Feedback

FEEDBACK

Readers, as well as those involved in the motorcycle industry, are invited to have their say about motorcycles they own or have owned. Anything is fair game: performance, handling, reliability, service, parts availability, lovability, you name it. Suggestions: be objective, be fair, no wildly emotional but illfounded invectives; include useful facts like mileage on odometer, time owned, model year, special equipment and accessories bought, etc.

GOOD ON AND OFF ROAD

Not long ago I became the owner of a new 1972 TCI 25, the one with the 4x4 transmission.

The bike’s use has been 75 percent trail, 25 percent street. On the street the performance is as good as can be expected from a 125. Vibration is minimal until you reach 6500 rpm or about 60 mph. The bike corners well and sticks to the road even with knobbies. This bike is a pleasure to ride on or off road.

Off the road, the bike has plenty of power. Snick the transmission into low range and you can climb hills that leave butterflies in your stomach and turn back nine out of ten riders who try. Speaking of power, rev up the engine, pop the clutch and you will find yourself on your back PDQ, while your bike’s trying to climb a telephone pole.

The bike is very reliable and the only parts replaced besides standard items have been rings, piston, plastic front fender and a change to Champion Gold plugs.

My dealer, Barches Suzuki Sales, has always had the parts I wanted in stock.

Bary Murphy Columbus, Ohio

RESTORING HONDA CB77

I have been reading CYCLE WORLD off and on for the past 10 years. I presently own an old Honda CB77, which I bought last year and have been restoring. I had a 1963 CB72 that I bought new and sold two years later. Needless to say, I am glad to see the return of the low, flat handlebars and

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clip-ons as “in” styling. Of course, brakes and transmissions of today are a bit better than those of the ’60s. That old Super Hawk desperately needed another gear between second and third.

Now for a question and a tip to other Super Hawk owners.

In your August ’74 issue, page 49, photo number three, there is a Honda CB750 with an enclosed sidecar. What kind of bike is the one in the lower right-hand corner of the photo? It looks like a CB72/77 headlight shell on it. Is it some kind of production racer?

Here’s a tip for anyone who may be restoring a CB72/77. All wiring diagrams that I have seen show what appears to be an error in the wiring between the combination switch, rectifier and battery. Coming off the battery hot side, there is a fused wire to the “BA” terminal of the switch that doesn’t quite make it in the drawings. Believe me, that lack of connection sure eats rectifiers.

Looking at the CL72/CL77 diagram and comparing it with the CB diagram will show the error.

Don Stone Colorado Springs, CO

The motorcycle in the photo, Don, is a Honda CR93. It is a street version of Honda’s twin-cylinder, dohc 125 racer. —Ed.

TOOK A TRIUMPH TRIP

Thought I’d drop a line along with my subscription renewal. Your magazine has to be about the best on the market. Only Cycle comes close. However, that isn’t the main reason I wrote this letter. I avidly read the “Feedback” column and I don’t often read nice things about Triumphs, so I thought I would make a contribution.

I own a ’71 Bonneville with extended front end (not raked) and Z-bars. All else is stock. I bought it last spring with 6000 miles on it. In July my wife and I rode it to Yellowstone National Park by way of the Badlands and Black Hills of So. Dakota. Except for leaky gas lines, we had no trouble at all. It averaged 43 mpg over the trip, which was 2650 miles long. It did leak some oil out of the tach drive cover and a few other spots.

Things went very well considering the bike had been abused when I bought it. It had been left out in the rain with no spark plugs in it and the cylinder walls rusted and froze one piston in place. It had to be hammered out. But it has almost 1 2,000 miles on it now and keeps on running just fine.

Howard C. Lett (no address) (Continued on page 28)

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YOSHIMURA RESPONDS

I’d like equal time to reply to a letter printed in the December “Feedback” column. I am quite surprised that you would have printed a letter similar to the letter concerning Yoshimura Racing Inc. by James Sowie of Michigan without first making an attempt to determine its validity.

The engine referred to was received by Yoshimura Racing Inc. on July 8, 1974, in pieces with parts missing (Ref: letter to Sowie, July 10, 1974). The engine was returned to him as soon as possible and well within the 21 days after receipt of the complete engine. At Bonneville (“Yoshimura’s Salt-Free Diet”?), Mr. Sowie set a record of 94.247 mph in class MC-100. Pretty impressive for a non-existent engine! This record was set during the normal speed week of August 18 to 24, 1974.

Mr. Sowle’s telephone call to Jeff Gehrs did not result in instantaneous arrival of the engine (Ref: invoice No. 21423, dated 7-8-74 and work order 2816, dated 7-8-74).

Mr. Sowle’s letter, dated August 13, 1974, included a picture of him in a T-shirt reading, “Yoshimura is a ripoff”. This letter was received by Yoshimura Racing Inc. on August 19th and an investigation was immediately conducted by this company to determine the facts. On August 20, 1974, Richard Goepfrich replied to Mr. Sowle’s letter, stating our position.

If you would conduct a little investigation of your readers, I’m sure that you would definitely find that Yoshimura Racing’s track record equals or exceeds anyone’s in the industry. Any customer complaints are handled expeditiously and to the customer’s satisfaction if at all possible.

The walk-out of Hideo Yoshimura and his deliberate attempts to damage the credibility and reputation of the corporation bearing his name, due to his inability to learn proper tuning procedures, has resulted in nothing but improvement in our service. Mr. Yoshimura’s expertise in camshaft design is legendary, but his lack of even fundamental manufacturing, marketing and engine tuning techniques (resulting in blown engines, “The Curse of the House of Yoshimura”), are equally legendary.

Yoshimura Racing Inc., a California corporation, has established a reputation for quality and service since its incorporation in November of 1972.

Thanks to the help and advice of people like Bobby Strahlmann and Arnold Frank of Champion Spark Plugs, Gary Bryson and J. Don Glenn of

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Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Jack McCormack and Walt Fulton Sr. of Jacwal, and of course, Yvon DuHamel, Art Baumann and Hurley Wilvert, Yoshimura Racing Inc. has developed an unequaled reputation for all forms of motorcycle competition and reliability in everyday use.

With the personnel we have running the business now, I look forward to even better service to our customers.

Dale O. Alexander President Yoshimura Racing Inc.

One of the purposes of the “Feedback” column is to allow individuals an opportunity to confront the industry concerning matters in which they feel they are right or in instances in which they feel cheated.

Once we print a letter, response from those accused is usually prompt. Often, as in your case, replies add another dimension to the problem at hand.

Since we always print replies and since the column is a reader service, we do not feel it is reckless journalism to print reader letters whose validity has not been “checked out. ’’ On the contrary, it provides a platform from which truth usually emerges.— Ed.

HARLEY OWNER NEEDS HELP

I am the “unproud” owner of the Harley-Davidson SX 125. I purchased this bike with a hard-earned $750 and have had nothing but misery and heartache since the first minute that I had it in my possession.

In the showroom, when it was brandnew, the spark plug fouled out. They fixed that right away, or so I thought. Ten minutes after riding it home, not even three miles on it, the gears jammed and I was without a bike for a week. The Nassau County dealer in Lynbrook told me that it was the bike’s fault. Instead of riding, I’ve spent most of my time since I’ve owned the H-D going back and forth to the dealer. I have put 1000 miles on the bike in one year. A good part of that was put on by the Harley-Davidson dealer, road testing it to no avail.

Since last March I have been unable to ride the bike because there isn’t a Harley-Davidson dealer that has a key switch, clutch lever or light switches, which are all under warranty. I cannot ride it in this condition and can’t sell it either. Can anyone help me?

Lloyd Grossman 92 Eva Drive

0 Lido Beach, NY 11561