Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(IDill~ VOICES America's week ly mo torcycle newspaper LETTE STO R THE EDITOR Volume XXXV Sharo n Cla yto n, President Michael Klin ger, Publisher Ed ito ria l Paul Carru the rs, Editor Kit Palm er, Associate Editor Scott Rou sseau, Associate Editor Mark H oyer, Mallagillg Editor Keith Bus h, Assistallt Editar/Covy Editor Alan Ca thcart, European Editor David R. Ho lth er, Copy Editor Advertisin g Terry Pra tt, Nationa l Accounts Mmwger Mark Tho me, Western Sales Manager Thomas Gonter, Western Sales Manager Forrest Hayash i, Western Sales MllIlOger Greg Mitchell , Eastern A C COll11 tSManagl'T Jim Clar k, Eastern Sales Mallager . Rhon d a C ra w ford , Western Ad Coordinator Brid gett Bobrofsky, Assistant Ca rla Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Marketing & Promotion' Ma rk Thome, Director Forrest Hayashi , Manager Kory Klinger, Dealer Representative New Medi a De velopment Rick Matheny, Webmaster Classi fied Ad s Ted Ker r Graphics and Production Man d y Loa , Art Director Den nis Greene, Lab. Tech. A ma nda Wollny, Graphic Artist Sandi Ge ttys, Graphic Artist Pau l Fisher, Graphic Artist Ad ministration Jud y Klinger, Coordinator Leanne Sims , Adnnnistratioc Assistant Accou n ting /Da ta Processing Don na Brya n-Diamond , AIR Coordinator Geneva Repa ss. Assistant Theresa Milburn, Credit Circu lation Alma Ang uiano, Circulation Manager Ca ro l Maggio, Processing Coordinator Pam Klein, Billing Coordinator Joy Lau, Dealer Coordinator Service and Support Shannon Clark , Receptionist Jim O lson, Serviceand Suppon ' ~. 3505-M Ca d illac Ave ., Casto Mesa, CA 92626 P.O . Box 5084, Cos ta Mesa , CA 92628-5084 (714) 751-7433 FAX (714) 751-6685 MMern O ffic e 4188 First Ave ., Tucker, GA 30084 P.O . Box 805, Tu cker, GA 30085-0805 (770) 934-7850 FAX (770) 934-3112 e-m ail ed itor@cyclenews.com su bsc ribe®cyclene ws .com ad vertising@cydenews.com Internet h ttp :/ /www.cyc1ene w s.com Cycle Npw!'o(USPS 141-340) is published we kly except the e last two week:.of the calendar YPM for $50.00 per year by . Inc., 3505-M Cadillac Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 9262b. Periodicals Postage Paidat Costa Ml <;,l, CA and .It > additional mailing office. Canada Post International Publications Mail #54661 5. Thanks for the recent Shootout between the five 250cc motocross op tions avail able in th e U.s. (Issu e #45, Nov em be r 18). Grou pi ng the rid er impressions of each manu facturer s' offerings by rid er expe rience wa s enl igh ten ing an d quite interes ting - nice for mat. My question is ... w he re w a s th e six t h 25 0cc motocros ser d uri ng this Shoo tou t - the YZ400? It seems like the YZ400 sho uld be eva lua te d aga in st th e o the r five he ad to h ea d. Tha t' s th e sa me way it races against them eve ry Su nda y. Erick Averna Eavern a@ le.com app Shootout II I.a m w riting in respon se to th e 250cc Shootou t in a previ ous issue and the fact tha t the bike that w on the AMA 250cc Na tional Championship was no t included . I think this om ission was rightfully driven by the difference in mo tor di splaceme nt between the Nat iona l wi nne r and all the other 250s. I believe the AMA ru le to allow larg er disp laceme nt fo ur-strokes into the 250cc class was written to help push the deve lo p me n t of lo u d ove rw eight dinosaurs in to equa l competition w ith two-s trokes. This has obviously bee n a ch ieved throug h the gre at work of Yama ha and the un believable talen t of Doug Henry. They d id an excellent job and shou ld be congratoiated . Bu t, now that the four-strokes have proven themselves competitive, they need to race on equa l term s. The AMA's best position wo uld be to bri ng back the 500cc class and let the YZF400 kick some bu tt aga inst relatively equal adversaries. O r else the 400 could a lways race in th e four-s tro ke-o n ly Na tiona ls, altho ug h that se ries do esn' t carry the clou t of "the" Nationals or the Su percross Series . The 400 is not a 250 an d shou ld not be raced in th e 250cc Natio na ls or t h e Su perc ross Se ri es u nless the AM A cha nges the classification o f eit her of ou r na tion' s greatest race series to an Open class. jef Morgan Morgan ja@prodigy.net To the LA Times Bu ried in the second- to-las t paragraph of jo hn M. Cli onna's in flammatory arti- cle on off-roa d use in the Sand Dunes Park is the stateme nt that 80 percen t of th e a ccid ents in th e p ark a re a lcohol rela ted . The first 10 colum ns d ea l on ly with th e horri bl e accid en ts tha t occu r fro m th e use of the se legal mach in es , . lead ing a casual reader to conclude that it is solely "the man ic motoris ts" dealing dea th and injury. The sta te has systema tica lly clo sed off land for off-road use, lead ing to the ver y ove rcro wd ing d ecried in the article. Yes, there are a few id iots ou t there on off-roa d ve h icle s, and when idiots a re com bin ed with a lcoho l u se, acci den ts wi ll h ap p en . Wh en yo u fo r ce everyone into one sma ll area the statistics look mu ch wo rse. Your article tarred and fea thered a gro u p of law -abiding and nature-loving individuals because of the actio ns of a few bad ap p les. The langu age was hysterical ("...a silent ome n of the chaos that ru les the d esert floors below" ) and the reporting unbalan ced (not single quo te from 'the American Motorcyclist Association). Motorcycl ists exist, and we will continu e to do so until we are legislated out of existence. Unfortu nately, it looks like th e LA Ti m es is de te rmined to h el p make this happen. Ka theri ne Kelly Herm osa Beach, CA a Kelly wrote the above letter 10 the Los Angeles Times in response 10 a slory 1110 1 was printed in the daily n£7ospal'''' on Thu rsdav, N ovember 26... Editor Risk vs. $$ I am w riti ng in respon se to the le tte r from Rober t Broo ks in which he mad e th e point tha t th e ri s k o f o ne 's spo rt sho uld not and d oes not bear any correlation to compensatio n. Mr. Brooks also ind ica ted that, in his opi nion , road racers going 200 mph on the Hockenheimrin g race cou rse were far more d arin g and int eresting than su percro ss rid ers jum pin g over "some d irt berm s an d hay bales." . I ce r tai n ly ca n n o t arg u e wit h th e p oin t that com pe nsa tion doesn' t bea r any relation ship to risk. However, tha t does not me an tha t the point mad e by ano ther read er in a pa st lelt er to the ed itor is not valid . O ur society has chosen to tolerate compensa tion levels that defy any logic. Hopefull y, our societal con- INSIDE Issue #48 December 9, 1998 (Veil' News, FEATURES DEPARTMENTS POSTI\1ASTER: Send address changes 10 Cycle News, P.O. Box 5084, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084. ARENACROSS Round s 5 & 6 - AMA / Pj l Na tional NEW PRODUCTS 12 EVENTS 18 CALENDAR .30 WANT ADS .34 To determine the expiration dale of your subscription, check the four nu mbers on the first line of your address label. The first two digits indicate the last issue numb er you'll recei ve and th e last two characters ind icate the year of the l.lst iss ue. Subscription rates : R.ltL for the United States and its pos.*'s'S ' sions for one vear (SO issue ), $50.00; two yenTS 000 Issues ), s $Q 5.00; six m~n lh~ (25 isS UlOS $26.00; trial sub 05 issues), ), $19.00. Canada and Foreign. one year (50 issues) , sqO.OO; two vears (l 00 iSSUL'S), $175.00; six months (25 iSSUl'S), $45.00; trial ~ ub (15 iSSUlOS) , $38.00. Cycle News welcomes unsolicited editorialmaterial includ ing stories. cartoons, photos, etc, Such material. if publishe , d becomes the exclus ive property of Cycle News. Reprinting in whole or par t only by permission of the- publisher. Adve rtising rates and circulation information will besent upon reque t. SL,t'S.R.D.S. s 'tV/BDA V tmr-~ Arenac ross Series from jackson ville, Florida 6 OFF·ROAD SCORE Baja 1000 : .8 ACROSS THE ATLANTIC ARSTRIDES 1999 Voxa n Roadster l0 1999 Yama ha Road Star 14 CopyrightC Cvcle News, Inc. 1998. Trad emark Cvcle News registe red U Patent Office. All rights reserved. .S. LOOKING BACK ONTH E FRONT COVER AUDITED CI RCUL AT ION Printed in U.S.A. , DRAG RACE AMA / Pros tar World Fina ls from Gainesv ille, Florida 16 First rid e, first ride' The 1999 Yama ha Road Star cru ises by the lens of Scott Sesna in No rthern Californ ia. Inset: The Voxan Roadster. .51 .51 science will reverse this patte rn, as it is clear that the middle American is resent in g th es e p ri ma d onna s . Th is is evid en ced by the d ecli ning attenda nce at th ese types of sport ing eve nts and .the use of the techniqu e of man u facturing a ttendance via tea m relocation . Fu r t he r, I w o u ld q u e s tio n Mr . Broo ks' m otorcy cle alleg ia nce, as the tru e motorcyclist and race fan ap precia te s a ll fo r ms of ra ci ng . Alt hou gh I have never att en ded a su p erbike race an d I d o not seek them out on television, I do enjoy them whe n I happen to catch them on the tub e - and the same goes for drag raci ng, speedway racing, etc. I d on' t w an t t o o ffe n d an y roa d racers, but anyone w ho has w itn essed a su pe rcross race firs t hand kn ows that it ta kes se r ious co u rage a nd s kill to land a n 80- foo t tr ip le jump si de-byside when the takeoff and land ing are at th e h eights of yo u r ho use . Let me ass u re you tha t it is com pletely absurd to ca ll this jumping over a berm or a ' hay ba le. Rega rdi ng viewers hip an d a t te ndan ce, the mo tocross /supercross series is on the rise. In 1998 the sport saw the first primetime telecast on the ABC netwo rk. Also a firs t in 1998 was the Ll.S, Open of Supercross in Las Vegas at the MG M Grand, w h ich in cl u d e d an u np re ce d en te d $100,000 fi rst-p lace prize. Las tly, to so lidify m y p oin t, if we were to put two signs on any street corn e r in A me rica a n d ad ve r tise a liv e au tograph sig ning sessio n wit h je re my McGra th or Mick Doo ha n, w ho do you th in k is go ing to draw more people? Yeah, I know, the guy who ju mps over ber ms and hay bales. Jeff Pollard Santa Cla rita, CA Letters to the ed itor sh ou ld be sent to Voices, Cycle N e ws, P.O. Box 5084, Costa M esa , CA 92628-50 84, faxed to 714/751-6685 or e-m ail , editor@cyclenews.com . Pub lished letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters sh ou ld not exceed 200 words and all lelters are subject to editing, Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication. All letters s hould contain the writer's name, address and daytime phone number ... Editor.

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