Ramblings, Rumblings
Ramblings, rumblings
UP FRONT
David Edwards
JUST HOW GOOD ARE THE NEW-GENERation GSX-R Suzukis? You can sample our take on the Family Gixxer starting on page 42, but the global jury has delivered its verdict.
Year 2000’s International Bike of the Year, as voted by the editors of 14 moto-mags worldwide, is the GSX-R750. It was a runaway win, too, the Suzuki gathering 27 points to the second-place Yamaha R1’s paltry 8.
“Today’s 600s and 900s have made the traditional 750 redundant-a 600 makes almost as much power as a 750, while a 900 has almost the same razor-sharp steering,” noted Belgium’s MotorWeek2. “But the GSX-R750 proves it’s the other way ’round: It makes both 600 and 900 redundant because it has the handling of the first and the performance of the latter.”
CW agreed, casting our IBoY ballot for the GSX-R, but parted ways when it came to choosing Dog of the Year. In widely scattered voting, Triumph’s TT600 was picked twice, edging out a bushel of bowsers with one pick each. “This is not a bad bike,” said Sweden’s MC-Nytt. “It was just the least wanted bike in the class. Why bother to enter a class dominated by the big Japanese manufacturers with a bike that is not better in one single aspect?” Aytf-picking?
Our choice for Top Canine was the new Indian Chief, a stunning looking machine, yes, but in need of a chassis re-think and an engine of its own, not the Harley clone currently installed. Whether or not the bike gets its deserved second act remains a question. The Gilroy, California-based bike-maker recently laid off 200 employees.
REQUIEM FOR THE RING-DING? IF you’ve got a penchant for premix, the handwriting could be on the wall.
Freshly arrived at our offices is what appears to be run-o’-the-mill Honda flackery, a press release beating its chest about U.S. sales of 175,000 motorcycles and 211,000 ATVs in year 2000. Honda’s bike sales were up 35 percent last year, strong enough to pip the numberone market-share position-26.5 percent-away from those heathens in Milwaukee, who’d bushwhacked Big Red the year before. The release blah, blah, blahs on, noting Honda’s goal to take worldwide bike sales from 5-millionand-change in 2000 to 7 million in 2004.
Then came this little bombshell.
Saying that four-strokes are a “responsible answer to environmental issues,” the release announces the following: “Beginning with the 2002 model year, Honda will only mass-produce four-stroke-powered onand off-road motorcycles, scooters and ATVs for the U.S. market.”
Come again? No CR motocrossers? Not so fast. Seems Honda defines the CRs as “closed-course” models, so they’ll still be available. But development of the new 400-something-cc Thumper prototype is ongoing. Currently, all of Honda’s outboard boat motors are four-strokes, and the company’s recently announced personal watercraft will be similarly powered.
Even that last domain of the unbridled two-stroke, 500cc Grand Prix roadracing, is making way for cams and valves, with new rules regarding displacement, piston shape, etc. Accordingly, HRC just pulled wraps off a new V-Five GP motor that borrows heavily from Formula One car technology.
Honda, it appears, has seen the future and it is four-stroke.
INSURANCE FLIM-FLAM! SO, FIVE YEARS ago Congress quite rightly passes a bill prohibiting employers from denying health-care coverage based on a worker’s pre-existing medical conditions or participation in legal recreational activities-motorcycling, for example. But now the regulations that will govern the enforcement of the law have finally been released, and while they do state that overall coverage can't be refused on the basis of recreational activities, specific benefits can be denied for injuries sustained in connection with those activities.
Bat-rastard insurance lobbyists!
According to the watchdogs at the American Motorcyclist Association, this would render the entire law meaningless. "Instead of creating a law specifically ending health-care discrimination, as Congress intended. (this) legalizes dis crimination' says the AMA. "These rules open the door to the elimination of health coverage for all types of legal recreational activities, from motorcycle riding to run ning or walking. That's the exact opposite of what Congress had in mind."
The chilling effect the jimmied rules could have on motorcycling's popularity is enormous. Don't let the agencies in volved get away with it! There's hope that the new administration will undo this sham, but you've got to let the powersthat-be know your feelings before the April 9th close of the public-comment period. Fire off your thoughts to the IRS (P.O. Box 7604, Ben Franklin Sta tion, Washington, DC 20044; www.irs.gov/tax_regs/regslist.html), the U.S. Department of Labor (Pension & Wel fare Benefits Admn., 200 Constitution Ave. NW Rm. C-5331, Washington, DC 20210; HIPAA7O2~pwba.dol.gov) and the Health Care Financing Adminis tration (Dept. of Health & Human Ser vices, P.O. Box 26688, Baltimore, MD 21207, Atm: HCFA-2022-IFC). Com ments sent by snail-mail should include a signed original and three copies; e-mails do not require multiple copies.
CYCLE WORLD DELIVERS FLORIDA? The last time this colunm got political was June, 2000's "Great Clinton Land Grab," detailing the former president's sucking up to Greenies and other eco weenies by unilaterally closing off vast tracts of public land to dirtbikes and other OHVs. We're still getting hate mail from radical environmentalists.
Well, here's a little something that may really dimple their chads. President George W. Bush's margin of victory in Florida was less than 600 votes. The guys in the Circulation Dept. tell me that Cycle World sells about 16,500 issues a month in the Sunshine State. So, ifjust 3 percent of our Florida readers were swayed to vote for Bush after reading the editorial. . .well, you do the math.
