Letters
LETTERS
Dual-purpose GP bikes
Some years ago, I used to go to Grand Prix motorcycle races, usually as a member of the pit crew with my old friends who raced. Now, having moved to Hong Kong from Canada a year and a half ago, I was able to attend the Macau Grand Prix races. All the sights and sounds and smells came to me again as if it were only yesterday that I last sensed them. The riders were pacing around before their races, the mechanics were making last-minute checks, the press was taking their usual pictures of all the favoured riders, and the spectators were wishing they were participants. Nothing seemed to have changed.
But when the races were over, 1 was stunned to see something very different as 1 was walking from the pit area. By the gate, riders were strapping knapsacks on their backs, climbing on their machines and driving home. No—not the spectators; the racers, in full racing gear on their racing machines without lights or plates. Some even had their girlfriends on the rear tail fender.
This is Macau's big event every year, and the riding of race bikes on the street after the GP is as natural as going home from work. Next year, my camera will have film in it so I can show you the evidence.
Bruno Gauweiler
Shatin. Hong Kong
What might have been
Colonel T.E. Lawrence, C.C..
D.S.O., died at 8 a.m. on Sunday. May 19. 1935, after six days in a coma following a fractured skull. Sean Gallagher's article, “The Death of T.E. Lawrence" (December. 1986), reawakens many of the fascinating aspects of this man's life.
Captain C.P Allen of the R.A.M.C. at Bovington. along with Dr. Cairns, carried out the autopsy, and it revealed a depressed fracture 9 inches in length extending from the left side of the head backwards, with a small fracture of the left orbit and severe laceration of the brain and especially the left temple. The actual cause of death was pulmonary and cardiac failure due to congestion.
Whilst the evidence as to the exact circumstances surrounding Lawrence’s death differs, it would be quite conceivable for an injury sustained at 35 mph to cause the condition found by the pathologist. More-terrible injuires have been
experienced at lower speeds where a head-on impact has occurred. The pathologist described no other major injuries to the body. It is of interest that so great a man should have been wiped out by an injury which, had he been wearing a modern, welldesigned crash helmet, might have caused nothing more than a nasty headache and transient concussion.
H. Ewart Woolley
Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Mis-tak-en i-den-ti-ty
In your December, 1986, issue there is on page 62 of the article by Paul Bleazard a photograph of what is alleged to be a Ner-a-car of the 1920s. In point of fact, nothing could be further from the truth, as the Ner-a-car has completely different bodywork that provides even less weather protection for the rider, who sits on a conventional saddle. Luthermore, it would not have had a wired-on rear tyre as will be observed from the rear w heel rim. There were none then.
The machine depicted is a one-off constructed by Mr. Alec Lawson, governing director of Sackville, Ltd. It was displayed on his company’s stand at the 1 948 Earls Court Motor Cycle Show' in London. He fitted a 288cc, four-cylinder, ohc engine in line with the chassis, which had its ow n three-speed gearbox in unit and drove the car by chain via a crossshaft from a bevel box. The bodywork was entirely of his ow n design, comprising three basic aluminium units. So, whilst parts of an original Ner-a-car had been used, this machine differed in a number of ways from the original design concept.
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What happened to this machine, no one seems to know. Mr. Lawson stated at the time that he had no intention of marketing it, but only wanted to build a motorcycle that would open a few people’s eyes. He had ridden Ner-a-cars in previous years and appreciated their attempts to emulate car practice on two wheels. The quaint machine certainly attracted attention whilst it was on the Sackville stand at the Show, and as a result merited a feature article in each of this country’s two weekly motorcycling magazines during the late 1940s.
Apologies if I appear to be “nitpicking,” but if historical facts are reported, they ought to be correct. Errors get so easily repeated once they have appeared in print.
Jeff Clew
Sparkford, Somerset, England
Truth and treachery
Your 25th Anniversary issue was better’n speckled-heart grits with redeye gravy. For me it focused 26 years of often-lovable and sometimes-cantankerous motorcycles, and sometimes-lovable and oftencantankerous people, in a way that nothing else could. Amazingly, you got most of the history right, which is very hard to do because history is always such sneaky, squirmy, treacherous stuff when you try to pin it down. The high point was Jeffrey Hansen’s “Where Are They Now?”
1 have often wondered, since I knew of and was fascinated by everyone named; was friends with about half ofthat incredible collection of characters; and had worked either for or with five of those guys. So that issue of CYCLE WORLD was a rare treat for me.
Frank Conner
Newnan, Georgia
More Mustang memories
Having worked at the Mustang motorcycle factory myself, and hav ing grown up seeing and riding al most every model, prototype and even a few of the works racers, I feel compelled to correct some of the information stated in your Mustang article in the August issue. Chuck Gardner was the bike’s co-designer, along with my father, the late Howard Forrest, both of whom handbuilt the 197cc Villiers-engined prototype pictured—and incorrectly described as a production Colt—on page 59.
One of the factory riders alluded to was Tom Bizzari, who indeed did finish second in the 195 l Catalina lightweight race, which was also the first West Coast appearance of a racing legend who rode a Mustang then, the late AÍ Gunter. In 1952, the late Jimmy Phillips, another Mustang pilot, was a top rider and TT Champion, but unfortunately, he did not finish the Catalina race, and the lightweight class was won by Mustang’s arch-rival, Nick Nicholson on a BSA.
James Forrest
Downey, California
Love and the perfect Sportster
I'd just like to echo the sentiments of Bill Hann (“Once and future Triumphs.” Leners, January, 1987).
I wanted a functional motorcycle, not a “stamped-out . . . pinball machine.” as Hann put it. I wanted a bike that would give me years of riding enjoyment, not one intended to impress my friends but that would be obsolete the next year. One with a nicely shaped tank, seat, engine, etc., not with everything molded together. And one I could work on myself, instead of one that says “No user-serviceable parts inside.”
When I decided to buy a new bike, there were no Triumphs (although Jimmy Weinert’s Triumph dealership still stands here in town, full of other bikes). So I bought a Harley 883, and motorcycling in its purest form returned. What vibration Harley didn't sift out of its new engine went away after 1000 or so miles, and it got a power increase at the same time. And while it doesn't have a digital dash, it does have character. We plan on spending a lot of years together.
Ron Coldon
Bloomingburg, New York
Congratulations. You may now kiss the bride. f<3
