Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
Prey for us
Regarding your June cover story, “Birds of Pray,” comparing the Suzuki Hayabusa and Honda Blackbird: The headline should have been “Birds of Prey.” A nice anal-retentive copy editor might help. I would offer my services, but you would have to pry my RT Beemer from my cold, dead hands to get me on one of those crotch rockets.
Other than the smart-ass replies that letters like this one engender, I really enjoy your magazine.
Jim Cartwright Canfield, Ohio
Too easy, Cartwright, much too easy.
“Birds of Pray...” Does that mean you should say your prayers before you
get on? You know, I’ve got a personalized license plate on my single-cylinder MZ that reads “1ZNUF.” Would it be futile to try to explain that to a ’Bird or ’Busa owner?
I bet those things could get around semis a whole hell of a lot quicker, however... Mikey “Love Monkey” Missoula, Montana
Regarding the final paragraph of your comparison of the CBR1100XX and GSX1300R: I loved the slip-or was it editorial license?-in your creative spelling of the word stupefying, as in “stupifying performance.” Somewhere beneath all the froth and blather of today’s motorcycle magazines, there remains a faint awareness of the benefits of scale and proportion in the relationship between the rider and the motorcycle, and its capabilities, at least at Cycle World. “Stupidifying performance” would have been even better, but we won’t quibble.
Bruce Finlayson
Madison, Wisconsin
Thanks, Bruce, as always, for chiming in with Ye Olde Phart’s viewpoint... (How’s that for smart-ass, Jim?)
Snivelin’ Sixes
After reading your recent sportbike shootout (“Six-by-Six,” CW, April), I’ve had enough of your test riders loving the Ducati 748, 916 or 996, only to take points from them because of price. Is this a sportbike test or a bank account evaluation? And, yes, I am a Ducati enthusiast. Great magazine, just test the bikes.
Anthony Perillo Goshen, New York
So, the Honda CBR600F4 is so good it’s bland, boring and transparent? I’m sure Miguel Duhamel didn’t think it was bland or boring 200 feet from the finish line at Daytona. Ask Jamie Hacking how transparent it was.
Robert Pietrzyle North Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin
High on Wings
I enjoy your magazine-have for years-especially Egan and Cameron. Generally, I believe Cycle World's quality of writing to be the best of the motorcycle publications. Typical of your tests of touring bikes, though, I found May’s comparison between the
Honda Gold Wing and the new BMW K1200LT somewhat lacking in useful information. It is obvious that you guys just don’t get these machines.
I am approaching 60 years old, and ride a lot. Usually, I ride alone. I can load my camping gear into my little trailer (which you will never understand), roll out onto the highway, fire up a joint, pop some Van Morrison or Lyle Lovett or maybe some Flaco Jimenez in the stereo, and settle back.
Three or four or five nights later-depending on whatever whims greet me along the way-I can be leaning against the bike on a lonely northern Minnesota road playing my harmonica while the wolves sing their songs.
That, to me, is the purpose of a luxury tourer. You just can’t do that on anything else.
Harv Whitley
Raleigh, North Carolina
Great ideas in magazine publishing
Here’s an idea, one that will make lotsa money: Start a new sportbike magazine. Call it Cycle Sport. Feature fine-looking Oriental swimsuit models posing with the latest superbikes! Watch how fast this magazine will sell! Sure, publish all the technical information and road tests of the motorcycles. Price it at S3.50-S4.00 a copy-sure beats paying $6.50 for those horrible British sportbike magazines (bloody Brits), where the models don’t look good in swimsuits or even in the nude. As you can see by the Sports Illustrated swimsuit specials, this idea is one whose time has come!
Chris Nunnally Richmond, Virginia
You don’t happen to ride Gold Wings, smoke weed and play harmonica with wildlife, do y a, Chris?
Doggie style
I really enjoyed “Big Doggies” in the May issue, comparing the Suzuki Bandit and Kawasaki ZRX1100. I've been awaiting the arrival of a massivece, ergonomically correct, technologically advanced sport-standard for years. Now to make my dream complete, I would like to see Honda and Yamaha throw their hats into the ring. There are a lot of middle-aged riders like myself who like power without that belly-to-the-tank riding position. I challenge Honda and Yamaha to sharpen their pencils and create a competitively priced pair of powerchurning monsters to rival the already legendary Bandito 12 and Kawi ZRX.
Robb Hibbs Parkersbury, West Virginia
Our little 1200 Bandit is certainly not the archetypal cruiser, but for that lazy, 90-mile roundtrip ride down the Coast Highway with the wife and a picnic lunch it’s been perfect.
Sunday’s Dixieland jazz at Big Sur’s River Inn does not start until 1 p.m., so relax, enjoy and leave your testosterone at home. We’ll often meet with a little gaggle of likeminded souls to share the ride...sort of an international salad bar of doubled-up V-Maxes, Softails, Triumphs and even the occasional Ducati.
We’re all there for the music and the Walt Whitmanesque cruise down the coast. Maybe we’re adding to the definition of cruisers. Derrel Whitemyer Watsonville, California
Please send me a wall-sized poster of the “Big Doggies” burn-out (autographed, of course). Reminds me of when I was back in high school on my Suzook 250 Hustler. I was good at leaving the parking lot doing two-up wheelies, but I think the burn-out would really knock ’em dead! T.C. Ingalls
Baldwinsville, New York
Let me tell you, the first time I saw the Kawasaki ZRX I fell in love. The bike is precisely what I have been looking for, stylingand performance-wise.
All along, I’ve been browsing Suzuki’s Bandit 1200 because it has fundamentally the same stats as the ZRX, but the Kawasaki was always my first choice. Last week, I went and looked at both bikes in person and resolved that I wanted the ZRX for sure. Then I called and checked on insurance for both bikes. The Bandit was quoted at $85 per month for full coverage (I’m 21 years old, with a clean driving record), which I thought was reasonable. The ZRX quote came back at a whopping $250 per month! Kawasaki, it seems, lists the ZRX in its Ninja group, which means an insurer doesn’t differentiate between the ZRX and the much faster ZX-ll-it’s considered a sportbike instead of a standard.
One of our Ninjas is missing
Okay, I’m going to get right to the point! As I thrashed through the latest, funfilled issue of Cycle World, I came across an article on the new Suzuki “Hire-a-
bus-uh” and proceeded on in total bliss-only to see that the only motorcycle it was compared to was the Honda XX “Blackboard.”
It seems to me that you guys could at least give credit to the bike that started this “ultimate sport” category, the * Kawasaki ZX-11. Steve Kimball
Monroe, Wisconsin
Kawasaki was asked to participate in the comparison but declined, preferring to put all its top-speed eggs in the forthcoming ZX-12 s basket.
In the end, I am being forced into buying a Bandit. Not a bad bike, but not the one I feel passionate about. I’m afraid the ZRX will be a sales flop for this exact reason. All this because of a name designation seems like a tragedy to me. Matt Uehlein
Haslett, Michigan
Time to shop for a new agent, Matt. Asking around, we found a variety of quotes-one company even tacked an extra $300 onto the Bandit’s annual premium because it had lOOcc more displacement! As far as the ZRX’s showroom performance, a Kawasaki official told us, “It’s a runaway hit. Our only problems are that we didn’t bring enough in and they’re not for sale in California yet.”
Pete’s pals
Is Peter Egan for real? I mean, every month this guy puts the thoughts and feelings of so many motorcyclists into words in his Leanings column. In June’s “The Daytona Factor,” he has outdone himself again. Unfortunately, I had to miss Daytona this year, but Peter’s column took me there for a few brief moments. Then his article on Evan Bell’s 1923 R32 BMW put icing on the cake.
Peter, biking weather is here again, and you helped me survive another winter one month at a time. Thanks, and I’ll look for you at Daytona next year. I’ll be the one with a mile-wide grin on my face. Floyd Hoffman ' O’Fallon, Missouri
I always pay close attention to Peter Egan. It’s good to know you hear from someone, from time to time, who has a bit of mileage on him. This is important to me, as I am something of an old fart myself. In fact, when Mr. Egan made his appearance in 1948, I was already 15 years old.
I don’t think I could outride or outwrite the man, but I do have him outgeezered! John Morgan
Los Angeles, California
As an unrestored owner (vintage 1944) of a restored Triumph Daytona (vintage 1967) and Honda CB750 (vintage 1972), my first thought on reading Peter Egan’s April column (“Forever Young”) was, “I resemble those remarks!” As a professional writer (okay, textbooks), my second thought was, “How does he do that?” He must have sold his soul to the Devil to be able to write so beautifully about ageless machines and their aging “renters.” Does he play guitar like Robert Johnson? Jack Mynatt
Austin, Texas
Actually, Egan rides like Robert Johnson but plays guitar like Anthony Gobert.
Ode to PC800
I’ll be specific, the Coast (Pacific) is most terrific. Elmer Golden
Cincinnati, Ohio PS: When will you mail the windbreaker that was to be sent for renewing my subscription?
We ’ll be unclear, the jacket should be yours within the year. □
