Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

VOICES America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Letterstotheeditor he lives is non e of yo ur business. Hey, Tom, get a life! Stephanie La Croi x Murri eta, CA About t he lake This is in response to To m Hemesman' s "Back to the lake" letter in Cycle News (Issue #3, January 24). I was well aware o f the m o tor cy cl e re s trict ions in th e Canyon Lake community when I bought my new house. Mr. Hem esm an, I race mot orcycles for a livin g. When I'm not on the track or train ing. I want to be ou t on the water having fun . Thi s is Am erica, isn't it? Who ar e you to tell me where to live? Jeremy McGrath Can yon Lake, CA Leave him alone A ll ri ght - e no ugh with the Je remy McGrath ba shing. Don' t yo u all kno w this man is a phen omenon who deserves to be in a class by hi mself, bu t is he? We thin k not. You wo uld never meet a more d own to ea rth or p er son able guy th an Mr. McGrath. Wh y are all of you so concerned w ith w ho h e is and w here he lives? I se nse th a t little green th in g ca lle d jea lo usly o r co uld it be en vy . When did the p rivate lives of Jeremy or any other rider become our business? Are we now living in a soap opera? I think no t. I think all of you need to get off tha t pe d estal y o u clai m Je re m y is on because he isn' t th is monster yo u are making him ou t to be. Wh o in th e hell do you think you are? Jeremy, see you at the races and keep on winn ing - you truly are the best. . Jenee and Steve Ewmg Agoura Hills, CA .More from the lake Obviously, To m , you h a ve exercised your right to free speech, now who are you to challen ge Jerem y McGrath 's freedom of choice ? Appar ently, yo u know nothing abo u t wher e Jerem y came from. If you di d, you' d know that his family has lived in th is ar ea for 85 ye ars. Hi s g re at u n cl e o p e n ed Ca n yon La k e in 1930, so let us not talk abou t roots and pedestals. Again, if you knew an ything abo ut Jerem y you wo u ld know th at his fav or i te recreat ion is waterspo rt s hence, his choice to live on the lake. What he does before or after a race, wha t he ea ts, w here he goes, or whe re Helmets rev isted The AMA says it makes no distinction between "bi kers" and "motorcyclists" and that "a ll have an equal voice." They then try to justify their legis lative effort to ap peal helmet laws by citing a 1994 su rvey of "road riders" saying th at 60 perce nt su ppo rt it. However, they totally ignore the survey of "off-roa d rid ers." I ass ume "o ff-roa d rid ers" op inions on thi s issue do not count. Yet th ey h ave the gall to say "all have an equal voice ." If the AMA had any guts at all, they wo u ld put the following simple question on each membership ap plica tion: Do you conse nt to any of you r memb ership d ues being spent to repeal helmet law s? Of cou rse the y w ould never d o such a thing beca use the will of the total member ship (ro ad and off-roa d) wou ld force them to spend their resources on things o the r th an protecting an indiv idua l' s right to splatter his brains on the asphalt. Fin ally, the AMA is u sin g p olitical d ouble -talk. Wh enever they talk about the issue of repealing he lmet law s, they use the term "support of volu ntary helme t laws. " Since when have we needed a law in order to use a helm et? Robert Bourne Atlanta, G A Godspeed, Bryan On the 10th d ay of th is Ne w Year all who knew Bryan Bennett lost a g ood fr iend . H u sband , father, son, brother, and my oId friend passed away on Janua ry 10. Br y an w a s a m ember o f th e Ch e cker s M .e. a n d a con s umm a te motorcycle rider an d 0 -37 com petitor from the late '60s u nti l the ea rly '90s. All of his fam ily and friends will m iss him greatly. Goodbye, old friend . David Jansen Alta Lorna, CA in my hear t as w e ll as in all of our hearts, producing an em p tiness that I know will never be filled . We all miss the spec ial times we had with J.D. I al rea dy miss the fu tu re we will never ha ve wi th him as well as the past. I kno w he never dese rv ed this, as nobody does, but I know he will never leave our sides as we will ne ver leave his. I want to thank him for the wo nderfu l and unique relationships we all had w ith h im and the ones we will all one d ay share again with him. We all love yo u, miss yo u and w ill never forget you. Ju stin Smith Lan sin g. MI 1115till Smi th raced with J.D. Collins... Editor. Hunnicutt fan I re me mber in the late 70s, early '80s, when I first hea rd of Ted Hunnicutt from m y late brother, Chuck. Ted developed a riding style tha t enabled him to improve his skills to become a top-10 racer who w on just about eve ry 25 0cc race he entered. His success contin ued d own in Baja when he was sponsored by Kawasaki in the mid-'80s. I can rem em ber Ted and h is partner, Brett Howell, w inning just about every race they ent ered. Kawasak i p ic ke d hi m as a n o p e n class racer an d he became a member of what is known as the A-Team. He had man y overall wins as a mem ber of this tea m, but a few years ago he was relega ted t o t h e B-Team , fo r rea s on s unknown to me. Still , th at d idn't sto p him from winning the Baja 1000. Sounds like the B-Team was no p lace for you, Ted . I think you are the best team player Kawasaki has eve r had. Keep up the good work. Wh o knows - you cou ld go down as the winningest racer in Baja history. If there was ev er a Cycle News Rider of the Decade - yo u'd be the first on my list. Scott Stea ms Canyon Country, CA Bef ore y ou s tart w ri t ing letters, Canyon Missing J.D. Countrv is not CO/ly on Lake... Editor. Sunday, January 7 will mark a day that I and man y people will never forget. We all lost a w onderful friend and person from thi s world . J.D. Collins ' death will always be remem bered as a comp letely unexpected and unfortunate accident. I know his death will lea ve a gaping hole btten to the editor sh oul d be sent to Vokn. Cycle News , P.O . Box .aQ8. Long Bea ch , CA 90806-0 .aQ8. fu rd 10 3 101.a 27~ 6685 or e-mail, edi torCcycienew Socom. Pub lished lett r rs do not n« eu u il y ~flect the PM itio n of Cyc1~ N ~w!I. Inc. Letlen "ho uld nol r;tCff d 200 word" ..,d ~11 letters are l u bject to edi ting. Anonymou. lett en w ill no t b e co n!idr~d for pu b lication. All le tte n sh ou ld conu.i n Ih. wri l.r'" nam e, addrnl an d d~ytim e ph one nu mbe r ..• Edilor. SPORTBIKEFEATURE ISSUE History of Sportbikes '96 Sportbi ke Buyer's Gu ide Rid ing Impression : 1996 Triumph Super 1II Riding Im pression: '96 Suzuki GSXR75o-T ARENACROSS Oklahoma Super Are nacross Marketing & Promotion MarkThome, Manager New Media Development Mark Mitchell, Director Rick Matheny, Op'7ations Classified Ads Sharon Van Hazelen Graphics and Production Ree Johnson, Prod uction Superoisor Mandy Loo, Production Manager Dennis Greene, Lab Tech. . Stacev Guest, Graphic Artist Am yFaught, Graphic Artist Ad mi nistration Judy Klinger, Coordinator AccountingfDataProcessing Donna Bryan-Diamond. NR Coordinator • Geneva Repass, Assistant Herlane Lewis, Credit Circulation Rheba Smith, Manager Alma Anguiano, Processing Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Coordinator Carol Begovic, Dealer Coordinator Service and Support Bridgett Bobrofsky, Recepti nist o Leonard Herring. Serviceand Support National Headquarters 2201 Cherry Ave., Long Be ach, CA 90806, P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801-0498 (310) 427-7433; (213)636-8844. FAX (310) 427-668S Eastern Office 4188 First Ave., Tucker, GA,30084; mailing address P.O. Box80S , Tucker, GA30085-0805. (770) 934-7850. FAX (770) 934-3112 e-mail editor@cyclenews.com subscribe@cyclenews.com Internet TRIALS Sheffie ld Ind oor TriaI... .4 8 12 20 34 36 28 RACERTEST Bimota's World Superbike Project ....32 GPTEST Cadalora Tests With Honda Advertising Terrv Pratt. National Accounts Manager Mark Mitchell Eastern Accounts Manager Mark Thome, Western SalesManager Thomas Genter, Western Sales Manager Forrest Hayashi, Western Sales Mnnager Greg Mitchell, Eastern Sales Manager Rick Matheny, Eastern Sales Manager Rhonda Crawford, W< 'Stern Ad Coordinator Carla Allen, EastentAd Coordinator Lau rie Snow, Assistant http ://ww w .eycJenews.com FEATURES NEW BIKES Honda Valky rie Editorial Paul Carruthers, Editor Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Donn Maeda, Associ te Editor a Scott Rousseau, Associate Editor Mark Hoyer, Managing Editor KeithBush, Copy 'Editor adv ertis ing@cyclenews.com INSIDE · Issue# 4,January 31, 1996 SUPERCROSS Minneapolis Super cross Volume XXXIII Sharon Clayton, President MichaelKlinger Publisher , .38 40 MOTOCROSS CMC Golden State Series cyclt r-; ews (USPS141,340);' published Wttkly except tho last two Wef'U of tht> calendar yr at for SSO.oo per year by Cycle Ntws,lnc.. 2201 Cherry Avenue, LongBead,. CA 90806 . Secondclasspostage paid at LongBeach.CA andat additional mailing office.Canada Post International Publications fl,laiJ f5.l6615. 42 HARE SCRAMBLES AMA Mid-South Winter HS Series INTERVIEW . Former Road Racer John Com well POSTMASttR: Send adelfts ! dung" to Cydf' l'\~s. P.O. Box U S. Long Beach. CA 90801~9S. To detemUne the expiratio n dat e of your . ubsaip tion, chec k the four nu.mben on th e fint line of your ~ddrns lab el, The first tw o digits indiate th e 1.lS1 i,"ur number youll receiv e and the Lut two ch.uadrn indic~le the yu r of the last iss ue. Subscription rates: Rain for the United States and its, posses-sions for one year. (50 issues), 550.00 two years (100 issues), ; $95.00;six months, (25 issues], S26.OO; trial sub (15 issues), $19.00. Canada andForeign, one year (50Issues), 590.00; two years (100 Issues), $175.00 six months (25 issues), $45 trial ; .00: 44 sub (15 issues), $38.00. .46 48 .52 53 .57 _ 72 _ 72 F :3 ~ Ed ~ 1_ . . \0 0'\ 0\ Cycle News welcomesunsolicited editorial material including stories. cartoons. photos. etc. Such material, if published, •• ~ becomes the exclusive property of Cycle News. Repnnung in .... whole or part only by perm ission of the publisher. AdvertisT"""'f ing rates and circul. tion information will besent upon a C't") request. SeeS.R.D5 . DEPARTMENTS EVENTS RESULTS CALENDAR WANT ADS RACER X LOOKING BACK :z;:] C ONTHEFRONT COVER Sportb ikes, then an d now . A Kawasaki GPz550 an d a Su zu ki GSXR750 show just how far sportb ikes have come. Inse t: Honda's new Valkyrie cruiser. ~ W~.A ~~TION Printed in U.S.A. C~-righ t" Cyelt "tw•• lnc.1'l'J6. T"dt mm. Cycle "tWl ~lerN. Pollent Offic e. All rights men-rd. u.s. ;j -3 s::::: Ci:l

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