Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
Best quest
Here it is again: July issue, Ten Best Bikes, time to get ticked off. The KTM 690 Enduro as Best Dual-Sport Bike? Like someone is going to ride this on the street! Not enough weight, not enough fuel, not enough rider comfort. And full knobbies?
You’d save me some bucks on bloodpressure pills if you’d drop the headings and just pick the bikes you want to be the Ten Best. I’d threaten to cancel my subscription but that would be a lie; I can’t wait to get the mag each month. So much for constructive criticism. Doug Estes
Modesto, California
The KTM Super Duke didn’t even make Honorable Mention in the Ten Best Bikes of 2008?! The Super Duke would blow the grips right off the Triumph Street Triple as Best Standard, not to mention your Honorable Mention Ducati Hypermotard.
Can you tell what kind of bike I own? When our beloved steeds don’t make the list, it is like calling our kids ugly!
Michael Russo Redding, California
The Triumph Street Triple 675 is like a sweet memory of the way most motorcycles were in the early ’70s when I started riding-uncluttered with fairings and silly-ass graphics that make modern sportbikes look like refugees from a Japanese comic strip. Triumph is on a roll now, having made this worthy “little brother” to the Speed Triple. Following the success of the 1050 Tiger, which I recently purchased, a 675 Tiger Cub maybe? Steven Hudson Patterson, Georgia
I pull the July issue from the mailbox and see Ten Best Bikes cover blurb. I find the gatefold insert where the bikes are listed. Best Superbike: Ducati Desmosedici RR. I can’t even begin to argue-much less pronounce-that choice. I move on to Best Middleweight, the Honda CBR600RR. Again, I agree. Then, Best Standard, the Triumph Street Triple 675, which I drool over every time I see one! No argument from me there.
Then I turn to Best Cruiser, the Star Raider...
Huh? Was that really Best Cruiser? The only-surpassed-by-the-VictoryVision-in-funky-no-way-I’m-ridingthat-thing looks, Star Raider? I guess aesthetics isn’t a criterion that’s very important to CW. After all, the Vision did get an Honorable Mention...
Donald Murray Cayce, South Carolina
Not that popularity has anything to do with our Ten Best picks, Don, but most Yamaha dealers can’t keep the Raider in stock.
In reading the rationale behind picking the Kawasaki Concours 14 as 2008’s Best Sport-Tourer, I found a quote that perfectly sums up why I ride.
“The fact is that sport-touring is about delicious movement, freedom to go slowly and relax or to turn the throttle and run, with just enough of your favorite stuff in the saddlebags.”
Yes sir, as owner of an Aprilia RST1000 Futura (Best Sport-Tourer, 2004), I couldn’t have said it better myself. I have a smile on my face just reading those words. Douglas Ryan Nashville, Tennessee
You’re welcome...
Thank you, Peter Egan, for buying classic motorcycles (“The Curious Case of the Black Venom,” Leanings, July) and relieving me of the burden. I get to buy new motorcycles that actually work!
Tim Ross Algonquin, Illinois
Peter Egan is clearly my evil twin, separated at birth. Well, almost. I’m 62, a genuine Cockney, and I don’t yet
have a Velocette. Of course, he’s probably blown that for the rest of us, what with singing the bike’s praises and such. Damn it, Peter, you’re right about the Velo’s closeness to the BSA Goldie and AJS 7R, but hitherto it had been a sleeper and I was in there with a shot. Not now, though. Thanks.
As to the rest of your ramblings, well that’s where I turn first when the mailman stops by. Why, some folks pay $200 and up, per hour, for that kind of therapy and I get it by subscription. Frankly, it’s alarming how many twisted old guys there are out there...thank goodness. And you get right to the center of the target every month. Michael C. Chauveau
Willow Grove, Pennsylvania >
Burning questions
Congratulations on your “Turn & Burn,” zero-to-180-mph article (CW, July). Really nice! I loved the entire set of tests and the info you guys posted about the bikes. But why no data chart on the Ducati 1098R? Marcelo Fartura
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
I would like to know why you even included the Ducati 1098R in the “Turn & Bum” comparison. All the Japanese bikes are priced between $11-12K. Including the regular Due 1098 was a stretch at $ 16,000, but the $40K 1098R was off the chart. Thanks for the great magazine, but keep it real. Nelson Kennedy
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Losing my religion?
I just finished reading your feature on the Vyrus (“Close Encounter,” July, 2008), and I must make a comment. The author’s attempt to credit company founder Ascanio Rodorigo’s visionary design abilities to his membership in the “church” of Scientology is a statement I find appalling and completely irrelevant to the article.
First, Scientology is not a religion. Most countries consider it a cult, both dangerous and harmful to its members and anyone who stands in its way. Second, how is anyone’s “religious” background important when talking about motorcycles? Let’s stick to objective reviews, shall we? Adam Gorski
Seattle, Washington
Granting the creativity of Vyrus’ engineering to the pseudo-religion of Scientology? How does membership in a pyramid scheme make one a better engineer? Besides, listing Tom Cruise as a reference doesn’t add credibility. Ed Moore
Albany, New York>
Nixon’s back!
I have been around racing my entire life. Today, I lead a SunTrust Moto-ST team, Pair-a-Nines. Jay Springsteen and Jimmy Filice are the riders; Bill Werner and a couple other racer-types prepare the bikes.
The Daytona Motorsports Group (which started the Moto-ST series and now runs AMA Pro Racing) seems to be sending a pretty clear message for the 2009 AMA season: We will listen to the racers, the accountants and the manufacturers, but when it is time to write the rules, we will sort it out, thank you.
I’ve been reading reports and predictions coming from all the “smart people” about how bad things are going to be under a “NASCAR-like” sanctioning body. My view, as a racer, is what DMG is saying makes sense-consider all viewpoints, write fair rules, mail the rulebook when it is done.
A racing series, to be successful, needs healthy team owners, close competition and fair officiating. Competing in the Moto-ST series from its beginning has given me optimism about the future of motorcycle racing in America. I don’t agree with all of Moto-ST’s rules and decisions, but when the races start I’ve
always felt that riders will make the difference. If make its future decisions by balancing equal parts input from racers, marketing and accounting, then our sport’s future looks good to me. Gary Nixon
Team Pair-a-Nines
Gary Nixon, Grand National Champion for Triumph in 1967-68, winner of 19 AMA nationals, never really retired from racing and still competes in the occasional classic roadrace.
Coming right up
I’m shopping for a new bike, and given the current gas prices, I want something
I can afford to ride. Bike manufacturers should be ashamed that their products get worse mileage today than many cars (I still own the Triumph T100C that I bought new in 1970 after reading CWs road test; it gets mpg in the high 40swhen it’s running). How about an article comparing bikes that will do 50 mpg and are freeway-legal? John Roland Alexandria, Virginia
How’s 93 miles per gallon sound, John? Turn to page 48 in this issue for our roundup of nine fuel-frugal motorcycles. □
