Ups & Downs
UPs & DOWNs
ROUNDUP
∧ UP: To C.R. Axtell, 82, for a life at full throttle. The legendary Southern California race tuner passed away August 29, but he leaves behind tributes that read in bhp. BSA, Triumph and Norton flat-trackers all responded well to Axtell’s touch, as did Harley-Davidsons, and even Cycle magazine’s famous Ducati 750SS roadracer. “He was the only guy Phil Schilling and I ever trusted to dyno Old Blue,” remembers Cook Neilson. “That was an unforgettable afternoon. He was an unforgettable guy, a central part of the ‘Glendale Mafia’ that we so deeply depended on back when we were racing. Between the Glendale guys and Jerry Branch, we were in good hands. A big loss. Still, Ax had a great run. We all should be so lucky.”
UP: To Valentino Rossi, for maintaining % his extraordinary sense of humor in the, uh, “face” of adversity. After his crash at the Indianapolis GR a braking miscue he blamed entirely on himself, Rossi had designer Aldo Drudi decorate his AGV helmet with the face of a donkey. “In Italy,” said Rossi, “if you make a stupid mistake, we say that you are a donkey.” The cartoonish face, modeled after that of the donkey in the Shrek movies, mimics Rossi’s own googleeyed, shocked-expression mugshot that first appeared on his helmet at the 2008 Italian GP in Mugello. Wording on the back of the helmet reads “The Donkey” in the same multicolored lettering that normally says “The Doctor.” Rossi wore the helmet at the next round in San Marino, which he won, then walked onto the podium wearing huge donkey ears. Such self-deprecating behavior is refreshing in this era of athletes who take themselves too seriously.
DOWN: To S&S Cycle, for tormenting us with more of the 50 top custom builders in the world. A new hardcover book by author Howard Kelly and photographer Michael Lichter, Today’s Top Custom Bike Builders, reveals the many and varied machines assembled around the world to compete at S&S’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2008. The $40 coffee-table tome (www.motorbooks.com) has a bit of company history, a foreword by Jay Leno and 223 pages of beautiful photography with profiles on each builder.
UP: To Mission Motors, for breaking the AMA national top-speed record for electric motorcycles during the annual BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats this past September. The San Francisco-based company, which also competed in June’s Isle of Man’s TTXGR achieved a 150.059-mph two-pass average run with the company’s own Project Manager and Test Rider Jeremy Cleland at the helm. The Mission One machine also recorded a one-way pass of 161 mph! “I give the credit for this achievement to our extraordinary engineering team,” said Edward West, Mission Motors founder and president. “We set this record on our first visit to the Bonneville Salt Flats on poor salt conditions and in high crosswinds. And to set it with our production prototype vehicle, not a custom Bonneville bike, is truly amazing.”
