Round Up
ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
SINCE STARTING NEXT MONTH, with OUT July issue, we will inaugurate a Classified advertising section, I thought maybe the following item might make a suitably interesting way to begin things. It was sent to me from Yamaha International;
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
If the man who “borrowed” the Yamaha racing engine from our service van when it was parked in Daytona will contact me, perhaps a new and flourishing team can be born. However, in your haste to make a quick getaway, you forgot to “borrow” another essential. The complete tuned exhaust system for the engine. Now, the way things stand, neither of us wins; you have the engine, I have the exhaust system; perhaps we should get together. We might even win some trophies, or do you prefer to “borrow” these also? If interested, write;
Mother Lake
Racing Manager
Yamaha International Corp.
Box 54540, Los Angeles, Calif.
NEWSPAPER POISON PENS
Among the things that irritate the heck out of me are people like Tom Duggan of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. I use this character as an example, but I’ve seen similar columns in many other daily newspapers. Duggan takes a stab at motorcyclists who “love to race their motors while waiting for a red light to change,” adding that they “could stand a quick visit from a lynching party. The mentally retarded cyclists who ride behind you at night and finally try to pass you on both sides should be tortured and killed.”
His nasty tongue goes on lashing out at small car drivers, skate board riders, bicyclists and a whole bunch of other people who get in his way. While they’re lynching people, why not add the names of the nuts in cars who do the same thing? And make twice the noise, and create air pollution in the bargain! Then stand the idiot car drivers up against the wall who cut bikes off, take away the motorcycle riders’ rightof-way, follow bikes so closely they make nervous wrecks of the riders, ignore bikes and say, “I didn’t see you,” and change lanes without a thought for the poor, hard to see cyclist.
All I’m really saying is that people like Duggan who have the power of the press to use for their own narrow views ought to be hung by their thumbs, especially when they give no one the benefit of the other point of view, and don’t use common sense when they write their brand of trash.
(Continued on page 4)
I think we riders deserve at least a little better treatment, especially since we have the solutions to the problems that bother even Duggan the most: traffic congestion and parking.
MATCHLESS OWNERS CLUB
I recently came across a copy of the AJS & Matchless Owners Club news sheet, printed in England, and CW got a little mention, albeit a mention typical in the British form of evaluating magazines. A gentleman named Derek V. Pearce, Public Relations Officer for the club, sent it to me. Since our office contains a few oldstyle Matchless lovers, including me, I thought maybe others with similar personality flaws might like to communicate with the original group in the home of Matchless/AJS/Norton. You can reach them at 39 Eardley Road, Streatham, London S.W.16, England. Their publication is on the clubby side, comes out monthly, and is sent free to their members.
MOTORCYCLING ON GUAM
Keeping abreast of the world’s motorcycle activity is not an easy job. Often we are aided in our search for news by the friendly people of the motorcycle world. Take Jesse B. Stein, in Agana, Guam, a Ducati dealer, and an enthusiast, like most of us in the motorcycle industry. Boxer, scuba diver, motorcycle rider and sports enthusiast, Stein sent me a wealth of information describing the hyper-activity in motorcycling on Guam. For those who might not remember, Guam is the largest of the Marianas group of islands in the western Pacific, and scene of considerable activity during the Second World War.
Guam’s motorcycle population numbers only 2,000 or so, but judging by the degree of enthusiasm and participation, that number could be 20,000. The nearby photograph shows young, like 12 years young, billed as the future motorcycle champion of the island. His name is Kenny Peir, an 8th grader, and he is beating adults all over the place riding his Ducati, prepared by his father. Stein, himself, does well, on a Ducati, and recently won Guam’s Mt. Lam Lam cross country race. Another Ducati was third as well.
The Mount Lam Lam race offers the most popular challenge on the island, but for those not interested in scrambling, an abandoned airstrip is used for drag racing. You just can’t keep a good motorcycle racer down, even on a remote tropical island.
BRITISH TRADE MEMBERS IN U.S.
Among the 100,000 visitors anticipated at the CYCLE WORLD Motorcycle Show, opening this month, will be a group of bicycle, motorcycle and accessory manufacturers on a North American Trade Mission. Their reason for the visit is easily understood when it is known that the United States alone takes nearly half of the United Kingdom’s $64,400,000 export sales! Quite needless to say, motorcycles represent a large portion of this sum.
Since most of the British/U.S. trade has been confined to a few large companies, the Trade Mission will consist of representatives of smaller firms which have either not yet entered the field or are entirely new to it. It is their hope to add to the trade on a smaller level. Component makers, as well as finished bicycle and motorcycle builders, will be making the trip. The intention of several will be to establish contact with prospective agents and distributors as well as to meet retail and department store buyers.
The Mission will be organized by the British Cycle and Motor Cycle Industries Association, represented on the tour by Director Hugh Palin, and is backed by the British Board of Trade and the British National Export Council’s Committee for Exports to the U.S.
(Continued on page 8)
SUCCESS STORY
I like success stories, particularly when they concern nice people and the triumph of good over evil and all that kind of stuff. Take Alex Kiss’ story. Nine years ago he escaped communist-controlled Hungary to the West with his entire possessions in a canvas bag. The clothes on his and his wife’s backs were all they owned. Russian military intervention in his country had created what amounted to an exodus; Kiss and his slender, blonde wife, Elizabeth, were part of it.
Speaking no English whatsoever, they came to the United States, arriving on a Christmas Eve. Later Kiss obtained a job as a machinist and worked at it for eight years. He had graduated from a three-year course in motorcycles after the last war in Hungary, so he decided to take the plunge and go into the motorcycle business. Today he owns his own shop, a Norton Ducati store, in Warren, Pennsylvania. Kiss who has been a machinist since he was 15, is well prepared for his shop work.
They now have two handsome children, and the harrowing days of their escape into Austria in November, 1956, are far behind. I’m sure there are many stories like this about, but this one concerns the motorcycle business, so I pass it on to you. It could only happen in the United States.
MOTORCYCLE WEEK
New York recently enjoyed a "Motor cycle Week," climaxed by the motorcycle races in Daytona, at the end of the week, and the Daytona motorcycle trade show. Paula Wayne, Broadway and nightclub performer, was crowned "Miss Motor cycle" in New York. Michael Bondy of of the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Association, is seen here crowning Miss Motorcycle with a safety helmet.
DEALERS ASSOCIATION ACTIVITY
Middle Atlantic Motorcycle Dealers Association, a pioneer group, has proven itself to be an effective force in many ways. Recently they presented a cycle to George Wolf, Legislative liaison man in the state of Pennsylvania. Wolf is credited with preventing much anti-motorcycle legislation in his state, working directly with the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Assn. Association President Lloyd Laugerman and Larry Wise of Cosmopolitan Motors are shown with Wolf, seated on his new Benelli, distributed by Wise’s firm.
CRIME FIGHTING ON A SCOOTER
Motorcycles are not the only two-wheelers grabbing the limelight these days. Cleveland Police Chief Richard Wagner wants to start a motor scooter patrol, envisioning helmeted policemen patrolling their beat on scooters equipped with twoway radios. The Chief feels a scootermounted patrol would be more effective than foot patrolmen.
The Chief’s recommendations went on about cost saving, increasing efficiency, etc., which is all very well and good. Sure will improve, or spoil, the motor scooter image, depending on your point of view. In either case, it will look pretty strange to see a motor scooter mounted police officer.
PRINCELY AWARD
Skip Fordyce, on the right, veteran motorcycle dealer and Riverside (California) civic leader, was presented an award by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh during his recent visit to Southern California. The award was a scroll, signed by the Prince, which pays tribute to Fordyce for being the motorcycle dealer who has done the most to promote British-made motorcycles over the years. A Triumph dealer since 1943, Fordyce was chosen for the honor by secret ballot conducted by the West Coast distributors of Britishmade products.
