Ups And Downs

UPS AND DOWNS

SLIPSTREAM

"Damn, thats smooth!"

ROUNDUP

UP: To the U.S. Forest Service for denying an appeal that could have derailed a plan to build a motorcycle trail system in Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest. The plan, which calls for 10 miles of connector trails in the forest, won approval following several years of public meetings. But following that approval. the Sierra Club and the Coalition on the Environment filed appeals which called for environmental impact studies. The Forest Service ruled that the trails would not have significant impact on the forest environment, so no studies were needed.

UP: To Corbin Saddles, purveyors of motorcycle bum comfort, for staging the Mike Corbin Run. Entry fees to the event, and a charity auction conducted after the ride, raised $ 10,000. which Corbin donated towards construction of a new

Ronald McDonald House, to help house parents of patients at the Children's Hospital in Stanford. California. An estimated 400 riders attended the event. Corbin plans a re-run of the event this summer.

UP: To the Motorcycle Industry Council’s 1990 Motorcycle Statistical Annual, which provides us a look at ourselves through a wide array of interesting numbers. For example: According to the annual. California, with 830,000 bikes on its official roles, continues to lead the country in motorcycle ownership, followed by Texas (420.000). New York (300,Ö00) and Michigan (295,000). What we like best, though, is the annual’s contention that an estimated 39 million folks operated a motorcycle, scooter or ATV in 1990, while 42 million went camping, 40 million went fishing and just 23 million played golf.

DOWN: To Cycle World Publisher Jim Hansen (one of those 23 million duffers), for wanting some time off after just I 5 years with the magazine. With this issue, Hansen retires from his post in order to move from the smog-plagued environs of Southern California to the wide-open countryside of Arizona, where he plans to divvy-up his time between chuffing around on his Harley LowRider. exploring on his barely streetlegal Honda XR600 and getting in a round of golf, oh, every half-day or so. We'll missya. Big Guy.

UP: To The Washington Times, a newspaper which publishes five times a week in the Washington, D.C., area, and which runs a column titled “Two Wheeling” every Friday in its Autoweekend section. The column, written by Merle F. Jacobsen, is dedicated to—you guessed it—motorcycling, and deals with features, racing and governmental affairs. In short, the whole motorcycling universe. A good effort which shines a far more positive light on motorcycling than usually is provided by mainstream newspapers.

DOWN: To the editors of The Arizona Republic's op/ed page, for permitting valuable newsprint space to be filled by the w'ork of writers who know not of what they w rite. In an editorial published December 7,

1990. the Republic's editorial writer opined that motorcycles should be restricted to off-road or residentialarea use. This, the writer said, would make highways safer for everybody, “especially the daredevils on two wheels.”

I [you come across a motorcycle-related item that you think should be singled out for an UP or DOWN, send the information to C'W Roundup. (V53 If. 17 th St.. Costa Mesa. C'A 92627.