Letters

LETTERS

Bygone-bike lovers

Okay, you win. I’ll subscribe forever, just in the hope that you will put out more issues like November’s. I admire the effort that it takes to produce a new superbike, and I enjoy riding them, but they have lost so much character that they are easily forgotten. Older bikes are like a favorite T-shirt: full of flaws, but every spot, every tear, every imperfection, has a memory attached.

Mitch Rennex Escondido, California

The November issue has more than Í ever hoped for. Black Shadows, Manx Nortons, Gold Stars, Bonnevilles, Commandos, Metisse Triumphsand Indian Scouts. Wow, sensory overload! In addition, you printed news from Japan and Europe, had reports on hillclimb and motocross races, and updated us on Bubba Shobert’s recovery. What else is there? Nothing, you’ve done it all.

As Peter Egan said in his “A thoroughly modern Vincent” column, let’s see more motorcycles that are “black with gold-leaf trim.”

Ron Winget Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Regarding your November issue: Hannah? Roberts? Girdler? Thompson? Egan? Etcetera. A truly great issue!

And even though David Edwards' hot-rod BSA cost plenty, it is one of the most-beautiful motorcycles I have ever seen. I shall despoil the magazine and tape the color photo of CB34-GS-361 on the fridge in my apartment.

Walter R. Denaci St. Louis, Missouri

Many years ago, someone stuffed Gold Star engine BB34-GS-435 into rigid frame YB3 1-346. I owned the beast for a few years in the late '60s. Thanks for reminding me of the bike with the most character of any I’ve owned before or since.

David Spicer Canton, North Carolina

Not so happy

Thanks for nothing! After reading the several fine articles in your November issue devoted to classic motorcycles, I realized the result will be a drying-up of the pool of garage-sale leftovers and basket-case bargains upon which we non-affluent hobbyists depend as a source for our next project. Now, all the investment-bankers, doctors and professional-types will be adding a Pritbike to their accumulation of Volvos, neo-modernist art and handmade Japanese furniture. Those of us with a visceral, lifelong attachment to motorcycling will be de-

prived—due to the inflated prices driven by these dink dilettantes and pseudo-cycle moto-posers—of our hard-earned and much-deserved trophies.

Let the Yupsters buy Hollywood Harleys or repli-racers, but leave the rust-buckets to us!

Charles Taliaferro Nogales, Arizona

The article “Classic Bike Fever” was poorly researched, focused almost exclusively on certain British bikes and was laced with parroted opinions of dealers with vested interests in inflating classic-bike values. If the article was written for the knowledgeable, it is a bad joke: We know that most motorcycle journalists are drowning in their own snot. If it was written for more-general readership, it does a real disservice, since it encourages novices with unrealistic expectations to run out and spend thousands.

To my direct knowledge, a number of “classics” have been thrown together and sold for considerable sums as the real thing. The bike in the article “The Raising of CB34GS-361 ” is a good example. It may look good, but it ain’t a Gold Star. A couple of owners and a few b.s. stories down the road, and it will undoubtedly be sold to some sucker as an authentic Gold Star.

Bill Butler Santa Monica, California

And just when we were beginning to think the contention that a small number of ' 'knowledgeable ' 'classic-bike people are irritable old farts was just a nasty rumor. 0

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