Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

WHILE back I editorialized regarding the future of compulsory helmet legislation in California, saying that our days were numbered and that California would soon be like 48 other States. Well, I was not taking the Hell’s Angels into consideration, a habit I have carefully cultured for years. The legendary bad boys of motorcycling are still alive and living in Northern California.

A new California legislator, Assemblyman Paul Carpenter, a Democrat from Cypress, was quoted in the papers as saying he had changed his mind about helmets and a little piece of legislation he was working on to require their use. Carpenter was further quoted as saying, to wit: “Helmets save some lives and they also cost some lives—it’s a wash.”

He said that motorcyclists had presented him with some evidence that indicated headgear increases the number of fatal neck injuries while decreasing mortal head injuries. Carpenter also said that when he announced his proposed bill (an occurrence that has taken place regularly since 1967 and the enactment of the Federal Highway Safety Act), he was flooded with calls and complaints. A spokesman for the Hell’s Angels was among them.

Carpenter appointed the Angel to a committee to come up with recommendations, much to the surprise of the Hell’s Angel, who had never expected to get involved with established politics.

The assemblyman’s revised legislation would call for more stringent requirements for motorcycle licensing. He said that even bike riders have charged that the examination for motorcycle licensing is grossly inadequate. His bill would also require motorcycle driver (rider) training in high schools, similar to that now offered for automobiles. He would, in addition, set up a program to “sensitize” automobile drivers to the presence of bikes on the road. Carpenter admitted to being aware of the fact that more than 70 percent of the accidents involving bikes and cars are the fault of the car driver.

This almost unbelievable display of intelligence, rationality, good judgment and applied com monsense, was brought about largely by a member of the Hell’s Angels. As hard as I find this to believe, I must commend the club and Assemblyman Carpenter. Though the absurd logic regarding helmets causing as many deaths as lives saved did the job in the end, it is a shame that the cause for Carpenter’s mind change was so wrong.

Perhaps full-face coverage helmets have indeed created some neck injuries, but you need only use childlike judgment, and take a hard look at all of the professional road racers using them, to realize how illogical this contention is.

I’m happy to know that, for the moment, there will not be a compulsory helmet law in California. I’m even happier to note that there may be a truly stringent rider licensing program on the way. This, in the final analysis, will save more lives than anything else.

I got my bike license by riding around a parking lot at the local Department of Motor Vehicles, a test that proved little more than that I could keep the bike up and moving forward. I almost didn’t pass, though. I was riding a street-legal Bultaco enduro and pulled a little wheelie just to show off. was accused of riding recklessly and told to stop doing such dangerous things. This, by a little old man who drove around in a green Nash Rambler at 25 mph.

IN CASE you didn’t know it, the first woman to vote in the United States was Charlie Parkhurst. (No kin that I know of). The problem was, no one knew Charlie was a woman until she died in 1879. Charlie was a stage coach driver during the gold rush days in Northern California. Talk about trivia.

RECEIVED quite an honor this month. I was nominated and elected to the American Motorcycle Association Board of Trustees by the Class B membership representatives at their meeting in Cincinnati. Whatever I say is going to sound like a politician making the traditional promises—but I’ll say it anyway.

I am going to work for the betterment of motorcycling and fight like hell for more recognition of the sportsman and professional riders in the AMA. I have always felt that you got very little out of belonging to the AMA, especially if you weren’t a competition rider. Worse if you were a sportsman competition rider.

I’m sitting with a pretty heavy bunch of men in the motorcycle industry. Terry Tiernan is the head of Yamaha International and was reelected to the president’s position. John Harley was reelected treasurer. Other members are Graham Kirk from Kawasaki, Ken Luehmann from Honda, Bob Rudolph of Bates Industries, Roger Stange from Norton/Triumph, Keith Van Harte from Suzuki, John Wyckoff of Dixie International, Robert Nor Velle from Beck/Arnley Corp. and William Baird, Andrew Stone and Ron Sloan.

Since organizations like this are generally run by committee, I was appointed to a couple. One is the Standing Enduro Committee. If anyone riding in AMA events has more problems than enduro riders, I would like to know who they are. Our committee is made up of Larry Maiers from Penton, Jack Lehto from Husqvarna East and Bill Baird, John Wyckoff, Paul Schlegel and Bill Boyce of the AMA. We hope to be able to make some changes that closely coincide with what most of the enduro riding members want and need. I’m enjoying it already.

CCORDING to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, 3,240,519 motorcycles were imported into the U.S. in 1974. Honda led with 1,468,477, followed by Yamaha with 847,562, then Suzuki with 595,863, next Kawasaki with 328,617. These are imported numbers, not the number of units sold during the year, of course. Suzuki exports were up a whopping 55.7 percent for the year, attributable to their newly instituted stepped-up production systems.