The Scene

THE SCENE

IVAN J. WAGAR

LATE IN 1963, after winning the AFM 350 road racing championship on my trusty ol' 7R AJS, I received a very interesting job offer from Joe Parkhurst. At that time, Joe was both editor and publisher of CYCLE WORLD, but wanted to delegate some of the work so he would have more time to ponder (and worry) about long-term matters affecting the magazine and the sport of motorcycling.

It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I left a 12-year career in engineering to go into the world of motorcycle magazines. It’s been a rewarding world and time has passed very quickly. Joe has always been the best guy in the world to work for, and the whole thing has been a fantastic experience. Even writing this monthly column, although sometimes a chore, has mostly been fun, even if we have to talk about adverse legislation, land closure, helmet laws or some such thing.

Somewhere along the line, however, things went askew. The job of riding all those neat ’cycles during road tests, and weekend jaunts with bikes has now turned into somewhat of a nightmare. The nightmare aspect comes from the reality that God created a 24-hour day and a 7-day week. And this fact slowly hit home as more and more activities outside of CYCLE WORLD had to be taken care of, not necessarily in the best (financial) interest of CW, but in the best interest in the future of motorcycling in this country. This outside stuff probably started with an involvement with the old trade association, the MS&ATA. Because I saw a deplorable situation where various factions of the motorcycle industry were at odds, and the guy being harmed the most was the consumer, the CYCLE WORLD reader, I spent a horrible eight months on a day-and-night program to get the warring factions together into a single group.

After the formation of a unified industry association (Motorcycle Industry Council), I thought things would be downhill, and that was my first mistake. Things did not get better. Workwise, they got worse. Frequently, I later discovered, solving a problem only leads to realizing bigger problems and someone has to look down the road and do something.

And maybe that is the reason I’ve become involved in the activities of some 11 committees outside the office. There are government, medical, environmental and civic organizations that look upon motorcycling as their next big attack in order to “save America from doom.” Therefore, someone has to explain to “them” that motorcycling can be safe, and fun, and that it doesn’t spell the doom of our society. Rather, it offers a form of recreation approaching the ultimate.

In a previous column I talked about an upcoming safety meeting in San Francisco, the Second International Congress on Automotive Safety, where I was treasurer and chairman of the motorcycle program. That single event required several hundred man hours of preparation and, although the event was in July, there are still many hours work yet to be done.

What I am leading up to is that something had to go, and with ever increasing work to be done outside of the office, we at Bond/Parkhurst Publications have decided to make my outside activities a full-time effort. Beginning with this issue, Bob Atkinson is taking over the helm as editor.

Bob is not new to CYCLE WORLD. Actually, he was odd job assistant when I came on board eight years ago, and went on to college, receiving a B.A. in journalism, in preparation for his fulltime job on the staff. Bob’s enthusiasm for motorcycles is only matched by his truly professional background in journalism and all aspects of getting out a good issue of the book.

My new title will be Director of Government and Public Relations and the responsibilities of the job should provide an interesting challenge. I will continue to serve out my 3-year appointment to the National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council, but now with time to devote to an active motorcycle safety subcommittee, as chairman. Beginning this month I will become active in the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) motorcycle subcommittee, and will spend more time working on the problems facing the American Motorcycle Association, as a member of the Executive Committee.

I’ll also be a delegate to the Autumn Congress of the FIM, the world governing body for the motorcycle sport. Working with the FIM is becoming increasingly important as more and more International motorcycle events are being held in this country, and as foreign riders compete here and our riders travel abroad. Apart from racing competition in international sport, I would like to see a rally, similar to the Elephant Rally held annually in Germany, where thousands of road riders attend from all over the world.

The latest form of non-racing sport to come here on an International basis is observed trials. On Jan. 6, 1974, CYCLE WORLD will sponsor the first ever event in this country for world championship points. It is too early as yet to have a complete rider list. However, Sammy Miller has given a definite yes, and Suzuki is keen to debut its beautiful new trials machine, with Gordon Farley on board. The events will be held at Saddleback Park, and will feature about 15 sections in a 10-mile loop to be lapped three times.

Eventually I would like to see two world points events in the U.S., coupled to one in Canada and possibly another in Japan to make trials really International. But that’s looking ahead a bit. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that this very demanding form of motorcycle sport will grow at an alarming rate now that we have reached world championship status. Hopefully, by next issue, we will be in a better position to know who is coming to the trial and what they are riding. |0