Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

LOOKING at the American Motorcycle Association’s event calendar for 1975 will reveal a date during July that has been set aside for the running of the American round of the 1975 World Trials Championship. To date, no location has been announced. CYCLE WORLD has applied for the sanction, intending to hold the event at Saddleback Park, as we did in January, 1974. Rain ruined the park and our facilities then, so we asked that, if the U.S. was to be considered for a venue in 1975, it be later in the year. Preferably July. So, the date is July for this year. We’ll keep you informed as to where it will be held. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

ANT A motorcycle? How about ordering one by mail? North American Cycle Ltd. offers a moped by mail order at prices from $30 to $50 below retail. They are shipped in a semi-knockeddown form with instructions for assembly. The moped is a French-made Solex, one of the most popular for many years in Europe, birthplace of the moped. If you weren’t aware of it, a moped is really just a bicycle with a tiny two-stroke engine that you must pedal to get running.

Mopeds have at times attempted to make inroads into the bike market in this country, but none have been successful. Honda makes one that they won’t even try to sell here. Special federal legislation is in the works to

exempt mopeds from motorcycle standards and many people believe that they may yet have a future in the U.S.

North American Cycle offers the Solex for $249.95 in standard black trim, $259.95 for the deluxe in blue, yellow

IT SEEMS impossible. . .but it’s time to tell you that CYCLE WORLD’S big show is coming up. April 18, 19 and 20th, 1975. One big thing will be different; the 1975 event will be a motorcycle and bicycle show. Taking a hint from the most successful show in the world, the Cologne, Germany, motorcycle and bicycle show, we will solicit the leading bicycle and accessory makers to make the CW affair even bigger.

The show for the last sev eral years has been almost

or orange. For $279.95 they can mail you a pli-Solex, which folds up, in orange only. Drop them a line at 29451 Greenfield Road, Suite 113, Southfield, MI 48076. Be prepared to have ten-speed bicycles blowing your doors off.

THOUGHT I would set a rumor straight. One of the weekly motorcycle publications ran a series of letters back in 1973 that attempted to align the Coors beer makers with the Sierra Club and their anti-motoranything policy. A letter from Coors was published to refute the rumor, but now I hear that it

is cropping up again.

Bert Summer, PR stroke for the Coors company, tells me that their position, as stated in a letter to Cycle News, February 28, 1973, is still the same. They have never contributed to the

chopper dominated, and thus one that does not really reflect the sport in its broadest spectrum. We have been promised by a large number of racers and their sponsors that they will display the greatest showing of competition bikes we have ever had before. We anticipate a large collection of antique and classic bikes, as well, and will again line the walls of the Los Angeles Sports Arena with a wild display of sidecars. More news later. Keep the dates in mind.

Sierra Club, nor do they now. So, go ahead, drink my favorite beer, that is if you are lucky enough to live in one of the few Western states where it is available. I’ve heard of people switching brands of beer because they thought the Coors company was anti-motorcycle. Hell of a sacrifice.

OTARY-engine motorcycles are really here. Suzuki is about to start delivery on the RE5 and, now, as you saw in the advertisement on page 107 of the February 1975 issue, the long-awaited Hercules Rotary is available. Rotary Cycles of

USA—not Hercules Cycles of USA as erroneously stated in the ad—is advertising the W2000, made in West Germany. It is essentially the bike I rode at the Cologne show several years ago, but with much-improved styling.

ARLO PERELLI has been a contributor to CYCLE WORLD for many years. He lives and works in Milano on the staff of the Italian motorcycle magazine Motociclismo. We were recently informed by Carlo that Güera will soon have in production replicas of its fabulous ISDT bikes that will use a reed-valve. Güera has made bikes in Italy for years, but has failed in several attempts to sell them in this country. They are unfortunately typical of a lot of Italian manufacturers who build bikes that cannot compete with those of the Japanese or other European makers.

For several reasons, bikes that sell in Italy don’t over here. It is a shame that Güera, Morini and several others haven’t, or can’t, take the time to find out what is going on. Güera has won endless medals in the ISDT with special bikes that somehow do not resemble their subsequent production versions in any way. The news that an ISDT replica may be on the way is great.

Ducati is working on 125cc and 250cc two-stroke dual-purpose bikes, but little is known about them at this time. What is known is that they aren't yet very impres sive. Over at Benelli they are working on the same kind of bikes, but with better results. Theirs are said to be very competitive.

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At deTomaso's other fac tory, Moto Guzzi, work is proceeding on a 125cc, four cylinder, sohc road bike! Yep, a four-cylinder 125. In Italy, youngsters 16 to 18 years of age can ride with a special license, so they are going to build the little screamer for them. Just what 1 6-year-old kids need, a 100-mph road bike.

T HINGS HAVE changed dramatically with offroad racing in Baja. Several issues back I said that there would be a Baja 1000 in 1974, only to have it can celed just about the time that issue went to bed. Now, I have the last word in racing on the peninsula for 1975, and it's all good. Mickey Thompson's SCORE, bless its heart, has taken over all offroad racing in the state of Baja California. The following are the official dates for below-the-border racing this year: SCORE Baja 500-June 13th to 15th, SCORE Baja 1000-October 30th through November 1 st. Really.

Mickey's SCORE Interna tional News, a quarterly newspaper on SCORE activi ties, published a letter from Lt. Governor Francisco Per alta of the State of Baja, proclaiming SCORE as the official Baja racing organiza tion for the next three years. It mentioned nothing about Bill Martin's Baja Racing As sociation which at the mo ment has several events sched uled for 1975.

The news has to be the best to come out of Baja in years. Mickey Thompson has gained a reputation as the guy who puts on the best-run off-road racing in California, winning nothing but praise for his organization. Sure makes me hap~py.

Something that didn't make me happy was the word that the 1000 will probably

t AWASAKI will be run ning head to head with Suzuki and Yamaha in the four AMA National road races this year with a water cooled version of their Hi. Dubbed the H2, it is still a three-cylinder engine, but is now water-cooled. Perhaps

they should call it the H20. An aluminum radiator is equipped with a reserve tank mounted inside the fairing. Jim Evans and Yvon DuHamel will ride for Kawa saki in the traditional season opener-the Daytona 200miler.

be a loop race instead of an Ensenada to La Paz run. Mak ing the start and finish at Ensenada certainly simplifies the colossal logistics of the race, but takes most of the real fun out of it.

SCORE's Bob Martin told me that-as a result of re turns on a questionnaire sent to several hundred potential competitors asking which way they would prefer to run it-they will more than likely make it a loop. Perhaps due to the slow economic situa tion right now, most voted for a loop race, which would eliminate the El Ar.co to La Paz end of the event. It makes it even sadder to real ize that the lower half has some of the toughest and most interesting sections in it.. .except for the long pave ment run into La Paz.

SCORE's worth improved considerably, in my estima tion, with the announcement that Mickey Thompson has hired Sal Fish to be SCORE president for 1975. Mickey's business load, combined with SCORE, was getting out of hand. I think he wanted some time to race in his own events, as well. Sal has been the publisher of Hot Rod magazine for a couple of years and is a pretty fine guy. He not only brings a sound organizational capability to the group, but he's a popular and well-liked race face, too.

. NE OF my favorite events of the motorcy cling year has been set for 1975. The International Six Days Trial will return to the use of Man in October. The little feudal island was the scene of the ISDT in 1971. Located about 80 miles from Liverpool, England, in the Irish Sea, the beautiful island is accessible only by boat or plane. It is best known for the Manx Grand Prix and the June TT races that have been held there for ages. Both are run on several of the main paved roads. The TT is con sidered to be one of the most challenging-and certainly most dangerous-events on the European calendar.