Cycle Round Up
CYCLE ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
LACONIA AFTERTHOUGHTS
After seeing my first Laconia I am still somewhat speechless; I truly had no preconception of what a magnificent motorcycle show it is. Readers who might never have been into the beautiful Laconia, New Hampshire recreation area to see the fabulous road racing have missed seeing one of the most impressive racing pageants in this country. I cannot help comparing the scene to that of many similar meetings in Europe where thé fans arrive by the thousands and camp for days around the course and in special camping grounds.
Part of the excitement at Laconia is the spectator’s nearness to the course and the action, quite unlike Daytona and other such racing plants where spectators must sit at great distances in comfortable, but impersonal, bleachers. At Laconia the racing is right in front of you; one can almost reach out and touch the speeding machines. I must cast my vote for this type of relationship between the racing and the spectator, for after all, in no other motor sport are man and machine more close and in tune with each other, and I think the spectator has a right to partake of the intimacy and sheer excitement of the greatest motor sport in the world.
I must cast a vote against the absolute worst rite of rowdyism ever seen that is tolerated, and almost encouraged, in the area around the resort after the racing. Locals laughingly refer to the “Laconia drags” and the “Quebecers” (French Canadians from the Quebec Province). I have made it a point not to use CYCLE WORLD as a whipping post for the “bad” element in the world of motorcycling and I do not intend upon starting now, but . . . certain areas in the country, California for one, have made great strides in upgrading the sport and curbing the desire of these people to congregate at competition meets and make asses of themselves and all of us in one way or another,,
At risk of sounding like a smug and conceited Westerner, I offer the thought that meets so exceptionally well promoted, managed and staged as the Laconia races could do something about the incredible carnage wreaked by the most despicable minority (?) I have ever seen. End of sermon.
A really nice feature of the Laconia meet is the motorcycle show staged by various distributors and manufacturers ip the ski chalet converted to a show area. Industry members represented were: Harley-Davidson, Triumph, BSA, Matchless, Norton, Ducati, Parilia, Yamaha, Bultaco, Montesa, Jawa, BMW, Buco accessories, Cosmopolitan accessories, Hap Jones accessories & Tohatsu, Cycle Sport magazine and Accessory Distributors.
I spent several pleasant evenings visit ing the various displays and their proprietors, had a wonderful ride around on a BMW, thanks to Butler & Smith, and came away satisfied that I saw the greatest road racing show in this country.
Joy reigned supreme in and around Laconia, at least in some quarters, and in others things weren’t quite so nice. For instance; below you see John Taylor of Cemoto East, Bultaco distributors in the East. Taylor, wearing the hat, and a mechanic are working on one of the remarkable 196cc Bultaco Sherpa road racers of the type Dick Mann rode to victory in the 250cc expert race. The happy trio in the Yamaha booth at the Laconia motorcycle show are John Harrigen, winner of lightweight class 4, Yoshiko La Pierre, and Bob Hogan, Yamaha dealer from Springfield, Mass. All are understandably happy.
... as are the group below, Mike Berliner, Joe Berliner, of Berliner Mtrs., Norton distributors, Tony Woodman, winner of the 50-mile Amateur event on a Norton, a Berliner mechanic, Walter von Schonfeld, Public Relations Director for Berliner Mtrs. There’s nothing quite like having a winner. Then there is the venerable Fritzie Baer, impressario of Laconia since its inception, now responsible for press relations, and his two friends; a red hat and a cigar. Not nearly enough can be said for what Fritzie has done for motorcycling.
Below, the happy looking man in the hat is Novice winner Ken Hayes, the unhappy looking fellow is Joe Bolger, who bears the results of having been in the wrong place when George Roeder crashed his 250 Sprint in front of him. Joe is healing from a broken hand and collar bone, his Triumph Cub came out unscathed; pity it couldn’t have been the other way around.
THE PRICE SPECIAL
An amazing machine, the Price special, and built of junk parts, the builder Jack Price claims. The gasoline tank is made of an automobile headlight and a hub cap, welded together, and it uses an old Salsbury scooter .variable clutch, driving through a British Burman four-speed gearbox. This unique arrangement gives the most versatile gear combinations we’ve ever seen: 1st gear, low range (under 2000 rpm), is 61.9 to 1 and it shifts automatically to what is known as the high range (above 2000 rpm), first gear ratio of 2.57 to 1, with any ratio inbetween. Sounds complex but actually is not; it has proved to be very satisfactory in the high mountain country around Durango, Colorado, where Jack Price and son Tom use the specials.
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A top speed of 38 mph is attained in top 4th gear, and Tom even rides his to work. Power is supplied by a single-cylinder, 12.2 cubic inch, two-stroke engine that is rated at 5Vi horsepower. Front suspension is by a clever trailing arm arrangement with a coil spring, and the rear wheel is mounted rigidly. Dry weight is 176 pounds, ground clearance is 11", tires are 12", with brakes mounted on both front and rear.
Jack Price is credited with having built the first snowplane, and even built a Jeep featuring a unique double transmission that gave it better performance than the production variety. It was literally built from the ground up in Jack’s basement at home.
OPERATION IMPALA
TIJ'IVE YOUNG NATIVES of Barcelona, Spain, A riding 175cc Montesa Impala model two-stroke motorcycles, recently completed a 20,000 kilometer (almost 13,000 miles) trip from one end of the African Continent to the other. Though accompanied by a British-built Land Rover (somewhat like a Jeep) carrying parts and equipment, the daring riders rode from Capetown to Tunisia in 100 days, through deserts, jungles, pastures, wading rivers and some of the wildest country in the world.
They met almost prehistoric African tribes, saw the Kilamanjaro and Kenya mountains, both snow-capped; visited Victoria Falls; got dangerously close to wild beasts; admired the civilization of Ancient Egypt and saw most of the Libyan desert, scene of furious battles in World War II.
The total trip required three months, expenses were shared by the riders and the Montesa factory and at the last moment the financial assistance of Wynn lubricants was obtained. Riders were Enrique Vernis, Rafael Marsans and Manuel Maristay, the latter of whom recorded the adventure in an interesting book entitled “Operation Impala,” in the Spanish language. The title was obviously derived from the Impala model designation of their mounts. •
