Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

-, .,. " '" " M " ~ Q. O· N ~ ::; ~ '" W Z w ~ U >u IJ'I~I II•• America 's Number 1 weekly motorcycle newspa per. You'll always see it fi rst in Cycle News ~ M C Member MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY COUNCIL Internal Specs COL UMN : Poop fro m Pa pa . . . . . . . . . ... . .. ... . .. . .. . . .. . . . . . . .. .7 NEWS : No news is good news 8 S ECT ION : North . ....... ... . .. . . . . . . . . ... . . ...... ... . .. . . . .10 T RI AL S: Plo n k ing in Spain 12 DESERT : An o pen machine fina lly won-in the sno w 16 DA YT ONA : S ho rt Track 19 Novice . ..... .... . . . . .. .. . . . . . . .. . . . .. . •. .. . . . . . . 2 0 Junior-Expert Combined 21 J u n io r 22 Th e B- . . . . . . . . . • . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 'gg le S peed wa y . .. . .. .. . .... . .. . .. ... ..... . . . .. . . . . . .3 0 CA LE NDAR : T he dating game MO RE DA YT ON A : The m o tocross National Ad ve rt isin g Direct o r : Tom Culp Cycle News West an d Head q ua rt ers p .O . Bo x 498, Lo ng Beach Cal ifornia 90801 (21 3) 4 27 ·7 433 ; L.A. 6 36-8844 T E LEX NO . 67 3·4 74 Cycle New s, East-Dixie Ed it ion 41 9 0 First Ave n ue .T ucke r, Geo rgia Cycle News, Central Ed it io n 11 18 West 6th Street A ust in , Texas Subscription : O ne year, second class mail 2 years, second class mail 3 years, second class mail Single copy price $12.50 522.50 530.00 5.50 Pub lished w ee k ly exceptthe first and last week of the calendar year by Cycle News, Inc., Po st Off ice Bo x 498 Long Beac h , Ca lifo rn ia . Second Clas~ Pos t age paid at Lo ng Bea ch, Ca lif. Ed itoria l st ories, cartoons, p hotos, etc. are welco me. Ad d ressed , stamped e nvelo pe assures return of ed ito ria l matter. Rep rin ting in whole o r pa rt onl y b y permissio n o f t he pu bl isher s. A dv e rt is ing rates a nd circu lat io n in fo rm at ion w ill b e se nt upon req uest . See S .R .D.S. Co p yr igh t cc:> Cycle News, Inc. 1973 all rig h ts re served _~_ L E SS SOUN O MORE G ROU N D _ 37 .46 CAR TOO N : G uess w ho ro lled in? MX sn ake ! Ch arles C layton .• . ...•• . . . . . . Pu blisher Sharon Clayton . . . • . • • . Bu siness Manager Tom CUI~ .• • • .• •• • • • • . General Manager Randy Dietzel . .• . . . . . . .• Office Manager John t-:'uetter . .. . . . . • . .. Managing Editor AO,t Ftledman • . . .. . . . . .. • . . . • • •. E d ltor ave . Schoonmaker . . . . • . Assistant Ed it o r HOWle Fowle r . . As st . A dvertising Manager Wendy B la nt o n ... . . A dvert ising Assistant Rheba Smith • . . . . . . . C irculation Manager Marla Tarbet Circul ation A ssistant Chery l Stein berg C irc ulation Assistant Le:roy Chan d ler .• • • . c t-euraueo Ass istant MIke Dillon Production Manager Terry Fa d den • . . . • . • Pro duction Assistant M ichael ceuees .. .. . Pr orr u ct fo n Assistant Hector A gu ilera .• . . ••. .• . La b Technic ian ' Marion Hatash lta • .. .•. .•.. .Typographer Melvin Phelp s •... . . Assistant Ty pographer Dave Crowe Collectlon Manager Barbara Bebeck . •• • • Account toa Assistant Marilyn K irk .•.... . A ccounting Assistant Garnet D u n n • •• • .. . Account ing Assistant SQuee ky Haynes gerv jces & Support Nancy Goodman •..... . .. . • Rece ption ist 33 R ES U LT S : At t he fla g .4 8 reply to statements purely o n conj ec tu re , I found that I co uld no longer ke ep quiet. My question to the BLM was : Have yo u ever been to a bike park ? Their a ns w e r was : N o , 1 have four m ot or cy cles and a mini -bike and first' it just about bankrupted me to g et i~ th e gate. Se condly , there was lit erallv nothing fo r the kids t o do as the terrain wasn't suited for th eir abili ty . In fact there w asn 't mu ch for me to do I th ought I would tr y th e hills and I thought I was in d owntown Los Angeles. One -w a y sign s up th is draw over the little hill an d a o ne-w ay si~ back o u t aga in. (I ca n' t re me m be r wh en I h ad so. much fun, unl ess it was riding aro un d In my gara ge th e last time it rained !) I further told th e BL\I gen t le ma n th at this was wh at I fo res aw for the de sert and that 's why I'm now o ff m y "duff" and willing to d o wh at I can to fight suc h an injustice. In closing to yo u th er e o n th e co uc h my frien d, let me say tha t Mr . Nixon and his ad viso rs ar e really o u t to do it to us . I. personally fee l I waited too lon g to get Invo lved, but that we can still win h ~we~er yo u h ave to ge t up and ge; With rt too. Wat ch th e lo cal papers and if no th in g else, as Mr. Harry Wh alen state?, "Tell th em y o u want somepla ce at least m a ke to rid e y our bike" you rself heard. D. C. HAWN Teh ach api, Calif. WHAT DOES T HE " RED ROCK ADVISORY CO M M IT TEE " ADVISE ? AND TO WHO? VOICES OF TilE WEST LEAV ITT SAYS THEY D ID N'T DO lT Ye sterday I picked up a co py of the latest Cycl e News at m y local dealer. Looking through th e issu e I found a write up o n th e event I rode Sunday and thought I had won ! Having ridden in trials all ov er the United States and Spain I was under the appar ently m isgu id ed impression th e contestan t with the lowest score was the winner. But, it se ems this does not hold true in Sout hern California . According to what it says in your paper, so meone at the first sec tio n of the trials clai m s t hat Ri c har d Bl ed so e, Southern Californ ia's No . I for th e past two ye ars an d my sel f deliberately kicked rocks o ut o f the section. These individuals that lodged the p rotest e xposed themselves as being Ign orant t o the gam esm an ship o f int ern ati onal caliber trialmen . Neither Rich or m yself have th e stre ng th o r th e kicking ability to b oot a stone o u t fro m th e middle of a section th at is 25 feet wide and 75 yar d s long. If we did we mu st be in the wron g spo rt and we sh ould be place kickers fo r th e Los An gele s Rams. After reading the Ameri can Trials Asso ciati on rules, I co uld not find an ything th at st at es a rider can not walk a sec tio n before he atte m p ts to ride it . Sectio n No . I , which yo ur p ap er im p lie d w as th e trap in question was a st eep clim b , third gear fo r th e 325 Bu lt aco, second o r p erh aps eve n b ottom gea r fo r the mini-bikes. The hill sid e wa s scattered with hundreds of loose dry roily ro ck s wh ich co uld barely be walk ed up, let alo ne be ridden over . Rich and I st arted walking th e section alon g with the rest of the Ma st ers, By the time we had reached th e LOp, tw o riders had alrea d y failed and recei ved the m a xim u m penalty , (o f five points) . It was then we realized the sect io n was nex t to im p o ssibl e, Being from Northe rn California I am prima rily a wet weather ride r an d put it m ildl y I was on the rafters. I had abso lu tely no idea even h ow to approach the problem o f a lo os e dry climb. Ri ch suggested that we watch a few more riders so that the section co uld be felt out better. Whil e I pulled myself together we saw Marlin Whaley, Martin Belair, J eff Kosie and many more all take three and fives. The situation looking very unfo rtunate, the only possible solution was to gamble that the extra power and torque in the third gear o f the Bultaco would ge t us through. After a d oz en extra trips up and down the section a nd after all this time planning, etc., Rich still took a thre~ and gained nothing for his work. However , for me the gamble paid o ff with a long-long one, my e ng ine ticking so slowly at th e top I was su re that it ;0 was about to sta ll any second. A few extra trips up and down th e sec tio n gave me the lead. This is th e kind of games m a nsh ip th at makes the difference between a lo cal hero and a rider who ca n co m p e te on an International basis o r le vel on an y type of terrain . Neith er Richard Bledsoe or m yself purposely kicked any stones out of the section and as proof I defly an yone to walk up and down the sec ti o n on ce let alon e a half dozen times and 'no t dis lodge any stones. . Until this incident I've always ridden In Southern California for f un bu t un less th e d ecision to disqualify ' Ric h Bledsoe and m ysel f is reversed with all the fa lse ac ~usations dro pped, I will be forced to h it back at these people the only way I kn ow how, and th at is where it hurts the most, in th e wall et. I will declare my self in co n te n tio n for the fr ee trips t o Spain on A .T .A. mone y, and th e 197 3 South ern California No. I pl ate. I would o nly resort to these means be cause I sin cerely felt that nei ther Rich o r m yself were chea ting o r d oing anyth ing wh ich was not proper En glish Trials pro cedure. It d eepl y hurts me to see su ch hatred b rough t in to suc h a great sport as trials. But, I also feel we were acc used . tried , co nvic ted and sen ten ced without even a chance to explain o r even find o ut wh y we ".. ered isqualifi ed . If th is is an examp le of the A.T .A. bureau cracy , I'm glad I su pporte d AMA involv em ent in o bse rved trials and will co ntinue in the futu re. I'm truly shoc ke d and d eeply up set by th e wh ol e affair. . LAN E S. LEA VIlT No rth Am erican Trials Champion SOM EBODY WAS ACT UALLY MOVED TO ACT HEY YOU - You there flaked out on the co uch in fron t of the "boob tuhe" half list en in g whi le you th umb leisu rel y through a copy of C y de News. I know you be ca use yo u remind me of myself. A week ago I was flak ed out on my co uch when I saw th e article about the proposed closing of Red Ro ck Canyon and this reall y hit me . All o f a sud de n this was in my own back y ard . So I talk it up with a co uple of friends and off to the Holiday Inn at California Cit y we go . Still not committed, but at least three m o re bodies to be counted. By th e time the meeting was over and I saw for myself the dedication of the people involved, I was truly awed and proud that I have cho sen su ch a group to be affiliated with. Now it's a few days later and th is time th ere are six o f ~s on O U f way to a BL~1 meeting in MOJave. As we sat there in th e audience and again listened to our comp atriots lead th e way and heard the BL\I chief As an ORV user, it see ms we lack th e becom e a "p owerful suc h as is enjo yed b y C alifornia s organi zed h or semen or the Sierra Club's regist ered members. All types of OR V e n th usias ts must band to gether if the ORV's ar e to survive in California. 11 is a fa ct th at the ORV's con tri b u te mo re in revenue to the State Cali fo.rnia than all th e o the r grou ps c o m b in ed , but our vo ice is not c o ns i de r e d in th o se matters of !lo~ern?,ent wh ich affect us through legislation and land-use p oli cy. The OR V users also bring substan tial amounts o f revenue to the businessmen o f the Antelope Valley and Mojave Desert as th ey travel through to enj oy their hobby. 11 is indeed a sa d thing to watch o u r gre at State closing it's land s to mi llion s of ORV e nth us iasts . It seems our co m m i s s i o n s, b u sinessm e n and !egislatu res I!ste n on ly to t he group mterests wh ich have fo ster ed unfair dis criminatory and oth erwise restrictiv~ legislati on in th e form o f special licensing la ws, helmet laws, land-u se law s, eq uip me n t law s, use tax es and o th e r lim itati ons d esign ed t o ei the r hinder , harass o r pl agu e th e ORV user s. I ur ge all OR V users to em p loy e very effort to .he lp kee p Red R o ck Can yo n the b eautiful recreation area it is no w open to and enjoyed by everyone , and no t allow th e change in sta tus 10 a S tate Park. Please d on't let the lo cal citizen gro ups and th e Si erra Club cl ose yet ano the r area t o Off R o ad Vehicle enthusiasts! LOWR EE BRO ESEL Lan caster, Cali f. o rg?~ izat ion to p ol~lI c al. ~o rce " of LETTE R FROM THE EDI TOR In my co lu mn , "Ground S ky" in Dirt R id er M aga zine . V ol. I , No: I, I stated th at Bean Ca nyon we st o f Ro samond, Californi a, w as op en to of f-road tra ffi c afte r an abortive a tte m p t to close it . I'm sorry to say th at th e sit u atio n isn 't reallv quite that simple ; the BLM -regulated Federal land in Bean Can yon is indeed open t o use hy off-road vehicles , provided they m ee t the Federal requ ir emen ts. The problem arises in that the Federal land is lan d-lo cked by p rivate lan d s. Ow ne rship of the existing ac cess roads into the Fe deral land is disp utab le; Ke rn County does n ot clai m th em, nor does the BLM .· Whether or not they qualify as puhlic roads, dedicated su ch by their use history, would require a test hy the co urts: Dirt Rider has received several telephone calls from rid ers who have been ordered to leave th e Bean Canyon area b y Kern County Deputy Sheriffs, asking for clarification. This prompted me to d o what I should have done in the first place ; thoroughly ch eck the facts pertaining to the Bean Canyon access. Until such time as anyone is willing to put the access road issue to a co urt test Bean Canyon can apparently be rea ched, legally , only by dirigible. MIKE BISHOP Editor Dirt Rider Mazazine

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