Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

EDITORIAL: IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING NOW YOU WILL HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF. As yo u should know, we have a helme t bill h anging ov er us here in Ca lifornia. It has alre ady passed th e Assemb ly . Now it has go ne to the Sen ate Transp ortation C ommittee. Now, stran gely enough. the Ca liforni a High way Patrol co m es in the pi cture . T hey will be consul ted a b o ut All744 (as the b ill is tit led) . Their support wi ll weigh very heavily with th e co m m ittee . In th e past th ey have a lways been verv fa ir , le t' s remind them to b e fair in thfs ca sc o T he kev ind ivid ual is Commander Su llivan of the Hi gh wa y Patrol. l Ie is th e man to send y o u r ca rds a n d le tt e rs to. lI is op in ion will ca rry th e we igh t of the C HI' . In th e pas t, the CHi' has always opposed co m p u lsory hel m et legisla tion . T his was du e , in p art at least , to the feel ings of Governor Re agan who has fe lt in the p ast that suc h law s we re un consti tu tional, Now i t' s up to y o u . If yo u don 't write th e Co m ma n de r and your Sena to r. don 't gr ip e wh en the fellow s in bl ack and wh ite cars te ll vou to wear V O U f helme t. Or later w he~ you h ave t o we a r a h el m e t w ith an airb ag like th e on es th a t they ar e using in cars soon . Do it. Writ e n ow : C ommander Sullivan, H ighway Pa tr o l. Sacramento . motorcycle to come to a dead stop. As for the rider? Well, he went over the handlebars and continued in a dead sprint down the freeway e I n fact, he passed a truck before he was able to stop. But, h e never fell down. We have sworn w itnesses. . * * * He re is the straigh t sco op on Kawasaki's four-stro ke, four-cy linder machin e. It is a dual ove rhea d cam la y-out. Lo oks mu ch lik e a Ho nd a 750 , but with a m ore ve rti cal engine. It a lso so u n d s li ke th e H o nd a. T h ey are te st in g thi s machine whenever they get a ch ance. Paul Sm a rt see m s to b e invo lve d w ith the te st i ng. Disp la ce men t is quite close to 1000cc . Als o in th e works is a I:IOOcc V- twin four strok e. It is farther awa y, however. It wi ll be a bit until we sec e i th e r o f. them. K awasaki does a great deal of th eir prototype tcsting in this coun try. * * * - Eve! Knievel , Are you read y ? 50 cars. Yeah he is going fo r 50. Not on ly th at b ut he is doing it,.in Memo ria l Colise um . (T he co lise u m was wh ere th e Romans did the Ch risti an -Li o ns th in g.) T he re is a catch . The ca rs wi ll be pyramided. That me ans tha t th ey wi ll he piled o n each other. If that doesn't turn y ou on all the w ay Aggie is a lso h avin g .a d estruction derb y which will feature a Roll s, a Continental ~Ik IV, Aggie 's '72 Cad, an d others. These wil l be driven by big name rac ing driver s (o f the fo ur whee led variety ). Be su re to bring the kiddies. * * * O ur info rma nt who last w eek reported about the Cycle News st ick ie on the inside of his clothes dryer asked us if there was co ntingency money posted for it. "Sure:' we replied, "but only if you win a Nat iona l on it ." * * * By the way , if y ou arc getting your paper late d on ' t lay into our circ ula tio n departmen t , the y are getting it ou t th c (Mo re Poop on page 13 ) If y our fro n t turn sign als b lind vou at ni gh t, pu t so me ta pe over the top of them . * * * At press time Stormers Limited called us up and told us that they had a 410 AJS stolen. If you know about it or see it you can ma ke $50 by letting them know. There are less than 75 of the machines around so keep your eyes open. The engine number is 596 and the frame reads094. If you have a hot flash for them you can reach Stormers at (714) 827-2650. \l' e saw De \l'ayne J ones sitting on th e sidelines a tt h e Le isurctech motocross at Sadd leb ack Pa rk th is past Sunday . He w as o u t practicin g a few d ay s be fo re th e ra ce , a ga in st dad Don's orde rs, and cras he d , putting a good-sized hole in h is le g an d ga ini ng assorted oth er sc ratches and bru ises . "Is that how you go t th at giant black e ye ?" we wonde red as De Wa yne put a wet p ap er towel to a gian t sh iner o n hi s left orb . "N o. A b ee stung m e. ~ure hurts. Boy , my dad sure was-mad ... * * Brad~ -who has wor ked with them in the bike's development, along w ith them. * * * * * A must-inv ite for your ne xt party is Jimmy Wei nert and Bruce Baron . Weinert is a good guitarist and song-writer, sort of, and keeps the troops enterta ined w ith such good ies as " T h e Motoc ross Song ", "T he Yamah a Song", and imp romptu n umbers abo ut what it's like t o race agai nst Br uce Baron, sung vaguely to th e tune o f " Ro ck y Raccoon". " I p ulled up behi nd Brucie and said , 'wh at sh o u ld I do ?' ", crooned Weinert. Bruce cam e in with "Yeah , him w ith 4 0 ho rses o n t a p and me with o nly t wo ." Bro ke everyon e up . • * * In cidently , Jimm y Weinert p lay s a Yam ah a guitar. I t' s not tuned b y Don Jones, th ough. * BRAD L ACK E Y' S DI LE MMA : Brad is mak ing pretty good money , one assume s, w it h h is Ka wa sak i rid e . But there's not mu ch of a futu re in it . Fi rst o f all , Brad says he's no t getting a ny con tingency money from Kawa sa ki. Secondly, K is send ing th e su pe rc ro sser s . to E urope soo n b ut th ey are not se nding * Speak ing o f Kawasaki, n ote th a t second pl ace a t the Lei su rete ch mo tocross was wo n b y J im Cooke . T he Kawasaki he was riding was sim ply a 350 Big H orn , no t o ne of the factory o ne -offers. Wh at m ak es th e :1 5 0 so co mpetit ive ? You are 110 d ou b t stroki n g your beard . I t' s th c frame buil t by Boyd & Stel lings, 21 1 1 South Grand Ave ., Santa A na, Calif'., tha t 's wh at. It ' s an outs ta nding u nit. * * * T ROO STORY : A few weeks ago a bunch of b iking b udd ies we re bo p ping alo ng th e fr eeway at a legal 65 . O ne o f the bikers spotted a blan ket lay ing in the ro ad and t ried to pic k it u p with his feet. He succeed ed in lofting it into a fo llo w ing bi ker's rear cha in, causing said What are you going to do? TRICK TIP OF THE WEEK: If you have your crankcases apart and want t o clean them, put them in the dishwasher . It really works, a nd it ' s cheaper than the car wash. * * * Wh y d o esn ' t so mebody p ut Do n Emde in a VW at Ind ia nap o lis this weekend ? He co uld probab ly pu ll it off. * * * We a re told that the AF M is th in king of doing a top-end jo b on Orange Co unty Raceway. With one race there every month the same o ld co urse is beg inn ing t o lo se some of its appeal. * * * * * * Las t week we did a number on Mo no tr ack Engineering b ut we fai led to mention their addre ss which is 9 59 -A Wesl 17th St .. Costa Mesa, California. What popu lar moto rcycle are yo u likely to f ind in wha t large Los A nge les depart me nt store ? Maico & Mayco. (Th is litt le gem was brought yo u by the same people who brought you the " Yama ka" good ie last we ek.) * * * YOU SA VE ~lON EY BY SAVING MO NEY: One o f o ur staffers has a new '72 tra il bike. lI e w as having problcms with plug foulin g and checked w ith hi s d eal er. Dealer said to use regu lar or unle aded gas. Th e reason fo r this is that le ad is th e primary cause of pl u g ' foulin g. Most or th e bikes th is yea r a rc set up 10 u se th e less-lead st u ff'. Yo u d on't spen d as mu ch on gas o r o n plugs. * * :+: We had an it em last wee k a bou t th e moto rc ycl e me chan ics t ra in ing at LA T rade T ech . No w yo u fol ks in t he m id west also ha ve a plac e to tryo ut. Am er ica n Mot or cycle Mech anics School in Chi cago has co urses eve ry fi ve we e ks. T hey ca n wor k o u t housi ng a nd lik e that. For m ore informa tion wr it e th em at 28 4 0 North Hals t ed St. , Ch icago , Illino is 606 57 o r call (312 ) 929 -0 771. They have a home study set-u p t o o. * * • Ah em . T h e nex t iss ue of C ycle News tha t yo u get will be a coup le o f d ay s lat e . S ome benevolen t e xcc aroun d he n: d ecided to give us Mem o rial Day o il. T he u p sh o t of it is tha t we wil l go to p re ss a d ay late a t least , m a ybe m o re if the editoria l dep art m e nt can 't shake the ir h an g overs an d mend thei r b ro ken bods. Th en th e p rinter will ta ke more time to ge t hi s sc h ed u le s o rt ed o u 1 an d it will all be late . \l' e will mail on Th u rsd ay . U n less or c o urse those exe cs read this in the p ap e r a n d re ali ze th at it will co me o u t th at la te a nd de cid e to take away our day o ff. * * * Uh, a he m . Those execs we were te lling yo u a bout...y uP . th ey ju st read it befo re it we nt t o pr ess. Yup , we will be he re Mo nd ay . We ar e go ing home Fr iday howeve r, wh ich sh o uld give us more t ime to prepare for Sunday's rac ing. Don't call up Friday. * BR ING ON * * T HE VIOLENCE D E PA RT ~I E NT: J .C. Agaj an ian has a re al horro r sh o w lined u p for next February 1 1. Headl inin g the show is the guy Aggie's p ress release terms " A me rica's most famous hospital case" same time every week. Tweak your mailm an once. He has thc alternative of le tt in g certain mail wait 4H h o u rs or someth ing. Cycle News is th at k in d of mail. Tell your postman that it is very import an l to yo u tha t you ge l it. Lord knows, it is h ar d en o ugh to ge t .t hrough the d ay wi thout .the lates t Cycle News. * * * BROWNELL FOR - ASSEMBLY! That's right. T he fellow who looks to be our brightest prospect in this state is on the ba llot for the June 6 primary. He is runn ing in the 49th Assembly district which is trick pol itica l lingo for t he Pomona area. So you people out there mark your ballots fo r h im. He is an avid bik ie and can do us a lot of good. If youwant to help him al o ng you can send you r donat ions to P.O. Bo x B , Pomon a, Ca lifo rn ia 91766 . * * * IIOW 'f a GET YOUR PICTURE IN T ilE PAP E R : There are two ways. Firs t, d o so me th in g sp ectacu lar , like win. Alternativel y y ou can go and stand behind the winner while he is being ph o to graph ed. If th at p icture o f the winner is u sed , vou wi ll b e in it. If v ou d o th at en ough ' yo ur face will become fam iliar a n d you will b e o n yo u r way to sh oedom . * * * * * * Kawasa ki Mo t or_Cor porati on is going to spo nso r th e Lagu na Seca Nation al Road Race. They ar e reall y go ing to do it u p a la Yam a h a Go ld Cup. They a re go ing to show th eir ' 7 3 mod els a nd gen erally ma ke a sp las h . We assum e that they also have h o pe s of w in n ing (t hey have wo n ha lf the Nat ion al road races t h is year, so far ). More as we hea r a bout it. Sounds like a go o d ti me . G u e ss wh o owns Paci fi c J a\',,·a. G uess agai n . 1r' s Bra d La c ke y. H e rode a Kaw asa k i in th e Lei su re te ch o pene r in S acra rricn to. • * * We com bed o u r hair, to ok a bath, excha nged ou r leath er s for less p ractica l dress a nd went down to testify at t he F o rest Ser vice hea rings. We even we nt in (h o rr o rs!) a car . We were o ut-gu n ned ab out fi ve-to-one b y t ho se w ho wo uld like t o have bikes removed fr o m publicly owned t ra ils. We said our p iece and w ished that m ore of yo u had shown u p a nd back ed us up . Th e Fo re st Service is hold ing more heari ngs abou t futur e tra il use. If yo u wo uld like to use t he m in t he f ut ur e it behoove s yo u to show up a nd say someth ing . More so u nd. Se e page fi ve for w hen and w here you can do so me th ing. * * * l le v, the C alif ornia Highway Patro l is o ne o f the ke y factors in th at hel me t bill . Check o u t the editorial on th is pa ge and writ e th em. If their wei gh t goe s beh ind it , it will probabl y go , It doesn't seem to be th e p lace of our law enforceme nt agencies to be interferi ng in the legisl a tive proces s. Separa tio n of th e bran ches of governmen t and all th at. I n the p ast G overnor Reagan has felt , and properly so, tha t th e helme t law was un constitutional. Now it seems th a t so mething h as changed his m ind . an d he has un leased the CHI' . Read th is page an d th en sta rt wri tin g! '" " C> '" 0N r- '" o M > :2 '" U

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