Letters
LETTERS
TAKING ISSUE
While I enjoyed your recent article on Barry Sheene, I must take issue with one casually made statement—that Phil Read, one of the great riders of all time, has "gradually ridden over the hill."
I have followed his career from the early 60s and have seen him race as recently as the 1971 Isle of Man TT and the 1972 Daytona event. In the 1971 TT race he led the 350 race until his frame broke, won the 250cc race effortlessly (putting in a 100-mph lap) and went on to win the world championship as a privateer, against factory competition. He won the '72 TT again, showing he is still master of the most demanding and dangerous road race in the world and at Daytona he placed 4th on one of the slowest machines in the race.
John Gary Brown Lawrence, Kans.
SOUND METERS
I have noted several articles and letters on sound level meters in CYCLE WORLD. Most of them, including the editor’s note to Mr. Noble’s letter in the March issue about the Radio Shack instruments, are misleading.
The American National Standards institute has established standards for sound level meters, titled SI.4-1971. The standard establishes performance and tolerances for three types of meters: Type 1, precision; Type 2,
general purpose; and Type 3, survey meter.
The precision instrument is the best and most costly—$1500 to $2000. The general purpose is the next best and suitable for most measurements and costs from $380 to $500, without a calibrator. The survey meter is the least accurate, and sells for $100 to $250. The Radio Shack and most other cheap instruments don’t even meet the survey meter standards.
The type of measurements that you are making should dictate the quality of the instrument. If you are just interested in determining if there is some noise around and want to know if some measurements should be made, then the survey meter will do. Of course, so will your ears and in most cases much more accurately. For vehicle noise measurements or for gathering any meaningful data, a Type 2 general purpose sound level meter is the least accurate that should be used. Even this meter should be purchased with a calibrator, which should be used regularly.
A lot of people with good intentions have invested in the cheap meters and discovered that their data is meaningless and cannot be accepted by the authori ties. It is suggested that persons interested in making meaningful noise measurements contact one of the following two companies for sound level meters and how to use them—General Radio Co., Concord, Mass. 01742; or B&K Instruments Inc., 5111 W. 164 St., Cleveland, Ohio 44142.
Both companies make all three types of meters and they will stand behind their products. They both have representatives in major cities. I work for neither company and have nothing to sell but I’d like to see the proper information on sound measuring instruments distributed.
Ross A. Little Sacramento, Calif.
BMW JOURNAL
Our new journal, called the “BMW' Motorcycle Journal,” will be mailed to all registered BMW owners on a quarterly basis. Undoubtedly, there are some BMW owners whose addresses are not known to us. We would appreciate it if your publication would mention that this journal is available to all BMW owners.
Helmut M. Kern Butler & Smith, Inc.
135 E. Stanley St. Compton, CA 90220
BIKE INSURANCE
I’ve been driving a motorcycle for about four or five years. When I first started, the insurance for my original bike was a grand total of $40 a year. The bike was a lightweight (catagorized) Honda 90. At that time insurance waa not compulsary. After a year on the 90 I got a Honda 305 Super Sports. Insurance for a half year was $55. Then came the year of compulsory insurance, compulsory third person liability, and the insurance jumped to $108 a half year. I’m in school with a part time job and I can squeeze out that much for a half year. A lot of my friends couldn’t and they dropped off the motorcycle scene.
Along comes the year of compulsory passenger insurance—up goes the price again to $160 a half year, on a 305 Honda, although I must add I had fire and theft on the bike. Then I got a 750 Honda and a full-time job and (surprise) a full year’s insurance for $276. So I’ve got a drop (in the bucket) in my insurance, and considering that I’ve been driving for almost four years without a violation against my license, 1 figure I deserve a little credit.
Next I bought a SL 350 Kl and figured I’d get a drop in insurance rates. No drop in fire, theft, or the rest of it. I tried my luck at a sports car, wowinsurance only cost $180 a year, but I still hang on to my 350. Now there’s another increase in insurance. What do we few cyclists do about it other than go back to the old Honda 90 or stop riding?
irop in insurance rates. (Continued on page 14)
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Don Stewart North Vancouver, B.C., Can.
OBSERVED TRIALS
I have recently moved to the Southwestern New Mexico area and I am interested in participating in observed trials competition. Because of a scarcity of organized motorcycling in this region I have not been able to find out when or where trials events are held in the surrounding area.
I would appreciate it if you would publish this letter and my address so that riders or organizations who know of observed trials events within a distance of a weekend’s drive can contact me. 1 would be very thankful for whatever help anyone can give me.
John R. Heslip Box 24, Route 10 Silver City, N.M. 88061
125 DUSTER REWIRING
In reading the road test of the Suzuki 125 Duster in your February 1973 issue, I found that you said, “About the only two criticisms one can levy against the controls are the lack of a handlebar mounted kill button and the presence of a turn signal switch when there are no turn signals.”
I recently bought a ’72 Suzuki 12§ Duster and I had the same two criticisms. So I located the two wires from the turn signal switch (one black, the other light green) and disconnected them from under the gas tank and then grounded one to the frame. The other wire, I spliced to the thin black wire in front of the ignition coil. Now there is no turn signal switch, but a handlebar mounted kill switch.
Troy Jenkins Ft. Worth, Texas
CONTINUAL SLURS
As a professional wrench, I’ve had a bellyfull of your continual slurs against the mechanic. Very few problems can be laid at the feet of your local overworked, underpaid, badly treated mechanic. And yet, he is always to blama because the nut that holds onto the handlebars is loose.
Advertising campaigns and publications such as yours have convinced “The Clown” that he needs a six-cycle, dohc, 120 bhp, disc braked, “superfast.” in order to strengthen his ego and improve his sexual attraction, while he doesn’t know that he should lube or adjust his chain until it has broken a hole in the only right crankcase half on the North American Continent.
(Continued on page 22)
Continued from page 14
I suggest that Dan Hunt spend a little time at a dealership, analyzing the problems with the customer’s machine. He will find that most defects are owner caused, as with the example of the “Tiger Cub head removal problem,” and STP in the gas tank, or simply an empty oil tank.
Or better yet, let him (Dan Hunt) ride on the buddy seat of the TX750, and tell the clown when the idiot light comes on.
I know of no mechanic who would charge $30 to run a compression check, and all the black boxes and computers in the world are not going to make an R5 operate at 30 mph in 5th gear, without fouling the plugs.
The motorcycle mechanic has a difficult and mostly thankless job, and spends his day fixing machines that shouldn’t have broken, if the owner had read his manual or consulted the mechanic before installing those “Super-Zap” Indy-type plugs, which burned a hole in the piston.
The real problem is rider education, and until you can come up with a definitive answer for that, get off my back!
J.M. Gray Tierra Amarilla, N.M.
We appreciate your beef with the incompetent rider who fiddles his bike to a standstill, J.M. But please don’t think we’re getting on your back. We don’t consider diagnostics as a replacement for the overworked mechanic, but rather as a system that may make life easier for him and allow him to move on to more important problems. With your feelings running hot about ham-handed bike owners, you hardly cast yourself in the role of a sympathetic mechanic, ready to help all comers. The fumblefingers types may be annoying, but they pay cash for their mistakes and they are buying the hundreds of thousands of motorcycles annually that keep us all working and getting paid. -Ed.
AMICUS CURIAE
Inasmuch as CYCLE WORLD has consistently expressed a serious interest in securing and protecting the legal rights of bikers, I would like to pass on to you, so that you may pass on to your readers, what is being done toward this end in the Akron area.
(Continued on page 26)
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With the excellent cooperation of Son’s Harley-Davidson Sales and Service, I am in the process of organizing fellow bikers into one solid political and economic bloc. Our immediate objectives are directed more to the local than to the state level. These objectives, and the means of obtaining them, are: the invalidation of discriminatory municipal ordinances pertaining to both on-road and off-road riding by means of instituting test cases in open court; the repeal of discriminatory legislation and the prevention of the same in the future by means of bloc voting and offering grassroots political assistance to legislators and political parties; the opening of service to and allowance of bikes upon the premises of business establishments by means of economic boycotts and the institution of civil suits in open court; the securing of a greater effort on the part of law enforcement officials toward preventing the theft of bikes and also toward their immediate recovery by means of bloc political voting and the recruitment of bike-riding policemen and sheriffs into the project; a broader coverage of motorcycle sporting events in the news media by means of cancellation of subscriptions and advertising space; a fairer and more accurate image of motorcycling and motorcyclists in general, and so forth.
If any of your readers are seriously interested in initiating a similar project in their area, I will be happy to advise them as to procedure and details. Although I have informed the American Motorcycle Association of this project, and would personally welcome their assistance, this project is not officially linked to the AMA. It is hoped, however, that our efforts will complement each other.
Also, just for the record, I have personally paid for all expenses (such as advertising, printing, etc.) incurred thus far in this project, and my legal services are given to this project absolutely free of charge. I am a biker and I am damned tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
R. Douglas Paige, Attorney Akron, Ohio
