Letters

LETTERS

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

In your Jan. ’76 issue you did quite an article on Yamaha’s TZ750 and the AMA’s ban on it. I am currently riding a Yamaha TA250 road race Twin in a Champion dirt track frame. You notice I said currently. As of Jan. 1, 1977, the AMA has banned this machine and all 360 Singles from professional dirt track competition. After writing the AMA numerous times and receiving little or no response, I decided to let CYCLE WORLD know of another great AMA farce.

The answers I did receive were not to the questions I asked. The American Motorcycle Association told me who made the rules to return to 250cc Singles. From that I knew why. The Professional Rules Committee, consisting of one rep from every manufacturer or importer of motorcycles used in sanctioned competition, is the place Mr. Boyce laid the responsibility. In other words, one Honda rep, one Suzuki rep, one Kawasaki rep, etc., make

the rules. The members of this rules committee passed a rule to outlaw or ban their competitors’ equipment. If you are a rep for Brand A your job is to increase company sales. If outlawing 250cc Twins and 360cc Singles, which your company does not produce, will increase your company’s sales, you are paid to do this.

I am not blaming the company reps for doing what they are paid to do, but I am blaming the AMA for letting someone do a job when they have conflicting interests. If Suzuki was really interested in dirt track racing it could build a 360cc. The same for Honda, Kawasaki, Harley, etc., but they aren’t really concerned with lightweight dirt track racing. Husky did offer a 360 Champion-framed short tracker and it isn’t as megabucks as the Japanese. The Oriental concern is motocross, so they build bikes suited to motocross rules and demands. It really doesn’t seem fair for a manufacturer interested in motocross to dictate dirt track rules. Yes, I know Yamaha and Harley are big in dirt track racing, but besides them and Bultaco, who else gives a darn about dirt track?

CYCLE WORLD has a lot of media power. I wonder what kind of response the AMA would give you? I doubt if it would be a form letter. The American Motorcycle Association recently went through a name change. They now, in error, refer to themselves as the American Motorcyclist

Association. Based on what the AMA has told me about rulings and its governing bodies, I feel it should change its name again, to American Motorcycle Importers & Manufacturers Association.

Doug Dillard Lewiston, N.Y.

SMILE WHEN YOU SAY THAT

Before I start this awful, mean letter, I’d like to compliment you on your coverage of races and your great comparisons.

I think of motorcycling as a means of transportation other than cars and think bikes should be completely different from cars. Enduro, motocross, trials and street racing are all motorcycle sports that I enjoy. They and the machines they use are all totally different from cars and car races.

There are two words that, when they are put together, always make me sick. Those words are “Harley-Davidson” (ugh). The Harley Electra Glide has a huge, ugly fairing complete with radio, cigarette lighter and other completely useless items. It has a huge saddle that may be comfortable but does nothing to improve the machine’s looks. It has loads of storage things hanging all over it and I think it is completely dumb. Why doesn’t the owner just get in his car and have all those luxuries. A motorcycle is supposed to free you from all those things! Then there’s the Sportster. It brags that it is the fastest bike made in America. Try to name five bikes made in America. Hodaka you say? Hodaka only makes trail bikes.

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I think all Harleys are grossly overpriced and are all gas hogs. If you put a Harley Sportster up against a Kawasaki Z1 or a BMW R90/S. there's no doubt that it would lose. Sure it has a big, powerful engine, but no handling to control it all. The result: you have to slow down to take corners.

My dad is 52 and every summer morning he drives a BMW R75/5 to work. It pushes a fairing, but nothing fancy. No eight-track player or radio. It just guides the air around him. not through him. I am 14 years old and plan on getting a motorcycle soon. Maybe a Bultaco or Yamaha, but not a Harley.

Brvan Widmann Kirkville. N.Y.

A PAT FOR PABATCO

Just wanted to make a few comments and observations on your comparison test between the 250 Hodaka and the MR Honda.

1 own one of the first Hodaka 250s. Since February I have ridden Saddleback Park, Indian Dunes, desert and I even have it licensed for street. Gentlemen, this is one of the finest 250 off-road bikes (qualifier type) on the market. It is certainly the finest enduro 250 mount to emerge from the rising sun.

Before I bought my “Thunderdog,” I studied all other comparable bikes, even that outrageously overpriced KTM. In my observations I have found the Hodaka to be built better (check out that frame up close): it also has a competitive 250 engine and the best accessory components available: D.I.D.s, Preston Petty, and Kayaba suspension.

While your test revealed that both bikes are great, and I agree, I also feel that the Hodaka by virtue of easy serviceability, price and quality, plus world-reknowned dependability, should certainly be rated one lap above another bike that needs porting and mucho welding to even be in the ball park. How about some credit for the folks at Pabatco in Oregon, for a firstyear effort 250. This is an amazing accomplishment.

Robert Johnson Huntington Beach, Calif.

HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF?

Thanks! To think 1 drove for six years on my Honda 750 with my eyeballs shaking all the time. Today I received Webco number 896 springs and put 5.5 oz. of 10W oil in each fork. The book had called for 7 oz. When we went for a spin in the country

to check it out, I couldn’t believe it was the same machine (1970). Very smooth. Thanks for doing your homework and sharing it.

Dick Brosinger West Allis, Wise.

A LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND

I recently bought a Honda CB360T. The first words out of the salesman's mouth were, “You gotta keep the revs up or the battery will be drained from the heavy power requirements of the electrics.” Since this was not a pleasing thought to me, I set about finding a simple solution to the problem.

I decided that if the headlight was turned off while the bike idled it would save on the battery. I wired an SPST switch to the ground wire on the headlight (a simple matter of disconnecting ground at the connector in the headlight shell and attaching leads from the switch).

Upon testing the system I was pleasantly surprised to find that my high-beam indicator light acted as a pilot light to let me know when I had the headlight off. This little feature saves you a battery and traffic tickets for failing to keep your headlight on during the day. Hope this will help out fellow riders.

Lance Galant Great Neck, N.Y.

LEST WE FORGET

As a motorcyclist who has been riding twice as long as he has been driving. I’m probably biased in my opinions.

However, in reference to numerous letters I see published in various motorcycle magazines with regards to “four-thousand pound hunks of Detroit iron” being dangerous to us two-wheeled types, let me remind all of us motorcyclists that the common motor vehicle (most often a car) is a relatively safe means of motion in itself. The dangerous factor is usually the driver (or rider). They are the ones we should be keeping a very careful eye on.

What I’m saying is this: In today’s traffic survival “game” (where we don’t get many second chances), we of all people must ride with brains, not prejudice. It is the only way we’ll stay alive.

Frank Simon Alberta Safety Council Canada

PLEASE TAKE PEN IN HAND

I am a Welshman who is really into American motorcycling. I have CYCLE WORLD on order and, I must admit, others too.

The trouble with Britain (and the continent to some extent) is that we don’t have the space you people have on your side of the water.

I ride enduro in Wales on a 125 Suzuki and tour on a 750 Honda, but my one ambition is to come to the U.S.A. and ride a desert race. We just don’t have any deserts!

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My reason for this letter is to find a pen pal, male or female, in the California area with the same interests as myself, motorcycles. To correspond with someone already there who is into bikes would really be great and I could get to know a bit more about life on a motorcycle in the States.

Dave Stapleton RAF Police RAF Laarbruch BFPO 43 West Germany

BICENTENNIAL BEAUTY

First off I must say that I am a HarleyDavidson nut through and through so you know where I stand.

In your July ’76 issue, I saw Carl Dills’ Bicentennial Harley-Davidson and I almost flipped. It was beautiful.

I can say proudly that Harley’s red, white and blue was made in the U.S. of A. and the pride of America went into all of them.

I believe in the red. white and blue and I will only ride a bike made here and not junk made somewhere else.

That bike is so beautiful I could almost sing the Star Spangled Banner to it.

Palter DeBalski Fairmont, W.Va.

PSYCHED OUT

Forgive my generalizing, but Dr. Shelton’s letter in the Aug. ’76 issue regarding helmet use gives me but one more good reason to dismiss psychiatry as irrelevant to real people in a real world.

My experience with motorcyclists indicates that they are much above the intelligence level the good doctor would allow. My cycling acquaintances discuss at length the relative merits of helmet use, and by and large accept their shortcomings in the total reality of practical day to day riding. Neither myself nor any biker I know drives about taking risks, believing themselves invulnerable to accidents simply because they’re wearing helmets. Helmets do not give us a false sense of security, but they do in fact give us protection beyond the limits of alertness and the fragility of flesh and blood. I’ve heard it said that Freud himself once remarked that a cigar may be a phallus, but it’s still a cigar.

Dr. Shelton also states that the helmet decreases sensory input of tactile, auditory, visual and vibratory information. Tactile—outside of the pleasure of the sensation of wind in my hair, what can I gain by feeling the hot sun on my head, bugs in my face, sand in my eyes, and that grit thrown off the tires of trucks up ahead? Auditory—how is it an improvement to maintain damaging levels of wind noise, especially on the freeway? I've tried it, and discovered that I can hear much better when my ears aren't ringing. Visual-the only part of my vision cut off by my Bell Star is the clouds overhead and my gas cap. Maybe the doctor can explain why most bikers I see without helmets rarely protect their eyes with anything more than sunglasses. A bug or grit in the eye could mean a bike out of control at 55-plus mph. Vibratory-I don't do headstands on my seat while driving, so I depend on my fingers and posterior to tell me what's vibrating.

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Attacks on motorcyclists by the dis turbed and drunk seem to occur whether one is bareheaded or not. I choose to protect my head in such circumstances. In fact, many car drivers have told me while stopped at red lights that they appreciate being able to see my bright orange helmet. Our lack of visibility in their driving awareness is our most serious threat. Fur thermore, while the doctor may try to make eye contact with that driver waiting at an intersection, I feel much safer ap proaching the intersection prepared to react correctly to whatever irrational move he may make. Eye contact is great at walking speeds, and I recommend it, but at bike speeds, business first and pleasure second.

As a Buddhist myself, I ask how the doctor can drive about with such elaborate conceptualizations of his fellow drivers, and quote Zen in the same letter? Is it not more realistic to drive a car or ride a bike without preconceived ideas, but to react spontaneously to whatever happens at the moment it's happening. This is the Zen blend of practiced skill and complete one ness of mind and body.

Wayne A. Schotten Berkeley, Calif.

TAKE A LETTER

I am writing in the hope that bikers throughout the United States will take a few minutes to help to change some outS dated laws.

In 1966 Congress passed the Highway Safety Act. Section 402 of this act required that every state pass some sort of helmet law or lose its federal highway funds. Sieg Heil! For the last nine years we have been riding under this outrageous law. How ever, this year an amendment was passed which specifically prohibits the imposition of a helmet requirement on any state. So the next step is on a state level. Write to your state senators and repre sentatives and let them know how you feel about mandatory helmet laws.

Gregory S. Terrill F-2 Div. COMSIXTHFLT FPO, NY 09501