Letters
LETTERS
Growing pains
Why don't you grow up! Ever since Honda broke your 24-hour world speed record, you have been acting like children. Where is your professionalism? When I read your article, “Extra!!”, in your April issue, I was surprised to see that you still insist upon cutting down Honda for replacing your old record. I am getting tired of all your little remarks about Honda setting records. Enough is enough. Now why don’t you grow up and show a little sportsmanship? Thomas Greer Tremonton, Utah Sure. How little?
Turkey droppings
Let me nominate your stunt of dropping a Honda 90 from a helicopter (“Extra!!,” April, 1987) for another record. Like “stupidest stunt ever pulled by a motorcycle publication”? The whole business reminds me of the WKRP In Cincinnati episode when they bombed the shopping center with live turkeys. David Carter Lincoln, Nebraska In the words of WKRP's Big Guy, “ With God as my witness, I thought they could fly. "
Heather and heaven
My life was no longer worth living. First I learned that Heather Locklear had been taken off the market, then Yamaha’s RZ350 also disappears. Is this some cruel joke?
A part of some monster conspiracy aimed at the heart and soul of every red-blooded post-adolescent in America? Suddenly life holds all the promise of a blind date with the preacher’s daughter. Luckily, though Heather was clearly out of my price range, I was able to scrape together enough cash to buy a used RZ350 in mint condition.
But even though I now have my RZ, I'm still depressed. All my dreams of floods of half-liter RZs, RGs and NSs pouring across our borders to turn Uncle Sam’s Fantasy Land into Two-Stroke Heaven have been crushed.
Ah, but, there is a solution. Suzuki could slap a super-restrictive exhaust on its RG500 to get it past the killjoys at the EPA, then sell the
real pipes for $20 as an accessory (the cost of the real pipes absorbed into the sticker price.) Not only would Suzuki pull off the marketing coup of the decade, but they’d make Uncle Sam look like a real idiot, too. If they did that. I’d promise to sell my little brother into a life of medical experiments and camp out on the showroom floor with cash in hand in to wait for my dream bike.
Please, talk ’em into it. This twostrokaholic needs a bigger fix. Now, what to do about Heather. . .
Scott Stambaugh St. Petersburg, Florida
Forget it, Stambaugh, it's illegal— the stuff about the RG500, that is. You and Heather are on your own.
Have you driven a Thor lately?
Robert Lowery (“Seoul-searching,” May, 1987, Letters) is a victim of the fallacy that international trade is a form of aggression by which exporting nations profit at the expense of the others. If imports benefit only the people who make them, then the seller’s gain must be the buyer's loss.
Bob’s mistake is that he sees only part of the picture—lost jobs and closed factories—for which he blames cheap foreign labor. So, what happened to names like Ace, Henderson, Thor, Merkel and Excelsior? Most of those companies folded before motorcycles were even a gleam in Soichiro Honda’s eye. Have you seen a new Pointer,
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MEMBER MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY COUNCIL, INC.
Yamaguchi or Tohatsu lately? Nobody is exempt from the law of the marketplace. The customers decide who stays in business.
If some Americans lose their jobs because of foreign competition, many others make their livings selling and servicing the VCRs, televisions, cars and motorcycles that we buy from the Japanese and Koreans. Americans work in the Honda and Kawasaki factories in Ohio and Nebraska, and Japanese advertising dollars do a lot to support the motorcycle magazines that we read.
Adam Smith demonstrated over 200 years ago, in The Wealth of Nations, that trade is a two-way street. Anything we do to restrict imports also hurts American exports. Companies like Garrett, which sells turbochargers to Japan, and Disney, with its theme park in Tokyo, depend on the Japanese being able to earn the dollars with which to buy those American goods and services. We boycott Panasonic, and they fire Mickey Mouse.
The biggest losers in a trade war are ourselves, the buying public. Tariffs and other restraints raise prices and lower our standard of living. We pay more without getting more, and we get fewer of the things we want most. The fact that there are more VCRs, televisions, clothes, shoes, autos, etc. in our homes prove that most Americans do benefit from imports.
Thomas P. Dougherty Chula Vista, California
ATVs: real or imagined?
I’ve been reading your fantastic magazine for a few years now and I noticed that you never test or talk about ATVs. The last time 1 remember having read about ATVs in CYCLE WORLD was in July, 1985. That’s a long time ago. I personally own a three-wheeler and would like very much to hear about them without having to check other magazines. Is it that you folks think ATVs are not real motorcycles?
Eric Ellyson Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Technically, ATVs are not motorcycles. But never mind the semantics; check page 54 of this issue and you'll see the first installment of our regular monthly coverage of'ATVs and related aeti vites.
Oldies but not moldies
It’s good to see vintage motocross is receiving coverage in your magazine (“ 1974 Motocross Revisited," April issue), but I feel Ron Lawson made some observations that should be challenged. He gave the impression that when racing a vintage MX bike, the rider’s goal was just to finish, and that these bikes were incapable of finishing if ridden to their limit. This is definitely not the case. We race our vintage bikes every bit as hard as we race our modern MX bikes. My beautifully restored OSSA 250 has been raced in 13 consecutive motos without needing any maintenance other than a chain adjustment. It is true that some people drag their old bikes from the corners of their garages, but these riders are not hardcore vintage motocross enthusiasts. And after a taste of vintage competition.
many of these bikes show up in a restored condititon at the next race.
I appreciate Mr. Lawson’s attempt at humor in describing his two motos, but feel the mention of all the parts falling off competitors' bikes was an exaggeration. The only parts I saw laying on the ground were for sale at the swap meet.
Some of the riding apparel he mentioned is worn with pride. The jerseys are originals denoting the various brands of vintage motocross bikes. Anyhow, motocross in the Sixties was not the fashion show it has become today.
It is unjust to compare vintage MX bikes with modern MX bikes since there have been so many improvements over the years. On the other hand, my OSSA turns much easier than any modern MX bike I have ever ridden, and many other vintage riders are of the same opinion regarding their bikes. This is one of the attractions of racing vintage motorcycles.
I wish the article would have been more informative in regards to vintage rules, the classes and the fact there is a six-race series for vintage motocross bikes. Anyone interested should contact California Vintage Racing Group. 6398 Dougherty Rd. #34, Dublin, CA 94568; (415) 8296091.
Kay C. Mann Richmond, California
Double trouble
Your editorial, “Fear and Loathing in the Doubles," hits it right-on.
I was a member of a club promoting motocross when indoor became popular. Overriding the reservations of us old has-beens, the factory-star pretenders in the club succeeded in getting us to promote stadium motocross. We had to have the gnarliest doubles—and more—possible for “crowd appeal.’’
The Expert riders could handle the doubles (at least early in the moto before they got tired), but the less-than-expert classes were splattering like bugs on a windshield. Sure, the crowd loved it (as long as it was somebody else’s kid crashing his brains out), but the injury rate soared and parents wouldn’t let novices enter, so there weren't enough entries to support promotion. Even motorcycle racers have some sense.
Okay, that’s the Christians vs. lions of stadium MX. But that philosophy carried over to outdoor track design; now you can't go anywhwere without doubles, triples, quads, tabletops, etc. That’s not motor racing, that’s acrobatics.
Like you. I would not eliminate the multi-jumps entirely. Rather. I would favor limiting them to the expert classes only. Even so. now that superstars like Chandler and Bailey have suffered career-ending injuries from jump-type crashes, track designers had better get some sense, too. Or we’ll have nothing in motocross but aspiring Evel Knievels with the attendant casualty rate.
Frank Molitor McDermitt, Nevada
The wages of speed
In your article on the TRAC DH 100 (April, 1987), you say the TRAC costs $300 less per year to insure than a Honda 250 Rebel. Wisconsin may limit us to 8-9 month riding seasons, but it sounds like we’re way ahead of you sunkissed boys and girls in the insurance game. My wife's '87 450 Rebel cost $ 1 1 6 per year, while both my KZ750 LTD and RZ350 cost only $296! Must be due to all that 100plus-mph “testing” CYCLE WORLD editors are doing out there.
Charlie Hauser Madison. Wisconsin
No, it's due to the surcharge we're assessed for having so much sunshine and warm weather. 0
