Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

o M ~ JOE - AK US.. MAN OF THE (CYCLE) WORLD P RHRT > By David Swift J o e Parkh urst has t his silver yo-yo . " It's real silver, ~ too!" say s he . Sometimes he j ust wal ks aro und h is w office yo-yo -ing. It wo ul d ap pear that he should have Z W other t hing s to do. ...J Does he walk aro u nd th e o ffic e yo-yo-i ng to reliev e U >- th e myriad tensions of th e rich execut ive who is U pr essed w ith life-or-d eat h decisio ns d ay a fter day ? No . I gu ess he lik es t o walk around the - offi ce yo-yo-ing b ecause h e likes to pla y with a yo-yo . Yo-yo s are fu n, like motorcycles a nd Ferraris and ot he r to ys. Joe co u ld n't get the yo-yo worki ng a t o ne particu lar moment. String wa s ba d. It would have ma de a great ph oto graph , th ough . I first called J o e Parkhurst about a month a fter he clo sed a de al w ith Co lu mb ia Bro ad casti ng Sys tems. He w as pa id a reported $ 5,000 ,000 for "C ycle World". was given a vice -presiden t's title, and was allo we d to rema in at his publishin g duties. When I mentio ned all that to him on the pho ne, he aw -shu ck sed a " Gee , I'm very happy about th a t!" And wh en I told him Cycle News wo u ld like an in terview he ps ha w ed , a "Golly, I'm really fla ttered !" First mee ting with Joe Parkh urst was at the Fle ur de Lis, a swank little n igh t club in Laguna Beach . T he Moj o Men, a " mongre l rock " gro up which incl ud es Joe Pa rk hurst on th e drums and Dan Hunt, "Cycl e World" senio r editor, as organ ist, has be en play ing th er e for so me time an d when Joe Par khurst noticed th a t th e o wner was n't h ap py w it h th e establis h ment, he decided to b uy i t, . Fi rst person you see w he n e n te ring the Fleu r w as, interest in gly, J oe Parkhurst . His b ack is to you and he crad les a couple o f drum s ticks while ra-ta-th umping th e p ercu ssion .co mp lex th at surrounds hi m . He is a serio us musician . Head tu rn ed to the side, he glan ces suspicio usly ;ii ' each particular in strurnen t bef or e giving it a so lid w hack and let s h is face re fle ct occ asio n al pride after th at certai n rif f. In th e meant ime his ears lean toward's Hunt' s direct ion , listening for vario us cues. I sa t down and wondered wha t to orde r. I'm not fond of mixed drinks and I felt b eer migh t be a b it gau ch e for su ch a swanky pl ace. A w ait res s set a heap of p op co rn in fro n t of me so I ord ered b eer. After the Mojo Men's set was o ver J oe Parkh urst sat down and I joined h im. I didn't h ave to p ay fo r an y more d rinks af te r th at. He p ointed o u t all th e thi ngs he did n' t like about the club. The paintings were b ad , th e lamp s weren 't right. Et ce te ra . As expected, even with a nearl y-em pty club (it was a Mo nd ay night) J oe Parkhurst w as surrounded b y friends, much like his drum set, and everyo ne w as laugh ing and carry ing o!l with one anothe r and h avin g a j olly time. All th is t ime I kept thinking to my self, "Wow, this is Joe Parkhurst !" an d "Gee, this isJ oe Parkhurst l" I tho ught o f all those ex otic motorcycles he brought . through the pages of " C ycle Wor ld" and all th ose incredibly articu late mathmatical formulae ab out braking forces o n off-camb er co rn ers. And I and hu ndreds o f thousands of b ike fans everywhere approved of it so mu ch that we happily helped him buy th is night club , th e d rums, an d a whole lot of other things. When the night endedJoe Parkhurst busied himself tearing down the heavy music equipment and hauling it to the back sto re roo m, At one p oint he sto p pe d , poi n ted at my shoes, and said , "Say those are nice . Where can I get some like that?" E mbarrassed , 1 to ld him he d idn't want any like these because they only cost 20 bucks. '" ~ The Bond-Parkhurst -Bond offices are locat ed o n a bluff overlooking Pacifi c C oast Highway in Newp ort Beach . The p lush , glass, two-story building houses two m ajor magaz ines, " Road & Tr ack" and " Cyc le World " . There are wid e halls with expensive, well-executed p ain tin gs, re al live green p lants , and a good number of attractive fe male s scurrying abo ut with papers in hand. Joe Parkhurst' s office is in th e fa r co m er of the building rem oved furthe r fr om the recepti on ist 's desk by a ni gh t of stairs. 1 ba d inadve r tan tly decided to visit J oe Parkhurst o n deadline d ay . On th is d ead line day we we re abl e to spe nd the whole morning talk ing abou t th is an d t hat and t he other t hi ng. Joe Parkhu rst 's office is care fu lly littered with ex pens ive and fun ctional me rc han dise like elec tr ic pencil sh arpeners, a Bus hnell monocu lor aimed in the dire ct ion of Catalina Island, an ultra-modernistic stereo sys te m th at q u ietly p lay s middl e-o f-th e-road pop all d ay , a hi ghly -det ai led model of his Fe rra ri, and a glass case wi th 4 0 o r 5 0 pl ast ic bike models and other arti fac ts. A J oel Rob ert poster and a J od y Nich olas p ho to grace th e wall and , unlike most big-time mot o rcycl e execs, you can' t find any pic tu res o f himself to prove h is tw o-wh eeled talents. He ge ts ex cited abou t everything he talks abo u t. Like Sad dleb ack P';'k. He ta lked abou t p arking proble ms, bureau cratic ha ssles, fu ture de velopme nts . " ,..... - Joseph Parkhu rst : Publisher of Cycle Wo rld, CBS Vi ce-President, M otorcyclist. He mu st have spe n t hundreds o f h ou rs talking about th e sam e th ings before bu t this m orn ing he st ill was fascinated by it all. J oe Parkhu rst go t ex cited ab ou t this b ook . It was a beautifu l book, a gian t vo lume of masterfu l photographs and text abou t the sport, published in Euro pe. "It cos ts $ 4 0 over th ere so I can' t S ll it here. e I would like to put together so me th ing like it o ver here . I think it would sell . Don 't you ?" The library shelf co n tained vir tually every book on motorcy cles p ublished (one would assume) and so me memorabilia, There was th e original he lmet p ain ted in the now-popular "stars and stripes" model. J oe Parkhurst lo oked p roud. In 1965, he said , "C ycle World" was sending a team to th e Isle o f Man, including Gord on Jennings, Donny Vesco, and Buddy Perri ot t. "Gordon was my Technical Edi tor at the time and he convince d me he was a road racer, I found he wasn't at Daytona," As for the 10M , the "Cycl e World " threat never m aterialized sin ce the TT was p ostponed th at ye ar, I asked him what h e does for a living. He smiled (as a matter of fac t, I can' t remember wh en he didn' t have a smile of one sort or a no t her ), "W ell my title is " c.. 50 I told D an to quit com ing in so early on my drum publish er of 'C ycle World', I o pe ra te that wh ich concerns busin ess. I d o a little photograph y oc casiona lly . Dan I Hu nt J likes my work. I also like pro mo ting the Cycle World shows a nd races. I write a column eve ry mo nt h bu t I'm th inking of giving it up because no o ne reads it." There were oc casional inter rup ti o ns. T he phone rings a nd J oe Parkhurst sna tc hes the receiver with on e hand and a pencil with th e o th er . Reflexes, I wo ndered why he didn' t have any p ict ures of h im sel f o n t he wall. " G ee, I neve r thought o f that," said Joe Par kh urst. " I do n't like to pu t myself in t he magazin e. When we do it's so you can't recognize me . Did you see 'Motorcyclist' t his week? Bob Greene has his pic ture in there 16 times." With th at h e reach ed in a lower d rawer of his de sk an d fish ed out an old manila folder, " Sure, I have so me pictures of -rne riding" . He pu lled out o ld contacts that dated from 1948 but he never found an y rea dy-to-go eigh t-by-te ns o f him rid ing a . motorcycle. "Son-of-a-gun. I thought fo r sure I had some. It's been a long time since I've looked in here ." He showed me all t he happ y workers. Th e CW art d epartment is a cra mmed-up affair - the t yp e of solo."

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