Letters
LETTERS
SELF-PROTECTION LAWS
I’d like to point out that the standard tactic of helmet law proponents is to ignore Constitutional arguments rather than face them. This is because they know Uncle Sam has no right to interfere with state law-making and that nowhere does the Constitution allow for self-protection laws.
The task faced by the pro-helmet-law forces is to justify an unconstitutional law on the grounds that it works. Until they do that. I oppose them. I especially resent those who. because they ride motorcycles, feel justified in dictating the behavior of others who ride.
Regarding the radar detector article in your January issue: I use a Fuzzbuster in a car but find a CB is better on the highway. CBs are useless or nearly useless on back roads so when a Fuzzbuster goes off, one should slam on the brakes immediately as warnings are sometimes short.
Doug Delmont Annapolis, Md.
LIFE BEGINS AT 70
It was gratifying to learn, through the letters in your February 1978 issue, that there are other older people w'ho enjoy riding a motorcycle as much as I do.
After my 70th birthday I bought a new Honda, learned to ride, and passed my riding test. I rode that bike in excess of 12.000 miles on the surface streets of California. which has the most traffic of any place in the United States.
After my 76th birthday. I bought a new 1978 Honda HawT 400A and I really enjoy the automatic transmission. It sure beats shifting up and down at every signal.
Tw'o years ago I tried to organize a senior citizen’s motorcycle club, but I only received one answer to the article I had published in the newspaper. With more older people becoming interested in riding bikes, it may be possible some time in the future.
Frank R. Shepard Pasadena, Calif.
I was 70 years old w hen I bought my first motorcycle, a Yamaha 100 Enduro and “rode pasture” with it on a 500-acre ranch in the Ozarks. Three thousand miles and never off the place. Then I got a Yamaha 125 and started going places. In 1975 I bought a Honda 360. I now' have a Honda 200—quite satisfactory wheels. I am 77. retired here on the Gulf Coast and ride nearly every day. I’m 77 when I get up in the morning but when I get on my motorcycle I’m as young as that teenager dowm the street. I can go just as fast just as easily as he does.
I especially enjoy your stories of touring trips. My big ambition is to get in the saddle and go places far and wide and add miles and miles to the nearly 13.000 I’ve logged to date.
Dick Bourne Chalmette, La.
SCOTT HANDGUARDS
I’ve been trying to buy a pair of the Scott Pro handguards you showed a picture of in your December issue, and wrote to Scott USA raving about their products and asked where could I get a set of their Scott Pro handguards. They finally replied with a polite thanks for my letter and then explained that Scott Pro is an outfit from Oregon.
About that time I felt like I’d just been passed in the boonies by an 8-year-old kid on a Honda 50 with no brakes and the gas tank firmly held in place with his teeth! So, please tell me where I can get some handguards. I do a lot of riding, all year long, and these gadgets would really help to retard the frostbite on these 40-year-old arthritic knuckles of mine.
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We really look forward to each issue of CYCLE WORLD here. Eve already gotten several riding chums hooked on it! (Had to buy them Christmas subscriptions—I could never find my own issue.)
Fred J. Wahl White Plains, N.Y.
Sorry about the confusion. Scott USA makes goggles. The company you need is Gary Scott’s company, Scott Pro. Here’s the address:
Scott Pro 17385 Colina Vista Ave. Milwaukie, Ore. 97222
MOST EXPENSIVE PRODUCTION BIKE
Depending on your definition of a production motorcycle, the Van Veen either is or is not the most expensive production bike in the world as mentioned in the “Roundup” column in your March issue.
I would call your attention to that littleknown German manufacturer, Munch Motorradfabrik GmbH, producers of the Munch 1200cc TTS-E (1300cc optional) NSU-based machine.
Mind you, the last price list I have from the factory is a late 1975 listing, but at that time a fully-optioned TTS-E with fuel injection and the whole works was about $12.000 FOB Germany. 1 imagine that the same machine today would be selling for $16.000-$ 18,000 FOB Germany with the inflation rate and exchange rate changes of the past two years.
In any event, the Van Veen will shortly be a reality, and I welcome its addition in this country. Would I buy a Van Veen, or a Munch? Well, you see, there’s this nice new MV Agusta 850 SS in my basement . . .
George E. Missbach. Jr. Atlanta, Ga.
Impressive and expensive though the Munch is, we didn’t think it qualified as a production motorcycle. Last word we’ve had is that the Munch works will build a machine to order. We don 7 know the price and we haven 7 seen anything indicating that the latest model conforms to U.S. specifications.
NOT EVERYONE LIKES PEACHES AND CREAM
Thank you for the article on Yamaha’s SR500 (January). It's good to see an article about a road bike that uses a simple but powerful engine for a change. If it had been available, I would probably have bought an SR500 a year and a half ago when my last bike quit. Now I’m into a less macho riding style and wouldn’t trade my present ride for anything but if 1 could afford a second bike, that’s the one.
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I also agree with Allan Burch (“Letters”) that his Honda 750A is probably “peaches and cream.” Personally, I’d rather ride a motorcycle so I’ll stick to my BMW or possibly Yamaha’s mighty street Single. I can’t speak as vainly about my BMW as he can about his Honda. While his CB750A may be well traveled and proven at 1300 miles, my R60/6 isn’t even completely broken in at 9000 miles so I’ll have to wait a year or two before I can tell how dependable it is. I haven’t adjusted a chain yet, either.
Bill Spooner Jackson. Mich.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON FXS
I read the article on the Harley-Davidson FXS in your February issue. For the person that likes that type of machinery, the idea is good but the end product is rather disappointing. It seems to me that Harley has lived in a world of tourers and choppers. If after seeing that FXS and the other street bikes that H-D puts out at the present time and someone told me that the year was 1949 I would believe them and say “Harley’s real cool.”
Unfortunately it is 1978, the stellar Seventies and the machinery that H-D puts out is not keeping with the times. In my book I put Harley-Davidson on the specialist level like Moto Guzzi or Moto Morini but with the traditionalism of the Britishers and we all know what that did to their fight in the competitive world motorcycle market. I strongly believe that AMF has H-D frozen in time.
Michael A. Petri Wheeling, W.Va.
I have waited 30 years for someone to write a story like the “Harley-Davidson FXS Low Rider.”
It seems appropriate that Harley is now a part of the AMF conglomerate family: AMF used to stand for American Machine & Foundry, producers of heavy castings. What better mentor to perpetuate the tradition that “heaviness is next to. . . .”?
I confess I once owned a 1974 Harley which I was never able to manhandle onto its rear stand. My struggles to do this, in order to wipe oil off the chrome-plated rear rim. were always conducted in private, in my subterranean garage, since my neighbors thought I was a little nuts anyway, charging around on that maroon beast.
Harley’s present litigation is not the first time it has sought governmental relief for its business problems. In the early Fifties it spent a fortune trying to convince the FTC that British vertical Twins were stealing all those good. American, red. white and blue Milwaukee profits. It was quite a sight to see those factory men trying to manhandle 700-plus pounds of motorcycle into the elevator going up to the committee room.
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I’m going to get a chuckle from Harley’s efforts to show the government that its troubles all come from things like the 305 Honda. Even Bailey and Belli can’t help ’em now.
Bob Jones Rolling Meadows. 111.
SUPPORT THE AMA
The “Roundup” column in your February issue seemed to be a confirmation of the attitude held by most of today’s motorcyclists regarding the American Motorcyclist Association. Motorcyclists have expressed all your stated reasons and many others as well for refusing to help the AMA in its effort to help all of us.
You were not wrong, nor were you misleading. The AMA seems to be having its share of problems, perhaps more than at any time in its 54-year history. It would be premature to count the AMA out. however.
It has too much to offer motorcycling to fold up its tents at this time.
During the last decade the AMA has had to really scramble to keep pace with the rapidly changing face of motorcycling. Committed to the sport in general rather than a particular segment of it. it accepted more and more responsibility as the demand increased. These demands, incidentally. were obligations of circumstance rather than outside pressure. The close inner-relationship of various influences dictated involvement.
As a result it added a legislative department. formed an affiliation with the FIM, offered increased coverage or new insurance policies where none existed before, exposed professional racing to national network television, reached an agreement with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company giving birth to the Camel Pro Series and added a member to its staff for exclusive road rider representation. We witnessed the only International Six Days Trials on American soil, put a class A member on the Executive Committee and successfully took on the federal bureaucracy when President Nixon issued Executive Order 11644. These and other significant events gave testimony to the AMA’s diligence and effectiveness.
During that time the AMA staff doubled in numbers twice, from 16 in early 1971 to more than 60 today. The staff is providing the most efficient administration in AMA history, but the real story is that while the staff was re-doubling, membership remained about the same.
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Progress had nonetheless had its effect. The effect on motorcycling was positive. With support from less than three-fourths of one percent of the people it represented, it managed to make giant strides. Still, most motorcyclists continued to find reasons not to lend their support.
As in every family, things were not always smooth. Staff turnover was high, money was tight and an energy crisis threatened to put an end to all motorcycle competition.
In spite of sometimes heroic efforts, the AMA has its detractors. People expect too much of it and then bad-mouth it because it doesn’t live up to their expectations. Usually, the people who make the most destructive noise are not even members. To my way of thinking the AMA. or any other membership organization, must be responsive to its membership, and it is only the guy who has put his money on the line that has a right to hitch. I am an 18-year member and I’ve done my share, but I’ve paid for the privilege.
One must have his head in a hole in the sand not to recognize the contribution the AMA has made to motorcycling. Unfortunately, much of that contribution, the success it has demonstrated, must be measured in terms of what has not happened rather than what has happened. The status quo we fret about now is far better than what the situation might have been if the AMA hadn’t kept the wolf from the door. The skirmishes were all defensive and most concluded in a draw, hut not once was the effort a loss. All things considered, this is one hell of a fine record.
Suzie Mann’s ideas are well taken, hut I cannot agree with them. They are based on the premise that AMA professional racing is passé and the balance of its activities unnecessary, insignificant, or of no particular benefit. This is a very shortsighted view. It would set motorcycle racing back 20 years, hopelessly splinter national unity, deprive the sport of a national body and leave us vulnerable to those who wish us extinction. If the AMA were to fall, so would every other motorcycle-oriented organization.
To disband the AMA w;ould he foolish and irresponsible. The unthinking and the unknowing will throw stones and refuse to help, while the concerned will continue to give support. For a change, people should take a little time to consider the positive side of years of AMA influence. And then join!
Chet Winter Rochester. N.Y.
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Good old Henry Manney! I am a few issues behind and just finished reading about H.M.'s introduction to sidecars in the August 1977 issue. I went through a similar initiation and also survived, which reaffirmed my faith in God and even numbers of wheels, at least for a while.
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Actually, my friend Charlie got the hack bolted to his Honda 450 when it became obvious that we would never make it to Nova Scotia and back with four people and all that junk on two bikes. At that time. Randy Wilson of W. Boylston. Massachusetts was the Watsonian sidecar distributor and he installed the neat little lightweight bullet on the 450. for which Charlie never forgave him. Especially after running into a phone booth not yet out of the parking lot. right after taking delivery. Except for a short, nearly suicidal stretch of 1-95 in Maine. Charlie never again piloted his rig. We swapped. 1 took over the combo to salvage the trip. He did go for one short ride in the chair with me just to show me he wasn't scared, but at the first right turn his eyes popped out of their sockets, his cigar Hew into my lap. and the beer can (liquid courage) ended up in the grille of the car behind us. So much for nonchalance.
Despite its ominous beginning, the trip was a success. The rig was well set up by Randy, but we could have used a couple of extra teeth on the rear cog. The rig returned 30-40 mpg all the way. and instantly endeared us to the locals wherever we stopped. The front disc squealed if 1 so much as looked at the brake lever, but was a real God-send. 1 discovered that the best way to make right turns and still be around to talk about it was to pray first, then grab two arms full of handlebar and lean to the left! Goes against the grain, but you just can't approach a combination if you're prejudiced with logic.
When we arrived home. Charlie got rid of that chair before the tires were cooled off. but 1 was hooked. I'll be three-wheeling again, it's just a matter of time and money. Till then. H.N.M.. thanks for the memories.
John Zucker Jr. Westboro. Mass.
