Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128351
"Why is the U.S. a second-class racing citizen?" L ettersto the editorshould be sentto Voices, Cyde News, PO B 5084 , Costa Meso, ox CA92628-5084;faxed to 714-75 1-6685or emoiled 1 edilorikyclenews _com_Published 0 letters do not necessarily reflect the position of CycleNews, Inc. L eiters should nol exceed 200 words, and all are subject to editing. Anonymous letters will not be consideredfor publicotion. ~-"7-------------------------------------- All leiters should contain the writers nome, addressand daytime phone number... E ' ditor. About Time, Geniuses I just wanted write and let you know how much I enjoy the Captu red pictures every week. I really enjoy how you cover every thing form tr ials to road racing. Mygarage walls have never looked better, but I can't believe it took until issue #44 for you to figure out to put Captured in the middle of the issue. Now I do not have to tear it out and tape it back together. Whoever thoug ht of this, give that person a raise. Richard T. Manning Lubbock, TX MotoGP And... The emperor has no clothes . How com e no one has commented o n the fact that the U.S. MotoGP race is only partially complete? The FIM ships the entire three classes (MotoGP, 250cc GP and 125cc GP) even to Brazil, but the U.S. on ly gets the one class. What 's wrong with this picture? Don't get me wrong, I'll be there and enjoy every minute, but why is the U.S. a second-class racing citizen? gets a whole page to vent , something is amiss. Mr. Ho lden uses terms like "mo ro ns" and "loons" to describe an agency that has contributed to a remarkable improvement in California's air quality. I love motorcycles as much as anyone, but I like breathing more. Mr. Holden , and ap parently Cycle News, is part of a small-minded, zero-sum approach to motorcycl ing's politics: any re strictions are bad, tota l freedom is good . Barrels of ink get spent attacking anyone who wants to even enforce current rules, yet efforts at self-po licing are cursory at best . Sure, when I started riding in the early '70s, I could ride in many more places with an unregistered, unregulated bike. That was great, but California is a much more compl icated, crowded place now. Anyone who rides knows that twostro kes We can attack and complain, or we can work to improve things before the government steps in. How about some articles on street riders with racing pipes pissing off thousands of nonbikers and making them wa nt punitive laws? Patrick Ward-Seitz Forest Knolls, CA As is the case with all our back-page edito rials, the opinions written in that space are the opinions of the author and not necessarily the view of Cycle News or its editorial staff... Editor Politics Again Randy Holden started his guest editorial reasonably with a rant against bloated government and praising the money that California will save September afternoon in Pomona in 1969 was like sucking in a mixture of pepper spray and razor blades. Who cares if Detroit whines? They don't live here anyway. Mich ae l Graber via the Int e rnet Girl Racers My daughter, Elizabeth, raced the Wor ld Minis on her 80 and Super Mini a few years ago, and we wanted to go back for a Women's class. But when we asked about, it we were also told that the NMA wouldn't allow a women's class "because the women are too much trouble." I guess that some people just have to be dragged into the 2 1st century. Elizabeth and I have gone to weekend Wom o r Chuck Fairchild Ramona, CA Crasher Says Thanks I rode the Prospectors Grand Prix at IS MX in Gorman, California, the weekend of November 6-7. The track was wonderful and I was having the time of my life, laughing and shrieking over the big jumps, etc . I had gotten the holeshot from the start and was making excellent time. Unfortunately for me, someone decided to use me for traction about five miles from the finish. These laps were about 10 miles long. Ther e I was with a broken ankle in the middle of nowhe re. A guy on a Kawasaki sto pped and helped me get back on my bike so I could putt to the fin ish. I had to wave everyone by me I had previously passed . I don't remember the guy's name , but I wanted to thank him again for helpingme. And to make things even better, I can't find my finisher pin. Mark S, Cortu m T orrance, CA No Politics I was very disappointed to see Randy Holden's rant (Novem ber 17, Guest Editorial). Is Cycle News now a political publication? If you had opposing viewpoints I could accept this as an op-ed , but when a guy who thinks Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian are "lefty Iiberal(s)" 6 pollute much more than thum pers . All of our riding areas are closer to housing and commercial developments. These things mean that biking has to change. Since we don't seem to be able to address these issues as a group, the government has to step in. Has CARB made mistakes? Of course. However, they've made biking more palatable to the no nbiking public, and across all industries they've improved the environment substan tially . NO VEMBER 24 , 2004 • CYCL E NEWS by chopping out unnecessary agencies from the budget , in this case the California Air Resources Board. I should have stopped reading after the second paragraph because he conti nues by attacking anyone who doesn't agree with him, illegal immigrants and Berkeley. But I keep coming back to one unyieldingtruth: The air quality here in the LA.. Basin is a lot better today than it was in the late '60s and early '70s . Randy must not have been around back then , so we shou ldn't blame him for not unders tanding that a hot, 4 0th An niversary Po nca City to watch friends race when we have been on our way to race at Lo retta's a couple of times, and have often wondered if it would rea lly be that big of a deal to stick one or two more gates into that four-day event. It wou ld undo ubtedly be some great wo men' s racing like we have everywhere else . I guess that prejudice is still alive here in ou r coun try. We just figured that that type of attitude in this day and age is noth ing but a loss for the NMA. John Bash Riverside , CA