Hotshots

HOTSHOTS

Wrath of Vincent

Yesterday's mail brought May's Cycle World and coincidentally my very own Vincent poster ordered from Carl Hungness Publishing after seeing the New Ideas bit in the March issue. I say coincidentally because what do I see when I open the magazine but David Edwards' beautiful Up Front column, "Mythbusters," on the legend that is Vincent, certainly worthy of framing and hanging alongside the poster. Very well done!

J Travis Wheeler Ludlow, Massachusetts

Funny, others just want Edwards hung on the wall...

Editor-in-Chief Edwards' column in the latest issue, recounting CW's nega tive 1965 road test of a Vincent Black Lightning, sadly amounted to little more than repeating tainted tales. Worse, it reveals little interest in learning the facts of the matter. Whatever qualities Edwards possesses, and clearly there are many-witness the fine magazine, my favorite-he has done the name of Vincent a disservice with this piece.

The facts are these: Vincent hydro gen dampers leaked their fluid rapidly when the seals (plain rubber 0-rings) became hardened, losing their grip on the shaft. The rear suspension posi tioned its damper nearly horizontal so that the internal fluid (Vincent used mo tor oil) lay right across the seals, and so rapidly exited. The front damper, po sitioned near vertically, retained its fluid far better. Notice that there was no mention in the original road test of poor fork action. With the availability of newer materials, the fault was easily rectified, and modern shock fluid vast ly improved damping consistency. To gether these two modifications, at a cost of five bucks or less, solved the damp ing problem easily and effectively.

One has only to peruse the record books to see how many Vincents at tained high speeds over the rough salt surface of Bonneville without handling problems, and many others competed in roadracing worldwide successfully during the years of the bike's produc tion, and continued to do so for years afterward without dumping their rid ers, giving lie to the tales of dangerous handling. But old wives tales, told with a knowing smile suggesting personal knowledge, die hard, and with this fresh application of the tarred brush, gain new believers. Sad. S.M. Biberman Louisville, Kentucky

I do sometimes wonder how those evilhandling old Vincent bikes ever man aged to get round the Isle of Man TT course at all, let alone at respectable speeds. Clearly the TT course must have been smoother, had a surface with more grip and some of its bends straightened out in those bygone days. And of course, the tires were so much better in 1953...

I expect that Cycle World could ex plain it all to us. David J. Jones Posted on www.cycleworld.com

CW's current editor is a gutless S.O.B., defending ancient wrongs. Personally, I'm not unreasonable. I'll accept an ab ject apology, although ritual suicide would be more appropriate. I'll accept a retraction. He can get the text from Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin, when Mr. K explained that Mr. S killed 30 million people to make himself look good. Just as Cycle World blackened the Vincent to make its editor at the time look good.

I suggest Edwards try out the Black Lightning that my buddy Giovanni Ca bassi rode `round the loM and while having the time of his life, never felt he was risking it. If a CWeditor was on Gio's bike and couldn't get it to go, would that suggest motorcycle journalists are the wankers we know them to be? Got to go. I'm practicing riding round corners with the bike near-vertical, the photographer leaning over 50 degrees and my knee down... Tom Gaynor Aberdeen, Scotland

Funny how that old CW test can still get the blood pumping. My feeling is that it was one of the most serendipi tous things that ever happened to the Vincent, seeing how it kept prices de pressed so people like me could buy the machines for a surprising number of years afterward. Steven Lindblom Posted on www.cycleworld.com

Desmo Deliverance

Forty thousand dollars for a desmo-pow ered motorcycle ("A Higher Calling," CW, May)?! Forgive me for being unimpressed in totality. I dig pushrods, baby! Give me $20K, from which I'd buy an air-cooled Buell, or even a plain-jane Sportster. Then I want six months, a power-adder like a supercharger, some chrome-moly thin-wall tubing, an S&S catalog and a Jerry Branch type with a grinder. I will give you a faster, better motorcycle than that red pre tender. If that fantasy came true, it would be like seeing Mr. Ford's GT4O with its pushrod V-Eight meeting Fer ran at Le Mans, where the Americans thoroughly massacred the petite red car four years in a row.

I will take part of the remaining $10,000 and buy a crane and a quart of moonshine to make a toast to you and the folly of a $40,000 motorcycle. What's the crane for? To pull your tail from between your legs! Greg & Bogie the Hound East Tennessee

I don't think I can stand another article on the Ducati 1098. And now it's May's coverbike? I'm so tired of seeing this bike. How about some stories about real-world bikes? I could buy three or four Suzu ki V-Stroms and two Hayabusas for the cost of the 1098R. Ryan Steward Orangevale, California

You got something against Buells...?

Gents and lasses at the helm of Cycle World: Not that 11 Euro scoots (two of which are Ducatis) in the garage bring anything remotely resembling high-brow technical knowledge to the table, but your article on the Duc 1098R has my knickers in quite the knot.

In short, you sent a well-adept engi neering-blindered scribe, Kevin Camer on, to a double-backloop rollercoaster launch party. Needed instead was a bull horn that would allow us no-ticket-hold ing, downtrodden masses to know what it is like in sensory mode when saddling the latest eye-bleeder from the Italian design gods who also just so happen to have taken home the MotoGP silver ware with similar bits of tasty ride and technical topology.

There is an expectation that we at least "hear" what it was like to twist the neck off the 1098R Twinzer as the scoot flows nearly parallel to the as phalt corners of Jerez, whilst long black tire lines are left from midway thru the rounder `til the bike is stood up in stargazer posi tion. If the technical hoo hahing must persist, then let it be scribblings about how the svelte scoot with the hand-brazed trellis frame is aerodynamically slid through the air while the engine barks 106-dB musical exhaust notes to the heavens out of titanium canisters hand-rolled by cherubs to a precision only the gods have seen. In effect, give us the same sensate of sensory overload and passion involved in pedaling this grenade at speed as the Italians do in designing, testing, and building the beasts for com moners like me who are most certainly not worthy.

With high regards, middle corners, but lowered brow. Jim Goodlett New York, New York

Whew! Some of Greg & Bogie s' moon shine may be in order after that... Gobbled up my May issue, as usual. On the cover, the Ducati 1098R! Yum-yum! But Mark Cernicky in his "Grip & Rip" sidebar comments that traction control is a good thing. I don't agree. It takes away from the art of riding a motorcycle. It may allow more average folks to enjoy speed safely on a track, but to manipu late the machine is part of the joy, and to do it better than the rest is what makes winning a race, or riding fast, all the more enjoyable.

Now, I understand that almost all the people involved in motorcycle racing are not racers. Engineers, executives, spon sors, tuners, software programmers, tire makers, etc., all have an interest in seeing their respective babies win, and the rider's enjoyment is very low on the pri ority list. The target is the lap time-and victory-no matter what. So they started with electronic shifters, then slipper clutches, now traction control. Little by little, it's taking the rider out of the equa tion. What's next?

Why don't we develop GPS/radar-as sisted braking? The bike will have sen sors that compute speed vs. distance-toturn vs. traction vs. the bike's ability to decelerate. It will link that data to an anti-lock braking system. At a certain moment a signal will come on the digital display for the rider to brake; all he has to do is squeeze the lever as hard as he can and the machine and software will do the rest, allowing him to trail-brake right to the apex at maximum speed and lean angle. Never again any low-side crashes because the bike will not allow excessive entrance speed.

Does this sound absurd? Not any more than having a computer that throttles the bike out of turns for you, and that's what traction control is doing. Now the only thing a rider has to decide is entrance point and exit line. No wonder races are getting more and more boring at the top levels. There is less room for the human to show mastery. When Max Biaggi won his very first 500cc Grand Prix race in the `90s, that was the stuff of legend. That Jorge Lorenzo just won his third-at tempted MotoGP race, that is the stuff of software! We might as well put the ma chines on rollercoaster rails. Norman Dehm r Torrance, California /

I just read your long-term update on the / Ducati 1098 (CW, May). I bought one a month ago, the base model. I'm 61 and I know enough to realize that this bike is way over my ability to use all it of fers; I just coUldn't stay away from it. Pure sex in a red dress!

Reading that your $2900 exhaust package yielded only 3 more hp vindi cates my choice to leave the exhaust alone. Stock it sounds great, better than my other two Ducatis (900SS, 5T3) with their aftermarket cans. I'll put my money into a bit of carbon-fiber; Ducs beg for it. Now if the snow would melt and the frost heaves would settle... Mike Brooker c Center Harbor, New Hampshire

She's got legs...

_ .~ I'. ii I am writing with regard to your Honda ad on page 58 of the April `08 issue. You have had many warnings in the past about running this type of material in your pub lication. I want it known that if I see one more such ad, I am buying a lifetime subscription. Shane Bland Posted on www.cycleworld.com