Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

r. 30 YEARS AGO.•• SEPTEMBER 26. 1972 A predominantly yellow photo of Mark Brelsford, adjacent to a big number "1,' was placed on the cover of Issue #37 after Brelsford clinched the AMA Grand National Championship and almost certainly locked up the manufacturers' title for his main sponsor, Harley-Davidson. Inside, we profiled all the members of the Harley-Davidson team, which included Bart Markel, Rex BeauchaJllP, Cal Rayborn, Dave Sehl, Mert Lawwill, Scott Brelsford, and his Champion brother ~ark... We tested the Husqvama 450 CR motocrosser. One of the main observations that came from tlie test was that it was an effort to get the bike to tum, but when you got it tumed, it got out of the comer fast... In the "New Stuff" section, we featured a product called the Tota-Toilet. It was a portable toilet that mounted in most vans and weighed approximately 28 pounds. For the photo, it was carried by a blonde model who was displaying the latrine with a smile. 20 YEARS AGO••• SEPTEMBER 29. 1982 America's first 250cc MX World Champion, Danny laPorte (Yam), graced the cover of Issue #37 in tribute for his feat. LaPorte joined Kenny Roberts as the only Americans ever to win World Motorcycle Championship on their first try, after failing to find any worthwhile rides in the U.S. The fmal GP of the year, held in Sweden, was won by another American, Donnie Hansen (Hon), whlle laPorte fmished second... HO(lda-mounted Team USA topped the Trophee des Nations for the second year in a row, this time in West Germany, with Danny Chandler sweeping both motos. AU of the other Americans, including David Balley, Johnny O'Mara and Jim Gibson, finished inside the top 10 to ensure victory for the team... Ricky Graham topped round 23 of the AMA Grand National Championships at the Hinsdale, Illinois, TT. Steve Ecklund and Mickey Fay rounded out the top three. 10 YEARS AGO•.• SEPTEMBER 23. 1992 One-third of the Team USA "B' squad, Billy Liles, was placed on the cover of Issue #37 after the USA won the Motocross des Nations for the 12th straight time in Australia. Mike LaRocco (Kaw) and Jeff Emig (Yam) were Liles' teammates, and Emig was the top American, going 1-2 in the 125cc class. Belgium finished second ... Larry Pegram won the Fresno Mile, round IS of the AMA Grand National Championships, with ease_ Rusty Rogers and Ricky Graham rounded out the top three... Wayne Rainey (Yam) won his third straight 500cc World Road Racing Championship at the final round in South Africa by finishing third. ~ichael Doohan (Hon) finished second in the points, just four points back, after sitting out practically half the series with a badly broken leg. He finished sixth on the recently healed limb. John Kocinski (Yam) won the race... Bobby Bonds (Suz) beat Joshua Carter (Kaw) and Sean Hamblin (Kaw) to win the 80cc Beginner class at the CMC Trans-Cal MX opener. Travis Preston (Hon) won the 80cc Expert class. D uring the recent 2003 newmodel introductions, manufacturers were stoked to report that industry dirtbike sales are up, with two-strokes up 55 percent and fourstrokes up a whopping 504 percent .from 1998 to 2002. This is great news in the short-term, but longterm, where are people going to ride all these new CRFs, WRFs, DR-Zs, KLXs and EXCs? We have 191 million acres of U.S. Forest Service lands and 262 million acres of BLM lands that provide all sorts of OHV-riding opportunities, from tight woods to dunes, from mountain tops to below-sea-Ievel dry lakes. But that can and will change. Right now, environmentalists are pushing for 2.5 million acres more Wilderness in California (which already has 14 million), 4.8 million in Oregon, and 9 million in Utah. Wilderness seeks to cross state lines, too, with the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act calling for 26 million acres, and the USFS Roadless Area Conservation Rule being pushed in Congress for another 58.5 million acres. That's a lot of closed trails that'll never reopen, and a lot of lost revenues that you and I will pay dearly to offset, year after year. Remember, President Theodore Roosevelt placed the USFS within the Agriculture Department. Just as our government subsidizes U.S. farmers to feed and clothe the world, the USFS is supposed to house, furnish and paper America through timber sales, and entertain us with recreational opportunities, while making Uncle Sam money. One only has to look at Wilderness designations to see that greens are against all that. Every Wilderness designation mandates the obliteration of all existing campsites, regulates the use of pack horses, limits the total number of users, requires permits and the reduction of use-days; eliminates all competitive events (even foot races!); limits firewood gathering; regulates or bans hunting, fishing and trapping; limits grazing; bans mining; and even prohibits replanting burned forests! That's in addition to costly road deconstruction ($8000-plus per mile) and enforcing bans on OHVs and all motorized equipment, plus mechanized vehicles like bicycles and hanggliders! No wheeled-vehicles allowed, so Wilderness designations are actually discriminatory under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yet Wilderness is totally subsidized by taxpayers! Here's how the Big Green Lie works. Greens get five- or six-figure grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, REI, Patagonia, the Sierra Club, or even our own federal government to "save" the planet. They can use this money however they want, as long as it goes to creating Wilderness or otherwise stopping activities they don't like - and Greens don't like much of anything, especially OHVs. If they fail to get Wilderness designation or to identify an "endangered" species or think of something else to halt an activity, they're not doing their "jobs." Never mind that non-management created the heavy fuel loads now burning across the USA, and that Wilderness will create even more. Some riders say "Go ahead, I'll ride anyway." Well, there's bill in Congress right now that will slap a $10,000 fine on anyone who harms Wilderness lands. This bill was OHVonly in its early version, but was revised when the OHV community objected to this obvious discrimination. Remember when Bobby Unser was charged with riding a snowmobile in a Colorado Wilderness area? He got lost, abandoned his snowmobile, walked to civilization and almost died from exposure. The government manufactured evidence against him and spent $750,000 prosecuting the case. Unser spent $100,000 on an unsuccessful defense. Luckily, the judge saw what was really going on and fined Unser only $75. Do you have the name recognition, money, power and lawyers of an Unser? No, you don't. Scarier yet, more Wilderness designations will create more criminal-trespass prosecutions, with us as plaintiffs. Believe me, the cost of fighting Wilderness in the first place is a lot cheaper than whatever comes later. The BlueRibbon Coalition has an alternative to Wilderness called Backcountry Recreation Areas. Instead of locking lands up for all uses but hiking, the BRC Backcountry Recreation Alternative would protect our public lands from development while managing said lands for recreation, including motorized uses like snowmobiles, OHVs and watercraft. It would maintain our USFS system, where 1.5 million vehicles now utilize USFS roads daily, many to access OHV trailheads. Wilderness designations close roads and OHV trails ComIng up In CycleRews Taxpayers spent $1.3 billion fighting wildfires In 2000, yet greens halted more than 800 USFS fuel-reduction plans in 2001. This summer, wildfires destroyed 6 million acres of our NFs, 2000 structures and 10 firemen. Trails, too. alike, just as wildfires obliterate forests and the trails within them. That's only a small part of why the BRC Backcountry Recreation designation is so important, and why the BRC is seeking Congressional support for this less-costly alternative. The BRC hopes Congress will establish a national system of backcountry lands that would fall somewhere between Wilderness and Multiple-use areas. Under the BRC plan, a Backcountry Area would contain evidence of man's activities, but that evidence is not dominant and the landscape is generally perceived as possessing natural, primitive, rustic or backcountry characteristics. But it won't be a total tax drain, because of recreational revenues. Before another trail is blocked by burned trees and fallen logs, before another home on or near USFS land burns, we must act to stop all future Wilderness designations. And we can. Greens were ready to unleash a hailstorm of new Wilderness under Gore, and they decided to go ahead when Democrats regained control of the Senate. The thing is, President Bush and Congress will align with us, if we speak out as America bums. Call or write President Bush and your representatives, urging the BlueRibbon Coalition's Backcountry Recreation Area alternative! Contact the BRC at 800/BLUE-RIB or log on to www.sharetrails.org to find your elected representatives: eN Tolleson, who works as a managing editor at Dirt Bike magazine, donated his payment for this column to BlueRibbon Coalition. Write President George W. Bush at J 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20500; call 202/456-1 J J J, or e-mail at president@whitehouse.gov. • Russlan'MX GP Rnale • Mississippi AMA Dirt Track • Sacramento AlIA DIrt Track cue I _ n _ _ S • SEPTEMBER 18, 2002 87

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