Letters
LETTERS
OHV REGISTRATION
The following news release was sent to us by Erwin Cooper, Information Officer of the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles. —Ed.
California owners of up to one million off-highway vehicles which have never been registered were advised today that they may pay their registration fees between now and July 1 at any Department of Motor Vehicles office.
DMV Director Robert Cozens stressed that formerly exempt off-highway vehicles (OHV’s) must register by that date. The effect of 1973 legislation on the OHV law was to wipe out virtually all exemptions from the registration requirement. By July all such vehicles will have to display either regular license plates or an off-highway identification sticker.
Off-highway vehicles include all classes of race cars, motorcycles, minibikes, trail bikes, snowmobiles, dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles, and similar types. Most farm and special construction vehicles are not subject to registration.
Off-highway vehicles which heretofore did not have to be registered included those used only on private property, and those driven only in closed-course or organized racing events. Such OHV’s must be registered before July, 1974.
To be towed or transported on California highways after that date, offhighway vehicles must display valid identification stickers.
Cozens said the $15 registration fee, good for two years, can be paid in advance with no loss of benefits to the owner. The fee is renewable at mid-year every even numbered year. Fees paid now will be good through June 30, 1976.
Cozens advised the owners of some 130,000 already registered OHV’s that it will be easier for them to renew their registrations if they wait for expiration notices which will be mailed to them by June, 1974.
Six dollars of the two-year registration fee goes to the State Department of Parks and Recreation for the Off-Highway Vehicle Fund. This fund then is used for acquisition and development of facilities for off-highway vehicles, with local agencies contributing at least 25 percent of the total cost.
Of the balance of the registration fee, $5 is retained by DMV for administrative expenses and $4 is rebated to cities and counties.
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Owners of off-highway vehicles not bearing an identification sticker indicating payment of registration fees are subject to fines of up to $50 for the first offense, Cozens said. Fines for subsequent convictions for failure to register the vehicle range from $100 to $250.
Cozens explained that the recent laws requiring the registration of offhighway vehicles came about because of the needs for environmental protection and better law enforcement. Identification of OHVs aids law enforcement agencies in tracing stolen vehicles and citing flagrant violators of property rights and the environment.
SPEEDWAY FAN
I would just like to tell you how much I enjoy your magazine. I think that it is one of the best ones sold today. But there is one thing that I wish you would do, and that is to run more articles about speedway.
I really liked the big write up on speedway you did titled, “Once Is Not Enough” in your Oct. ’73 issue, and the results of the Speedway Championship in your Dec. ’73 issue, but I would still like more! Thanks for a great magazine.
Janice J. Harris Huntington Beach, Calif.
UPPING OUR IMAGE
The purpose of this letter is twofold: (1) to present my subscription to CYCLE WORLD; and (2) to ask why there are so many crummy motorcycle magazines on the market.
As a relative newcomer to the sport (about one-and-a-half years), I was one of those who avidly bought samplings of all of the current crop of offerings and read them from cover to cover several times. This deluge of the written word had the predictable result that I began to form opinions on the relative merits of one magazine over the other.
The December issue of CYCLE WORLD was the clincher. The YZ/CR250M comparison was without doubt the finest, most comprehensive and unbiased article of its type ever offered to the motorcycling reader. To top it off, the article entitled “Myth of the Full-Floating Brake,” by J.G. Krol was a masterpiece of an easy-to-understand technical article.
I believe that the complexion of the motorcycling public is on the verge of change. The major driving force behind this change is undoubtedly the gasoline shortage. On any dealer’s showroom now are an abundance of older and more mature individuals who are sincerely interested in finding an alt^^tive to the problem of commutin^Wo work, and in so doing to have the satisfaction of doing their part to help the nation’s problem. These people have seriously considered the idea of buying a motorcycle before even going to the showroom; and they are arriving in ever greater numbers. At no other time has the opportunity to advance the sport of motorcycling been so great.
In looking at the majority of the current magazines that these people are buying to find out more, however, one really wonders whether they will be scared off before ever going to a dealer. A typical article takes a sample of a current enduro bike, runs it out someplace like Indian Dunes, puts a guy on it who does nothing but race motocross, and then proceeds to complain about how the forks bottom out on 20-foot whoopdies at 75 mph. Æk
In between all of this, many n^u catchwords and funny phrases are liberally sprinkled, implying that the manufacturer is crooked (he didn’t change something they made a smart comment about when they tested last year’s machine). In addition, they imply that the motocross rider is testing the machine just like you, the average rider, will ride it or that the only way the average rider can enjoy or be safe doing average riding is to spend hundreds of bucks putting trick goodies on so the forks won’t bottom on those 20-foot whoopdies.
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Other articles in this type of magazine talk about how the AMA isn’t doing its job to kill the helmet laws; cry about how it’s a right to ride on any public (and sometimes private) land with no mention of what the motorcyclist can do to help the environment and earn the respect and consent of the landowner; or give lip service to the need for quiet mufflers and then turn right around and complain that the 175 Can-Am is designed to drop its power band if you remove its stock, super quiet muffler.
Now there are congressmen who try to read up on a subject before they cast a vote. It is possible that some congressmen read motorcycle mags before casting a vote that affects motorcycles. When they read the kind of magazine that I have just described, with its fine reporting and good humor, what kind of impression do you think they get? They get the impression that all motorcyclists are smartasses—that’s what kind of impression they get.
Who, then, are the really average motorcyclists? There is one thing you can say. They are not all motocrossers, though some of them do participate in this growing sport. They are not all cafe racers, though some of them do enjoy powerful and stable road machines. They are not all Hell’s Angels, though some of them are chopper fans.
A check of national sales statistics will show that the average street machine owner is in an environment of Honda 550s, Yamaha RD350s, Kawasaki Mach Ills and H-D Sportsters. The average enduro owner exists in an environment of Yamaha 250s and 360s, XL250s, and Kawasaki 175s. These and all of the other common machines are what the average motorcyclist wants to know about.
Though he’s interested in the fact that his XL250’s forks will bottom on 75-mph whoopdies, he really isn’t concerned that $600 worth of goodies still won’t make him competitive with a 450 Maico. He would like to see an article by Bill Uhl or Jeff Penton, however, telling him how to make his XL250 into a better woods machine for Ohio, Kentucky, or Pennsylvania-type terrain.
Of particular interest would be comments on how to make the machine more efficient, more quiet and more troublefree. What is the best way to tackle differing terrain, and what traYYT ing, tools, spare parts would these guys carry with them on a long ride?
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This average motorcyclist doesn’t have to be told in each test article that trials-type tires are no good, he already knows that. But they’re better than street tires off-road, and they don’t wear down to nubbins on the street in one week’s commuting to work. This guy, you see, doesn’t have a factory sponsor or have daddy paying his bills. Tire wear is important because he pays for it and tires are expensive.
As motorcyclists we need to take a good look at motorcycling. At this very important time, when droves of Americans of all ages and incomes are looking at motorcycles because they make sense, we need to be very careful of the image that we are putting forth.
Our press must encourage respoi^^ bility on the part of the motorcycle rider. We cannot afford to simply badmouth the AMA, but must encourage all to join together to make it responsive and make it work. We must discourage noise and do everything to encourage the manufacturers to reduce the pollution of their products, no matter how stupid we personally feel this may be.
We must discourage the type of article that encourages the young and immature to spend several hundred dollars on a machine and to tear it up in one week trying to ride hard and super fast like the big boys. Meanwhile, they’re also making enemies for us all by needlessly tearing up somebody’s terrain without permission and pouring 200 db of noise into everybody’s ears because they ran into this terrain with no muffler.
We must project an image of resp^ sibility in our fun, and professionalism in our competition. We must make the motorcycle a respectable alternative to the gas hog as it is and has been in Europe for years. By so doing, we shall not only serve our sport, but also our country in a time of crisis.
The motorcycle must be represented as a pure machine and not an object of escapism or sex-enhancement. Its mechanical design and characteristics must be presented by clear and competent articles such as “The Myth of the Full-Floating Brake,” and not by funny phrases and catchwords that are understood by only a small segment of the community, and are interpreted by the non-motorcyclist as “smartass.”
We need a responsible press that will show all facets of the sport for what they really are, and not just sensatione ize motocross and road racing. You gu' have come the closest of anybody are on the right track. Please find enclosed my subscription as a vote of confidence.
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T.R. Thompson Bellevue, Neb.
ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING
I enjoyed reading the editorial by D. Randy Riggs about the economy of motorcycling in the March `74 issue. I've been riding (commuting-type) a Honda CB175K3 since July, 1969, sim ply because (1) I couldn't afford to buy a car, (2) the parking problems on the campus at the University of Georgia were becoming quite a hassle, (3) I wanted a motorcycle.
I enjoy riding, to be sure, but in the back of my mind I've always had the idea that my machine was economi too. Your editorial and the article gas mileage ("Just Fueling Around"), prompted me to sit down and figure out just how economical my little bike has been.
The figures are a little surprising, and ambiguous in some ways, perhaps, but I thought I would share them in order to encourage some more systematic anal yses along these lines.
Using these figures, I estimate that my travel expenses have been $.09 per mile, and about $375 per year. If I subtracted the resale value of the bike (an estimated $300), my costs would average out to $.08 per mile and $310 per year.
Some other estimated facts: if I driven a car over the same distance at 1 mpg, I would have used 1233 gallonW gasoline, so I've conserved around 900 gallons by riding a bike. Dollar-wise.(at $.43 per gallon), I've saved myself around $397 for gasoline alone. Overall, I cannot begin to figure what an auto mobile would have cost me for the same distance and time. Using the Internal Revenue Service operating cost of $.12 per mile for a car, I would have spent $2220 to go the same mileage, so I've saved at least 500 bucks.
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Anyway, here are my figures. I would like to see an article in your magazine in which the costs of owning and operating a car are compared with figures like mine for a motorcycle. I enjoy reading CYCLE WORLD every month. I guess my only complaint is that you do not push driving safety enough for my tastes. This is an md -try and world-wide problem, tho not just yours. Along these lines, I would also like to see a report sometime on motorcycle/rider visibility.
Bob Munzenrider Gainesville, Fla.
RETIRED RIDER
I am an ex-motorcyclist who still reads every issue of CYCLE WORLD from cover to cover in order to keep up with "motorcycling today." I always enjoy reading about the competition events that have been held all over the world.
My riding on TT and flat tracks began in 1941 and ended in mid-1950, when I had to "pit" because of a serious injury. I sometimes wish I had kept my white Harley 41WR4700. It would be a classic today. The bike is pictured just before the number plates were attached. I thought you and your readers might be interested in seeing it.
Bob Eckhart East Peoria, Ill.
IRATE OIL "EXPERT"
This is in regard to D. Randy Riggs' editorial, "The Fuel Crisis-Are We Tak~ ing Gas?," in the Mar. `74 issue, which he refers to "environmen d atrocities such as the Alaska Pipeline
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He, like so many other motorcycle magazine editors, is so quick to jump on the Sierra Club bandwagon when they are against non-motorcyclists (i.e. the oil industry), but then turns right around and outrageously defends offroad riding.
It’s okay to squash other people’s toes, huh? Since you know for a “fact” that the pipeline is an atrocity, how about sharing your “facts” with CW readers, then printing the following rebuttal.
I don’t understand you. Gas and oil make your motorcycle go. If it doesn’t go, you got no job. You are ignorantly criticizing the future sources that keep your job as well as your lifestyle going. You and so many others have been duped by radical conservationists a^d by politicians wishing to look good their constituents.
What makes me so “expert?” Working in the exploration department of a major oil company for the past six years helps.
Francis Blake Fullerton, Calif.
Sounds like working in the oil industry for six years has distorted your common sense, Blake. No, we are not jumping on the Sierra Club bandwagon when we take a stand against an industry coming in and pulverizing what is pretty much virgin land.
What you don’t seem to realize is that when an industry like yours moves in and does ell this building and changing, people have new jobs and money starts flowing. Often this means the birth of a new town, a new populous and the dying off of yet another natuÆk. area. More cities we don’t need.
And no, we don’t outrageously defend off-road riding; we merely stick up for what is rightly ours. Why can’t we share public lands with hikers, horsemen and other groups? Instead of sending oil industry propaganda around to motorcycle publications, maybe you should use your energy for a better cause; like telling your bosses to turn the spigots back on....— Ed.
DUAL-PURPOSE 175S
Your comparison test of the Japanese dual-purpose 175s was both good and bad. First the bad.
You have set back the progress of off-road bikes at least five years with your type of testing. You have actually given a street test to bikes intended to perform off-road duty. I agree that possibly 70 percent of the dual-purpc^fc bike’s use will be on the street, but tn^^ is by dudes who should have bought street bikes in the first place.
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The way riders get hurt is by taking these dual-purpose, street-oriented, underpowered messes in the dirt. All of the off-road magazines have tried for years to get the Japanese to get more low-end power into their machines, as low-end power is the most important consideration for good handling and safety.
Take the XL175 that you rate so high into the boonies and try a quick turn and then a 60-percent 20-foot hill and see what happens. When you can’t get your Rs up to 7000 due to conditions, you have a get off looking you right in the face. Also try to lift the front end of the XL 175 over a log or similar obstacle. No way! No underpowered bike like the XL 175 will ever cut it for any serious rider. Evidently your test riders all weigh 130 pounds.
Now for the good. Already XL175 owners have thrown out their chests and challenged the CT-2 and 3, and Suzuki and F-7 riders. Needless to say all of the two-stroke riders are fattening their pockets.
One more thing. I noticed that you said you were keeping the silent mush machine to turn it into the off-road machine that you think it is capable of being. Bet you ten bucks that your first change is for lower gearing to give your pride and joy at least a small amount of low end.
Paul Szmonski Vally Heights, Pa.
No, Szmonski, we all don’t weigh 130 pounds. Suited up, we range from 140 to'215. If you read the comparison like you say you did, you will remember our explanation of the enduro portion of the test.
Our four-mile run was anything but a cakewalk, and included obstacles that would be difficult for a Penton. We had occasional riders try to follow us that day at Saddleback on some decent motorcycles, and they all gave up after seeing a few of the “rough spots. ”
Too bad you don’t live close by so you could challenge our silent “mush” machine to a serious enduro run.
You agree that bikes of this type are used mostly on the street, but then say that they shouldn’t have been tested there. Next you’ll be telling us to run a YZ motocrosser around the road course at Riverside. C’mon Szmonski, open your eyes. The comparison was designed to encompass all the uses that the bikes would be put to; and the Honda XL175 was the clear-cut winner—Ed. ©
