Motorcycle Sportsland
Motorcycle Sportsland
W. B. SWIM
WOULD YOU LIKE a motorcycle sportsland where for just eighty-three cents you can ride to your heart's content from 9 a.m. until sundown on scrambles courses, hillclimbs ranging from easy to expert-defying, trials obstacles, jumps and even such man-made heart-stoppers as seesaws, snake courses and three-inch-wide bridges?
That's what the motorcycle enthusiast in Japan has any day of the year. And if you don't own a machine, or don't want to take a chance of banging yours up, there are plenty of motorcycles available for rent.
Two such motorcycle sportslands, each incorporating an amusement park to keep the wife and kiddies happy with motor ized rides while papa does a few broadslides, are doing a roaring business in Japan. Sixty more will be constructed be fore too long, blanketing the country so that everyone in the nation is within a few minutes' ride of at least one, Techni land Company, Ltd., President Tokita Su zuki assured CYCLE WORLD.
Techniland is a heavily-capitalized firm set up by Honda Motors to popularize the sport of motorcycling. They also built, and run, the new $5,000,000 Suzuka Circuit where Japan's first Grand Prix will be held Nov. 9 and 10. The motorcycle sportslands are being tagged with the name "tech" from the company's name, so we have so far Tamatech, in the Tama district near Tokyo, and Ikomatech, at Ikoma near Osaka, Japan's second larg est city. Work is underway on others to be opened this season and land purchase for all 62 is being pushed.
In addition to being open daily for cyclists, the motorcycle sportslands hold trials type competition events, open to all corners, and hillclimbs. For the first time this year they will also organize scrambles and economy runs.
Another project which is slated to be gin this year, and which he considers very important, Techniland Managing Director Hiroshi Sase said, is to invite schools to send their science classes out and have Techniland instructors teach them how an internal combustion engine works, using Honda motorcycle engines as models.
The basic purpose, however, is to pro vide areas in highway-short Japan where motorcycle riders can open it up and have a good time. The spacious, $800,000 Tamatech includes a 1½-mile long scram ble course; five hillclimbs, the roughest of which is 80 yards long; a rambling trial course featuring grassy hillsides, fist-sized rock sections, sand, mud bogs, washboard sections, jumps up to five feet high and tricky gravel corners; a five-yard-long see saw; a ten-yard-long, three-inch-wide plank bridge; rows of posts set two yards apart through which the motorcyclist makes like a snake; and several other such tests of riding skill, as well as an easy mile-long dirt course for the novice.
A ticket to all this costs only 300 yen ($.83), a sum the Japanese motorcycle rider can afford without too much pain. A six-month membership costs $5.00, and a member can use the facilities as much as he wants to. Entry fees to competition events ($2.75) are reduced to $.83 for members, as well. Tamatech has about 3,000 members.
Anyone who has a driver's license is welcome. About 80 percent of Tamatech visitors bring their own machines. Head lights and rear view mirrors have to be removed at the gate, any pointed control levers taped until they are not dangerous and riders have to wear a helmet, longsleeved jacket (preferably leather), gloves, long pants and boots which come above the ankle. Helmets and boots can be rented.
Tamatech has 90 motorcycles for rent to anyone from junior high school stu dents up, whether they have drivers' li censes or not. Most are Honda 50cc Cubs, and they have to keep to the easy milelong novice course. Charges are fifteen cents per lap. A few Honda 125cc Benly, 250cc Dreams and 250cc Scramblers are on hand for rent to members only at low hourly rates. They can be ridden any where.
Riders enter Tamatech at their own risk, and Techniland is not legally obligated for any injuries, deaths or damage to ma chines. Actually, however, even though they don't have to, Techniland pays all medical bi11s for anyone injured at the motorcycle sportslands, and in the only fatal injury since the first one opened September 29, 1961, the boy's family was given a sizeable amount of condolence money. There have only been two other serious injuries in more than one year.
All motorcycle sportslands are being built at sites selected for their scenic views as well as geographical layout, so that spectators - at fifteen cents apiece - have averaged between 5,000 and 6,000 for each of the ten trials events and the hillclimbs staged. Company officials expect even greater turnouts of both riders and spectators; riders have averaged about 100 per event so far this year, as the motorcycle funlands and amusement parks become better known. Since Tama tech is located near two large U.S. Air Force bases, it gets quite a few Ameri can visitors. •
