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VOICES
Amer ica's weekl y motorcycle newspaper
LEm R
STO
THEE ITO
D R
Volu me XXXIV
Sharon Clayton, President
Michael Klinger, Publi sher
The name game
Ed ito ria l
Pau l Ca rruthers. Editor
Kit Palm er, A<;.mate F ilor
A
Scott R OUS M:'dU , AsAA'iate Editor
Mark Hoyer, Ma nagin ~ Editor
Keit h Bush , Assistant &tilor/Cory Editor
Ca mero n Coatney. Assistant Editor
Alan Cathcart. European Editor
Dav id R. Hclther, Copy Editor
Ad verti sing
Terry Pratt, National Accounts Manager
Mark Mitchell, Esstem Accounts Manager
Mar k Tho me », Western Sales MJlnagcr
Thomas Ge nter, Wrstern Sal~ M m lQKa
Forrest Hayashi. Western SalesManager
Greg Mitchell, Eastern Sales Mmlager
Rick Math en y, Eastern Sal~s Munager
Rho nda Cra wfo rd, Western Ad Coordinator
Bridgett Bobrofsky, Assistant
Ca rla Allen , £astern Ad Coordina tor
Tina Farr , As.sista"t
Mar keting &: Promo tion
Ma rk Tho me, Director
Forrest Hayashi, Manager
New M ed ia Development
Mark Mi tchell, Director
RickMatheny. Webmas1er
Step ha nie Leam on , Af;siMmlt
Classified Ad s
Laurie Tcrstensen
Gr aphic s a nd Productio n
Re Jo hns on. Production Supervisor
e
Mand y Loo. Production Managrr ;.
Den nis Greene, wb. Tech.
...
Ama nda Wollny, Graphic Artist
Robyn Lig ht, Crapltic Artist
Admin islration
Jud y Klinger, Coordinator
Leanne Sims, Administratite
As~i.'itant
Accou n tin g/Data Processing
Donna Bryan- Diamond ..A/R Coordi ator
n
Geneva Repass, Assistant
Herlane Lewis , Credit
Circu lation
Rheba Smi th, Managa
Alma Angu iano, Processing Coordinator
Keshe na Daw son, Billin Coordinator
g
Ca rol Maggio, Dealer Coordinator
Service an d S upport
Doris RiN>, R« eptionist
Michael Sw edberg. Sertice and Support
National Headquarters
I noted with in teres t the Ducati "Name
Ga me" it em i n Cycle News (" Leller
fro m Europe," Issue #43, Oct ob er 29 ).
You qu ote my fellow d esign er Massimo
Vtg ne llis s ta te d ratio nale fo r the
red es ign of Ducati's corpora te id entity that its ins pirat ion is the uniform at tentio n to deta il tha t existed at Du ca ti in
the pr e-WWII era: "From the design of
th e logo to co m m u n ica tio ns m at erial ,
from the offi ces to th e furn itu re, from
pa cki ng m ateria ls to e m p lo yee un ifo rms , every th ing w as des igned with
care and s tyle ."
I w o nder if Vig n ell i, an expatria te
Italian, loo ked a t Bruno Ducat i' s book
on the company's history, whi ch shows
th at Du ca ti wa s closel y con trolle d by
Mu ssoli ni's fas cis t govern men t a t th is
nrn e.The ca re and style in all d etail s
was implemented and enfo rced by the
m ilit ar y, to help assu re loyalty to th e
regim e a nd to m a ke its presen ce felt in
all aspects of life. To use such practices
as a "d esign referen ce" seem s a bit un savo ry. Bu t wo rse than th is, Du cati was
n o t ye t a mot orcycl e manu fa cturer they first produced moped motors in the
post wa r peri od , and no mo to rcycles a t
all until the '50s , by which tim e it was a
mu ch-Changed co m pa ny:. There' s si m pl y !1O rele va nce betw ee n th e facility
policies of that ca mera and electronics
manufacturer and tod ay's Ducati com pan y.
Massimo Vig nelli has had a disti ngu ished career, but let's get our feet on
the ground . As Ducati 's new corporat e
identity was bei ng "rolled ou t" by their
new "Glo bal Im age Direct or," Dav id
G ros s , H ond a w a s unse atin g Du cat i
from their perch as owner of the World
Superbike Championship. What Ducat i
really need s is the 1998 Superbike title no amo unt of sophisticated merchandising tact ics can eq ua l its importance in
selling new Ducati mot or cycles.
Bruce Fin layson
Mad iso n, WI
2.."01 Cherry Ave.. Long Be
ach, CA 90S06,
P.O . Box 498, Long Beach, CA 9O!JOI -Q498
(562) 427-7433; (213) 636-8844.
FA X (562) 427-M&
'i
Eastern Office
4188 First Ave., Tucker, GA 30084;
ma iling ad dress P.O. Box 805,
Tucker, GA 30085-0805.
(770) 934-7850. FAX (770) 934-3112
e-mail
edi torfecyclcn cws.co m
subsc ribe@eydcnews .com
advcrtislngfscyc lcncw s.com
Internet
http:/ / www.cyd enews.rom
Cvce New) CUSPSHl· 34I)
il; published week tv exceptthe
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t"fllM'.I ""ng 8t",lCh. CA ~.
Pt'riodiClll~ Poeage Paid ,11Lon Beach. CA and at add itional
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I1'Ii1.I1tng office. CanadaPosIlntcmolhonai PubbcatwnsMail
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POSTM ASTT. : St"Iul.dd .,...,.("h. ng.... IoCy<'k N"""", P.O.
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80, -198. Long 8...d" CA 9CfI01-
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Su~ption
raes R.1tt'S for 1 t..'nited Sul~ and its ~
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sens for one Yt'u. (50 ~~). SSO.DO; tw.o vears ( !~ MUt!S).
sqs.OO; d edaoriel m.tI:t'ri.-t1including
:olton",. cartoons, photo!l. etc. Such moltt'lial. if publi:o;ht'd..
becomes the exdusive property ofCycle ~ Repnnhng in
whole or portonly by fl('tn'llS$lo n of the publisher Advcrtls.
inS rales and cirroJanon infonnation will fxo senl upon
rYqUt.'!>l. 5l-t 5.R.D.5.
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WBrj'A Acum D
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Printed in U.S .A.
4
!'t'8 . tl'l't'd U.s. Patm l Offict'. All righl~ m.nvt'd.
L
Cnryrighl~ Cydl' N.w~, In c. 19'1 Tu dm'lark Cyd. N.w,
7.
Ciccott o was disqualifi ed from the Twill
Spor ts World Finals afte r officials discoucred that his throttle had a mechanism that
prevented it from beillS opened comptetdy,
in an effort to s1 less than the maximum
10w
horsepow er wizen it was tested on th e
dyllam ometer. aile official said that his bike
measured 55 hp on the dyno More the race
and 63 hp after the race... Editor.
ind eed en d up o n a 500 for 1998, I'm one
Ame rica n hoping Mick Dooh an beats
him like a d ru m.
Richard Janes Jr.
San Luis O b ispo, CA
Low class?
I can' t bel ieve that a class-A co mpa ny
like Cy cle N ew s w o uld prom ot e suc h
low-class companies like FAH -Q Racing
by advertising their pathet ic w eb site.
Th e sit e is filled wit h filth y langu age
and it promot es T-shirts with d es igns
tha t say "Shoo t Hero in" and "Twis t that
F- - thing, you F
lU- ." Well, you get
the id ea . I go to you r web sit e every
week and link to the new sites you promo te . T h is o ne is a d is gra ce to O U T
sport.
Bret Mitc hell
Pac crest@mind .net.
And again.
Sorry to sec yo u allow such orga nisms
as FAH-Q Racing to inhabit your paper.
Is this hel pful in a ttra cting th e tatt ooan d -no se-ring set int o the market?
U nless th ere is m oney invo lv ed , I
rea lly can' t envision an y particular benefi t to hel p in g suc h an organ iza tion
sprea d their vul garity. Obviou sly, they
must be a group tha t is unable to attract
attention in any other way.
00 you have an expla na tion for why
Cycle News is connec ted to the m ? Or am
I just an old -fashi oned prud e?
Jon Hehman
Jbhe hman @classic.ms n.com
We don't have the tim e to check each and
C't'ery web site that we mention in "In tire
Wind." We are not connectedunth any of
these companies in any way - all we do is
publicize IIew moto rcycle-related web sites
w ith a brief news item....Editor.
No fan of Johnny K
Harleys rule, or Harley ru les
I perso nally take great excep tion to your
coverage of the Ha rley-David son Twin
Spo rts World Final, held November 1-2
a t Da y tona Int e rn a tio na i Sp e edway
(Iss ue #45, No vem ber 12). Th e m ost
accurate sta tement of the ent ire article
was the headli ne - "Chea ters Rule."
I would like to sta rt by identifying
Mike Ciccotto's tun er as the very talented Woody Kyle. Wood y has been bui ld-
Having watched the Ind onesian ro und
of the Wor ld Superbike Series las t night,
I'm left wit h a couple of impr essions of
Jolin Kocinski: H e is n o t mu ch of a
teamma te, d ep riv in g Aa ro n Slig h t of
needed points in the first ra ce; a nd he
showed little regard for Simon Crafar in
race tw o, a ra ce tha t nearly end ed in
traged y for the Kawasaki rider.
In both cases, Kocinski showed his
selfishness - his personal "10 wi n" age nd a coming before a ll e lse . If he d oes
Letters to th e ed itor shou ld be sent to
Vo ices, Cycle Ne ws, P.O. Box 498, Long
Beach, CA 90806-0498, faxe d to 562/4276665 or e-mail. edito r@cyclenews.com.
Pub lish e d letters do no t n ecessar ily
reflect th e positio n of Cycle News, Inc.
Letters s ho ul d no t exceed 200 wo rd s
and all le tters a re su b ject to ed itin g,
An onym ous letters wil l not be con sidered for publica tio n. All le tte rs should
contai n the w riter's name, a ddress and
daytime p hone number ... Editor.
INSIDE
Issue #46 Nt>vember 19, 1997
FEATURES
ARST RIDE '
1998 Yama ha R-1..
INTERVIEW
Team Suzuki's Larry Ward
SUPERCROSS
Rou nd I - FIM World Supercross
Cham pions hip Series from Spain
6
10
SHOW
Tokyo Motorcycle Show
20
DEPARTMENTS
EVENTS
12
HARE AND HOUND
Rou nd 7 - A,\IA at iona l
Champ ionship Hare & Hound Series
from Wen do ver, Nevada
16
-
O RCUUTION
ing very fast, very dependab le and very
legal raci ng mach ines for well o ver 25
yea rs . Tho ugh Wood y m a y no t have
grabbed the headli nes such as Muzz y or
Ferracci, he is very well res pected by his
~n; an d anyone who ha s ~\'er thrown
a leg ove r one of his awesome works of
art. Any race r wh o g rids a lo ngsi de a
machine wi th th at famo us " w k r" logo
on the tank knows it's going to be tough
to bea t.
The o nly things I see as "lud icro us"
abou t Harley Twin Sports racing are the
rules the m se lves. From AMA's "cornpletely stoc k" to NASB's "ho rse power
after the fac t" ru les, it's all B.S. How can
a 1200cc machi ne w it h 59 hp on th e
d yno la p Daytona two seconds fas ter
than an 883 wi th ap proxima tely 67 hp
and the sa me rider on boa rd? That wa s
exactly the case at Daytona.
For those of you w ho believe any of
the top bi kes only h ad 65 hp o n the
track, the good news is that December
25 is not far away and Santa is looki ng
forward to see ing yo u, too.
The only "b lack mark" I cou ld see on
yo u ng Mr. C icco tto's ca ree r we re th e
ones he was pa in ting all over the speedway on a very cru de - by 1997 standards
- machine.
Cong ratu lations to Wood y, Mike and
bike owne r Jimmy Stevens . Th e way I
saw it fro m m y van tag e point o n t he
infield was tha t the World C lass o f
Ha rley Tw in Sports came into your back
yard and you kicked their asses ... twi ce.
John Black stock
O ermont ,GA
MOTOCROSS
Wh ite Brothers Vet Motocross Wor ld
Cha mpionships from San Bernardi no,
California
18
26
LEADERBOARD
40
NEW PRODUCTS
41
RESULTS
44
CALENDAR
46
WANTADS
50
INTHETAPES.:
67
LOOKING BACK
67
ON THE FRONT COVER
Alan Cathcart rides the all-new Yamaha
YZF-Rl in Spa in. Sec pa ge 6 for a ridi ng
impression of Yamah a's latest openclass spo rtbike . Photos by Gold &
Goose.
