Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
No FJR1300?
A few years ago, I traveled through Norway on a Yamaha XJ900S Diversion. A great bike! Couldn't wait to get back to the U.S. and buy one.
Not available here! Now I see Yamaha has another new bike, the FJR1300, but says the U.S. sport touring market is flat, so it won't be coming here either. Maybe the market wouldn’t be so flat if Yamaha made these great Euro-bikes available to U.S. riders? BMW and Honda seem to be doing well.
Bill Moeller Walnut Creek, California
Yamaha is sure building some beautiful, highly functional machines these days. But the one I’ve been waiting for, the FJR1300, is reserved for the people with funny accents!
I sold my much-beloved Kawasaki Concours five or so years ago, because I had a wife, house, two small kids and two cars to maintain. While I was traveling, earning a living to support my family, the wife bolted with her boss! Now I have lots of time, but no bike.
I’ve considered the Suzuki Bandit 1200 (no bags, no lowers) and the award-winning Triumph Sprint ST (fairing too small, bars too low), but this FJR looks perfect. Riding around town on that beauty, I’d have a new wife in no time! Help me Yamaha, I’m getting pretty lonely!
Steve LePard Nashville, Tennessee
Rayborn's ride
Congratulations on December's ex cellent "Family Business" article on our Harley-Davidson XRTT, a ma chine that has been the object of a two-decade love affair. However, one correction must be made. Dick O'Brien never charged Team Obso lete for anything. Back when "Obie" ran the racing department, anyone who was racing a Harley-Davidson knew he had friends in Milwaukee. And what a group they were. Dick was a legend. His assistant Clyde Denzer made sure things got done. Pete Zylstra designed the XR-750 and supervised its production. Ron Alexander was the dyno guru. Carroll Resweber was fabricator par excellence. Walt Faulk was chief technician and tuner. These men ate, slept, dreamed and loved Harleys. It was an honor to work with them. To good times gone by...
Rob lannucci Team Obsolete Brooklyn, New York
Grandstanding
David Edwards hit the nail on the head with his “Shameless plugs” column in the November issue. It’s about time you magazine people started bemoaning the lack of centerstands on most new streetbikes.
Do the manufacturers (and most magazine staffers) have any idea what it’s like for us poor working stiffs who have to buy (and service) what we ride? Don’t they realize that most of us can’t afford fully equipped garages? Or, for a lot of us, any garage?
Considering the prices of bikes today, we should not have to spend hundreds more for a swingarm stand just to complete routine maintenance. And what do the manufacturers expect us to do if we need to adjust the chain while on tour, or if we get a flat tire a hundred miles from nowhere? Just drop a $10,000 bike on its side?
For manufacturers to sell streetbikes without centerstands is criminal.
Dean Wahls
Venice, California
Café culture
I just received my December CW, and the Up Front column about England’s old rockers got my attention straight away. As one who grew up in the café-racer era, I found the words very accurate, especially about the camaraderie among rockers. I never saw anyone who was worse for wear on drink, no bad attitudes, no abusive behavior. You did, however, see riders who were, quite literally, accidents looking for somewhere to happen on their badly put-together "heaps." On the other hand, a few of the rockers ended up in compe tition and did quite well. Although the café-racer era was short lived, it's well-remembered.
Ian Kennedy Mapleton, Georgia
The $1 million bike
Some of the negative comments provoked by the article on the Brough Superior upon which Lawrence of Arabia took his last ride ("Enigma Ma chine," Au gust, 2000) puzzled me. It doesn't in the least appear to be a boost er piece for the prices of old Broughs, as some sug gested. Not to me, any way. But I happen to have been
born and raised in the U.K., and I am a history buff as well, so the piece was just meat and drink for me, an almost perfect thing in itself. My only (very minor) complaint would be that Mr. Jackson did not ad dress the question, which was a sub ject of conversation occasionally when I was a boy, of whether or not T.E.L. could have preserved his own life by simply hunkering down, hanging on tight and then punting that unfortunate boy cyclist over the hedge and into oblivion. Apparently, Lawrence tried very hard to avoid him, and lost con trol of the motorcycle as a result. A heroic way to die, at any rate.
John Morgan Los Angeles, California
An earlier Triple
I can't believe that neither Cycle World nor Motorcyclist made any mention of Bobby Labrie's first-ever Harley Triple in the coverage of Jim Feuling's new rig (see "W3," CW, September, 2000). Bob enjoyed tweaking the establishment, and re fused to divulge to the factory just
how he did it. But he was the first. Cred it where credit is due. John O'Connor Alton, New Hampshire
Ural right with me
The story on the Ural was interesting. You did a similar thing on the Enfield Bullet 500 last September. I bought one soon after. It was necessary to tinker around with and adjust, as I knew it would be. The motorcycle is sorted out now and really fun to ride. I recommend one to anybody who likes simpleto-service mo> torcycles. An owner with any me chamcal aptitude at all should be able to maintain it on their own and avoid the $60 per hour that a local Honda service department recently quoted.
P~ Foster Knoxville, Tennessee
Model behavior
Please reference page 31 of your October, 2000, issue, which shows the Franklin Mint’s model of a 1969 Triumph Bonneville. As advertised, the model is “authentic in every way.”
I can tell this is true because the small inset picture at the bottom of the page has the left-hand carburetor hanging awkwardly off the engine at about a 45-degree angle-even if this was a mistake by the Franklin Mint, it happened often enough in real life, no harm done!
Also, please note that lifting the model’s seat to “access the battery” will do absolutely no good because Lucas couldn’t make the real thing work, never mind a model.
“The brake pedals pivot” (there are two of them?) and “the wheels spin,” i.e. the brakes don’t work. Another authenticity!
Having owned a couple of old Britbikes, I immediately removed the referenced page from my issue to prevent oil from leaking over the rest of the articles. Rich Covel
Stow, Massachusetts
Worry not, Rich, the Franklin Mint s electric-start, disc-braked, oil-tight 1:10-scale Honda CB750 will come along shortly and put the bantam Bonneville out of business...
