Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"Well, Jeremy, my advice to you is don't wait until next year." Petcoc k I am wondering if someone there can he lp me out? I ha ve a 1992 Honda CBR 600F2. I just got it out for the summer, but I c an' t remember wh at way the little gas-tank sw itch on th e sid e of the bike goes to turn the tank on , and what w a y i s for the spare tank . It is like a triangl e shape with one end pointed and the other like a square. I am really curious about this. Can anyone there help me out? Brian Brown \l7a the InffNnet Tum the "tank switch " so that the "little triangle shape" is p ointing up toward th e gas tank (th at big bulbouslooking thing w ith th e Honda emblem on the side). This will ensure that th e flammable liqutd in th e tank finds its way to th e device that mixes a ir and fu el to ultimately cause com b usti on. By th e way, Brian , bela ted congratu lations on your Hare [, Hound title [rom two y ears ago. Hard to believe you won th e title w it ho ut kn owing ho w to turn on y our fuel. You factory riders are all alike... Editor Worth Its Salt I had the pleasure of attending round 15 of the Supercross season in Salt Lake Ci ty and wou ld like to encourage everyone to make an attempt to atte n d this location next year if i t remains on the schedule . From the scenic mountains in th e background to the friendl y, enthusi astic race fans , combined with unbelievable 250 ra ce action that had the crowd still on it s feet halfway through the main, it was a m emorable week end all the way around . I was ex pecting to see Ernesto Fonseca wrap up the 125cc West title , but the int ense 250cc competition th is late in the ser ies completely caught me off guard . We haven 't seen the l ast of Tim Ferry at the front of the pack is my pred iction after watch ing h im race Saturday night. Thank you PACE (a ctually , SFX... Editor) for adding such a great location to the series schedule . I ho pe it becomes a permanent stop on the tour. MIchael Rigdon \l7 the Internet a Behind Emig I was amazed to read that TheEdgeSports.com Kawasaki team was forced to fold due to financial problems caused by the title sponsor's inability to me et its m on et ary ob liga t i on s. Wow, that's p ret ty shad y. I' m a huge fan of Jeff Emig 's and feel rea lly bad for him. The gu y j ust c an' t seem t o g et a break . Hang in t here, J eff, and d on 't g iv e up . All yo u r friends and countless f an s a re looking forward to th e launch of your new team - Emig Racing . Kevin Henriques Blythe, CA One Man's Advice After watching the Dallas Supercross on ABC , there are three th ings I would like to say . First, I would like to thank ABC for showing the exciting sport of Supercross on national television . Second, congra tulations to Ricky Carmichael on his dominating performance this season to win his first Supercross Championship . Third, a message to Jeremy McGrath who, when interviewed after the race , said , " T h i s t ime we finished second , but I'm gonna go get them again next y e a r ." Well , Jeremy , m y adv ice to yo u is, don't wa it until next year. If you are really serious about w inn ing y o u r Supercross t itle back, instead of taking a summer vacation , y o u n eed to be at the motocross Nationals - rac ing and getting quality time on your motorcycle in race conditions. And maybe you can gain a mental advantage ove r Carmichael by beating him at his own game of outdoor motocross. I, and I'm sure many others , hope to see you at the Nationals. :Jack Eubank \l7 the InffNnet a In Agreement I hav e to ag r ee wi t h Mark K olb's c o m m ent s ( Voic es, Issu e #1 7, Ma y 2 ) . My son and I also applied to sev era l of the KTM Challenge rac es and he was not selected , which i s fine . Until now , I was afra id to say any th ing t h i n ki n g it would hurt his chances of being selected for future races, but m y son is now too old, so here it goes. I find it more than a littl e remark able that after Ken Griffey 's state ment on TV that his son was picked and so o n after Jeff Ward's son was also selected (for races in both hometowns ), that KTM could say that this is a random pick. I feel they are full of the same & %$# that Mr. Kolb insisted on . Did Mr. Griffey or M r. Ward fi ll out all the paperwork? If so , let's see it! What does Ken Gr iffey Jr.'s son 's resume look like? A lso, while yo u're at it, let's get a break down of exac tl y how this "ran d om " se lect i o n i s mad e ( p r o vi de som e so lid statistics of how man y e ntr a n t s/c o n test a n t s you had ) . If th ese gentlemen had the only ballots in a " ra nd o m " dra w ing , KTM c o u ld still say it was fair. I f eel at le ast these two slots f o r th e year were taken away from other devoted racing families and k ids to get KTM a little extra publicity. Sfr:Jcy ft Taylor smith \l7a the InffNnet Thanks, RC Thanks to Ricky Carmichael for c li nchi ng the 250cc Supercross title two races early. I already pay enough ($500 a year ) for cable and th ink having a pay-per-view final is going too far. If most of that money went into the purse, I would be more than happ y to pay a little extra for the fi n al. Since i t ' s onl y l ining SFX 's po ckets, no thanks, I'll stick to Cycle News. By th e way, now that RC has cl inched the 250cc Supercross title , do we have to ca ll him Rick? Daniel :Jendre NortMeld Center, OH Spit Happens I have to say I found the coverage of the recent World Mini (Issue # 18 , May 9 ) to be lacki ng. Consid ering that Mr. Al essi penned the article , I found. it quite int eresti ng that there was not a m er e m ention of the WWF brawl b et ween himself and Mr. M illsaps . F rom w ha t I understand, it was , f or man y , th e h ighlight of the event. It co uld have been great - a first -h and account. Th is is the type of stuff that headl i n e s are made of. We 're talking evening news material , yet not a word in the paper. Tha t's right, l et' s just push it under the carpet like it never h appened . Keep in mind th is is not the fi rst incident and I'm sure it won 't be the last. I believe we have a pattern developing here and it' s time for some accountability. Fi rst, I have to say I'm disappointed to know that Cycle News supports and publishes (pl ease tell me you 're not paying him) someone of this caliber. These are just little kids who should be o ut ha v ing fun while they're racing . Not kids trying to take out the co m pet i t i on bas ed on the o rder s o f the ir domineering, has-been , I'II -Iive-vicari- cue' c ously-through -my -children fathers. I have to say I'm ashamed to be part of an industry that allows and supports th is type of behav ior. And , yes , by condoning these exploits , you are perpetuating the behavior and you are part of the problem . If you want to stop this k ind of activity, sponsors , newspapers/magazines and promoters need to take a hard line. Display this type of beha vior and yo ur kid's sponsorship is over , we won 't print yo u r articles and your k id s will be disqualifi ed . I don 't ca re if y o u are the so called next big th ing. Please tell m e our sport isn't going to end up like Little League. Isn 't it bad enough that w e want to be like NASCAR? Heather Mcleod Santa Qartta. CA Let me clarify some things. Firs t of all, Tony Alessi w as hired by Cycle News as a co n t ributor to cover th e World Min i even t. Un fortuna tely , there w as an incident between longtime Cycle N ews con tributor Alessi and Mil lsaps ( th e p arents. not th e racers) at t he racetrack. Sin ce we didn't ha ve an editor at the event, it was impossible for us to report on what happened in a fair an d accura te ma nne r beca use we were n 't there to w it ness wh at occurred. To allow Alessi to give readers a "fi rst-ha n d account " of w h a t happ ened would have been unfair to Millsap s, th us our repo rt focused on w hat happened on the racetrack and n ot off the ra cetra ck. We do no t i n any way condone this sort of beh av ior at the rac etrack and w e regret tha t it happened, especi ally si nce on e of t he co m b a ta n ts w as , at th e tim e, working as a reporter for Cycle News. Although w e ca n't say w he the r o r not Alessi will be in vol ved in an incident of this type again, h e won't do so as a representative of Cycle News... Editor n c vv S • MAY 16. 200 1 5

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