Letters
LETTERS
Lucky 13
Congratulations Moto Guzzi on winning CW's March cruiser shootout. When was the last time Guzzi won anything? Probably when Dr. John’s Team Moto Guzzi beat all comers in the 1985 AMA endurance series, followed shortly after by a Number One plate for Doug Brauneck in the now-defunct Battle of the Twins.
Kudos to Cycle World for being the first American magazine in recent memory to wake up, smell the coffee and realize that with a few appropriate updates, a good idea is a timeless thing. Now, if I can just figure a way of fitting that V11 front end onto my Le Mans ill... Barry Cooper Sepulveda, California
Are you guys secretly agents for II Ducel Technical merit notwithstanding^ condition that needn’t apply to cruisers, anyway-the soft-cheese styling of the Guzzi should have disqualified it from the “Lucky 13” competition. Oh, my aching gorgonzola! Howsabout a poster of the pinup girl, though? Tom Craig Lancaster, California
I love your mag, but when it comes to cruiser comparisons, I think you need to spend more time down at the local cafe. Only two things really matter when it comes to boulevard cruisers: the look and the sound, in that order.
Without a doubt, the Titan should have been the “Lucky 13” winner-and this coming from a guy who rides a tricked-out Vulcan 1500. Cliff Randall Toronto, Ontario, Canada
As for the “American Twins,” it sort of looks like it took 60 years-give or take-for Big Dog and Titan to bring AÍ Crocker’s program back to life. Let’s hear it for a free-market economy.
Bob Heywood Dayton, Ohio
I enjoyed reading the “Lucky 13” comparison in the March issue of your magazine. The Titan sounds like a bike built in the original chopper/bob-job tradition, and if that weird sound-trademark case doesn’t put Titan out of business, Harley ought to be scared-or at least trying to catch up. Carl Best Eugene, Oregon
Cruisin' for crabapples
“Chrome, and lots of it. Real steel... motorcycles as God intended...pounding out mile after American mile.” Puleeeeeze! When’s the last time your boys checked the odometer on one of these things?
Spare me the real-man, HardlyAbleson nostalgia pitch, the tired excuses for lack of performance and the “less is more” analogies. I’ve got an ’88 V-Max, a Triumph Trophy, an aging Duck and a six-year-old Eurosedan in the garage that will smoke all of the “Lucky 13” except the Titan.
The present cruiser genre epitomizes form over function, and as such will fall out of style soon enough. Give me something that goes, stops and turns. Robert A. Maddocks Jr. Houston, Texas
Pinup Queen
Regarding the “Lucky 13” blonde on the cover of your March, 1998, edition: The position of her right leg is in an impossible relationship to her butt. Furthermore, if she was lost on a skiing trip and an anthropologist found only her left femur 5000 years from now, I think they’d reach the conclusion that she was 10 feet tall! Overlooking these technicalities-which is easy to do-it’s a nice illustration. Brad Bell Woodland Hills, California
Just the other day I trudged to my mailbox expecting the same old mail.
I reached in and lo and behold!, there it was in all its colorful splendor jumping at me from the cover: MY NEXT TATTOO!
I just want to thank you and pinup artist Dawne Holmes (is that a self portrait?). Oh yeah, the magazine was pretty good, too. Dimitri Stankoff Wurtsboro, New York
I imagine loyal reader (and Wendy Black groupie; see Letters, January, 1998) J.H. Scheuer must be quite pleased to see that the Cycle World editorial powers decided to have Ms. Associate Editor Black sit for the portrait gracing the cover of the “Lucky 13” issue. M. Lindemann Heart of Darkness, California
Quick-n-quirky
I bungeed “Biker Barbie” {Roundup, February) to my p-pad last week and > took her for a ride. All my cronies were jealous. She never complained about the rigid frame. After our second date, she let me see her tattoos. I’d harbored a crush for years, but now that she rides with me I’m hopelessly in love.
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MEMBER MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY COUNCIL, INC
My heartfelt thanks to HarleyDavidson and Mattel for fulfilling a 30-year fantasy. Hopefully the Japanese won’t clone her, make her faster and lower her price. That would cheapen her image.
“Chopper Rob” Rosen Rapid City, South Dakota
Sirs! The unfortunate idea of mating that magnificent, near work-ofart, the Vincent V-Twin engine, to an obsolete lump of an Indian chassis (“Vindian,” February) suggests only one suitable name for the resulting offspring, “Indicent!”
And don’t forget the other half of this best-forgotten 1949 experiment: sticking the leftover Chief engine in a Rapide frame to make the aptly named “Chide.” David L. Mazzaferro Waterbury, Connecticut
I just wanted to comment on the new Norton 652SM (Roundup, March). Geeeeez, is that uuuugggglly! I ralphed three times just looking at it. It looks as comfortable as a torture rack; the sidecovers are oversized; the frame is just-I don’t know-Godawfulugly; the exhaust looks like an old two-stroke Bassani from the ’70s; the tank is just wrong! Two thumbs-down...and two puke bags. Rick Gervais
Brooklyn, Connecticut
I would like to propose that Cycle World be given a DOWN for continuously using words such as “Hell-raisers,” “kick-ass,” and other words detrimental to the image of motorcycling. I can’t put it out in my waiting room! Hayne McMeekin
Piedmont Psychiatric Associates Rock Hill, South Carolina
I want to thank you for your cleaned-up, family-friendly February issue. Whether intentional or not, this issue did not have any objectionable pictures or advertisements that needed to be censured. Jim Fixel
Squaw Valley, California
Terribly sorry, Jim, that’ll never happen again.
