Round Up
ROUND UP
BY JOE PARKHURST
CYCLE WORLD GAINS a new staff man this month, a fella by the name of Michael D. Bishop, our new Associate Editor. Mike is a writer, editor, in automotive, motorcycling and allied fields, and up until about now, technical writer for Rocketdyne. He has lived in Canoga Park, California for the past 11 years. Mike is an expert in the Southern California Trials Association, Director of Promotion and Publications for the National Trail Riders Association, and, of course, an A M A rider. With Mike’s able hand we will be expanding the editorial and technical level of CYCLE WORLD to encompass the technical opinions of a wider range of experts.
Bishop’s education has been in mathematics, technical communications, English, and art. Can’t argue with those credentials. He went to school at Los Angeles Pierce College, Cameron State Agricultural College and San Fernando Valley State College. He’s 29, married, has one mini-bike rider.
We have also widened the scope of the riding ability of our staff, without making a conscious effort to do so. In Mike we are adding a trials rider to our road racing Editor, scrambles expert Advertising Mgr., TT and all-around riding Managing Editor, and I’ll still ride anything I can get my hands on and take a fling or two at Enduros on my Matchless Metisse.
Speaking of my Matchless Metisse (sneaky huh), I’ve placed a photograph of it nearby to show the latest form it has taken. Ceriani forks now grace the front end, mounting a 19-inch Bultaco motocross wheel and a 3.50 Dunlop Universal. It’s hard to say how much better the handling is, over the previously used Matchless forks, but it is about 11 pounds lighter up where it counts. Fork travel is about the same, but due to the lighter weight, it will lift the front-end a lot easier, and still travel a straight, stable line through the roughest country around. Installing the Italian made Cerianis required different handlebars. Jack Krizman at American Sports Co., supplied a custom shaped pair and did most of the work for me. (I’ve got a well-deserved reputation around here as being the worst mechanic in town). The Metisse is such a superb handling machine, all who get on one for the first time 'agree that it makes a better rider of you — it is so forgiving, which must explain how I manage to stay on it.
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Yet another Metisse will reach the West coast shortly; this a very special one being built for television’s Cheyenne Body, alias Clint Walker, in case you can’t remember the name of the cowboy hero out of television’s dark past.
In England to make a movie, “The Dirty Dozen” for MGM (plug), Walker visited the famous Rickman Brothers to be fitted for a special Metisse that will use a 600cc Matchless Typhoon engine. He is also having a larger gas tank made, an idea I had some time ago, as the puny 1.6 gallons just won’t go very far. I’m having one made in the fiberglass building capital of the world, Newport Beach, California.
Walker doesn’t plan on any racing — just some rough riding, so he is installing a tool box and a side stand, plus being fitted with a four-inch rim on the front wheel so he can mount a 4.00 X 19 weenie like the southern California desert experts do. I prefer the smaller section tire, myself. I can’t help speculate at what a fabulous production bike Walker’s Metisse would make. One of these days maybe the Rickmans can expand their facility enough. Maybe!
WE WIN IN NEW YORK
Not long ago, I was among many who protested loudly to New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller against his signing a bill (3505, print 6011) that would require all motorcycle and scooter riders and passengers to wear protective headgear and goggles of a type approved by the Commissioner. Bill Berry, of the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Association, sent an appeal to all members to voice their disapproval. We did, and we won. He didn’t sign it! He did sign one that requires that handlebars or grips be no higher than 15-inches over the level of the seat. A similar law in California wiped out all the “ape hangers” a couple of years ago. Few miss them. You got my vote, Gov.
BRITISH SUBSCRIBERS NOTE
I am happy to point out to our readers in England that subscriptions are available through Chater & Scott, 524 High Road, Chiswick, London W.4, in multiples of four or eight (post and packing). We have many subscribers in the United Kingdom, but we have been told that it would make it easier if they could deal with a local firm and in Pound Sterling.
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THE RISING SAFETY PROBLEM
Author Ralph Nader’s (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) absurd reasoning that the automobile is completely at fault in accounting for the alarming death rate on the highways only feeds the growing public concern. The public’s apparent willingness to accept his words as absolute truth, and the natural human tendency to think that everyone else but themselves is at fault, makes it even easier for the opponents of motorcycles to abet the increasing trend among lawmakers and public officials to propose the banning of motorcycles in an effort to halt the rate of deaths and injuries on the roads due to motorcycles.
Even Congress has taken notice and the subject is being discussed with deep concern. Almost every state in the Union, and many cities, large and small, are showing alarm and some are planning drastic measures. The “simple” compulsory helmet law is only part of it; in some areas the complete abolition of motorcycles is being weighed.
Public opinion will,of course, have an ultimate bearing on how far some of them are to be allowed to go. A letter, telegram, or post card, will always serve as a forceful tool in demonstrating your feelings. I continue to urge our readers to speak out when they hear that such things as the current proposal in the city of Chicago is being raised. A new city ordinance is being drafted that would forbid motorcyclists to carry a passenger. I readily admit that this would certainly help at least somewhat, but it is not fair and reasonable, and is not the answer entirely.
Driver education, special licensing with motorcycle operating tests, concentrated efforts to persuade riders to use helmets and dress properly, and a strong campaign to force motorcycle dealers to deal with the safety problem realistically with their customers are all needed. Not all dealers, by any means, are guilty of simply placing anyone who walks in the door with the money on a motorcycle, and sending them out to their certain death or serious injury. But in all too many cases this is precisely what happens. Worst offenders are a good many cycle rental shops where little or nothing is demanded of the renter to prove that he is qualified to operate a twowheeled vehicle. Special motorcycle licensing is, of course, the answer, and I wholeheartedly support the idea.
Motorcyclists are having abuse after abuse heaped upon them in the newspapers, most of it biased and unfair; written by wiseacre newspaper columnists who should know better. One major exception was in a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times. In a study of the problem in Southern California, the Times wrote a thoughtful, intelligent, and constructively critical feature. It made excellent recommendations, and was handled fairly.
We do,by all mean, have a serious problem. Everytime I see a youngster buzzing down the street in shorts, T-shirt and bare footed, not even using goggles or any kind of protective headgear, I actually shudder. I don’t want legislation to force him to protect himself, but if the modern day new rider doesn’t use his head and dress for the sport, we are going to see vast changes in the laws that will compel us to dress like deep sea divers to go even to the corner market.
When I was 16 and just learning to ride, I almost lost a foot due to simply having to put it down hard on the pavement in avoiding a nit in a car who turned in front of me. I was barefooted. Riding without at least something between your eyes and the dirt, dust, bugs, etc., in the air, can easily cost an eye. And even our most avid enemies have determined through research of accident statistics that 70 percent of the highway deaths are due to head injury. Parents who might be reading this, I urge you to start laying down the law concerning what your youngster is wearing when he rides. To the rest of my readers, it is, after all, your neck, but you have one thing that downhill ski play-racers, and others in equally dangerous sports ordinarily do not have: an audience. Worse, this audience would just love to protect you by eliminating the danger. It’s not the other guy’s sport you are saving, it’s your own.
Dress the part, act the part, and motorcycling will continue to grow and to earn a place it deserves in the eyes of the public. Big Brother is watching you! ■
