Letters
LETTERS
TEN BEST BIKES
If you had entitled your article “Ten Best Buys of 1977” I could understand your selection of the Honda GL1000 as the best touring bike. But to say that “the BMW is the finest combination of speed and comfort and handling and reliability offered,” and then relegate it to Honorable Mention because it costs so much more than the Honda is hardly in keeping with the title “Ten Best Bikes.” Indeed, how much would the Honda owner really need to invest in order to place the Honda in the load-carrying class of the BMW as you suggest?
Forgive the nit-pickin’—I really enjoy your magazine and the article on the 10 best was great.
LCol Eiden D. Jones USAF (Ret.) Riverside, Calif.
The title of your article on the 10 best bikes of 1977 is misleading. Instead, it should have been “Ten Best Bikes of 1977—For the Money.”
I know the Honda is a fine motorcycle, but by your own admission, the BMW is better. That’s why I purchased a new R100/7 this summer. Sure, it cost a lot, but I wanted the best—not the best for the money.
Paul M. Emerson Lewiston, Idaho
Since when is the Honda GL1000 the best touring bike? Since when is any bike just a touring bike, or just a sporting bike? Consider the following point: Both the Honda and BMW make excellent touring rigs. The BMW is also one of the finest sporting roadsters around. Forget the GL for anything else but touring. I can easily justify paying one fourth more for twice the bike.
Why is the price so much higher? The BMW can do everything a GL can (and more) but with two less cylinders, two less carburetors, no radiator, less weight, and in the long run, many less headaches. When you buy a BMW, you’re paying for suspension engineering and a microscopic attention to detail. You are paying for light weight alloys instead of steel. Justifying the price is no great task. Just consider mpg, longevity, resale value, simplicity, owner serviceability and a machine that is physically so much less, yet delivers so much more dollar for dollar. Bike for bike, the Beemer offers the most.
Thom Doucette Trumbull, Conn.
When I received my October issue and saw “The Ten Best Bikes of ’77” on the cover, I turned to the article expecting to read about Harley-Davidson’s FLH 1200 in the touring category. But I was surprised and found the Honda GL1000 there in place of the Hog, and almost fainted. I couldn’t believe you could make such a boo-boo.
The GL doesn’t even compare with the FLH when it comes to touring; it’s more of a superbike than anything. It doesn’t have any of the touring necessities such as saddle bags, crash bar, tour pack or even a fairing. The Honda is a good bike, but doesn’t have some of the requirements for touring. The only thing it has on the FLH is top speed, and how many times do you go over 100 mph when touring?
Scott Bunn Akron, Ohio
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1977,” how in the name of heaven can you people justify your choices for superbike? Sure the Kawasaki is fast and big, and it's even cheap for all the goodies you get. If you would have left it at that I still would have been upset, but. no. You people went on to give that junk Harley paints to be a cafe racer an Honorable Mention!
Haven’t you people ever ridden a 1977 Ducati 900 Super Sport? If for some reason you have never been able to experience one of these new Streeters, mine will be in the garage all winter, you can stop by and pick it up for one of those used bike tests.
Other than this superbike class choice, I pretty well agree with your choices. However. for the life of me, I can’t see spending all that money on anything but the best.
Val Schonberger Rome. 111.
HELMETS AND SAFETY-FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCES
I am a registered nurse who works in the operating room. I also drive a 1976 Suzuki 750 water-pumper as my daily transportation.
Recently the state I live in repealed its helmet law. I agree that no governing agency has the right to tell you that you must wear a helmet, or seatbelts for that matter, but my firsthand experience is that helmets are a damn good thing.
During the three years I have been a staff nurse in surgery, I have worked on perhaps 100 or more motorcycle injury cases. Of those, perhaps 20 have been very serious injuries. Modern surgery is amazing. We can remove or repair ruptured organs. We can put plates, screws, rods and pins in or on broken bones. We can graft skin on large areas of road rash. But when a person’s skull is smashed in, he often doesn't reach us.
My point is, be grateful for the freedoms you have but don’t die because you like the wind blowing through your hair. If that’s what you want, get a convertible.
Gary Silvers, R.N. Yakima, Wash.
I read and enjoy CYCLE WORLD regularly, and feel compelled to comment upon your October issue’s “Farewell to Helmet Laws” item.
My wife and 1 recently witnessed a tragedy involving a non-helmeted motorcyclist. and it kind of galvanized our thinking that some people need a law to tell them to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle. New motorcycle riders, in particular, often resist wearing helmets because they are expensive, relatively uncomfortable and difficult to get used to; it is ironic that it is exactly they who should be wearing a helmet.
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I realize this issue is highly emotional and volatile, but I suggest to you that it is difficult to resist helmet laws on “constitutional and philosophical” grounds when you are standing beside a rider who is dying in the street, with blood oozing from his ears, and you know damn well a helmet would have saved him. I’m not foolish enough to suggest that a helmet law will guarantee all riders will wrear a hat, but if the law saves one head, it seems to me that is all the justification needed.
We think there is going to be a resurgence of helmet laws. Some states that have repealed the law (Indiana for one) have been taking long hard looks at their motorcycle accident reports since repeal, and the early evidence is making them wonder what in the hell they have done. Of course, only time will indicate the validity of this prediction, but we think your October helmet law obituary just might end up on your dinner plate.
Denis Rouse Publisher Rider
I know a man who won 7 wear a seatbelt. Seems he and his wife were driving along the highway and got T-boned. The door flew open. He and his wife were dumped on the road. The car went over the cliff, fell 500feet and burst into fames. Moral? A ll the statistics in the world don't have the emotional impact of one firsthand experience.
We could spend days arguing the philosophical sides of the issue... to no purpose. Suffee it that we agree on the value of helmets and not on the value of free choice.
In our prediction, if we're wrong, we're wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. What would be a first is for us to not predict for fear of being wrong.
At any rate, I'm glad you like the magazine and that it stirred you into a letter. A good letter.— A.G.
RESTORING AN EXCELSIOR
I recently bought a 1954, two-cylinder, two-cycle Excelsior 250cc motorcycle. It had been sitting outside in a farm field in northern Michigan for a few years and who knows where else!
It’s almost complete but needs paint, rechroming, cables, wiring and also a few important replacement parts.
Could you help me find out where I can find or send for parts or information concerning them? Another important item I’m trying to find is a service manual for it.
Here is the motor information: Excelsior Talisman Twin, Engine No. 5277, Series: TT1/III.
Jim Isleib 212 Scallon St. Hancock, Mich. 49930
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A POSSIBLE ANSWER
Regarding the article, “The Moped Question” in your October issue: As you know, the moped is potentially the safest, sanest of all two-wheeled vehicles. What you have really addressed yourself to is the prevailing problem of today’s society: permissiveness.
In the late 1950s my son wanted an Italian motor scooter, then the fad. I made him get a small motorcycle (lOOcc) instead because we’d had many injuries on that most abominable of all two wheelers, the scooter. For the first three weeks after taking delivery of the motorcycle he was allowed on the road only when I accompanied him on my Harley. The rest of the time was spent on a nearby ball field practicing maneuvers to increase his proficiency.
I’ll bet a month’s pay that the same children you’ve complained about on mopeds are also little stinkers in their other activities because of the lack of parental care and supervision. I would say that 99 percent of the parents you’ve appealed to don’t read motorcycle magazines and if they do, probably not the editorials.
The answers lie in training and supervision by someone who cares. Driving tests, as we all know, only show that you can pass driving tests. They are no indication that you have the training, courtesy, and good sense to operate a motorcycle on the street or highway. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, those parents and children to whom I am referring won’t even realize that the article and letter are pointed directly at them. You are to be commended for publishing it anyway.
Henry P. Bloomer Waco, Tex.
WE DON’T SEE IT THAT WAY
We see few enough Ducati road tests without you people making such erroneous statements as that in your November issue.
Before the introduction of the Honda Hawks the Japanese Big Four had six basic engine designs in the 350cc-500cc fourstroke vertical Twin genre. All but one of these, the Kawasaki KZ400, has a 180degree crank.
I hope you admit to this blunder. I can’t believe you ever made it.
Tim Bryant Dallas, Tex.
We said “most” vertical Twins use a oneplane crank and while that might have been a hasty judgment—we didn 7 actually take a survey—we don't see it as a blunder.
What we consider a blunder is not learning until after the Ducati test appeared that a large share of the engine design work was done by Italjet, which explains why the Ducati 500 doesn't look like other Ducati engines past or present.
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HONDA 400 FOUR FAN
Damn!
That’s the only response 1 could come up with after reading that Honda will probably do away with the 400 Four. From what I’ve seen, Honda hasn’t advertised the bike hardly at all. I have a hard time getting out of parking lots with mine. “Is that really a Honda? I didn’t know1 they made a bike like this!” Two guys came running over one day—“Is that some kind of Italian bike?” With questions like this, you can’t tell me Honda’s advertised enough.
The bike is a dream. As a woman rider, I wanted a bike small enough for me to feel comfortable handling, yet with smoothness and punch. They made the bike for me and I’m not alone in my admiration. My husband takes it out once in a while just for fun—comes back grinning every time.
I hope Honda reconsiders. The bike is so right for so many riders. Let’s show Honda there’s a market for something besides mediocrity.
Gail Leighton Concord, N.H.
PEACHES AND CREAM
Because I was fascinated by the idea of an automatic transmission and its obvious convenience, I traded my 1976 Honda 550F in on a ’77 Honda Automatic. The 550F was a peach, but the 750A is peaches and cream.
It felt and sounded so different that at first I thought I’d made a mistake. After 200 miles, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. It has more than 1300 miles on it now and every ride is joy all over again. There’s all kinds of pow er and the take-offs are smooth and steady. The tire, chain, sprockets, gears and crank are bound to last longer. I haven’t even had to adjust the chain yet.
This bike is not for the berserko or hotdogger and doesn’t pretend to be. It’s for the man who wants a smooth, classy ride.
Allan Burch Wenatchee, Wash.
RIGHT ON?
I bought your October issue hoping to find some good reading about some good bikes. What I found was depressing. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki; Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, on and on and on, every page.
What happened to the real motorcycles? Maico, Jawa-CZ, MZ, Husqvarna. I say “right on” to you backyard mechanics who still talk and dream about 501s, enclosed chains and the real riding motorcycles.
D. Alvarado Dayton, Ohio 13
