Round·up
ROUND·UP
JOE PARKHURST
JANUARY’S SEDUCTIVE CYCLE WORLD centerfold playboy, Malcolm Smith, is receiving unmerciful kidding. Not nearly as hard to ke will be Dave Ekins’ reaction when he reads this: one of the ISDT medals dangling from Malcolm’s neck is Dave’s. Malcolm’s medal from the FIM had not yet arrived when we made the shot. Thanks for the loan, Dave.
▲T THE CYCLE WORLD Trans-AM A Finale in 1973, U.S. Suzuki assisted in a special drawing we held for anyone who visited his Suzuki dealer and picked up an entry form to be deposited at Saddleback Park on the day of the race. Four new Suzuki motocrossers were given away, a TM75 to Scott Mallow of Yorba Linda, a TM125 to Vince ^Édrange of Santa Fe Springs, a TM250 to Andy Childres of Garden Grove, and a TM400 to Cathy Rupple of Norwalk, all in California. Wouldn’t you know a girl would win the 400. Suzuki also sponsored the live radio coverage of the full day’s racing on station KBIG which is rapidly becoming the motor racing station.
THE CYCLE WORLD Show, April 18th through 21st, will be a bicycle show, too. Another exhibition appeared on thescene late in 1973 billing itself as the world’s largest motorcycle show, a claim we »ve been making, and living to, for 11 years. The newcomer’s total five-day show attendance equaled just about that of one good Saturday night at the CYCLE WORLD Show. See you at the Sports Arena, Los Angeles. THE
Capitalist Reporter, “the magazine that makes you money,” ran an editorial feature in its October, 1973 issue that I could really get behind. It called antique motorcycles “a great underground collectible.” It advises you to buy that antique motorcycle now. As one who could have bought any number of Alfas, Bugattis, Bentleys, Rolls, etc., just a few years ago when I occasionally hung around strange cars, I can give vivid testimony to the fact. The cars that I could have bought for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars then are now worth tens of thousands of dollars. The same will more than likely be true for the real classics of the motorcycle world. At
the moment my “old” collection contains only the 6th 90cc Hodaka made, circa 1963, a 1962 Honda CR93, eight-valve, dohc Twin, and a factory ISDT Zundapp 125 trophy team bike from 1962. Not bad, but I’m still kicking myself for letting ipy 1954 Matchless 500cc Single slip by. I’m also not too happy when I think of the 1947 Velocette KSS, 1951 Triumph Trophy, 1964 Matchless G-80, and even the 350cc Jawa Twin, possibly pre World War II, that I owned in 1946. The Reporter told of a man who just sold a 1966 Velocette Thruxton for $1500 that he paid only $900 • just a few years before. He also has a 1926 Brough Superior SSI00 valued now at $3000. The man is David Dunfey who works out of his home at Foxhill, Ocean Beach, Rye Beach, NH 03871, restoring and selling antique bikes. The
Reporter quotes Austin Munger of the Ariel Owners Club as saying that bikes made prior to 1900 are the most valuable. Munger’s club is one of several antique bike groups that bring their club displays to the CYCLE WORLD Show each year. I do not have much feeling for machines that predate my era in motorcycling. There are a' few bikes made in the ’30s that interest me, but I can’t seem to relate to bikes made much earlier than that. THE
RAND NATIONAL Champion in 1972, Mark Brelsford, is being featured in a TV documentary. Cosponsored by the Penzoil Motor Oil Company, the film will be shown soon. The title is, aptly, “Number One.” It relates the beginnings of his riding career up to the winning of the National Number One plate. Keep an eye on your TV listing. Mark
ENERGY crisis, as it is being called, is producing some strange situations. To begin with, many question the validity of a crisis, saying it looks more like an attempt on the part of the government and the oil industry to get gasoline prices up. This doesn’t seem to make much Sense when oil company profits at the present price levels are seen. We
have been conducting a semi-official survey of industry heads, asking them what they feel the shortage of gasoline might do to the motorcycle market. The general consensus is that it will improve bike sales. Since they get far better mileage than the average car, it just might convince more people to ride them on the streets. > MARCH ▼AMAHA HAS introduced the 700cc watercooled Four and has been running it at Daytona. We heard rumors about Kenny Roberts going 240 miles, lapping at 2 min., 9 sec.! Top speed in the traps was 176 mph! The two-stroke, fourcylinder-engine bike uses the frame and major engine components from the YZR500, (CW, Aug. ’73), which competed in World Championship events in 1973.
The engine basically combines two 350cc TZ350s, a six-speed transmission, power of about 100 bhp @ 10,500 rpm, and weighs around 342 lb. Magnesium and titanium are used liberally to keep the weight down. Yamaha plans to produce 200 of them for sale. It’s a bit frightening to think what it will be like if any but the very best riders in the world get hold of them.
OICHIRO HONDA, the grand old man of motorcycling who helped bring drastic changes to our sport, has retired. You’ve all read the stories of his rise from blacksmith to mechanic to founder of Honda in 1948. Mr. Honda was ultimately to become the world’s largest maker of motorcycles. He now has 67 years behind him, 25 of which he has spent watching his products through the eyes of an engineer. Never regarded as a businessman, the smiling, always eager little man stayed pretty much out of the mainstream of company operation. His Research and Development Center near Tokyo was where he spent most of his time.
I visited him there in 1967 and got a fascinating tour of the superbly equipped installation. He wouldn’t show me anything really new or tricky in motorcycles, but I did get a look at the hottest thing going at the time in Grand Prix cars. Dean Batchelor of Road & Track visited the center a little after that, and was shown several of the history making multi-cylinder road racing bikes, but didn’t get a glimpse of the cars! Honda’s successor is Mr. Kiyoshi Kawashima, a man familiar to many in this country through his term as head of American Honda Motor Co. He is one of Honda’s first test riders, and has been with Honda since its founding. Takeo Fujisawa, Export Sales Manager, announced his retirement at the same time.
I am sure the loss of Mr. Honda’s influence will be felt. He had a nice way of making his ideas known, and was always ready to sit down and talk motorcycles or machines. I will best remember him for the copies of CYCLE WORLD that were always scattered about his office. He told me he had been an avid reader from our first issue. He really knows how to get to a guy.
ITALY’S SUPER star road racer Giacomo Agostini has signed with Yamaha. He will ride for a reported quarter of a million bucks for two years. Not bad at all.
Phil Read takes Ago’s spot on the MV team. It was a just reward for Read after winning the 1973 500cc World Road Racing Championship for MV.
Another move being made will be that of Gerrit Wolsink from Maico to Suzuki for the 1974 motocross classic series. World Champion Joel Robert and Suzuki, but for certain Wolsink and current 500 Another familiar name to DeCoster will make the Suzuki team pretty hard to beat.
Christer Hammargren, another familiar name to American motocross followers in the Trans-AM A series will leave Yamaha and join Kawasaki for 1974, but he has announced that he will retire at the end of the year.
Hammargren’s fellow Swede, Bengt Aberg, will join Ossa if he is allowed to ride the 250cc class. He has ridden in the 500 class for Husqvarna for several years.
Bryan “Wild” Wade, though never considered world championship caliber has signed with Suzuki also. He will ride for a British team in an attempt to win the British motocross championship.
NE SERIOUS backlash on the Federally proposed 55 mph speed limit may be an increase in pollution. Automotive Environmental Systems, Inc., has released some information on the proposed slow-down that supports this assertion. They also point out that it may actually cause an increase in fuel consumption, rather than a reduction, in major metropolitan areas. Their stud^^ show that at low speed, stopand-go driving, emissions and fuel consumption are higher than at a steady high speed.
They also feel that reduction of the speed limit to 55 mph may greatly increase stop-and-go driving on major arteries and freeways. We are already beginning to see this happen in Southern California where many people have begun slowing down and congestion is getting worse.
The California Highway Patrol has warned California drivers that if they slow down in the fast, left-hand lane, they will be cited. The CHP regards freeways as flowing somewhat like a liquid. SIot^^ ing down the flow producid pressure, or congestion. It won’t be too long until a bike will be the only way to get through traffic.
NE DARK side of the fuel crisis that may damage the sale of motorcycles is the shortage that is occurring in Japan. Japan imports over 40 percent of their oil from the Arab nations. Their supply was cut off at the same time ours was because of Japan’s political alliances with the U.S. As of this writing, they were making all kinds of sweeping moves, like cutting of diplomatic relations with Isreal, in order t^ restore the flow.
Japan is truly in a fuel crisis, and production of many products is expected to be curtailed by as much as 40 percent if things do not get better. Obviously, if the country making more than 80 percent of the bikes being sold in this country can’t supply more, the market will suffer.
Europe will not be much better off, since they also depend heavily on the Arabs for oil. When we went to press workers in England were being reduced to a three-day week in order to conserve fuel and other vital resources. It would appear that, barring some dramatic changes soon, the used mdB tor cycle market will be fantastic. Ifil
