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/128355
What's Next? 30 Yl:AR5 AGO••. This was our giant yea r-end issue, and inside there was everythingfrom speedway to motocross ... We held a roundtable motocross interview w ith some of the brightest American and European motocross stars at the time. Some of the rid ers included in the interv iew were: Roger DeCoster, Pierre Karsmakers. Brad Lackey and Jim Weinen . We talked with them abo ut th e stat e of American motocross and why so many Euro pe an racers were choosi ng to come over to the States... U.S. Trials Champions Lane Leivittwon the filth runningof the EI Trial de Espana . He easilytook the VICtory ahead of some tough competition. 20 Yl:AR5 AGO.. . January 9 . 1985 The Wheelie King Doug Domok os appeared on the cove r wheeling a Yamaha V-Max. Back then , Domokos was on top of the stunt riding world. He often ~=_ appeared at supercro ss races to ride wh eelies around the track during intermission... The first U.S . Wom en 's Moto cross Championship s too k place at Carlsbad Raceway Leading . the wa y were Mercedes Gonzales and Usa Atkin. Gonzales took the 2S0cc Proclass win, while Atkins got the win in the 125cc Pro class... larry Roeseler too k top honors at the Tecate Enduro. He was followed by Mike Bell in second and Grant Palenske in third... We did an interview with Kenny Roberts. At the time, he was involved in Formula One Road Racing in the United States. to Yl:A R5 AGO. . . Jan uary 4. 19 9 5 Ty Davi s was ou r r ider of the year in Will he start from the beginning and remind readers of the time tha t Ricky Carmichael scored a second perfect season in motocross? Or will Carmichael's accom plishments merely serve as a footnote to set the stage for a tale of even more spec tacular, more dominant performances by a rider who may not even be born yet? Will he discuss how the issue of tire wear affec ted the racing at Dayto na Internatio nal Speedway - not the first time ( 1970s) or the second time (the late '90s and early Y2K), but perhaps for a th ird or fourth or filth time? Will he be talking abo ut how a HarleyDavidson XR750-mo unted ride r wo n an unprecedented 10th AMA Gra nd Nat ional Championship or scored an unheard of 100 career victor ies? 1994. That year, he accomplished what not many people can say they have: He won four different types of AMA National off-road events in a single year... As far as ike the wheels of a mo torcycle, this year has rolled by really fast. InJanuary 2004, we we re telling you abou t the very first issue of Cycfe News. which wa s actually called Motorcycfe Journol before its name was changed to the one that we know and love today. Now, 49 issues later, we are ready to bring LookingBackto a close for 2004. So where do we go from here? Tha t's hard to say. We do know that what started ou t as an idea to cele brate Cycfe News' 40t h anniversary by offering rea ders a weekly, year-by-year look at o ur heritage , has beco me one of the most popu lar departments of the paper - acco rding to the returns o n our reader surveys . Being one of the resident histo ry buffs on the ed ito rial staff, i cou ldn't be more pleased, and I can say that we are consid ering the idea of co ntinuing th is ex pa nded form of Looking Back as a regular feature in t he paper. Rest assured, there 's a w hole lot mo re mate rial available wher e we got the stuff that you read in t his section! All that histo ry has got me wo ndering abou t what it might be like to look back o n Cycfe News at the co nclusion of t his millennium. It wo uld be incredible to be able to be transpo rted forward in time to see what historical gems the Loo king Back editor or writer might unearth to share w ith readers in the future . I'd be curious to find out... L January 7 . 1975 ""-_ --IlL o ther interviews go. there we re a lot. Inside there were inte rviews with: Scott Parker, Jeremy McGrath, Chris Carr, Dan Smith, Troy Cor ser, Jordi Tarres, Miguel DuHamel, Paul Milan and Geoff Aaron. All Or will he mention how, after more than three decades of supre macy, som e form of overhead cam V-twin po werplant used in dirt trac k was finally phased out in favo r of a less antiquated engine with MotoGP-style pneumatic valves? of these riders were champions in the ir O r how din track racing was phased o ut as a form of pro fessional AMA racing? chosen form of motorcycle racing... The final round of the Best in t he Dese rt series took place in Laughlin, Nevada, and Danny Hamel took top honors, ahead of Greg Zitterkopf and Ty Davis. Will he lament the passing of a po pular rider w ho was cut down before his prime o n the tr ack, or how one was lost bec ause he stayed in the game too long? Will he talk of the last Europea n to w in a specific champ ionship in the last 20 , 30 or 40 years? The last American? W ill he re joice of the time when an American team finally won the World Trophy at the ISDE? Will he convey disgust at how politics killed Superbike racing, o r point out how they ensured its survival? Will he recall the days when Nicky Hayden reigned supreme atop the Moto GP world, only to have his shoes filled by Hayden Gillim? Will he discuss a t ime w he n the re was o ne AMA Ch ampion for all fo rms o f motocross? O r maybe o ne for all forms of road racing and nat tr ack? the Baja 1000 without stoppi ng fo r anything ot her than a ride r change? How about the last o ne to utilize an internal combustion engine? Will he mention the heroic charisma of an eight -t ime Nati onal Speedway Cham pion or a four-time World Speedway Cham pion from America? Will he talk about the first Top Fuel mot orcycle drag racer to hit 300 mph in the quarter mile? O r the first mot or cycle racer to go over 500 mph at Bo nneville? Will he be able to articulate how ridiculous a certain o bserved trials o bstacle was , or how insane a certain free style move was? Will he even be a he, or will he be a she? Will he talk abo ut t he first Endur ocro ss Nat ional Champio n, o r t he last World Supermoto Champion? Will he profile a new genera tion of t he Ro berts clan? Will he describe KTM's absolute deathgr ip on the motorcycle racing world by using the terms "Big Orange" "Ride Orange" or "Follow the Leader?" Will he meet the nicest people on a Hyosung? Will he choose to highlight technological improvements that made racing much safer? Will he discuss the trag ic consequences of technological improvements that made racing far mo re dangerous? Will he write about the time tha t a major Japanese o r Europ ean motorcycle bra nd collapsed because it was unable to compete with t he "Big X" Korean o r Chinese brands w hich flooded the market w ith inexpensive, low-maintenance, highperformance motorcycles? Will he aut hor a story that celebrates HarleyDavidson's 200th anniversary. or write o ne abou t a hea ted legal battl e to acq uire th e rights to the Indian brand name? Will he ever use the wo rd "pushrod" ? Will he be ab le to chronicle the first alternativefueled mo torcycle to w in A lot of this stuff so unds so familiar, doesn't it? That' s because the re is trut h to the old adages that histo ry re peats itse lf, that histo ry lends value to the pres ent and that those who ignore history are co ndemned to rep eat it. If there wasn 't truth to them, they wouldn't be old or adages . All that I do know for sure is that whoever takes on the responsibility of presenting future readers with the motorcycling's past as told through the pages of Cycfe News will also have a tremendous o ppo n unity, and I can only hope that he or she w ill enjoy the task as much as I have. With Looking Back, Cycfe News has offered you a glimpse through windows of motorcycling history. I hope that you've enjoyed the view. SCOTT ROU SSEA U