Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

CWl1tin' cfiround Doin' the Proclamation Polka By Chuck Clayton Here is the picture : A bunch of Interior Department bureaucrats, left over from the Roosevelt era. Their 3 0 years civil service is about up and so far they've managed to keep the "public lands" pretty m uch away from the pu b lic. But now there is this new dis ease invented by the Japanese - off-road mo torcycles, threatening to make tracks where the deer and antelope p lay. Hikers and horses are bad enough, but motorcycles ! "Hey , the Prez is leavin g for China, here, t ell h im to sign this. Heh, heh! " So th e proclamatio n goes o ut , saying, in effect, "hurry up and decide where off-road vehicles may and may not go, but re member, it's your fanny if anybody objects, and the Council on Environmental Quality is watching... y ou have six months. Go! " The hikers and horsemen are happy at the m o t orcy clists ' d iscomfiture, little realizing that they're nex t . AMA and MIC flutter over the bomb that's been dropped in their nest and decide that it might be an egg , so they paper it with endorsements and hope that wh en it goes o ff, t heir feathe rs won't get too ruffled. The motorcycle riding public is div id ed, as usual. M.O.R.E., Cycle News and the Four Owners Association say it's a bomb and set o u t to de -fuse it . So me think it may be a good th ing , ge t rid o f all those thoughtless m ini b ike rid ers who ma ke nois e and clutter up the t ra ils . O thers figure, "what the hey ? T hey ca n 't ca tc h m e." Th e de s t r uc tiv e co re of the President's decree is it 's too-short d eadlines and suc h tr ick words as "Saf ety o f all users , min imi ze co nflic ts b etw een ...e xist ing o r p roposed ... use s no t adversely affect ...natu ral, aes t hetic or sce n ic values ... no t affect exi sting or p ro posed us e s ... r egu la t ion s .. . enforcement." Ha ving rep resented motorcycli ng befor e m an y vario us governme nt agencies and co m mi ttees th ese past five years, I have co me to 'ap p reciate the By H. G . Ha rdy Now, from th ose go od folks who brough t yo u such fa vo rites as : th e DMR, th en recently, th e Y ankee 500 T w in en d uro and the Stil et t o IT Special, so w hat h ave they fo r yo u lat ely? T he lo ng awaited MA R (Mick Andrews Repl ica), th at 's wh at. A nd it seems those same good folks in Spain, an d Sch en ec ta d y are very determined t o sit th eir racin g specials in th e win n ing circle of every type of even t in th e . ' co untry . J ust as m an y of t he Ya nkee 's racing go odies come by th e way of Dave's Cycle h er e in the Mid-West for short periods of time, like always , no information came with the medicin e, and what I kn ow about t rials bi kes can be stuffed in to a folding matchbox. So Dick Hult and Joe Stokes, Dave 's experts on su ch matters, pointed out that you r basic Plonker h as a flywheel on each side, the MA R has one large brass flywheel o n t he right. T he d own tubes attach first to the engine front mo unt then to th e skid pan, which is thick laminated mat fiberglass , (st ro ng as steel, b ut lightweight) . The rear hub looks m u ch lighter and th e exhau st runs up and u nder th e gas tank, the seat and o ut the left backside without a m u ffle r . T he MAR is so n:U

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