Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
Apehanger blowback
I have just read your poorly editorialized “article,” “Planet of the Apes” (“Harley-Davidson Street Bob vs. Victory High-Ball,” July). I understand that people want the unvarnished truth about the bikes they are going to purchase, but using phrases such as “I still don’t get it” and “Women love Harleys” shows that you dislike the style and/or possibly the brands of the bikes before you even ride them. If you cannot see fit to write an unbiased article about Americanmade bikes, then please hire someone else with the ability to see the charm in a standard bike that tens of thousands of riders can already see. Clint Chase
Waco, Texas
The immediate disdain for American cruisers was too obvious, and quite offensive, in John Bums’ “Planet of the Apes.” Cycle World may choose to continue to offend this faction of riders by calling them “damn dirty apes,” overcompensating for their bad posture with loud pipes and with the ultimate goal of giving rides to your women. And let’s not forget the better class of riders, those “civilized primates” who can ride upright and drag pipes on the ground instead of their knuckles. I recommend, however, that Cycle World compare apples to apples and not drag in those dam oranges. Remember that this was supposed to be an article about two cruisers. It was not about two guys’ patronizing comments about what they perceive as the faults of the marketing team from these two great motorcycle companies.
What bugs me most is that there is such a poison to his tone that it reminds me of the rhetoric used between Republicans and Democrats. While we don’t have to agree on what we want to ride, we had better make sure that we can stand together on some base level to support each others’ freedom to choose.
Overall, I really enjoy your rag, and have for nearly 30 years, but damn.
Jim McClung Sammamish, Washington
Freedom to choose is what we ’re all about, Jim, and helping people make informed choices based on how different kinds of motorcycles actually work is Job One. Motorcycles with apehangers have real performance limitations, even compared with other “American cruisers,”plenty of which we ve praised over the years.
Magic handlebars
The apehangers on the Victory HighBall seem to have an interesting effect on the bike’s acceleration. It runs the quarter-mile in 12.49 seconds at 102.52 mph and does 0-to-100 mph in 13.0 seconds.
Rick Rittenberg Santa Maria, California
Sharp eyeballs, Rick. Because our performance testing site is 2600feet above sea level, we apply the National Hot Rod Association correction factor for altitude to the bikes ’ quarter-mile times (2600feet = 1/4-mile time x 0.9692/mph x 1.0325 mph), but we do not apply it to the other measured acceleration times.
Grandpa’s mysteries
Concerning “The Mysteries of Grandpa” (Up Front, July), I believe the bike is a 1930 H-D VL Big Twin.
I recently read a great book written by John J. Newkirk titled, The Old Man and the Harley. Your Grandpa’s bike looks like the pictures of the VL that John’s dad rode coast-to-coast twice in the ’30s. The book reports that the VL Big Twin was introduced in 1929 for the 1930 model year. It had the new 74-inch engine producing 28 horsepower. The twin headlights were said to provide a brighter light (and redundancy). But when some riders were injured because some drivers mistook them for a car some distance away, some states banned the use of the twin setup, and kits were made available to change the VL back to a larger single beam. The VL was reported to cost 340 Great Depression dollars. Thanks! Cycle World is in a class most magazines can only dream about. Tom Womac
Cleveland, Tennessee
Lots of feedback about Grandpa ’s Harley, reports Editor-in-Chief Hoyer. One cheerful lad from Detroit even took Hoyer to task for not “looking it up on the Internet,” where he would have found that it wasn’t just JD and VL models with twin lights, but also that, “There was a 45 that had them, as well as a couple of Singles! ” Which was the basis for the question to the experts, given the limited information presented in the picture. For the record, Hoyer s going to pick the most affordable 1929-30 H-D he can find and call it Grandpa ’s...
Primates love hurling...
Did I just read the word “poop” in a motorcycle magazine? (“Rally 101,” July). Do you think Gary Nixon or Kenny Roberts or Colin Edwards have ever said “poop” in their entire lives? What will we be reading in the next issue? “Josh Hayes was really hauling tushie at Road America?”
There are about a hundred ways to get this right: Pinch a loaf, take a dump, have a crap, coil some rope, launch a steamer, bum a mule, free the turtle, grease the bowl, see a man about a horse, stock the pond, release the hostage, unleash the leviathan... If Marion the Librarian or Ken Whetstone get their panties in a bunch and cancel their high school’s subscription, just let me know: I’ll buy a second copy and slip it into the stacks. Regardless, losing them will be a lot better than losing your credibility with about 25,000 other subscribers who’ll think you’re afraid to tell it like it is, especially since Cycle World's credibility with its readership relies on its unvarnished candor. I want to read Cycle World, not Menstrual-Cycle World.
Seeing such increasingly thin-skinned, prudish, self-righteous pussification in the motorcycling community is disappointing. My vote is for more straight talk, not less. Mark G. Lindemann
Heart of Darkness, California
Family magazine
About the “Let There Be Rock” comparison in the July, 2011, issue: Where are the dirty women on machines? Thanks. Rich Dumene
Charlottesville, Virginia
Not in this magazine, pal. And nowhere around the Canet domicile, either, unless DC (Don Canet) wants to have his AC handed to him by Mrs. Canet.
Isle of “Guy”
Gary Inman’s profile of Guy Martin (“TT Anti-Hero,” Race Watch, July) was excellent: fine writing about an interesting subject. The magazine arrived in my mailbox during TT week, which smacks of planning. Do you guys really think that far ahead? John Bishop
Cazadero, California
Someone buy Gary Inman and the CW staff a beer for the Guy Martin piece.
If more people had even a fraction of Guy’s spirit, in and out of the moto world... I mean, what if this industry’s push for new riders also instilled a bit of that fearlessness into the effort? Challenge the fearful a little. Here in America, we need to do that. Guy Martin doesn’t whine about tax dollars, terrorism or economics, you know? Be like Guy. Inspiring article! Dirk Maga Posted on facebook.com/cycleworld
