Letters
LETTERS
Commando raid
Your Norton Commando articles in the May issue brought back some pleasant memories, and some not so pleasant. I owned a 1969 Fastback. Came in three colors that year: Candy Apple Red, Candy Apple Green and a combination of Candy Apple Red and Metal Flake Silver. That’s the one I owned. Not very pretty, but it sure hauled.
I’ll never forget the night I was driving out of Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge, when I noticed the upper triple-clamp and the handlebars oscillating. I got home and checked the front end; both downtubes had split in two and the large upper tube had come within an inch of totally separating. I made it home on that inch of metal. The distributor, Berliner, gave me a new revised frame and $25 to pay for the swap-over. Even then, you couldn’t get it done for $25. I did it in the backyard, under the pear tree. Learned a lot.
Owned that bike when I opened an issue of Cycle magazine, turned to the inner cover and saw the first of the black Norton Roadsters. Black as the Devil’s soul. Four o’clock that afternoon, I owned one. One of the best bikes ever. Shed chrome in 2-foot strips from the mufflers and handlebars. Berliner to the rescue again. No problem. Got involved with Dunstall parts. Big mistake. New cylinders came with holes in the liners; taper cut in the end of the cam didn’t match the taper on the points cam; could never time it; the dual front disc brakes I was sent were used and rusty-I was told they were used by Gary Nixon, but who knows?
Bike sat for months as parts went back and forth across the Atlantic. Gave up hope. Traded everything in for a new 850. Good bike, but in my opinion not as good as the 750. Your articles brought it back; hadn’t thought about it for years. God, I wish I owned one of those bikes now. Good times. Maybe time to look for another.
Frank R Fellini Floral Park, New York
I particularly enjoyed Jim Petersen’s article, “Soul Searching: Norton as Nirvana,” and feel that it, like those much-celebrated texts of tradition, contains the ingredients of salvation. Salvation in a motorcycle magazine? This is not the question, but rather, “Where else?” Petersen thinks about machines as do I, as does Cycle World's audience. And I am constantly left in awe at how the love of things mechanical crosses borders generational, geographical and cultural. The answer, friends, is in the title’s first word: Soul.
Erik Blake
New York, New York
Playboy writer Jim Petersen reached back and strummed a chord or two from my lost youth with “Soul Searching” in the May CW. Reading it, I remembered the spring of ’69 and the Norton Commando that ran the quartermile in an astonishing 12.9 seconds-the quickest production bike ever. A year later, I owned a Commando-and the indignities that bike suffered when I succumbed to the Chopper Craze should not be mentioned in the vicinity of sensitive listeners.
But Petersen’s article reminded me of something else, something I’ve been meaning to say for some time now. In the late ’60s, I used to tell my friends that I read motorcycle magazines for the writing, because it was so damn good. If they doubted me, I would read to them aloud from Cycle World, and convince them. It was always the impressive collision of really literate talent with mind-blowing machinery that drew me to cycle magazines. It still is, and Petersen’s story, more than anything else, brought that back to me.
And if he writes for Playboy, well, the next time I buy that magazine, it really will be for the articles.
Steve Thornton Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
A big Southern welcome to Jim Petersen for joining the wonderful world of Norton. After 20 years of wantin’ one, I bought a black Commando. My ’74 is so beautiful I park that s.o.b. outside my front door just to look at it. Where else ya gonna have so much classic fun for under $5000? Besides, my wife still hasn’t asked where the money came from to buy it! She just sees that big grin after my nightly ride to the beach. (She’s also noticed I’m spending a lot less time at the golf course and tractor pulls.)
Kevin L. locovozzi Savannah, Georgia
Reader Information
Editorial offices are located at 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92663. Editorial contributions are welcomed, but must be guaranteed exclusive to Cycle World.
We are not responsible for the return of unsolicited material unless accompanied with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Letters cannot all be answered, nor can all Service inquiries be answered. We appreciate correspondence sent to the editorial offices and will use the most interesting and appropriate letters in the magazine.
Subscriptions in the U.S. and territories are: one year, $19.94; two years, $35.94; three years, $49.94. Canadian subscribers, please add $7.00 per year. All other countries add $8.00 per year. (Please remit by money order or draft on a U.S. bank, payable in U.S. funds.) Single copy $3.50; $4.50 in Canada. Subscription service: P.O. form 3579 and all subscription correspondence should be addressed to Cycle World, PO. Box 51222, Boulder, CO 80321-1222. Please allow six to eight weeks for a change of address to become effective. Include both your old and new address, and if possible, a mailing label
from a recent issue. For faster service, call 303/604-1464 or fax 303/ 604-7455.
Back issues are available for $5.95 each ($7.25 Canada; $12.25 other foreign) in U.S. funds. Please add $2.00 for the Buyer’s Guide. Send a check or money order to: ISI/Cycle World, 30 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302, or call (201) 451-9420. Advertising: See SRDS. Circulation auditing by Audit Bureau of Circulation.
I wanted to write concerning a few very popular, good-looking, fine-per forming Nortons you left out of May's "Soul Searching." In the late `50s and early `60s, Nor ton built and sold a 650 vertical-Twin called the Maxman, and a 750cc verti cal-Twin called the Atlas. They were both big, "haulin' ass" British Twins that handled great, looked swell and sounded like motorcycles should! Norm Perchikoff Defiance, Ohio
As president and only member of the Norton Girl Fan Club of America, I thoroughly enjoyed Jim Petersen's article on England's enduring superbike. However, I was shocked to dis cover in the table of contents and again in the "Norton Knowledge" sidebar, a picture of a substitute Nor ton Girl! Pictured is a girl named Vi vian, who filled in during 1973. The real Norton girl (the blonde), was named Erica, and she did the majority of the ads. Eternal vigilance is the price of truth. Burt Upchurch Washington. D.C.
The Iron Man rests
Forty-five years ago, a bike-crazy teenager wrote off to California about some cams for a Triumph Thunder bird. He received a letter in return, several pages long, which detailed all the possibilities. That letter, hand-written, was from one of the all-time greats of motorcy cle racing, Ed Kretz, Sr., and I was the recipient. Expecting only a brochure, the personal reply became a keepsake I still treasure. I watched him roar up the old beach course and I'm very pleased to have been there to salute him as he made his final lap at Daytona several years ago. Goodbye, Ed. Cecil Golden Montgomery, Alabama
Rally cool
I received my May issue yesterday. I find dual-sport and desert racing very exciting, so it was with great in terest that I tore through "Dakar Diary" by Off-Road Editor Jimmy Lewis. The text was insightful and the photos first rate. I can't believe that more people in this country aren't interested in big rallies. I was sorry to read about Jimmy's illness. Been there, done that-no fun. Please give Mr. Lewis a big attaboy for me, and I hope that he will make another attempt next year. Good luck. Randy Treece Wichita, Kansas
Jimmy Lewis' most recent piece on the Granada-Dakar Rally found a par ticularly empathetic audience with me. I read the article last night while I was reeling from the most violent bout of stomach flu or food poisoning I've ever had. I couldn't believe how weak I became overnight. I couldn't focus, was dizzy, feverish and achey. And I was "enjoying" all this in the relative splendor of the restroom here at work-I can't imagine what it must have been like to feel that way and be hot, tired and filthy in the middle of the Sahara. Bill Orth Englewood, Colorado
Whistling Dixie
A cruiser like the Confederate Hell cat (CW, May) is what many of us have been demanding for a very long time. Personally, I have no interest in the new crop of cruiser-clones. Yes, I want something more practical than a plastic-panelled repli-racer, but I can't understand the point of a de tuned "muscle" cruiser with floor boards. Give me a nimble bike that I can see through, made out of metal, rubber and torque! D. Brian Richardson Blue Grass, Virginia
Missing Bimota
I can't understand why you or any of the other motorcycle magazines haven't tested the Bimota SB6. You know, give some real figures like quarter-mile and lap times. Is the Bi mota more potent than the Suzuki GSX-R750 that just won May's "Ulti mate Sportbike Challenge?" Come on, Cycle World! The SB6 should have been included in the challenge. Duane Armijo Salt Lake City, Utah
Back it down a notch there, Duane. Bimota was invited to participate in the comparison. Unfortunately, the $23,000 SB6 that arrived at Cycle World was so poorly prepped it never made the opening round of hostilities. It took more than a month to get the bike fully sorted, far too late to be in cluded in the "Ultimate Sportbike Challenge." A full road test of the SB6 appeared in the June issue, though.
