Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

IN JUNE I TRAVELED to Europe to call upon various motorcycle manufacturers and find out what they are up to. This June I called on the CZ factory in Czechoslovakia, the Puch factory in Graz, Austria, and the Sachs/ Hercules plant in Nuremburg, West Germany. At all three I was very cordially welcomed and shown new products in the making.

In Czechoslovakia I was wined, dined, chauffeured and generally treated like royalty by the CZ people, headed by American Jawa's personable Techni cal Manager Stan Cerney. Stan and his lovely wife (not a trite compliment, she really is lovely), were spending their annual vacation in Prague, where they maintain a home far from his regular position with American Jawa in Los Angeles. We motored up to Holice for the Czech 500 Motocross Grand Prix and watched the Swedes and their Huskys annihilate the CZ team and everyone else in sight. Stan's boyhood chums held a beer-drinking, song-singing reunion in a cave hacked out of solid granite several hundred years ago. We were joined by Joe Kubicek who is from Czechoslovakia but is now an American and a Jawa/CZ dealer in Santa Monica.

We visited the factory far out in the country from Prague, reached after a lengthy drive in Stan's ancient Skoda sedan and a visit with his charming parents in a tiny farm village. We trav eled through lovely, soft and gentle European countryside that is still un touched by the ravages of technological civilization. Czechoslovakia is, of course, under stern Communist control, and the Russian Army, never very far away, is fully prepared to put down anything resembling the revolutionary uprising of 1968. I met at least six people who have tasted the western world and, having returned and fallen out of favor with the reigning politicals, are unable to leave again. The Czechs genuinely love their country; most would not leave unless they faced death and then, only to hopefully return another day. It is a sad country: grey, depressing, poor, and ages behind the countries of western Europe and America. Yet the people are beautiful and genuine, and extremely likeable.

At the CZ factory, I got a good look at the new 125 CZ motocross bike that will arrive in the States shortly. Though initially available only in small quantities, it will be in full production by early next year. CZ is also about to announce a 380-cc version of their motocross bike, also available in small quantities at first but scheduled for full production soon.

Just prior to my visit, Southern California’s Speedway Star Rick Woods was a guest of the CZ factory and rode in one of their important International Speedway events in Prague. He raced against the best and finished 6th in the final count, but his actual racing performance was not the significant occurance; it was his actual attendance at a Czech racing event. Stony silence greeted the introduction of the Russian riders; some were even booed! Cheers greeted the Czech riders. But absolute bedlam broke when Woods was introduced. The people yelled and screamed for almost 10 minutes! Each race in which he ran was the highlight of the evening. I was told no rider ever had received such treatment, and all because he was an American and the freedomloving Czechs took Woods to their hearts. Don’t tell me International racing isn’t good for the sport.

From Prague I flew in a Russian Illushian 62 jet to Vienna, Austria, rented a clumsy Mercedes and set off for Graz, in the interior of the country. The Puch works was not the only

attraction bringing me to Graz; I was also eager to meet Count Otto Herberstein. Yes, he is Count Herberstein, and yes, he does live in a castle. The Count, “Otto” to his friends, owns a thousandyear-old castle on a 2000 acre forest which is a rich game preserve. He is the descendant of an old Austrian royal family, and he and his fantastic frau are restoring the family castle to some of its original glory and beauty. He has his own motocross course, which runs through grape and fruit tree orchards and is used by the Puch factory in nearby Graz for testing. He owns several bikes, among them one of Jeff Smith’s 498-cc BSA Grand Prix motocross machines. He also owns an unusual 500-cc Jawa single-cylinder two-stroke ISDT bike. He rides often and well. Most of his time is spent in Vienna, where he is the director of a bank, of all things. He is a very good friend of Johann Puch and of Helmut Quindt, director of Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, Graz. I was again wined, dined and handsomely received by the group, and Heinz Oiler, generally referred to as a Jack-of-alltrades around the plant, proved an invaluable guide during my pleasant stay in Graz.

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Puch let me ride their new 175, which will be arriving in this country soon, and should be a winner. They also let me have a small taste of their prototype 250 motocross machine. Since Puch no longer sells their machines through Sears, which renamed them Allstates, they have launched an all-out effort to gain a substantial footing in the U.S. market, starting with a 125-cc bike. Puch continues to supply

Sears with bicycles by the thousands, but the motorcycle distribution in the West is being handled by Ted Lapidakis.

From Graz I drove through the fabulous Austrian Alps to Munich, where I picked up a BMW 2500 sedan, loaned to me by the factory, visited a friend in Garmisch Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps of West Germany, then zapped at about 115 mph on the autobahn to Nuremberg. CYCLE WORLD’S Volker Rauch lives there, not far from the Sachs/Hercules plant where they are building the 125-cc Sachs. Export manager Hans Schleibinger showed me around the vast plant where, among other things, they build more bicycles than you can imagine, largely for the American market.

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Volker is one of Europe’s leading motoring photographers, contributing to the major magazines in Europe and to CYCLE WORLD. He is the son of the director of Germany’s leading magazine, Das Motorrad, and is their chief photographer. He is also the author of two books on European motorcycling and is married to a charming and beautiful girl whose English puts his to shame and who, just between you and me, writes nearly every word he mails out. Volker is a familiar and dashing figure at the races, burdened with Leicas and always on the move. He was one of the first to discover the delights of the BMW cars, demonstrating their merits decisively to me a few years ago in Sweden, where we both were covering the ISDT. He’d passed me on the road at about 120 mph at a moment when I thought I was really doing it in a rented 1600-cc Volvo sedan.

From Germany I flew to England to see the British 250-cc motocross Grand Prix. Joel Robert and Sylvain Geboers are absolutely shattering in their domination of that class. CZ’s Roger DeCoster is close, but to see the two Belgians on their Japanese Suzukis smoking off everyone is a real sight. The Inter-Am series is going to be a wild one this fall.

AND THEN CAME BRONSON'S BIKE

Television’s Bronson, Michael Parks, lives in Ojai, Calif. He called me the other day to tell me that, because of his interest in children and education, he has donated his Harley-Davidson Sportster to the St. Thomas Elementary School in his home town. The $5000 custom was given to the school, where his children attend, in the hopes they could turn it into money, which they need. A lottery seemed like a good idea, but it is not legal in California. So, the question arose, when is a lottery not a lottery? It was discovered that when the money is donated not in demand of an exchange for chances or prizes, the procedure is legal.

Now the school has put out the word: the Bronson bike can be yours, and a drawing certificate is free, if you send your name and address with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. If you really care about education and want to send a donation, you might be the new owner of Bronson’s Harley. The address is St. Thomas School, Ojai, Calif. 93023. (0