Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BY B LAKE C ONNER 30 YEARS AGO... JUNE 22, 1971 The start of t he 100-mile Loudon Al'IA . Nati on al Road Ra c e a nd the finish of th e Baja 500 both grace d th e c ov e r of Issu e #23 .. . The Loudon Nati ona l Road Ra ce was decided by a mere six inc he s, as Mark Brels ford (H-D) pa ssed Kel Carrut hers (Yam) acr oss the finish line for the win after 100 miles of racing. In other news, an airplane towing a banner was photographed above the Loud on National; the ban ner read "Pop whe elies , not pills - Boston Cycles ..... Malco lm S mi th and J. N. Roberts (Hus) teamed up to win the Baja 500 in the Motorcycle class. They were , however. defeat ed overall by 23-year-old former motorcycle dese rt racer Bobby Ferro in an off - road car... Road-racer Paul Bostrom was pho togra phed racing his Kawa sa ki past a fellow racer during a benefit road race in Vacaville, Calif omia... One week earlier, Bostrom finished second aboard a Triumph in the Expert main at the Pro TT in Castle Rock, Washington. Chuck Joyner (Tri) won the event. 20 YEARS AGO... JUNE 17, 19B1 Ha rle y-Davids on' s new FLT Tour Glide Classic was p hot o graphed for the cover of Issue #23 a nd we had the opportunity to put 1000 miles on the mach ine, which already had 1000 miles on it when we picked it up. Althoug h we had no probiems with the machine, it was pointed out that the gas mileage hovered around 35 to 40 mpg, but it wasn't the best commuter bike, because of the size. It was also poin te d out that, for the $77 96 asking price, you could buy a full -sized Japanese tourer and a middleweight bike of the same brand for commuting... Team Suzuki's Kent Howerton had his overall-win strea k broken at six when Bob Hannah (Yam) raced to 2-1 moto finishes, topping Howert on's 1-2, at round se ven of the 250cc Nation al Mot ocr oss S eries in St . Petersburg , Florida . Broc Glover (Yam) kept his win streak intact at three in the 500 cc class , through three rounds... The tea m of Larry Roeseler and Bruce Ogilvie topped the first-ever Baja intemacional offroad event in Mexico. The team ran a partial fairing (for aerodynamics) on their Yamaha, as well as dirt-track tires for the first 26 miles of paved road. 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 19, 1991 Team Ho nd a ' s J ea n -Michel Bayle smiled for the cover of Issue #23 after clinching the 19 91 Camel Supercross Se rie s championship. Also on ;:;:;:;;;~ the cover were Scott Parker and Jay Springstee n, after Parker tied Springsteen for first on the all-time dirttrack-win list with 40... Oklahoma City was the backdrop for the clinching of the Supercross title, two races before the end of the ser ies . Jeff Ward (Kaw) won the race, and the 29-y ear -old made it eight consecutive years with at least one Supercross victory. Bayle finished second, which was more than he needed to clinch the title. Western Region 125cc points leader Je remy McGr" th mis sed the East/Wes t race with a broken leg but still held the points lead - 167 - 127 - over te ammate Steve Lamson. J eff Emig and Brian Swink went one-two in the main... Parker's 40th dirt-track win came at the Louisville Half Mile, which he and Springsteen both won in their resp ective rookie seasons - the only two to do so... Doug Polen (Due) and Scott Rus sell (Kaw) went one-two in both leg s of th e World Su pe rbike Seri es at Brainerd Intemational Raceway. Polen led the points after four rounds by 31. y ou ca n always tell th e riders who ar e of the fair -weathered variety because they ar e the idiots riding dow n the freeway in shorts and s neakers the se cond it g ets wa rm o ut. Th e re m ust be s ome inn a te beha vio ra l message be ing sent to their bra ins , telling them tha t it's s um mer tim e - th row on the s ho rts and get ou t the bike. Th e problem is that they a ll do it at the same tim e. I realiz e that, in the non -sunbelt sta tes , the thaw -out of spring is th e cata lyst to end cabin fever, but diggin' the shorts o ut of the bottom of th e drawer and the Gixxer out of th e garage in th e same m oment is a bad idea. I hon estly think these people are too ig no ra nt to know a ny better, and don't th ink about the consequen ces of crashing while dressed in beach gea r. I' ve hea rd the ex cuses: "I' m ju st go ing down the street on an errand," or , " I n ev er g o ove r 45 mph . " O f course , most of the people I see doing this are riding sportbikes, and if yo u ha ven't b een p a ying attention la te ly , s po rtb ikes a re getting reatly fast. Th e new GSX -R I 0 00R will do 7 0 mph in first gear, and gets th ere in the twosecon d range. Trust me on th is - last month I high -sided our GSX-R IOOO at 10 mp h o n a c ra p py , c ol d t ire t wo blocks from work - I'm gla d I wasn 't we a ring s horts, beca use I didn't ne ed t he ph y si c al d am ag e a d ded to m y bru ised ego . If there is one th ing I'm sure about, it's the old saying that goes: There ar e two typ es o f riders ; t h o s e who 've crashed , and those who are going to crash. After a ll, these stupid ve hicl es we lov e so mu ch on ly have t wo freakin' wheels, a nd it' s inevita ble. So for those of yo u who have yet to crash, you will, s o us e your brain and be pre pared for it. If you ha ve half a brain and don't want to find out first-hand what a pave ment-graft fe e ls like , I've got a little story for you. At one tim e (a long time ago) I wa s in the "hadn't-y et-c ra she d" c ate gory. I wa s a s tu pid 18-year-old, living in Co lorado where I gr ew up a nd was enamored with sportbikes , but didn 't own on e . I ha d a buddy na med Chris Lynch , however, who did. It was a Kaw asak i GP z550 , but I d o n 't remember wh at ye a r th e bike wa s . It was cherry. Co lorado is n' t on e of those s u n - bel t sta tes tha t boo kend s th e country, a nd we lived in the mountai ns above Denver where it snows a lot. So the Kawasaki spen t a ton of time in the gara ge prior to Chris ' purch as e of the bike. I re membe r begging Chris to let m e take it for a spin , a nd I event ually Tales from the Highside brok e him down. The first time I rode it was trouble free ; I just remember be ing blown awa y by how fast the bike was. I th ink at that time the fastest th ing I'd ever ridden wa s an old Yamaha YZ125 . I was in big trouble afte r I rode that bike - I was addicted . I needed a fix of speed . I had ne ve r ex perie nced an ything that g rabbed my attention like that. Chris an d I worked tog eth er in the kitchen of a loca l country club, a nd he started riding the bike to work as soon a s it got wa rm out. I remember sa livating a t th e th ought of getting a nother ride on the bike . Chris stupidly thought tha t he could trust me, be cause noth ing ha d gone wro ng th e first tim e , so he sa id I could ride the bike after work on e da y. Of course, due to the same c a binfever effect mentioned above , the sec ond it got warm out I wore shorts every si n gle da y un til it snowed aga in th e next fall. As I also mentioned ea rlier , I wa s a stupid know-it -a ll 18 -year-o ld , and I didn't have the judgment to plan ahead and wear jeans and boots a nd a jac ket. So I jumped on the GPz550 and blasted th roug h the parking lot to get m y fix. I made it to one end , but nev er mad e it to t he other . To this day I swea r I hit so me grav el, rea lized that I was go ing too fast , and hit the bra kes. All I remember after that was sliding on th e s ide of m y head fo r a ve ry- lo ng t ime. I was wea ring a he lm et , thank God , because even then I was smart enough to know that I didn't want m y m e lon squash e d a ll o ve r the road . When m y body came to a stop , and the horri ble s ou nd of sc reeching meta l and pla sf ic d ied aw ay , I re m ember th in kin g, "Da mn , does m y s kin fe el hot." Of c ourse it felt hot you moron! Ha lf the s k in on my body wa s n ow embedded in the asphalt for 50 yards . My outfit of choi c e: shorts , a t-shirt, vans a nd thankfully, a helmet . I found out qu ick ly that Chris was a true friend, because 100 percent of his concem was for me and not the bike . O n the other s ide , 100 percent of m y con cern wa s fo r t h e b ik e a n d not m yself. That concern lasted the entire sum mer, as I gave at lea st ha lf of my p a ychec k each wee k to Chr is fo r rep airs to the bike . When I took off the he lmet (one of those old BMW jobs, whic h the en tire front flipped up on ), I rem e m ber th ink ing, "Tha t thing jus t saved m y life ." I skidded on the helmet long enoug h to wear throu gh the s hell to the foam in o ne s pot. If not we arin g it wou ld n 't ha ve kille d me , I wou ld 'v e been o ne ugly, sc arred guy for the rest of my life. Coming up in Cycle News A good lesson either way . Working at the country club ha d its p e rks - free food every night, g ood money, and a great first- aid kit in the ki t c he n mana g er' s offi ce . T h e next th ing I remem be r was feeling dizzy as m y bo dy we n t into shock from th e m any abrasions I'd created. The man ager, wh ose name I can 't rem ember (altho ugh s he was kind of hot), busted out the first-aid kit an d a bottl e of J ack Daniels. My instructions we re to start chugging the Jack be fore s he hit me with the other type of alcohol - the kind that m akes your skin sting like he llfire. It worked, a nd sh e proceeded to clea n m e u p a bit, b e fo re another buddy drove me home . I slept well th at night be cause I h a d gone to b e d dr un k , wh ich wasn 't uncommon at tha t age (o h y e a h , I still do that ) . Th e next morning I felt like someone had poured concrete in m y veins , because I wa s as s tiff as a park ing -lo t c ur b - I co uld barely move. The worst th ing was that, becaus e I'd spent too mu ch time s kateboard ing and pla yin g in my punk ba nd , I was attending s um mer school. I needed to m ake up a spe c ific class , an d as is us ua lly the case, everyone else needed th a t same class. So that moming my parents drove me to school before th ey took me to th e doctor, bec ause th ey were going to make damned s ure I got into that class, skin or no skin. Afte r I wa s sure I h ad mad e th e cla ss roster, m y ste p- mom drove me to the doctor. Now, I think I've always had a high tolerance fo r pa in , bu t ma ybe it was this next event whe re I dis co ver e d wha t m y threshold re a lly wa s . Th e doctor fre a ked out be cause there was a lot of grave l in my wounds a nd he was worried a bout infec tion . He proceed ed to pa int on a loca l a ne sthetic and the n s c ru b m e wi t h a Scotchbrite pad. I kid yo u not, it was the exact same ty pe of pad yo u use to s crub your dis hes. To this da y, I have never felt anythi ng s o pa inful, but at least it made getting tattoos late r in life a breeze. And by the wa y , s ince this incident ha ppene d a ll those years ago, I've cra shed m any more tim e s, and I've alwa ys been dressed for the oc ca s ion and wal k ed a wa y - left only to worry about ho w I wa s going to pay for a nothe r set of bodywor k. But e very t im e I see you ridi n g do wn the freeway in yo ur shorts and tshirt, sans g loves, it dredges up these pa inful memories . So if you don 't care e nough to p rote ct yo urself fro m th is sort of anguish , could you at least give me a break, and do it for me? I'm tired eN of c ringing at the sig ht of yo u. • Southwick MX National • German World Superbike • Road America AMA Road Race • Baja 500 cue I e n e _ s • JUNE 13,20 0 1 83

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