Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

AND WE THOUGHT JUMPING CARS WAS BAD. In England they have a stunt to see who can ride"a bike through the longest burn ing tunnel . The current record is held by a mystery man who fled afte r setting it. His reco rd is 80 feet . The problem is that the bike runs out of oxygen wh ile in the fire. All very kin ky . * * r0O> '" " e, M r0- C> r0- N ..0 " u. * ~ ELLIHUE SUSSMAN : We can ' t go on mee tin g th is way. Cook Neilson is ge tti ng suspici o us . • • • • John Banks will ride a Cheney-framed BSA 500cc in world championship motocross competition . * * * Bell Top tex h as me t the new California law calling for 120 d egr ees of peripheral vision with th eir new Bell Star 12 0 hel met. T he new helmet can ' t use a Flip-up shie ld be cause o f th e liig window. However, it w ill accept gogg les o r o ther types of sh ields . Oursel ves , we like the old type o f S tar and feel that it is preferable for st ree t use, bu t California d ecided that it didn 't lo ok go o d o n paper. • • • Honda has b igger-than-250 Enduro machines cu rrently undergo ing R&D. These could be th is year's Baja bikes except that they seem to be two-rtrokes. Hubba , hubba. * * * Fo r so me b izarre re ason we hav e been flooded with re quests for information ( tha t means more than tw o letters) about the Baja 1000. Baja 500 and Mint 400. T he first two events are san ctioned by NORRA an d th ey gel th eir mail at 161 6 Victory Blvd Suite 2 00 . Glendale, Calif. (2 13) 245 -10 33. T he " Min t 400 " resty led the Del Webb Desert R all ye so write to Del at th e Mint Hotel in Las Veg as , Nevada. is • • Nancy Pepper who resides at 36424 Buckeye St . in Newark, California wants to take up racing (She already has a bike, wh ich is a good start.) with any Powder Puff clubs in the Fremont or Hayward area . Please don't ignore th is eager potential hotboot, you girls. * * * Black leather is ba ck ! A t least th e AMA ro ad racin g rul eb oo k d oesn ' t specifically excl ude it any more. • • • TWA is charg ing about $150 to sh ip bikes air freight from England to the U5 . and were promoting their service at the recent London bike show. Other carriers wi ll no doubt fo llow su it . Next , a North Atlant ic b ike-carry ing price wa r , no doubt . * * * What ever happened to t he 25 0c c Mor ov illa m or ocrosser with a claimed 36 BliP ou tpu t? -. *' *' Are you read y for the shiftless , clutch less Rokon 340 in the 1973 ISDT? The automatic transm ission motorcycle w ill be there if all goes as planned . *- * w --' • THE YAMAHA 500 t o ur -st r o k e street b ike i s gett i ng c loser. Yamaha Internationa l's Product Improvemen t Division ha s just go tte n done testing and recommend ing im pro ve me nt s for it and it has been sent back to Japan. It sho uld appea r th i:o spring. * * * Web co , In c. , the goodies ho use i n Venice , California, has a mo vie called "Cycle ' Racing R eview" that runs 12 minut e s a n d cos t 24 and 9 5 o n c-h undreth s dollar s. It features glimpses of mo st fo rm s of mo to rcycle racing. • w Z * Mo rt in son Cycles, '1766 7 Sierra Hwy ., Sa ugu s, Cal. w as ro b be d last Friday ni ght. Alon g with all th e accessories :,nd man y parts, ther e were two 400 Ma ico s st o len . The seri al number for the firs t is 38 6 39 0 and engi ne n umb er U4029 9 2, and for the second the serial is 38 75 4 8 an d engine nu mber is U4 03 6 48 . T he re is a S 150 reward for the reco very o f eac h bike. Call 8 05 / 252- 1773 o r 25 2·2 266 after 5 pm. U >- U SO N O F H URRI CA1'\E. Triu mp h has a t leas t one m odel of a Ve uer-designe d mean-lo o kin g ca fe' race r built aro und the ne w 750 twin Triumph mo t or . It may be available in 1974 if th er e see ms t o be eno ugh dem and for it. Co uld this b e an an ti-com m an d o raid ? • • • T HA N K YOUR LUCKY STARS AND RUSS SANFORD that n o-fa ult insu ran ce f or moto rcycles is not in effect in Ca lifornia. De laware ha s it and Hawa ii is threatened with it . What no-fault for bikers means is that riding a motorcycle on the street is no more. The reason is that annual premiums for motorcycle no-fault insura nce runs ' mo re than the original cost of most motorcycles. That would keep most street bikers off the pavement fo r good. Hang on , Hawaii and yo u bruddahs out deah write you some kine leddah to da legislachah. T he island * bike * any eve nt : d esert, en d ur o m o to cro ss o r w h atever? • at a t ime , anyway. Vel o cette, :'>1 a tc h less. have one. Pre-e nt ries , so far. include n ot on ly Ca lifornia nam es like Bower, jensen, Urban, Ma cDougal , La Porte an d Sta ten b ut so me 12 5 pros from Oregon, Utah , Mo n tan a and Oklahoma. Gee, some guys will race anything for S 1000 first place m oney . N ow wh ere ca n I get a 125 !\IXer? Maybe if I change the fo rks o n that old Vesp a... • • T he Desert Foxes cla im that Brian 's To ilets are rea lly a bummer. * * * YO U W01'\'T BE A BLE TO RID E 11'\ RED ROCK CAXYOX ANY :>IORE if th e report of the Red R o ck Can yon A d viso ry Committee goes throu gh unopposed at th e meeting of th e Cali fornia Sta te Recreati on al ' Trails C ommittee. You hav e go t until 10 P.:>!. on T b ursday , Febru ary 22, 197 3 to d o so me t h i ng a bo u t it. T he s ta te co m m ittee is meeting in the Holiday Inn a t Cal ifo rnia C itv t o de cid e wh ether t o de sign at e th e Re'd R ock Cany on area a Geoff Perry, and Gene Romero . If you go fo r plain old fast you m ight pick the likes of. Yvon DuHamel or Art Baumann. But this year the mach ines have been developed to a po int of reasonable reliability so "rider error" w ill account for a lot. That means that the men in the middle are the ones to watch . Cal Rayborn, Mark Brelsford , Kel Carruthers, Ken Roberts, Cl iff Carr, Gary Fisher, and Lord knows who else will be right there . Gary Nixon , too. Gary led most of the pavement Nationals last year only to have his machine puke. He is overdue - long overdue. And another Big Gun will be Jarno Saarinen, the talk of Europe, as yet untested against our guys, and faster than greased eel pucky. It doesn't look like a privateer's year - except , of course , to the privateer. These poor turkeys are slaving away in their ga rages and basements , forego ing food and sleep , q uitt ing their jobs, ' calculating that e xtra horsepower or buck fo r gas, and everybody w ill forget them after the race is over and they've been quashed. All that is keeping them go ing is the will go race and win. You know, like Don Emde last yea r . * * * • • • * * * • • • Enduro riding has been sh own to cause fai lure in tw o o ut o f th ree Cycle N ews ed itors wh ereas road ra cing d oes no t y ield an y thin g less than secon d. • • a • tw o S 12 a y ear AMA member types. T he me th o d of sele ction and inclusio n of the co m m o n folk has yet to be fin alized . Curren t members arc j.R. Kelly of KK Supply : Bo b Han sen rep resen tin g Kawasaki; john Harle y f rom so m ebody -or -ot h er -Davi dson m o t orcy cles: Paul Garnett fro m Su zuki; john Pen ton (Wo n de r wb o he wo r ks fo r ?) ; Rox y Ro ckwood of Birmingha m Smal l Arms, Ltd.: P. Thomas Sargent , publisher o f "C y c le" m agazine according to the masth ead ; Ivan Wagar, editor of so m e o bsc u re m o n th lv a b o u t t w o -w h e elers published by ' Bond, Parkhurst & Bond; Dan Bums, Buco; Morrow o f MC:>I Accessori es and l.uechmann of Ho nda ; plus racing team m an ager Pet e Sch ick of Yamaha. Th e lat er two have n o vote on the Bo ard, h owever. Curi ous. • aro und " Who's go nna w in D aytona ?" HAPP'/ B/R-TIIDA'f, ~e • als o. for t he first ti me, the inclusion of when The tech dude around here says t hat nobody is, that they are all go ing to b rea k . Seems unlikely . If they all, o r lots an yway , do brea k, then you have to go for t he consistency men : Pau l Smart , an d The brea kd o wn on th e AMA Exe c utive Committe e for 1973 rc presen ts a heavy industry bias but DA YTO NA : The best bench racing that goes on at th is t ime of year centers • sin gle , AMA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR 1973 repo rt of th e ad visory com mittee, wh ich w ill undoubtedly be foll owed if no bod y says any thing else, is t o make it a sta te park and th aI mean s no off-road mach ines o f an y description : tw o , three ' o r four-wh eel varie ty . T he publi c mee tin g starts at the Holi day Inn a t 7 P.M. If you ' re n o t the re o r don' t send a c o m p la in Air el • s ta te park o r st ale re creation area. T he don't an They weren't especiall y san itary but the y were all running. Some o f the riders also looked lik e th ey w er e the origin al owners. Hang in there. guys. • • • .Sklp Va n Leuween has swo rn of f motorcycles and is a record promoter for Elektra Records. • .;: en co ur aging note , it a lso e nt iced a co llec tio n o f vi n tage four-strokes that Red Rock is close be ca use that is exac tly what will h appen if biker apat h y prevails. The State Trails Committee can be infl uenced, but it takes th e weigh t of numbers to d o it . T h ursday, February 22, Holiday Inn, California City. D o yo u lik e to ride? • * had classic-love rs gaw king . Noted were a It is highly recommended tha t any professional Novices and Jun iors who plan to run the 100-lap Ascot TT make it to the TT on the 25th . The reason? If the 100-lapper has too big a field sign up , rider elig ib ility will be based on the po int totals accumulated for ,t he previous two Ascot TT's. If you missed the f irst one, th is is your chance to snag a starting position on the program for the b iggie. The same points cut-off method may also apply to Experts if there are too many of them on hand for the 1OO-Iapper . Pit gate opens at 10 A.M . and the action is in the P.M. about two. * * * MOK EY , MO Nty , MO N EY . T he 'S t. Pat ric k's Da y 125 MX a t Arroyo has every hody scu rrying aroun d looking for a ligh tw eight rid e , if th ey don 't alr ea dy represe n ta tive , *. * The 5 RA C alico Enduro b rough t o U a J f antast i c c o llec tio n of pit-racing, n on -competing squids. On a mo re " Motorcycles Hawaii", th rew out a teaser about h aving a TransA~IA in side the Diam o nd Head e x tinc t volcano cra ter. Go od sea ts fo~ 70 ,000. Ex cept that it's not nice to foo l ar ound witb Mother Pele, yo u guys. • • • And how come they're marked ttMen" and "Ladies"? You can only go in one rag. Carlsb ad Ra ceway 's speed way tra ck should be ready th is spring . They plan on having ev ents aimed primarily at th e Divisio n II and 111 rid ers. " We have bee n rea lly im pressed by Yama ha's radi o a nd TV co m mercials lat e ly - t h e " Somed ay, you'll own a Yamaha " series . They w ill sell Yamahas, no do ub t , bu t t hey are also do ing a lo t to make motorcycles appealing to the ge nera l pub lic. * * * Speaking of toilets, which we wer e several it ems b ac k . how come th er e arc nev er en oug h of the porta ble can s a t { '. -:

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