Letters

LETTERS

The record Vincent

Regarding the story of Rollie Free (“I Was a Little Nutty, Of Course”) in your June issue, I have enclosed pictures of how the Rollie Free 1948 record-holding Vincent looks today.

As a little background, the John Edgar Vincent was restored to road trim after the record run. It passed through several owners until it fell into disrepair. I bought it in Lancaster, California with a loan from my future wife in November, 1963 and I thought it was a spare parts motorcycle to the record motorcycle. Later I learned from Vincent record holder and mechanic Marty Dickerson that there was no spare parts bike and I indeed owned the original record Vincent.

It required only a valve job and some magneto work to get it running.

It served me well during my college days and provided economical and reliable transportation for three years. The motorcycle was then rebuilt to original condition about four years ago by another Vincent record holder, Dave Matson.

The following information is provided to clarify some of the confusion that’s grown up over the years. The motorcycle was a 1948 Vincent Black Shadow,

Series B. It was (and still is) fitted with 32mm carbs, which were bolted directly to the heads. A new cam set, the Mark Ils, was designed and installed. The Vincent had 21 in. front and 20 in. rear alloy rims. It was specially assembled by George and Cliff Brown with Phil Irving at the Vincent experimental shop. The 1948 record Vincent was never referred to as a Black Lightning until after Rollie Free broke the record.

A special thanks to Jerry Hatfield for his story on one of motorcycling’s greats, Rollie Free.

Michael Achorn Troy, Mi.

Operation Santa Claus

This year will be our third annual Operation Santa Claus. The event was so successful last year that we are moving to another location preparing for a bigger operation.

The purpose of our program is to brighten the holiday for many needy children and to reinforce a positive biker image.

Join us at the Baltimore City Inner Harbor Rash Field on Saturday, October 15, 11:00 a.m. Admission: A new toy or some cans of food. For more information contact us at (301) 435-2520.

Robert Ritter Maryland Motorcyclists Action Committee 6403 Löcherest Rd. Baltimore, Md. 21239

The new look

My August issue of Cycle World had an obvious change in layout. The change Allan Girdler Cycle World 1499 Monrovia Ave. Newport Beach,

Calif. 92663 managed to bore and irritate me at the same time. The principal annoyance is the way you have buried the section headings half way into the text. This practice does not lend itself to easy reading. My eye found the section headline and then I had to find where it actually began. Some people confuse change with progress.

K. Riddock Norfolk, Va.

Your new format in the August issue is great. Keep up with it.

Dan Zeldon Milldale, Conn. I enjoy the revised layout and graphics of the magazine very much. It seems that pages 28 through 33 and page 53 are particularly effective, as is the new specification format. The sense of activity is splendidly accomplished in the double spread intro to the 900 Seca review.

Keep up the energy.

John Adams Coral Gables, Fla.

We deal with a wonderfully exciting subject. One day several months ago, we were thinking about this and decided we weren’t doing the subject justice, that the magazine wasn’t as exciting as the motorcycles in it. Because the reader knows motorcycles are fun, we were neglecting to show him. So we’ve done some thinking and designing and updating. The better pictures, the bolder cover and the revised departments are the result.

Herbie?

Please, please, please!

Name the poor soul in Slipstream something else besides Ted. The poor guy in your August issue almost rides like me except I never crash that easy. He didn’t even kick up any dust. How about “Herbie?”

Seriously though, I like your new format and enjoy your tests and tech articles.

Ted Beers Arnold, Mo.

See Page 82.

How it’s done

How do you guys get those great photographs of motorcycles in the studio standing, seemingly perfectly vertical, suspended in space with the side and center stands up? I’m telling you> I’ve tried this out in the garage and time and again ol’ Bessie does a half pike onto the pavement. Do you use a dab of super glue on the contact patches? Is it a behemoth electromagnet, poised just out of the camera frame to get her upright but not ofT the ground?

Reader information

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Advertising: See SRDS. Circulation audited by ABC.

Come on, ’fess up. Do it for all those readers aching to know.

Scott Gilmore San Diego, Calif.

We never suspected that the technique generated such interest! It’s almost a shame to admit this, but all we do is find a stick of the correct length and prop the bike against it behind the rear wheel.

Long legged folks

The best bike for us 6 ft. and over folks is the 1982 Yamaha Seca! It has extra long inseams and the bars can be changed for individual reach. Its 5.2 gal. gas tank, 50 plus mpg and shaft drive make it a superb one-up tourer. The handling makes it a great back-road burner, too.

The Big Four have done more and more to accommodate shorter riders and seem to have forgotten us bean poles. If the Customs are cramping your style, check out this bike.

Jeff Roberts Nashville, Tenh.

Gold Wing best

Having read your test of the Yamaha Venture versus the Honda Aspeneade, I must respond. I am only 5 ft. 7 in. so neither bike was designed for my frame, but the Honda tits much better. I modified the seat with careful removal of foam then added softer foam. It made it perfect for me.

I’ll concede that the Yamaha has more power, but who needs it? My Gold Wing will cruise lazily at 70 mph with ample reserve for hills and passing. My mileage averages 46.8, with 41.7 the worst.

Ken DeKing Walworth, N.Y.

An honest answer

My original intent was to write a scathing attack condemning your incredibly, mindbogglingly, nauseatingly biased coverage of our sport. I think I’ve read most of your issues and can’t honestly recall seeing full road tests of Benelli, Ducati, Laverda, or Triumph motorcycles, but if Kawasaki changes the valve timing on their GPz whatever you guys grind out another full blown in-depth road test. I can sympathize with you to a point. If 80 percent of the motorcycling public is riding Japanese motorcycles, then quite obviously you’re going to accommodate that public. But to totally exclude the previously mentioned bikes makes no sense to me. The fact that they do little or no advertising in your magazine would explain it nicely, but you’ve denied this before. If there is a reason your readers would love to hear it.

And there’s a decidedly automotive flavor to our sport today. The bikes are expensive. You take out a loan, insert the key and off you go. If it breaks, bring it back to the dealer. Most of the riders I see on these Japanese superbikes are not scuffing up the knees on their multicolored leathers, screaming around those sweeping corners. They're really poking up and down the Boston Post Road, going from the beach to Dairy Queen. If they tried to imitate your man Ulrich, the police would be taking them home in a mayonnaise jar.

There’s something very phony about the whole scene, and you're part of that scene.

Mark Roghmans Fairfield, Conn.

Could you please give an honest answer to the following questions?

First, why is there so much emphasis on speed in today’s motorcycles? Most TV commercials and published ads suggest that their product is superior because of its ability to blaze the 1 320.

Secondly, while I enjoy reading them,

I would like to know how honest your test reports are. It’s a fact that you generate ad revenue from the big four. I believe there are negative facts about certain motorcycles that you have to state in polite terms (if at all), so you can maintain your accounts with advertisers. Certainly this doesn’t affect your ability to report the positive facts about a motorcycle, but doesn’t it affect your ability to report the negative aspects?

I think so, because I have had dealer mechanics tell me facts about certain bikes that I have never read in any of the four rags I subscribe to.

Geoffrey R. Jones Des Plaines, 111.

Any special interest magazine (whiclu is what we are, in publishing terms) has this problem. Because we report on products whose makers advertise in the magazine, there's a lingering question about how fair or independent the reporting can be.

Rather than ask you to take our word for it, get out your back issues. Add up the tests, the covers and the pages occupied by Laverda, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Cagiva, Maico, KTM,

‘Can-Am, Triumph, Harley-Davidson and BMW. Some of these companies have ad budgets, others don't, but let’s consider them as one group, and add up the total advertising pages for the brands.

Next, re-read the tests of the Big 'Four. Mark the times we mentioned the blown-up engines, fried clutches, seized suspensions and broken batteries.

Notice the bikes we rented or borrowed because the factory didn't want that model tested. Does this sound as if we take dictation?

* Now, what we can’t do: we have a test bike for a month. All we can report in .that test is what the bike’s like when new. Every year we keep several examples and run them for a full season, 10,000 mi. or more. We report on flaws that surface, but we can only ^lo this for a fraction of the models on the market. No doubt the mechanics at the dealership know things we don’t.

Why don’t we test more Benei I is, Triumphs etc.? Because sometimes we can't get them, even though we rent private ones and travel out of state vvhen needed. Beyond that, if 20,000 readers will buy the Honda 650 and a handful will buy the Ducati 600, we serve the public best by testing the Honda.

As for the ads stressing speed and power, the factories do that because speed and power sell. As the Polish count said about something else, "How disgusting. How deplorable. How \uman.”

Suspension

I just finished reading Suspension in your July issue. I always kinda knew what was going on in there (sort of). After reading the article now everything is perfectly clear. When I talk about suspensions I'll know what I actually mean sort of).

Jim Tincher

FPO Miami, Fla.