Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

cW E]cucD o _ o • F ran k Trom b ino (Yam) won his fir st career Ca nadian Superb ik e Champ i onship round when he sco red the vict ory in M osport . Ontar io. Can ada. on J uly 23 . Trombino topped S te ve Crevier (Hon) and J o rdan Szoke (Hon) in the red -flag LJ interrupted race. Owen W e ich el (Yam). meanw hil e . wo n t he Op en Sport Bike race with Linnley C la rke (Suz) tak ing • the 600cc Sport Bike class . O O r O ·. O O O Tw o we eks aft er t he fact . th e A MA has announced that KTM 's Michael LaHerty clinc hed t h e 2000 FM F N a t ion al Enduro C hampionship on the first day of the M uenster. Texas. round on Ju ly 8. 8 O W ill t her e be a United States G ra nd Prix as so on as 2002? It' s po ssible. if plans for a new ci rc uit outs ide Birmingham. Alabama. marry up to t he hopes of U .S.-base d prom ot ers. says Cycle N ews c o n t r ib uto r M i ch a e l S c ot t. A nd th e cha nc es t o ok a j u mp forward at t he S ac h sen r in g in G e rm a ny o n Ju ly 23 w hen a trio of heavy -hitting visito rs fr om Alabama met Doma and other raci ng officials . Th e visit o rs we re a dev elopment man fro m Al abama Pow er hydroelect ric co mpa ny . p lus S t at e o ffi c ials . - T hey ca me on a fact-finding mission to see a GP at first hand, - said Denis Noye s of Tag Sports . the Ch icago-based company that has a contract to promote a Grand Prix in America. The new circuit is to be part o f the Barber V intage Mu seum . 12 O O O . O O O O o miles outsi de of Birmi ngham . and co nsultation with FIM and IRTA safety off icers mean it can have th e necessary safety provision s built in - plans fo r a U .S. GP at Ro ad Am erica next y ear fo und ered because o f safety requirements . "They made tenta tive plans to reques t an FIM pre -ins pection for the propo sed t rack." said Noyes . wh o added th at excavat ing for the new track was expected to beg in wi t hin 30 days . and t hat the race coul d be as soon as October 200 2 - the area ' s dry season . Th e U.S. S e na t e has rejected a pro po sal that wou ld have stopped President C linton from unilaterally declaring millions o f ac res o f publ ic land 'off- limit s to offhighway mot orcycles and all-terrain veh icles. acco rding to the AMA. By a narrow 50-4 9 vote on J ul y 18 . th e S e na t e defeate d an amendmen t offered by Senate Maj ority W hip Don Nick les (R-Okla horn a) t o th e In terio r D e p a r t me n t ' s ap p ropriat ion s b i ll. T he am endment wo uld have barred Clinton fro m desiqnatin g any more fe deral land as nati on al mon ument s. Wi thout public co mment or congress io nal debate. Clinto n this year has designate d nearly 2 million acres of federa l land primarily in Arizona . California. C olorado . Oregon and W ashingto n stat e as nat iona l mon uments. which bar s off-highway vehicle use. accordi ng to the A M A. Using a 1906 law that allow s him to designat e national mon ument s w ithou t "I actually felt better after I fell; I don't know why." Deserl racer Johnny Campbell, aller crashing in Ihe Nevada 2000. c1es o n B urea u o f Land Management (BLM) pro perty have scheduled a se ries of public meetings to gather co mme nt s . according to the A M A . The BLM ma nage s more t han 264 mill ion acres of public land in the West and Ala ska. The agency wants public quidance in fou r areas: 1.l Land-use co nce rns . such as how to provide off-hig hwa y veh icle (O HV) recreat io nal opportunitie s w hile providing for oth er pub lic uses and prote ct ing th e environ ment : 2.l Reso urce concerns, such as the best ways to manage and monitor OHVs to prote ct natural. cultural and historic reso urces: 3.l M anageme nt tools. such as education. planning. and law enforcement ; 4.l Legal consid erat io ns . i nc lud ing is s ue s suc h as Na tiv e Am erican rights to use the land. The AMA is urging motorcyclist s to write t o th e BLM in su ppo rt o f o ff-high w ay vehicle use in designated areas of public land . To do so. w rite to: Comment M anager. Bureau of Land Management. 1849 C Street N .S.. LS B 40 6-C . W ashington. D .C . 20240 . The fo llo wi nq is a li st o f sc he dule d publ ic me et ings : Arizona (Kingman) - J uly 25 . 6 :30 to 8:30 p.m.. BLM King man Field Office . 2475 Beverly Ave. (Yuma) - Ju ly 27. 6 to 8 p.m.. BLM congressionai approval. C lint on hopes to declare ano ther 2 mill ion ac re s by the end of t he year. "We have no prob lem s wi th natio nal mo nume nts. " says Rob ert Rasor. the AMA's vice president for gov ernment relations . • Bu t t he pres ident is clos ing off millions of acres of public land to motorcyclist s with the stroke of a pen . w itho ut incl uding t he public in the decis io n on ho w the land should be ma nage d. W e believ e mo nu me nt des ign ati ons sh o uld be mad e after full p ublic debate. an examinat ion of the fact s. and a congress ional vo te - not thr ough presidential fiat. The monument de sig nation s are ju st part of the C linton administra tio n effort to ban O HV s from tens o f million s of ac re s o f p ubli c lan d nat ion w ide through administrative procedures before C linton leave s o ffi ce at th e end of th e year.' Rep ublican senat ors from w estern sta tes whe re the land is being designat ed pushed the Nickles pro posal. But six GOP se na t ors broke party ra nks and vot ed w ith Democ rat s against adding t he ame ndment to a bill fun ding t he Department of t he Interi or. . Fed eral o ffici als considering a nationa l st rate gy for go ve mi ng o ff-highw ay vehi- 8fPlJr?i:Su [1@@!JIg ~@@ fJ ,------ - - -- ---::;:--------, fB(7j)~(7j)!JI1J [XJfifJ o o o o 1 8 o o o o o o A few week s ago. Suzuki unveil ed its 2001 motocross line -up at a press conference in an Orange County , California, hotel (we'd have shown them to you earlier. but we had to sign an agreement not to) . The RMs are the most-changed models of the model year, boasting not only updates to the motor and suspension, but also a complete new look - one that mirrors that of the factory Corona Suzuki RM250 on which Frenchm an Mick ael Pichon currently leads the World Championship MX Series. The plastic bodywork is all new and has a more fluorescent color, and the frame has been redesigned. Of course those aforementioned technical changes were also made, many in an effort to make the motors more compact and more centrally located. One update that helped in this regard was the relocation of the water pump to tt1 outer right side of the engine on the 125 (pic e tured) , which also got a Keihin PWK38 power-jet carburetor (a standard Mikuni was used thi s year) and shock with separate high and lowsp eed c om p re ssi on adj us te r s. A s for ' t he 250, it also got th e water-pump relocation and improved shock, along with a new 46mm Kayaba fork (a 49rnm Showa was standard in 2000) and a redesigned ex ha us t-valve system. Changes to the RM80 were limited to the graphics and plastic. We recently picked up our RM250 test unit, and alth oug h we'v e only spent a limited amount of tim e on it, we can tell you that we already are very impressed with the changes. Look for an impression wit hin the next few weeks. o 5~lTIWJD)(B[?Iooo..-------~ o CJ c u e I e n e _ s • A UGUST 2, 2000 1

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