Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

ABrief Look at Joe Crocker and the World's Largest ikuni By David Swift " I ' m m or e ent h u sed abo ut motorcy clin g tod ay t h an I was when I was a kid. " J o e Cr ocker was a kid ov er 60 years ago and is st ill going stro ng. J oe was kind enough to stop b y o ur offices after he noticed t he article on Mikuni carb uretors we ran recently . He wan ted to show us t he mixer h e h ad o n h is Spor ts ter - a 44mm Miku ni he is cu rr ently sorting o ut. We invited him in fo r a cu p of co ffee so we could chat ab out th is World's Biggest Mikuni. He p olitely accepted the brew although h e do esn ' t reall y like to drink th e stuff. He's 70 ye ars old. He has liked motory cl es since 19 12. " I liked to rid e th en but I fm ally bough t m y first one in 19 17 . A Clev eland two-stro ke. Then I ran th e gamut." He nam ed off Wagn ers, Hende rsons, Fl y i n g Me r k e I s , T ho r s , Harl ey-David sons, Ind ians, Excelsiors, and oth er in trigu ing brands , so me whic h I've h eard of and others that I hav en't. T o me , they ar e just funky names fo r fun ky -looking m ach ines th at ar e fic tion. to me. Yo u lo ok in his eyes and you find o ut th ese machines did exist just lik e h is Sportster sittin g ou tside th e window still exists . Real mach in es, and good ma ch ine s. T um o n the th rottle and th ey go . And it felt j ust as good then as it d oes n ow . In 1950 Cr ocker owned a shop and b uilt "The Bru te" , a b ik e th at was capab le of 138 mph. He so ld the shop a year later. C.B. Clausen got hol d of the mac hine an d t uned it up for the land speed rec ord . Jim Hunter rode it at 224 mph at Bonneville. Since that time Joe has made all sons of headway into the science of motorcycle performance. Lately he has been tinkering with Mikunis for Sportster fans. He ran Mikuni 's largest, a 38 mm, on his 63·incher for a while bu t decided the Harley was still hungry. So the distributor gave h im this 44mm to see how it works. It seems to work fine. Mikunis are already a lege nd in their own time . F ro r« w hM I've read, I w ou ld . t hi nk that every machine alive co uld ru n better if it were fitt ed with Mikunis, O f co urse, th e Miku ni do esn ' t n ecessarily ca r b u ret b ett er th an, say, a co rr ectly -tu ned A mal GP. It's j ust that t hey never have to b e hass led with once th ey are in t une. _ H ar ley h as been fiddlin g with twin Mik unis for the last co up le of years on their racers b ut Sportster own ers st ill h ave to buy their b ik e with the Ti llotson, which Cro cker feels is u nsatisfactory, at leas t, when co mpared to the 44mm Mikuni, The T illotson is harde r to start, gives poorer gas mileage, and is more prone to clog. "There's j ust no co mparison," says J o e. One drawback, though . You11 have to redesign your tank. One thing the Mikuni won't do is operate upsid e down. If you are interested and h ave around $80 to invest in the imp rovement of yo ur Sp ort ster, contact Joe at 29 27 Missouri, South Gate, Calif. Maybe yo u co uld get him to tell you abo ut som e o ld sto ries as a bonus. ..... N "' g e, ~ m ~ '" ::; ~ w Z ~ ~ o ... \ T he M ik uni. Th e ruler-ho lder's hand hides the accommodate th e carbo Joe Crocker h as b een smiling like that since 191 7. By Maure en Lee The Sidehack Asso ciatio n, which always provides so mu ch col or to events, have had a nice p lum dropped in their laps. The Newhall Jay Cee's are having a fair and were looking for an attention-getter. They go t one. The Sid ch ack ers will run both days on a specially-built track just for them. Now, don't forget, guys - especially you monkeys - put y our best foot forward and make sure your ten ni es are nice and white! • • • Desert riders have a new thing to think about now when they are out trailing. Choppers. No, I don't mean those things with elongated fro nt ends and sissy bars. I mean the kind with rotos, Whirleybirds. San Bemardino County has b ought three of them to police their ar ea. The theory, so I hear, is that w hen yo u 're tr ailin g yo u o ften cross a boundary fro m public lan d on to pri vat e land. If it's n ot fenced or there's no sign and Big Broth er is watching you with the aid of his t errain ma ps, he's gotcha! S in ce the co unty purchased three choppers (wh ich don't ex actly cost p eanu ts ) th ey must b e expecting to ca tch an awful lot of us so the fines can pay for them, T h ink well o n that, dear hearts , whe n yo u're out th ere playing and watch w here th e h ell you're riding. Otherwise, you 'll get the feeli ng a wol f gets w he n so me so-called sportsman is hu n ting you from a plane with a high-p owered scope ri fle. I see the AMA and the MIC have both sent a nice letter to the Presid ent about his Save the Land proclamation. When I wro te my co lumn two we eks ago I hadn' t seen th e copy of th e MIC lett er, an d w he n I did, I th ough , "Oops, I've d one it again!" I still feel the same way a nd j udging fro m lett ers Cycle News and o ther of the media hav e rece ived t here are quite a few of us who feel th e same wa y. We agree that the land mu st b e used wisel y, bu t fo r ' the ben efit o f everyone. If we lie down n icely with o ur p aw s in the air and go along gracefu lly wi th everything the President and his co mm ission suggests, we could blow th e w hole thing. To p u t it in a lady lik e way , if we bow nicely , cram s they're just liab le to come up behind on our unpro tected rears, Don't forget that Big Business is ju st leaping up and down at a chance to get onto the public land. • • • Made the Viewfinden GP and was it ever good to be able to make a two-day event again. I love GP 's, not only fo r the excitement o f the racing but for the shenanigans that go on at most o f them. There's always one w ife or mother who thinks her gu y did better than he really did. Then there's u su ally a ligh tweight in with the h eavies; this time a H usk y go in t h e Open class an d Heavyweight S teward Tom Center was righ t in th e sam e class with him so you can im agine ho w that o n e is go ing to tum ou t. Th e o ne that I'm waiti ng to hear o n is the 2 50 Novice. The race is under p ro test. T h e guy who won it signed in as a Novice b u t is actually a CMC Ex pert, And h e sure didn't rid e like any no vice I've seen ! Now, the rule book says that if you are signing in at an AMA race fo r th e first time you will be classified as a Novi ce. Okay. But what about guys lik e this who p len ty of peo ple know is an E x per t o r A m a te ur in another reco gn ized organization? It 's no t fair to the rest of the Novices, is it ? Even if h e do es get transferred right after this race, h e's still taken a GP win away fro m someone. • • • If I were that chap and they insisted I rid e Novice even th ough I held an Expert card, I would n 't sign in. Pride wouldn't let me . • • • Some of your riders should pu t in your little th ink tanks, should you have aspirations to ride th e AMA ·FIM m ot o c r o ss e s . I've been browsin g through my new ru le books to find the changes etc . and the o nly wa y yo u can get a professional AMA Novice license is to be graded an "A" ride r in an A.\1A District. ("A" this year stands fo r Expert and "B" for Junior in Sportsman racing, just when we were all still trying to break ourselves of calling J uni ors "Amateurs", Oi vay!). If you live in a district with no such grading system then letters are necessary for you to obtain your license with proof of two years active Amateur comp etiti o n from the people you have been rid ing with or th e recommendation o f your AMA District referee. Now District 37 has its grading system so don't expect to ride with other organizations as an Exp ert and exp ect to get an AMA profess ional lic ense u nle ss y ou are an AMA Amateur (Sporting) E xp ert to. Ano th er ru le that h as been ch anged allo wed so me of o ur local troops to ma ke it straight to th e Amateu r class without servin g their Novi ce year in the professional division. I was just ch atting this over with Dick Mann one day about th is. I thought that it migh t po ssibly work for a TT rider if he was really an exc ep tio nal scrambles rider beforehand bu t not in flat track. Anyway, a Novi ce p ro should reall y have that first yea r to season. Richard d idn 't kno w th is had been done an d de fin itely d isagreed wit h it. Everyone should rid e as a pro Novice to get that feeling of a pro trac k and the situatio ns fo und on it, especial ly in flat track. Flat track racin g is a different ball of wax from j ust one or two hot tu rns in a scrambles track. Ano th er gentl ema n appeared on th e scene and thought there was an argume nt go ing on. He said no o ne had ever transferred wi thout serving a Novice year. He had to b ack d own when I to ld him w ho th e rid ers were, an d old Bugsy, th oughtful as always, said , "It won' t happen n ext year." Th e next y ear is now here and h e' s right. It won't happ en. It 's t ra nsfe r po ints o nly wh ich ca n m ak e it h ard on a guy who is really too big fo r a ring-ding but t hat 's life. I b rough t this up b ecau se ru mor h ad it that o ne of o ur top scr am b les riders was going to apply for an Am ateur card as a pro and t ry and skip his Novice year and it look ed as if this was going to con tinue we could forsee h ardly any No vices at all! Anyway , send the dear old AMA $1.25 for some rule books and keep them handy . You'd be surprised what is in there! And I mean re ally ! • • • At the GP w e ran into Mary McGee, still the best all -'ro und gal rider I've seen. She took t o dirt riding like a duck t o water after spendin~ plenty of time on the road race circuits with the man and was the first gal to get a trophy for riding a desert ra ce in District 37, as far as she can reckon . It was aft er that, she says, th at o ther gals started bugging their husbands for b ikes so they could hav e a go a t it 0 0 . If sh e 'd ever co n tested the 125 class I've got a pret ty go od id ea she wo uld always have b een nu mber one desert girl, what with her ability an d experience. But she alwa ys felt it would be a lit tle un fair an d 'sh e's not swell-h ead ed in fo rm ing that opinion. She was the first or o ne of the first gals to hold an FIM license fo r cars and b ikes w hen most Americans didn't know th e FIM existed. Mary and husband, Don have said " bye-bye" to Sou thern California. Sh e's been involved in two n ear -disastrous au to crashes - the last one kep t her off a bik e for tw o years and she 's j ust sitting on one now - and , they 've opened a shop in Ketchum , Idaho , so if you're up that wa y for the Evel Knievel mo tocross and want to go a littl e wa y out of yo u r wa y to sa y hell o, the welc ome mat is o ut. • • • Also heard that Lynn Wilso n did a no-n o in th e d esert and po pp ed a sho uld er . I didn 't say th is, Lynn, but was to ld to say it by th at nasty man in Burb ank with the mustach e who is alway s picking on girls to ask you, " Was it o n a d ow nh ill?" • • • Don' t forge t to state your view s o n the Pro clamation, Las t week Russ Sanford had a sam ple letter in h is col umn you can copy if yo u're a bit at a los s fo r wo rds. But do someth ing to let them know we 're out here! •

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