Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127964
_ _ 1 fou n d that to be the exac t o p posi te . Because it' s a mor e casua l a tmosp here, la cking a lot of th e regu la tion and so fo rth , th e a tmo sphe re is more ca su al. The guys who rid e Evolu tion bik es are m uch more kicked back and much less uptight. T hey' re n o t w orried a bout wheth er they have an eighth-of-an -inch too mu ch rear travel, w hether he' s go t the p r oper fo r k, th e prop er hub . If you' ve go t so mebody looki ng over your shoulder, then yo u tend to get uptight. Th e Evol u tio n rid er s are ther e for one reason: to rid e their old bike and have a good time. Nobody is go ing to get a factory ride ou t of this deal and nobody is going to make mon ey. They 1re usually in th is for tw o reason s: On e, the y lik e ri di ng th e b ikes ; a nd tw o , th e y like wo rking on the bikes . Y O U w e re a trustee of AHRMA and were heavily involved with what is generally regarded as the vintage sanctioning body in this country. What led you to leave and start Evolution racing? I still at tend an occas ional AHRMA race, and I don 't have any animosity towards the organ ization as an entity . I certainly don' t see eye to eye wi th so me of the controlling figures there. AHRMA d idn ' t want to co me to grips w it h the fact that it was going to need to be progressive in order to su rvive. There wi ll come a point in time that anybody w ho has a n interest in p re-'75 mo tocross bikes w ill be d ea d - al t h ou g h that' s exaggera ting a point to make a point. I d id n't , a a trustee in the org anizatio n, want to pu t my time, effort, energy and m o ney int o an ·orga niza tion th a t w a s headed towards a d ead end . I w ould , like to, at some poin t, think that m y sons w ou ld be int eres ted in restort'tg and racing noncurrent motorcycles. But the motorcycles th ey will be int erest ed in w ill be th e motorcycles that they rod e w he n t h ey w ere 16 to 20 yea rs old . Those mot orcycles for my sons, who are 8 and 10, are still on a d rawing boa rd in Jap an so me w he re. Everything becomes vin tage w it hin tim e, bu t the orga n iza tion didn' t wa nt to recognize tha t - in the mot ocross arena. They have included more-m od ern bikes in their roa d racing, dir t tra ck a nd t ria ls . Th eir mot ocross is pret ty firm ly held by Dick Mann and he subscribes to on ly one theory, and tha t is tha t afte r 1974, wit h the adven t of long- tra vel suspens io n, the sport was no longe r the sport that he felt w as worth preserving. We came to a philosophical impasse. Q A J umpi ng b a ck to the up co m ing banq u e t a nd the motocross a t Glen Helen, is th ere one ma n you look up to as being you r motocross hero? Roge r DeCos ter - to me, as a kid I growi ng up - epitomized eve rythi ng I ever wanted to be in a motocrosser. He was fit , he was mechan ica lly astute, he was professional in his approach, tid y in his appearance... he was eve ry thing. I've been fortu na te eno ugh to become friends with him in the past few yea rs and it feels a little bit. odd to say that he's still an id ol. Th ere are goi ng to be a lot of other riders there w ho I really look up to - guys like Dave Bickers, who was a tw o-time Euro pean Cha mp io n . There w a sn ' t a Wo rld Championsh ip then , so he was really the World Cha mpio n . H e ' s a two-tim e World C ha m p io n in m y mind . Gerrit Wolsink , Beng t Aberg - the list goes on . Th ere a re prob ably 100 heroes th a t I ha ve out th ere and 40 of th em wi ll be show ing up. n All Classes! 500cc, 250cc. 125cc, BOcc, SOcc, Vets. Senio.... Women , Evolution, Vintage. PeeWee Skill level: Pro Claas 250/125 classes only. Exp.• Int., Novice, and Beg. in all classes except '". . . . . .nd Evolution which will go by bike size. (I ;,~ ! ~~ AMA Membership required. All riders must race a qualifier to be eligible to race the AMA Caldom ia State Championsh ip, October 17 & 18, 1998, at Glen Helen Raceway. 4-moto race lormal. Riders must race both days to l)ll eligible lor prizes. FREE CYCLE NWS STICI{ERSI For 2 free Cycle News stickers, send a self-addressed, stamped legal-sized envelope to: Cycle News Free Stickers Offer P.O. Box 5084 Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084 00 0"1 0"1 ,....; ~ ' ,....; I-< CJ ..0 o .... u o 53