Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"I' m sure the sport Will continue to grow and prosper in the hands of such ftne, young, tale nted ride rs a s we have today." Art Department y com p liment s t o Cycle News and o th e artist for th e c over art o n th e uly 5 is su e. The wat erco lor depi ctng Ca rl Foga rt y an d M at Ml adin at peed is ou tst and in g . It now resid es n a fram e on m y wal l. Rod Ratzlaff La ke George, CO Kids And Racing wo ul d li k e t o suppo rt M r. est r ic her' s letter reg ar ding ~ id s and r a cin g , and th e lli ep lo ra bl e behavi or o f par- ;: nt s (i n g en eral ) a t r ac e - ii ~ acks all o ver the country . I ~ a v e g iven up tr ying t o :: invo lve m y daug hter in rae . tI:l ing , after fig hts o ver starting ~ J: "pos iti on , i n sa ne p ar en t s cussi n g ou t the ir k id s, an d clubs t hat dem and a fee fo r lust about an y th in g yo u ca n th ink of. She ha s gone on to soc ce r an d bask etball and is now very good at those sports. N ot only do I wis h she was abl e t o see h er p oten tia l in m oto rcy c l e r ac ing (I ' m n o t inte re sted in team spo rt s), bu t the opin i o n o f th e ge n e ra l public tow ard racing as a vu l ga r ac tiv ity , fre q ue n t ed by socia l ou tca sts and un sop histicated ya hoos, is reinforc ed by o u r fr iend s: The M in ibik e Mom s and Dad s. I wi t h a h elm et , he wou ld have been fi ne . B e in g Wil l , h e wouldn 't eve n have cra shed! BIll Traum \l7 the Inff1met a Not A 6eek You hav e to be im pressed w ith M at M lad in. I used t o th in k he was a geek when he rod e for Ca g iv a, but in hind sight he was probabl y thrown into the deep end too soon. Rob Overal vta the Inff1met Ryno? No thi ng aga inst Ryan Hug h es , b u t i s th is t he b est w e co uld do fo r ou r Mo to cross des Nations t ea m? H e h as b ee n hurt fo r th e better part of two ye ars. He m ay hav e been phy sica lly at th e ra c es, but he has not rac ed fo r a long time. Oh , we ll , mayb e it will rain ag ain , and give every o ne a good excuse to say , "W e were this close - except for the ra in ." Dave Giese vta the Inff1met Wishing Will Well I hope Will Da vi s is o k ay and is abl e to return soon . It j ust goes to sho w some of the se namby-pamby sports ca n be danger ous . Had he been o n a m otorc ycle By the way , I love th e Cycle New s fo rm at , love the po ll quest ions , love the talent of the we ek features, love th e factory bikes - love it all. Phlfllp AJa m a ngos Rancho Santo M argartta. CA World Superbikes And Daytona I heard th at the FIM and SBK Internati onal are c ons id er ing anoth er W orld Superbike round in the U.S. And th ey are not ev en co nsid eri ng Da yt on a. I th ink that it is time for the AMA to tak e a stand and work to see that th e Da y to n a 200 i s th e seco n d F IM - s an cti o n e d event in the U.S . Da yto n a has c o n s i s tently supported roa d rac ing fo r many yea rs. T hey d eser ve to have wo rld status. I understand that th ere are si g ni fi c a n t t e c h nic a l i ss ues (lik e t i res ) , bu t I hardly th ink tha t the ban k ing alone should disq ua li fy th e fac ilit y. From a m arketi ng sta nd po int , D a y ton a is noth in g bu t opportun ity . Only th e AMA cou ld fail to get pe opl e th rou gh the ga t e s wh en t he ta rg e t audienc e i s already pl an ning to be in th e area an y w a y . Las tly , I t h ink t h e W o r l d Sup e r b i k e gu y s seem k ind of w impy when th ey shy fro m ra cing at a wo rld -cla ss facili ty such as D a y t o na. T h i r t y - d e g r e e ban ks .. . Wahhh i man y o f th e rac er s: Ni ck y Ha yden , Ben and Eric Bo st ro m , Mat Mladin , A aron Yates , etc . And I must admit, I went to th e ra c e wondering if these new breed of yo u ng ri de rs were stuck u p li ttl e brat s w it h fa ctory contra cts . Bo y , was I surprised. I fou nd them all to be humble, fri endly and willing to m a k e th em selv es av a ilable to th e fan s at th e drop of a hat. I even got t he feeling they would ha ve lis tened if I tol d th em how fast I wa s (as th ey walk ed away smili ng) . 1 ca me a w a y feelin g an enor mous a mou n t of pr id e fo r t he spo rt and respect fo r t he rid er s. I' m su re t he spo rt will contin ue to grow and p rosper in the ha nds of such fin e, young , tal ented riders as we hav e t oda y . A lso, on Sunda y while watch ing th e Worl d Sup erb ik e (" Go Bostrom" ) race , I f ound m y se lf sitt in g n ext t o Yvo n D uH a m e l du ri n g lu n ch . W e ta lk ed about h is past rac es and f ish ing in Canada. Needl ess to say, I never told him how fast I was - I just sm ile d. I have con tin ued to fo llow m otorc ycle road rac ing for the past 25 years and have bought a Cycle News every week (my big thrill in li fe no w) . Keep up the good wo rk . 5teve Lang \l7a the Inff1m e t Davfd 8e1 1 Castro Valley, CA Valve Job Mat Mladin: Not a geek. He 's sho wn a l ot of te naci ty and grit, wh ic h is ad mi rab le consid eri n g t h e att itude of so ma ny r ace r s t od a y : Ca dalora , B ia g g i , K o c in sk i , Huff m an , Ru ssell , Hu g h es - just to name a few . His d eci sion to ri de a Suz uki was a ls o a brav e mo v e in l ight of th e o pp o s i t ion. C o m m o n se n se ma y ha ve sugg est ed th e Du c at i t o b e a better b ik e , bu t he ' s w in n in g o n a fai rl y dated m achine. Ml adin's fru str at ion expressed (a nd d i sp l ay ed ) ag a inst t h e AMA i s felt. How ev er , th ey're p robabl y t yp ic al of all go verning bod ies. Good on ya, mate! I hope yo u win it. I rea ll y enjo y ed the i ssue of Cycle News wi t h a ll the info rmat i ve a nd int eresting st ori es from A l an Cath cart o n B e n e ll i. Th e 60 0cc Su pers p ort comparison was also good and it was nice tha t you incl uded the Triumph. Of all the mot orc y cl e m agaz ines tha t I've received and all th e reports that I've read , you ' re th e first to point out that the Yamaha R6 h a s five valv es per cylinde r. Th e Yamaha yo u were testing must hav e been a littl e different th a n m ost of th e other s imported th is year. Cops And Racing I' m a po lic e o ffi ce r in the South ern Califom ia area wh o was also an AMA ro ad rac er i n th e ' 7 0 s. Athough I never m et them , I look ed up to gu ys li k e Yvo n DuH am el , Ga ry Nixon and K enn y Ro b ert s and had hopes of somed ay foll owing in their footsteps . Howe ver , this was not to be and I had to choo se another c aree r. I rec ently retu rned fro m th e road race at Laguna Seca and had the best week end of my life. I had a hotel on th e b each and spent ev ery w ak ing moment at the track walking around i n t h e pits me eting a n d talk ing to c ue I e Greg Martfn Eau Galre, WI You Eau Clairians are defi nitely on th e ball ... Editor. n e _ 50 • A UGUST 2 , 2000 5

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