Letters

LETTERS

Ten Best backfires

When I opened your July issue and saw that you chose the Suzuki Katana 750 as Best 750cc Streetbike, my jaw hit the ground. Hello!? You chose a 10-year-old design as the Best 750 because it's cheap and has new plastic? Maybe you should flip through the Suzuki catalog a little farther until you hit the GSX-R750 with its new fuel injection. It may not beat the Katana's "bargain-basement price," but I wasn't aware that you had to be the cheapest to win a Ten Best award. I'll stick to performance when choosing my own Best Bikes thank you.

Robert Oimond Groton, Connecticut

I enjoyed reading your article on the Ten Best bikes of 1998. I disagree with your selection of the BMW R1100RT, however, as Best Touring Bike. The BMW is a great sport-touring bike, but falls short of a real touring bike for two-up riding.

John Sinclair Olympia, Washington

You picked the BMW as Best Tour ing Bike even though it's a sport-tour er. You called the Si White Lightning a standard. With its sporty styling and (mostly) solo seat, to say the Buell is a standard is a bit of a stretch. And for the Best Cruiser, you picked a motor cycle, the Victory V92C, that was not even in dealers' showrooms when you

did your evaluation?

Vince Hefley Bellaire, Texas

Having just read your awards list, I confess to being completely confused. With all the fine cruisers on the mar ket from Japan, Europe and the U.S., how do you make the Victory V92C Best Cruiser? It isn't even available to the riding public yet. It's never sur vived the everyday use and, yes, abuse of the average rider.

ler. Peter Fayne Agoura Hills, California

I failed to enjoy your recent, some what raving report on the Polaris Vic tory. With its slight displacement advantage and, more importantly, its technological advances relative to Harley's venerable 1340 Evolution en gine, the Victory delivers almost the same lethargic power. Had not earlier press release materials mentioned 75 horsepower? Meeting EPA standards is a lousy excuse; those standards should not come as an afterthought in the product-release process.

Then there's the Victory's styling, which is clearly cloned from Harley's catalogue, everything from the Fat Boy-type tank and mudguards to the Sportster-inspired routing and shape of the mufflers.

Jean-Michel Esperet Geneva, Switzerland

For Best Cruiser, Cycle World chose the Polaris Victory V92C, which may one day be a great bike, but at the pre sent time needs a few "kinks" worked out. Regardless, I suspect 99 percent of your readers have never seen, much less ridden, the Polaris. Yet, curiously, your magazine decided it is the best on the market. I am a sales consultant at Daytona Harley-Davidson, so I con fess to having a bias toward Harley Davidson's product. However, it appears that for some reason (perhaps $$$?) you are biased, too!

Walter Bickmeyer Ormond Beach, Florida

I just received your July issue of Cycle World and laughed out loud. Your choice for Best Standard is such a joke! The Buell White Lightning is not a standard! It's a sportbike. And it's so *&%$#@! ugly it looks like an AMC Pacer had a head-on collision with a John Deere lawnmower. Give me a break. I'd cancel my subscription, but my sister bought it for me and I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings.

Robert W. Sparks Long Beach, California

See, it's like this. Suzuki, BM~ Po laris and Buell got their sacks of un marked bills in on time, Harley didn `t. The way we see it, not our fault.

One for our side

I now have about 1000 miles on my `98 KTM 620 Adventure. Your guys were right-on in picking it as a Ten Best. I love this thing! I've ridden streetbikes for 30 years, from small Japanese mod els through BMWs and Moto Guzzis. This KTM is my first dirtbike and it can haul my 260 pounds around and not spit me off like the amateur that I am. Then, when my riding buddies have to turn around and go back, I jump on the near est asphalt and have a ball racing them back to their trucks. For an old guy like me, this is the modern reincarnation of the Gold Star or Matchless-good in the dirt, fast on the street, but reliable and not leaky!

Reader In formation

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Tim Crump Las Vegas, Nevada

Re-Pete

In "Fave Rave" (CW, June), Peter Egan referred to his 1976 freelance story about a trip aboard a Honda CB400F to New Orleans. Why don't you run a reprint of that article for auld lang syne.. .and pay Mr. Eganan other $300, of course.

!~! "i~ Wilmington, North Carolina

Real gone Guzzi

We live as stepchildren in the shad ows of the motorcycling world. We blissfully ride endless miles of the en tire Earth through cities and countrysides, occasionally pausing for a cool drink and a bite to eat. We patiently an swer the ignominious questions, "What is that?" or "Who makes that?" and then joyfully thunder off to parts un known. We are the few, the proud, the obscure. We are the Moto Guzzi riders.

But now, you at Cycle World have viciously taken it upon yourselves to bring us to the forefront of motorcycle mainstreamism. You have torn us from our comfortable lairs of nonconformi ty to the "enlightened" world of popu tar culture. First, you discover what we have always known, and declare the previously lambasted Guzzi California the winner of your "Lucky 13" cruiser comparison test. Then the intellectual ly and internationally revered Peter Egan decides that the purchase of a 20-year-old Guzzi would be ideal for some sport-touring. The final shove occurs when Mr. Egan finds, to his surprise, what I have only recently be come aware of myself: that Generation Xers love Moto Guzzis.

So now that you have done this to us, what is next? Trailers to haul our bikes in? Logo-emblazoned designer leathers? Fake ponytails and tattoos? Nah, we'll just ignore you and keep on riding those endless miles. -

Mario Caruso Hot Springs, Arkansas

Attention deficit

I never usually pay much attention to Richard Egan's columns...~ - - -

Raleigh M. Neville Arlington, Virginia

It goes without saying, Raleigh.