Hotshots

HOTSHOTS

DEPARTMENTS

Dodge City

I just finished reading the Dodge Tomahawk article (CW, April). While I can certainly understand why you’d get a “car guy” like John Phillips to write the story, I hope this will be his first and last guest appearance in Cycle World. If sarcasm galore and generous servings of bitterness were Mr. Phillips’ aim, then he struck a bulls-eye with his debut article. I doubt many readers care that the Tomahawk has four wheels, weighs twice as much as the typical Big Twin, or is so expensive and impractical that it will probably never be produced. The Tomahawk is a rolling showcase of billet beauty, excessive horsepower and American ingenuity...way to go, Dodge! Rick Sadler

Fajardo, Puerto Rico

Or maybe not, Rick. Read on... The Dodge Tomahawk is a disgrace and an insult to motorcycling. It has four wheels, and people who aren’t motorcycle guys built it. They wasted their time, money and effort on this project. Todd Downing

Bellefontaine, Ohio

What’s up with that Tomahawk? Someone at Dodge must be compensating for something. (Note to self: Do not purchase Dodge Tomahawk; others might think same.) Brad Nash Clermont, Georgia

Car or motorcycle? I doubt it’ll pass the side-impact test. Jim Erlandson Cleveland, Ohio

In keeping with the auto-design trends that gave us retros like the PT Cruiser, Thunderbird, Beetle and Mini, it’s nice to see that Dodge has built a street-going version of the

Rokon 2X2.

James Crorey

St. Clair, Michigan

In your article on the Viper-engined bike, you quote a Chrysler rep as saying, “...without factoring in aero drag...” the bike will go 400 mph. Yeah, and my lawnmower will go 200 mph ignoring drag! I’ve done it whilst drinking a 12-pack! The only significant resistance to going 400 mph is indeed “aero drag,” and you need at least 1500 bhp to get there on a motorcycle on this planet. Susan Barnes

Centerville, Maine

A 400-mph Dodge motorcycle? Not likely. Speed scales approximately as the cube root of power. Thus a 500bhp motorcycle could go about 1.7 times as fast as a 100-bhp motorcycle. The Tomahawk is not very aerodynamic, and so I’d suspect a top speed of about 240 mph. Robert Erck

Darien, Illinois

I don’t get it. How much did Daimler-Chrysler pay you to publish this piece of drivel? The Tomahawk is a styling exercise that doesn’t work! It can’t be turned. Scotty Parker, one of the best dirt-track racers in the world, crashed it at 25 mph going in a straight line! There is no way a nonfunctioning creation like this deserves space in a motorcycle magazine. Please stop the silliness and get back to covering real motorcycles and the people who ride them.

Victor Landau Newmarket, New Hampshire

Good joke, folks. It is a joke, isn’t it?

Ray Kang Boulder, Colorado

Mopar Monster

The Dodge Tomahawk article jogged k my memory about another Chrysler-powered motorcycle called the Plymouth Monster. The similarities end there because wM this was a sinjw gle-track vehicle W built for go, not W show. It was put to' gether in 1934 by rider Fred Luther for an attempt at 200 mph. Chrysler donated a straight-Six for the endeavor, which ended somewhere between 150 and 160 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats when the engine blew.

George Foster Reno, Nevada

Requiem for a Roadog

I saw the story on my Roadog in the April issue and wish to clarify a few points. When I acquired my Roadog in 1995, I was told the Gelbkes wanted to keep the other one (the original), and would I please not mention it, so that people would not bother Mrs. Gelbke, Wild Bill’s mother. I honored that request. It makes no difference to me whether mine was the bike in the famous old photo or not. There are two Roadogs in the whole world, the first and the last!

Buzz Walneck Woodridge, Illinois

Reading “Roadog Revealed” prompts me to write to you about the Buzz Walneck I know. The article could lead people to bite on the writer’s hook that Buzz has somehow tricked the cycling public as to the authenticity of one of the most interesting motorcycles ever produced, and that he was caught in a lie and embarrassed by your author.

Whether or not there was more than one Roadog misses the point. Wild Bill Gelbke was a creative genius who took common parts and made uncommon rolling art. No one really cares if there’s one or two Roadogs. The folklore is part of the interest, and Buzz and his wife Pixie made that 17-foot-long Wisconsin garage-built leviathan available for our enjoyment in this factory-perfect machine age we inhabit. Buzz loves the sport of cycling, the art of the motorcycle and giving of himself to people. How much more can you ask?

Fred Wacker III Lake Bluff, Illinois

Walneck, editor-in-chief of Walneck s Classic Cycle Trader, recently sold his Roadog to a collector who has plans to build a small museum. “It’s 25 miles away and I can ride it whenever I want,” says Buzz. Walneck claims he never made a secret of there being two ’Dogs, and that fact is mentioned in his 1999 book, Wild Bill Gelbke. albeit in small type near the end. For more insight into the Roadog (including a reprint of John Burns’article on crashing the beast), order the book from Walneck ’s, 7923 Janes Ave., Woodridge, IL 60517; 630/985-4995.

TZ for two

Excellent article, “The TZ Papers” (CW, April). Brought back great memories of my teenage years. Going to Motorcycle Mechanics School in Daytona in the mid-Seventies, located outside Turn 3 of the superspeedway, we used to climb trees to watch King Kenny test his Yamaha’s chassis and tires. I still have and race H2 Kawasakis. There’s nothing like riding around “two cams and one piston short of a full bike.” Keep the two-stroke stuff coming! Jack Seberger

Lowell, Indiana

I am amazed you guys overlooked Yamaha rider Steve Baker. Any article about TZ750 history should include Number 32. This guy spanked Kenny Roberts like a redheaded stepchild. He

won at Daytona, and was the first American to win a world championship, on a TZ750 no less. When Roberts was bummin’ about his TZ dirt-tracker, Baker was loving his.

Mel Mackinnon London, Ontario, Canada

Godspeed

Time is cruel. We’ve lost Dick Hammer and Don Vesco, now Barry Sheene joins the growing list. The roll call of those taken too young and too soon is too long. Even Mr. Rogers was not immune from the reaper. What a drag. Hans Bertelsen

Renton, Washington

Your tribute to Don Vesco brought back many memories. The photo of him rounding the hairpin at Carlsbad caught my eye, as that used to be my favorite spot to stand and watch in awe as those mighty TDls accelerated down the straight. I was hooked. My first motorcycle was a 1965 Yamaha. Today, my son is a Yamaha mechanic. Small world.

The other thing that caught my eye was the phrase “prostate cancer.” In August, 2001,1 learned that I had the dread disease, at the age of 52. Since a high percentage of your magazine’s readers are male, this is a good time to tell them, GO GET CHECKED!

Men avoid testing due to the medical terminology DRE. The digital rectal exam is not something we like to even think about, but it, in conjunction with a PSA (prostate specific antigen) test, can save your life. I have to thank my wife for grinding on me to get it done.

If caught early (apparently Don’s wasn’t), the prognosis is excellent; if ignored, it’s a death sentence. My DRE was perfectly normal. My PSA (it’s just a simple blood test that detects antigens that are produced if prostate cancer is present), came back a 7. Normal range is 0-4. After a biopsy, the pathologist reported that my prostate was full of a moderately advanced stage of cancer.

My doctor recommended surgery, a radical procedure that removed the entire prostate. Considering my age and other factors, he said this was the best option to try and get it all out before it spread.

After the surgery, I thought I would never sit down again, and straddling the seat of a motorcycle seemed way out of the question. It did take me about five months to get back on two wheels. I am very thankful that I am still here to enjoy this magnificent freedom! So thankful that I went right out and purchased an FJR1300, which my wife and I enjoy riding on two-lane backroads.

Don will be missed by many. His contributions to the industry and the sport were many. I can still hear his TD1 screaming down the Carlsbad straightaway. Brian Robertson

Deary, Idaho

Indian advice

If I were Indian, I’d be talking to that crazy Alan Forbes (“Dakota 4,” CW April). I’ve no interest in a cheap-looking version of a copy of an outdated Harley motor. But a longitudinal Four? Now there’s something different. I’m guessing that this comment can’t be printed now that the new Indian is buying centerspread ads in Cycle World.

Don Arnold Shoreham, Vermont

Nor the following...

We have seen drawings of proposed new Indian models, but all based on the same V-Twin motor, and still they are just ink on paper, good for free publicity from bike magazines. If Indian Motorcycles is for real, then it needs to write a big fat check to Alan Forbes, and make an Indian Four part of its lineup. Keith Bowling

Providence, North Carolina

Reading right?

I just want you to know I am letting my subscription run out and will never buy your magazine again. You should call it Sportbike World since most of your magazine is directed toward them. I have a cruiser and have to look pretty hard to find cruiser-related articles. I know you will say you have to cover all facets of the motorcycle world, but you focus much more on bikes that would be better off racing on tracks than riding on our streets. They are making our insurance rates go up with all the accidents and speeding and reckless-driving violations. And you are just promoting this type of street biking. Ron Levi

Pennsylvania

Sure you’re reading CW. Ron? Maybe you missed the March issue with its big cover story on the Honda Rune, or the April issue with the Triumph Speedmaster and the Big Dog Chopper featured (along with a sport-tourer, the concept Dodge Tomahawk machine, and yes, a couple of sportbikes) on the cover. In that issue ’s special “Rides 2K3 ’’ section, just four out of the 14 featured machines were sportbikes. This issue, one out of the 11 bikes tested is a sportbike. Hell, we ’re starting to get complaint letters from sportbike riders...

King of the Nac-Nac

The Jimmy Lewis article about Jeremy McGrath’s retirement (“Nothing Left to Prove,” CW, April) was terrific, respectful and just plain inspiring. Long live the King! Walt Baehr

Laguna Niguel, California

Why no YZF?

After waiting all winter to see the mighty YZF-R1 try to unseat King Honda at the 2003 Daytona 200, man, was I disappointed to find out that Yamaha didn’t even field a team for the 200! Winners never quit and quitters never win! Yamaha, you will never be Number One if you don’t even try! Barry VanCamp

Indianapolis, Indiana

The Colin Corollary

Brian Catterson, in a March Clipboard article, writes that roadracer Colin Edwards was “rewarded” by Honda for his years of hard work by being offered a Bteam MotoGP ride. Catterson later states that Edwards often makes “colorful” comments. Hmmm... Is it possible, just possible, that there is a correlation between Edwards being “colorful” and Honda’s decision to phase him out?

Now, I don’t know Edwards personally, but I have seen him interviewed on worldwide TV, and I have read comments attributed to him in print interviews. The words “vulgar” and “crude” would immediately come to mind. And if this is how he represents himself to the general public, how much baser must this guy be when the pens are put away and the cameras are turned off?

So here’s my theory: From the manner in which Edwards conducts himself, I think it’s safe to assume that he lacks the basic understanding of what it is Honda expects from its employees, and as a result the Honda Motor Company has no further need for his services. Apparently to Honda, character does matter. Karl Retzlaff

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Volvo venting

In its new TV commercial, why oh why did Volvo have to play up the XC90’s stability-control feature by showing the car avoiding a motorcycle. The commercial shows the oncoming motorcyclist unwisely pulling out to pass a truck while he’s in a right-hand corner. Perhaps Volvo should have used a more realistic scenario-like an old granny drifting across the centerline, or a spotty teenager racing his buddy in a beatup Mustang? Derek Byrne

Malden, Massachusetts

What weaker sex?

In reference to reader Lukus Harvey’s unfortunate affliction, i.e. sportbikes bruising his “twins” (“Rock-crusher,” Hotshots, April), I have always been of the opinion that men should ride horses sidesaddle, drive scooters and leave serious motorcycle riding to the ladies.

Claire Rooney Suffolk, Virginia

A tankbag to lean on? Handlebar risers? An inch or two of extra seat padding? Bicycle shorts? Walter R. Machnicz

Beacon Falls, Connecticut

Anything but a Volvo... □