Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

MORE ALERT READERS of Cycle World might have noticed on page 97 of the March, 1971 issue, (smack in the middle of the huge Suzuki advertisement, the largest ever run in a motorcycle magazine), an ad with the headline, “How To Win $1000 Worth Of Suzuki Motorcycles Of Your Choice.” The ad announced a design contest for CW readers titled “motorcycle of the future.”

Several hundred entries were received, much to my shock, since I had rashly volunteered to be a judge about six months before. Roy Richter, President of Bell Toptex and Bell Auto Parts, was to be a judge, as was Charles McHose, industrial designer, motorcyclist, and instructor at the Los Angeles Art ('enter School.

The table in U.S. Suz.uki’s posh board room was buried under art when we arrived, very quickly dispelling the notion that it would be a simple task to pick the best. It required endless hours of debate and discussion to merely reduce the pile to seven of the best designs. The “Project Future Bike” feature in this issue displays the winner and six Honorable Mentions.

Amazingly enough, the winning entry was not fully the best design. Criteria for judging the contest were established on originality, practicality and beauty. To begin with, almost all of them were beautiful, assuming you like motorcycles as much as we do. Most were strikingly original, if only in some small way. Some were extremely original. The tough one was practicality.

Several readers submitted clever, even shrewd designs, that could either not be built, or that would require extremely expensive tooling. This would force the selling price up astronomically, making them impractical. A good many simply took existing bikes and slightly redesigned them. Not very original.

A few sent designs that just plainly could not be built, usually for mechanical or engineering faults. The probing mind of successful industrialist Roy Richter quickly weeded these out.

In the end, we judges were forced to

make a decision based on the design with the least problems. We would have preferred to make the selection based on the design that best met the criteria. Of course, in the long run our winner’s work did meet these demands in a broad sense.

I am grateful to U.S. Suzuki, not only for selecting CYCLE WORLD as the vehicle for their fantastic advertising campaign, but for permission to reproduce the winning designs. I will think twice, though, before so quickly offering myself as a judge again. It is not an easy task and I am certain I will in the

end describe it as a thankless one. But I loved it.

ON ANY SUNDAY

Bruce Brown’s motorcycle film, “On Any Sunday,” opened in Los Angeles in July breaking the all-time attendance record at the Plaza Theatre, and by the time you will be reading this it should be showing across most of the country. Whatever you do, don't miss it. It is, without question, the finest motorcycle film ever made. I described the film in the June issue after having seen only a short “teaser.”

The 90 minute production will take your breath away. Brown’s photographers capture what he calls the “brutal poetry” of motorcycling. He approaches the subject with introspective sympathy and respect. It is funny in places, often wildly so, and also often very beautiful.

Several scenes will remain fresh in your mind for days. Like the mass hare and hound start, Mert Lawwill dropping into a slide at over 100 mph (shot from about ten feet in front of him), the over-the-handlebar view of Loudon at speed, helicopter footage at Elsinore, and many more. I particularly love the closing scenes of Steve McQueen, Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith playing in sand dunes and on the beach. It really captures the fun and spirit of cow trailing.

Brown uses his familiar film trick of slow motion. It is particularly effective in the motocross scenes, most ot which were shot at Saddleback Park during last year’s lnter-Am event.

The quality I like best is Brown's ability to handle the subject professionally and with great skill, while never loosing his touch for the silly and funny side of motorcycling. Riding bikes is more fun than just about anything you can find to do, and viewers of “On Any Sunday” are constantly aware of it. Even the hair raising jumps, slides, wheelies, crashes, etc, are made to look like there is more than just the skincrawling daring skill to it. Bruce’s breezy narration sounds more like a

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bench-racing conversation than the script to a serious film. In reality it is both.

KENNY WINS INTERNATIONAL MX

Continuing the saga of American Motocross Team’s Bryan Kenney’s efforts on behalf of hundreds of supporters in the U.S., I’m really pleased to tell you that he won the first International an American has ever won. At Monfort le Rotrou, near Le Mans, France, Bryan finished first ahead of Sweden’s Gunnar Nilsson (Husqvarna) and Andy Lee of Fmgland, riding a BSA. Wrote Bryan, “We are well remembered in the North of France since the liberation in WW II. The road running past the track is named Avenue de la Liberation.” The race day was July 4th!

His other racing took him to: Casale Monferrato, Italy, where he finished 8th in heavy rain and mud; to Pinerolo, Italy where he finished 7th and the first foreigner; Sens, France, where he finished 7th on a hard track hardly qualified to be called a motocross course; and to Dinan, France, where he was 8th

behind Chris Hammargren, Vlastimil Valek, Keith Hickman, Jan Johanssan, Marcel Wiertz and Helikonen from Finland.

At A-rras, France, he finished 6th riding in the mud on a rough and tight course. He finished 3rd in the first moto, 4th in the second, and was leading the 3rd event by a wide margin

when his Husqvarna suffered an electri cal failure.

BSA/TRIUMPH: AD SAFETY

Jay DeBow &. Partners, the public relations firm responsible for all those good relations with the public at BSA/ 'Triumph, recently instituted a program in keeping with their general policy of promoting motorcycle safety. They initiated a series of radio and TV messages slanted towards the motorcycle road rider, and it’s enjoying tremendous results. They have been documenting the results; 148 stations throughout the nation have received the bulletins, averaging 10,441,621 listeners per month. Using these figures, they estimate that by the end of the year the safety messages will have been aired 1,778 times, to an audience of over 125,214,984 people.

A sample script reads: “'Triumph motorcycle racing team captain Gene Romero reminds motorcyclists to be alert at intersections where accidents are likely to occur. The 1970 Grand National Champion suggests when entering a road from a side street or a driveway, come to a complete stop to make sure of the traffic coming from both directions.” He also stressed the point that you clearly signal your intentions to motorists. It’s a good idea.