Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
Rage against the roadblock
Once again, Peter Egan is spot-on with April’s “Rambling roadblocks” column. I can understand slow-moving farm vehicles and Q-tips in Dodge Darts (Mom?), but herds of dawdling Hondaminiums and Harleys really annoy. There is an arrogance to holding up traffic, whatever the reason. These riders remind me of Spandex-clothed bicyclists looking like a school of tropical fish clogging a country road. I ride to ride the road, often with no destination in mind, but would hang up my Belstaff in shame if I rode that slowly. Funny, but I always thought the purpose of the motorcycle was the joy of getting through time and space quickly and efficiently. I guess after 40 years of riding, times have changed.
Guy Ulinksas
Boston, Massachusetts
Peter Egan’s “Rambling roadblocks” column was RIGHT ON! Just for clarification, I’m not a teenage squid, been riding for 33 years. As for the riders of the rambling roadblocks: Get out of the way, or get a parade permit! George “The Big Stink” Martin Evansville, Indiana
It is time this problem is addressed, and Egan did so perfectly, with one exception: Most of the 49-mph bikers I pass are making more noise than an XR750 flat-tracker at the Springfield Mile.
Bill Harr Stockton, California
Lane discipline? Who comes up with this stuff? It drives me nuts to follow a “Slumber-bago” and a bunch of lanedisciplined auto drivers, all proceeding in an orderly and mindless manner. Following a large group of bikers as they trundle along would be too much! What’s with these guys holding up traffic? As if our image isn’t bad enough! To heck with lane discipline! I ride to be free of just such restrictions. Go for it Egan, I’m right behind you.
Jon Cotterman Coshocton, Ohio
Peter Egan was right on the money with his editorial about rolling roadblocks. The fact that this practice is rude and possibly dangerous just doesn’t dawn on those who practice it. Sometimes they’ll even hold cross-traffic illegally to allow the parade to pass. I, like Mr. Egan, prefer to maintain a slightly more spirited
pace and keep any group to a more manageable number. Anything over eight bikes and I’ve found, just as he said, there’s more waiting than riding. Nothing sucks the life out of a great road more than one of these processions appearing in front of you.
Terry Faherty Staten Island, New York
One solution to the problem of large group riding is to simply spread out. The person immediately ahead stops and waits at intersections or turns, you do the same for the rider behind. Everyone rides at their own pace, no one gets lost, and if there is trouble only one bike is usually involved. If you need to backtrack for a member left behind-with a flat, let’s say-you can phone other members (2001 puts cell phones in everyone’s pocket).
I ride a 1993 GSX-R 1100, and if you pass me on your old FLHS, I better be dead or drinking coffee. Stay safe and keep passing. I’ll wait at the turn.
Jack Parinello Detroit, Michigan
It’s about time someone had enough guts to state the obvious. Just a few slow-poke riders spaced out can be harder to pass than a big truck. Airheads! Duane Gilles
Kelowna, British Colombia, Canada
Well, Peter, you’ve gone and done it now! You’ve pissed off a very large group of slow people, many of whom are now laying on their beds attempting to zip up black jeans that have become inexplicably smaller in the past several months.
April’s Leanings suggests to me that the sale of your 996 was premature. I look forward to seeing you soon-I’ll be the old guy dressed in bright colors, passing 49-mph parades at will on my R1. Is this a great country or what? Peter Steiner
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
If I wanted to travel with 50 other like-minded souls, I’d ride in a Greyhound bus. Linwood Fiala
Baudette, Minnesota
Gixxer Madness!
Oh, man! When I turned to the "Genesis" article in the April issue, I almost shed a tear. The `86 Suzuki GSX-R750 was my first sportbike. While many motorcycles have come and gone since-cruisers, anoth er sportbike and more cruisers-that GSX-R will stay in my mind forever. I can still re
member the first time I saw it at the deal er, the red (with those little gold flakes) and black paint gleaming in the light. It was like I had tunnel vision. I had to have that bike! I can remember the way it smelled, like other new bikes, only sweeter, and the way it felt, the shape of
the gas tank, the firmness of the seat. I can remember my first test ride, and the first time I touched down a footpeg-didn’t upset it at all. I also remember the day I traded it in on an Intruder 1400. I wish I still had that GSX-R. Rory Palmer
Ester Park, Colorado
Ho hum, another sportbike shootout, this time between three bikes from the same manufacturer! Patrick Bergquist
San Mateo, California
The April issue is another keeper! Thanks for the GSX-R “Wayback Machine” articles. I’ve had mine since 1990-polished, carbon-fiber, kevlar, Yosh slip-on, engine still strong at 24,000 miles. Thanks again.
Dan Zeldon Milldale, Connecticut
Your all-Suzuki issue? Just one word: boring! What a waste of paper. AI Dippold Ottawa Lake, Michigan
The GSX-R issue was the best! Good to see ’Zukes back on top in all sizes. A shopping spree to the mall with my wife came to a sudden halt when I saw the “Gixxer Madness” cover. Had to rush back to the house to enjoy the issue. Please keep up the good work. Manny Zamorano
Sunrise, Florida
Weenie roast
At the end of David Edwards’ “Up Front” column in the April issue, he suggests that President Bush’s 600-vote victory in Florida could be attributed to a previous column of his, “The Great Clinton Land Grab,” detailing the closing off of public lands to dirtbikes, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc. He further states that we should “do the math” considering Cycle World sells 16,500 issues per month in Florida and that if only 3 percent of Sunshine State readers were swayed by that column, his words could conceivably be responsible for Bush’s victory. But when I do the match, 3 percent of 16,500 is only 495. Maybe 4 percent and 660 votes is what he meant.
Elaine Stokes Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Edwards is demanding a county-by-county recount...
I’m no particular fan of Bill Clinton, didn’t vote for him either. But, unlike Mr. Editor Edwards and other simpleminded blowhards, Clinton has done some very good things to protect our public land. You can’t undo these deeds, nor can Dubya (you might want to look into the National Antiquities Act).
I am no “greenie” or “eco-weenie” (as you like to refer to anyone who might disagree with your narrow-minded and selfish little agenda); in fact, my garage is filled with the type of exotic machinery gearheads drool over-ever heard of Porsche, BMW, Ducati or Moto Guzzi? Hell, my daily driver is a Saab turbo. Without question, many of your readers (including myself) are more highly educated and worldly than someone like you can imagine. I guess you figure that you’re just writing for a bunch of illiterates, eh?
Feel free to consider this one more piece of hate mail from the “radical environmentalists.” Eve forwarded a copy to the Circulation Department, so they can cancel my subscription. Now, doesn’t that just dimple your chad? That’s one less reader.. .well, you do the math.
Dr. Joseph G. Lessard Okemos, Michigan
Actually, Edwards considers the CW readership to be among the most literate anywhere. The vast majority even recognize a little tongue-in-cheek jousting when they see it. Others, sadly, drive Saab turbos.
At last, a (rational) voice in the wilderness
My off-road riding consists of rail/trail bicycling. I enjoy the peace and quiet of the wilderness as do the hundreds of hikers, bikers, fishers, canoeists, swimmers, etc. whom I encounter on a typical afternoon.
The serenity is often pierced by the wail of an open-piped off-road bike somewhere in the woods.
I think if some of us weren’t so insistent on cramming our lifestyles down other people’s throats, we just might enlist an important ally in our quest for unfettered on/off-road access-that of public sentiment. Jeffrey Bentley
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Well said, Jeffrey! As we ve pointed out several times now, Cycle World stands for responsible use of public off-road areas, and against the blanket closure of those areas without appropriate debate-which is exactly what former President Clinton did. That’s un-American, no matter what your party affiliation.
