Letters
LETTERS
"CAN'T BE BOUGHT"
Seriously, I like your mag and carefully compared it to several others before purchasing my subscription. The technical articles are good, and the historical features are interesting and informative. Your claims for the “World’s Biggest Monthly” in the March issue were quite silly, considering all the pages taken up by Suzuki and BSA ads, but your test report on the Suzuki TM400R was critical enough to indicate that your opinion could not be bought by 40 pages of advertising.
ELLIOT OFSOWITZ Trotwood, Ohio
CONVEX MIRRORS
Mr. Kelly (Letters, July 1971) asserts correctly that convex mirrors distort the percei ved distance and location of objects to the rear. But his conclusion, that one should not use convex mirrors, is incorrect. What he fails to note is that the human being is endowed with the capacity to learn and adapt. Thus, with a little practice, one learns to translate the distorted picture provided by convex mirrors into an accurate representation of what is actually “back there.” 1 have two convex mirrors on my R-60, and several times 1 have been thankful for the wide, albeit distorted, field of vision they provide. Of course, Mr. Kelly is absolutely correct in stating that the only safe way to change lanes is to glance quickly over your shoulder beforehand. Ten mirrors, each at carefully calculated angles, couldn’t take the place of that last, quick look over your shoulder.
JIM LUGINBUHL Raliegh, N.C.
As it becomes harder and harder to get convex mirrors, I get more and more disgusted with the nonsense coming from the Department of Transportation, the California Highway Patrol, and idiots like Lee Kelly of Anaheim (Letters, July).
I have a definite preference for convex mirrors for both my bike and car. Neither convex nor flat mirrors can relate a vehicle’s distance to the rear except indirectly through image size. This image size-to-distance relation can be learned only through experience. It makes no difference in this regard if the mirror is flat, convex, or concave. Convex mirrors do not make objects “appear to be at a greater distance than they actually are,” but only appear smaller on the mirror surface than would be the case with a flat mirror. The only important difference, and the only difference remaining after the operator is familiar with his mirrors (as he should be), is that the convex mirror has a much wider field of view, making it unnecessary to look over one’s shoulder as recommended by Mr. Kelly.
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1 question the safety of this practice. Did you ever enter a freeway, look over your shoulder to see if the lane was clear, then look forward again to find you are closing rapidly on the car in front which is stopping at the end of the on-ramp? Mirrors affording adequate rearward field of view preclude the necessity of all but the quickest of sideward glances and allow the rider to be more alert to those brake lights ahead as well as dangers on the side away from which he is turning.
In closing, let me ask Mr. Kelly if he ever saw a trucker craning his head out the window, looking rearward? While truckers may pull in front of you occasionally, it is very seldom because they don’t see you.
LARRY D. FOX Santa Cruz, Calif.
DOING HIS BIT
As an avid desert rider, your article on Mike Patrick (May ’71) sure was interesting to me. I just finished reading the story and you had everything in there from what he wears to his dreams. It had a lot of good information, plus a dash of humor added in for good measure.
I have been reading your mag for some time now and recently have become very concerned about this noise bit. Trying to convince my friends to put their baffles back in (it seems they think their bikes go faster, but actually they’re just dirty) and putting silencers on their chambers has not been easy, but now most of the people around here seem satisfied.
By the way, we here in Las Vegas think CYCLE WORLD is the greatest. Thanks for a great magazine.
GARY STRABALA Las Vegas, Nev.
A RACER ON NOISE
I would like to direct this letter to Gary lovinella of Pueblo, Colo. Barring injuries, I have been racing almost every weekend for the last four years. During this time I have never enjoyed the noise involved in the sport. I think I can speak for the majority of my fellow riders in Southern California when 1 say we are in favor of getting rid of the noise. Three weeks ago 1 had the extreme pleasure of riding in a motocross at Corona where silencers were used. I had made the mistake of parking by the starting line, and yet, at the end of the day, everyone in my party made comments on how nice it was to go home without the familiar annoying ring in their ears.
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I no longer consider myself a beginner in the racing game. The only way I’m impressed is a rider’s ability to go by me like I’m standing still, not a big blast of noise.
MICHAEL D. MILLS Duarte, Calif.
SLIPSTREAM CONTEST
We received just shy of 100 replies to our request for a caption to go with the July Slipstream photo of Dick Mann and Jimmy Odom. Judging by their overall quality, you folks had as much trouble coming up with a funny one as did we folks. Or more. Were Sigmund
Freud alive today, he would conclude that the majority of respondents were sexually preoccupied, and rather aggressive. Finally, a large group of you watch television, notably Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The Team Cycle World decal goes to Clyde P. Smith of Dallas, Texas, for his rather in-group squib: “Say it again, now . . . Ohhh-sa...... Ohhhhhh-sa. ” Thanks for participating, all of you. We’ll try to have another contest soon. —Ed.)
SOME ALSO-RANS
Mann: “But let me make one thing perfectly clear.”
DAVID McCOLLEY South Bend, Ind.
“But have you heard my imitation of the yellow-bellied sapsucker?”
SCOTT O’CONNOR Paradise Valley, Ariz.
“What is a French kiss?”
BILL POPE Concord, Calif.
“Look, you silly savage, leave me alone!”
MARK MURUFAS Long Beach, Calif.
Odom: "...And that's the truth, p-r-r-r!"
(name illegible) Reseda, Calif.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but . . .”
BOB RAWSON Lincoln, Neb.
“So you think you have problems? My kidney belt is killing me!”
MARK PELLEGRINO Oak Ridge, N.J.
RISK EXERCISE STUDY
I wish to tell you my appreciation for the article on Risk Exercise which appeared in your June issue. We have received over 1000 completed questionnaires from your readers to date. Many of them were kind enough to express their enthusiasm or make comments beyond the limits of the form itself. If you could let them know the response was tremendous in your “Letters” section, and assure them that the evaluation will be completed toward the end of this year or so, they would no doubt be most interested.
SOL ROY ROSENTHAL, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Preventive Medicine University of Illinois
