Letters
LETTERS
WRONG EXCELSIOR
The Excelsior featured in your January issue is not a 1914, it is a 1913 model. The Eclipse clutch was on the motor, not on the counter shaft. The sketch shows the intake rocker arms were also different.
The main reason I claim this is that I worked for the Schwinns in 1917 and have had a cycle repair shop since 1912. I raced on the two-mile board track outside Chicago with a Thor against Excelsiors and other makes. I believe Mr. H. Schwinn, Warren Cropp, Floyd Dreyer and Joe Wolters can verify my claim.
I can give you further information. My old AMA number was #4.
ANDREW E. KOSLOW Chicago, 111.
Not that it matters a great deal but you might be interested to know that the Excelsior is not really a 1914, but a 1913 job. The distinguishing features of the 1914 were the clutch on the engine shaft instead of the counter shaft, and two foot boards in addition to pedals.
As for the “standard lamp” mentioned, there just wasn’t any. Headlamps were strictly an extra in those days. The Bosch magneto of that period was really a wonderful piece of machinery. I only wish the ignition system on my Honda was as trouble free as that old Bosch.
I owned several Excelsiors in the preWW I period, a 1910 single, three 1913 models, and two 1914 twins. These were all good bikes for their day, though I think I liked the 1913’s best. The twistgrip controlled clutch was standard from 1913 for many years and was a great improvement over the lever control (on the left side of the tank) used on most makes at the time.
R. B. CUNNINGHAM Portland, Oregon
TRAIL RIDERS ARISE!
All the trail cycle and scooter riders better get on the ball or they are going to find that the only place they can ride is in their own back yard. The Oregon Committee on Natural Resources is in the process of passing on a law which will control off-the-road vehicles.
I wrote a letter to them, and the answer I received was a copy of a proposed law that will restrict all motor vehicles from operating on public lands. They explained that the law was necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety and that an emergency existed.
As you can see by the above law we would not be able to even get off of the highway without permission, and just try to get it. So, you trail riders, keep your eyes on your State Legislatures and nip this kind of legislation in the bud before it has a chance to get a foothold.
ANDREW L. JOURNEY Springfield, Oregon
DISGRUNTLED
Thanks, but after a year of CYCLE WORLD I am convinced it is a waste of money. My interest is in touring (about 15,000 miles per year) and you don’t have any real touring writers.
Also, your road tests indicate that you are motorcar men and do not know much about motorcycles.
DAL MONTE
Santa Barbara, Calif.
... AND THEN SOME
I have been reading a few past issues of CW and I think it’s pretty cool for the most part. However, I have one slight gripe; you guys claim to be unbiased to all kinds of machines, yet you’re always putting down chopped custom machines, especially those with high riser bars. Well, I’ve got a pair of riser bars on my chopped Triumph and I think they are the coolest thing going.
You guys put out the word in one of your past items that risers were dangerous and uncontrollable. Not so, as I have taken my bike through many wooded trails and have dragged with it with no control problems. And about machines being chopped, this is more bad news, because, through snide insinuations, this type of machine has been associated with the wild, savage type. I think I’m much civilized and as far as snide comments are in order on the subject of weird bikes, how about those fanatics with the flaps and streamers and all that jazz piled on them, is that not uncool?
What the public and most other conservative type riders don’t realize is that it takes much time, effort and coins to produce a cool looking chopped goer. I think we deserve some honorable mention on this instead of rejection all the time. I would like to see some comment on this.
“CARBS” CARBONNEAU
Leaminster, Mass.
Cool or otherwise, high riser bars are foolish and dangerous. They limit, and often eliminate control. They are uncomfortable for any period of time, and the rider is a spectacle we do not need in the sport of motorcycling. Regarding chopped machines, we have never criticized them, nor do we see reason to. If a rider chooses to run on the streets without fenders and with a fuel tank allowing a cruising range of ten blocks it is his privilege and more power to him — and to you too, Carbs. Ed.
CYCLE WORLD ...
FOR CONVENIENCE
Complete coverage such as found in CYCLE WORLD solves the problem of having to buy two periodicals in order to maintain a well-informed status. If it can be said that your place of publication is the center of the “Cycle World,” then the analogy can be carried one step further to say that Europe is the center of the “Cycle Universe.” I am glad to see at least one American magazine realizes this and acts accordingly.
The variety of your road tests should also be commended; the presentation of a report on one competition bike machine per month is indeed refreshing. Somehow I feel that cyclists are associated with competitive events more than followers of any other motor sport.
(Continued on Page 46)
Your technical articles, such as “Modifying The Jawa” are of an optimum calibre and are a welcome sight to those of us who desire information of a more detailed nature. Only one thing could be added to make yours the most gratifying motorcycle magazine on the stands; a small classified section.
ARLAN L. SIMMONS College Of Engineering University of Colorado We have had hundreds of requests to include a classified section, but have resisted for one good reason; the selling of used motorcycles is a local proposition and is the domain of motorcycle dealers who would resent our interfering in their phase of the motorcycle industry. Thank you for your most welcome plaudits. Ed.
OLD MOTORCYCLE RIDERS’ CLUB
The enclosed membership card is a little gift from us old timers, if you need any write-ups on the old timers of the U.S. and Canada let me know. The Old Motorcycle Riders’ Club is now an International organization.
I hope to be able to get your magazine after the first of the year, at this time I am in a wheel chair (four years) so you see money is short. But, when I get that $99,000.00 I then will send a check for three years of good reading, ok?
RUSS BROKENSHIRE O.M.R.C., A.M.A., C.M.A., A.F.M., Trail Blazers, .
Wayne, Michigan
We're honored to become a member of the Old Motorcycle Riders’ Club, Russ. Get out of that wheel chair and let’s go for a ride. Ed.
OUR ERROR
I am writing to let you know of a great mistake printed in your and all the other cycle magazines as well. Since Bart Markel has won the No. 1 plate for 1963, it has been said that he tied an all-time record of National wins for one season held by Joe Leonard. Markel won six Nationals this year, Leonard won eight titles in 1954.
In this case Leonard still holds the alltime record for the most Nationals won in any single season. I am not trying to take anything away from Markel, he did a wonderful job, but I thought it might be a point of interest.
SAM ARENA, JR.
San Jose, California
BUY AMERICAN AGAIN
I have owned both British and American machines, and consider myself fairly broad minded but what is taking place in American motorcycling gripes me good. Lately the Japanese cycles have been invading the U.S.; granted they are remarkable performance-wise, even superior to American, British and Italian lightweights. It’s bad enough to support Britain and Italy without Japan too. We can’t compete with
them price-wise so how are our machines supposed to survive this impact?
Will America’s last motorcycle manufacturer go the same route as Indian? The H-D lightweight is a good start but it is no more American than a Honda. I admire and respect Harley-Davidson; they took an obsolete and mediocre side valve engine and developed it into a machine capable of beating England’s best. Now they have stooped to buying a foreign machine and tacking the time honored name of HarleyDavidson on it and passing it off as a Harley.
Is this what America’s last great cycle company has to do to compete? If they turned the side valve into the runner it is today, couldn’t they have developed an American lightweight? When I bought my KR the money went to American workers to help keep our country going, not to a foreign one, that’s what we have foreign aid for. Too much of our money goes to others as it is.
We had better take care of our own, you can be too generous. The sooner our government and business leaders realize this the better off our economy will be. If this letter is printed it will draw a lot of resentment but I feel strongly about the situation. I feel that others should be concerned. If anyone is big enough and broad minded enough to print this, I feel that CYCLE WORLD is the one, yours is a great magazine. It leaves nothing to be desired, it is the best.
HERB GOEDICKE
Marion, Ohio
We thought we had heard the last of this kind of palaver years ago; possibly we never will, though this type of blind thinking died for the most part a few years after Korea. We are as patriotic as anyone, but the sport of motorcycling has grown and prospered, due in the greatest part to foreign built machines. At the risk of flogging a dead horse may we cite; exports to Japan from the U.S. far exceed imports. The comparatively microscopic amount of money motorcycle foreign trade exchanges can hardly be construed as support for such vast nations as Britain, Italy and Japan. American machines have “survived” handsomely for many years; only one, Indian, has gone by the ways since the influx of foreign machines in any quantity. Imported machines are dominant and popular because they offer something different than the American makes offered; why should everyone ride identical machines? The money spent on a foreign built machine not only supports American workers but contributes to the government in the form of taxes and duties as well. Who sold the machine, will service it, makes and sells accessories, sells the gasoline and oil, and will sell it again as a used machine after (of course) selling yet another machine in exchange? Who? You can be damn certain they aren’t Mongolian goat herders. All of this may very well draw some resentment, and we sincerely hope reader Goedicke will continue to be a CYCLE WORLD fan, but we offer a closing thought: Where
would our sport and industry be if it were not for the foreign built machines? I don’t think we have to answer that. Ed.
