Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

THE SPANISH , TOO: At last one of the Span ish companies, Montesa, is going t~ have o il injection on one of their models, the 250 Scorpion. Ah so! Here's another hint for the Papa Wealey "find the BLOOPER contest." The same blooper is in this week 's Poop column, in the same place. Oh , we got lots of replies, but no one was even close. .Try aga in you guys, and after the 10 sticker antee, we'll raise you 10 stickers. That's 20 big ones! Also, most of your criticisms were inco rrect, though not all . " " CN PROJ ECT " BOMB: Yes, d eep in th e bo wels o f Cy cle Ne ws West lurks a dep raved mechanical geni,:,s , an d at ~ is very m o men t h e is prep anng a ma ch ine that will suck th e coolin g fins off of all th ose o ther " Pr oject Bik es" . And i t will b e a four stroke, too . S tay dialed. * • • • QU OTE O F THE WEEK: " I wan t to win a moto cross this year, and I figure th e onl y w ay I'm going to do it is to ride a co uple ." From John Huetter, managing edit o r. * • • A TWO STROKE EIGHT ON THE SALT: Don Vesco is going to Bonneville with two of Yamaha's four cylinder 750's in his streamliner. He feels that the water cooling will allow him to make a more streaml ined machine. In addition , Vesco p lans to try for records in the 250 , 350, 500 and 750 classes. Yamaha has given him increased support. * * * • * • This subscription ad ran in seve ral magazines so liciting memb ership in the. National Audubo." Society . Note that the society apparentl y equ ates the start of 8 desert race With factory-based air pollution. How does it feel to be branded a villain? A 950 FOUR (n o t a six ) h as apparen tly been ap p ro ved by Honda's Rand D facility in J apan . Hold your breath . * * * Speaking of Honda Fours, they are working on a 660cc version of their 500 for road racing. * • * • To get Suzu k i int o the act, we'll bring up their Wank el-t y pe rotary which we may see very soon. It d isplaces about 500cc with it s tw in rotors and follow the disc-bra kes-everywhere trend . • And wh a t o f th e EDI NBURGHS ? T hat is the name given by Kawasaki to their new 25 0 trials mach in e based on th e F·II Enduro machine. If we w ere runnin g a Man of the Year /M ach ine of th e Year con test (ah em !), we would lik e to see Billy Barkfea th er and th e Sears S up ercycle win . Ge t it , y o u CMC (an d other) guys? . * * * -- * * • • * * The town of Mojave Board of Trade wants to close Red Rock Canyon to off-road vehicles. What about the revenue from gassing up, eating, drink ing they now get from the bikers? * * * * * ' * An d wh at ab out th e Reu be n san d wic hes at Ren o's Cafe ? American Frank Wheeler has made it around Australia's perimeter on h is 125cc Wombat. Won 't his sponso rs be happy about that? What about th e lo ca l Wombats, though. * * * PA UL SMA RT wants to ride for HO NDA. They want h im to rid e Dayto na, but h e wa nts t ~ ride fo.' th e entire season. T hen there IS Suzuki who has been holdi ng o ut th e pe n for him to sign a co ntract to ride for the m th is road racing season . I f h e does. y o u ma y see a Seeley-Suzu ki. * • * BSA is build ing a speedway engine and the Limey speedway dudes . are all excited. • * . • in the mountains of the Angeles National Forest last weekend, we didn't see a single motorcycle off the paved road . Funny thing ...while testing some motocross and enduro bikes at Ind ian Dunes and thereabouts the day before, we didn 't see a single mountain climber. Just as we suspected all along. Where do the conservationist radicals get their id eas ? • * • • * T HE RE M U S T F INAL L Y BE SOM E THI NG H APP ENING IN AU STRALI A. " A ustralian Mo to rcycle Ne ws" h as final ly stoppe d ste aling our stories and pic tures. For a while , it was a toss-up as to wh e th er to write th em a le tter threa ten in g to call in our dogs on th e plagiarizing, or comp lim en tin g th em on th eir good ta ste in p ubl icatio ns. * They d id scoop about every publication w ith the ir 250 Honda Elsinore test/impression /good ie but they aren't known for . be ing t erri bly critica l..,of anybod'y. • * * • * • SPEAKING OF WIIICH . Look fo r a m in d - b l o w i n g, h e a r r-s t op p i n g , eye-popping m o tocr osser test in th e very near fut ur e right in th ese p ages. (N o. no t this page. the fo llowing ~me~.) If an ything at all goes as p lanned, It WIll be a brain-sna pper. Gary Sco tt is Natio nal p oints leader with 200 poin ts . * * • • • • Yamaha will be very formidable in European motocross and road racing th is year. They seem to concentrate more on the continent than in the U.s. • • • On e of o ur m ore paranoid obs ervers of th e mo to rcyclin g scen e h as n o ted th at there are a " lo t" of Cze ch and German b ike mech an ics in Wes t Coas t shops . He suspects th at they h ave been pl anted in advance so th ose coun t ries ' IS DT teams will know wh at th e Americans are up to. In tern a tion al espionage in' th e 25 0cc cla ss? We'll be t th ere 's n obody nam ed Vl ad mir o r Hans working for the Pen ta n s. • • • AKE JONSSON COULD RIDE IN THE OLD TIMERS' CLASS IN TEXAS. We note with some concern that the age that designates Old Timers in motoeross seems to be creep ing downward a few years every couple of months. It used to be 40, then 35 . Recently we saw a Califon;ia MX where the ancient age MXers were designated as 32 and over. In Texas there is a Old T imers' clas s that starts at 30 years of age. Th is would qualify Ake Jonsson hero of the 1970 and 1972 T ransAMA, to ride in this elass along with Paul Friedrichs, who was second in the world in 500 GP motoeross th is past year. Ake hasn't even been riding GP motocross that long. He rode a couple of years for Husqvarna, then three years for Maico which means he came on the motocross scene when well into his twenties. Heikki Mikkola, third in 500 world motoeross, never rode a bike until he was past twenty. His first scooter was a 250 Husky . Closer to home, Whitey Martino won the Desert Heavywe ight Number One plate when he was 30. So did J.N. Roberts and for that matter, this year's Heavy One , Art Knapp, is past the three-zero mark. Not bad for so-called "Old Timers". • * • • * • DIAN E SE IDEL wan ted to know a lit tle mor e abo ut Ake, He 's married . has two ch ildren and is re ally one of th e frie nd liest. most ch ari table o f th e GP m o tocrossers we've h ad the pl easure of m ee tin g. His fam ily generally stay s h o me in Sw ed en when h e is on th e circ uit an d , as she th ough t , h e real ly d oes seem like a very nice person. ~ cD .g LL ~ d * Honda is look ing fo r big name road racers for Daytona but Daytona only .' The catch is that most riders want all-season c-mtraets. M :;; > While h ik ing and mountain climbing up o Wh ile o n the subject of four cy lin der road racers , we might mention th at Yamah a is secre tly te stin g a 5 00cc water -cooled t wo stroke fo ur cylin der. 54 x 54 mm b o re x s troke, d iscs all the way, and a six ~ ·sp eed gear bo x see m to be th e p ar ticula rs. T riump h will use so me twin cylin der 750's fo r the r oad ra ces on tighter co urses . They are Iigh tcr. cn arrower, and will feature trick wh eels, fr ames, an d brakes. • go "- WH OOP -DE-CH EWS taste like a cross ~ between malt ed mil k balls an d Necco w wafers. ...... • • • HIGHLY-TORQUED PUBLICATIONS (or something like that), the eompany that brings you UDirt Bike", "Big Bike" t and " C h o p p er s " magazines has announced that t h ey are going to put out a new magazine called "Feminine Fitness" . Rumor has reached our ears that Rick Sieman and David Swift will head its editorial department. They are also go ing to start a publicatlon called "Recreational Vehicle World". • .... APPARENT LY, MOST O F T H E WAS HI NGTON POLITICOS got their information on th e EI Caj on M.C. Hare Scrambles an d its ef fec t directl y fro m the BLM. You know wh at th eir side o f the story is. Devastatio n, destru ct io n o f anthropological sites, etc. T hat 's ,,:h at some legislators , at any ra te, believe bas ed o n a letter fro m o ne U.S. Sen ator we saw . Where is the lo b byist to tell th e mo torcy clist's side of the story in Wash ington ? This see ms like a natural area for th e AMA to st ep in an d sen d news briefs to all legis lators on suc h p olitically sensitive issues. They can ' t vote in tellige ntly unless they have all the information , y o u kno w. • • * • • * * • * Sp eaking of wh ich, the BLM has d ropped t heir sui t against t he EI Cajon M.C. on t he follow ing co nd it ions: I} The EC MC pay t he $224 in fe es that the race would have cost them in the first place, 2} The club members " re st o ~ e " 50 acres of damaged desert (accordmg to the BLM survey) to its orig inal condition. The BLM has further granted the EI Cajon M.C. permission to run a race on Feb. 7 if they comply w ith all BLM req uirements. One upshot of the case is that BLM lawyers have now managed to establish a "fa ir market value" for desert land use, and will charge accordingly. It looks like we're right back where we started from , or maybe a step or two behind. Look for a joint AMA-BLM-ECMC press release in th is issue on the SUbject . F IN A L COMM E NT, FOR NO W. Dire cto r J . Russell Penn ey has b een telling th e general press th a t th e J oh nso n an d Lucerne Valleys have been " de n u de d of ve ge t a t io n " by mo t orcy clists. Apparen tly, he thin ks that Cy cle News pho tograph ers are c a r r y ing p otted puck erbushes an d cact us o u t to the de sert to put in their p ictures of races. Im agin e h ow lo ng it tak es to go ar ound th e course se tting o ut th ose p otted plan ts before eve ry desert race .

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