Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DNF BY MARK HOYER . f I hear Nascar and Supercross in the sam e se n te nce o ne mo re ti me I'm gon na puke. Wretch ! Oops, th ere it was, and it was my own d amn fault. Doesn 't a nybody out th ere wa tc h AMA road racing? No w that's a show . Factory rigs abound , wi th full pro fessional presentation, free posters featuring semi-no rmal-looking rid ers w ho are generally very amiable and cou rteous, and way -cool m otorcycles th at lo ok strikingly similar to bikes you can buy. Oh, yeah, and they actually ha ve advertising s p ace on th em - ju st lik e th em Na scars. I'm not trying to denigrate the Super cross program. It reall y is a fine show . But have you taken a hard look at the bikes? Yeah , I ca n go bu y one pretty much on the che a p, and fro m a fan ' s per spective tha t's a really cool way I can identify with the rid er - he does it, and so d o I, therefor e I am coo l, like him. It ' s a good a d fo r th e b i ke, but dammit, man, fro m an outside advertiser' s perspec tive, a mot ocross bike makes a lo u s y b illb oard . A n d r id in g gea r? Mo re often th an n ot, th e rid in g- gear sponsor pre tt y much locks in its own na me on the premier square-inchage that' s available for hire, wi th a sleeve or two here an d there for the odd outsider like those phone people that help Jere my. And jus t where exactly are the factory rigs pa rked during the Supercross main event? Usually out in the parking lot w here nobod y can see the m. No t so a t a road ra ce . Nice big, shi ny trucks parked right behind pit road and usually in full view of the main gra ndstands . Now tha t's presen tatio n. If two-wheelers s hould get ou tside mon ey, it sho uld be road racers . Peo ple ca n id entify with road bikes, and ca n (and so me times mu st) use them on the street. Street bikes ar e cool. Not only can I you make a fashion statement wi th one, you can justify its u tilitarian value in a way that is much more difficult to justify with a dirt bike . It does take some co m mit men t to ride a st reet bike, but that's what makes us such a good target au dience. So ye a h, Nasca r has th at ca r th in g g oi n g for it - you know , th at four w heeled device tha t even grandma can wield with fairly unencumbered authorit y a n d grace. You can practically be co m a tose a n d driv e o n e. Ju st loo k aro und the next tim e you hit the high wa y: Welcome to the Road of the Livin g Dead. And d oe sn't ev erybod y and his or her grand ma have to own one? I mean, it's a pretty good pitch to make to Brand X Miracle Consumable Product, because w e who consume must drive cars to get to the store to bu y our grocer ies and ciga re ttes and b eer a n d d eterg en t and deodorant and motor oil and batteries and stuff. But bikers have b.o., too. And we are serious, active people, peopl e w ho co u ld surely u se a good deod orant as much as the next guy. I will freely admit that I am a freak (though I do use deodorant) . I d on ' t have cable. I drive British cars . If there were a good beater British pickup truck 25 years old or older that leaked oil, had oddly wired and poorly co nnected electrics, cooling problems , a leaky top , SUs and a mixture of SAE, W hitworth and metric nuts and bolts, I'd own it, and be engaged in an ongoing "restoration" process. As it is, my mountain bike cost three times the price of m y truck. (It's a 10year-old Japanese bea te r with more miles th a n the Voyager spacecraft, smar tly wi red a nd well -co n nec ted electrics that so me times don 't work, an oil leak, a water leak , a way-too-complica te d Asian carb a nd a leaky top. A t least it's all metrrc. Lik e many men , I had to "se ll" it to my spouse as reliable and usefu l, much in the way I sold her on myoid Jaguar E-Type as a "statio n wagon.") An yway, so I'm a bit freaky. But I love road racing, and freak or no , I've got to spen d m y money. H ell , I lo ve s pe ndi ng it . When Pepsi h ad Ke vin Schwantz, I was with Pepsi. If a mountain bik e-m anufacturer spo nsors a race team, I'll be with them. Judging by a ll the mountain-bike-related injuries that road racer types suffer, I'd say so me body like Trek would be a natural for a su perbike team - think of th e cool pit bik es. And Trek's got a real expertise with carbon-fiber (they've made a frame that my 215 pounds ju st can't break) just think of the "in" it cou ld have: Trek carbon fiber road racing bodywork or su bframes. Or wheels. An out sid e com pan y could become inside and expa nd its br and loyalty with a hard-core dem ogra phic th at likes to spend much too mu ch mon ey on too-cool toys. Su nglasses would be a natural , too. Road racers have as much pretense as anybody, and I' m sure there are a few top -level ra cer s w ho wear g lasses or contacts. Bausch an d Lom b /Ra y Ban would be cool - and big mo ney . Talk to me about how im por ta n t faces hield optics are. Or wi ndscreens. What wellheeled s p ortb ike ent husiast would n' t dig a Ray Ban faceshield? And talk abou t outside indus try going inside: Make a faces hie ld wi th a prescription no mo re u ncomfortable gla sses or dry contacts while you' re out rippin ' up the road. And if yo u're out doing jus t that, or on a nice bike tour, what's the numberone quick-calorie roa d food that yo u' re p racticall y gua ra n teed to find at least every third exit in most semi- po pu lated areas? McDon ald s, of course . And if it's n ot M ick ey D' s, th en it's Denny ' s - . there 's just no "d ennying" it. Hell , just think of th e p ossibilities with Jack in the Box. I mean, it migh t be tough to make the rid er w ea r the big white "Jack" helmei with the funny yellow hat and pointy nose, but it's a natural. I can hear it now: "Really, Mr. Chandler, there's a lot of mon ey in it for you if you 'd just put this on .:" Or how about this? Honda, needs to make a picku p truck. Just thi nk of the opportunity for Big Red to squeez e a bit of money from the fat-cat car side of its biz: Picture Miguel DuHam el and Ben Bostrom in custom-painted Honda pickup tru cks (wearing Ray Bans and wi th a little Jac k in the Box antenna ba ll, of course) driving into an eve nt in front of everybod y - with their actual race bikes tied down in the back! Hell, even th e se mi -weird -looki ng dudes like Anth ony Gobert and hi s eve r-changing hair color have a cha nce with the outside mon ey. "In an amaz ing one-million th-of-a-second victory over A tla nta Poli ce Departm ent -s pon sored Scott Russell, Clairol-sponsored Ant hony Gobert took Du ca ti to its first Daytona 200 win in blah blah blah ." A new color at every round... I suppose when the time is right, the ou tside-of-biking sponsorship money will flow. But mo torcycles always seem to be a rough sell, no matter if it's for the dirt or the street. Motorcycling is an active choice. Driving a car is a necessity in a way tha t motorcycling just isn't in the United States . Maybe if we cou ld ge t gas prices up to about fou r bucks a galIon, tw o wheels wo uld become.as necessary - or more so - than four. Until then, let' s leave Nascar ou t of it - I spent goo d mon ey on that Sourdo ug h f~ Jack, and I'd like to keep it d own. LOOKING BACK... 30 YEARS AGO,.. MARCH 15, 1968 , Ascot lOO-lap IT cove rage was inside, and who better to put on the cover than Mr. Ascot IT himself, Skip Van Leeuwen (T rD, who too k h is third win at th e eig hth running of the event, fini shin g ahead of Eddie Mulder (Tri) and Mert LawwiII (H-D)... Preston Petty piloted his twi n-port Suzuki TM250 to the 250cc Senio r wi n at the Cas taic Motocross in Cas taic, California... Up in Nort hern Califo rnia, Mike Elli s (Yam) was the class of the l 00cc Amateur/Expert d ivision at the Sierra M.e. motocross in Au burn... We dabbled with both project bikes and custom bikes way back then, showing you how to modify your Honda 450 for speed or sport, and also fea turing Bo b Og le's i m p r e s si v e H onda 450 custo m . T he bike to o k six m onths an d $1700 to co mp let e... Vetter introduced its n ew fa ir ing ; du bbed th e h a n t om 2, t was a precu rso r to th e wil d ly p op ul a r Wind jam mer. 20 Y SAGO.., EAR MARCH15, 1978 It was Dayt o na preview time, but Marty Trip es (Hon) g ra bbed th e cover for his rousi ng victo ry a t th e Atla n ta Su p ercr o ss ... Tea m H on d a was d oing well off roa d, too, as Mi ke Hannon (Hon) "thu m ped" to th e overall vic tory in the Chapa r ral Natio nal Enduro at Red Moun tain, California. Ho n da's Rick Munyon won the 250cc class ... Par t seven of th e "How to ride like th e Hurr icane" series covered the subject of passing... Yrjo Vesterinen (Bull remained hot on the World trials scene, netting his second straight victory in Rha ya d e r, England . America 's Bernie Schreib er (Bull was eighth... We interviewed female e nd u ro rider An n Mennell and Camel Pro racer Steve Eklund ... We to o k a n all encom passing lo o k a t "T he Day to na Sce ne" .. . W e also featured an extensive i n te rview w ith A MA s upe rc ross promo te r M ike Goodwin... 1 0YEARS AGO... MARCH 9,1988 Our Dayto na Preview Issue featured interviews with road racer Randy Renfrow and motocrosser Rick Ryan ... Jeff Wa rd (Kaw) and Erik Kehoe (Suz) we re the 250cc and 125cc victors, respectively, at the opening round of th e AMA / Bel -Ray 250cc/ RK Cha in 125cc a tional Cham pionship MX Series in Gainesville, Florida ... Dutchman Racing (Suz) scored a conroversia l win a t th e AMA /EBC Brakes Daytona 3-Hour after the AMA docked Hype r Cycle's Carry And rew a lap for reportedly fa iling to heed a co rner worker's flag, and for erra tic ridi n g ... K e v i n Schwantz gave us some insight in to th e se nsa tion of circu lating the Day to na Interna tional Speedway roa d cou rse wit h his story: "A lap of Daytona, my way." Daytona stalwart Chris Carter also contributed a story , offering us a look at the "foreign invasio n" of riders at the Daytona 200... European editor Alan Ca thcart rode Wayne Gardner's World Cha m pirx onship-winning Honda NSRSOOD road racer . A B ~

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