Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. '" '" :. N .... '" N I M PO RT AN T-LO OKIN G GRAPH SPEC IF ICATIONS: · Max speed Min speed Surface . A true dual-purpose road for the discriminating rider. appr ox. 9 0 mph o mph (sto p signs, etc.) I. Primarily asphalt wi th Lining Double yellow :;: Pass in g fact or .03 110-150 feet c Width Length u, ~ Tires Potho le factor Adv isory Signs Negligible N.A. K70 or Street type 1 Acceptabl e wh en used w it h C·N Formula for Yellow Speed Sign Conversion fo r I n in t ial Ne gotia tion of Otf-Bamps and Mo unta in R oads (see ~ w Z I. .. L2 W ...J o > o <; N.A. Oil Weight ~ .~ Lubricatio n system H2O ~ 0. La occasional conc rete a nd water. Dirt. ... 2.0 LO e 0 -;: OBO " u, 0.60 0 '0 020 text) Relative Exposure overpass th at joined t h e asp ha lt at not quite the same level. Luc kily , the high wa y guys elimin ated wh at could h ave b een a c ur b perpendicu lar to the road by m olding th e asp halt into a ram p. Take-off and lan ding: rrnooth , After crossing La urel Canyo n Blvd ., we again le ft th e .ro ad . This ti me w e fo und a d irt ro ad th at is accessab le o nly o n fo o t or b y bikers wh o d on ' t know any better. It wound b ack d own th e hill to La urel Can yo n Blvd., whic h circl ed us back to Mulholl and and allowed us to st art all ove r aga in. One featur e of part of Mu lholl and Dr ive is here. (Posed by professional model.l T racti on facto r is ex ce llen t thus far but d irectio nal st abili ty left something to be d esired. We lost Mulholl and a co up le of times and didn't find it until w e go t to th e San Diego Fre ew ay. Once again we wound into some hills and disc overed that Mulholland spends its along st retch of real dirt, just like the ki nd pi ct ured Las t year at this tim e we presen ted anoth er first for the motorcy cling publishing industry-- a true, comp lete , no- holds-pulled ro ad test of 23rd stree t in Sig nal Hill . Such was the frankness and h o nest y of the test, th a t some of yo u may h ave no tic ed that the City of . Signal Hill has not advertised with us since. We are hardly swayed b y such hodologi cal tact ics ; nay, o nce again w e fearl essly stomp kic kstarters an d scrutinize pavem en t (and, surprisingly, other substancesl] as w e put Mulholland Drive to the test. With implied permission by the Cit y of Los Angeles (that is, they never said we couldn't test it) , we found Mulholland Drive on the west side of the Hollywood Fr eewa y. The first few mi les were mark ed with well-ban k ed curves and 'p len ty o f sign s advising "20 mph". We ap ply th e fo llo wing fo rmula to such signs: MOTORCYCLES-mult ipl y th e number b y 2 a nd add 5 : CARS (n on-American) -Mu lti p ly th e number by 2 and subract 5 . CARS (A merican) _ Subtract 5 from the number on th e sign. The resul ting figure represents the approximate miles-per-hour the t um can be negotated sa fely , but with sport. Of cou rse, if you are familiar with the road, you are on your own. But we weren 't so we had to go by something . The formula is p roven by the fact that (a) our pillion passengers cut our blood circulation at the waist each time we d ucked into a turn, (b) we are still alive, and (c) we lost several pounds of metal off the muffl ers, kic kstan d s, etc. Anywa y , th e firs t th in g we n o ticed abo ut Mu lho lland was the spot where we left the road. Not the edge, but the surface. While testing the bikes fo r p ist on-lift on a long straght b etween the Hollywood Freeway and Laurel Canyon Blvd., we enc o untered a co nc rete waning moments as a high -grade dirt road. It offered us a sp lendid view of th e no t-so -spl endid San Fern ando Va lley. An oc casional freak in a crossed-up VeeDub on the "Tong side of a bl ind corner served to make the trip even more b reathtaking. Mulh o lla nd Drive's finer points are th e manifold sw oo ping cu rves , nice view , an d h igh-q u ality pavi ng used (except on th e dir t part). T he poorer poin ts arc th e lack o f p laces to pass the po key cars w hose occupan ts ar e enjoying t he nice view and the occas ional water tri c kles th at lubricate th e h igh-qu alit y p aving. One othe r point th at d eserves m entioning is tha t no t on ce d id we have to di ce with the law du ring o ur fran t ic b eh avior up on Mulholland, as evidenced by the fact th at we are not in the slammer as of this writing. There are lots of pretty views on Mulholland Drive. One of th e more ex cit ing discoveries was 8 log . The start of our test , Mulholland Drive, of course, was named after Mulholland Barkfeather, the inventor of the octoroon.

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