Cycle World Roundup
CYCLE WORLD ROUNDUP
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME
Motorcycle riding is dangerous, right? And naturally motorcycle racing must make the bomb squad look like a safe alternative, if public opinion is any indication. Official numbers, however, aren’t so grim.
Hard, cold facts really don't exist when it comes to safety statistics. Accident reports are filled out by different officials in different states on different forms and when they get collected the end result doesn’t distinguish whether the injured party was riding a moped or a motorcycle or if he was on the two-wheeler or in the car that hit the bike. Still, the public knows motorcycles are dangerous.
While statistics on highway fatilities are questionable, it’s easy, relatively, to get figures on racing fatalities and that’s been done by an insurance company. Naturally the insurance company has a vested interest as the company provides insurance for various sporting events and therefore has reliable figures on the relative safety of, say, motorcycle racing or boat racing or even hang gliding. The numbers are surprising, to say the least.
First off, motorcycle racing, as far as a sport goes, is one of the safest things a person can do. That’s right, it’s safe.
The figures provided by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. are fatalities per 1000 participants. To put things in perspective, flying home built aircraft has a fatality rate of 28.2 fatalities per 1000 participants. Racing a sprint car has a number of 8.8. Sports car racing is 2.6. Motorcycle racing is 0.7, yes seven-tenths of a fatality per 1000 entrants. The only kind of car racing safer is drag racing at 0.4.
Not even those of us at Cycle World who race motorcycles had figured it was a realtively safe thing to do because a broken foot or a sore hand or bruised ribs are normal results of most motorcycle sport. Motorcycle racers consider themselves lucky if they can race five years without a broken bone. But that’s the key. Motorcycle racing causes lots of crashes and spills and injuries, but few fatalities.
We also come out looking good because of the kind of motorcycle racing most common: motocross. It’s the only type of actual racing for which several major companies make production competition machines. So the country is filled with thousands of motocrossers, mostly young riders, racing around motocross courses at relatively low speed and with every kind of protective clothing known to mankind. Even the most spectacular motocross accidents are seldom fatal. When the bike crashes after the big jump or maybe the bike runs into a tree, the actual impact speed is low. The result is a motocross racer with a broken arm or knee or collar bone.
No other form of motorcycle racing is anywhere near as popular as motocross racing, even though they may be more dangerous. Roadracing provides enough speed for a rider to become seriously hurt, but the excellent helmets, protective leather suits equipped with knee cups and back braces and padding all help out. And because roadracing looks dangerous the people doing it are, for the most part, the ones most able to do it with the skills and judgment necessary to keep the risk down.
Maybe that’s why powerboat racing at 6.5 fatalities per 1000, or horse racing at 12.8, or sky diving at 12.3 are, in fact, so dangerous and sports like motorcycle racing and even hang gliding (5.6) are safer than uncommon sense would lead one to believe.
So what about riding a motorcycle, as opposed to racing one? That works out to 0.9 fatalities per 1000, just a little less safe than racing.
THREE WHEELING
Practicality, you say? Skip the frills, you ask? Is it basic transportation you desire? Well, meet the Nevel MT-10 and MT-1 2.
As the pictures show, these are sidecar rigs mated to motorcycles that almost look like BMWs. Only they’re not BMWs. The motorcycles are Dneppers, made in Kiev. Yeah, that Kiev. Where detente is a nice way of saying We will bury you.
But just as some Kawasakis and Hondas are actually assembled in the U.S., the Dneppers shown here are assembled in England. The Nevel company buys the engines and frames and assorted pieces that make a Dnepper and add their own controls and wheels and tires and pull the top end of the engines off and put in English rings and valves and valve springs just to make sure everything’s okay. Then a small
Nevel badge is painted on the red or black gas tank.
The go part of this combination is a 650cc ohv opposed Twin. It’s a copy of a BMW, we’re told, but the BMW copied was a 1938 R75 donated to the Russian war effort by Adolph’s departing war party. The transmission has four forward speeds plus reverse. There’s no electric start at present. Huge double downtubes form the massive frame of the motorcycle and even larger tubing accounts for the frame of the sprung sidecars.
What separates the MT-10 from the MT-1 2 is the sidecar drive. The MT-1 2 is the standard military issue Soviet sidecar. Both the motorcycle’s rear tire and the sidecar’s wheel are driven, connected by a limited slip differential and a driveshaft. Special dual-purpose tires fit under the high-mounted fenders. Drum brakes are used at both ends of the motorcycle, but there are no brakes on the sidecar.
The lighter MT-10 rig uses a non-driven sidecar. The model shown is equipped with a Jupiter sidecar, though the military model sidecar is available at the same cost. Both bikes are shown with cast wheels, but wire spoke, wheels are standard.
Representatives from the British factory that assembles the Nevel explained that the questionable exterior.finish of the motorcycles didn’t extend to the motorcycle’s internals and that the same sidecar rig has proved quite reliable in the four years it’s been available in England.
Considering the claimed 700 lb. weight and 36 horsepower, performance of the Nevel ought to be about par with a CB125. But that’s not why the Nevel is built. It’s made to be utilitarian transportation and offer some of the charms of motorcycling the way it used to be. A long time ago.
The price is right. A basic model of the MT-10 goes for about $4300, while the MT-12 with its driven sidecar wheel is about a thousand more, depending on equipment. The combinations will be sold through selected dealers around the country, beginning in March, and is imported by Sidecar Imports, Ltd., 490 Skokie Valley Highway, Highland Park, 111. 60035. (312) 831-5300.
ILLEGAL MOTORCYCLES
The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but it’s probably lined with bad laws. Because a murder suspect in a series of California killings apparently had an official decal on his car, the state Assembly has passed a bill that would make it illegal to have a motorcycle or car that resembled a police vehicle.
So far the bill has been amended to exempt movie motorcycles and funeral escorts. But what does a police motorcycle look like?
AMA Legislative Analyst Gary Winn asked the California Highway Patrol what the officers would consider a police bike and they said any bike with a black gas tank or a white tank or black fenders or white fenders or a combination of black and white. Or it could have decals. Quite a few motorcycles have all black gas tanks and everything from a 50cc Italjet to a lOOOcc Moto Guzzi could be considered illegal if the bill is approved by the senate and signed by the governor.
MONEY TO SAVE
Everybody knows riding a motorcycle can save gas, but the Motorcycle Industry Council has figured out exactly how much gas could be saved if people rode motorcycles to work when the weather permitted. According to the MIC 260 million barrels of oil could be saved each year by widespread motorcycle use. And that 260 million barrels amounts to a reduction in oil imports of 8.2 percent.
To come up with the figures the MIC began with the amount of fuel used by commuters and motorcyclists and determined how many rideable work days there are in a year. All passenger car transportation only accounts for 27 percent of the gasoline use and commuting accounts for a third of that. And because the weather is different around the country not everyone could make the same use of a motorcycle. Rideable workdays range from 227 in Los Angeles to 57 in Juneau, Alaska. In between are New York with 1 30, Cincinnati with 118 and Milwaukee with 97. Rideable weather is a day with no rainfall and the minimum temperature above freezing.
Because of the difference in weather a motorcycle commuter with a 15 mile trip could save $494 in Los Angeles, $392 in Honolulu and $348 in Miami. But in Baltimore, for instance, the savings would be $181.
GENEROUS MOTORCYCLISTS
Motorcyclists get accused of lots of things, but seldom are they accused of being generous. But anyone who watched the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon saw John Davidson present a check for $165,000 to the charity. The money was collected last year from motorcyclists. Bikers who went to HarleyDavidson shows and participated in charity rides and dealers who donated money all joined to form the largest charitable contribution ever from motorcyclists.
The “Bikers Fight MD” campaign will continue in 1981.
CLOSING THE DOOR
In most places public land is open to a variety of uses unless posted otherwise. But a bill (H.R. 8292) proposed by Congressman Kent Hance of Texas would prohibit any off highway vehicle use on public land unless the agency that administers the land “has posted a sign which designates such land for off-road vehicle use.” The proposed law includes provisions for $ 1000 fines for ORV operators caught riding on undesignated land. The bill should begin working its way through committees soon.
BEING RECOGNIZED
Thanks to the fuel shortage, the Department of Energy has sent an order to all federal agencies encouraging a number of fuel saving measures. One of the measures would be the encouragement of motorcycle use by employees. The possible methods include adding weather-protected secure storage lots for motorcycles, locker facilities for motorcyclists and allowing a wider range of clothing to be worn so employees could wear more casual, motorcycle-appropriate clothing. Specific energy saving plans are now being sent in to the Department of Energy by the various federal agencies.
DOT AWAKENING
For years the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said helmet laws are the only way to get motorcyclists to wear helmets. But with more states abandoning laws to force motorcyclists into helmets, the NHTSA seems to be changing its collective mind.
Next year’s $12 billion budget for the Department of Transportation includes approximately $200,000 for a public relations program promoting voluntary helmet use. The program will use television, radio and printed advertising in an attempt to encourage motorcyclists, particularly young motorcyclists, to use helmets.
AN OFFICIAL NON-RACE
One of the better known desert races in California history was the Check Chase. Organized by the Checkers MC, the Check Chase involved hundreds of motorcyclists following trails for a couple of hundred miles, sometimes more and sometimes less.
When the Gummint discovered the environment and the Sierra Club discovered the Gummint, the Check Chase went into hibernation. Last October the collective efforts of the AMA, the Checkers and several others brought the Check Chase out of hibernation, or so it seemed, before the event was officially not run.
Despite the protests of the Sierra Club, the BLM issued a permit for the race. The AMA approved the event and everything looked set. Except that San Bernardino
County hadn’t approved a permit for the race. So when a few hundred motorcyclists lined up at the start of the race the banner that was raised officially declared the race a non-event. That meant that whatever would happen that day wouldn’t be the Check Chase. But to the surprise of the uninformed, when the banner was dropped all the motorcyclists started their engines and shot off toward the east, just as if there were a race planned.
Now comes the good part. Because the AMA didn’t sanction the event, it wasn’t an official race. And the AMA has approval from the BLM to hold a race. So the real Check Chase may yet be held, if the county will issue its permit.
