Letters

LETTERS

Ol' Iron Buns

I wholeheartedly and sincerely congratulate you for setting the new world records in Laredo. I am one of the very few in the world who can appreciate the event from a personal point of view. I have personally been involved in two non-sanctioned world speed/distance races: The Iron Butt Rally in 1984 and 1985. This event covers 12,000 miles in 10 days round the perimeter of the United States and is done on public highways.

Although I respect what it took to accomplish your records, I must say that in my standards, your fastest day was nothing but a meatball. If you would take a pleasant trip around the country for 10 days at those speeds, you might find that the 106-degree temperatures you spoke of could be found in the southwest right after surviving the below-freez ing temperatures of Montana. For a break in the monotony, you could tackle a hurricane for five or six hours. In your leisure moments, you might try Highway 101 from Seattle to San Diego on Labor Day weekend at those speeds. When you tired of dodging grannies pulling out in front of you. along with elk, dogs and hunks of ice being thrown from the tire wells of trucks. you could get your beauty rest in 1 5or 20-minute increments, lying beside your kick stand on the shoulder of the road in full riding garb because of the ice thrown from the highway. Try riding from Philly to Wyoming through these conditions, avoiding arrest minded cops. in 3 1 hours on the first day.

This is all done by one man on one machine during one event. No support vehicles or crew. Just you against the world on a homemade Harley-Davidson. a 98-cubic-inch business machine that you rode 3000 miles to the start line and 3000 miles home again after the race. Run these speeds with no money except what was contributed by your cus tomers and the elite few business men in the motorcycle industry with the foresight to believe someone could accomplish this feat.

Mso. think about nursing a tire that has been throwing half-dollarsize chunks for 200 miles, and you can't change it because of the rules. A bald tire works miracles in torren tial rain. You can get a little traction from the holes in the tire where the chunks came out. Dancing pigs my

Idid all this and loved every minute of it. Thanks for doing the

light work. Maybe we'll see you on the start line at the Iron Butt `86.

The Pharoah Mesa, Arizona

Ei~ sorry; we've all got appoint inents to have our nose-/lairs p/ticked uliat day.

The high cost of hybrids

Thank you. Your YZ!TT350 hy brid (December. 1 985) is exactly what we dirt riders want. The big problem is getting the Japanese to build them. Why they continue to build lousy, obese four-strokes is be yond me. The answer is so obvious. If only Husky would make a 250 or 350 thumper. All the factories have to do is manufacture more moto cross frames with bigger bellies-a simple frame modification. They can do stuff like that so easy. They wouldn't have to design new plastic or suspension components. just use the same goodies they put on the two-strokes.

Your project bike is terrific. Just what the doctor ordered. Could you please tell me who built it and give me a cost estimate? I'd like to con vert an `86 CR250 into a hybrid. Let's hope the factories will learn from your creation.

Kyle P. Irish Glendale, Arizona

Ron Griewe. our Senior Editor. con cei red and built the YZ/TT350. He sai~ I/ia! it s impossible to give a cost estimate simpli' because tile project in %`OI red so in tidi trial-and-error fabrication. But he sai's that roughly> 50 percent of the cost would be for the engine, about 75 percent for the c/ias sis, around 25 percent for iniscella neous bits of hardware. and another 50 percent for labor, although he did most of that himself That adds up to 200 percent. which is Griewe's way of telling you that any project like this costs at least twice as much as the bike is reallr worth.

Power to the people

Your January editorial was one of the most spineless, paranoid pieces of trash I've ever read. Obviously, having an editor-in chief on a bike magazine like yours is similar to having a closet pyromaniac for a local fire chief. How on earth could you have the best interest of sport riders at heart if you're willing to take away our very freedom of ex pression for an unjustified, mindless, uniformed conservatism?

Does this sound insulting? Good! Maybe it will goad you into the correct course of action: to stand up and fight for your rights. Open a history book, baby, appeasement

does not work. So stop trying to jellyfish out; show some self-respect and a little backbone.

Joe Smith Ukiah, California

Mai'be i'ou d better go back and read that editorial once again. It did not advocate pacification of the gov ernment in any way, and in fact sug gested that the motorcycle industry should not voluntarilr put a ceiling on horsepower. simp/r because-as you so accuratelr put it yourself-appease men! does not work.

A self-styled expert of yesteryear said of cars that if they went over 40 mph, you'd just naturally die. About then, Barney Oldfield and his pals had a lot of fun proving this guy wrong.

Now, it's 100 horsepower that's causing our premature demise, somebody says. Which is like saying if Junior plays with a smaller-caliber handgun. he isn't likely to be shot quite as dead.

tw~ The Motorcycle Safety Founda tion's statistics, and most bikers'

early experiences, refute the claim that big bikes cause most serious accidents. Inexperience, over confidence and just plain stupidity cause more bike accidents than any particular size of bike. Why? Be cause if your head isn't together, fancy leathers won't keep your ass out of the gravel, no matter what you're riding.

yIJu IC I IUIII~. None of us with a Ninja or other big bike will honestly try to tell you that it's bad vibes, the tooth fairy or big bikes that are to blame for all our colorful stories and interesting scars. So let's put our critics on the MSF mailing list, our beginners through mandatory pre-license training, and let's forget this 100-hp bull!

Ray Sution Squamish. B.C. Canada

With riders back-peddling their rights due to regulation threats, it looks like soon the fight will be every man and woman for him/her self. So, here is my formula. Any rider can purchase a bike with up to 75 hp. For riders over six feet tall, 10 hp more power for every addi-> .tional inch of height to compensate for wind resistance. Riders over 175 pounds would be eligible for 1 hp for every additional five pounds of weight. I think this formula is equitable and wouldn't require anything as complicated as a competence test only a scale and a tape. My sixfoot, 10-inch height and 250-pound weight would put me on a 190-hp sport-tourer. So please notify me when it's ready and we'll ride. Damon Stutes, M.D. Yuba City, California Indeed. And you `II ride tall in the saddle, too.

Utopian motorcycle

I have returned to two-wheeling after a 20-year hiatus, and your "On The `86 Horizon" offers hope that my ideal cycle isn't far off. My re initiation started with a used Honda 350 that was quickly replaced with a new-but-non-current Nighthawk 550, and six months later up to another leftover-an `83 GS1 100E. A shoulder problem demanded the retirement of the Suzuki, so now I'm in search of the perfect motorcycle. My optimism stems from three vehicles featured in your preview: Kawasaki 1 000GTR, Suzuki GSX R750 and Yamaha Radian. Here's how Suzuki could learn from Ya maha and Kawasaki to build my ideal: Destroke and detune the GSX-R to 700cc and a torquey 70 hp. Rearrange the seat/peg rela tionship and add flat bars. Add a taller windshield and voila . . . a machine that is light, fast, a good handler, and much cheaper than a K75 Beemer. And keep it in produc tion a long time, like the GS 11 OOE.

M. Denis Hill Larkspur, California

We hope they're listening, too.

No brats on bikes

Michael Scott's article, "Two For Two," was fine, and it was interest ing to note that Freddie's Honda was "a real handful." Scott's com ments about Freddie at the end of his article are very interesting. If Freddie is not popular with his col leagues or is difficult to understand or does not indulge in horseplay in the pits, so what? We should consider ourselves extremely lucky to have him and Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson and Brad Lackey and all of the other American riders who have gone to Europe and attained so much while conducting themselves like gentlemen and champions. We could have been stuck with a John McEnroe!

Bill Conner Bellevue, Washingtor

In good hands

I am writing in reference to the article in your February, 1986, issue about insurance. I bought a new 1984 Honda Magna 700 in July, 1984. I was 18 years old with no traffic violations. These are the insurance rates I was quoted. Progressive: Bodily injury, $25,000 each person; $50,000 each occur rence; property damage, $ 10,00 each occurrence; comprehensive, $250 deductible; collision, $250 deductible; with a six month lay up; total $459. Allstate: Bodily injury, $50,000 each person; $ 100,000 each occur rence; property damage, $25,000 each occurrence; comprehensive, $50 deductible; collision, $ 100 deductible; with six month lay up; total $203.20. As you can see, you know where I told Progressive to stick their insurance.

Dave Pflieger New Washington, Ohi

Sportsters illustrated

I must take issue with your Sport ster 1100 evaluation (December, 1985). Although I have come to expect your standard criticisms of H D motorcycles (brakes that don't lock with a nervous twitch, vibra tions that will aggravate the prin cess' pea-bruised ass), your declaration that Sportsters, "despite their name-are no longer consid ered true sporting motorcycles," has gone too far in your bias for banzai fashion motorcycles. The Sportster defined the sporting class of motor cycles 29 years ago and has contin ued to refine that style without succumbing to the traps of fleeting this-year's-style and quick obsolesence, one-dimensional ser vice and crotch-rocket technology. A sporting motorcycle is not one that will go fastest this year and be obsolete next, it's a bike that will perform reliably and true for the owner on his hometown streets day to day and on any backroads or highways the owner cares to follow, a simply designed, easy to maintain bike that will do it all without sac rificing that basic ingredient of a true sporting motorcycle-fun. There's no bike as much fun as a Sportster.

C.R. Ernst Caidwell, Idaho

Gee, and you were doing so well until that last sentence.

Animal wars

I would like to correct a mis statement in your recent test of Cagiva's 650 Elefant dual-purpose bike (December, 1985). You con clude that aside from BMW's R80 GIS, there is nothing available like the Elefant. Not so! Moto Morini's 500cc Camel was the first big-bore, V-Twin, Italian dual-purpose ma chine available in the USA. Herdan Corporation has been importing the Camel since 1982, and the secondgeneration Camel-with a new 507cc motor and monoshock chas sis-is currently available at Moto Morini dealers nationwide. Last May. 10 Camels were used by a group of Americans for a "Buy & Ride" tour of the Alps. Everyone agreed it was a great bike for the switchbacks, mountain trails, or the autostrada. In fact, the tour will be repeated in May of 1986.

Herman W. Bayer President, Herdan Corporation Port Clinton, Pennsylvania

Seat of the problem

I commend Steve Thompson's fine article on seats (February, 1986). Never has an article been closer to my, er, heart. It was a longoverdue assault on the people who design motorcycle seats with such food processor-like comfort. I've owned 11 bikes, from a $300 Ya maha to a $7000 BMW R100RS. Not one of them could keep my buns happy for more than 60 miles at a crack (pun intended). It isn't half as bad as the agony my poor wife must endure on the back. We're at the point where we won't shop for a bike unless we know of an aftermarket company that sells a> nice double-bucket for it. Again. bravo for an article on such a sen sitive subject. I hope someone listens.

Scott Turkington Simi. California

Thompson's article was a kick in the butt and right on target. I sus pect the Japanese are missing lots of sales because of poor ergonomics and bad seats. I bought an `83 Su zuki GS750, and that's only because it had normal ergonomics. Jim Davis at N.B.I. Upholstery in San Diego is a wizard at making great seats out of bad ones. He turned my one-hour sportbike into an all-day sportstourer for less than a hundred bucks, and it's beautiful to look at. I'd buy an `86 750 Interceptor in a heartbeat if I could also buy an optional kit containing normal, sit-up handle bars and a wide, level, comfortable seat.

Will our Japanese friends ever get off their butts and solve this painful problem?

Elden Carl La Mesa. Californi~

J"Vit/z enough coinnients like these. they just iiiig/it.

FalcoRustycos by any other name

I don't care if it has center-hub steering, a 1 3-grand square-Four with fuel injection, hydrostatic drive I don't even care if it runs. Please tell Suzuki that I want a Rusty Fal con simply for its outrageously ele gant style. Imagine being perched on that seat, hands near your knees. laying over in those curves. I'm in dream world.

Tom Boswell Fort Collins, Colorado

FalcoRustyco? Try Turko Rustyco! Squeeze grips for the throt tle? On which side? I suppose it runs on magic, too. . . no gas cap. Sar casm aside. I think Suzuki should be commended for its creativity and "newthink." One thing that may be a block is the EPA noise regs. Not for exhaust, but from the tranny. It is a known fact that hydraulic oil systems on heavy equipment make incredible amounts of noise in the super-high-frequency range. We can't hear it. but I've gotten a few

headaches and seen a few decibel meters go hyperthyroid around Cats and loaders. Maybe Suzuki knows about it and has taken steps toward correcting this problem.

Good ck with your Suzu kimatic II. gentlemen. See you in 10 years.

"J.~----~-J~-~-,. Dave Skinner Bozeman, Montana

Torqued in Texas

In the Roundup section of the Nov ember. issue, you gave a sneak peek at the new 1986 Honda VFR75O and VFR 700. and a certain phrase from the write-up angered the spirit in me enough to cease my drooling over those very pages and write. I quote, `The 750 VHR promises to easily outperforma 1985 VF1000R I may be the only one, but it enrages me that a person can be coaxed into buying an expensive bike such as the 1000R through the use of a tonnage of hyperbike advertising and promo tions, and be led to believe that he! she is getting the most bike for their money. only to be irresponsibly shafted by the same manufacturer the very next season. I believe that a motorcycle manufacturer has its cus tomers as its major responsibility before its profits. I realize that the motorcycle industry is just that, an industry, and that competition is in the best interests of the masses: but when you deal in an enthusiast's market, your clients live and breathe your product and its ability, or in ability, to live up to your perfor mance claims. To pull the rug out from under their centerstands by marketing a better bike that was probably already in the works at the time of sale is irresponsible and completely unacceptable. But I don't discriminate against other Japanese manufacturers: Kawasaki pulled the same crap with their Ninj nuts. I'll wait `til the dust settles from these Japanese Sumo wrestling matches and then probably buy an Italian bike. I now understand and greatly appreciate the difference be tween a classic and a classy, flashy bike in terms of becoming senti mentally obsolete.

Richard Haley San Antonio. Texas

Dodging the challenge

I own a 1975 Dodge 3/4-ton pickup truck. It contains a 440 cu. in. en-

gine which, in its current state of tune, develops approximately 430 lb.-ft. of torque. Imagine my surprise when I read that the Ninja 1000R pulls 73 1 lb.-ft. out of a mere 997cc. I would never be foolhardy enough to challenge the owner of one of these two-wheeled missiles to a drag race. It appears now that I would also be foolish to challenge the owner of one to a pulling contest.

Richard Hansen Salt Lake City. Utah

That was a tipographical error that. apparent/i'. our usuaTh trustj.' corps ofproofreaders deliberate/v oi'er looked. Seenis i/icr all ride Ninjas.

Not a Hannah fannah

Your February issue was very good. You might have made it even better by giving Bob Hannah and his ego Trevor Nation's spare bike, and giving Trevor Bob's ink.

O.B. Server Sagle. Idaho

Things must be a little slow over there at tile Trevor Nation fan club. eh?

Do Fence Me In

I would like to compliment you for the "Don't Fence Me In" article in the December issue. Especially since I am a Triumph rider and lover of the British machines. this article takes on an added appeal. The majority of us motorcyclists will never travel across the USA. let alone across the world. Richard and Mopsa English express very nicely how beautiful our great country is when seen through the eyes of a motorcyclist. Keep up the good work.

Ronald J. Meek Marshall, Illinoi'

I have only two questions: 1. What is Mopsa's nickname? (Sorry, "cottontail" doesn't cut it.)

2.Why do you takeamotor back to the guy who built the one that blew up?

I loved the "Don't Fence Me In" series, particularly now that there is six inches of snow on the ground.

, vv J1I JU11I.J. Tom Bendon Loveland. Colorado

1. Wedontkno~ 2. We don't