety
issues. So the owner says no and the
racer is now forced to go somewhere
else to race.
Eventually there will be no place left
to race, and the racer is no longer a
racer. 50 the question is, "Do I continue
to do something I enjoy, even though
there are risks, or do I stop doing something I enjoy because of the risks?" It's a
hard question to answer.
I have been racing for about six years
and have raced at 11 tracks, and of those
11 I consider only three to be safe. My definition of safe is having enough run-off
area so there will be no solid stationary
object to impact with. 1£ there is enough
run-off to slow the bike down to schoolzone speed, then I personally believe that
would be safe. It would be nice to have a
smooth racing surface, but as long as there
are no potholes and speed bumps, I feel
the track surface is acceptable.
Summit Point has a very slick surface, but I feel that does not make the
track unsafe. Actually there is pretty
good run-off at most places. 50 the question I face every race weekend is, "Is it
worth it?" I guess my answer is yes. 50
is the final decision up to the racer? I
guess it is, but many factors go into
making that decision. Probably the
biggest factor is the belief that "it won't
happen to me." $orne decisions in life
are hard to make, but the joy the end
result gives us usually justifies even
risky behavior.
Don Platek
Ostrander, OH
The baggy rage
I am writing in response to an editorial
comment found in the LBZ Free Riding
INSIDE
rssue #47, November 29, 1995
FEATURES
OFF·ROAD
Baja 1000
SUPERCROSS
Bercy Supercross
Bercy Jump Contest...
RIDING IMPRESSIONS
1996 Honda CBR900RR
Harley-Davidson Dyna
Wide Glide
DEPARTMENTS
6
12
18
RACER TEST
Tadayuki Okada's Honda
NSR250
NEW PRODUCTS
LEADERBOARD
EVENTS
RESULTS
CALENDAR
WANT ADS
GUESTEDITORIAL
LOOKING BACK
30
32
34
43
44
..47
63
63
20
ON THE FRONT COVER
24
Kawasaki Team Green's Ty Davis, Ted
Hunnicutt and Paul Krause made up the
winning team at the Tijuana-to-La Paz
Baja 1000. See page 6. Photos by Kinney
Jones.
ORCUlATION
Z
than a year ago, a fact confirmed at
Brainerd when Chandler pulled away
from Jamie James' Vance & Hines
Yamaha in a straight line, and Jamie
came straight round to the H-D pit afterward to find out why!"
I thought Jamie James sat out the
Brainerd round this year.
Andrew Sharp
asharp@marbIe.com
28
Pant product evaluation (Issue #46,
November 22). It states, in effect, that
Xtreme is rumored to be already copying
"this" product for an upcoming release.
We believe this sta~ement to be totally
unfair, irresponsible, and a significant
detriment to our efforts. Anyone that has
followed our history knows that Xtreme's
success was derived from innovative and
unique apparel that imitated no one!
We at Xtreme, like so many others,
watched the Crusty Demons of Dirt
video, and as an apparel manufacturer,
were instantly affected by the sight of riders wearing "snow / skateboard" pants
while pulling off those ragged maneuvers. We thought the concept was bold,
unique and fun. From the video, at those
distances, obviously there was no way to
tell what brand of pants each rider was
wearing as there are over 40 manufacturers of snowboard / skate pants that we are
currently aware of. With Xtreme having
local manufacturing, as opposed to various overseas production like that of our
competitors, we had an immediate
opportunity and desire to initiate a
"baggy" line of pants and jerseys, and get
them to the market quickly while the
video was still raging. Our staff went to
work immediately designing and developing a new line of apparel for this possible new trend. It wasn't until we saw an
announcement in Cycle NI!WS a few weeks
later (after we were already in full production of our line of Xtreme SlaX and
GenAirX Jerseys), stating the intent of
LBZ to market a motorcycle version of
their existing skate pants. Our initial reaction was that of excitement, as it gave credence and justification to a market we
weren't positive existed, but were going
after full force anyway.
As we hope you can see, there has
been no "copying" in our quest to
respond to a possible market change.
We were actually hoping to be th.e first
and only to delve into this new, and
maybe just, niche market. But oh, well,
being born racers, we thrive on competition. We applaud LBZ for their parallel
foresight into this new segment of the
market and look forward to the rewards
and improvements that professional
competition brings to the end consumer,
the rider!
Bill Luck
President, Xtreme Designs Inc.
Oceanside, CA
Okay, perhaps the word "copied" was too
harsh a word. But for the record, all of the
baggy pants featured in the Crusty Demons
of Dirt video were made by LBZ, and were
motocross-specific models... Editor.
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