Letters
LETTERS
HEARD THE ONE ABOUT...?
Here’s one for your good laughs section. I am the owner of a Kawasaki F3 Bushwhacker. I can already hear the What’s thats? and Never heard of its coming from the younger of your readers.
Anyway, I am having a hard time finding an expansion chamber to fit this thing. Before you start asking why, I have converted it into a motocrosser! Yup. Had a good laugh? There’s more.
Recently, the engine seized and I could not find an oversize piston. . . right now it’s running a piston from a Suzuki TS185— about .090 in. oversize—and rings from a CT2 Yamaha. How’s that for a laugh? Want another one? The damned thing still works. I’ll send you a picture sometime. . .if it doesn’t break the camera. Until then, keep on doing what you’re doing.
Chris Alleyne St. Peter Barbados, W.I.
TRIALS “WIN” MONEY
This is an open letter to the trials bike manufacturers concerning support policies for factory riders. The impetus for this letter is the massive input received by the North American Trials Council from riders and trials fans from all over the country. We are concerned about the paying of “win” money by the factories. This practice has deeply offended the majority of people currently involved with the sport for the following reasons:
1. Trials throughout its long history has never paid a cash purse to winners, i.e., there has never been win money.
2. Trials people have seen the character of other forms of motorcycle sport change drastically and in unpleasant directions when win money was introduced.
3. Many of the trials riders now being paid win money have changed; this is obvious to anyone who can compare their “before” and “after” behavior.
The Council and most of the people who have contacted us realize that the top riders require assistance from the factories. The consensus is that free or discounted bikes, parts and accessories are acceptable and probably necessary. If the rider is performing as an effective employee by riding the machine well, giving schools, helping riders or organizers, etc., then we suggest that you treat him as an employee and pay him a salary. But please, do not put your riders under the unbearable pressure of “no win, no money.” It makes it much too difficult for them to function as gentlemen and sportsmen. This is especially noticeable in trials, for the riders and spectators are in much closer contact than in any other form of motorcycle competition. When sponsored riders do not behave as gentlemen, it makes the potential buyers of your product angry.
We are not discounting the great support and contributions trials bike manufacturers have made to the sport. We take issue on this single point only—one that we feel is important because it can hurt the sport, and that hurts both the manufacturers and all the rest of us.
Wiltz W. Wagner Jr. North American Trials Council Denver, Colo.
TAKE THE MACHO OUT OF MOTORCYCLES
I am a member of that peculiar breed called the motorcycle enthusiast. I could probably write a fair-sized book (Continued on page 14)
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on the joys and non-joys of motorcycle touring. I’ve enjoyed your magazine for years, except for one aspect, which has constantly bugged me, and which I’ve finally motivated myself to write about.
The constant appearance of sexist commentary and advertising in your magazine is something that truly irritates me. I am willing to grant that you aren’t responsible for the advertising copy, but you are responsible for the articles printed. I could give pages of quotations, but if you’re not capable of finding the sexist quotes yourself, there’s probably no point in my writing this letter.
Believe, there are females who ride motorcycles. Amazingly enough, they even occasionally do it with males on the back. I ride motorcycles because I enjoy riding motorcycles, not as some sort of penis-substitute. Not everyone rides a motorcycle for the purpose of enticing some simpering little “chick” to ride on the back of his “machine.”
Notice is being served. Your act is in need of being cleaned up. How people deal with this macho bulls— in their own lives is their own business, but I for one don’t need it served up as the main fare in a motorcycle magazine.
R.A. Mandel Washington, D.C.
RING-DING MILEAGE
I was reading Dan Hunt’s “Road Riding” column in your November issue when I noticed a generalization that is not true. I refer to paragraph two in which Mr. Hunt discusses the fuel consumption of “these gas-guzzling multicylinder ring-dings.”
From his statement I would gather that he has not tested all the multicylinders in production today. I own a 1972 Suzuki 750 watercooled motorcycle, which is a ring-ding two-stroke that gets on the average of 38-43 mpg in city driving. I have registered readings as high as 55 mpg (Canadian gallons) on the highway at 60-65 mph. The poorest gas mileage I have ever registered was approximately 35-36 mpg on a highspeed trip averaging 80-90 mph.
I realize that there are large-bore two-strokes that devour gasoline— namely 500 and 750 Kawasakis—but Mr. Hunt blindly assumes that all large two-strokes are hard on gas; this is just not true.
I know of several other 750 waterpümpers that get mileage as good or better than any 750 Honda on the road. Two-strokes don’t have any valves to burn or adjust, any timing chains to (Continued on page 18)
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slacken or break, and, in general, have fewer parts that can cause problems.
I have nothing against four-stroke bikes, but when making generalizations, make sure that you’re 100 percent accurate.
In closing, I would like to suggest to all bikers that they write to their elected representatives stressing the fuel economy of two-wheeled vehicles. Here in Canada there is talk of a tax on bikes larger than 350cc because of the larger bikes’ fuel consumption. Someone is sorely misinformed. So, for the good of motorcycles, let’s educate the public to the good points of motorcyclists; we hear mostly the bad. John M. Ryder Thunder Bay, Ontario
PROFILES ENCOURAGED
First let me say that I’ve read and loved your mag for five years now. It’s perfection. I especially liked the Yam 350 cafe racer project in the November issue.
From those five years of CYCLE WORLD, I have become, among other things, a road racing freak. I love it. The features I like best in your magazine are the personality sketches, like the Castro, Uhl and Smith articles in the November issue. I would like to know more about how these greats got their starts and about their early racing histories. Sometimes great racers pop up and we readers don’t know much about them except that they can ride.
I think that these rider profiles will add another dimension to racing for the reader and, consequently, heighten his enjoyment of the sport. Dave Lamb Utica, N.Y.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Maybe the new long-travel rear suspension is not so new after all. I was looking through an old CYCLE WORLD, February 1964, page 33, and there is an ad for BSA. There is a picture of a new 75cc BSA and the shocks are mounted in the middle of the swinging arms. Steve Proner New Canaan, Ct.
A FAMILY THAT RIDES TOGETHER
We are a family of six and rather new at motorcycling. We really enjoy reading your magazine. It is a great help to someone “just learning the ropes.” It is our desire to see motorcycling grow into a family pastime.
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LCI ICRO
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A year ago our 13-year-old son wanted to stop in and look at minibikes. Since he is a big fellow for 1 3, we decided to let him get a full-sized motorcycle. He bought a used 1973 Harley-Davidson Z90 and has ridden 1950 miles in our pasture field. We, my wife and I, learned to ride it and used it to get our licenses. The more we rode, the more we enjoyed it. My wife found a 1969 Bridgestone 175 and bought it to use for running after her school bus (they are kept at a central garage). This fall I was able to buy a 1973 Honda 350 Four. We use it to run errands and for running between the farms. In four weeks of riding, we put 440 mi. on it. None of it was "pleasure" riding, all business. We are looking forward to nice weather and hopefully we'll be able to do some touring.
We really appreciate our dealer, Honda of Bellefontaine. They are a clean bunch of fellows, have a clean shop, are very friendly, and very accommodating.
The past year we have visited many motorcycle shops and found them all the kinds of places where families are welcome. If all shops are like the ones we saw, I'm sure many families will become motorcycling enthusiasts, especially with the price of gasoline going up.
Our 1 3-year-old is the oldest of our children. We can hardly wait until he is old enough to ride on the highway with us; then we can all go together. The other children are: a girl 10, a boy six, and a boy three. They all love to ride. Harold Early family Bellefontaine, Ohio
IT TOOK BACON TO BRING IT HOME
Unlike young Mr. Bacon, whose com plimentary letter and drawing were used in a recent CYCLE WORLD ad, I am a motorcycle owner. This is, I am sure, only one of a number of differences between us. I am a bit older than he, slightly over 30, to be less than exact, and have been riding a couple of years longer than he has existed. It shames me a bit to think that he, at his age, should do a thing I should have done long ago. That is, to write and tell you what a great magazine CYCLE WORLD is.
My hands are, whenever possible, curled tightly around the grips of my latest pride and joy, but from time to time I loosen them enough to perform other needful tasks; to whit, opening the pages of my favorite magazine, yours. When I sit down with an issue I read it from cover to cover, usually (Continued on page 26) several times; and when I let it pass on to another lucky reader, there might be a comma or two I’ve forgotten, but surely that’s the limit. The rest has been photographed and filed in my grateful memory banks.
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Thank you for the care and love that you obviously put into every issue, for the pleasure you’ve given me, and all of the advice. I’ve been riding for 16 years and I’ve never had a serious accident, a fact due in great part to articles I’ve read in your magazine. Any schlock screed can tell you how to go fast, few of them care about how good a machine’s brakes are or how to avoid being where you’ll get hurt in the first place. You do, and I’m thankful for it.
Like Mr. Bacon, I think you’re the best. Accept my subscription and send me the first of my eagerly awaited copies so I don’t have to hang around the magazine counters until they come in. The store owner says other customers are worried about his place becoming a hangout for wild-eyed motorcycle riders. Michael A. Blanchard San Leandro, Calif.
FUTURE OF SIDECARS
Dan Hunt’s column “Road Riding” (Nov. ‘74), covered today’s situation very well, but totally ignored tomorrow. Reasoning:
1 . Kawasaki’s advertisement on pages 96 and 97 mentioned the very dirty words “sidecar” in the same issue. And, as we all know, we aren’t playing with kids when it comes to their approach to the marketing of their fine bikes. Might not they have something in mind?
2. By the time this gets published, the surtax on your gasoline of about $.25 will have changed the image of a sidecar from a low-class oddity to an absolute necessity for millions.
3. Everyone in the U.S.A. has hollered that a bike/sidecar outfit is the “safest vehicle on the roads” because the insurance companies of Europe say it is. However, the “why” might be rather important to know. . .it is the direct steering. No. 3.8 lock-to-lock and no 18 to one ratio with a round steering wheel. It goes exactly where you point it and you know where that is every instant.
4. The clincher will be the economy; and as one economist in the States recently said, “It will make the depression of the ‘30s look like a tea party.” Steer safe. John L. Remillard 0 Copenhagen, Denmark
