Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. _-~-..-------- T he sp eeds th at the faster bikes turned at Daytona t his year h as been the subject o f much discussion and, increasin gly , mu ch cri ticis m . T he cri tics say th at 170 mph is eve ntual ly goi ng to do som eo ne in. This is p robabl y true . At the mo men t o nly to p rid ers on mach ines me tic u lous ly perpared by ace factory mech an ics an d en ginee rs had been flin gin g th em selve s ar ound at thes e speeds. Bu t w hen th e p riva teer a tt emp ts to keep th e pace in ord er to stay co mp e titive, it's go ing to get awfu lly hairy. T he privat ee rs won' t h ave th e same kind of money to pu t in to th e mac h ines and may h ave to cu t some o f the comers aro un d safe ty . Fur th ermo re , a lot of p rivateers are ju st n ot in th e sam e league in terms o f riding ability a. th e factory troop-smokers. The natu ral answer would see m to be to limit displace m en t. The AMA is goin g to be qu ite reluc tan t to d o so after pas t ex p erien ces. A few y ears back th ey we re thi nking of d ropping th e limi t to 350cc 's, but everybody and their kid wh o raced mini s j umped on t heir b ack . "N 0 one will co me wa tch a race like that! Little , slow bikes will b ore them ! It will kill th e sport!" So the AMA sighed and a while later rai sed th e lim it to 750. It 's true ; a bunch o f 100 h orsepow er mach ines howling off th e banks wit h th e ground sha king is a hell of a sp ectacle, an d m ore pe op le will p ay their money to see it. T he AMA is in a bi nd . Perh ap s, th ou gh, the Juniors could be limi ted somewh a t. 500cc's wou ldn' t be an unreason able limit. Maybe a fo rmula-type se t-up could be arranged . 750cc fo ur stro kes and 5 00 cc tw o strokes, for examp le. But something sh ould be d one be fore there 's hamburger on th e hig hway. T he b ike s are going to ge t faster, an d mo re pe ople wit h less abil it y are goi ng to buy or bu ild them. Your termin al velocity if you jump o ut o f an airp lane is only 18 0 mp h . • • • our first trip didn't know quite what to expect. Seems as though we p icked the right night as the members ended u p d ragg ing the AMA in Oh io over t he co al s for t he Insurance Prog ram ha ssle. The main gripe is that since the AMA Insurance Program is a Group Plan , wh y sh ould all members be forced to jo in an d not have the option of taking the Insura nce or not, as is the case in every bu sines s we've ever dea lt with? Good po int. Western Rep Mike Hinshaw fou nd himself in a very awkward situatio n . Then , a funny thin; happened . A motion was made to ask the Oh io heads to make it an option to ta ke the Insurance, the motion was seconded but it never came to vote. In all fairness to the AMA, the Group Policy is wr itten up on a year·to-year basis with 1972's package haVing no relation to 19 7 1' s. Therefore, the drop in many forms of benefits is not fra ud , as some m em bers believe. Anyway, now that the situatio n is o ut in the open , it ' ll be int eresting to see what happens in the next few months as other AMA Dist ricts get the not-very-welt-pubtlctzed in the past word . * * * We also p icked ul' on th e TT M.C.'s mo tio n to hold a Grand Prix, Elsinore sty le, in the city st ree ts of Adelanto, Calif. It's propose d to be a 100-mile affair all on pub lic ro ads in ' une. No decisio n was made b ut the c lub cou ld get the O K some time th is wee k. • • • If you caught the Voices letter last week griping about Powder Puffs earn ing the Amateur status in the desert without really qualify ing, Lightweight II steward Ron Hall said he wou ld correct th is and that four such participants will be moved back into the Nov ice ranks. (For what it's worth for the " S ma ll Wo rld" department: CN's managing ed itor was also on hand at the showdown and met Ron after the meeting with a gleam in h is eye...seems as though both he and Hall used to play basketball some years past and had gone separate ways until that night .... Big deal .) * * * Clams are the only living organism that don 't develop cance r, Maureen Lee tells us. • • • racers, you ma y Hey , road be losing a place to rid e: Vacaville Raceway may be go ing away . Th e ro ughness of the t rac k is cau sing it s use t o be st o pped by th e sport s ca r peop le. T hey figure that it will co st $80 ,000 to $ 100.000 to br ing up to par. Maybe it will become a ho using developmen t like the Cotati o r Asp en , (Colorado) pavement c irc u its. Of course they co uld st ill continue to use them for b ikes and ca ll it a grand pr ix . * * * T R IC K TI P OF TH E WEEK: Neat way to ligh ten your bike is to fill th e fra me with h eliu m. • tal ked to Pau l Garnett at U5. Suzuki about it . AMA rules atate that yo u can mod ify cyl inders anyway that you like as lon g as you use the same material and number of ports as the production it ems. However, you can 't change the head s too much . You have to modify the production item. The problem that Suzuki faced , Garnett told us , was water cooling. Water cool ing has many advantages, but it has sticky po ints too. Once t he cyl inders were mod ified with the ports moved aro und (all very proper) the water cooling jackets on the cy linders and heads no longer lined up . A few minor casting changes were a ll that was needed, so that's what Suzuki did . Uh·uh, said the AMA. So now the monster threes a re in the shop with a bunch of puzzled e ngineers who are try ing to f igure out how to get the stoc k heads u n-st ock enough to f it on the t rick barrels. Did Suzu k i e xpect to have the b ikes ready for th e ne xt National roadie? "We don 't k no w yet," said Garnett. "They may o n ly ru n te n minutes with the new heads: ' Suzuki will be sure when a 750 t rip le fin ishes a National. Well, what about the t ire problems? "We're gett ing closer" said BILLY BARKFEATHER USES A HOT SHOE DEPARTMENT: We had a kind of rough Monday around here last week. Monday is our press day which is bad enough . About noo n we realiz ed that the publishe r , Cha rles Clayto n , and h is wife and the b us iness manager, Sharon Clayton, hadn 't come bac k from their weekend jau nt . We were pretty co ncerned for awhile . Then t he pho ne ran g. It was Ron Schneider's ne ighbor. Ro n , o ur t rick tra il rid er had go ne with t he m an d h e had n't come back eit he r. Now we were down righ t scared . Schneider s makes a lot of powerf ul enemies and so me one m ight h ave gotten them a ll. Checks showed no bod ies found where they ha d passed, bu t there was no trace of live ones eit her . By Tuesday we were climbing the walls . We had pinpointed w here they sh ould have been b ut the local off ic ials cou ldn't t u rn up any t h ing. T uesday afte rnoo n , the general man ager was ju st reach ing for the phone to notify ne xt of kin when it ring-a-din ged. T hey'd be en fo und . While we had been swe at ing and t h ink ing up morb id press releases, t h ey had been play ing a bad ly o rga nized game of h Id e-and-qo-see k, Schneiders an d Clayton had decided to go for a sh ort tra il ride. Cla yton had b ike t ro uble a nd Ron left h im to go get help . A f our-w heet d rive thingy was se nt to ret rieve t he publish er. In the mea ntime he had gotten h is bike started an d ta ken paths not usable by the larger veh icle. So they did n't locate each other. Then Clayto n's b ike qu it completely , and Sch neiders came bac k empty handed. The appropriate officials were not too int erest ed in looking rea l hard until Sharon Clay ton got on t h eir bac ks. It was getting da rk and a helicopte r was about to be d ispatched wh en he walked out. It was n' t t il t he next d ay t hat we heard though . The genera l man ager, when told th at t he re wer e no pho nes o r other ways o f co mm un icat ing , said, "Well, w hy d idn't you use you r shoe! " * * * KFR E radio 940 in Fre sn o has two programs that conc e rn bikes : one o n Friday wh ich is a ca lendar of up com ing even ts an d a Monday sh ow. GIve those fell ow s a clam. • • • Got prompted into boggy ing on over to the District 37 Sports Co mm ittee meeting T hursd ay night becau se of some controversial matters we heard were go ing to be b ro ught up. As it was • • Poor Suzuk i is having a heck of a t ime win n ing a Natio nal road race. They should have had Daytona, but tire problems p ut them out. Then at Atlanta they won bu t we re d isqualified for having illega l cy linder heads on their water·cooled three-cyclinder 750's . We Where we are glad that we weren't . Buzz Bat y ph oto . : Garnett . Goodyear and Dunlop have both been search ing for solutions. Talladega is the only real problem that Suzu ki faces; they have the shorter cou rses lic ked . " Atlanta gave us no t ire Obv iously. Loo k out , problems : ' Suzu k i is overd ue. * * * In stark contrast to the Los Angeles Tim es the Herald Examine r gave a very objective accoun t of th e Elsinore GI' . They made a li ttle typ ographical error or so me thi ng whe n th ey said th at the re were over 100 ,000 entries (tha t was the numb er of sp ecta tors) bu t o th erw ise their rep o rt w as q uite accu rate as far as we co uld tell. T o them goes our No t All Rep orters Ar e Bad Gu ys Aw ard. Well done , Iellas. • • • IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT , DO IT YOURSELF DEPARTMENT: It seems as t ho ugh Giacomo Agostin i, world champio n road racer , is build in)! his own road racing course near Riminl, Ita ly . He hopes to have it completed by the end of the year. The 2.75 mile track will set him back more than $130.00. Maybe the money that he is getting from h is new sponsor , Phill ip Morris, will help . * * * Have you checked th e Masthead recently ? You kn ow , the littl e bo x on th e top of th e letters' page th a t say s wh o does wha t aro und he re. We have fou r ch ang es th is we ek . J ohn Hu e rter is our new edito r. He likes to spe nd h is week ends ru sh ing aro und in the desert o r on a motocross co urse. S ay he llo if yo u see him . lie' s easy to rec ogn ize; he has a b eard and rides a CZ. Also in th e new faces d ep ar tment is Squeeky Haynes. She d oesn ' t h ave a beard an d rides a T riump h Cub so you should be able to dis tinguish her from the ed itor. Randy Die tze l is ou r new b ookeep er . He cam pai gns h is Bul taco 125 in . CMC mo tocr oss. His assistan t is Barbara Beb eck who co mes fro m an inc redib le b iking family. Space preven ts us fro m listing all her family 's machines bu t they range from a Hod aka to a Kaw asak i 5 00 and one of her so ns presently is h igh in Distri c t 37 mo tocr os s p oin ts. Somed ay (Please turn to pg. 43) Cl . " '" C1. N .... Cl . > ::; 3£ w 2 w ..J U >U

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