Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

AMONG THE many things I genuinely like about being part of motorcycling and the marvelous industry that supports the sport is that it is full of some of the nicest people anywhere. I have been involved with many sports. I still am.

I sail a boat, and went as far as being a yacht club member for a while. I quit because of the politics and emphasis on status that accompanies the role playing required to be a good club member. I have been a skin and scuba diver since the early 50s, when I founded, with two friends, the first diving club in Hawaii. I even went as far as to assist in the organization of the Hawaiian Diving Association, now defunct as far as I know. I didn’t stay with that very long for almost the same reasons. I ski, not often, but avidly. Ski clubs get me down, too, and skiers as a group can’t compare to the zeal displayed by a bunch of bike nuts.

But, get a bunch of motorcycle riders together and you have a group that I immediately identify with—can talk to and relate to. With few exceptions, motorcyclists are simply a great bunch of people. They blend and fall into rapport at once—something I see very rarely in groups of people with common interests. It seems that not only are their interests the same, this is true of any similar group, but that their feeling toward the subject are so much alike.

A perfect example of how this simpático works is the Laugh-In Trials. Started by Mike Jackson (at the time sales manager for Norton-Villiers, now with the firm’s European division), it has blossomed into the major social event of the year among members of the industry and motorcycle press.

Mike began the trials as an outgrowth of a similar activity in England called the Press And Trade Trials. The trials are simply a day of fun and competition between members of the industry and press, with a rather bizarre form of motorcycle competition as the day’s primary activity. Saddleback Park is the traditional venue for the Laugh-In, since I am one of the owners and because Norton-Villiers came to CYCLE WORLD for assistance in putting together the first event two years ago.

The 1972 Laugh-In was the third event. Norton-Villiers again supplied all the labor to organize and promote it, CYCLE WORLD provided the club house and some assistance. Saddleback Park donated use of the park for the day. In my alter-ego role as restauranteur I provided the catering for the lunch and booze-up at the park, and arranged for the use of the Refried Bean in nearby Laguna Beach as the site for the awards banquet.

Mike’s original concept was to stage the trials a few days before the Trans-AMA CYCLE WORLD event at Saddleback, thereby offering the riders a little fun acting as observers in the trials, and holding a special event after the daily nonsense was out of the way for them. It takes the form of a hillclimb, up the famous knob named the “Eiger-Wagar.” (Mike Jackson’s humor will live forever.)

Categories are divided into such things as press, industry, AMA experts, trials experts, riders over 40, use of knobby tires, etc. Prizes range from bottles of booze to trophies, provided by a group of enthusiastic supports of the Laugh-In. Special prizes are given for such valued competition as the funniest hat of the day. Women get special recognition, too.

Because of the limited amount of donated manpower to do such things as mark the course, lay it out, observe each section and score, etc., entries are limited to people in the industry and press only. It brings out a lot of oldtimers in the business, with surprising results.

To me it is one of the highlights of the year. I didn’t get to ride this year, which is what I get for volunteering to work. CW’s Jody Nicholas got the prize for the highest finishing AMA Expert. Celebrities abounded, such as Bruce Brown, Swede Rolf Tibblin, Malcolm Smith, Dave Aldana and European trials champ Mick Andrews. European sidecar riders here for the CYCLE WORLD/ Saddleback event performed some of the observing chores. They really had a lot of laughs—which, after all, is the purpose of the thing. I honestly believe that nowhere but in motorcycling could so many people, many of whom are fierce competitors in business, get together and have so much simple fun. Can’t wait for Laugh-In No. 4. |o]