Round Up
ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
THE BAJA RUN has grown up, and in a big way. Figured if I kept talking about it long enough, someone would do something.
Regular readers will remember the last episode, (CW, August), wherein our he-roes turned out to be driving four wheelers instead of bikes. Bruce Myers and Ted Mangels, driving a Myers Manx Dune Buggy, reduced the time of 39 hours and 56 minutes set by Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson on Hondas in 1962, to 34 hours and 35 minutes. A previous attempt by Dave, accompanied by his brother Bud, had reduced the time to 39 hours and two minutes. I candidly pointed out that the first group had been lost for over eight hours, and the second had lost an equal time due to mechanical failures. I also didn’t make lightly over the fact that the dune buggy had taken a shorter route. Hardly cricket.
It would seem that only my friends are out to get me, as yet another personal friend just reduced the time to just over 31 hours! This dear buddy of mine was driving a Rambler sedan. (That’s right folks, a Rambler sedan.)
CW contributor Ralph Poole, ace photographer, friend from my old Road & Track days, and regular traveler in Baja, together with his journalist partner, Spencer Murray, fully sponsored by American Motors, performed the miracle. To put it mildly, the reaction was explosive. No sooner was the deed done than news arrived of the formation of an organization to control such things, headed by an enthusiast, Ed Perlman, of Woodland Hills, Calif.
N.O.R.R.A., the National Off Road Racing Association, is to be the sanctioning body of the revised Mexican road race, with the pavement pulled out from under it. NORRA will stage their first event November 1st and 2nd. Four classes have been created: Stock, Off-Road, and Experimental, or non-stock, and, of course, Motorcycles.
Entries in each class will be limited to 50. Top eliminator will receive $5,000. Each class will have $2,500 to divide among the first three places. Fastest man on any machine will receive the top money, plus $1,250 for first in his class.
The short, “fast” route will be used, and the organization will supply fuel and patrol the course. Fuel stops are to be about 300 miles apart, so the motorcycle entries will have to provide additional gas for themselves since they cannot go the distance between gas checks.
Since a great deal of money is at stake entry fees are also high; $250 for each vehicle. The entry fee covers insurance, two days’ lodging in La Paz and a victory banquet.
Motorcycle entries will be required to prove their ability by either holding a competition license in one of the national motorcycle organizations, or be a member of the American Motorcycle Association’s sportsmen’s districts with a scrambles or desert expert card.
Obviously, this event is for experts and for the serious amateur and professional who is fully sponsored or supported by a business organization. Also, since the overall competition will be fierce, the bigger bore bikes will have the best chance. The motorcycle class will be wide open. No displacement classes will be provided, at least for the first running. It will simply be a matter of the fastest getting there first — “there” being La Paz, over 900 miles from the start at Tijuana.
Machines will start at 2:00 a.m., November 1st, leaving at three minute intervals. Two groups will run on the first day, more than likely to be motorcycles first, followed by stockers. It is planned at the moment to run the off-road and experimental classes the next day.
NORRA will fully control the event, including timing and verifying the records. They are completely independent, not affiliated with any automotive or motorcycle association. Their reason for including bikes in the program is simple; we started the run, we’re the first to make an issue of it, so we should be included. We should all offer a big thanks to NORRA. The value of the publicity to be gained is incalculable, and for the first time, “real” money is in the offing for a motorcycle dirt event. The coverage the run will receive from the general and automotive press will do wonders for motorcycles. It will be the first event I know of to feature bikes and four wheelers competing together for the same prize.
General Motors, Ford, Jeep, International, Toyota, American Motors, Myers Manx, and many others have either shown interest or entered. It’s up to the motorcycle folks now. (I wish I were a little lighter, younger, and more eager.) The brothers Ekins’ collective ears have been perked by the news, so things are looking up already.
The Baja run has to be greatest chance in years for bikes to prove something. I’m going to go to bat to convince as many as I can to throw an entry together.
CALIFORNIA DEFEATS HELMET BILL
California’s controversial Assembly Bill 978, written by Assemblyman Foran, requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets, goggles or face shields, foot covering, and institute a special motorcycle licensing program, has been defeated. Public opinion has been given as the reason for the bill’s defeat — public opinion aroused by notoriety received in CYCLE WORLD, and in Southern California’s motorcycle newspaper Cycle News. Not to mention the fact that when the Hell’s Angels arrived in the State House and created a furor, (Round Up, September CW), their activity didn’t go unnoticed by the press.
The simple fact that a helmet bill was defeated is reason enough; but AB 978 was additionally unreasonable and unconstitutional and we did not need it. It is quite possible another do-gooder will write a similar bill. After all, there is still the matter of the 35 million dollars the Federal Government might withhold from state highway funds. By the precedent established, the Federal Government can withhold 10% of any state’s highway funds if the state does not create a number of acceptable laws. The Secretary of Commerce is the bad-cat in this scene.
Before the bill was shelved Assemblyman Foran was willing to amend the bill, but he wasn’t willing to jeopardize all that money.
My hope is that when the next helmet bill is written those people in the state house, and all other state houses for that matjer, will simply write a straightforward bill and not try to hamstring all motorcycle riders with such requirements as face shields, goggles, boots, leathers, or what have you.
The Federal Highway Safety Act also requests the establishment of a separate licensing program for motorcycle riders — another we will no doubt be faced with eventually. AB 978 included such an act, but with the penalty that they first have an automobile operator’s permit. Pretty unfair, to my way of thinking, and not necessary. Learning to ride a two wheeler first, then four wheels makes the best kind of driver. The reverse doesn’t make sense, and it would work a hardship on many young people who do not have the means to get a car, learn to drive it, get the license, then go through the whole thing again to ride a bike.
The “why” of how California was able to defeat the helmet bill is another story, particularly since several other states have already been forced to enact similar legislation, and others are pending. I can only speculate that public opinion was the moving factor. I have said many times in this column that the only thing that has any effect on legislative bodies is either strong, well backed lobbies, or public opinion. If you live in a state facing such a bill, write your representative or assemblyman. Protest, and protest again ... we do not need to be legislated into protecting our selves.
California Senator Gordon Cologne, writing in the Sun City, Calif., News, said, “. . . the measure (AB 978) purports to adopt certain safety regulations for motor vehicles. Included is a requirement that all operators of motorcycles wear crash helmets. While I would hope that all persons riding cycles would wear helmets, it seems a little ridiculous to make it a misdemeanor for a person not to protect himself. This has the same logic as making it a capital offense to attempt to commit suicide.”
The good senator has a special reason for objecting to AB 978. He is a golfer. Golf carts generally have three wheels. In California they must be registered for use on the road; hence, they are registered as motorcycles. Can’t you see golfers buzzing about wearing helmets? That’s exactly what they would have to do if AB 978 had been passed.
(Continued on page 6)
continued
The senator pointed out that ordinarily it would be easy to amend such a bill, but not with the Federal Government involved. So, the tail is wagging the dog.
ON FIGHTING LEGISLATION
We read a lot these day on the best ways to fight anti-motorcycle legislation. Most experts agree the best ways are generally left up to members of industry, representatives of industry associations, and the most eloquent spokesmen for either amateur or professional clubs and groups. The lone and often irate individual usually does more harm than good to his cause. He is most often irritated at the prospects of his loss of rights and freedoms, will antagonize the fellows sitting up on the benches with his one-sided personal views, and when the chips are down and the lawyer trained legislative types start firing fast and furious questions and intimidating statements, will lose his control and let his temper run things.
1 have seen it happen too often. I would be a fool to say that a large group of people descending on some State House to demand their rights would not be effective. But their effectiveness is governed largely by how well organized they are, and that brings us right back to where I started.
PARILLA OWNERS CLUB
I’ve mentioned one-make owners clubs before, so I’ll add another to the long list. Parilia Owners Club International is open for membership, free until the first of September 1967. Write the Secretary at 250 Taylor, San Francisco, California. They ask that when contacting them to state the model and year of your machine with a return address so that they might receive a club news letter. John Titus is the secretary,' to quote him: “Parilia owners unite.”
STATUS SYMBOLS
Out here in California, and in a good deal of the rest of the country as well, among the younger set a set of bumps and knots on the knees represents the peak of status symbols. The irregularities are caused by kneeling for endless hours on surf boards; they call them surfer’s knots. Medical science calls them hyperkeratosis, or Osgood Slaughter’s Disease. They are still knots on the knees.
Now these marks of the dedicated surfer have been replaced within the hierarchy of status symbols. The mark of distinction now is a set of burns on the ankles. Caused, that’s right, by dangling your feet too close to motorcycle exhaust pipes!
MOTORCYCLE BOOKLET AVAILABLE
It’s beginning to look like CYCLE WORLD is the only group calling two-wheelers motorcycles these days. The American Motorcycle Association is now prepared to mail their new booklet, Now You’re a Cycle-Sport Enthusiast, prepared by the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Association for their affiliate organization. It is directed toward the people who buy
their first motorcycle, and it is hoped that dealers selling brands made and distributed by members of the MS&ATA will give one to each person buying a bike. I think they’ll be happy to supply anyone with copies who wants them, though.
Sections are broken down into: “You’re a goodwill ambassador now”; “Noise, a public enemy”; “Keep your muffler intact”; “Dressing for the ride” and “Remember the three big points.” Brief and to the point, I think it handles the situation very nicely.
RIDER TRAINING PROGRAM
On August 1st, Ivan and I were invited to the Los Angeles Police Academy, with other members of the press, to be introduced to an ambitious rider training program that is being conducted jointly by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Boy Scouts of America, the Automobile Club of Southern California and BSA Motorcycles Western. The venture, we learned, is a pilot program to develop a “comprehensive classroom and behind-thehandlebar instruction course for motorcycle riders.”
Quite naturally, the program has the full support of Los Angeles’ police chief Thomas Reddin and Mayor Sam Yorty. In addition to its urgent, present need, it is hoped that the program will be fully developed by the time California passes special licensing legislation for motorcyclists, and will guide government and industry in setting up similar programs throughout the state.
We were treated to some unpleasant, but unfortunately, very realistic statistics by Robert Cheney, manager of the Automo bile Club's Public Safety department -"70 per cent of the motorcycle accidents involve a rider who is on a borrowed machine, and a high percentage of the motorcycle deaths involve a person in his first seven weeks of riding" - and the need for this program becomes even more pressing. Cheney went on to say that even where programs exist, they are generally lacking, and most accidents can be attrib uted to an absence of proper training and lack of riding ability. Cheney finished by saying that when the pilot program has been fully developed it will be available to organizations and groups that are in terested in establishing training courses. The program's first class was 14 mem bers of Boy Scout Explorer Post 981-X from La Mirada, Calif. Twelve of the boys had never ridden prior to the pro gram, and the other two had ridden a few times. At the first meeting, the scouts and their parents met the instructors, Les Lillywhite and Ed Fitzgerald, who have under taken their portion of the program as an off-duty activity, and the program was out lined at this time by the officers and rep resentatives of the sponsoring organizations. For the pilot program, the course has been divided into four phases. The first phase involves classroom work, dealing with the fundamentals of safe driving, a review of traffic laws and discussions of defensive driving techniques.
(Continued on page 8)
continued
In phase two, the boys became intimate ly acquainted with the controls of the motorcycles that had been furnished by BSA Motorcycles Western. In phase three, the students took their first actual ride. The few rides that make up this phase are conducted under controlled conditions and serve to allow the students to become totally familiar with the practical application of the controls, and, in particular, the clutch and brakes. When the boys had demonstrated that they were completely familiar with the operation of the motorcycles, they began their instruction — in phase four — for the skills and knowledge they would need to function in traffic on streets and highways.
(Continued on page 10)
continued
Indications thus far are that the program is a major success, but to assess it accurately we would have to find out how the boys are doing a year or so from now. I’ll bet that they’re all doing just fine, and why not? They’ve had the benefit of professional heads-up training — something that is unfamiliar to most of us. I congratulate the sponsors of this much-needed program, which is certainly one of the finest efforts by any member of the motorcycle industry.
LATE FLASH
The latest news on the BAJA Run (now called the Mexican 1000 Rally) is that the route selected will run through Mexicali, then down to San Felipe — all on pavement. A move was underway to limit speed or time for the distance, somewhat like an enduro, but at press time it had not been finalized. The pavement ends at San Felipe, and becomes a very fast dirt road, straight as an arrow for quite a distance. Only four gas/time checks will be provided, making it necessary for the bikes to arrange for additional fuel stops at intervals more closely coordinated with their limited range. This handicap will not be suffered by the cars whose range is easily fitted into the approximate 240-mile space between the gas checks. Also, bike riders will be allowed two riders, but only one “pony express” type change will be permitted. Cars will carry two people, and they can change all they want. Things are a bit stacked against the bikes, but it is, after all, an automobile event in the main.
N.O.R.R.A.’s Ed Perlman suggested bikes could change wheels and gearing at the end of the pavement — an excellent idea, as it would raise their cruising speed to an average equalling the cars. This was not previously possible, considering the cars’ greater cruising speeds, due to the low gearing necessary for the bikes to do well off the road. Pavement is reached again about 90 miles before La Paz, so the well-provided-for bike group would need an airplane to get their wheels down in order to be competitive again with the cars.
For those who decided to enter — and Bud and Dave Ekins are the first official motorcycle team entry—it will be an expensive race. The prize might well be worth the effort. Actual details of the cash awards are not fully settled as of this writing, but it looks as though the total prize money might be distributed in the four classes, in place of the previously mentioned Top Eliminator. If this happens, the first bike in could possibly win $5,000, regardless of whether it was the fastest vehicle. Time estimates run as low as 24 hours for the distance. It’s going to be some event.
