Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

LOOK/Nil By MICHAEL Scon ~ • •III~ IN TJ 30 YEARS AGO••• DECEMBER 18, 19 73 The Triumph Tro phy T ra il TR 5 T sa t peacefully on the cover of Issue #49 as "maybe just the right toy for the man in yo ur l ife " for Chris t mas. We found t h at th e bi g bi ke did well on the pavement once you adapted, and the suspen sio n rar ely bottomed in the dirt. It retailed for $ 1479... Giacomo Agost ini left MV after 13 World Cha m pi ons h i ps t o rac e Yamah as i n 1974... Marland Whaley won the El Trial de Espana. Of the four pictures we ran of riders in action at the event, none of them were wearing helmets - but all of them had some sort of interest ing hat on ... Joh n Hat eley topped the CMC Ascot IT on his 501 Mai co ... Sh aw n K elly beat Gene McKay to win the 80cc Expert class at the Arizona State Mini Championships. A f r i en d ' s g irlfriend , some years ago , wa s long-limbed, smooth - sk inned , g racefu l both in figure and mann er. B l ond e a n d b eaut i full y arra nged , she was , in sh o rt , a dish . Bu t she had a large mo le, prom in ent on her upper lip. A ttai n ing majority, she ach ieved the ambition o f a lifetime. She had it rem o v ed by a plastic surgeon. A fter t hat , this p aragon of feminine a ll u re sudde nly j ust lo o k ed ... a v er age . Pretty enoug h , t o b e su re. Bu t he r m os t st rik i ng feature was go ne, a n d th e g l amour wi t h i t. The point being that p e rfe ct i o n by its elf i s so m ehow undistinguished . A s m all flaw serves only to highlight it. 20 YEARS AGO.•• DECEMBER 21, 1983 F ea r n ot. Th ere is a m o t o r c ycl e raci ng parallel. Be cause that's what' s The "Wheeli e King " Doug Domokos and Tilson Shum at e were bo th fea tured on the cover of Issue #49 in announcement of the Wheelie Wars . Shumate set out to top Domokos' reco rd of a 60-mile wheelie by riding his Cagiva around Ascot Park ' s half-mile, refueling mid wheelie twice on his way to a new record c ham pion Rick Ol iver do now? ) of 102 mil es. Domokos tried to top the new record twice within the next couple of days unsuccessfully. Shumate was a painting contractor from La Mirada, Califomia ... Rick Johnson (Yam) won the Kyoto Super Moto cross in J ap an over Warren Reid (Yam) , Brae Glover (Yam), Keit h Bowen (Yam) and Jeff Ward (Kaw) ... Tyson Vo hlan d won t h e 125cc Ex pert cl ass at Mar ysvill e MX, while Rodney Smit h won the Open Expert event. Mark Lawson beat St eve Lamson to win t he 80 cc Expert class. wrong with 250cc racing . T h ey ' re just Ask anyone who has raced them ... ad ap t ability y ou need wh en you ride of all the racing classes , th e 250s are a bike that needs t o be tamed, rather In B r ita in , th ey 've already b een t he sweetest and m ost ac curate of than used as a pr eci sion tool. He can ex ec ute d for th is o ff en se. In Australia st eed s. Th ey are both c ha ll enging to turn the lap times all right, but when als o . And in Amer ica, 2003 was th e ride we ll , and rewarding. They g ive the tires go off or th e scrapping gets last sea son for the AMA 250cc cham - t h e r ider p lenty of oppo rtun ity t o a little fierce, t he n M ax is at a d isad- pionship. ( W h at on earth will se ri al ex pre ss his talent wi thout unexpect- vant age. too perfect. It 'll b e the death o f th e class . As ev er y b o d y k n ow s, t h e ir d a y s are numbered at GP level as well . The class already had the st en ch o f de cay this year. It was re liably the dull est race of the weekend , w ith a ha ndful o f fas t guys and t h e res t all t ailed o ut m il es behind . To b e fair, t he odd pr ivateer scrap e n livened pro c eed in g s at the b ac k end of the p oin t s, an d it was grat ifying to se e 10 YEARS AGO..• DEC EMBER 15, 19 9 3 KevinWIIldham (Kaw) led the pack out of the first tum at the Florid a Winter Ol ym pi c s for the cover of Issue #49. Windham won the Dunlop Sil ver T ire Awa rd for winning the A class overall. His main corn- petition was Brian Deegan ( Ka w) . J ame s Stewart (Yam ) went undefeated in Pee Wee Stock and Modified ac tio n, J usti n Buckelew and Travis Pastrana domi nated the 8 5cc (7 -11 ) events , and Ri c k y Carm i chael won every 85cc (12-13) event.. . We te st ed the 19 94 Su zuk i RM125 and found that the bike, although deliveri ng a me llower powerband, was actually quite fast in capable hands. It cost $3999 .. . Kyle Lew is (Yam) won both 250cc mai ns at the Reno A ren ac ross . Lance Smail (Yam ) and Cory Kee ney (Kaw) split the 125cc wins... Craig Decker (Han) swept the 125 and 250cc Pro classes at Perris Raceway in Perris, California. Mike Ales si topped the 50cc Stock Novice class. it was too late f o r hi m to learn t he So what's too perfect about th em ? how often c lass rookie Chaz Davies was involved in them . N o r was t he front group without talent. Nerv y-looking champ ion Manuel Pogg ia li did have to d efeat T oni Elias and Roberto Rolfo as well edl y biting his ankles. Much the same If this is so , and the resul t s bear it m ight be sa id of the thriving 12 5cc o u t , t h e n 250s aren 't e ve n a good class , but they 're just to o slow. 250s training ground for riders on the way ar e fast en ough to make anyone take up. They ar e a dea d end in terms of th em very seriously . r iding tech n iqu e , in the same way T here is a sim ple techn ical reason . Unli k e b i g - b or e Superbikes that their sweet, simple and powerf ul or two -stroke engines turned o ut to be MotoGP bik es, 2 50s don 't n eed hug e a technica l dead end fo r th e w orld rea r tires. A s a res ult , w he n th ey are at la rge. lean ed hard over, th er e is les s of th e Th is is sad n ews fo r racing purist s, des ta bilizing o ff-ce nter effect suffered as we ll as for w asted talent like Brit by bigger bikes . Th is is t he result of Jay Vince nt, who c an ' t even f i nd a th e conta c t patch moving outward decent ri de . A wild card at the Briti sh d ifferent d istan ces on mismatched GP was it for ra c e-rusty Jay l ast year, f r o n t and rea r tires. A 250 still and he fi nished a highl y credita b le behaves like a bicycle, achieving high 11th on an ol d Padgetts bike pulled le an angles and corner speeds . Try out of mothballs. the sam e th ing on a big bike, its rear as th e ex t remely da ring Frenchman de Puniet - no mean task . The replacem ent cl ass is already en d coc k ed out to one side , and you will crash. thr iv ing, howe v er, and Supersport But stopwatch es have no pity and Th is co rne r performan c e per fec - 600s are both fast enough and clum - no sense of fun , and they confirmed a t io n is d estructive. N o flaws. Th e sy en ough - e v en w ithout n eed ing ra the r bl ea k pic tu re- a relative dearth danger is that y ou learn to rid e on ly massive rear t ires - to give ri de r s a of new l ap and race re cords, so me in one wa y - very scientifi cally and b etter grounding for the big -bike b ig still stand ing to 200 1 World Champ i- ac c urate ly. Th is , say some sag es , is t ime. They are active in some form or Max Bi aggi 's problem - he spent t oo anothe r in every signifi cant racing on Daij iro Kato . This sug g e st e d so met hi ng other th an a lack o f te ch - long winning four 250 t itl es in a ro w . co unt ry in t he world . And refreshingly nical improvement. If noth ing e l se , By th e t ime he got to th e big class , com p et it iv e, just like the 250s used th e tires are c ert ainly be tter no w than though suffici entl y t al ented to b eat to be. tw o yea rs ag o . eve ryo ne but Dooh an in hi s first y ear, In an upcoming issue of Cycle News Make th e most o f th em . eN Mal Mladln Interview Ricky CBmrichael lnterv iew Russ Pearson Interview Grant La ngston Interview We Ride Rossi's Honda V-5 Stefan Everts Interview c ue . "" n "" _ S • D ECEMB ER 1 0, 2 0 0 3 67

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