Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Jimmy Weinert was _o u_U~ti D !l _th01e__ VZ Vamaha 'crossers and fe ll o ff . The result was a broken hand , and the result of that wa s that J immy is head ing back to New Vo rk to recover. Heal qu ick ly: we ' ll m iss yo u . * * * C!\IC has m o ved in to Texas. T hey have ru st led up a w hole p as sle of rid e rs an d trac ks d o wn th er e a nd sho uld be doing so me b ig things in th at area soon . The y ~ ma y see a 175 coming from the p eople who make the red Rats. • • • If you have been putting off getting parts for your Japanese bike , you had better get crac k ing . There has been a sh ipping strike in Jap a n for twenty d ay s which may go on fo r quite a bi t. T he upsh ot o f the whole t hi ng may be a raise in p rices o f parts, b ikes, a nd authentic J ap a nese fo o d. * * * Ossa is d evelopin g a very bizarre 250 m o to c ro sser. It is said to b e ve ry fast , good hand ling, an d light. Some of the n ice things p ro bab ly co me from its m on o c oquc frame. R o ger DeC o st er is in on d evelopin g the little rascal. • * • * * * Ph il Read ma y st art rid ing for MV a nd hel p t hem d eve lop a bette r 350. lI e y road racer s. he re are so m e bi kes th at m ay come your way as p rod uc tion race rs. Kaw asa ki m a y bu ild a th re e cylinder 350 racer. Yam a ha ma y prod uce water-cooled , d isc-st o p ped versions of their presen t 250 and 3 5 0 prod uct io n race rs. T he la tte r is getting abou t 70 pon y-power in Europe. • • • are also beginning t o cook in Washingt 9n an d Nevad a. Lo o k o ut, Worthingt on . • • • Lio ns D rag Strip is pl a n n ing t o st a rt an all-b ike e vent on a we ek ly bas is. It isn 't tor-su re yet a nd no particular schedule has been set u p . We w ill kee p yo u tou r-fo rty frea ks posted. * *' * Ph il Read , 250cc Wo rld Champion road racer, is beg inn ing t o t ryout racing cars. • • • Incide ntally , if yo u have ever wondered who the mad gen ius is beh ind the subscriptio n and want ad blanks this is your chance t o find out. It is Paul Boudreau, ou r productio n manager. * * * The CN C lown aro und and Mo tocross Side Show co n verged on Indian D u nes on o u r d a y off. What to our dus t-fille d , wo ndering eyes should appear bu t the factory Yamaha MX team comp lete wi th eve rybody. DeWayne Jo nes is still walking stiff-legged with a mu lti -col o red m ouse unde r hi s le ft peeper. Gary J on es was testi n g so me new RT-2's_ Lots of J apan ese o nlookers were in ev id en ce in cludin g facto ry mech ani cs in prototype Ya ma ha co vera lls and th e No . I factory rider fr om J apan , Hideo Su zu ki (n o k idding) . lIide o wo ul d h ave liked to ride in the U.S . Cup races, b u t co u ld n' t get an A!\IA lice nse, Don J o ne s revealed th at he now has abo u t n ine Yam ah as to tinker with. Some novel head -barrel-pipe config ura tions were n o ticed o n the J on es' machines. The th e on ly RT -2 MX is about mell ow-soundin g two-s troke we've ever hea rd a t Indian Dunes. t hat he is getting so m u ch mail about it t ha t he is recon sid er ing , he is q uit e lik ely p ussy-footing. T here are th ree plac es yo u can wr ite : yo u r state Senator, the Senate T ra nsportat io n Comm ittee, a nd Commander Su lliva n o f the Cal ifo rnia Highway Pat ro l. If fo r so m e reason you shou ld favor hel m ets yo u mig ht also sugge st t hem fo r auto mob ile drivers ( helm et s t here wo uld save many mo re lives every year, even proportiona lly ) and h o rse back riders. * * * Gene Romero and Skip Barth a have opened a rno torcycle r acing sp e cial Lies sh op . It is in Burbank on Magnolia . Maybe y ou can get so me tips on being National Champ. . * * * Gary Wells is ali ve a nd, well , racing in Texas. He is doing well in both motocross and f1attrack. Still , it was a good rumor. * * * Th ere sh ould be a picture aro u n d he re somewh ere o f a front wheel on a T eam Yamaha. Th at fron t wheel was prepared by Don J ones, i.e. very me ti culously . If A cou ple o f w eeks back our CMC corres pon dent , Buzz Baty, be cam e qu ite sick Satu rd ay ni gh t. He tried t o get hold of some body h er e b ut we were all off co vering vario us other even ts . So it t u rned o ut t hat t here was no o ne to cove r CMC Carlsbad t hat day. S ince t he n we have been showered w ith lette rs filled with comp laints . Th o ught that y o u mi gh t like t o kn o w wha t happe ned . * * * Sp eak ing o f Cl\IC, you m a y have noticed th at we have ch anged o ur fo rma t so me w h at so that o ne eve n t is fea tured ea ch week while th e o thers a re given somewh at briefer coverage (like a bikini). If you are interested in ge tting your name in Cycle News y ou can just try to figure out which one we a re go ing to feature and go o u t an d w in i t. • * • CR EDENCE CLEARWA TER REV IVAL GO NORTON : Stu Cook and Doug Clifford have just pu rchased 19 7 2 model Roadsters f ro m Brad Lack e y' S Cycle World in Ber keley , Ca lifo rn ia. " No t bad for a sm all d istributor who co uld on ly man age t o get t h ree rid ers int o the Mai n at Sa n J o se," says Mik e Jac kson. * • • • * * * * * * * We met somebody the ot he r day wh o act ually cla ims to like Ron Schn eiders . Alic e Rhea met h im out in t he d esert a wh ile back. "He started my m oto rc ycle for me ." say s our Desert Fox. It seem s as though th at four-cylinder Yam ah a 750 that we saw previews of may actually be air-cooled instead of w ater-c o o led as the prototype was. Also in Yamaha's R&D center is a large-disp laceme n t dirt b ike. It will b e bigger th an th e p rese nt 3 6 0cc mode l. • • • Bob Gro ssi will be ba ck f ro m h is ex p lo it s in Eu rop e o n th e fir st of Ju ne . * * * Skip Ne well fro m Kaw asa ki d ro p pe d by to tell us ab ou t so me of th e th in gs th at the Big K is up to . lie w as most excited abo ut th e Kaw asaki S uperbike Natio nal Road R ace a t Laguna Seca J uly 2 1 thro ugh 2 3 . This will be a Nati onal with $5 0 ,0 0 0 up for grabs a nd the proceeds will go to charity ! In ad d iti on to th e st an d ar d events , th e re will b e a sid ecar ra ce. It is Kaw asaki's hope that th is will prom o te th e sp o rt of m oto rcycle ro ad r aci ng in the are a and give a b o o st to AC A / A FM eve nts. A five-ye ar co n trac t h as b een sign ed for this ev ent, an d it is hoped th at it will be used for the Tran s-A tl an tic se ries in th e fu ture sin ce Lag u na Se ca is a very E u ropean ty pe o f co u rse _ Kawasak i hope to d o up drag race s along sim ilar lin es. T hey a re prom o ting even ts th at will com p lim e n t their perfo rma nce image . • * Whi le you Ca lifo rn ia ns ar e p utting pe n t o pap e r y ou might do som ething a bout the Helmet Bill. At the moment Mr. Bidd le , the dude wh o sp onsored t he bill, has asked for it to be shelved u ntil after the June 6 primary. T h is means that he is scared and has started pla ying po litics w ith you. It is t o o co ntroversial : the p re ssu re is being felt . 5 0 keep it up. Write the Se nat o r in your district who is up for election . Tell him how you feel, a nd ask for h is posit ion o n it. He will reply. If h~ says that he has been aga inst it all a lon!, he's your man. If he says * • • • • • • * * Some of you m ay h ave n oticed a small item o n p age 16 of the last issue th at indica te d th at th e S ilver State Three Day s T rial Was can ce lled, T his came ahou t b ecau se only 70 pe op le entered . A lot of pe op le see med to have b een dri ven away from the even 1 because prom o tio n suggested th at it was geared to th e fac to ry team s. A ra the r un fo r tu n a te situa ti o n in this, th e yea r of th e p rivatee r. Organ izations prom oting sim ila r ISD T qu alify in g even ts , tak e n o te . Th ere a rc a lot o f ride rs w ho would lik e to parti cipate , if th ey tho ug h t they co uld. Wh ile S k ip Newell wa s here he t ol d us ab o ut some oth er Kawasaki hap pen ings. So n ny Ro u tt is bu ild ing a drag bike w it h two 75 0 Kaw en gines. Kawasaki ha s h ired Do n Sm ith, fo rmerly with Mo nt esa , t o develop a trials bike . They beli eve that there _wo u ld be qu ite a health y market for a good , low-co st feet-u p pe r. T hey have not h ing on pa pe r wit h J o hn DeSot o yet. Kawasaki is go ing t o field an ISDT team un d er th e ma nagem ent of Bryo n Farnsworth t his ye a r. S kip was reluctant to say anyt hing a bo ut th e 1000cc road bike or the b ig (4 0 0 or m or e cc) ' crosser. Alr igh t , read e rs o ut arou nd in Po m o na. This -is the last time we a re go ing to tell y o u . R ichard Bro wnell is runnin g in t h e Rep u blican p rima ry for t he 4 9th asse mbl y d istrict. He is one o f t he very few politicos th at ca n and will do us so me good . His name is on t he top o f th e ba llot. If you are n' t a RepU b lica n then tell you r f rie nd s. We n oticed with co nsid era b le interest that Billy Barkfeather h ad tu rned up in Australian Moto rcycle News. T hey liked o ld Bill so well th at th ey eve n used wh at we h ad written a bo ut him. They sa y th at im i ta tio n is th e m o st since re fo rm o f fla tt e ry . . at the end of the present road racing seaso n . He is t he man who has be aten World Champion Giacomo Agostini in two Grand Prix , t he West German and Fre nch , and fin ish ed second to h im mo st re cently in Au st ria . He r ides a ver y q ui ck Vamaha water-c ooled twin. yo u lo o k closely you can see th at the inside o f the rim looks a tad peculiar. This is because Don has filled it with styro fo am to ke ep the m ud o u t an d the reb y reduce un sprung weight. We can't help bu t w onde r if the tires are filled with helium. • * • • • • T her e is some t ho ugh t t hat t he J a pa nese man ufa ctu re rs may have ag ree d not to p roduce a ny mac hines larg er than 7 50cc. Howeve r, t h is wo ul d seem to be disproved b y t he fact that Kawa sak i is fooling with a 10 00cc mach ine that they hope t o debut at the Laguna Seca Nationa l road race . What plans other compan ies have fo r over·7 50 mach ines is not known . This may , however, have some effect on possible Hodaka plan s for an 883cc tra il bike . * Paul Smart is picking up a fr ame m ad e by Colin Seeley for his 750 Ka wasa ki racer. Did you read the want ads last week? If you did you saw a whole mess of ads saying things like " Me rt's gonna do it" and UMert's on the move". Now turn to page six and see who won the Ascot Half Mile this week . Vou read it first in Cycle News. Congratu lations, Mert. * * For the last 90 days there have been no Il o d aka 100 engines manufactured. They are all 125's no w. You will still be able to get bits and pieces for the 100's b ut no wh ole engines. Pretty so on we * * • • • • * * * * * *- 5 uzuki will not be at Laco n ia . T hey ha ve not been able to revise their 750 wat e r coo led mach ine s to t he satisfa cti o n of the -AMA . "It will require co m ple t ely ne w equ ipment," said Paul Ga rn a nt of US . Su zuk i. Fo r this reason it is pos sibl e th at the 170 mph threes ma y not be at t he Indianapolis or Laguna Seca National asphalt events eith er. * " I WA NT TO LIVE T O BE A N OLD MA N ." T hat was the exp lan atio n Jarno Sa a rine n gave Jor h is possib le ret ire m e nt * Look for d isc b rakes on all th e roa d -go ing Ho ndas next ye ar. Discs m ay also appear o n the ir d ir t b ik es. They are us ing one on th e 90cc m ach ine th at h as ju st been in tro d u ced over in J ap an. It ce rtain ly would be a fine idea sinc e dru ms j ust aren' t as good as d iscs. Are yo u o the r manufac tu rers payin g a tten tio n ? 11.\ V E YO U \\'RITT EN YET? The r\~ I A in fo rms us th a t th e le tte rs received b v the White Hou se h ave begun to have an ·effect on th e a d m in is tratiorr's thin king abou t The Pr o clam a ti o n an d use of federal lan d s fo r moto rcycl es. (Please t ur n to p ag /' 36) w 2: w ..J U >- U

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