Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

T h ey have two sets of ignition enso rs. Shut the eng ine off and sw itch to the other set. Very tric ky . We will try to bring more info in a b it. * * • Speaking o f Kaw as k i 75 0 ' s, wat ch for our roa d te st com ing up soon . \Ye foun d so me su rprising th ings. • • • T he u pc o m ing U .s . Cup MX seri es at Sadd leb ac k a nd Carlsbad will also feature S po rt sma n ra ci ng for all regul ar classes and cla ssifi cations o n t he p reced ing Sa t u rd ay . District 3 7 MX po ints will be awarded for Nov ice s, Amateurs and Ex perts in the norma l cc d i v is i o ns . Both race s ar e AMA·sa nc t io ned , count t o wa rd t he Dist rict Num ber One plate and all th at good st uff . Wit h the num ber of Dist rict 37 mo toc rosses fewer an d fart her be twee n t h is sea son , t h is is a good chance t o pick u p t h ose p oi nts yo u mi sse d ea rlie r in t he year an d (t a daa !) be on the sa me program as T he Pro s. Pre -entry is $ 7 .5 0 to Le isu retech, Bo x 13369 , Sacramento. * 110'1' FLASH ! HOT DOG ! HOT SHOE! HOT POOP ) "Cobra" DeSoto , lo ng. time Haw aiian c o mpe titio n rider, w as at American Jawa last T hursday ass isting his son John in lo ad in g new 250 an d 400 CZ motocross machines into h is truck . T hat's righ t, MX fan s, DeSoto is back on a CZ, a fte r an interim period on other machines that sometimes we nt In the no t-to o-d istan t future we may see a Russ ian rider on Japanese m ach inery in Eu ropean m o to cr oss. S ome of the to p riders are Russ ian , p articularly in the 250 class. T he Japanese factories are goi ng to need ride rs. and the Russi ans are go ing to need good rides. Vladam ir Kavinov and Alcxsej Kib irin are names to keep in mind. Th e latter to ok a bell y up sh ort of th e c hec ke red . Of second an d fourth in the Fren ch an d Spanish GP's re spectively . course . De.Soto, Jr . is not kn own for being eas y on hi s bikes. J ohn was CZ·m ounted for the first round o f the A1>IA·san ctioned US C UP 1>IX a t th e Cal-Expo c o urse in Sa cra men to . Inso far as J o h n ree s tab lish ing a more perm an en t re latio ns hip with CZ . b oth he and T ed Moore of American J aw a agre ed that any final agreemen t is "s till up in the air". After the DeSo to /CZ perfo rma nce Sunday, it w ill be interesting to wa tc h nego tia tion s un fol d . Pa rticu larly since The F ly ing Haw aiian has other offers. Bu t can any o ther machine h ol d together under the p unish in g DeS oto rid ing style ? John will p roba bly be riding one of th e p rototype Kaw asa k i MX bikes this weekend at Sa ddleback in the sec ond round of the U.S. Cup . Unc o nfirmed ru m or has it that he 'll be on a Sears' Allstate for the Carlsbad race. Co u ld this be part of a new "Try before you b uy" policy? We'll go out on a limb and predict that DeSoto will not sign w ith Sears. • • • Did you know that the f irst motorcyc le produced by Yamaha was the Red Dragon Fly? * * * We got ring-up fro m Marvin Foster at Hodaka who told us th at so me interesting th ings are happening a t the , two-day thingy a t Bad Rock. American Ho nd a is going to field an enduro team , as, of course, will Penton . Wheelie Wheeler' s American motorcycle will baptism u nd er fire - an d rain and m ud and probab ly so me snow and Lo rd knows what else. • • • Been wondering what to do with that old junk bike? Throwing it away would be poll uting and it really isn' t mak ing it sitting there in the garage. Well, Estancia High School needs it . Call Ch uck Johnston at (714) 642·4850 . It is tax deductible . * * • AVIS T RIES HA RDE R : G oing to Europ e ? \Van t to ge t a b ike o ver there instead o f sh ip p ing yo u r 75 0 road hurn er over? Avi s in Eu rope has j us t th e th in g: Mo f'a Puc h. Vluxi motor b ik es for $4 a day or $ 28 a week through Swissai r. Of c o u rse, y o u will have to pedal up the la rge r hills. • • • Drag racing is probably the most overlooked end of motorcycle sport and HRL who sponsor's Miss Molly Blue is putting up $500 for bikes competing at the Challenge Day drags at Orange County raceway on May 21. Mo re people , should pay attention to the drags. * * * • • • You may have wondered how the John Player Nortons like t he ones at Daytona got the gas to the carbs since the ta nks were down alongside th e e ng ine in the inter est of lo wering t he we ight . T he answer, of course, is that they used a fuel pump. But it was a un iq ue one. The pump is operated by the movement of the rear suspensio n. This led to a rather humorous situation during the ,A nglo·A m e rica n match series. At Oulton Park one of the mechanics was warming up a Norton, bouncing up and down slightly on the seat while he d id sa to pump fuel. It was noticed that the Suzuki mechanic next to him on the grid did likewise , perhaps th inking that it warmed up the oil in' the rea r suspension. Soon all the Suzuki mechanics were doing it . • * * TR ICK TIP FOR SUZUKI 400 OWN E RS: One of our st aff used a CN want ad to se ll his super-t rick Suzuki 400 a few weeks ago . lie sold it righ t o ff the clam , but he's still getting inquiries. Many people are calling just t o find out wh ere they can get the special gea rs men tioned in the ad. One dealer called all the w ay fr om Ohio . Well , here 's th e skinny. It seem s the 1971 '1'1\1400 h ad some bad gears, notabl y second an d third. Seco nd gear would self-destruct be cau se the d og grooves didn't line up with the d ogs. Third driven gear would go pooh when the bron ze bushin g insert sep arated from the gear body . Suzu ki's crack team o f engineers h ave lick ed the second ge ar problem by lin in g the dogs up w ith the gro oves (clever) and the third gear problem hy m aking it o n e piece . You c an' t miss the new th ird ge ar be cause it 's p ink . N ow y o u w ill h ave to do y ou r sh if t fo rks in lavendar . An yway. the gear s are now avail abl e to th e world . Th e p art number is listed in th e 197 2 Suzuki p art s man ual. Good lu c k an d happy sh ifti ng . * * * We went to Auto-E xpo to chec k out all t he outlandish four-wheelers a nd were su rprised to come ac ross some sort of we ird sem i-cycle bac k in the corner. It is called the "B i-Car" and is reg istered like a motorcycle. The difference is that it is en closed. When you come to a stop you lo we r two support wheels w h ich kee p yo u f ro m k eeling over like the guy on the t rike on "Laugh·in". It uses a Kawasak i 500 engine although the three-quarte r litre ::; '" ~ w Z w -' U >- U

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