Letters

LETTERS

GTS remarks

I am writing in regards to your February article on the Yamaha GTS1000. First of all, let’s consider the person who wrote the article, Tom Isitt. This man writes books on Harley-Davidsons and 17th-century English medicine, and suddenly he is an authority on high-technology motorcycles? I think not.

Isitt states, “The GTS is really fairly unremarkable in every way-except for the price.” You call alternative front suspension, anti-lock brakes, a catalytic converter and fuel injection, all in the same package, fairly unremarkable? Mike Tice Davenport, Iowa

Do you guys have a fact-checking department? On one hand, Tom Isitt claims in the GTS 1000 riding impression that “one of the problems inherent in front-swingarm design is that you can only fit one brake disc,” yet a couple of pages later the Bimota Tesi is pictured sporting two discs.

Also, here’s a guy who writes books about medicine, but claims that carbon dioxide is “a major contributor to global warming.” This is amusing since CO2 is what all of us exhale when breathing. CO2 is also what green plants use to produce oxygen, a process called photosynthesis.

Maybe Mr. Isitt should stick to Harleys. Paul Balsamo Montreal, Canada

In the GTS 1000 article, Tom Isitt refers to Yamaha’s “three-way catalytic converter that is claimed to remove 60 percent of hydrocarbons, 70 percent of carbon monoxide and 70 percent of nitrogen oxides from the exhaust gasses. Unfortunately, it converts them all into carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming-you pay your money, you choose your pollutant.”

First, while nitrogen oxides are particularly serious and probably major contributors to acid rain, they are certainly not converted to carbon dioxide. I believe that they are converted to plain nitrogen, which occurs naturally as 80 percent of our atmosphere.

Second, to equate the environmental effects of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide with that of carbon dioxide is a little like claiming that water (another product of combustion and catalytic converters) is a major contributor to drowning. Fred Tausch Jr. Lexington, Massachusetts

So the Yamaha GTS 1000 has an amazing catalytic converter that can convert nitrogen oxides into carbon dioxide. I thought only God could do that. Ray Ellis Berun, Massachusetts

Big Bang

Kudos to Kevin Cameron for his article on the Honda NSR500 engine

development (see “Track Star,” CW, February, 1992). The Big Bang engine concept suddenly became crystal clear. But isn’t that what Harleys, Ducatis and Moto Guzzis are famous for, getting power to the ground? Sounds like Honda has finally done it: made a four-cylinder two-stroke that acts like a four-stroke V-Twin.

Pardon me if my Ducks are not in a row, but isn’t the Big Bang theory also how the universe got started?

Howard Carpenter Milford, Connecticut

Don 7 ask us, we just found out that God rides a GTS1000.

Saint Pete

Peter Egan depressed me. Could it really be that Saint Pete had sold his beloved 1977 Ducati 900SS. Where was the man’s passion? Where were his values? What happened to the first bike he claimed he’d pull from a burning garage? When I read that he had indeed sold the Ducati, I was crushed. Disillusion set in. Peter had fallen from the faith. Or so I thought.

Then I came across the February Leanings column and read of Mr. Egan’s rekindled desire to make fresh pasta and quaff fine Italian wines: He had purchased a new Ducati 900SS. I’ve begun to read Father Pete again (he’s lost his sainthood as far as I’m concerned, but he hasn’t been thrown out of the church). After reading The Ducks of Autumn, I quietly hoisted a well-filled glass of ruddy red-stuff in Egan’s honor. Christopher M. Perez Hillsboro, Oregon

Tag along

I have a unique hobby. I am trying to collect motorcycle license plates from each of the 50 states. I started this collection about two years ago, and now need only four more states to complete the collection: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. I will return the cost of postage, and I put the sender’s name, address and bike type on the back before mounting the tag on my wall.

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Stan McConnell

4224 Fieldstone Dr. Birmingham, AL 35215

Crockery

I dispute David Edwards’ advice in his February Up Front column about buying old crocks, most of which were terminally obsolete Universal Japanese Motorcycles. (I noticed he bought a Yankee Z and flaunts a Gold Star on the column’s illustration. No courage of conviction?) Problem is, as cheap as UJMs are, they are worth even less.

A year ago, 1 traded a small generator for a 1979 Kawasaki KZ650. Big mistake! Now 1 know why the seller kissed my feet. I’ve been stuck with the KZ for 8000 miles. It bores me blind. I’ve even passed up rides rather than use the KZ. Most of my riding pals are niche enthusiasts of one sort or another; they don’t want to be seen with me tagging along on an old UJM. And in trying to sell the KZ, I get no interest at $500. Attempting to trade it on a new bike makes dealers cringe in disgust. 1 really don’t understand Edwards’ fascination with these oversized, overweight, overcomplicated products done by junior CADCAM jockies of the past.

Frank Molitor

McDermitt, Nevada

Editor Edwards does indeed own a UJM, a 1982 Yamaha Seca 650. He suggests two things: 1) Get a better group of friends, and 2) get a better disposition.

Hidden meanings

I ran across these words of wisdom in a bathroom at my favorite pub and need your expertise to decipher their meaning:

A man without a wife is like

A fish without a motorcycle

What the hell does that mean? For what it’s worth, I never write to magazines. Scot A. Wakefield

Grand Island, New York

That ’s okay, we never look for words of wisdom on bathroom walls.