Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Buy Now; Avoid the June Bust co . > ::;: ~ w Z W ..J U >- U Parnelli J one s is among th e members o f the corp o ra tio n that too k over On tario Mo tor Speedway recently His title is Presiden t o f OMS Corp. , among o ther thin gs. • • • Harley road racers used brakes. * * Honda disc * Although th e results aren't in ye t from th e Firs t Annual Bologna (Italy) Grand Prix, it see ms to - h ave been a tr emendous succe ss. Despite being run ( on city stre ets) about midnight, spectators wer e...imp re ssed. So were th e policemen wh o couldn't catch drivers Ron Grant, T on y Murphy, Gary Fish er, and G avin Trippe. So will th e people wh o le ased th e Rent-a-Racer Fiats wh en th ey are returned. Aside fro m a un a voidable crash damage, Fisher snappe d a p ark ing brak e ca b le. If y ou noticed two d iffe re n t ads fo r the Cycle House, y o u sh oul d d efin it ely have taken advan tage of their Open House Sale th is pas t weekend. *' * * * * * Paul Smart tried a Seeley frame for his Suzuki 750 road racer but says that the Japanese designed chassis works just as well. This is a real compliment to Suzuki's engineers, incidentally. A ste wardess named ' Fred got Cal Ra yborn drunk on his way ba ck from En gland. We apparently have a ch ance to elect a frie nd of motorcy cling to th e state legislature in th e Special Electio n on May 2 9. Bob Bailey , manufacturer an d AMA Profes sional rid er , is en dorsin g a candidat e for the ·6 7th Assembly Distri ct, wh ich inclu des La wn dal e, Hawth orne, Garden a, T o rranc e and Carson. Bail ey feels that by ele cting Dick Fl oyd motorcyclists will .give themselves a representative who is able to advance th eir in terests , in til e legislature, and gain th e re spect of government in gen era l. If you live in th e 67th Distric t you sh ould chec k o u t Dick Floyd and th ink ab o u t giving him your vot e. • • • • • • Portions of th is Sunday'S Greyhounds Ponderosa Hare Scrambles, near Lancaster, Calif., will be filmed by TV channelS, to publicize the Mother's Day Novice dual European Scrambles to be held at the Ponderosa by the LAPD for the benefit of the Explorer Post they sponsor. * * * goatee, * * • • • Americans entered in the Scottish 6-Days Trial so far include Oklahoma Bultaco dealer Mike McCabe, Rodger Brickham and Kirk Mayfield. Rodg and Kirk will ride 2S0cc Ossas supplied by Sammy Miller. They'll be staying with Mick Andrews in Manchester, England until going up to Scotland. * * The first oi l injec t io n end u ro b ike fr o m Europe will be available in the U.S. the fir st part of July thi s year . Th is year's Montessa 250 King Scorpion is an entirely nevv bike . It is a rather unique blending of pure rnotccrosser and rider conven ience . The Amer ican market doesn 't want to mess w ith premi x for two-strokes in casua l endu ro and trailriding but they are becoming incr easingly sens itive to handling. So, the King Scorpion has the engine, includi ng cr inkle fin cylinder, frame, forks and wheels of the 250 Veh konen Repli ca motocrosser. The cam is a 32mm Bing centerfloat and sh ift ing the five speed box is accompl ished on the left side. There is extensive use of Duraluminum throughout the bike and the fram e is chrome-moly steel. The skid plate to protect t he low MX-type pipe is light pressed polyester . If you liked the VR Montesa for motocross, the King Scorpion should be dynamite for enduros and t railrid ing. The motocrosser, as we remember, handled just fine. The price for the street legal bike is expected to be $1238 in New American Dollars. SUZUKI FUNFAIR RATED "G" KID'S CYCLE RACES and FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT ,/ * * • • • Soon to be produced - a rubber cha in? * * * * * William E. Kennedy, Manager of Re creational Veh icle Industry Sal es fo r Rexnord which was fo rmerly th e Rex Ohginbelt Corporation h as been elec ted Pres ident of th e Motorcy cle Industry Council (MIC). Our o nly co nc ern is wh at does h e know in th e way of motorcy cle s? Li ke ridi ng th em. * * * • • • The Cal Cross MC $3,600 purse motocross is arranged something like this: The Pros run for money on Sunday May 20 and the Amateurs run Saturday. That fills in a little gap in the ad. * * J arno Saari n en was recen tly q uo ted as say ing th at the best way to train for th e wo rld road racing championshi ps was by racin g at Dayt o na an d Imola. It for su re is the m ost p ro fitabl e way. J arn o we nt o n to say he th o ugh t that Day tona was boring. It mi gh t be if yo u' re that far out in fro nt. • • • Saarinen also commented that the only thing that he has ever ridden that is faster than Yamaha's new water-cooled 500 Four is the 700 Four that they are still experimenting with . Could it have double the output of a 350 Twin and still handle? * • • • * * • • • Lots of states are trying to make laws th is year to p ut you in jail fo r riding a . mo to rcy cle between lanes o f traffic j ams. Bad d eal . California 's law (lob bied successfully by M.O.R .E. ) says bik es can pas s (e xce p t o n th e right sho ulde r) " provi de d th ere is sufficien t space to p ass safely." In o the r words, if y o u can mak e i t, you are legal. Mora l: Get organize d - th e nuisan ce laws are j ust beginnin g! Another plastic flash fro m alloy land. There is available, in England , a plastic sprocket. Yep. * Con trary to what was sai d last week in this column, the Baja 5 00 has actually underg on e su bstan rial course ch anges. Pavem ent h as b een d rast ical ly reduced to j ust o ver 5 0 mi les, and the course len gth is 6 10 mil es. T he first 25 0 mil es is an actual co urse, to be fo llowed , and not a p oin t to p ain trace . New Zealander Bill De Garis recently rode a CZ 250 f ive-speed to the top of Mt. Kilimanja ro . That's 19,340 ft . up in Africa . We don't qu ite know what to make of that o roll. The ride (climb?) took seven days, some of which no doubt was spent in re-jetting for altitude changes, Wait 'til the Sierra Club hears about th is! • • • After a couple of luke warm"years Bengt Aberg (Hus) has scored a major motocross win . Aberg wowed the fans at the Hants Grand International Motocross , besting Christer Hammargren and teammate Ake Jonsson, both on Yamahas. While this was not a Wor ld Championship event, it is an impressive win for Aberg. • • • 1: The Continental Motosport Club (CMC) is breaking ground this week fo r a lighted Motocross and long-track Speedway at Orange County International Raceway near EI Toro, Calif. on the Santa Ana Freeway. * . * T he AMA staff inaugurated Ame rica's first Intram ural Mo to-Ball games under in te rnatio nal FIM rules last wee k. On a field d escribed as "6-ft . d eep mud," the Co mpetition side of th e building beat the Pu blic Rela ti o ns side 4- I. PR pro tested the first goal, but the protes t was disallowed by the Ch airm an o f the , Co mpetition Co ngress an d the Director of Competition, both of whom were p lay ing for the other side. * * Moto-Guzzi is going to make a 350 four-cylinder; That makes two Ital ian companies to do so since Benelli has it in m ind also . You never know how people w ill react to Ron Sch ne iders. So when a package came in addressed to him we soaked it in water, unwrapped it gingerly, and it was a handsome placque engraved : "T o Ron Schneiders, First Over All Enduro Writer:' It came from a California enduro association. * * HAS SU CCESS REA LLY CHANGED J IM POMERO Y ? Maybe , he 's growing a * J ohn Hu er ter was Iast seen entering a c hauffered Cad illac , b o und fo r a world-tour vacation before settling d own to free-l ance. He says all th at money he made as Managing Editor of Cycle News West is burning a h ole in his sui tcase . Mo st people are prob ab ly aware of th e recen t devaluation of the do llar , and th at said devaluation is going to effect th e prices of imported moto rcy cles . A recent article in "Japan Mo tor Press" eluci dated what so me of th ose effects are going to be an d .when th ey rnigh t come about. In p reparation fo r such a d evaluation ' of cu rre ncy m ost man u facturers have st ocke d large q u an ti ties o f bikes. T hese st ocks w ill ease the b reak-in to new c u r r ency . O f t he p ar ti cular manufactu rers, Honda h as the largest stock and will most lik ely b e abl e to del ay price hikes un til June. Kawasaki and Suzuki h ave th e smallest stocks and Yamaha e x pects hik es on bike s imported into th e USA to take place very soon. T he se prices will co rresp on d to the reduction of th e value of the dollar by 11%. Some portion of that 11% will m 0 s t l ike l y b e absorb ed by manu facturers so price increases will be tem pere d somewhat. What all this this means to y o u is that if you intend to buy a Yamaha or Kawasaki in th e near fu ture, buy now. If y ou are lo oking in to o ne of th e other Japanese bikes , y o u should buy in the nex t m on th o * * * Irv Kanemoto, who prepares Gary Nixon's factory Kawasaki road racer, is selling his H l-R, the one that won all ·t h e . J u n i o r Nat ionals last yea r underneath Jerry Greene. A road racer looking for a really fast motorcycle couldn't do better. You can get hold of Irv through Kawasak i. Bring ing excitement, family entertainment and healthy, outdoor recreation to regional shopping centers is Suzuki's Funfair - a young touring caravan of recreational products sponsored by U.s. Suzuk i and by other leisure time equipment manufacturers. Funfa ir began its eight month cross-country tour in early March and by mid-October will have visited over 55 centers bringing the entire family an opportunity to fee l, touch and even smell a portion of the outdoors. Anyone over 16 has a chance to win a new MT-SO Suzuki Trailhopper at each Funfair location which is held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For the kids, there is the chance to w in over $200 in prizes competing in the min iature motorcycle races held each day. Participation in the motorcycle races and the d rawing for ' the Trailhopper minibike is absolutely free. • For additional information , dates and locations on Suzuki Funfair, please contact Suzuki News Bureau, 3007 Enterprise Street, Costa Mesa, Calif., 92626 or telephone (714) 546-5243. * * J oel Rob er t and Gast on Rah ier, Suzuk i works rid ers, have both asked for thei r 1972 250 machines back to race in Wo r ld . Ch ampi on sh ip m otocro ss. Neither are h appy about the handling of th e RH · 73 models and Robert has yet to score a point in Gr an d Prix co mpetition. • • • Doug Schwerma, who makes Champion frames, is su ing Power-Dyne Vehicles, a Rhode Island firm , who a re putting Talwan-bu ilt Yamaha engines in what he claims is a d irect copy of his frame. It it 's true they shouldn't have done it when he said , UNo ." * * *

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