Letters

LETTERS

YOU HAVEN’T BEEN LOOKING

Dear CW:

I have just acquired a motor scooter and I wondered if your company printed a magazine on motor scooters?

RONALD DUTCHER

Afton, N.Y.

EDITOR: Well, it’s not entirely on motor scooters.

IT’S NO MISTAKE

Dear CW:

I’m now a Porsche driver, and fast gaining interest in the sport of cycling with the help of your magazine. Your first class approach tells me you’ll soon be to the cycle enthusiast what ROAD & TRACK is to the sports car fan. Good Luck!

HOWARD N. WEASE

Portland, Oregon

LOOK AGAIN

Dear CW:

I have just finished reading the test on the Matchless G-50 CSR in your April issue. You said that the Matchless didn’t have a compression release or a manual spark retard. If you will be so kind as to look on page 10 you will see the spark retard, on page 12 you will see the compression release. By printing this you did more harm than good.

I’m only 14 but we have a Matchless Westerner 500cc and I am learning to ride it but, it would be nice to put things straight about the Matchless. OK?

LARRY HENTSCHEL

Arleta, Calif.

EDITOR: Sorry, Larry, but there is only one lever on the handlebar in the pictures, on the left hand side. It is a choke lever.

MORE KIND WORDS

Dear CW :

Just a note to express our appreciation for CYCLE WORLD. I know I speak for countless enthusiasts who have long awaited a magazine of this calibre devoted exclusively to motorcycling.

It is assured that we will continue to support your fine magazine and patronize your advertisers. My congratulations, thanks and hopes for your continued success.

PHILLIP D. COPE

Wichita, Kan.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Dear CW:

I have never in my 27 years been motivated to write to the staff of any publication. I have not even subscribed to any magazine in all these years. As a matter of fact, I don’t even own a two-wheeled machine of any sort.

Mr. Parkhurst, you and your staff are providing your readers with a tremendous service. It is gratifying to do a job really well, you must be very pleased.

CHARLES J. GARRET

Kirkland, Wash.

EDITOR: We are, and thank you.

WHITHER PACIFICA?

Dear CW:

... and Pacifica is too on the map (“Up The Northern California Coast”, CYCLE WORLD, March issue). Princeton is better known for Half Moon Bay Drag Strip (and airport).

WILBUR C. FRYE

Pacifica, Calif.

OPINION AND FACT

Dear CW :

I’ve noticed several letters commending you on a magazine well written, but I never thought much about it. Well, I just thought about it, and you really do have a very good magazine. You give facts and figures when testing a machine, not just one person’s opinion of its quality and performance.

When you give statistics it shows some work went into the test, not just a reporter out for a free ride. I appreciate the hard work that goes into a very good magazine. Confirmed CYCLE WORLDER . . .

GEORGE E. WISE

Seattle, Wash.

WE DON’T KNOW

Dear CW:

Why don’t you give the name and model in your race reports? If a guy reads your magazine for information on how to choose a bike how do you expect him to learn anything?

I own a 650 Triumph.

JON DAILEY

Port Angeles, Wash.

EDITOR: We do, when the information is made available to us.

COMES THE VILLAIN

Dear CW:

Thank you for producing a truly informative magazine. The road tests are great; interesting new machines and all of the important data on them. But even better are the technical articles by Gordon Jennings. How about some technical analysis and comparisons of successful or unusual racing bikes?

But, enough praise. I must warn you! There lurks on your staff a repressed automobile enthusiast. He has given himself away by a series of Freudian slips in the Velocette Viceroy test (CYCLE WORLD March ’62), brought out by that automobile starter, no doubt. First he refers to the transmission differential unit. His subconscious pushes him on to point out how much this resembles automotive design. Then he subtly tells us the weight mass is well below the roll center. Now, the roll center of an automobile may well be above its center of mass, but a single track vehicle’s roll center is inherently and unalterably at ground level. I suggest you watch this person. Next he will suggest a test on a sidecar rig. Not a bad idea, per se, but you can see where it will lead; a sidecar, a go-kart or two, then a Bond Mini-Car, or perdition.

Again, congratulations on the best motorcycle magazine in the English language; I plan to subscribe as soon as I have a permanent address. Meanwhile, fear not, I won’t miss an issue.

BRENT MEEKER

Oxnard, Calif.

EDITOR: Curses! Foiled again.

FUEL TO THE FIRE

Dear CW:

In this area scooters and other under-powered machinery create definite hazards. These machines should be restricted to certain roads or hours during which they would not create the hold-up of traffic and resultant motions that end up painfully. Acceleration and staying power is needed often to leave hazards caused by other drivers (or you) to avoid consequences. Drivers from fifty States and Foreign countries here make a dangerous climate just as surely as does a winding country road. If the machine can’t stay with traffic, or local conditions, I say keep it at home.

I am not interested in small machinery, please don’t extend your coverage. Keep us informed of any projected laws that restrict the legitimate rider. Such as; no riding on turnpikes, etc. Similarly, readers and riders, be vocal to the officials involved hopefully to limit restrictive laws that limit freedoms of riding. You only get what you deserve, nothing if you don’t make yourself heard. These laws seem to appear magically and with ease, but the cancelling of a law is lengthy and tedious. Wake up, Editors, readers and riders, not to mention lawmakers.

Would Vaughn Greene consent to have one of his large Vincent twins treated in a road test and short history of that machine? I think such an article would be extraordinary.

MICHAEL LEONHARD

Silver Snrin~s. Md.

EDITOR: You contradict yourself completely, Michael. In one breath you request that scooters and like machines be unfairly restricted, then in the next you rally people to fight restrictions.

We know of very few machines, scooters or otherwise, that are the menace you describe. It would seem to us that your criticism should be directed towards a few riders, not their machines. You make it quite obvious that you are not interested in small machinery.

We have done, and will continue to do, all we can to keep our readers informed of new restrictive legislation. Vaughn Greene is now hard at work preparing an article on the fabulous Vincent cycles, for future use in CYCLE WORLD.