Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO.•• DECEMBER 22, 19 70 Issue #49 was our Merry Christmas issue. and thusly it was Santa Claus who was drawn fo r t he co v er of the iss ue . Inside was our annual Christmas Gift Guide, which included a $250 Suzuki Trail Hopper minibike, JT Racing nylon moto cross socks for $5 , a 14 -foot-l ong Journ eyman mot orcy cl e transporter/ camper fo r $ 159 5 , and even full-color cil -peinting reproductions of Gene Romero. Mert Lawwill, Cal Rayborn, Bart Marke l, Fred Ni x and oth ers... Gary Scott defeated Novice dirt track rival Ken Robe rts to win th e Novice ma in at the Ascot TT in Gard ena , Californi a. T he Expert main was won by Eddie Wirth , over Jim Odom and Skip Van Leeuwen... Reg Pridmore (Nor) took a double win in ACA Road Race action in Riverside. California. Pridmore to ok th e vic tory in th e Op en class and in Sidehacks. with mo nkey Ernie Caesar. 20 YEARS AGO..• DECEM BER 17, 1980 Santa Cl aus o nce a9ain graced the cover of Issue #49, our spec ial Ch ris tm as issue. In sid e we ha d a full th r ee pag es of coo l Chri stm as g o odi e s, such as Mini Gogg les, from Bell Helmets; an A c c el repla ce ment i gn i ti on for Yam ah a two-strok e road racers; b rand- specific handlebar crossbar pads from Hi-Point; a Hein Gericke leather roadriding b ib; an d an ATK cha in t ension er/ re ar-s hock reliever that was claim ed to dramaticall y improve the handling of most motocross machines... We checked out fou r of the most dominant m achin es of the Four-Stroke Nationals. including the bike Rex Staten rode, which was a Yamaha TT500 that was bored and stroked to 650cc by Pro -T ec and stuff ed into a special Pro-Tee motocross frame... Bob Balentine rode his KTM to the win at the Barstow-to-Veqas replacement event , Beatty -to-Veqes. Of the roughly 80 riders who started the event, 58 finished... Eddie Lawson (Kaw) won the Open Expert class at the Corona TT Half Mile in Corona. Cali fornia. Lawson also won the Open Money division. 10 YEARS AGO... DECEMBER 12, 19 90 Th e Florid a Wint er National Olympics took _ _ _ O!lo*l place over Thanks giv:DOO_'-. i ng weeke nd , with 2700 riders making the trek to Ga in esvill e, Florida , to compete in TT , Sup er cro ss, m otocro ss and gra nd prix events. Th e start of ~_'-1I '_ one o f t he motocross was pho eve nts tographed for the cover of Issue #49. Jeff Dement (Suz) won the Bronze Bike Award, Ezra Lusk (Suz) won the Golden Goggles Awa rd, and Ryan Hughes (Kaw) won the Silver T ire Award. Other class champions includ ed Ricky Carmichael (85cc 7- 11), Greg Rand (85cc 12-13) and Johnny Marley (P/W) ... The Barstow-to-Vegas Hare {, Hound was replaced by the Batt le-to-Vic tory Hare {, Hound in Lucerne Valley. California, with 18-year-old KTM factory rider Danny Hamel winning t he 109 -mile race by nearly 10 > minutes... The final round of th e Masters of Mot ocr oss Seri es ran in Maast right, Holl and. with Ric k J ohnson (Hon) taki ng the victory at the event for I , ..._ ,- r E"ort hat' s ha ppen ing with our t ro op s w ha t t errain to ex pect this yea r i n o n ly throu gh ex te nsive efforts all ye ar in in ternationa l off- road compen ea rb y Spain . Most o f th e cou rse t his lo ng t o thei r abi l iti e s at this even t. t ition ? Isn't it t ime we sta rte d wonderyear looke d to m e l i k e som ething T hey eat , sleep , and yes . r ide with ing w hy w e ca n 't co m pete at the Si xyou' d find in south -centra l California one obj ective in mind - to b e the very Da ys ' level? Granted , t he It ali an s and best end u ro r id er s in the wo rld . I c an 't or N ev ada , ye t there wer e no Nation al the F i n n s are fast , but ou r team s Qua lifiers in t h at reg ion. Wh y doesn 't help but to thin k th at a lot o f the U .S . shouldn' t b e so far o ff the p ac e. rid ers this y ear w en t to Spain expectth e AMA s a nc t io n m ore events i n Sure , Americans Gu y Cooper an d re g i o n s o f th e c o u n t r y that most i n g just to fi ni sh. B y t h e time d ay Ty D a v is pu t i t to Frenchman resemble that year's host site? one's scores were posted , the y knew Stephane Peterhansel in th e fin al MX they h ad b e en b e a ten. We c an 't W e also have to b e m ore ad aptab le . On e could argue th at th e E u ro moto at Tulsa. In fact, the riders here e x p ec t t o climb t h e le ade r bo a r d ar e arg uab ly as fast as any o t her ridp eans d on't ride muddy cond it io n s as th r ou gh o t h e r t eams ' failures . We ers in the w orld , an idea w e h av e well a s our r id er s f r o m th e Pa cifi c have to show up at the Six D ays with No rt hw e st , o r h igh- speed sections sh own t ime an d time aga in - bu t not t h e ab ility t o w in , the des ire to win at th e ISDE , w he re w e j ust d on 't w it h the pro w ess of our d esert rac er s. an d , above all , th e ded ication to w in . seem ab le t o put i t all Tha t ded i cation starts right tog eth er. he re at hom e, w ith the m odifi Isn ' t it tim e w e stepped c at io n of o u r off-ro ad ser ie s to back and took a lo ok at t he more ac cur ately reflect wh at o ve r all pictu re? W e sa ile d w ill be fo und o ve rseas in th e off to Spain this p ast year fa l l. Repla c e th e e ig ht- m il e wit h some of ou r co un try 's specia l tes ts wi t h t ests fr om be st r id ers and barle y 1.5 to 2.5 mil es in le ng t h , and sq uea ked into the t op 10 . run them th rough terrain simi It 's apparent th at the Euro l ar t o w ha t i s uti l iz ed in pe an s dominate at fast speEu ro p e. These chan ges need c ial t e st s and w id e - op en t o c om e d i rec t l y fr om the MX . Wh y ? Bec au se the y AMA . ra ce th is way all y ear long , W e c an n o t k e ep go in g t o h oning th eir ski ll s so that the ISDE wi t h th e same o l d t hey shi ne w hen t h e ISD E n on- strat egy in mind, an d we roll s around. T h e fa ct that can 't ex pec t to w i n withou t we d on 't d o the s am e chang e. We need leadership makes on e wo n de r if w e ove rsea s and h ere at home. are re a lly sending the best T h i s ye ar in Spain , we l ost rid e rs for t h e jo b, rider s mor e th an o ne co m p e t e n t w h o will not on ly zero the rid er t o di squalifi cation , all route , but perfo rm well in because o f a lack of leader fast MX tests an d special ship . Sure, riders should know tests. The American Qua lial l about the outside -ass is fie r Ser ies is a good pro tan ce ru le, but they also need g r am , b ut in Euro pe they to b e helped alo ng a n d d on 't have the confusion of Do Am e ri can off-roaders have what it takes to ha ng w it h th is r e m i n d e d of th e t e c h n i c al varying formats from week - Italia n ISD E ri de r on Euro pea n turf? asp e ct at the I S D E . T hey end to weekend: no GNCC, ha ve enough on th er e m in d s no hare scrambles , no cro ss country B ut wh il e o u r ri d ers specializ e in certo easily forget that thi s event is ve ry j us t good, old-fa sh ioned Enduros. t ain conditions , Europeans sh ine as po li tical. Our r iders need to be h eld Oh , yes , and m o to c ro ss. We n eed to com plete teams , a dju sti n g t o the together as a unified t eam , no t treatc hanging conditio n s th ro wn at them sim p ly concentrate on the q u ali fiers. ed as a collection of in divi dua ls . T hey Th e American riders do not in the event. O ur T rophy , J u n io r Troneed t o be co ac h ed and tu tored as p hy , and Club rid er s n eed to ri de as deser ve to be b ad -mouth ed , and th at much as any team does - from play is not my intentio n . A ll t he r ide rs at team s all year lon g , build in g th e team to p lay , and f rom day to day. A meet t his yea r' s ISDE ro de w ell an d to the spir it instea d of cha si ng afte r indiv iding at t h e end of each da y, with a ll best o f t he ir ability , but we need to ua l t itles in thei r ow n l ittl e worlds rid er s and suppo rt perso n ne l atte nd rea na lyze o ur objec tive and f i n d a woods. desert, etc . - with t he ISDE ing , wou ld se em a s im p le e no u g h way to build the sk ills necp o li c y t o i m p leme nt, and essary t o b e a t the E uro - We cannot ke ep going to the ISD E with t h is co uld very well have p e an s o n t heir h om e tu rf . elimina ted any cha nce of the sam e o ld n on -strategy in m i n d . We n e e d to i nc rea se th e unjust disq uali f ica t io ns . a mo unt of E u r o p e an - st y l e Th e lS D E i s a great moto c ross and t erra in te st s th at ou r bein g little m or e tha n an afte rt houg ht. i n t e rna tio nal c halle n g e, a n even t r iders en c ou n te r o v er t h e c o u rse of I he ard m ore than one U ,S, ri d er this lo o ked u p o n as t he world's p re m ier t h e r ac i ng se aso n. N o t o n l y wo u l d y ear say t ha t th e Spa n ish cond ition s o ff-ro ad ra c e - the Olym pics of o ffwe re not t h eir "cu p o f tea." th i s i m p rov e th e r id e r s ' p er for ro ad , if y o u will. Yet e a c h y ear, w e ma n ces, b ut it w ou l d al so g ive t he T h e de d ication an d preparation of c on t i nue to t reat it like an amateu r AMA a better lo ok at the riders' ab il i t he Europeans is st ag ge r ing . While it e v e nt ( i t is a c t u a lly co n sidered as t ies in re le van t condi tions . appears th at they simp ly go out, w h ip suc h by th e AMA ) . Do we reall y w an t Con sid er th is: W e w ere in Po rt u gal it up, and go h ome with good re sults, to wi n t he IS D E? Do we? that p erf o rm an c e is mad e p o ssibl e last y ear, so we sho u ld h a v e known I do. eN W the second yea r in a row with 2 -1 m ain- event finishes over the two days of racing, Jeff Stant on (Hon) took the series crown with his 3-2 finishes, and with it $20.000 as Hond as swep t t he podi um on both nig hts. Jean-Mic hel Bayle was the other Honda rider on both nights with 1-3 finishes on the weekend, •C ycle News Rider of the Year In next week's Cycle News • Champions Intervi wed e • 2001 Buyers' Guide cue' e n e 1N S • D EC EM B ER 6 , 2000 59

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