Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141020
Ll'l N ii <{ ~ w z w -' (J >(J ~' It's a Harley-Davidson tatoo! Honest! A real onel .. is By David Swift LOS ANGELES, CAL., April 16, 1972 - Wonder if all the biggie d istri uto rs b got together and agreed t o save their money this year. Too b ad. Lo ts of folks lik e Husky, CZ, Maic o, Penton, and o thers, including th e thrivi ng accesso ry , lubricant, and gee-gaw manufact u rers, could have saved th e Cycle World Show. Unfortunately, th e d eal er tra d e sh ows in Long Beach , Houston (that show was a smash), Philly, and Daytona probably frazzled the pocketbooks an d energi es of all b u t those w ho can a fford to hi re an o utside concern to do the dirty ,"ark. . T o mak e matt ers wane, those th at did sh ow up were usually half-h earted . Honda had no enthusias m and the new . 3 5 0 F our >VaS missing. Kawasaki 's d isplay was even more embarassing than the expensive "moon-ro ck " motif they have been using recently. This ti me they had their co m p let e line stuffed into a ~ ~~~b:~ya ~:.=~~t' l:k':l~ikr:: Derek Rickman defe nds his product for Dirt Bike's Pet e Sz ilagyi. Pan t-pant-pant. Harley's alloy XR·7 50 was sweet. volume dealer's b ack room. Italy saved the show, They brought in a planeload of b ikes of both the motorized and pedal version, clearly accounting for at least half the spokes in the whole show. Italian scooters have always been slow maven (that is, they don't sell extremely well) in the states. Hopefully , the new Guzzies and Laverdas will challenge the current flock of English and Japanese superscoots, Don and Derek Rickman were on hand to point to th ings on their bikes. Dere k is having a t o ugh ti me living up to BSA-Trium ph's " perfect b ik e" adverts, and it >VaS pleasing to realize that he is aware of his creation's imperfections even if an o verly-imagi native cop y man , wasn't. Harley-Davidson was kind enough to reveal the most sana Harley at the show. It wasn't a chopper b ut th eir new alloy racer. Now all they need is 199 more. Only two majo r publications we re on hand, being, of course, us and "Cycle World". Twenty-five cents wo uld get you a sound recording of the IT from them or a plastic bag from us. Curiously, the plastic bag o utsold the reco rd by about 500 to o ne. You can bet reams of brochures will get thrown away but the bag won't, because they were paid for. One interesting new product bore the kinky-sounding handle "Analube". Wonder who they'll get to en dors e it. Can't y ou see the bl urb ... oh, never m in d. Analube also p ro mises "performance and ecology" which ought to appeal to the m o re gullible. The choppers and kustom kars were all pretty much the same. Just the variations o n decade-old themes. The mech anics of paint application have been perfected but there are precious - few worthwhile in content. Also lacking was a sense of humor. Custom freaks are currently engrossed in a 1956 vision of affluency, as suggested by things like cocktail glasses, artificial flowers, and bubble hair-dos. Best display in the whole show (if yo u ask me, and I know you didn't) was a collection of pedal bikes caricatured as cho p p ers . Workmanship o n the dolIinks was excellent like everything else in the show but, as a rarity, they actually made you smile.