Letters
LETTERS
Ladies, beware!
It is very difficult to tell your parents that your new boyfriend loves motorcycles. They immediately picture a six-foot-seven gorilla covered with tattoos, wearing a black T-shirt, drooling in his chestlength beard, showing his middle finger to everyone and riding a 1968 Harley chopper. Five weeks after I started dating Steve, I became the proud owner of a Shoei helmet. I was given an ultimatum: “If you plan on hanging around with me for any length of time, you’d better buy a good helmet.” Actually, even my parents like it. (“Well, I guess if you’re going to ride, you'd better have one.”) And no, I wouldn’t let Steve pay for it, although he offered. He even said if we broke up he’d buy it from me. With a deal like that and a good price, how could I pass it up?
Since then, my curiosity about motorcycles has grown considerably. Motorcycle-Mama I'm not, but I do love riding (as a passenger for now) and I even look forward to it. I have realized several other significant changes in myself since meeting Steve. Ladies, use caution if you experience any of the following:
1. You ask when you get to go for a ride.
2. You actually consider spending $200 for a leather jacket.
3. You look at motorcycles as you pass them on the street and try to guess what kind they are.
4. You know who Kenny Roberts and Freddie Spencer are.
5. You stop nagging your parents about the dangers of smoking just so you won’t have to put up a defense on the dangers of riding a motorcycle.
6. You wear extra makeup when invited to tag along at a motorcycle show.
7. You tuck your jeans inside your boots.
8. You look for more in a motorcycle than just the color and whether it has room for a passenger.
9. You lean with the bike.
10. You buy brake pads instead of oxford shirts for his birthday.
If you show any of these signs, here is some advice from one who knows: If you love a man who loves his bike, buy yourself a good helmet and enjoy the ride.
Daralee Verbürg Orange, California
Okar, it's official: You're hooked. Welcome to the club.
Process of elimination
Your February test of the new Kawasaki Eliminator made me wonder just what it is that the Eliminator is supposed to eliminate. Certainly not the likes of the Yamaha FJ 1 100, the Honda V65 Magna or VF1000F Interceptor, the Suzuki GS 1 1 50 or even Kawasaki’s own 900 Ninja. Kawasaki continues to miss the mark with their latest attempt to be “King” of something. I’m afraid that the only thing the stretched-out, heavier, slower, bad-handling. Ninja-motored Eliminator is going to eliminate is itself. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s no replacement for displacement. Let’s see Kawasaki build an 1 lOOcc Ninja-motor Eliminator. Then just maybe I will have something to be afraid of on my Suzuki GSI 100E.
Carey Little
Livermore, California
One from the heart
I am an administrator at a boy’s ranch in Apple Valley, California, and we have 16 wayward teenage boys here in our facility. I would like to bring to your attention a very special group of motorcyclists, the American Dressers Association of Orange County, who have overwhelmed us with love in word and deed. These people donated the money needed to buy 10 new minibikes for our boys. They also donated more money for supplies and maintenance for those bikes. They have come to our ranch twice in the last four months, the first time with all the fixings for a potluck dinner of ham, turkey, salads, desserts, drinks, etc. They also gave us tools, magazines, food, riding clothes, boots and more. The second time, they brought more riding equipment, plus name badges and caps for each boy—and more money. Next week they are coming back with cookies and ice cream and a special Christmas present for each boy. Not only this, they are helping our girl's ranch in Hemet, California, too! These people, who all ride full-dressed Harley-Davidsons, once took all the boys on a ride, and one of the members once brought three ATCs that the boys rode all day. This letter is our way of telling them thank you, and that we love them.
continued on page 15
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MEMSER WdDUSYY
Jesse Lassandro C-7 Boy's Ranch Apple Valley, California
Sort a reaffirms one's faith in
humanity, doesn't it?
Power struggle
Your contention about massive doses of horsepower being a safety factor {Editorial, February, 1985) is ludicrous. Using your examples of hazardous situations, it is readily apparent that you need to become a better street rider. If you had been using normal defensive-driving techniques, these problems would not have confronted you. Go take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Better Biking Course. Pure H.P is fun, and I enjoy using it. But don't try to rationalize it in this fashion.
Charles McClure Fort Worth, Texas
You rationalize it your way, we'll rationalize it ours.
More power to you
I just recovered from an incredible adrenaline rush. Paul Dean’s editorial (February, 1985) brought back the memories of several of my nearmisses, and I, too, survived only because of the rocket acceleration available from my V65 Sabre. I would also point out that the incredible brakes on these superbikes will stop them faster than any automobile.
Let’s stop kidding around: The regulators don't ride and can’t understand the freedom we all feel— the freedom that folks like Thomas Jefferson only hoped for. As an obstetrician responsible for the safe entry of next generation into this world, I am deeply involved and concerned with life and death. If death on the highways is the regulators’ main concern, then the solution is simple: Either eliminate incompetent drivers and drunks, or rip up the highways. Until then, leave the horsepower in the bikes— and God bless America!
Damon L. Stutes, M.D.
Yuba City, California
Dropping the Hammer
Your recent Race Watch story on U.S. endurance roadracing didn’t mention why Team Hammer chose to run WERA instead of AMA/CCS in 1984. We won our national endurance championship racing against Team Ontario in the 1983 WERA National Endurance Series. We chose to defend our title instead of switching to the new AMA/CCS > series because WERA had more races (11 vs. eight), longer races (including 24-hour and eight-hour events vs. only six-hour events), and more races held in more parts of the country, including our home state of California (all CCS races were east of the Mississippi). WERA also offered a larger purse, free entry, start money for the top five teams of 1983, and an established, proven series. In 1984 we won both U.S. 24-hour races and set a new U.S. record for mileage covered in a 24hour race at 2025 miles.
In fairness to our riders and crew, we hope you can clarify this for your readers.
Bruce Hammer, President Team Hammer Ontario, California
Still down on speed
In your November Letters column, a reader asked how a Yamaha FJ 1 100 would do against a Ferrari GTO automobile in top speed with good gearing and a tailwind. You said the FJ 1 100 would win in a quarter-mile race but would lose in top speed because it only would go about 160 mph and the Ferrari would get up to about 189. What I would like to know is, how would a Honda V65 Sabre and Suzuki 1200 Madura do against the Ferrari in allout top speed, since they both are supposed to go 178 mph?
Raymond Slupecki Dallas, Texas
If you can remember who told YOU that the Sabre and Madura were supposed to go 178 mph, also remember never to believe an vthing else that person tells YOU. The Sabre and Madura both have top speeds somewhere in the low-140 mph range. Both make about as much horsepower as the FJ1100 but are significantly heavier, so they don 7 accelerate as quickly.
And with a more-upright seating position and no fairing to help penetrate the wind more efficiently, both have considerably more drag than the FJ at high speed. Translation: Neither can go nearly as fast as the Yamaha.
Single-purpose XLV
I really enjoyed the “Good As Gold" article by David Edwards (January, 1983). Having been on many of the same roads in the Gold> Country made it even more interesting to me.
Those bikes were very interesting, too, especially the XLV750 Honda, which I had never seen before. It gives me hope that Honda is already building my next motorcycle. Start with the XLV, keep the Shadow motor, the shaft drive, the squaretube frame and the high pipes, and add rearset pegs, cast wheels, 16inch front tire and Honda’s Turbo fairing. As soon as that bike arrives at my local dealer. I’ll be there to buy it.
So. Harley is having trouble raising $ 1 5 million for their Nova project? It seems to me they could find a million Harley owners willing to loan the company $ 1 5 each to start this project. Even I would be interested, although they have never built a motorcycle I wanted.
George Boyse Rocklin, California
Better living through chemicals
Yamaha's V-Max is a step in the right direction. The blackmailers of nuclear oblivion have their toys:
B-ls, MX and Trident. Drunks are now public enemy Number 1. Drugs are an exotic form of communist perversion. The matriarchy is determined to castrate man in every form, from 55 mph to unisex clothing and hair styles. Hot-rodding has joined V-12s as elite dreams of 32-cent gasoline.
The V-Max needs dual turbos and a nitrous oxide injection system.
The rush of pure speed shall not be purged from the last bastion of individual liberty! This is war. lads . . .
R.F. Norfleet Durango, Colorado
No argument. But did you know that it's your motorcycle that is supposed to inhale the nitrous, not you? E3
