Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"'ere 30 YEARS AGO... DECEMBER B, 1970 (¢I,CLe neIoIS) The winner of th e "world's biggest race' , the Barstow-to -Vegas Hare and Hound, J .N. Roberts, was captured for the cover of Iss ue #47 . The Husqva rnamou nted rid er de na Cook' s recent gu est editoria l o n beha lf o f th e Blue Ribb on Coaliti on shows that .it is possible to ha ve yo ur heart in the right p lac e wh ile also having your he a d up yo ur ass . A was chased to Las Vegas by Steve Kirk (Mon) and Rich Tho rwal ds o n (Ric)... San Francisc o, Californ ia, host ed Inter-Am moto cr oss action, with Maico-mounted Ake J onss on taking the victory and once again proving that th e European s are far superior to Americans in what is, in essence, their sp ort of motocross. The top Americans were Bob Grossi (Hus ) and John DeSoto (CZ), although both were outside of the top five overall. Jo nsson extend ed his points lead in the Intem ational Motocross Series with the victory over Bengt Aberg to 25 (106-8 1). The top American so far was DeSoto, In 10th place with 32 points... J oe l Robert (S uz) comp leted a cle a n sweep of the Trans-AMA series by winning the final round in Puyallup, Washington , even after being pena lized a position for "digging out" his sta rt area in th e first moto. That moto saw him ride from nearly last place anyway and win in handy fashion. His second-mote win eamed him the overall and the series championship. 20 YEARS AGO.•• DECEMBER 3, 19BO Don Vesc o' s 4 5 0 mph Mot orcycl e adorned the cover of Issue #47 with various revealing photos of the ma chines internals. Powered by two turboc h a rged Kawasak i KZ1300 eng ines , and using an all-aluminum' fron t wheel . Vesco hoped to us e this streamliner to set a new wheel-driven landspeed record. The standing record was 409 mph... Craig Gormley (Yam) narrowly defeated Greg Zitt erkopf (Mai) for the 250cc Pro victory in DeAnza Cycle Park MX action ... California Racing Club held their first Anaheim Amat eur Sup ercross qualifier at Indian Dunes in Valencia, California. Among the notable qualifiers were Kyle Le wis (Suz) and S han e Trittle r (Yam), who fini shed first and third in the 60 cc Exper t class , resp ectively... Andy Northrup (Hon) ran off to victory in the 25 0cc Pro class at Corona Raceway in Corona, California, while Suzuki-mounted Kit Palmer ran away with the 125cc Junior victory. 10 YEARS AGO..• NOVEMBER 2B, 1990 La rry Roe se le r g race d the c ove r of Issue #47 after teaming with Ted Hunnicutt and Danny LaPorte to win the Baja 1000 for the se ve nth time . KTM's Dan Sm it h c rashe d whil e prerunn ing th e event and left his teammat e , 18 -ye a r-ol d Danny Hamel, to race more than 11 hours on his own to tak e second plac e ... Fre nc hma n Raymond Roche wrapped up the World Supe rbike Cha mpionship in Austra lia . The Duca ti ride r clinched the title with one race left over Fab rizio Pirovano (Yam )... Duane Conne r snapped recently crown ed AMA ' Nationa l Cross Country Champion Scott Summers ' win streak at five by winning the final rou nd of the se ries in Athen s, Ohio. Only two days after finishing fourth at the Baja 1000, the mud got the best of Summers , and he pulled off after a couple of falls.., Ron Lechien (Kaw) took the victo ry at the Ba rcel o na S upercr os s in Bar celon a . Spa in. His tea m mate Mike Kiedrowski took seco nd overall over the two days of racing. "Although there is a record number of motorcyclists in America today, we remain a minority. Let 's not divide ourselves into even smaller groups. " In the aftermath of the presidential e lection, and with Florida conducting its recount , I wa s t h in k ing not s o much about th e impact of a s ingl e vote but rather th e tangible impa ct of a si ngle get-out-th e -vote effort. At that po int , m y thoughts went t o Cook's editorial in Cycle News . I applaud th e e d itori a l' s se co n d p ar t, about getting out the vote not on ly for ourselve s bu t fam ily, friends , etc. But the first part of the editorial was so po litically skewed that right there I imag ine it stopped so m e re aders cold... or perhaps motivated a few people to take contrary action . Le t ' s go to the ed itoriotape: "It hasn 't m ade m atters a n y b e tte r to witness the liberal media 's brea th les s re p or t ing of th e incessant pr e -el ec tion po lls...• Liberal media? Th at com ment was the first among seve ra l that both ered me , this on e for two reasons: It is bia se d to the brink of fa lsehood , a nd it panders to the interests of the right wing . On the first po int, all medi a p articipat ed in the pr e - e le ct ion -p oll s overkill. It had nothing to do with lib eral or conservati ve . You co uld barely e scape them a ny da y , in your lo c a l pape r and e v e ryw he re e lse . Polls we re regular featur es e ve n in publica tions like Investor's Bus iness Da ily , that are not liberal media . IBD ha s an editoria l polic y just to the left of the Th ird Reich . Of course , I am jo king : It's not rea lly to th e left. L t w it h th e ir vo ti ng g ui de , n ot ev ery Repub lic an is o u r frien d , a nd n o t every Democrat is our e ne m y. Not eve ry m otorc yclist is a sup p orter of an abs olute right to ride anywhere a ny ind ividual chooses. For ex a m p le , wh ile rece nt lan d closures a re outrageous a nd s hould be fought un til repealed, th e re are still many of us who believ e ther e are places like Yellowsto ne National Park that should be prot e cte d. As a small spe cia linter est group , th e Blue Ribbon Coa lit ion should be lo ok ing a t a wa y to include and en er gize su ch m idd le-ofth e -r oad m otorc ycl ists in s te a d o f alienating them . S o, to the Blue Ribbon Co alition, let m e make the se suggestion s : Don't ma ke upper-case referenc es like the " C lin to n / Go re Natural Res ource Lock-Up Agenda " unless t hat is tru ly th e forma l name of a program; such re ferences tarni sh yo u r credibility. Don 't ta lk in conspiracy ton es , like , "Secretary of th e Inte rio r Bruce Babb itt sh o w ed up unann ounc ed in s c enic a re a s: b e cause , fr ankly , it sounds a bit paranoid. And that d istracts fro m th e real messa ge . Stop expre ss ing your ov er a ll politics a nd, ins te ad, tell us more a bout yo u r goal s . Let us nev er n e ed to qu estion whether yo u hav e targeted offi c eh olders based on m otor c ycle rel ated iss ues or if it is ju st part of a larger pe rsonal agenda. Qu it blowing the trumpet of the pe rsecuted m inor ity and start t h in ki ng about how to bui ld a m ajority. Bu t wh a t d o e s the Blu e Ribbo n Coali tion gain by fra m ing th e deba te with this type of tone ? By definiti on , a coa li ti o n brings di ff e r ent pe opl e to gether . So is this the Blue Ribbon Right Wing Coa lition? Has Coo k d e cid ed that all people int erested in motor c yclist rights ar e Pat Bu cha na n fan s too? I ha ve live d in an e xtre me right wing commun ity , a nd to th em I wa s a liberal. Now I liv e in a n ext re me left -win g c o m m u nity , and to the m I a m a con serva tive. In real ity , I am n eith er: I am j us t d ifficu lt . But th e thing I h av e noti c ed a bo u t g roup s with extreme phil os oph ie s is tha t th ey cheer the m s e lve s a lo t but te nd to ha ve trouble bu ilding a broad base of s u ppo rt. Although there is a record number of m ot orcyc lists in Am e rica today , we re mai n a m ino rit y. Let' s not di vid e ' o ur selves into ev e n s m a lle r groups. Th e off-roa d rider in Nevada c a n ben e fit by th e s up port of the New Yor k City biker fo r wh om cobblestone is th e closest they will ev e r c ome to rid ing off-road , We a ll co unt. "We are Republicans and we are Democrats. Many of us are middle of the road. " We are Republicans and we are Democrats . Many of us are middle of th e road . When s omeone starts talk ing as th ough those who don 't bu y int o the Rush Limbaugh jargon must be t ree hu gg ers , th ey d on't advan c e o ur c a use. If Co ok or othe rs in th e Blue Ribbo n Coa lit ion wa n t to embrace far-right-wing po litics or spew mindless buzz words , it is the ir fre edom to d o so . But if th ose politics d on't d irectl y im p act moto rcy clist rig h ts , m a yb e th ey s hould ke ep th eir pe rsona l po lit ic s s eparate from th e im po rt ant wo rk th ey a re supp os ed to b e do ing . Off -road riding do es ind e ed ha ve its core suppo rte rs a mong conserva t ives , and this should be rec ognized. Howev er , as the Cal ifornia Le a gue Of Off-Ro ad Voters (CLO RV) sh ow ed us In next week's Cycle News every " not Republican is our friend, and not every Democrat· is our enemy. " Look for wa ys to unite us , so we may support yo u in the fight aga inst those who wo u ld take a wa y o ur free dom to ride . Sti ck to th e facts , s o that wh en ev er yo u s pea k, a ll motorcyclists will be eage r to hear you and will trust in wha t yo u say. Remember that a n eag le with two wings can s o ar. An ea g le with on ly o ne win g is doomed to fly within its eN ow n c ircle . • Apparel Buyers' Guide • British Supercross • San Diego SFX FreeStyle Motocross • SFX Arenacross Series, Round 3 cycle n e _ S • NOVEMBER 29 . 2000 79

• Cover