Letters
LETTERS
OUR FIRST TWENTY YEARS
Letters to the editor are welcomed and should be addressed to: Cycle World Editor, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, Calif. 92663. All letters are subject to editing and cannot be returned.
I found Motorcycle Milestones by Steve Kimball interesting and informative but I disagree with him on one thing... the 883cc Sportster was the hottest thing on wheels, even hotter than the Ford Cobra. He quotes a one-quarter mile/time of 13.86 sec. The 1962 Cobra with a small 4261cc, 260 hp, V-8 turned 0-60 mph in 4.2 sec., 0-100 mph in 10.8 sec., one-quarter in 13.8 sec. at 112 mph and has a top speed of 153 mph. (Per Road & Track road test in 1962).
Jack Hallick Santa Ana, Calif.
Mr. Scalzo’s article on Twenty Years at Trackside was excellent but I have one bit of nit-picking. Neil Keen is not only selling Samurai swords, he sells Starracer, Champion, Trackmaster racing frames and ^ther assorted goodies at fair prices with quick UPS service.
Keep up the good work for the next 20 years.
Bob Brooks Morris, 111
After I read Peter Egan’s Up Through The Ranks I fondly remembered my Honda CB160 as a hot performer, too. I bought it for the princely sum of $50 to enter the magic world of motorcycling. The front fender was missing, the seat was composed mostly of duct tape and the mufflers didn’t match but it ran marvelously.
Through the next two years and 20,000 mi., it carried me all over New Mexico and to college and home. After some continuous tinkering and a gear change it even got my 6 ft. 2 in., 225 lb. frame up many a mountain road. It never complained, or broke, or shed parts ... it just vibrated and vibrated and vibrated.
I recently sold it to a young man just burning with desire to begin riding. Motorcycles have become faster, more reliable and more civilized, but to me that little Honda will always hold the Right Stuff.
Alan Martini Albuquerque, N. Nex.>
Up Through The Ranks provoked my own memories of a I25cc Ducati that was the hottest thing on two wheels at my school. The guy even wore a fiberglass^ German helmet that was in shining chrome. I later fell in love with an old preunit Triumph and have loved British bikes ever since then. I ended up purchasing a Bultaco Metralla which I don’t have the heart to sell and I’ll always be happy with the 1968 Bonnie I now ride.
Mike Parish Pojoaque, N.Mex.
Your twentieth anniversary issue elicited pangs of nostalgia as Joe Parkhurst brought to life once more, the early days of post-war motorcycling. In fact, it prompted me to retrieve a dog-eared copv of the February 1967 issue which I bought simultaneously with the purchase of the featured bike of the month; a 1967 Triumph TIOOR which is still alive and well in a time-honored spot in my garage next to a more modern Honda GLIOOO.
L.C. Cutright Dallas, Tex.
THE LAST LAUGH
I guess, from reading the editor’s column on body language that I’m not the only biker, oops, motorcyclist that enjoys traffic editorializing, helping out those in dire circumstances, etc.
I call it the Lone Ranger syndrome. I’m sure that as the townfolks cough in my exhaust, they mutter, “Who was that masked (helmeted) man?”
This kind of stuff is to ego what pork is to sausage, but I received my comeuppance from an elderly gentleman on Route 81, in Tennessee. OF Titus Moody was thumping along in the middle lane doing’' somewhere less than 50 with his right blinker on. I passed him in the right lane on a long, sweeping left curve, turned my head and pointed accusingly at his turn signal (having forgotten how much my old BSA liked to drop her chain on these kind of curves. The chain hopped off the baci* sprocket, threw a loop inside the transmission, stalled and forced me to the shoulder in surrender.
I had the last laugh as I parked the bike ... I looked up and saw my friend, now nearly a mile away, visible only because o( his flashing turn signal. <
Matt Parrella Smithtown, N.Y.
FOOLISH FOLKLORE
Allan Girdler could do a whole lot worse than to join his kids in heeding the foolish folklore that tells us to turn a man^ ual gas tap off when parking a motorcycle.
Granted that modern carburetors are not the oozing contraptions they used to; be, they can still seep a little gasoline past the float valve. And this can still, in many cases, find its way to the crankcase— sometimes in quantities sufficient to dilute the oil of a four-stroke enough to cause4 lubrication problems or to foul the plug of a two-stroke.
Even where engine layout makes this unlikely, a temporarily jammed float needle can allow gasoline to run out the curb’s overflow and form a puddle that is slippery, expensive and highly inflammable.
Sure, there are several right ways to park a bike. That doesn’t mean there aren't any wrong ones.
Ken Salzman Bryan, Ohio
I never said you couldn’t shut it off. Did I?—AG
CREDIT WHERE DUE
Please stand corrected on one item in your December, 1981 issue. On page 73 and 74 the author(s) of the article make it sound as though production V-Twins all predate V-Fours. Not so at all. -*
In 1902, Adolphe Clement produced a 1 200cc, four-cylinder V configuration engine said to be able to attain 70 mph.
Please credit this early designer for his achievement 28 years before Matchless and their Silver Hawk. (Besides the Silver Hawk was only half the displacement.) ^ Brian K. Polsley San Francisco, Calif.
MORE REALISM
Doug Roy may be a fine artist, but he sure has a wild imagination.
His work in the December letters column shows what appears to be a six-days rider No. 242 on the same minute as the* play racer No. 198.
How about a little more realism?
Bill Jäkel Canton, Mich.
continued from page 20
Look again. Both riders are enduro riders. The smile on the 1 98's face means he's on time and No. 242, who started ahead of him has been hopelessly lost for* 45 mm.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...?
Will there ever be a production model Hesketh? I haven’t heard anything more about this motorcycle since A Vee For Victory in your September, 1980 issue.
L. Edgel Elma, Wash.
The Hesketh is still work in progress. The factory let some English reporters ride some pilot production models and the press found the shifting too slow and the geartrain too noisy. Rather than risk any-* thing less than excellent, Hesketh stopped the production line for redesign.
We’re told they’ll begin as soon as they can, but we don’t know when. Further, Hesketh plans to satisfy the home market, then the European market and then tackle US. regulations, so Heskeths here are aM least one year away.
THE NEVALS ARE COMING
I want to thank you for the article that appeared in the January, 1982 issue on the Neval (Roundup). For the sake of accuracy, however, please note that Nevaj ends with al, not el. ®
Denise M. Kalmes ^__—__Sidecar Imports, Ltd.
Lake Forest, 111.
