Arkansas Travelers

Arkansas travelers

UP FRONT

David Edwards

EARLY MORNING SOMEWHERE IN NORTH-west Arkansas, temperature crisp, traffic nonexistent, tarmac flawless, traction heavenly. Up ahead, Peter Wylie is slicing through a long, luridly fast sweeper. The Honda CBR900RR I'm on nudges an indicated 120 mph and Pete isn't getting any closer. Suffice to say, Peter Wylie ain't your average 60-year-old dentist.

Pete, longtime cohort Chuck Davis and I had flown into Little Rock, hosted by locals Allan Gold and Tom Overbey on a four-day tour of the best backroads Arkansas has to offer. Which, as it turns out, is plenty, including some stunningly world-class twisties-who’da guessed El Bubba’s home state as a best-kept riding secret? (Pssst, here’s a hint: Search out AR 341, a 25-mile stretch of heavensent swervery. Almost orgasmic, actually. You’ll have to find the rest on your own, I’m sworn to silence.)

I’ve known Chuck since college; Pete, Allan and Tom I met on various Cycle World GP Euro-Tours, the magazine’s annual week-long treks to Grand Prix roadraces, usually via the Alps, put on in conjunction with our friends at Edelweiss Bike Travel. A small group of us keep in touch via the internet and every year or so try to organize a short sporttour of our own. Nothing formal, but if everyone’s schedule works out, off we go, the bikes either borrowed or trailered in. Three years ago, it was North Carolina, last year northern Oregon, this year Arkansas. I believe I’ve been volunteered to lay on a SoCal sampler for autumn 2000, though my memory of our farewell-dinner pledges is murky at best, clouded by a proliferation of margaritas.

My friends are all family men, all successful in their chosen fields, all with a wide spectrum of interests. But each is serious about his motorcycling-serious enough to make continuing rider education a priority.

A childhood that included stints in Paris and Rome allowed Chuck to demo a number of mopeds and scooters, but he didn’t really get into bikes until he was 30, his entrée an old pimped-out Honda 750 touring rig that quickly assumed cafe-racer status. These days, 46 years old, he’s a Chicago-area management consultant and runs three Hondas-a new VFR800, an ’80s Hawk GT650 V-Twin and a ’70s CB750 Four-and is prepping a CB350 for vintage roadracing. His riding-school transcript lists Keith Code’s California Superbike School, FastTrack, Reg Pridmore’s CLASS and an MSF Experienced RiderCourse.

“The biggest thing the racetrack courses have done is help me really understand the techniques of corneringeverything from correct braking to precise turn-in to exiting a corner at the right rpm,” Chuck says. “That alone has made me a better street rider.”

Chuck has been on two GP EuroTours and views the experience like a masters class in street riding. “It’s like skiing,” he says. “If you go for just one day, all you get is sore, but if you go for a week, you’re immersed; you really get to work on your technique.”

Allan, a 56-year-old podiatrist who heads a Little Rock foot clinic, used to skip school as a kid to sneak rides on a pal’s Cushman Eagle. This was followed by a Honda 50 step-through and then a CB160. A succession of dualpurpose bikes kept Allan nominally on two wheels, but his second coming occurred in the mid-’80s with a customized Harley-Davidson FXR.

“When all the doctors and lawyers got Harleys, I got rid of mine,” Allan says with a laugh. “Besides, by then I’d discovered that the fun was in the ride, not in the profiling.”

These days, the Gold garage contains a slew of Hondas (nicely scuffed 305 Scrambler, gray-market NSR400 stroker, modded Hawk GT and new CBR600F4), plus an RI 100RS Beemer and a tasty Kenny Dreer Norton Commando. He’s taken CLASS five times at four differ-

ent tracks, plus the Code school, Lawrence Grodsky’s Stayin’ Safe streetriding school and an MSF class. All have been helpful.

“I’m almost fanatical about training; every time I take a class I learn something,” Allan says. “It’s opened up a whole new world for me. I’m a better, safer rider, much more comfortable on the bike no matter what happens.”

Tom, 51, is a tax attorney who owns a BMW RI 100S, a Honda CBR900RR and has a deposit down on the new RC51. He’s done almost as many riding schools as Allan; both have been on three GP Euro-Tours. A rider for just five years, Tom credits his current (high) level of skill to the classes.

“They’ve helped tremendously. I’m a faster, smoother, safer rider today than I would have been otherwise,” he says. “You learn the limits of the bike, your limits and you learn how to handle panic situations. I strongly recommend classes to anybody who’ll listen.”

Pete proves one of my theories that good dirt riders make good street riders. He raced off-road from 1967-80, then was persuaded by friends in the “Molar Rollers,” a dentists’ riding club, to take it to the street. Which he did, with a vengeance.

“At first, I rode the street the way I rode motocross-light up the brakes, square off the corner and rip on outta there-which works fine until one day you go splaaaatV’ he says. “Then I got into smooth, which I’ve been working on ever since.”

Pete’s education included club racing a Suzuki GSX-R750 and his trusty SR500 Single. He still has the Yammie, which shares garage space with a bigbore MZ Skorpion, a Moto Guzzi Daytona and a Ducati or two, all of which get regular, rigorous exercise. “There’s just no substitute for seat time,” he says.

The common denominator here is a desire to improve roadcraft, to hone and rehone essential skills, to be both fast and safe-in short, to be a better rider. And it works. I’d ride with these guys anywhere.

Actually, we’re working on that...

Cycle World’s eighth-annual GP EuroTour takes place this May 6-17, bound for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans by way of the French Alps. For information or to reserve a tour slot, call Edelweiss Bike Travel at 800/582-2263. □