Hotshots

HOTSHOTS

Don Quixote rides!

Just read Jeff Buchanan’s "A Man in La Mancha" (CW, April) and was driven to write my first letter to the editor. WOW! Reading Buchanan was like enjoying a prologue to Ted Simon’s globe-trotting epic, Jupiter’s Travels. I am forever trying to explain to my non-riding friends and family the "quixotic" view from the saddle of my Vulcan. I appreciate anyone who can capture with words the lure of the road I have yet to travel. Keith Spicer

Oregon City, Oregon

Jeff Buchanan’s beautifully crafted article weaving the romantic quest of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the “magic of the going” as we contemporary motorcyclists experience it does credit to your editorial vision. A literary piece in a basically technical magazine is a refreshing treat. David Egli

Wyckoff, New Jersey

Jeff Buchanan's thoughtful article, "A Man in La Mancha," shows how riding motorcycles allows us to dive into the human experience, sense its mysteries and create our own narrative. Mr. Bu

chanan writes well, Mike Quindazzi's photographs capture the atmosphere, and the article makes a great point about why we ride. Bailey Brown Daegu, Korea

Velo fellows

Just wanted to thank you all for one of the best issues ever. “Salt Story,” “Aussie Adventure” and “A Man in La Mancha” were first-class. The only problem I had was some ingrate of a letter-writer calling a work of art, i.e. Exec. Ed. Hoyer’s Velocette, “a rusty screen door.” I suggest that Chucky dock his Battlestar Galáctica Gold Wing and climb on a Single. Mike Tober

Glendale, Arizona

In March, you printed a wonderful account of the Velocette rally in Montana, documenting in detail Mark Hoyer’s many trials and tribulations as he forced his machine to the finish. In April, I read a letter from a Gold Wing owner wondering why anyone would choose a Velocette for this ride when so many modern reliable alternatives exist.

I have been riding Velocettes for more than 40 years, and have experienced both reliable service and persistent trouble on long rides. My most troubled ride was my first rally experience, where, like Mark, I completed the ride with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and a lot of help from fellow club members.

To those who do not understand why seemingly sane people in this day and age would set out on a long ride with a lessthan-perfect mount, I say several things:

First, to appreciate the role of the past in the present. Without the contribution of engineering done at Velocette and other British manufacturers, that Gold Wing owner may very well be using a hand shift, or riding sans rear suspension and the

benefits of a perimeter-style frame.

Second, and this is a very personal observation, to be lost in sounds and feelings that no longer can be found in modem machinery-which, yes, includes a little oil on the ground.

And finally, just to see if we can do it, using what was once state-of-the-art motorcycle technology.

I hope this muddies the waters even further. Tim Kenney

Ojai, California

Chuck Furrer’s letter concerning Mark Hoyer’s Velocette ride through Glacier National Park contained such obvious disdain of the experience. It indicates to me that he’s missing the point of the article, or that he has very limited riding experience. Some of the best rides I’ve had were when things didn’t go right. It’s when you find out how people can be and, to some degree, what you’re made Greg Ely

Calistoga,

Devil Dog Diesel

I anxiously read your “Hard Corps” article on the U.S. Marines’ diesel-powered HDT Kawasaki KLR650 (CW, April). I’ve been following the bike’s development on the company’s website for a few years. Everything about it seems great except for the price. If it ever actually becomes commercially available, $ 19,000 for a diesel KLR with beefed-up suspension?! What a shame. If Kawasaki would develop a diesel engine for this platform and price it a grand or two over the cost of a regular KLR, I would buy one tomorrow.

Nicholas Martin

Seattle, Washington

I was happy to see the article on the HDT diesel Kawasaki. A few years ago I worked as a test en gineer at a proving ground in Ne vada. I and a couple of others per formed shakedown testing on early prototypes of the M1O3OM1 The first thing you noticed about the bike was the sound: very quiet, with none of the mechanical clatter usually associated with diesels. The exhaust note was uninspiring, sounding a bit like the muffler was under water. Throttle response was rather sluggish and the powerband pretty narrow. This meant you tended to twist the throttle wide open and wait for momentum to build. Speed picked up eventually, and when it did the bike felt like it would steamroll whatever terrain you threw at it. I rode it up some fairly rocky hillclimbs where the feeling of momentum really helped rider confidence.

The total lack of engine-braking did take some getting used to. At 5000-feet elevation, the engine performance was lacking. A turbocharger would have helped, but the added weight and complexity was out of the question.

Taken by itself, it was not a very exciting motorcycle but as part of the military’s single-fuel strategy it does make sense. Kudos to the few Marines who pushed this vehicle acquisition program through. Motorcycles do have a place on the battlefield. Greg Wheeler

Gresham, Oregon

Angle Iron and Ax School of Design

In your February ’08 issue, something important happened. In Hotshots, readers really went for Honda’s CB 1100F concept bike and hoped it would soon be in showrooms. Same issue, in your review of Suzuki’s B-King, one editor said it looked like a Transformer toy. Another editor loved its performance but couldn’t stand its “cartoonish” looks.

So here we are: Today’s designers seem to be toy factory refugees whose primary tools are a length of angle iron and an ax. They go too far in notching and chipping out a design rather than trying to let the design reflect the joys of riding.

The CB1100F got such a good response because we bike lovers are crying out to see good, clean, simple bike design that urges us to be out on the road just by looking at it.

James Bicanic

Fairfield, California

Free, not easy

I really enjoyed David Edwards’ tribute to Rollie Free (Up Front, April). Here I thought Rollie was a crazy Brit! I would like to purchase Jerry Hatfield’s Flat Out book about Free but when I go to place an order all I get is the answering machine. Jack Worman

Sequim, Washington

Hatfield travels a lot doing research for upcoming books. If the 817/861-2822 phone number for One Track Publica tions doesn `t work, try e-mail at beemer 73(d~sbcglobal. net.

Spin control

With regard to the blue-andwhite on the BMW logo not representing a spinning propel ler, as you felt compelled to point out in March's Roundup: Please, why did you take away the one thing I was so sure of in this life?! Erwin Jands Bon Accord, Alberta, Canada

Take a stand

Thank you for the nice review of the SW-Motech Centerstand (CW, Febru

ary). Adding a centerstand is worthwhile, even just to make it easier to lubricate your chain. But you failed to mention its performance as an all-important anti-tail gater device. So, does it produce a prop er shower of sparks at night when you push it down onto the pavement at speed? Lyle B. Gunderson Provo, Utah

Need a lift?

I liked Peter Egan's "High Mass" col umn (Leanings, April), but I have to ask: If he put a Triumph Trident on his new cycle lift, would it be a "Tridentine High Mass?" It's a Catholic thing. Ask Peter.

John Bollig Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

"High Mass" was exceptional, cer tainly for those of us in the same age )racket as Egan. Working on any type of iehicle with fragile cartilage and ten Ions is a very real issue. I, too, am afraid will not be able to get up after tighten ng a bolt. While reading the "numb as a )ost" section about Peter working on his [riumph TR6, I laughed so hard I al

most fell off the toilet.. .er, should I say the chair. Thanks for the good laugh. Not at you but with you. Dean Anderson Worcester, Massachusetts

Pinching petrol

As we are all well aware, the price of gasoline is getting out of radar range. There must be some around-town bikes that get really good gas mileage and yet have reasonable highway speeds. When I look at the specs for smaller bikes, it seems their gas mileage rarely is over 45 mpg. Surely some get 80-90 mpg and go over 60 mph. Ben Caidwel Posted on www.cycleworld.com

Answers as close as CW~ webs ite, Ben. Search "Petrol Pinchers "for our sub 250cc shootout.

Good hands, bad rubber

This is the second month in a row that I've had to look at that pile of dried-out rubber rings on Claudia DeMaranville's Triumph (the Allstate agent). Would some one please send her a new set of fork gaiters before the ad runs again? Carl Best Euuene, Ore~on