Letters
LETTERS
Happi-Ness
Regarding the “Big Red“ article in the January issue, a wonderful job was done revealing the talents of Arlen Ness. His work has always provided happiness for anyone who can appreciate talent.
I hope that Cycle World will continue to contain articles on all aspects of motorcycling.
Dave Singel Northern California
1 want to affirm the “deity“ impression that your article on Big Red gave to Arlen Ness. Ness was one of the very few Harley enthusiasts who was willing to bring this Honda rider through the beaded curtain of the custom world with encouragement— and outright honest interest—to help me complete my project bike. A nicer man cannot be found.
A trip to his shop in San Leandro is a must, not only to see his showbikes, but to step out back and hear the explosive roar of his customers' low-slung Ness creations.
Paul Stivers
San Jose, California
Not so happy
Scooter trash unite! We’re missing out on something important here. We've got this fellow. Arlen Ness, on our side. He can take a reasonable. rational and enjoyable mode of sport and transportation, the motorcycle, and turn it into something more: an art form, something so useless and unridable that even the nation’s most trusted and reliable editors aren’t allowed to try it on the road.
Dick Bielke
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Arabian Knights
I am w riting to you from the sands of Saudi Arabia. I have been here since mid-September. The one thing I miss most is going for long, fast rides on my Kawasaki ZX-6.
One good thing out here is that my subscription to your magazine gets
forwarded to me. I can’t wait to get the next issue.
My favorite place to go riding is up along the Rhine River in Germany (where I was stationed before being deployed here). There is a castle there on this big hill overlooking the countryside. It's the best! I can't send you a picture of it now, but maybe w hen I leave this place, I'll write a “Destinations” story for Roundup.
C. Kernica
U.S. Army. Saudi Arabia
A deal. And we're sending you a Cycle World T-shirt as down payment on the story.
I'm a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed somewhere in the Saudi Arabian desert. It's a joy reading your magazine even though I don't have a subscription of my ow n. A fellow marine has a subscription and he lets me have them when he gets through with ’em. (He just looks at the pictures. I think.)
The reason I had to write, was the error you made in the November, 1990. issue of Cycle World. The picture of little John Kocinski and Jerry, his dad. was taken at Oak Hill Raceway in Henderson. Texas, not “Oakville,” as you spelled it in the caption. I bring this to your attention to give one of the few remaining tracks in Texas the proper PR.
Please mention the correction and put in a good word for all of us
comrades in arms over here sweating it out in this bleephole called the Middle East. Keep the rubber side down. Later, dudes.
Chris King
U.S. Marine Corps, Saudi Arabia
Just a note to let you know that U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit PSU303. currently stationed in Saudi Arabia, enjoys Cycle World just as much as the motorcyclists in the Marines and Navy. (See “Letters,” CW, December, 1990).
My wife mails my copy of Cycle World, and it is well worn and battered by the time it makes the rounds of the unit. We all enjoy Cycle World, and especially look forward to Peter Egan’s column.
Dan O’Toole
U.S. Coast Guard, Saudi Arabia
Egan again
Peter Egan's “Leanings” column is the first page I read when 1 open your magazine.
Mike Muller Hornick. Iowa
I subscribe to four motorcycle magazines and must say yours is my favorite. One of the reasons is Peter Egan. I read his column first, as you never know' when he might mention a Triumph or a Norton. (Even when he writes about BMWs, I still enjoy his style).
Larry Keyzer Fifield. Wisconsin
I especially like Peter Egan's Leanings columns. No offense to all of your other writers, I just enjoy Peter the most.
Gary W. Smith Durham, North Carolina
Peter Egan is the best. Can't he write any faster? I need more!
Sam Wilburn
Big Stone Gap, Virginia
Whatever you are paying Peter Egan, triple it. Not since the heyday of Henry Manney have I enjoyed a motorsports journalist as much. Philip Bowles San Francisco, California
Peter Egan is an excellent writer and 1 have never been disappointed by any of his Leanings columns. If you ever lose Peter for some reason, you will have lost an extremely valuable asset.
Robert G. Epps
Camp Pendleton, California
Hey, give Egan a raise.
Jeff M c Ferri n Jasper, Alabama
Peter., these shameless ploys for more money have got to stop.
Notes on “Notes99
So, new' Associate Editor Brian Catterson is “disappointed” in the 1991 Sportster and thinks it has “funky handgrips, levers and switchgear.” Yet the 14,000-rpm Suzuki Bandit 400 tested in the same issue (see “Editors’ Notes,” CM7, January, 1 991 ) “excites” him?
Well, 1 own a Sportster, and, sure, it has its limits. However, as long as 1 stay within the boundaries of its “personality,” it does whatever I ask. Look, each bike is a painting by its engineers. Each is a work of art that needs to be interpreted in the light in which it was created. Please don’t let a blind man write about a canvas he can't see.
Keep Catterson on sew ing machines until he is big enough to
grasp real handgrips, work real levers and figure out that one pushes this switch to go this-a-way and that switch to go that-a-way (right and left can be taught later in an advanced class).
Joe Newstrom
Minneapolis, Minnesota
In his “Editors' Notes” comments about the Suzuki Bandit in the January issue, David Edwards makes some unwarranted, and I might add. unfair, criticisms of Suzuki's VX800. He calls it “unremarkable.” If he had actually ridden the bike, he would have realized that in the real world of dav-to-day riding, the VX800 is an excellent machine.
E.C. White
Nicholasville, Kentucky
Edwards did indeed ride the VX800. Last we saw of him, though. he was making an appointment with an eye doctor and signing up for an art-in t er pret a t ion class.
Fast Freddie fan
Cycle Worlds article on Freddie Spencer (Race Watch, October,
1 990) was much-needed. Finally, someone took the time to stop the rumor mill and ask Freddie, “What happened?”
Alas, w'e find that he.is but a mere mortal, subject to physical and emotional distress just like the rest of us. Your subtitle asks, “Does the threetime w'orld champion still have what it takes to be a winner?” You bet
your sweet Superbike he does! I'd just like to have spent the afternoon chasing Freddie around town while he was out practicing on that RC30.
Cliff Randall
Toronto, Ontario. Canada
Quick questions
To quote recent Honda safety ads extolling helmet use, “Wayne Gardner wears one. Do you think you’re a better rider than he is?”
No. But I don't crash nearly as often as he does.
Bill Muse
Bothell, Washington
Was the Yamaha XS500 the first mass-produced motorcycle with four valves per cylinder? Does it have any collector’s value?
Dick Mueller Logan. Utah
No and no.
Isn't “too fast” an oxymoron?
Randle Bain Houston, Texas
We're not sure, but "collectible Yamaha XS500"definitely is.
Anyone know where there is a cheap CBX?
Dick Bouck Roaming Shores, Ohio
No, but you can probably get a good deal on a Yamaha XS500 in Logan, Utah. EU
