Round Up
ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
A FORD MOTORCYCLE?
Never a believer in rumors, if I can avoid it, a recent, persistent one coming down the pike is that the mighty Ford Motor Co. is going into the motorcycle business. I won’t reveal my several sources, but “a reliable source of information” tells me that they have bought a large West German firm and will soon come out with a 125cc and 250cc four-cycle motorcycle. I also heard that they had purchased a Japanese motorcycle maker, but I tend to doubt that one. Rumor also told me they planned on making their own. Due to the fantastic cost of modern tooling, I cannot swallow much of that one either. My money is on the W. German rumor. Regardless, I hope it is true. To have every Ford dealer in the U.S. with a motorcycle on his showroom floor is a pretty exciting prospect.
THE “IMAGE” IN ENGLAND
It seems the problem of relations between the motorcycle rider and the nonmotorcycling public is an international one. Mr. J. J. Lee, National Public Relations Officer for the Ariel Owners Club in Warks, England, recently contacted me and gave me the “gen” on an organization in England called the British Motorcyclists Federation, the B.M.F. (they rely on initials, too). They are a body consisting of some twenty-odd national one-make motorcycle clubs, representing between 10,000 and 15,000 riders.
I am told the B.M.F. has done a great deal in England to promote better relations between the everyday motorcyclist and the general public, and they use the term “general public” the same as we do. They are constantly striving to put their aims and objects before the “Powers That Be” to the betterment of “all concerned.” Mr. Lee furnished me with a copy of their journal titled Unity, edited by Harold Booty in London, and it is most impressive, particularly considering the type of organization that publishes it. Obviously my motives are plain; why hasn’t someone organized such a group in the U.S.? It is needed just as badly, and it is becoming increasingly more painful in wider areas — daily, almost. As I have said many, many times before, the only voice heard in higher places is the loud one, coming from many. It comes from the vocal minority groups, such as the B.M.F. in England, and the Sierra Club in the U.S. My point should be obvious.
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BULL IN THE AFTERNOON
Tim Smith of Venice, California, prompted me to take note of an item in the November 29th issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. Neither of us can decide whether it is pro, or anti-motorcycling; Sports Illustrated heretofore has on several occasions been most generous with their coverage of motorcycle activities. Regardless: “EXHAUST IN THE AFTERNOON — An aspiring bullfighter in Las Cruces, N.M., named Fred Renk had a problem; no way to practice. South of the border he could have found small boys eager to push wheel-mounted horns for his practice sessions, but in the U.S. small boys play football. The resourceful Renk found a cooperative friend who each morning for three months roared around him with the horns mounted on a motorcycle. The friend aimed this toro mecánico at Renk’s cape, and occasionally he would get Renk. Once he gored him with a handlebar.
“Renk made his debut recently in a ring near Monterrey in Old Mexico. He killed two bulls, and he feels that he is ready. One is pleased, but one wonders if Renk could not start a bullfighting fad in the U.S. Think of that splendid day when Fred Renk dedicates his best motorcycle of the afternoon to Ava Gardner, or maybe Mia Farrow, and afterward is awarded two handlebar grips and a taillight.”
WORLD'S OLDEST RIDER?
Among the monthly flood of press releases that cross my desk was the photograph of the older gentleman astride a motorcycle, with the message that he was “surely the great-grandfather of all BSA Bantam enthusiasts.” (Surely one of the smallest clubs in the world so his odds are pretty good to begin with.) Ned Brown of Mildura, Victoria, Australia, recently celebrated his 90th birthday! He was bom in 1875 in Wales, England, and immigrated to Australia in 1884. During the Boer War he served with the Tasmanian Bushmen Contingent and still keeps the dented gold coin which saved his life by stopping a bullet during the campaign.
He bought his first motorcycle, a BSA Bantam, in 1949, so he is by no means the holder of the long-time record for being an enthusiast. He was a mere youngster of 74 at the time, and he still rides a Bantam, but it is a 1961 model now. I cannot speak for all of my readers, but it sure makes me feel good to know that I still have a chance! * ¿'a
NAMES AWRY
Reader Gordon Karrell has called my attention to a news release issued by the University of Southern California. It reads:
“The Los Angeles unit of the American String Teachers Assn, will meet at U.S.C. in the new Booth Memorial Rehearsal Hall. Dr. Masaki Honda, director of talent education in Japan, will speak on the Suzuki method of string teaching, assisted by Joseph Chassman, Elizabeth Mills and Virginia Baker. The public is invited. There will be no admission charge.”
One gets the impression that no field of endeavor is safe anymore!
MOTORIZED FOREST INDUSTRY
The enclosed photograph of two employees of the Elk Lumber Co. of Medford, Oregon, setting off on a pair of Hondas rigged for trail riding, appeared in several Northern newspapers recently and no less than six of our readers sent samples of the clipping to point out how motorcycles were gaining in the field of practical applications. Which, I am led to understand, will help us all in justifying our mad obsession for two wheelers. To me it • was inevitable that such firms would turn to the use of motorbikes in search of increased mobility and in reaching inaccessible areas, but it doesn’t change my feelings towards bikes one bit. Proper or not, I love ’em.
Reason for Elk turning to bikes came to life when John Gartman, forester for Elk, rode his own machine day and night during a large fire on their over-100,000-acre industrial tree farm. So useful was Gartman on his bike that managers of the firm decided to allow him to form a volunteer trail machine fire-fighting corps among company personnel. All the bikes used are lightweights of the trail variety; riders will carry radios and fire fighting tools, in addition to equipment needed for special assignments. Though no major fire has occurred since formation of the corps, they are ready to prove their worth at a moment’s call.
BENELLI "WIN-A-CYCLE" CONTEST UNDERWAY
Cosmopolitan Motors, Philadelphia, Penna., importers and distributors of the complete line of Benelli motorcycles and accessories from Italy, is holding a WinA-Cycle Sweepstakes. There is nothing to do, other than send in the postage-paid coupon found on page 77 of this issue. Extra entry blanks are available at any motorcycle dealer, and you may enter as many times as you wish. A 250 Benelli Barracuda is the first prize, with a Benelli 50cc Fireball to be awarded to first and second runners-up. The next 100 winners will be awarded Cosmo-imported accessories, guaranteed to put more fun in your riding (their wording).
The first three Grand Winners will be announced in June issue of CYCLE WORLD and a list of the 100 other winners will be posted in all motorcycle dealer showrooms. All entries must be postmarked by April 15th, and the judges’ decisions are final. Send entries to Cosmopolitan at 5521 Wayne Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.
DRIVER TRAINING CHIEF TAKES TO MOTORCYCLES
Jack Irwin, director of driver training for the Ontario (Canada) Safety League, has not only been a motorcycle rider for some time, but he preaches what he practices. Irwin is organizing a course for 20 commercial driving instructors on how to teach the youngsters to ride motorcycles. According to a newspaper clipping sent to me by a Canadian reader, he has learned that too many motorists hate motorcycle riders. Two motorists have tried to crowd him into parked vehicles; one was a woman! He has even ridden at 65 mph in 50 mph zones to avoid being “clobbered,” and rides over the limit most of the time to stay out of the danger of being absorbed by the flow of cars and being ignored.
An important point he made, and one that CW’s “Intelligent Motorcycling” and editorial stance agrees with, is that most car/motorcycle accidents are the fault of the car driver since motorcyclists have low visibility (quite the opposite from some popular misconceptions), and are not protected by steel bodies such as car drivers. He is reported to have said that all too many motorcycle riders irk car drivers by sneaking through lines of traffic at signals, then impede traffic by making slow starts when the lights change. Amen! Our motorcycle boom has extended to Canada too. In Ontario, registrations have increased from 9,000 in 1954 to 22,000 in 1965, and are expected to reach 35,000 this year. In Mr. Irwin’s view, a minimum of five hours’ instruction is needed to turn a pedestrian into a motorcycle rider. If the would-be rider has ridden a bicycle, this time can be reduced to four hours, according to Irwin. But, he adds, the ability to handle a bicycle may give the student rider a false sense of security on a motorcycle that could prove fatal. I, for one, wish Mr. Irwin were the driver training chief in our 52 states, or could at least communicate with the ones who are.
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ROUND THE WORLD MOTORCYCLIST
Spring madness is under way! Philip Funnell and his wife Hilary, from England, are setting the pace as they are shown “tuning” their BMW in preparation for a globe-girdling motorcycle trip around the world. They plan on camping out over most of the 47,000-mile trip. He is a construction foreman by profession. The picture was taken in New York where they arrived by boat.
MONTESA VS. BULTACO
Though I probably ought not to stick my neck into it, since the Montesa vs. Bultaco controversy is one of the hottest in the motorcycle trade, I have had a point made to me by Frank Connor of Escuderia Bultaco, national advertisers for Bultaco motorcycles. Connor points but that though Montesa’s manufacturing capacity is larger than Bultaco, Foreign Trade Services in New York have figures showing that Bultaco is selling more machines than their competitor here in the U.S. and Spain. So, I am right, and I am wrong. It’s better than being all wrong. As an end to this, I don’t give a darn which sells more; they are both excellent machines, each with a great deal to offer.
TRIUMPH CONTEST WINNER
Happy, smiling Eiden Wright offers happy, smiling Steven E. Demby (right), congratulations as they examine Demby’s lucky contest coupon after he won Triumph’s free trip to Daytona, Florida, to see the AMA 200-Mile Grand National in March. Wright is the Sales Manager for Johnson Mtrs., Triumph distributors in the
19 Western states. Demby will be the guy seeing Daytona even cheaper than those who live there!
ANOTHER MOTORCYCLE QUEEN
Fast among the field of “motorcycle queens,” a new and rapidly growing sport among publicity people bent on motorcycle glamour, comes Miss Jeanne Manza. Miss Manza is the 1966 Hollywood Park Harness Queen. For those who don’t know, Hollywood Park is a horse race track on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and a harness queen must have been nominated to celebrate the start of their harness racing sea-
son. So ... we are told, but our credulity is being stretched when we read that Miss Manza has long been a devoted Yamaha fan. We don’t really need to be told that, but since Yamaha went to the trouble to supply the photo and the information, we will do our best. ■
