Hotshots

HOTSHOTS

Southern Discomfort

I’m writing because of your test on the Confederate America GT (CW, April). I have to wonder (and not for very long) if you’d have featured a bike called the Nazi Germany GT, and used a bemused “boys will be boys” tone in describing the founder’s motivation in naming the company.

I’m a lifelong Virginian who refuses to be labeled anything but an American, who is sick of seeing all of the recent Confederate glorification. “Southern” doesn’t equal “Confederate.” It never did. “Confederate culture?” That culture was white supremacist and anti-technology. You don’t need technology when you’ve got slave labor.

I was pleased to see that you used an “Editors’ Note” to point out problems with the company’s strategy of naming bikes after Confederate generals, but I have to point out a flaw in your “credit” for Nathan Bedford Forrest. Qualms about killing blacks? No. According to Forrest biographer Brian Wills, quoted in Lies Across America, Forrest executed a captured black servant to a U.S. officer during the war. The man was neither a soldier nor an escaped slave, but Forrest shot him in the head in a fit of rage. A Confederate officer who observed this “denounced the act as one of cold-blooded murder and declared that he would never again serve under Forrest.”

Perhaps Chambers can name his next model after Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh. It would be just as appropriate, and after all, McVeigh fought the U.S., just like his Confederate heroes.

It is a shame, because the bike is technically interesting, not the clone that I expected. Dan Carney

Herndon, Virginia

So, the Confederate America GT, in its builder’s words, “...exemplifies the Confederate culture?” My God! Why can’t we have a bike (and it sounds like a fun bike) without the probability that it will offend a large segment of the population? And does the type style of the gas-tank lettering look oddly Germanic? It’s probably just me. My ancestors were on the wrong end of the “Confederate culture.”

Doug Romeo Chicago, Illinois

Imagine my shock as I opened the pages of the April issue, turned to the test of the Confederate America GT and read Matt Chambers’ words, “It’s the machine that would be built if the Confederacy existed today.” I can only guess who would be hard at work making those motorcycles.

Do not be fooled by simplistic statements about “honoring Southern heritage” or the Confederate war dead. Ask those who make such arguments what they have ever done to honor the millions of Africans who died either in passage, or who were brutalized, mutilated and murdered as slaves. Slavery, and the racist thinking that formed its underpinnings, has been and continues to be a terrible scar on this country.

The great thing about the America we live in today is that we have the freedom to choose with whom we associate, and just as Cycle World would never review “Nazi Motorcycles-the bike the Führer would build,” I hope I will never again see a review of Confederate Motorcycles in your magazine.

Derrick Nijei Gibson Jersey City, New Jersey

I want to thank you for your article on the Confederate. Having read occasional blurbs concerning this bike, I was very pleased when I finally came upon one at the New York Show.

I talked at length to the rep, then sat on all the models they had on display. I was hooked, line and sinker. The bike fit like a glove.

Without a second thought, I pulled out my checkbook, but realized almost immediately that I was a little short-$25,330.52, to be exact.

Vladimir Sovich Goshen, New York

Forget that Civil War stuff, pass the Thin Mints

Dear Cycle World, thank you for buying my Girl Scout cookies. Thanks to you, I’m the top seller in my troop!

Jillian Blades Dana Point, California

Britbike 101

In May’s Up Front column, David Edwards misidentifies BSA’s DKW125

clone as the “Beagle,” when in reality it was the “Bantam.” The Beagle was an underpowered four-stroke that helped seal the fate of BSA, while the two-stroke Bantam was wildly popular and had a long and successful production run.

Perhaps a tablespoon of castor oil will help him keep his Britbikes straight.

Fred Mecke Montpelier, Vermont

Good idea. Besides, the Girl Scout cookies are already gone.

Looking for sex

Okay, I give up. Where did you guys hide all the sexually provocative pictures that put Mark and Mrs. Tidwell’s knickers (“Hotshots,” May) in such an uproar? I searched and searched all through your magazine and I couldn’t find a single one. You think it might have been that naked toddler peeing on the beach in the DP Brake ad on page 69?

I’m telling you, I was seriously disappointed. Here I was, eager to be hopelessly titillated and then found absolutely nothing to feed my prurient desires. What a ripoff!

I guess the magazines you guys ship to Fort Mill, South Carolina, have all the good smut. Man, what a bummer! Steve “Big Daddy” Bistrow Morgan Hill, California

I am soooo tired of these anal-retentive idiots spewing horse manure upon your preeminent pages. Who are these dim bulbs?

Examples from May’s “Hotshots” section: Reader Dennis Barnett from my favorite city, Miami, Florida, who’s upset over Cobra’s use of an earthquake-damage photo in an exhaust-pipe ad. He claims he is a firefighter/paramedic. Hogwash! I’ve been working for a Detroit-area fire department as a paramedic for 15 years, and the first thing you must learn to develop is a twisted sense of humor. Come on, Dennis, lighten up.

My next beef is with reader J.R. Miller from Connecticut, who wants everyone to wear a helmet. This curmudgeon cannot have ever ridden a motorcycle, and probably works for an insurance company, God love him. The essence of motorcycling is to be uncaged, free.

My final beef is with good old Mr. Tidwell from South Carolina. Every time I read a letter like his, it reassures me that your magazine is on the correct path to greatness. Hey pal, guess what? Motorcycles are sexually provocative! If you still owned a sex drive and/or a motorcycle, you might realize this. How many ministers with mopeds can be reading Cycle World, anyway?

Okay, I feel better now. Don’t make me pick up a pen again or there will be real trouble. These pontificating windbags are entertaining but annoying. Thank you for a great magazine, great writing and great times. Don’t let the nuts run the asylum. J. Gary Wilkinson Harrison Township, Michigan

Mick the Great

Kevin Cameron’s extensive piece on retiring GP racer Mick Doohan was excellent, informative and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. While racing motorcycles are great and awesome machines, it’s the individual rider pushing his skill and determination to the limit who coaxes that motorcycle into full bloom on any given track. And it’s a beautiful sight. Chuck Spilman Pisgah Forest, North Carolina I have to agree with Mr. Egan. I, too, recently traveled to Central Europe (the Ukraine), looked longingly at the curvy roads and small villages, and plan to see them from the saddle of a bike someday.

Visit Poland, dammit!

How do you spell “boring” in Polish? Peter Egan’s “Opening the Eastern Gate” in the May issue reads exactly like he agreed to fill an entire column with “Good news about Poland,” in exchange for the free “whirlwind sixday trip for travel writers...” that he recently enjoyed.

He’s talented and imaginative, and maybe he’s now a travel writer, but since when is Cycle World a travel magazine? I’m sure that somewhere between 97 and 98 percent of your readers would rather hear about the newest thing in footpegs than sit through an entire fullpage ad for the newly available Poland. The majority of us haven’t even seen all of North America yet, though we might choose to do some riding in Poland, if someone would fly us there for free.

Peter has spoiled us. We want to read witty, insightful writing about motorcycles! Greg Jones Prescott, Arizona

Okay, I give up. Tell me what Peter Egan’s May, 2000, column has to do with motorcycles. I had to check the cover twice as I thought I had picked up the wife’s travel magazine by mistake. Shawn K. Downey Minneapolis, Minnesota

It’s too bad more people don’t have the chance-or take the chance-to see these parts of the world. Who knows, maybe Egan and I will meet each other in a small cafe someplace, and compare travel stories over a glass of Bavarian beer.

Will Huggins Kendallville, Indiana

I always enjoy receiving my latest issue of Cycle World and turning immediately to David Edwards’ and Peter Egan’s columns. May was no exception. Like the Editor-in-Chief, I too was gifted with a Moto Morini, a 500 Sport, then restored and got the thing running for $3 per cc. It is the perfect Sunday morning go-tobreakfast bike.

Couldn’t agree more with Peter’s overview of Poland and Krakow. In 1993, 14 of us took a tour through the former Eastern Bloc, including then-Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia. We are going to run a similar tour in 2001. Maybe Peter can join us. We promise to show him the magical backroads to Zakopane. Burt Richmond

Lotus Tours Chicago, Illinois

I have been a subscriber for several years and have developed a fondness for Peter Egan’s “Leanings.” In several columns over the years, he has described numerous road trips and the joy experienced thereon. All the trips seem to be in the West, Southwest or Mexico, though. Good riding, no argument, but I suggest there is good riding in New England and the Canadian Maritimes that deserves to be chronicled also. Greg Apraham

Falmouth, Maine

What, you’ve got something against Poland and the magical backroads to Zakopane?

The Great Morini Giveaway

Just read May’s editorial, “Free bikes and other myths” about Edwards’ gift Moto Morini Camel. Last January, I entered your sweepstakes for a Harley-Davidson Road King. Received numbers and confirmations. Have not seen anything regarding any winners as of yet. Was this sweepstakes a myth, too? Roger Draus

Mesa, Arizona

Actually, Edwards kept the Road King. Your free Moto Morini is on the way, however.