Ups & Downs

Ups & Downs

ROUNDUP

DOWN: To the Edmonton, Alberta, Police Department, for creating a cop bike we’ll never be able to outrun! Yes, we’re This actually should be an “UP,” because reacting to an increase in the number of sportbike deaths over the past few years, the department commissioned a specially outfitted Ducati 749 as part of its STREET LEGAL program aimed at getting speed-minded youngsters off the street and onto the racetrack. The bike, built by Argyll Motorsports and loaned to the department free of charge, will join two drag-racing cars at various community events throughout the year. We’ve got to admit that the sight of a Ducati police bike makes us a bit nervous, Even if it’s in Canada...

UP: To our own Hector Cademartori, for thinking of others. The illustrator extraordaire shows humor and insight every month in his drawings for CW, but this time we’d like to laud him for a show of compassion in helping Randy Reed of Florida, who suffered the loss of a foot and other serious injuries during hurricane-damage reconstruction when a power pole on which he was working collapsed.

“Hector deserves a great ‘UP’ for his generous and kind donation of two original drawings that appeared in CW," said Andy Kay, kingpin of the Riders of the Lost Empire motorcycle club who organized an auction that benefited Reed. We couldn’t agree more.

DOWN: To Death, for taking motocross and rally-racing legend Gaston Rahier. The Belgian won three consecutive 125cc world motocross championships starting in 1976 and went on to win the grueling ParisDakar Rally in ’84 and ’85. The latter accomplishment is all the more remarkable due to the fact that his moto-career had been cut short in 1982 when he nearly lost his hand in an accident. Rahier succumbed to cancer after a long illness. He was 58.