Cycle Round Up
CYCLE ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
MOTORCYCLE PARK PLANNED
Welcome news for Southern Californians who are fast running out of open land upon which to ride their motorcycles and trail scooters, is the announcement of a proposed “Sports Cycle Recreation Center.” Brainchild of Rick Castellanos of Anaheim, California, the park would be built in an area adjacent to Santa Ana Canyon Road in Riverside County. Facilities would include a TT and short track, drag strip for motorcycles only, hill climbs, trails, clubhouse, picnic area, etc. Concessions planned are bike rentals, repairs and parts, storage, plus food, refreshments and parking. The proposed site is a 90-acre plot two miles west of the city of Corona.
At a recent meeting Castellanos showed movies of the site plus an artist’s rendering, for the purpose of soliciting investors in the project from among people in the motorcycle industry in Southern California. Many prominent individuals and dealers were present and considerable interest was expressed. The growth of motorcycling in this area has placed severe demands on the free ground riders have use of. A move is now underway to restrict riders from private property without written permission of the owners, a ridiculous law but one that could eliminate the use of much land now given over to motorcycles. The reason for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor’s trying to push it through has been that in a few cases some owners of adjacent property have complained about the noise and general annoyance, despite the fact that in most cases the riders have not been using land belonging to these people. At this writing a prominent group of members of the motorcycle trade in Los Angeles have formed a committee and are fighting for the rights of motorcyclists to enjoy this, in most instances, otherwise useless land.
The success of such a venture as Castellanos’ is assured, in my way of looking at it anyway, by the nature of the fact that a rider can ride all day on insured private land, have the use of safety and comfort facilities, bring his family and have a place to relax with others who share his sport, enjoy himself without being bothered, and all for a relatively small fee. If anyone is interested Rick can be reached at 1215 North Harbor Blvd., Anaheim, California. I hope this plan, if successful, will set the style for other such ventures all over the country. In it may lie the very core of the future of off-the-road motorcycling since land becomes so very dear every year.
NINE MILLION MOTORCYCLISTS
Motorcycling’s friend and best statistician, Jack McCormack, Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Suzuki Corp., recently published some figures in the Los Angeles Times newspaper that really set the wheels turning in the Southern California motorcycle industry centers. Jack says that more than 5 million Americans are riding motorcycles in 1965 and that this will increase to nearly 9 million by 1967. Consumer riding habits indicate that 4.1 persons use each licensed motorcycle; using these figure projections for the future, McCormack says that the market will increase eight times over the 1960 total of 1,140,000 riders.
Accelerated growth of the motorcycle market is centered on the lightweight division which represents 90% of the total. McCormack pointed out that the majority of machines are used for fun, school transportation and trail and desert jaunts by sportsmen. This pretty well coincides with CYCLE WORLD’S determinations. Below is a year-by-year usage breakdown, including projections. Note that for this year, 1965, 5,400,000 are riding the just-over one-million registered motorcycles and scooters in the United States. Note also that Southern California represents the largest single area, making it without question the motorcycling center of the U.S.
While on the subject of Suzuki, a difficult one to ignore, we also are told that they have increased their Suzuki warranty policy to 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever occurs first. This warranty offers more than three-times greater coverage than that of any other lightweight motorcycle, we are told. Jack McCormack’s Suzuki operation continues to lead the industry while showing the way to the others in many of the important phases of marketing, merchandising, and service. The best advice I can offer his competitors is to look to their laurels.
LACONIA SCAR
Though the report of the wonderful Laconia road race is covered elsewhere in this issue, I feel pressed to comment on the “riot” and the macabre scene that followed. I have read most of the local papers, all of which seem happy to leap on California Hell’s Angels as being the “real” culprits. Anyone who has been to Laconia when it was staged in the Belknap Gunstock recreation area knows all too well where the ruffians come from. French Canadians make up the first of the list, followed by some of the worst-looking individuals I have ever seen, part of the scabby side of motorcycling in the Eastern U.S. I am not defending the Hell’s Angels, but radical crackpots, some of whom are in public offices in towns around Laconia and Louden, leaped at the opportunity to blame the West Coast for trouble they have been having for many years. The big difference in the recent trouble is that prior to this year the animals were contained in the recreation area where they performed for the locals who actually seemed to enjoy the spectacle and did little or nothing to stop it. All they managed to do was contain it. Since the races were run this year in an area where the “Quebecers” and other rabble could not be put on display and allowed to conduct the famous “Laconia Drags,” etc., it got out of hand.
CYCLE WORLD is a National magazine, and most of our readers are in the Eastern half of the U.S. I point this out so that readers will not misconstrue my remarks as being purely in defense of the state where our offices are located. I also cannot fully blame the Eastern officials for looking for someone to hang the blame on, but they looked in the wrong direction. I’m certain a few Angels were there (I saw their pictures), but it takes more than a handful of rowdies to stage a riot. They need followers, and they found plenty. Laconia has had this problem coming for a long time, as I said in this column in September 1963, and it is sheer stupidity to believe that it was a big surprise to them. They need a new cage. Ask when the last time such a series of events took place at a race in California; few will even remember. Or any other place in the U.S. for that matter, including Daytona or dusty, dirty Dodge City.
The lofty State of New Hampshire took the opportunity to test their new “anti-riot law,” the results being that several of the arrested were merely bystanders who got a bit ruffled at being pushed around by the law. Admittedly the police had a problem, and they handled it extremely well, but poor Samuel Sadowski is sitting out a one-year jail term after having been arrested in a parking lot where there was no riot taking place! Mayor Peter R. Lessard of Laconia stretched it as far as he could to blame the riot on the Angels and other “West Coasters,” then tried to twist the situation with all kinds of insinuations about their being Communistic and unAmerican. If someone will tell me in which part of the world a group like the Hell’s Angels can flourish other than a free country I would like to know. The Angels are super-Americans if anything. I am of course in no position to say whether some of the trouble makers were or were not Communist-trained; it would be just like them. But please, put the blame and accept responsibility where it should be. Close the Canadian border to people who are obviously undesirable, run all of the scruffy-looking types out of town before a riot starts, or whatever must be done to curb the movement. Just leave the rest of us motorcyclists out of it.
California Attorney General Lynch’s report on the Angels is absolutely fair and clearly points out that the group represents a minority and does not reflect on the rest of motorcycling. They cannot be ignored, nor can they be passed on casually; it is up to each and every motorcycle rider to do his best to set a contrary example. We outnumber them about 1,200,000 to 1,000. There is no reason why the majority cannot rule and set the example for our “image” in the public eye. Local, Federal and State law officials will take care of such as the Angels and other “outlaw” clubs. There is entirely too much talk about taking care of them among the motorcycle fraternity and of “cleaning up our own ranks.” This is not the American way of doing things. I continue to grow leary of the “outlaw” term. The American Motorcycle Association has somewhere over 50,000 members (that’s an estimate; since they do not supply us with news and information of their activities, we must ferret out what we can), yet there are over one million motorcycles registered in this country. Who’s the outlaw?
(Continued on page 8)
AUTOLITE ON MOTORCYCLING
A recent issue of Contact, official organ for Autolite Division of the Ford Motor Co., carried four pages on motorcycle road racing featuring our hero Gordon Jennings, CYCLE WORLD’S racy Technical Editor. Filmed at Willow Springs race course (one of the hottest places on the face of the earth) during an AFM (American Federation of Motorcyclists) event, the story also contains a generous mention of CW. Author of the piece is Wayne Thoms, the well-known free-lance automotive journalist who was seeing his first motorcycle road race. Needless to say, he is now hooked on bikes.
. . . AND IN VERMONT
A wider contrast to the Laconia debacle cannot be found than in the Summer edition of Vermont Life magazine, published by the State of Vermont. This issue of the beautiful and handsomely illustrated magazine contains an elaborate story on motorcycle scrambling at Grafton, Vt., the scrambles “headquarters” in that part of the East.
I need only quote, “The charming little village of Grafton is just over the hill, and the residents are always cordial to visitors and participants alike. The motorcycle enthusiasts, who make up only about half of the spectators, are generally well behaved, and as opposed to receptions in other areas in the past, are warmly welcomed by the Grafton townspeople. While the MotoCross (scrambles) is definitely noisy and occasionally a little dusty, for sheer color, excitement and good sportsmanship of championship calibre competition, a day in July is well spent at Grafton.” I am indebted to Walter R. Hard, Jr., Editor of Vermont Life magazine for bringing it to my attention. Should any of our readers wish copies of this issue simply write them at 6 Baldwin St., Montpelier, Vermont, 05602, and enclose 50<f for each copy.
A NEW TWIST
Beating the Japanese at their own games would appear to be the goal of the Garton Toy Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Their 1965 catalog contains, buried among a gaggle of tricycles, toy tractors, sleds, pedal-drive carts, etc., a little device called a “Super-Sonda,” with “Motor.” Looking a little like a motorbike with training wheels, the Super-Sonda’s motor is the familiar, to some parents anyway, “Vrroom” battery-powered noise maker seen on pedal variety two wheelers. Even a windshield is included, as well as a carrying rack and a “banana type” seat. You gotta watch these Americans.
