Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INSIDE THE TEXAS TORN ADO BY COUNEDWARDS /I never really kne w how frustrating sitting out racing would be unti l recently, a nd I'll tell you so met hi ng for not hing - it' s a rea l bum mer! All I' ve been d oing re cently is sitting o n my backside. I' m not allowed to r id e an y so rt of bike becau se if I fall off, I'll be screw ed.. Looking back, the three o pera tions I had on Au gust 7 w ere alm ost a br eeze compared to having to sit arou nd and d o nothing . Today, we went out and bo ught a stationary bicycle so that I can at least build up some mu scle in my legs, even if I can't do anything else, I guess I'll stick a TV in fro n t o f it a n d w atch some vid eos - maybe if I pu t a racing one on, I can be part of the action again! Maybe I could even win one, eh?! Anyway , ba ck to the ma in ac tio n, which took place at Dr Ting's. As I was going in for the shoulde r, we thou ght we mig ht as well get bot h my knees d on e. Both were wrec ked years ago, bu t I' ve been ab le to walk okay, so I've never reall y bothered to get them sorted out. Ting wa s horrified and said that if I d idn 't get them don e sooner rather than later, I'd have major problem s later in life. So I Signed the form and let them ge t on with it . Both knees w ere d one and they d id so me thing called a n alograft, whereby syn thetic tissu e formation is wrapped rou nd some real stu ff, meaning that they didn't have to cut out the tend on s to put in the new ones. I've go t it all on video, so if anybody wants to see it sometime... I The advantage of doing it this way is that the recovery tim e is much sho rte r. Afte r the opera tion , I was ab le to walk the very next da y. It d id n' t feel sore at all, but then I realized tha t I wa s s till drugged u p. Th at' s wh y I did n't feel a thing. But a d ay or so later - hell, it felt so re . It took abo ut a week and a half before I cou ld wal k a rou nd okay , so I guest it wa sn ' t too bad, all in all. But I'm forge tting that the main reason for the hosp ital visit was to get my s ho u lde r d o n e. When I go t hit a n d crashed at Monza in June, I thought tha t my only pr oblem was my broken wrist. But whe n I co mplained th at it wa sn' t healing up (in Japa n during the Suzuka 8 H ours ra ce week), I had it X-rayed ag ain. An d w hi le they wer e a t it, they h ad a look a t the shoulde r - a nd th at wasn ' t as it s hou ld ' ve been . Th e pl ate th at had been holding my co lla rbo ne together had broken - no doubt du e to the impact during the Mon za crash. So when Ting d id some more X-rays back home, and took out the plate, he disc overed that not on ly had the plate broken, but so had the collarbo ne agai n. To cu t a long story short, he had to put a new pla te in, but of course he cou ld n' t use the existing seven screw holes - he had to make ne w ones. So now , I've got a colla rbone with 13 scre w holes. If th e rai n came in, I'd be like a sieve! Ting's not as worried abou t my knees so m uch as he is the extra holes in my s ho u lder. They no rma ll y n eed eight weeks. I just want to be back racing and give it a go. I'm itching to get back on a b ik e and I' m fed u p wi th mopin g around. But at least I d on't ha ve to worry about the cha mpio ns hip , eh ? At the moment, I'm doing a lot of leg work. Someti mes I've ove rdone it and they' ve felt sore the next day. I've been to physio thera py three times a da y, ge tt ing everyt hing movin g agai n, and it' s real hard not to push more than you sho uld . It' s okay in physio be cause yo u get bossed abou t there, but back hom e, it's a dif feren t matter. What has kept me amused recen tly is all the gossip that's starting - bo th about me a nd the other guys. It feels li ke it s ta rt s ea r lier e ve ry ye a r, do n ' t yo u th in k? I've hea rd so me stu ff a bou t me a nd Tea m Ra iney, b ut I d on 't th ink that' s a go. Ano ther Yamaha team might be a possibil ity or I mi ght be in World Superbikes. It's a good thing that talk' s chea p , becau se there's lot s go ing around a t the momen t. I don ' t und erstand why Doo ha n wou ld wa nt to go to Yama ha , thou gh . For me, all the 500s are similar , excep t th e H onda . If he s w it che d to Yamaha, he'd have broken that strea k of no t cra shing a long tim e ag o, fo r sure. But changes are good for the sport. Hey, that' s a good idea - ma ybe all the Worl d Superb ike rid ers sho uld just swa p bikes eve ry cou ple of yea rs . That'd be kind a fun, wou ld n' t it ? Well, maybe n o t for the sponsors or for bike developmen t. Since Su zu ka in July, the on ly races I' ve been to ha v e be e n o n m y TV . I wa tched th e Ass en World Su per bike round and even from back here 1 could see that Scott (Russell), Simo n (Crafa r) and Akira (Yana gawa) were having tire troubles. Asse n is a pretty abras ive surface, so I expected the Dunlops to wear pre tt y quickly. So me ti mes they wor k okay, but som etimes you can 't find you r ass with bo th hands ! I felt sorry for Scott and young Chris Walker out there, but I mig ht have felt worse if I was there riding! To take our mind off my opera tions, we go t a new dog. It is an Eng lish bulldog, red -brown, with a white hea d and one white ear. We've named it "Scooter" and we'll definit ely bring it wit h us to Eu rope next year, no matter what we do. If Yanagawa can do it, we can d o it, for sure. Well, tha t's abo ut it for no w. I'll stop a ll the borin g o peration talk and s tart ge tting read y for next season. I' m really looking forward to it - w ha tever I end up doing - and it'll be cool coming into a race fresh. I hope by then I'll be strong en ou gh to be competitiv e, becau se I'm certainly not .tu rning up just to make up the number s. Anyway, I' ve go t to ge t back on my bike before tha t kid Walker thinks it' s his own! He's done we ll, con sidering the pr essure he' s been un der . He' s a good kid and learned a lot in a short space of time, bu t just tell him I want my bike back! P.S. Anybody out there got Q broken collarbone and want six or seve n tita nium screws? - Oue careful oumerl C~ LOOKING BACK... 30 YEARS AGO,.. NOVEMBER 2, 1967 ern Sel by an d the Ace of C l u bs dr ill team m ad e th e cove r a s th ey dis pl a y ed th ei r stu n t sk ills in p repara tion fo r th e El To u r G ra nd e... Cycle News .J published a response to a s u rv ey q ue s tion ing w hether or no t th e AMA should limit Class C engine di splacement to 350cc. Out of 124 res pondents, the vote was on e for the change and 123 against! Th e single p ro ponent of the cha nge cited incre ased bra nd pa r ticipation and an end to Harley-Dav id son do min ance a s so me o f th e r ea sons for th e cha nge, while op ponen ts ju st wa nted to hea r that four-stroke boo m... Gary Conrad (Gre) won the 25th annual Tur key Run, which was held in the Red-Rock Can yon area of Sou thern Califor nia... Ducali un veil ed it s ' 68 model li ne u p ... Football sta r Ben Da vid so n wa s profiled as a good will a mbassador . for motorcycling. V r -, DR370 fo ur-stroke dirt bike... Mi ke Basl won the U.S. National Speedway Championshi p again, a t Cost a Mesa Speedway. In terestingly e noug h, futu re 1997 Ll.S. Nati onal Champion Mike Faria was fifth at the event, after scoring nine points... Larry Roese ler to p ped th e Inv aders Na tio na l Hare & Hound - the first Na tional Har e & Hound eve r hel d in Lu cerne Va ll ey, Ca li forn ia... A phot o s howed a young Terry Poovey hold in g neph ew Ted Poovey Jr. on his lap in victory circle afte r wi nni ng a Midwest Region al half mil e in Oklah oma City, Oklaho ma. > 10 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 28,1987 he banner headline that comp rised the cover o f th is issu e w a s " D a nfor th a band ons ' 5 u pe rbi ke ' legisla tion." Insid e, ther e was a n In The W ind pi ece that qu o ted .'inj}J " ...... ; f S e nato r John C. -~~~ , Danforth as say ing th a t h e w o uld wo r k wit h th e AM A to d iscus s othe r option s for motorcycle safety... Ka w asa ki too k a t u rn a t 20 YEARS AGO.•• the new-m odelOCTOBER 26, 1 m intro s piel, ycle Nev.'S ran in tr oducing it s to Wor/r with AM. a tech a rticle r e safety l egis/ali mu ch-heralded s h o wi ng N inja ZX-IO in how to "Ck -ize" a pro ce ss .. . the Hon da MRI75... Bader Ma nneh (Kaw) was the man to Multl·tl me AMA National MX and Supercross Champion Broc Glover at the A n In Th e Wind beat a t round six of th e CMC / Do dge Trucks Daytona Supercro••. Circa 1980. p ho to s ho w e d Trans-Cal Series a t Baylan ds Racewa y in Fremont, Brad Lack e y a t California ... George Bryce defeated M ik e Keyte in Unadi lla w ith a the final round of the Chief Auto Parts Natio nals in Daling... Bob Hannah (Yam ) won round four of the Trans'P r es to n Pett y las , Te xas, w hile Dave Sch ultz and T erry Vanc e AMA Serie s a t Red Bud Track ' n' Trail in Buchanan, f u ll -f loa ti ng wa tched from the sidelines... Market valu e for a Kn ight Michigan... More new model stuff, as Suzuki showed .fro n t-br a ke sys te m, w hich was Rot ax in the Classified section of the paper was abo u t off its 1977 wares. Inclu ded in the lineu p w a s th e "d esigned to m in imize for k comp ress ion under br a k'" $5000, nea rly the sa me as today. world's fastest 1000, the GSlOOO, as well as an all-new C T Danforth ,abandons SUl!erbike' legIslation :~~s r-, 0\ 0\ ,...... N ~ N ... Q) ..0 o ..... u o 75

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