Round·up

ROUND.UP

JOE PARKHURST

ONE element in motorcycling we don’t really like to talk about very much is death. Professional motorcycle racing is dangerous, of course, as are most forms of racing. The American Motorcycle Association promotes a lot of racing each year . . . more than 7000 events, in fact. Obviously there are a lot of young men injured, fortunately very few fatally. One who was is Rusty Bradley. This young, bright and talented boy was killed in 1971 at Daytona during the 200. He was an up-and-coming National rider at the time.

The AMA and friends and family of Rusty decided to establish a scholarship fund in his name. The Rusty Bradley Foundation Fund is administered by the foundation. It is available to male and female American citizens who hold an AMA Professional License or who are able to verify that they have earned a portion of their living racing motorcycles in professional competition. They must also indicate their seriousness by being accepted for full-time study at an accredited college or university.

Scholarship grants are determined by a board of trustees composed of a member of Rusty’s immediate family who is president, a vice president who is appointed by the president, a secretary who is an AMA member appointed by the general manager, a treasurer who is an officer of the financial organization entrusted with the administration of the funds, and an assistant treasurer who is an individual appointed by Kawasaki Motors.

Rusty was riding for Kawasaki when he met his untimely end. Scholarships in the amount of $500 each have been given to date to several young men. Among them are Larry Schaidt of Grand Rapids, Mich., Mark Burgess of Wyoming, Mich., Robert J. Dias, Scottsdale, Ariz., and Jerry Altizer of Columbus, Ohio. The first scholarship was awarded at Daytona during the AMA awards banquet and one has been presented each year since at various affairs. The AMA will send anyone full information on the scholarship if they will just write to the Rusty Bradley Memorial Foundation Scholarship Fund, c/o the American Motorcycle Association, Public Relations Dept., Box 141, Westerville, OH 43081.

THE BOOM has bombed. Motorcycle imports for the first half of 1975 were off 14.2 percent according to Wards Automotive Reports. Only 596,467 bikes were imported during the first six months of 1975, compared to 695,31 1 for the same period in 1974. The R.L. Polk Co. shows motorcycle registrations down from 699,029 to 442,586 for those same time spans. Industry estimates that another 20 percent of those numbers are sold for off-road use only and are not registered.

Japanese bikes accounted for 89.2 percent of the market for 1975, an increase from 87.8 percent for the same period in ’74. Kawasaki and Suzuki both gained in market shares, with Kawasaki moving into a strong third place behind Honda and Yamaha. At one point in the year Kawasaki even ran ahead of Yamaha. Big bikes of 290cc and more made gains by going from 31.4 to 43.8 percent of the market.

The European makers are being hardest hit by the slump; Hodaka and Suzuki are the only Japanese manufacturers suffering large declines.

Those of us in the industry who are supposed to know, miscalculated the extent of the sales decline, but early indicators on the second half of 1975 point to a total decline of 15 to 30 percent from 1974. The boom is indeed over. It is a tough pill for many to swallow. The average motorcycle buyer is growing in sophistication and it is becoming harder to sell just any bike.

The latest news from Norton-Villiers-Triumph in England is none too promising either. The British government denied the huge loan for operating capital after having given the go-ahead to the diabolical workers’ co-op at the Triumph Twin factory in Meriden. NVT has placed the original Villiers and Norton plant at Wolverhampton into receivership and is attempting to move all Norton and Triumph production to the old BSA factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Triumph-Norton in the U.S., the wholly owned distributorship for both bikes, has laid off most of its staff and is working hard at a regrouping plan that could still save the company. It is not dead yet. The company hopes to survive the left-wing workers’ attempts to sabotage the company in England and to reduce the total operation to that of a firm making a limited number of high-quality bikes that would be quite expensive. After seeing a new 750 MV Four that will sell for $6500, I gotta believe it just might work.

There are many reasons why British bikes should always be a part of the motorcycle scene, not the least of which is the fact that they are still the best-handling out-ofthe-box bikes around. We are watching the progress—or lack thereof—of TriumphNorton closely. I hope we see something that gives a positive indication that they have found a way to continue. It was bad enough to lose Matchless, AJS, Ariel, Velocette and Royal Enfield, to name but a few of the British bikes that have bitten the dust. It is difficult not to slam the Japanese for putting the British out of business, but then on the other hand it is equally hard not to praise them for making the market what it is today.

If any of you readers saw the advertisements (not in CYCLE WORLD), that listed Triumphs and Nortons at incredible discounts, you get an inkling of what is going on. We were told they were selling as many of the bikes as they had in their warehouse to assemble enough money to pay the costs of landing them in the U.S. If you are thinking about a big four-stroke road bike, they just might be collector’s items soon. Make a nice investment.

BACK IN the ’60s, which really isn’t that far back, CYCLE WORLD was taking a strong interest in the Bonneville speed weeks. We used to run a bike almost every year, often in several classes. Our Triumph held a batch of stock records for quite a while. It was always a lot of fun, barring the time it backfired, set a gas leak on fire and blew the righthand footpeg off, all at about 135 mph. The problem got a little more involved when I discovered that I had no brakes, since the brake pedal was mounted on the same footpeg. It was a challenge getting it slowed down enough to get off. But it sort of destroyed the bike.

Rich and Gary Richards tuned the bikes for us; they are a strong part of my fond memories of the early days at Bonneville. Earl Flanders is another. Earl worked endlessly with little or no compensation as tech inspector and supervisor of the bikes that entered.

I also have fond memories of Don Vesco. Don and his wonderful lady Norma were, and still are, almost fixtures at the salt flats. He has been holding Bonneville records almost as long as people have been zapping down the salt flats setting them.

We spent a lot of time with Don and Norma, often sitting around waiting for the salt to get right for a run. One year it wouldn’t stop raining, so the salt never really dried up. I kept saying, “If the salt doesn’t dry off, I’m going home.” We finally did after waiting more than a week. Don deserves a lot of credit. He works hard at his sport, especially at setting records. His new 300-mph two-way average gives him the world’s fastest title again.

Yamaha deserves credit too. It supplied the TZ700 and 750 engines for Don’s runs. He got the record by continually trying and learning. I doubt that there is anyone, anywhere, who knows more about high-speed motorcycling, especially at Bonneville, than Don. He’s a Yamaha dealer in San Diego, too. And he is always sponsoring a rider of some kind, never backing off from his enthusiastic support of racing. He also runs another business that makes things like his famous “Skinny-Fat” gas tank, the one you’ll find on just about every cross country and Baja bike running. I saw him recently and asked what he was going to do now. He answered, “Go 350.” ®