Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1982 12 08

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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The Battle of the Twins awards banquet will be held during Cycle Week at Daytona Beach, FL, according to Jess O'Brien. For details, send an SASE to BOTT Banquet Chairman, 2226 #8 South Combee Rd., Lakeland, FL 33802. We were saddened to flear of the death. of Wally Wallenburg, who passed away of a sudden heart attack on Nov. 7. Wally had been involved in motocross since 1969, both as an enthusiast and 8 business man. His company, Nordic Racing, was the Midwest outlet for Monark motorcycles from 1972-75, and was also the first ever distributor for Don Emler's FMF. He had many friends among the motorcycling community and will be greatly missed. Two-time AMA Grand National Champion, Daytona 200 winner, successful m,otocrosser and ISDT medalist Dick Mann and long-time girlfriend Kay Corpe were married in Reno, NV, on Nov. 11. Congratulations to the new couple from us, the Sierra Old Timers, and AMA D-36! Viis Paint and Design is back in business. After a four year hiatus, Mike Viis has decided to return to painting. He has done work for such luminaries as Team Suzuki, Berry Sheene, Team Yamaha, Kenny Roberts, Gary Scott, Gene Romero, Russ Collins, Team Honda and Evel Knievel. He is now available for custom painting and design for anyone interested in unusual or one of a kind work. Besides painting motorcycles, he has expanded to boats, signs, helmets, vans and cars. The new location is twice as large as the old shop, well able to accommodate even the largest of vehicles. It's located at 350 W. Wardlow Rd. in Long Beach. Stop by for an estimate or call 213/ 494-3131. Harley-Davidson XLH Sportsters will be given away as the grand door prize in each of the eight Great American Motorcycle shows. The bikes will be customized at the factory and the custom pearl paint will incorporate the Great American logo. The shows begin Jan. 7 at Dallas, TX, followed by stops at San Diego, San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, Washington, DC and Detroit. The Dec. 5 Continental Motosports Club's Four-Stroke Nationals at Carlsbad Raceway should see an interesting show. Pro-Tec says it will have Ricky Johnson and Broc Gloveron its big Yamaha thumpers, and Honda is likely to counter with something fast, possibly Phil larson on one of Baja 1000 co-winner AI Baker's machines. Sand Hill Ranch in northern California will be holding a motocross on Dec. 5 at their location at Vasco and Camino Diablo Road in Brentwood. Gates open at 6:30 a.m. and the racing begins at 9:00. Entry is $15 for Sportsman and $15 + $5 for Experts. Spectators pay $5 for admission. For more information, call Tom at 415/ 798-5695 or 634-3328. Suzuki's Goverment Relations man, John Walsh, called and told Papa that the NHTSA Suzuki sidestand investigation is just that, an investigation. There has been some confusion that there is a recall. There is no recall, and Suzuki feels that the NHTSA will 'find that Suzuki is meeting the current standard when their findings ,,. in. Yamaha is planning to put their European riders on the open market in 1983. According to 250cc MX World Champion Danny LaPorte, Yamaha is asking for $75,000 per rider. For that amount, a company would receive the rider's services, a works bike, and publicity paid for by Yamaha. Canon, Elf Oil in France, and Pernod have reportedly expressed interest in the new program. Observed Trials World Champion Eddy lejeUne has signed a three year contract with Honda. Lejeune will continue to. campaign the 360cc. four-stroke on which he won his championship. C "There were a number of items to come out of the FIM Fall Congress that are of interest," said AMA's Bill Boyce. "The March 13 Daytona 200, in general, is no longer in the position of being sandwiched by the opening GPs on the World Championship Road Race Series. The March 6 GP in Argentina has been cancelled, leaving the opening round to go on March 20 in South Africa." "Because of rider complaints against unruly fans at the season ending Luxemboura 500cc MX GP, the event has been dropped from the GP calendar. The final round of . the series will run in Holland. The date for the U.S. 500cc MX GP will be June 26 at Carlsbad while our 250cc MX GP round will be run on July 31 at Unadilla," said Boyce. Harley-Davidson is currently accepting entries for its invitational antique motorcycle show during the 1983 Daytona Bike Week. The showing of 40 antique motorcycles from private collections will be held at the Daytona Hilton, March 9-12, as part of the company's "Harley-Davidson: An 80th Anniversary" motorcycle show and celebration. Entries will be divided into three classes: Pre-1926, 1926-1950 and 1951-1970. All accepted entrants will receive an individually numbered, gold plated, commemorative 80th Anniversary belt buckle. In addition, cash prizes of 500, $250 and $100 will be awarded the respective first, second and third place winners in each of the three classes. Persons wishing to have an antique HarleyDavidson considered for entry should submit a photo, along with a brief description of the motorcycle to: Tom Bolfert, c/o Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Inc., P.O. Box 653, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Feb. 11, 1983 is the deadline for receipt of entries in Milwaukee. Accepted entrants will be notified by Feb. 20'. Transportation and other expenses' are at the owner's expense. The 1983 MX GPs will pay points to 1 5 places per moto rather than ten positions as in the past. The sliding scale net. the moto winner 20 points with 17 for second, 15 for third, 13 for fourth, 11 for fifth and drops one point per position from there on to 15th. ' Planning C~lifornia's OHV trail system: A progress report By Ron Rowan. California Department of Parks and Recreation Next to a vehicle, 'what is the most important ingredient nee- essary for an off-lOader to enjoy his or her sport? The answer is land. Land for riding, climbing, looking around, and sometimes, getting stuck in. The desire for land, legal and hassle-free, is greater among California's off-roading public than their combined desires for new staging areas. restrooms, campgrounds, and so on. This isn't shocking news to most of you. You've probably known it since you rode up to your first "no trespassing" sign. Those of us who work for the State Department of Parks and Recreation's Office of OffHighway Motor Vehicle Recreation know it also. We know how valuable land is because when we r,ide, fish, camp, etc., we use public lands like everyone else. The problem, until now, was that'we knew it only at a gut level. Since no' substantial surveys had ever been taken of California's OHV enthusiasts, we couldn't prove that off-roaders wanted land more than anything else. When the time came to develop a statewide system of OHV trails, we needed some hard facts about the wants and needs of the OHV public. There were two reasons for this: I) to convince the legislature to allocate the money for the project, and 2) to be sure in our own minds that we were including the features OHVers wanted in the trail system. In September 1981, our departmen t awarded the contract to develop a plan for the state's trails system to Edaw, Inc., a firm specialiiing in recreation and land use planning. Our goals for the plan were to make it realistic enough to work. and useful for the people who drive and ride OHVs. We let the people from Ed~w know what we needed. and they went to work. So far, they have accomplished a great deal of this project. This includes: inventorying major OHV trails throughout California; mapping trail corridors showing areas with existing or potential trails; iden tifying each corridor's characteristics (terrain, land use and ownership, other recreational uses, etc.); and conducting a "needs study" of OHV users. This needs study is basically an opinion survey of people who ride and drive OHVs throughout California. Edaw hired a group of recreation economists with a background in public survey work, Economics Research Associates to do the needs study. Through its years of experience, ERA knew that only one group of people could accurately tell us what was needed to make the trails .plan a success...you, the off-roaders. So, you may be saying, that sounds . very fine and noble and all that, but how do we know our survey represents tbe views' of a cross-section of the OHV users? First, ERA went to OHV group representatives to help .us with the survey. An advisory committee, composed of Bob Ham (vicepresident of the California Off-Road Vehicle Association), Ray Moon (former president of the California Association of Four-Wheel Drive Clubs), and Russ Sanford (president of Motorcycle Owners, Riders, and Enthusiasts, MORE), helped ERA put together a questionnaire. Additional help on the questionnaire came from four "focus group" sessions around the state. Each focus group consisted of 10 to 12 people drawn from DMV registration lists for OHVs, and from membership lists oLOHV clubs in northern and southern California. Second, the questionnaire was pretested by 50 OHV users to gauge the validity of the wording and design of the questions. Third, on-site interviews of 412 OHV users were conducted at seven locations selected for having the widest possible range of trail users. Fourth, mail surveys were sent to 3,000 OHV users (789 of which were completed and returned). The users' names came from DMV lists and membership lists from a wide variety of locations and owners of different vehicle types. ERA and the state feel this survey is as statistically accurate as we could make it. So now we have it in black and white: Of the 1200 OHV users who responded to our survey, 42% said acquisition of more trail land should be our number one priority for Green Stickie.funds. This is far ahead of the other priority items people mentioned. In addition to confirming our hunches about some survey results, there were .some surprises. For instance, three-quarters of the houst:: holds of those surveyed included two or moreOHVers. Mostofthese households contained more than one type of OHV.·In fact, the average number of vehicles per household was greater than three. This tells us that the majority of people who will use the trails aren't just motorcyclists, or four wheelers, or buggy users, or ATVers. A lot of these people enjoy more than just one aspect of the sport. The survey also told us what some of the public's favorite use areas are: The Mojave Desert is number one, followed by the Colorado-Imperial Desert. the Lake Tahoe- oIthern Si~rra area, and the Central Coast Range. We learned a lot about the tastes of off-roaders from this survey. For instance, most people said they would rather camp in a "primitive" site, with little or no facilities. than in a developed one. Most people didn't want facilities alo'ng the trail, other than directional signs. Hilly terrain was inost preferred for riding, followed by steep. then rolling terrain. Sand and loose soil were the preferred surfaces for most people. The users' survey gave us information about what people considered to be an overcrowded trail, the distance people traveled in a day (depending on their type of vehicle), where people wanted trails to go, and how far off-roaders would travel to use a trail. All of this information is valuable for deciding which trail locations and types are important and which are not. One of the most important things we have learned is that off-roaders, on the whole, are willing to Pitch in to help maintain the trails. Sixtythree percent said they would volunteer to help maintain a trail if it would keep fees down, and 78% said they would volunteer to help maintain a trail to keep it from being closed. Knowing that the majority of you will help us prepare and main" tain trails should make the job easier . to accomplish for us. and cheaper for you. The needs study that resulted from this survey is interesting reading for anyone involved in OHV recreation in California. For people who want to know more about the survey and its results, copies should be available in about six to eight weeks at our cost. When they become available, we will announce the price and where to write for your copy. What's the next step in the trails plan? In early 1983. three public hearings will be conducted to review a draft version of the statewide plan.. The final version will be complete by next spring. Then we will start using it to direct trail maintenance and construction. In the meantime, we want your input! Write us a letter and attend the public hearings. The more we know about what you want, the happier we'll all be when the trails are buik.

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