Round Up
ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
CYCLE WORLD’S EDITOR, Ivan Wagar, recently achieved a new status which made me extremely proud and happy for him. It didn’t do his reputation around CW’s offices any damage either, and it should make each and every motorcycle enthusiast in the country equally proud of him. Ivan, not content with helping to cement the motorcycle industry together into one large national and all-powerful organization, has been appointed to President Nixon’s National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council. He joins 21 other appointees in comprising one of the most important groups in the country regarding highway safety and vehicle legislation. He was appointed by Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe, the man the Council advises. Ivan is also an American Motorcycle Association Trustee, and past president of the Motorcycle Industry Council, the group formed from the merging of the Motorcycle, Scooter & Allied Trades Association and the Motorcycle Safety Council, a manuever that could never have occurred were it not for Ivan's intense beliefs and unrelenting drive.
Most significant is the simple fact that we motorcyclists are now represented at the highest level in the country, in matters that will directly affect the forming of laws concerning the use of motorcycles on the nation’s highways. Ivan joins a group composed of people representing a true cross section of the vehicle industry and the public. Matters such as vehicle standardization, equipment requirements, and most importantly. safety legislation from the federal level are the domain of the Council. Among the other members of the group is safety crusader Ralph Nader. Nader's name is bandied about CYCLE WORLD'S companion publication Road & Track's offices frequently, the seat back-lock release buttons on all the new cars, a requirement pushed through with Nader's strong support, are called “Nader Buttons." New York State Senator Ed Spent) and the former New Jersey State Director of Motor Vehicles June Strelecki are also on the Council.
Ivan is now the Staff Fed at Bond Parkhurst Publishing. The only other fed we’ve gotten to know recently is National Highway Safety Bureau Director Doug Toms. Toms is also a motorcyclist, and a good one at that. I’m not suggesting that we should all be overjoyed in the anticipation of a mess of federal legislation against motorcycling, but, since we arc going to have it, and you can be dead certain of [liai, it’s a good thing we will have our fair share of representation among those who will be asked to create a safer atmosphere for motorcycling.
Congratulations. Ivan.
HONDA YMCA MINI-BIKE PROGRAM
American Honda Motor Co. has launched a program that will provide up to I (),()()() (vep, ten thousand) Honda Mini-Trail bikes for the Young Men's Christian Association. Honda claims their approach is to use the mini-bikes as a “tool to reach the hard-to-reach youths.” They have pioneered a successful pilot program through a Los Angeles YMCA branch for six months, and claim the experience proved the bikes are effective in working with normal and “marginal” boys in the c)to 1 5-year age bracket. A staff trainer for the L.A. County Human Relations Commission stated: “There is a human relations
value in the use of mini-bikes as a natural tie-in to Police Dept, personnel and a positive substitute to school drop-outs, drug use and drug abuse in the present mini-bike club.”
Keith Davis, director of the YMCA Mini-Trail program, stated that in the urban setting, the need for a program of safety instruction, coupled with an effectively supervised site where boys and girls can legally operate their bikes, is great, and the scope of the program and the exciting possibilities therein are unlimited. Vice President U.G. Nakamura of Honda announced the one-year program. an investment of nearly 2.5 million dollars.
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KNEIVEL TO JUMP CANYON
Evel Kneivel. truly the last of the real daredevils, called a few days ago to tell me he is at last going to jump the canyon. Not the Grand Canyon though; the Department of the Interior still refuses to give permission for that. He'll jump the Snaky River at Twin Falls. Idaho, a horizontal distance of just over one-half mile. The canyon is POO ft. deep at this point! He will fly over the 212-ft. high Shoshone Falls which, incidentally. are higher than Niagara! He will get his Sky-C'yele up lo the 300-mph speed required on a 3/8-mile runway and a 300-yd. ramp, both of which are now in preparation on a 460-acre site which cost Evel $25.000. He is shooting for April 1071 and plans on holding a $10.000 prize professional motocross at the same t ime as an added attraction.
Not leaving well enough alone, Evel is having his new Sky-Cycle built in Ontario, Calif, by Don Edmunds, and it is to he powered by a steam jet! Always one to give credit where it is due, he asked me to mention that Keith Boender of Northwest Crane & Rigging is building his runway and ramp. Plans are now underway for work (o resume on the story of Evel's life, which was originally to have been filmed by Paramount. but is now being produced by Fanfare films. George Hamilton will still play Evel. and the film will be called, simply. “Evel Kneivel." I was asked to be a "technical advisor." and, needless to say. 1 readily accepted. Truly. Boh “Evel" Kneivel is the last of the daredevils, and he is one of the last real promoters as well. For those who missed i\ squire magazine's story on Evel in one of last year's issues. I highly recommend that you find a copy of the issue. O
