Letters
LETTERS
SMALLER CALIBRE?
You bums! After thinking we finally had a decent magazine you quit road testing the larger calibre bikes. I live in a small town and I’m rarely exposed to anything larger than a 250cc cycle. You were my main source of information on the bigger machines. I hope (boy do I) that you will soon suspend this practice due to the thousands of letters you are probably receiving these days.
JOE E. WORTHEN Orange, Texas
How’s the Harley KR-TT (this issue), Matchless 500 (July issue), Triumph TT Bonneville (May issue) Norton Atlas (March issue), . . . what lack of big bikes is that?
SHAFTED INDIAN
The Indian Four in your June issue is a chain drive, overhead valve Indian, not a shaft drive, “L” head Indian. You publish a splendid magazine.
JOEL FITHIAN Carpenteria, Calif.
. . . and you catch our errors splendidly. Ed.
SILVER “B” DESIGN
I would appreciate receiving plans for duplicating that marvelous cylinder arrangement described in “The Saga Of The Silver B” by Mr. Beall which apparently uses a mathematical line for a piston moving in a plane for a cylinder. Could it be that modern engineers are finally realizing the merits of Uncle Clyde’s original design with the present trend towards the “square” layout?
Maybe we will soon see some really modern motorcycle engineers using the logical extension of this design. The parallelogram.
DAVID REEL Inkster, Michigan
FREAK SHOW
Others have expressed their views regarding your lack of exposure of custom machines. A few of the many readers who are interested in side shows and circus freaks (CYCLE WORLD, Letters, May ’63 issue), etc., I feel have exposed the discontent of a great number of your readers. All has not been in vain, however, mainly because in nearly every issue there has been at least one freak show in different form. This because you would find it detrimental to the relationship between yourselves and the advertising departments of the mini-bike industry if you didn’t. Custom enthusiasts realize that mini-bikes are a necessity for the continuance of the magazine and your jobs and we are a very tolerant group.
Each polite request for you to produce an article, now and then, on custom bikes has been answered with insolence, arrogant remarks and trivial excuses. You’ve made it known that the chopped cycle does not appeal to you in practical and aesthetical form . . . let’s look at the scramblers and the mini-bikes; OK, so the custom riders don’t advertise, but they do buy your magazine. Perhaps this factor is never considered significant in the accomplishment of your ends.
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You’ve raised the admission charge to your circus quite a bit since you started, but your customers are still getting the same old two ringer. For fifty cents a throw I think you could trade in your old tent for a new 1963 three ring canvas, with custom machines, scramblers, and mini-bikes, in all impractical and unappealing splendor.
WILLIAM (BOOEY) SMITH
Harsens Island, Michigan This thing is getting under our skins. Like we have been saying, customs are just dandy and we love them ... as long as they don’t have ape-hangers making a tasteless spectacle for the non-cycling public to hold up to ridicule, which they richly deserve. Like others, reader Smith has not been reading. As for advertisers having one whit to do with our editorial policy, more nonsense. The magnificent mini-bike “industry” consists of five or six small advertisers, versus over seventy motorcycle distributors and members of allied industries. But, were the percentages reversed, CYCLE WORLD’S editorial policy would remain free and independent, as it is, based on the desires of its readers with their honesty, intelligence, and integrity foremost in mind.
Again, this, our first custom issue, should answer all doubting Thomases’ questions concerning our feelings towards custom and chopped machines. They are indeed impractical in all of their intriguing sparkle and splendor, reflecting the painstaking workmanship and loving care of their creators. One of the most fascinating elements in the cycle world. Ed.
THIS IS NATURE LOVING?
I feel a word of dissension is necessary. I have been reading with diminishing interest the increased coverage given the trail bike. This facet of motorcycling overlooks and overrides all opposition, of which there is plenty.
Imagine yourself alongside a stream in a meadow, situated among lofty peaks, blue sky overhead, the local wildlife content in lush vegetation, paying witness to your natural advances toward a healthy young maiden. At this moment, removed from pressures of civilization, the shock is indescribable when a faraway sound, its fury evident, suddenly materializes in the form of a hysterical machine, spewing forth destruction of all that is good. The girl faints and one monster disappears, the reverberating sound lingering to remind you of those maniacs over the mountain. In my opinion this is an unwarranted intrusion of God’s domain.
Another example, a spectacle that makes a flattrack meet look like a kiddie outing is the annual deer season. A three month brawl with rifles and motorbikes the participants. This raises all kinds of hell with the pure hunter.
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During the last few years the world of motorcycles has risen steadily in its reputation, as conceived by the public at large, no small part being played by excellent coverage such as you present. However, it would be a shame to degrade this new reputation, utilizing the snarling monsters that belch ill will throughout our wildlife regions and National parks. All of this advertising of “going anywhere” seems to be taken literally by a large segment of trail bike fraternity.
I realize civilization has made inroads in regard to all aspects of nature, but you can’t be so enlightened as to believe that bikes belong everywhere. The solution to this problem should include an intelligent evaluation of the opposing ideals involved.
NAME WITHHELD Buenos Aires, Argentina We suggest you will simply have to find somewhere else to take the young lady. Incidentally, what makes you think the bike mounted hunter is not “pure?”
MEMORIES
Some of you old chaps may know Mr. Edward A. Ryan, he is one of the old memories of motorcycling and has many pictures to prove this fact. All those who are interested in Harley-Davidson parts or advice or anything, be sure to visit him.
Since Honda moved in, his location on 126 West 4th Street in Los Angeles, has become a lost page in motorcycling history except for those people who have memories to the fact.
GEORGE T. FIETZ Gardena, California
We find it difficult to blame progress entirely on Honda. Ed.
OUR GROWING INDUSTRY
As we have seen your magazine progress, we noted a continued refinement of the grade of the articles and general calibre of the magazine. It is interesting to note that while we sell 20 to 25 copies of CYCLE WORLD, we also are now selling our full supply of 5 to 7 of each other magazine. The publishers of other magazines should be grateful for the stimulation you have given the industry.
We would like to see road tests of the Enfield five-speed 250, BSA SS-80 and the Triumph Sports Cub. Some of the equipment you have been testing, such as Jawa, etc., are almost non-existent in the central states.
Your continued work along these lines will surely help you and our whole motorcycle industry.
RODNEY W. KREUNEN Cycles, Inc.
Madison, Wise.
THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN . . .
I am a British merchant seaman and am in New York every second week. As a motorcyclist I look forward to getting a copy of CYCLE WORLD.
Concerning your remarks in Round Up regarding the Berliner and Norton in your April issue, these two cheap cracks seem more to come from a politician than the publisher of CYCLE WORLD. I will not go into the merits of what Britain can do, as it is not our nature to boast of our achievements, hoping this letter does not give you the wrong idea of British motorcyclists as we are a quite happy breed.
MB. JOHN DEMPSTER R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth N.Y., N.Y.
VINCENT MEMORIES
Your recent “Fabulous Vincent” article (CW February ’63), stirred many heady memories. A rollicking, neck snapping ride on one of the very first series “R” Rapides to reach these shores, Miami, 1947. Later, my first trot over 100 mph, and never with a greater feeling of stability and security. The faster a Vincent went, the harder it seemed to compress itself onto the road,' while that big twin just moaned with pleasure, and called for more! A demanding mistress!
Later, at Silverstone, England, the sight and sound of these great hearted bikes, coupled with sidecars, brought the stands to their feet, and even the old pros in the paddocks dropped their spanners and jet boxes to rush to the fence. At that time lOOOcc racing combinations were allowed. An unforgettable start — dead silence, the flag drops and the heavy booted tread of the crews heaving the big machines into motion, both men straining to the limit, deafening thunder, clutches slide home, pungent clouds of blue rubber smoke and Castrol “R” assails the nostrils as the machines rocket down the straight with tails weaving, the crews flinging themselves on heiter skelter •
Then your hair stands on end. Three big Norton combinations fill the track abreast as they sweep around the final bend and onto the straight. The crews hike out so far they overlap each other. Even the drivers throw themselves completely to one side of the bike — brake and gears go bang! But what’s this? The impossible? Vic Willoughby on the monster Black Shadow three-wheeler takes to the OUTSIDE verge and with a fantastic blast of sheer brute power wrenches past Nortons showering the grandstands in a hail of divots and stones as he cannons by, clear off of the track! An unforgettable image — even ten years cannot dim.
The enclosed photo is of one of the hot test Vincent specials of the day; the two engrossed mechanics - then teenager John Surtees and his father.
ANDREW ROSS Hopewell Junction, N. Y.
