Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

,... '"' g 0M ,... All you lu cky people h ave a choice on April I S. Even th ough th e Si erra 100 Enduro has bee n cancelled , yo u h ave tw o en d uros to chose fr o m . Yo u can rid e the Sid ewinder End uro, wh ich we . men tion ed last week , or y o u can run a tw o d ay q u alifier ty pe enduro w ith the URA , the Lame D og. You can con sul t th e calen dar fo r m ore on th ose. '" M a « ~ w • • • If you can't make either one of those, try the re..-escheduled Goldrush Enduro , which is now happe ning on Saturday, April 21 . " " " Or , if y o u're down for the m onth , the Granny Run 11 has been res cheduled as th e Granny II I'.! on june 3. All previo us entrants w ill receive a new card in the m ail, an d an y of you who misse d th e first atte mpt still h ave a chance. T he PV DR are accepting more entries fo r th e rescheduled event. • • • Last week in the Checkpoint Enduro, Bob Steffan, top SoCal enduro dude , was injured when he got off in a very difficult section. He has a broken collarbone and possible h ip fracture also. We wish him a quick get·well and assume that lots of you do too. " " " We're h avin g a big argu me n t h ere abou t wh ich b ike is be tter fo r family end ures, th e 3 6 0 o r 500 Yamah a. H uh ? • • • There's a horrible rumor floating around that the CN Killer Honda isan old rel ic found in a trash bin very close to the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway, just West of the Jack in the Box. Well, its not true, it was actually sto len out of a Light Ut ility Vehicle beh ind a house, just across from Venice bus storage lot. " " " Scooters are co min g b ack. • • • THEY REALLY DID IT. They called it "Bob Braverman's Cycle Rider." Wow . T he f irst issue of the new magazine has a 45 page comparison of five 2S0 trail bikes. But don't worry all you BB fans , Bob is right o ut there rid ing those trail b ikes around Orange County's road course and drag strip. And there are plenty of p ict ures to prove it. It isn 't everybody who wea rs his road rac ing leathers on a trail b ike . " * * T o se t th e record straigh t on ce an d for all, we w an t to reiterate wh at o ur D ay to n a co verage p oin ted out. Art Baumann an d Yvon DuHamel did no t h it ea ch o ther wh en th ey cr ash ed . They b o th fell in the same oil or gas slick th at Steve Dal gam o h ad fellen in j ust p revio usly . It might have been avo ide d if the flagm an had h is stuff togeth er. Fortunately, neither wa s hurt serio usly . • • • Best all ' ro und performance on the Daytona pavement should be cred ited to J im Evans who finished seventh in the comb ined and th ird in 200. Best all 'round performance (period) has to go to Dave A ldana wh o did everyth ing w ell. He also fin ished the 200 in front of John Cooper who was the other rider on a tube fra med Norton . " " " Highest speed off the track at D ay to na was 95.38 recorded on ra dar. This per fo rm an ce w as t urn ed in b y o ne Maryland race fan. Short track on the b each cost S52. • • • Mike ''the Bike" Hailwood received a special award for b ravery after pulling fe llow GP driver Cla y Regazzon l from a flami ng wreck at the South African GP. Hailwood , whose own driving su it was o n fire from sp illed gasoline, suffered minor burns fo r h is hero tcaction , * * " S UGG ESTION from a Des ert T rai lbik e rid er is that club p ro cedure for Hare S crambles and Hare an d Ho unds b e standardi zed at on e loo p . Let y o ur club rep to th e Competitio n Co mmittee in y our d istri ct know h ow y o u feel about it if you ride a T railbike, • • • The Nation al AMA/AMDRA d rag meet scheduled fo r Ap ril G and 7 at Orange County Internatio nal Racey·way has been postponed indef in it ely . Tough luc k, Quartermllers. but loo k for it so metime du ring the su mmer. " " * Ru mors that a b ikie lost an arm at the Mint are false. It was a d un e buggy dude. Fo ur-wheelers are dan gero us . • • • You can a lso look fo r the Ontario asphalt Nat ional to be run October 28 , if th ings go right. " " " Z Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere (includ ing previous Issues o f th is paper) , Jim Pomeroy will not be contesting the 500 Int ern ati o nal cla ss in Grands Pr ix th is year. Bultaco is not thoroughly satisfied with the 'pro t o ty pe 400 so Jim will ride the 250 class if the var ious sanctioning bod ies w ill let him change h is en tries from 500 to 250 GP . Wow, up aga inst Joe~1l and all them other fast guys...again. " W ..J o >o " " WORLD 'S MO ST FRAC T UR ED OF F·R OA D R ACE . T erry Cl ar k bro ke hi s hip o utside of ch ec k point No.3 of th e Min t 400 and was run over by another ri der. • • • Bill Silverthorn and Gene Fetty rode a 250 Ho nda Els inore and ran with the leade rs (about third) until the transmission blew when Fetty, was rid ing about 80 MPH. This pitched him pretty badly and he injured his knee. Fetty was asked later by a spectator. "Did you hurt your leg?" as he was limping around and he replied , "No. I've just got a rock in my shoe" . * " * FOU R·WH EE L CUSTOM Pamellij ones has let hi s hair grow and gone m od. During th e race a photograph er was standing o u t in the deser t waiting for P J . When he cam e by he punch ed it to ge t the fr on t en d off the gro und , slo wed down to wave, and then contin ue d T O WIN . • • • JA . · SHURE . W hil e the CN photographer went to take a pictu re of Rolf T ibbli n o n my SL 70 Honda who should come up behind but Rolf himself going about 70 MPH . In the process of getting out of his way. she ran int o a big puckerbush and almost crashed . After apologies to Ro lf , he just replied. " T h at's all right. I was only trying to push you a little." " * * least so me so ur ces There are at within th e m o torcy cle indust ry's b ig three , notab ly at American Ho n da, who are concerned about the increasi ng land closure p ro ble m and other potential and existing environme n tal restric tion s o n m o t orcy cles. It is time for the man ufac turers to get th eir act together an d start using so me of th eir advertising budge t in coop erati on to ens u re th at there w ill even be the possibility of riding their , product, on street or dir t. You can' t sell 'em if th e buy er can' t ride 'e m. • • • John DeSoto 's contract with Kawasa ki apparently was not renewed after the F lorida Series and he showed up at Califo rnia's Escape Country motocro ss track on a CZ. Un fortu na tely . h e cra shed badly and t o re the f ront fo rks off. J o h n is not particu larl y eas y o n mach ine ry. " " " PUT YOUR MO NEY WHERE YOUR P U T T ER IS! Eve l K n ievel has challenged Lee Travino to a $200,000 ma tch in (gulp) golf. Evel says the big time go lfers d on ' t play un der pressure because it's not their own mo ney. We think Evel is crazy ...like a fox . • • • Labor problems have forced the MV Agusta .fir m to stop work on new 350 and 500 racers for the European G ran Prix ro ad rac ing circu it . MV·mounted Giacomo Agostini was blown off by Jarno Saar inen (Yam) and Ren zo Paso lin i in the 350 class at Modena , Ita ly last week. " " * Rad io KBIG at 74 th o usand R PM on yo u r rad io h ave daily race repo rt s of th e Dallas Natio nal road race for Los Angeles listen ers at 5 :45 P.M. on the 30 th o f Mar ch thr ough the first of April. •• • Tod ay wa s a day lik e all days except that it may be April Fool's as yo u read t his, in wh ich case you migh t be a mused by some of the stuff in th is issue. T hen again , yo u may not be a muse d at all. But we a re , so eat yo ur heart o ut ! *, * * Steve Hurd got off on the pavement going about 100 MPH and came out of it with a broken right lo wer leg, broken pelvis, possible broken shoulder and a bad pavement rash on his hip. He's in So. Nevada Memorial Hosp ita l but really hurts . "Well , if you want Grim 's to spo nsor yo u, you are going to have to get used to it." ~WSNEWSNOOZEGNUS Cycle Smog Threat Under Control VENTUR A , CAL., Mar. 20, 1973 Summoned to emergency sess io n the Mo to rcy cle In d ustry Coucil hammered ou t a res o lution to "de vel o p reason able emission levels fo r m o torcy cles and meet clean air 'stan d ard s wh en they 'are announce d. T he landmar k resolutio n may have head ed off serious public rela tions problems fo r th e motorcy cle in d ustry. Trouble was hinted wh en the first of five coun ties in the Los Angeles "smog sewer" pr o p os e d to "restrict" moto rcycle travel unless emission standards were set for the mac hines. Wit h less than five days to act, the MIC brought staffma n Mel Stahl to Los A ngeles fo r legal advice," arranged for a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency to ap pear on behalf of the in dus try an d p resented the U resolu t io n a t th e m ain publi c h earing on Clean Air Act co mp liance prop osals in Ven tura Co un ty . Although motorcy cles gene ra te less than o ne p ercent o f the Los An gele s smog, it is e xp ect ed that increase d usage , sp urr ed b y gaso line rationing, may drive th e p ercentage higher . No p ol lutio n s ta n d a r ds ex is t fo r motorcycles or d iesel t rucks at present. MIC m em b ers h ave been coopera ting with th e EPA and the Society of Au t 0 m 0 tive Engi neers to develo p emission co nt rols fo r mo tor cycles an d every manufacturer has teams working on the problem. "When con trois are needed," said an industry spokesman, "We'll be ready." EPA does not presently conside r m o t o r c y c l e-c au s e d ai r pollution sign ificant enough to worry about. The Great British Motorcycle by john Huetter Membe rs o f th e A merican press we re necessary R&D work for improveme nt recently inform ed abo ut a significant o f th e marque. ~ h an ge in th e British mo torcycle T he n ew organ iza tio n , as ye t with o ut o fficial name, will b e headed by in d ustry. In b rief. Birmin gh am Small Arms, Ltd. manufac t ur ers of T riu mph internati onal industrial financ ier Dennis Poo re who h as been th e le ading force in m ot or c y cl es, a nd N o rt on -Vil lier s restoring Norton to its curr en tly mu ch manufact urers o f No rt on an d Aj S imp ro ved product an d marke t position. m o torcy cles, will be combined into o ne Lord Shaw cross, present chairman o f Bri tish m o to rcy cle company in an e ffo rt BSA, Ltd., will be deputy cha irman of to increase the' fin ancial liq uidi ty ' o f BSA and re alize economies o f ope ra tio n th e gro up . Poo re will h ave th e titles of th ro ugh be tter allocation o f faci lities Chai rm an and Chie f Execu tive O fficer. With the ad ditional cas h in pu t and an d personnel. The merger is subject to approval by le ss e n ing of external co mpeti tio n realized b y j oining the e fforts of th e last th e Br itish Ho use of Co m mo ns an d th e two via b le B ri t ish m o t or c y cl e shareholders o f both co mpanies bu t manufacturers , there seems to be good rapi d approval, within a couple of months, is ex pected. On e effect of the ' reason to believe that everyone will creation of th is conglomerate addition benefit in terms of an improved , to Manganese-Bronze , (which ow ns competitively priced produc t to the Norton-Villiers) is to increase the customer and increased sales to the ope rating capital of BSA , Ltd. to about company. $58,000,000. Twelve millio n dollars in There are currently no plans to preferred stock will be held by the restructure the U.S. management or British govern ment, in effect subsidizing dealership of either Birmi ngham Small the British motorcycle industry in an Arms or Norton-Villiers. The prospect effort to restore both Triumph and of a Triton or a r-;o rumph on sales floors Norton to competitive market positions is not very likely as dealers of each and provide the increased funds and marque wiII continue to sell their combinatio n of facilities to d o the particular brand of Brit ish mo to rcy cle .

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