Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I By PAUL TEARDOWN CARRUTHERS 3U YEARS AGU••• January 15, 1974 A rider aboard th e new Suzuki Tria ls Bike w heelie d ac ros s the cover of Issue # J Here It Is! during the Cycle World International Obs e rved Trials. Brit Alan lampkin won the eve nt , ove r Malc olm Rathmel! and Yr jo Vesterinen . Champion Martin Lam pkin finished late in the pro tes ted eve nt... Mot orcycle land-speed record holder and the man often to ute d as "t he wo rld' s grea te st road racer," Calvi n Rayb orn , was killed in his first ride aboard a Suzuki 500 in New Zealand. The marri ed fathe r of two w as 33 years old... Rick Hocking topped the main event at the Co w Palace in San Francisco , California . It was his first w in o n the If lOth -mile co ncrete oval, and he did it over AI Ke nyon and Da ve Lewis. -_ .. --- 2 U YEA RS AGU.. • J anuary IB, 19B4 li~ The Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja smo ked out the co ver of Issue # I. In our test of the bike, Kawasaki said it w as going for the performance of an I 100with the handling ince we get t o do another one next week, making t he com parison between putting together the new-look Cycle Ne ws and the birt h of a ch ild isn't completely accurate, But the two do invo ke many of t he same feelings for those of us who have been here for aw hile. Afr all, sans the diape rs, this is our ba by, and it does keep many of us up at night. As I write this o n Monday mo rning, January 5, I look forward to tomo rrow, fo r it is really only when you get a publication back from the printer that you tru ly know w hat it' s like. We've been working on this issue for weeks becau se of our break from printing after Issue #50, so it no longe r feels that fresh to us. I've looked at many of the same pages so many t imes that they already seem old, and we haven't even printed t hem yet . What I'm looking forward to is seeing the sto ries co me to life in the actual news paper (or is that newsmagazine!) whe n it hits my desk in the morn ing. Am I scared? Hell, yes! If you do n't feel a tad jumpy after drastically changing someth ing that's been around for 40 years , then you don't have a pulse - especially whe n you may be the one held accountable if it goes ove r like New Coke. Imagine if someone decided to take the Bible and redo it with a Mac, some fancy fonts and a digital camera. You can't help but hope that it doesn 't lead to your Last Supper, if you get my drift. I'd be setting myself up for a letdown if I actually thought this issue was go ing to be S 118 JANUARY 14,2004 • perfect. Again, like a newborn, there's a small chance that you'll get a cone head out of the deal, but those go away with time, and so will any imperfections we come across in our first attempt at this. The issue won't be perfect. They neve r are . But I believe we 've made a huge first step in the right direct ion and that we' ll just need some fine tuning to tru ly take Cycle News to the next level. I could sit her e and tell you about how hard we worked on getting the redesign finished , but it really didn't feel like work. The editors had a good time brainsto rming ideas back and fort h - and with the art de partment - and the brawls I expect ed never really mate rialized. We shared not only Red Bulls, but the same vision: to bring you the things we 've always bro ught you in Cycl e News. on ly in a manner that should prove to be more pleasing to look at. Put it this way: We still have the same voice, but now it' s not as raspy. Although I'd love my e-mail box to be filled with lett e rs of peace, love and unde rstandi ng (so rry, Elvis... Costello) , I'm fully aware that there may be a few of you who will sit down and quickly vent that I'm an idiot, my staff are idiots, the art de partment sucks, and we've ruined Cycle News. I may even get an e-mail from my anti-Austra lian rea de r who will blame me, Mat Mladin, Damo n Buckmaste r, Chad Reed and pe rhaps even Wayne Gardner for the ruination of not only the paper, but the United States. For some of us, change takes a little longer to get used to tha n others. It happens CY CL E NEWS wit h age . Youth accepts change easier than the rest of us, so I just ask tha t you take a good look at the new Cycle News before jump ing to the conclusion that we're not giving you what we used to give you . Hey, we're not. We're giving what we gave you be fore - and mo re . After writing in Issue #50 of the changes we had planned for this issue and beyond, I rece ived a letter from a dedicated reader who to ld me t hat his wife actually made him read his Cycle News in the garage . If he insiste d that he stayed in the co nfines of his home, he read with one hand on a bottle of Windex and the ot her on a roll of pape r towels. My hope is that this guy not only gets to enjoy his Cycle News in the com fort of his kitchen, but that his wife takes the paper to the couch and also gives it a glance. If that happe ns, then I know that what we've done has worked. I want messy hands and inked- up kitchen tables to be a t hing of t he past . Black and white photos have their place in the world. I just don 't believe they be long on each and every page of Cycle News . Even if there's too much for them to digest , I'd like to think that young motorcycle fans will pick up a Cycle News and get so mething out of it, too . I think co lor photos and bett er layouts will do that . But who cares what I think? As they say, the proof is in the pudding. In this case, the pudd ing is in your hands. Let us know what you th ink. eN 40 t h Anniversary of a 750. Mission accomplished ... Ke nny Roberts annou nced his retiremen t from motorcycle racing... Mike Healey (Suz), defending 12scc National Champion [eff Wa rd (Kaw) and Rick Johnson (Yam) swept the Mini Expert, 12scc Pro and 2s0cc Pro classes, respect ively, at the openi ng round of the CMCGoldenState Nationals at Saddleback. Goat Breke r (Kaw) went 2- 1 to win the Open Pro class... Bryan Myerscough (Yam) won the Open classat the Carlsbad CMC Four-Stroke Nationals, and Micky Dymond (Hus)won the sOOcc Pro event... Ronnie T icheno r (Kaw) won the Mini A class at the opening round of the Florida Winter Warm -Up Series at Gatorback Cycle Park. Damon Bradsh aw (Yam) won the Mini B event. tu YEA RS AGU •• • January 12. 1994 The Ninja returned for the cover of Issue # I, as we tested the new 1984 Kawasak i ZX·9R. We found that , at least in stock trim, t he bike was more at home on the ~~!lI!I street than on the track... We published private-test photos of the upda ted Ha r ley- Davidson YR·1000 Superbike with Migue l Duhamel aboard. It had some teething problems, failing to st ring together more than tw o laps at a time ... We did a profile of the racingHayden brot hers . Speculation had Nicky eventually becoming the top roa d racer of the th re e ... Rya n Hughes (Kaw) topped the I25cc Pro class at Perris Raceway over Da mon Huffm an (Suz), Ja mes Dobb (Kaw), Brian Deegan (Ka and Larry Linkogle (Han). However, w) Jeff Emig (Yam) beat Hughes out to win the 250cc Pro event .

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