Round Up
ROUND UP
JOE PARKHURST
FOUR-STROKES forever, a motto shared by many of us old time motorcyclists, has taken a giant step in England, where there is a movement among trials fans for a special section for bikes made before 1965. It would bring out the big Single AJS, BSA, Ariel and Matchless thumpers.
They are no match for the modern light two-strokes, but they sure are nice to listen to. The interest is making prices on these rare gems skyrocket in England.
C NGLAND'S Barry Sheene takes the cookie for racing achievements in 1973. Not only did he win the FIM Formula 750 Cham ionship, but he also took the hellsport 500 Title, along with the Motor Cycle News Superbike Championship for 501 cc to 750cc capacity bikes.
Then, to crown it all, he won the Man-Of-The-Year poll run by Motor Cycle News, scoring a narrow victory over Phil Read. Sheene will be seen at this year’s Daytona, riding for Suzuki with Paul Smart.
NGLAND'S equivalent to the Cycle World Show took place in London. They called it the Racing And Sporting Motorcycle Show. It was organized by Motorcycle Mechanics magazine. The original show-of-shows in England, the Earls Court show, is no longer run.
The current power crisis created some innovative ap proaches to displays. Many were illuminated by lights drawing power from car batteries.
Moped sales are soaring in England. You know, those horrible little things that you pump like a bicycle to get going, then the engine takes over.
` EMEMBER when I was speculating on who would be the first with a Wankel rotary engine in a motorcycle, and predicted that Yamaha would beat Suzuki? Remember also that I described riding the actual first Wankel bike in Germany at the Cologne Motorcycle Show (Jan. `74 CW)? Well, after all of my maccurate speculation, it seems as though DKW will be the first after all-that is if they have better luck than either of the Japanese giants have had get ting it out.
Now called a DKW, the Hercules that I rode is sched uled for production just about the time you read this.
The DKW CK24, as it is called, has a 294cc, singlerotor engine. They claim 25 bhp at 6500 rpm, running on a gas/oil mixture of about 25 to one. A six-speed gearbox is used, and it still utilizes shaft drive. They say that it will go about 150 miles on the 4.3 gallon tank, which is not too hot a mileage figure. It has electric starting, but an alter nate kick starter will be fit ted. Don't forget folks, you read it first in CYCLE WORLD.
ULTI-TITLED ex-road racer Mike Hailwood, now racing cars, was several years ago awarded an MBE for his services to motorcy cling. He recently added to> that the highest award for gallantry that a British civilian can receive. His action of dragging the unconscious Clay Regazoni from his blazing car during a multiple crash at the 1973 South African Grand Prix, won him the George Medal.
It is customary to receive such a prestigious award at Buckingham Palace from the Queen herself. Anyone who ever saw Hailwood on the squirrelly 500 Honda Four would have wanted to give it to him then!
ESPITE the tragic fuel shortage in England, and we know theirs is real, TV scrambles returned in force. Mid-week races are filmed for week-end viewing on BBC. They are extremely popular. Vic Allan, on a Bultaco, beat John Bank’s Cheney BSA in the first of the weekly events. John Turner’s new Weslake-
engined sidecar won both his races.
Minarelli and Morini, which build only engines to supply the myriad bike makers. Both are two-cycle engine makers.
Italian makers seem to be concentrating on single-cylinder two-strokes for dirt bikes, and two or four-stroke Twins for road machines. Production is booming despite the Japanese competition. The seldom seen six-cylinder Benelli is scheduled for production—so the rumor goes.
YCLE WORLD’S old friend and long-time correspondent from Italy, Carlo Perelli, went to the 43rd Milan Motorcycle Show for us. Exhibitors from 15 countries took part. There were over 789 of them.
The show features both bicycles and motorcycles, so although many more exhibitors attended, many of them were connected with the kind of two-wheelers one has to pump or push.
Italy’s fuel crisis has produced a renewed interest at the show in 50cc small bikes and mopeds. The Italians still top the world in mopeds and mini-cycles. For one reason, there are two very large firms,
TWELVE YEARS AGO
THE MARCH 1962 issue was our third, and the first under my direction as editor and publisher. We road-tested a Norton Manxman. It was a vertical Twin, 650cc, mounted in the famous “Featherbed” frame. It was just about the best handling bike around at the time.
I mentioned in “RoundUp” that Joe Leonard would ride a Harley at Daytona. It was unknown at the time, but it was to be the last year the old beach course would be used. A lot of us miss the old course.
I also identified the unknown Greeves rider from the previous issue’s cover. A copout, of course. BSA introduced their new unit-construction Twin, a milestone in
engineering. Yamaha advertised the YD3 road bike, an ugly thing with flared fenders.
That Norton Manxman went 105 mph, and cost $1104 on the West Coast. Don’t know why it never really went over. Another easy-to-forget motorcycle fell under our gaze—the Motobi 175 Catria. The engine was a typical Italian horizontal Single. It sure was pretty. I often miss those quiet-running, n ice-handling, but usually gutless, Italian bikes.
Technically, we wrestled with the subject of valves and porting in four-strokes. There was a touring story on the Northern California coast. The author rode a Zundapp flat Twin, another really nice bike that bit the dust, and that was actually an antique at the time.
I wrote another one of my interminable progress reports, bragging about our 60,000 circulation and how we were literally taking over the motorcycle magazine business. Boring. As usual, it was written to counter something Floyd Clymer over at Cycle magazine had said in his column. We wasted a lot of time taking potshots at each other, but I get very defensive at times.
We ran a great story on night speedway racing, written by Carol Anderson. Carol is now Carol Ashworth, of course, editor of Motorcycle Industry. She was our associate editor. I discovered her quite cleverly: she walked in the door, having been sent by the employment office. She was looking for a job after having just left Cycle magazine. Her story dealt with the history of speedway racing back in 1935. Its heroes were the Milne brothers, Pete Feuerhelm, Pee Wee Cullum and Jimmy Gibb.
We showed the new Suzukis for 1962. Man, they were homely. Ken Kay was the distributor. I had known Ken for many years before starting CYCLE WORLD. He sold me my first motorcycle, a 1947 Jawa 350 Twin. I almost never forgave him.
Whitewall tires were trying to become a fad. Thank goodness they never made it.
Our new products section didn’t have much to show for itself in those days. Of course, there weren’t many new things around. Our photo of the month was a shot of the fabulous Dick Dorresteyn in a gas of a feetup-slide at Ascot, where he was high point TT rider that year. Walt Mahoney shot it.
Maico showed their new ’62s. Jack White was distributing them then, but he didn’t have much to sell. They were pretty bad. Trying to be all things to all people, we tested, of all things, Rocket Mini-Bike. It rigid, with a spring seat. Blahhh! We had the gall to recommend mini-bikes to the serious rider. It’s a wonder someone didn’t kill one of us.
We also tested the Velocette Viceroy motorscooter.
It was a 250 two-stroke, and damn good for what it was. Lou Branch, the old man of Velocettes, who is still in business supporting the many Velos around, sold them for $682. At the time that was a lot of loot for a scooter.
We ran a few race reports, lots of letters that really were from readers, and even ran a list of the more than 500 motorcycle dealers selling CYCLE WORLD over thd^ counters. It would take sÊ* entire issue to do that today.
News from England was gaining ground. We listed Henry N. Manney as a contributor for the first time. We were off to a pretty good start in 1962.
