Ups & Downs, 1999

Ups & Downs, 1999

UP FRONT

David Edwards

RANDOM THOUGHTS, OBSERVATIONS and musings about the year just past as the 20th Century’s odometer gets ready to roll over:

UP: To Travis Pastrana, for being too extreme for the X-Games. When the high-flyin’ freejumper capped his X-Games win with a leap (aboard his RM125, natch) into San Francisco Bay, the mamby-pams at ESPN withheld the 15-year-old’s $10,000 winnings and declined to air the splashdown. Not that it slowed Pastrana down. He went on to win NBC’s Gravity Games, qualify for his first-ever Supercross main (he was too young for a Pro license before) and wow David Letterman during a Late Show guest spot. Nice goin’, kid.

DOWN: To the medical muck-up that took the life of marathon rider Fran Crane. Near the end of the 11-day Iron Butt Rally, Crane was involved in a minor single-vehicle accident that put her in the hospital for overnight observation. Sadly, she was administered the wrong medication and died. Crane held various long-distance records over the years, including best time through the 48 contiguous states and quickest New York-to-San Francisco run. “She was a motorcyclist, a very fast and efficient motorcyclist, and she could stay on her bike so long that it seemed as if she and the machine had bonded together,” said friend Bob Higdon in a moving printed eulogy.

DOWN: To the revivalist movement, for giving us a prototype Norton cruiser that might just be the single most offensive motorcycle ever hacked together. If there’s any justice, everyone involved in this lame project will be jailed for sins against humanity. Have a look for yourself on page 30-on second thought, you may want to avert your eyes.

UP: To Chevy Trucks, for jumping in with both feet. In the biggest outsideindustry sponsorship package ever, the truck-maker will spend several million dollars over the next two years as title sponsor of the U.S. Superbike Series and U.S. Motocross Championship. Given Chevy’s extensive NASCAR experience, could this be the shove that finally elevates motorcycle racing to mainstream status?

DOWN: To Kawasaki, for keeping a little gold mine out of the Golden State. The ZRX1100, last year’s Best Standard (I’d argue the best of all time), won’t be coming to California in 2000, either. For reasons unexplained, Kawasaki hasn’t gotten around to adding the gas-evap plumbing needed to pass the state’s staticemissions standards-this, despite the bike’s strong 49-state sales. Wait ’til 2001, we’re told. So, let’s see, it takes the world’s third-largest motorcycle manufacturer two years to tool up for a new gas tank...?

UP: To the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, for stepping up to preserve history. The 8000-member organization recently committed $150,000 over three years in support of the new AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Pickerington, Ohio. That’s putting your money where your memorabilia is. “The tenet of our club is to preserve, restore and display antique motorcycles,” said AMCA President Bob McClean. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of nice motorcycles sitting in garages that no one will ever see outside of family and a few friends. In truth, we are only the keepers of these machines for a little while; we must do our utmost to make sure the next generations have them to enjoy as much as we have.”

DOWN: To the sniveling, smallminded art critics (thankfully in the minority) who just couldn’t come to terms with “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibit’s overwhelming popularity. The show set all-time attendance records at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Chicago’s Field Museum before being boxed up and shipped to Spain’s Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, where-you guessed it-the bikes are currently playing to standing-roomonly crowds. Anybody out there have the Louvre’s phone number?

UP: To Harley-Davidson, for sticking to its guns. With engine architecture that can trace its air-cooled, pushrod, two-valve-per-pot roots all the way back to the Knucklehead of 1936, H-D’s counterbalanced Twin Cam 88B motor set new cruiser standards for V-Twin power and refinement. Still seems weird, though, to fire up a Softail and not have your eyeballs flutter...

UP: To the sport of observed trials, believe it or not, for getting Olympic recognition, and maybe the opportunity to showcase itself as a demonstration sport at the upcoming Sydney Summer Games. Can Dougie Lampkin on a box of Wheaties be far behind?

DOWN: To the turn of events that led to the resignation of AMA President Ed Youngblood. In what has to be one of the toughest, most thankless jobs in all of motorcycling, Youngblood oversaw the AMA’s growth from basically a glorified club to its current position as a leading member-services organization. Without getting bogged down in politics, the bottom line is that American riders lost the services of a very good man.

UP: To all of us, for having the great fortune to live in what will be viewed years from now as a seminal time for motorcycling. It took a while to throw off the doldrums of the ’80s, but this decade ends with total new-unit sales (streetbikes, dirtbikes and ATVs) closing in on the magic million unit per year mark. Motorcycles have never been better, the diversity of models never greater, the fun factor never higher. With apologies to the new millennium, these are the good old days.