Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO..• OCTOBER 6, 1970 Ri c k Woo ds wa s p ictured for the second week in a row for the co v er of Issue #38 , but this ti m e it was from the winner 's pod ium , standing alon gside the trophy girl and many of his supporters . Wood s captured the Class A Nationa l Sp eed wa y t itl e in Costa Mesa , Ca liforn ia, by winn ing all five o f hi s events... At the penultimate round of the AMA Grand Nationa l Championship Dirt Tra ck Seri es at Ascot Park in Gardena , California , newly crowned champion Gene Romero (Tri) took home his fourth win of the season, ahead of Jody Nichola s (Nor) Tom Rockwood (T rl) . Th e Novice Main was won by Loyal Penn (Yam) , while Ken Roberts (Suz) finished an uncharacteristic eig hth... T he Swedish MX des Nations team took home the victory at the 500cc Motocross des Nations in Maggiora, Italy. Belgium finished second, and the Czechoslovakians finished third . 20 YEARS AGO••• OCTOBER t 1980 J eff Gu nd la ch pa inted his im pression of cruising down the road for the cover of Issu e 1 . Mu st 138 have been quite a colorful trip ... Daredevil Gary Wells attemp ted to ju mp the fountains at Caesar 's Pal ac e, with disastrous consequences. A lm ost 13 yea rs after Evel Kni evel attempted th e j ump, Wells had the speed, height and distance to clear the j ump, but he missed the landing ramp by inches and collapsed off of the bike, hitt ing a 3- foot retaining wall at roughly 85 mph . The crash left him with a to rn aortic arch, chest and head injuries, compound fract ure s bel ow both o f his kn ees, a br ok en left fem u r , a cru shed pelvis and a crushed vertebra in his lower back . Aft er transfusing 24 quarts of blood and lying in tr act ion for two months, he was expected to recover as well as could be expected... Doug Dubach finished third in the 125cc Pro class dur ing motoc ross acti on at Saddl eback Cycl e Park . Scot t Burnw orth and Rick Joh nson went onetwo during 250cc Pro motocross action at 117 MX. 10 YEARS AGO... SEPTEMBER 26, 1990 Kel by Pep per grac ed t he cove r of Issue 1138 after earn i ng a gol d medal , along with teammat es J immy Lewi s an d K evi n Hin es , at th e 65th ISDE in Sweden. The Swedes swept on th eir home so i l .. . Sc ot t Parker ( H- D) rode aroun d Ch r i s Carr to take the vict ory at the San Jose Mile et round 13 of the AMA Grand Nation al Championship Dirt Track Series. Parker led Carr by 14 points with two rounds to go... Honda's Randy Renfrow won the final round of the AMA Sup erbike National Championship at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California. It was Renfrow' s first win of the season... Raymond Roche rode his Ducati to victory in both legs at round nin e of t he World Championship Superbik e Ser ies in Le Mans , Fran ce. Ja mie James (Due) finished second in the first leg, while Carl Fogarty (Hon) had his best result in th e seco nd leg, fi nishi ng ninth... Josh Dem uth .(Kaw) took hom e victor ies in t he 60cc and 8 0cc (7 -1 1) classes at t he Penn sy l van ia St ate MX Champio nships at Hurricane Hills MX Park CN in Clifford. Pennsylvania. 'S TEV E 1\11 otocross, Leo Cox o bv ious ly , c a n b e motorcyclists in genera l , th e common lYlq u ite a v ici ous sp o r t. And root m ay j ust be the they -d on 't -n eed - although d eath , thankfully, isn 't very c ommon, you 'd b e hard - pressed to fi n d an ex peri enced m o tocross er who ha sn ' t br oken som e bo n e s do ing it . It's surp rising that he al th ins uranc e compan ie s d on 't h ave a " re q uired field " o n t h e i r a pplicat ions that says something lik e , "Che c k here if you r ide motocro ss (o r a motorcy cl e, for th at m at t er ) ." In emerge ncy r o o ms across th e coun try, th e medical profe ssion al s ref er to our b elov ed ma chin e s as " m urd ercy cl es" in com m on conversa- to- b e - ri di ng - t h o se- t h i n g s - anywa y t ion. I know t h is f ac t fo r two rea sons . The first being that, at 15 y ears o ld , I got m y fi rst 250 from Suzuk i Country Ra c ing in N o rco , Ca li f orn i a . Thi s thing was modified to the hilt wh en I g ot i t b y p r obabl y t h e gr e at e st m o t o c ross m ec han ic I've ever seen , M ike Norr is . Th is t hi n g wa s t r u l y fas te r than an y 250 I've r idden befo re or si nce, and t h is w as a 1992 RM2501 I was out at Starwest o n p rac t ice da y and cased the large tr ip le the y used to ha v e o n t h e ba c k st ra ightaw a y to avoid a fallen m in i rid er. (W hy he wa s on the track , I st ill d o n ' t k n ow .) I d idn 't fall , b ut the im p a ct b rok e m y left ti bia /fi bula an d m y r ig ht ankl e . W h en I got to the hosp it al , I was in m y street cl othes an d the X -ra y t ech n ician sai d something along the lin es o f, " So , how ' d you d o th is? W ere yo u o n you r bic y cle? Were you skateboa rding?" Sh e ha d the s weetest voice a n d sh e w a s so com passiona te. Then I sai d , " No, I wa s ridin g my m otorc y c l e. " H er face w en t from an an ge li c smile to one of complete d i sg u st so fa st that I thoug ht I wa s watching "T he Exorcist. " T hen she rep lied , "W ell , th en , it didn't have to happen, did t hat a s man y as 8 0 m i ll ion acres cou ld be made unrideable under new mental ity assumed b y ou r oppressors. Motorcyclists are treated almost as badly as drunk drivers. It's almost as if tha t vocal minority of p eople j ustify their anti -motorcy cl is t views with the op inion that they 'd be doing us a favor by freeing u s of the bu rd en of motorcycle recr eation . " Surely , the re must be safer w ays to spend y ou r t ime - like on a b icy cle, or walking, for example ." They all th ink we're stupid . Ou r electe d officials' philosophy has long b een o ne o f , " We ' ll t ell th em what th ey w an t to hear so th at w hen w e get in to o ffice w e c an in st it ut e th e laws th at th ey just don 't kn o w the y need y e t. " I b e l i e v e t hey h o n e st l y th i n k they 're doing us a favor - protecting us fr o m ourselves. T he U ni te d States w as fou n d ed on th e id ea tha t everyone is f ree to do as t h ey please , as l o n g a s t h e y don 't in fr ing e on other p eople' s r ights to d o as th ey please . Well , o ur r ights ar e bei ng infringed upon n o w . I've hea rd som eday - wh ereas m o st envi ro n menta lists ha ve p robably ne ver even been camping , be cause if they had, the y 'd know th a t fam il y camp ing expeditions p rob abl y d o much more The problem with politics is that it's full of politicians. dama g e to our fo rest s than off-roa d m o to rc y c li sts do. F irstly, th ere are fa r m o re ca m pers than motorcyclis ts . T h ey f re quentl y l eave trash be hi n d , lea ve fi re s b u rn in g , etc. They take it fo r granted that th e forest will be all clean if t h ey re t urn . Well , it w ill partiall y bec ause ou r gree n -st ic ker funds help clean u p th eir junk. If these bills pass and th e land ge t s s h u t d o wn to o ff - r o a de r s, ev entually th e on ly sort o f off-road m otorcycle recrea tion w ill b e ra c ing m otocross . Im ag ine w h at that will do to th e m o torcy cl e ind ustry. That wo uld take a huge c h unk out of m o t orc y cl e sales . Ou r go l den days cou ld be over. T h e n a t io n al f o re st s a re t here fo r th e enj o y m ent of th e A mer ic an p e o pl e . Th e last time I ch ecked , I' m Ameri can . Just bec au s e t hey ' v e ne ver ridd en a motorcycle, or ca n ' t - for wh ateve r r eason i de nti fy w i t h us or our lei s u r e acti v it ie s , th is doesn 't give t hem it?! " T he o ther reason I k now about this sort of o utlook is because I worked for a period of time as an EMT in a n emergency r o o m . Motorcyclists are treated almost as bad l y as d ru n k d r i vers . It's n o t uncommon to hear a d oc t or , or a m ember of their m ed ica l st aff, say someth ing like, "W ell , we ' ve g ot u s an oth er idiot-mee t s- mot orcycle , motorcycle-meets -pavemen t com i ng i n ," o r , " Here comes another motorcycle rider. What a waste. " Therein lie s a sizable portion o f ou r problem s as motorcycl ists today. Betw een the land -g rab m ea sures be in g tak en against us , and th e so me w hat ne ga tive view of laws b eing prop o sed . These are land s that we 've been p a y in g t o ma inta in th rough ta x es and green -sticker funds . I n esse nce, al l those e x t re m e enviro n me ntali st s pay less per p ers on to ward th e maintenanc e o f th e na tional forests than we do, be cau se we pay for green st ick ers , a n d t hey don 't. All the re c r eat i o na l o ff- ro a d ers I know t a k e ex t ra c a re t o pi ck up trash that th ey m ight otherw ise leave and be kind to th e en v iro n m ent, because they want to be abl e to use it again the r ig h t to sto p us f r om do ing wh at we lo ve to d o. Let's w r ite our congres smen and wom en an d l et them know that th is stinks . This is a government by the people and for the p eo p le. The problem with politics is that it' s full of pol iticians. We are their bosses , not the other way aro und . Let's make sure they li sten to u s, or , come Nove mb er, v ote in p eople who will . eN Off-road fun li k e this may end up be ing a th ing of the past. Coming up in Cycle News • Intermot Motorcycle Show Part 1 • sacramento F-USA Dirt Track • AMAlFMF National Enduro Series Finale c ue ' EO n e _ S • S EPTEM BER 2 7 . 2000 87

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