Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA VS. MOTORCYCLES

CALIFORNIA TRADITIONALLY has always been sort of the Valhalla for motorcycles. The climate is nearly ideal, and riders, dealers and distributors have always enjoyed an atmosphere that was friendly and receptive to motorcycles for the most part.

To some of our Eastern readers, the envy of this perpetual motorcycle paradise has provoked such descriptive terms as “Lotus Land” and other equally unrealistic but colorful terminology.

Virtually every machine that first hits the U.S. makes its debut on the West Coast, and often its success or failure depends on its reception in the land of the sun.

Californians, as a rule, ride for more sporting reasons. Long distance highway cruising occupies the smallest slot in the western scene. I will naturally be reminded that the largest road rider event in the nation (over 1,500 participants) is held in the West. Okay, the Death Valley Run is different!

But now, the worm may be turning. One excellent reason for the breadth of choice of machines available on the coast (other than the obvious 12-months-peryear of enjoyment) was a very lenient set of State regulations concerning the requirements that this vast sea of bikes — over 330,000 in 1966 — must meet in order to qualify as usable.

One impressive function of California’s much-admired Department of California Highway Patrol, is the State of California Transportation Agency. Their job is to pass approval on all forms of mechanical equipment to be used on the roads of the state. One area that receives the most attention is the lighting equipment on both automobiles and motorcycles, and a recent ruling issued by them prohibits the sale of 24 motorcycles whose lighting does not meet the state code or pass their rigid tests.

-CYCLE WORLD was chosen by the California Highway Patrol to be the bearer of the sad tidings, and the following is a special report prepared by Ross A. Little of the department, exclusively for CW. I offer it without editing or alteration: The State of California has indicated it intends to enforce motorcycle equipment standards provided in the California Vehicle Code. This intention was made clear recently when the California Highway Patrol banned the sale of 24 different motorcycle models in California until they are equipped by that state’s vehicle code standards.

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Those banned include: Allstate, Atlas, Benelli, Bultaco, Capri, Capriolo, Ducati, Güera, Heinkel, Ital-Jet, Jawa, Lambretta, Mobylette, Montesa, Moped, Ossa, Parilia, Rabbit, Raleigh, Riverside, Sears, Vespa, White and Zundapp.

“Action was taken against these models because of the apparent unwillingness of the manufacturers to bring their product up to present California standards,” California Highway Patrol Commissioner Bradford M. Crittenden explained.

“Specifically, we asked these people either to submit samples of their lighting equipment for testing or equip their machines with approved lamps. These requests were made several times, and each time the manufacturers failed to comply," Crittenden concluded.

A similar fate befell two makes of automobiles recently: The new Cord and the Italian-made Ferrari. Neither can be registered in California, and won’t be until they are found to meet standards provided in that state’s Vehicle Code.

What are the motorcycle equipment standards and how is equipment tested?

Primarily, the standards deal with lighting equipment and horsepower. However, the machines are also expected to meet certain braking specifications, standards dealing with the muffling system, the saddle and passenger seat, the handlebars, footrests, and the windshield.

Only in the case of brake horsepower rating and lighting devices are manufacturers required to submit evidence that their equipment measures up to standards set by the California Vehicle Code. As a practical matter, the evidence should be submitted and approval gained before extensive sales begin in order that registration of the bike can be assured.

Evidence of brake horsepower can be submitted in a certification of the rating. Evidence of lighting standards comes in the form of the lighting devices themselves which the Highway Patrol subjects to a series of grueling tests to determine their ability to withstand all the possible punishment they might take as motorcycle equipment. If the devices — or lamps as they are called in the CVC — fail to maintain standard during the testing, the manufacturer is informed of this fact so that he can make the necessary alterations.

“We try to work with the manufacturer on these problems,” says Crittenden, “and we become concerned when there is no real attempt to comply with our California standards.”

Lighting equipment submitted to the Highway Patrol at Sacramento is transshipped to a special laboratory in Richmond, California, operated under contract by the University of California.

There, it is subjected to as harsh a test as it may ever get on the road.

The headlamp and taillamp assemblies get a vibration test in which they are bolted to a table and, through the use of an unbalanced wheel, vibrated from 1,200 to 1,500 cycles per second for eight hours. Then they are bolted to still another table that bounces them up and down 750 times per minute for an hour to test their ability to withstand shock. The table is dropped on a steel anvil to be sure each blow is solid enough. Following this, the lamps are suspended in a closed tank, and in a 95° temperature are sprayed with a salt solution for 50 hours.

When this portion of the test is finished, the lamps must be intact, and show no more than a trace of corrosion.

But there’s much more.

The lamps are placed in a closed container containing cement, and at 15-minute intervals a ten-second air blast agitates the cement into a cloud of dust. After eight hours of this, the lamps must produce at least 90 per cent of their rated candlepower.

Another closed container test subjects the lamps to motion, temperature and damp air. They are rotated about a horizontal axis at 1-1/2 rpm, with 90° temperature in an atmosphere of air, water and water vapor for another eight hours. The testers hope to find no more than a cubic centimeter of water inside the housing of the devices after this one.

The test schedule then calls for the lamps to be enclosed in a tank and given a fine spray of water while revolving about their vertical axis for 12 hours. If they accumulate more than two centimeters of water they flunk the test.

The lamps with plastic parts get further testing at this point. They go into an oven where temperatures increase in the circulating hot air until they reach 175°. After holding them there for two hours, the lamps are allowed to cool to room temperature. If the plastic parts haven’t softened, warped, or deformed exclusively from original shape, then they have passed another test.

Finally the lamps must show a photometric or actual light output at 27 points on a prescribed pattern to ensure that they will furnish adequate roadway lighting.

Lights for motorcycles aren’t the only devices tested by the California Highway Patrol’s engineering section. They also test safety glass, safety belts and anchorages, sirens, mufflers, and even bunk stakes used by the logging and lumber industry, and binders for hauling hay.

The advice of the Patrol to California motorcycle buyers is simple: Know what you are buying. The California Vehicle Code not only requires certain operating standards from the lighting equipment, the brakes, the engine, and the muffler — it requires more. And an employee of the Highway Patrol regularly checks new models of motorcycles marketed in California to see that they conform to all the code requirements as claimed.

Nevertheless, the careful California (Continued on page 12) buyer will want to check for himself before he signs on the dotted line. Everything on the motorcycle should be in its proper place and be operating in the proper manner. That includes the lights, seat, handlebars, passenger's seat, handgrips, footrests, brakes, horn, muffler, and the engine itself.

For instance, the lighting must not only be approved by actual test as described above, it must meet certain other standards once it is placed on the machine: The turn signals must be installed so they are spaced laterally at least nine inches apart. The headlamps must be mounted between 24 and 54 inches off the ground, and if they have upper and lower beams there must be a high beam indicator. And if foglamps are mounted, they must be between 12 and 30 inches off the ground.

The gross brake horsepower rating becomes a factor if the bike is to be used on California’s freeways. If the owner wants to drive the freeways, the manufacturer must have certified to the CHP that his machine develops 15 gross brake horsepower or more. Anything that develops less than that is officially termed a "motor-driven cycle” in the California Vehicle Code and cannot be used on the freeways.

If the buyer wants a windshield, he should insist upon a clear glass or plastic windshield. Then he should insist on license plates mounted not less than 12 inches from the ground, a horn that does not make what is termed an unreasonable or harsh sound, and a muffler that will prevent any excessive or unusual noise. In addition, the bike must have handlebars that are no more than 15 inches in height above the uppermost portion of the seat when the driver is on it, the seat itself must enable the operator to reach the ground with his feet, and if a passenger is to be ridden, a seat, handgrips, and footrests must be provided. All these things are standards set in the California Vehicle Code, and they are things looked for by inspectors from the California Highway Patrol.

These arc all provisions that have been built into the California Vehicle Code over the past few years by a legislature that has become increasingly safety conscious. Now the California Highway Patrol has served notice that these provisions will be enforced.

THE SOUNDS OF MOTORCYCLING

That may sound like the title of a new Stanley Schofield. CYCIE WORLD record, hut it sure ain't! Em talking about the number two problem in motorcycling — NOISF!

Nobody loves the sound that some bikes make more than I, but it is far from romantic to have some thoughtless rider wake you up, or destroy a lovely evening on the patio by blasting up and down the street on a little 50 with an open exhaust pipe. Nothing I can think of offhand will do more damage to motorcycling and make it harder for the nonriding public to accept motorcycles, than the awful noise many of them make. This situation is not nearly as much an industry problem. It is the rider’s, since it is the rider who removes the relatively quiet muffler on his street bike and replaces it with a megaphone. A megaphone can, of course, be run quietly, by leaving the removable baffle in place or by packing it with steel wool.

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Some manufacturers are offenders as well, since many bikes offered on the market are not really muffled at all. This includes Japanese, Spanish and some Italian bikes. Motorcycles will never be as quiet as automobiles; to many, quietness takes some of the fun out of riding. But there are limits to which this can be carried. Defending your sport and making it compatible and easy for the non-riding majority to accept, or better yet, ignore bikes, will never be accomplished with the peace-disturbing and irritating racket even the smallest bike can make. Be a quiet cyclist.

BUCO, BIKES AND BUNNIES

One of the nicest combinations to come down the pike in quite awhile took place in Los Angeles, at, of all places, the Los Angeles Playboy Club! Gotta hand it to Buco Products . . . they hosted 560 people of the motorcycle and automotive trade and press at a helluva party to announce the formal opening of American Safety Equipment Corporation’s three new Buco Division plants.

Gangs of well pushed-up Bunnies served a surprisingly good dinner, and enough free booze was served to float the L.A. Sports Arena.

Buco’s friendly vp, John Thompson showed all of the products that will be coming out of their new Fresno (California) plant. The Bunny in the accompanying photo displays them - and a lot more. Never let it be said that CYCLE WORLD is anti-sex!

Highlight of the evening, for me anyway (and I really do like girls), was a talk by Professor Lawrence M. Patrick,

head of the Bio-mechanics Research Center at Wayne University, and one of the leading authorities on safety. This was hardly the place for a really profound discussion of the sometimes grizzly facts of safety helmet use, but Professor Patrick nonetheless made an entertaining attempt to convey the depth of Buco’s development and testing programs.

The evening at the Los Angeles Playboy Club was one of two held; the other was staged at the club’s San Francisco counterpart. Can’t say that such organized fun is my cup of tea, but Buco President Ken Krasnow, along with John Thompson, Prof. Patrick and I, did manage a serious talk on Buco’s plans for the future, and their attitude towards a universal, national set of standards for helmets.

It would seem like the filing cabinet that the American Motorcycle Association has been banging helmets against (in their “testing” for approval), is about due for something more demanding. Buco is another bunch of nice guys doing a good job. They get my vote.

MOTORCYCLE SAFETY

Safe operation of motorcycles, special licenses, harsher laws, and stronger public attitudes continue to be the most pressing problems in motorcycling.

Miss Dolores Harrington in Sioux Falls, S.D., sent me the details of a program undertaken in her city that could do enormous good all over the country, if similar interest were shown.

Here is her story:

“In Sioux Falls, S.D., where motorcycling is increasingly popular for transportation and sport, civic leaders are making strong efforts to encourage safer riding practices and to educate the public in proper handling of motorcycles. Prominent in these endeavors are members of Motorcycles Inc., local racing club, headed in 1966 by Bob Christianson.

"Most recent of these safety-directed events was a motorcycle-handling demonstration, attended by more than 700 persons and held in conjunction with Sioux Falls’ third annual Chamber of Commerce-sponsored ‘Teen Day.’ This was the first such clinic to be held, but it probably won’t be the last.

“Cooperating in this show, which was held in Sears, Roebuck & Co.’s spacious parking lot, were the Chamber of Commerce, Motorcycles Inc., and the Sioux Falls Police Department. Co-chairmen were Thomas Haight and Jack Stich, motorcycle dealers. Haight, who operates Shadco Cycle Sales (Honda-Triumph-Ducati-Ossa), is a former racer and belongs to the local club. Stich also has a Honda franchise. They were assisted by Christianson and Denny Adler, professional rider, who did the demonstrating. Adler, who, coincidentally, received his AMA professional rating the same day the handling demonstration was held, races on tracks all over the midwest under the auspices of Johnson Motors, Triumph importers.

“In the demonstration, he showed the teenagers how to properly stop on wet sur(Continued on page 16) faces and on gravel, how much effect a passenger can have on the rider’s operation of a bike, and entertained the crowd with stunts such as wheelies, jumps, attempts at log-climbing, etc. He demonstrated the importance of knowing the limitations of various sizes of motorcycles in such matters as speed, handling and stunt-performance.

“Emcee was Ted Steinberg, young owner of a girls’ dress shop, motorcycle enthusiast, and a member of the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce retail committee.

“Earlier this summer, Sioux Falls’ KEFO-TV donated a half-hour of public service time for a motorcycle safety program presented by the South Dakota Women’s TV Council with the blessings of the Greater Sioux Falls Safety Council. Participating were three high school students, all motorcycle owners, who modeled helmets and urged others in their age bracket to wear them; Christianson and Dan Deubler, another professional rider, who emphasized the importance of ‘taking riding on streets and highways just as seriously as we do on the race tracks,’ and Capt. James Millstead of the South Dakota Highway Patrol, who has had long experience in police motorcycle duty.

“Five motorcycles, ranging in size from a Honda 50 to a touring Harley-Davidson, were used. Deubler explained the importance of having unpointed control levers and other protruding items on a motorcycle, wearing proper clothing, especially helmets, and preferably boots and long trousers, even on short jaunts in-town. He demonstrated the differences between racing motorcycles, trail bikes and other pleasure models. Captain Millstead, the youngsters and two other men discussed legal aspects of operating motorcycles, defining the rights and obligations of both cyclists and automobile drivers. The patrol captain also explained features of the official police motorcycle, including the high-powered radio, yiren, and flasher mounted on an aerial-type wand.

“Three minutes of film shot during Sunday afternoon races at the Motorcycles Inc. track near Sioux Falls was another highlight of the show. It demonstrated the discipline of racing, as well as the clothing requirements for racers. Deubler cautioned cyclists against allowing learners to ride on the street without first practicing extensively in an off-street area. He hammered hard at the necessity of 'riding defensively’ at all times.”

Amen!

Meanwhile, in Lansing, Michigan, Attorney General Frank J. Kelley called for assistance from any and all in establishing a volunteer and cooperative program of working with law enforcement agencies and the purchasers of new vehicles. He organized a meeting, inviting members of the motorcycle trade., dealers and renters, to launch the program. The industry meeting was to be followed by similar meetings with law enforcement agencies and with motorcycle and motorbike owners.

I have to admire his attitude. In my estimation, this is precisely the way to handle the growing problems of teaching motorcycle safety, special licensing, fair and proper laws concerning bikes and equipment, and the omnipresent helmetwearing proposals.

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SAFETY COMMITTEE

Maybe it sounds like I'm kind of carrying on over the safety thing, but it occupies the No. 1 slot in my program of “things to be done about the problems facing the motorcycle industry.”

A genuinely important step was taken in Washington D.C., when traffic safety experts from virtually every major national organization met for the first conference of the Motorcycle Traffic Safety Advisory Committee. Formed by the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Association (spokesmen for the majority of the motorcycle industry), their purpose was to solicit advice on problems currently facing government and industry, as a result of the soaring popularity of two-wheel motor vehicles in all parts of the country.

The committee urged the motorcycle industry to compose a guide for schools, commercial driver education firms, motorcycle and scooter dealers and safety councils. They also urged the forming of a “position paper,” as a guide line toward development of sound licensing and enforcement procedures. Increased use of safety helmets and eye protection was also suggested, as a motion for the industry to force. Motorcycle rider training courses, possibilities of special two-wheeler regulations, feasibility of uniform standards for motorcycle licensing in all states, and a general discussion of safety education, as applied to the automobile driver/motorcycle rider relationship, were among the topics considered by the committee.

Members comprising the committee are representatives of the Nevada State Department of Motor Vehicles; the President’s Committee on Traffic Safety; National Safety Council; U.S. Public Health Service; Highway Safety Users Conference; International Association of Police Chiefs; Insurance Institute for Highway Safety; American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators; National Education Association; and Northwestern University Traffic Institute.

It is beginning to look like the day is coming when the motorcycle rider can expect to receive the fair, honest treatment he deserves. But for now, the burden is still in the hands of the enthusiasts.

While continuing on the safety kick, Buco Products, not one to rest on their laurels, took part in a unique experiment in driver education in Detroit. Co-sponsoring (with the Traffic Safety Association of Detroit and the police departments of Detroit and neighboring Southfield), they staged a demonstration in one of the large local shopping centers. Driver training experts from Detroit's Police Motorcycle Traffic Bureau demonstrated “how defensive driving can mean the difference between fun and death.” More than 1,500 spectators witnessed the four-hour show.

Police instructors broke every rule of the road to demonstrate typical hazards and emergencies that face the everyday

cyclist. “Expect the unexpected,” was the excellent advice of Sgt. Fred Peters, chief instructor of the Detroit Police Department Motorcycle Squad. He also pointed out that car drivers have armor plate around them, while bike riders don't.

Motorcycle shops, radio and TV, plus the press and posters, were used to announce the event. A police drill team gave a demonstration, and the Shriner Club Precision Riders showed their stuff. A quiz and essay-type contest was run; prizes were donated by Yamaha International and its Detroit dealers; Michigan Suzuki dealers; and Detroit Harley-Davidson dealers. And, of course, a large selection of Buco Products was given away.

Some of the best advice I have heard was given, such as; “don't ditch (the bike), try to stop,” “if you are going to hit, try stopping first. If you lay the machine down at 50 mph, remember you are still travelling at that speed . . . and you are going to get hurt.” I am deeply pleased to see much factual and intelligent advice being given. Too many riders have said they “laid it down and rode it out,” when even a fool knows this is not practical, and it is one of the hardest things in the world to do for even an expert.

An expert rider. Patrolman Bill Adrian, met a series of simulated emergency situations riding his big Harley. To show what happened to even a good rider when he fails to observe precautions, Adrian at(Continued on page 20) tempted to avoid a pedestrian, only to hit an oil patch and drop it.

Michigan's new mandatory helmet law, having just been signed by the Governor, was discussed. 1 still don't approve of being legislated into protecting myself, but motorcycle riders are asking for such laws by not wearing helmets, creating worse accident statistics, which in turn get the public more up-in-arms over the matter. Like we've been saying, “we told you so.”

"SPECIAL DELIVERY"

If you're ever out at the drags and see a Chevy II SS (yes, a car!) with CYCLE WORLD painted on its side, don't worry, we're not going 'round the bend. It belongs to Terry Hart, who, for lack of a better title around here, is called “the mail boy. At CW, even the mail boy races.

He and his partner, Bill Hennigh. both members of the AHRA trophy-winning Qualifiers of Long Beach. Calif., built themselves a beautiful car to run in the Formula Six E Stock Optional class which you see burning off the line. The car has turned a 12.30-second quarter at 117 mph, and came within a hair of winning the AHRA record at the AHRA Nationals but lost in the finals, due to disputed start.

When not “grabbing Rs” or other such things down at the strip on weekends, Terry may be seen with his motorcycling friends down on a vacant piece of dirt near the Long Beach Marina, thrashing around on his Hodaka.