Hotshots
HOTSHOTS
Forbidden Flyer
I saw the cover of the October issue and fell in love. When Honda brings the CB1000R stateside, I will beg, borrow and who knows what else just to put one in my garage. Mike Harnden Oxnard, California
Please tell American Honda’s Ray Blank (“Riding with Ray,” October) to wake up! I own a 2002 Honda VTR1000F Super Hawk, almost a perfect bike except for the hunched-over riding position. I just turned 50, and I can’t tolerate the pressure on my wrists or the strain on my back. I realize that the aftermarket has solutions; I’ve installed Heli bars, but they’re not enough. Instead of Honda always trying to reinvent the wheel, maybe it should follow the demographic of those who purchase sportbikes. There is a large group of us 40-to-60-year-olds who still love power and handling but not the chiropractic expense.
Dan Brackett Falmouth, Maine
The Honda CB1000R struck a chord with me. After riding through 27 years and 15 bikes, I recently came full circle at age 45 and bought a new 2007 Honda 919. It reminded me of my 1982 CB750F and a time when I rode just to ride. It looks like the CB1000R would deliver all that, with just enough cool to make you want to check your reflection as you pass a tanker truck.
Dave Grenda Phoenix, Arizona
CHATTER...
What the Forums at cycleworld. com are saying about the Honda CR10001?
Should Honda bring the CB1000R to the United States? Yes, definitely, and take the DN-O1 back, please.
!~1Oll~
A CB1000R would be great, but not one that looks like the Styling Dept. started with a Suzuki B-King then toned it down 30 percent. There has to be a middle ground between Transformers Uber Modern and Retro. If they find that middle ground and make it work, they've got something.
-HoughMa(
I'm not sure about the styling, but I really like that retro 1970s' stationwagon color.
King Vitamin
Wonderful bike, truly. But frankly and honestly, the U.S. market just doesn't get naked bikes like the rest of creation does. An awed minority will sing Honda's praises if it brings the CB1 000R over, then a fraction of those folks will actually buy one.
rudebWOY
I appreciate the wide diversity in today's bike selection and try not to be closed-minded about new approaches and ideas. I also fig ure if you're not pissing someone off, you're probably not trying hard enough. New ideas always meet resistance, whether we're talking about motorcycle design, art, archi tecture or tech no-gadgetry. I hope Honda brings this bike to the USA. Why should the Europeans have al the fun?!?!
-webniang4
CB or not CB
I can understand why Honda wouldn’t want to bring the CB1000R to the U.S. This country doesn’t seem to like streetfighters/naked sportbikes like they do in Europe, and I don’t think this one would be any different, which is too bad. Bill Keenan
Lamed, Kansas
The CB1000R is over-styled, overpriced and, mercifully, over there. Meanwhile, where’s my damn CB1100F? Dick Worth
Churchton, Maryland
I can no longer remain silent. The Yamaha XJR1300, Suzuki GSX1400 and Honda CB1300 were all great standard motorcycles that never made it here. Maybe Kawasaki’s poor sales experience with the ZRX1200R, discontinued in 2005, is why.
The CB1000R seems to be a wonderful, capable, all-around bike with modern styling. If American Honda thinks that the cost of the bike is reason to deprive us of such excellent machinery, while at the same time it brings in > a fake-chrome chopper for $13,000, then I can’t help but feel discriminated against and betrayed. And I would be very upset at Cycle World for introducing the CB to us in the first place! Thanks for letting us know what a marvelous machine we can’t have!
Should’ve bought that ZRX...
Dmitry Khramov Los Angeles, California
The new Honda CB1000R will be parked in my yard after the wife okays the purchase, so tell Japan to keep it under $10 grand, please. Also, don’t change the name to Beavis, Farticus or Fruitus.
Malt Kiepacki Maspeth, New York
Wave riders
Attention Buell: You guys are trying way too hard. Your “It’s OK Not to Wave Back” ad was so chock full of pretentious marketing attitude that I laughed out loud. I’m not sure why I have a greater level of tolerance for this sort of thing from Harley-Davidson, but Buell certainly doesn’t deserve it yet. Nick Di Domenic Nutley, New Jerse
I’d like to give an UP to Buell for its ad in your October issue discouraging riders from waving. While I appreciate the sentiment behind the waves, I agree that our hands belong on the bars when riding, and that the time for making friends is when you’re parked. In the U.S., we’ve created this “culture of waving” that is dangerous in many situations, particularly so for inexperienced riders. So, fellow riders, if I don’t return your wave, it’s not that I’m being snobby or unfriendly; I’m just practicing safe riding. Hopefully, the nod of my helmet will convey my good will. Doak Smailer
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
I guess it’s just the Old Fart in me but I didn’t like the Buell ad. In the picture that accompanies the ad, we see a sportbike rider leaning way over, almost dragging his knee on the pavement as he tries to copy the moves he saw at the MotoGP on a public highway. That bothers me. I guess that is why I enjoy my Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide so much. It is an awesome ride, and I don’t have to act like an idiot to enjoy it.
And by the way, I can wave any time I want, because I ride in a safe, legal manner, at the posted speeds and just enjoy the cruise. I wish the sportbike crowd would grow up and show some maturity. If you want to race, do it on a track! Meanwhile, quit giving the rest of us a bad name with your immature, unsafe and usually illegal riding habits on public streets. Stephen King
Indianapolis, Indiana
Well, Buell has just shown you can get your head up your ass even while wearing a full-face helmet! I’ll continue to wave to any motorcyclists I see.
Larry Kahn Santa Margarita, California
Buell’s “It’s OK Not to Wave Back” ad is great! This waving stuff is getting out of hand. Jim Mills
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Burns & Son
John Burns is a wonderful writer. Although I had many urgent tasks to perform, I could not put down his story about the Yamaha Champions Riding School (Ridecraft, October). It’s always encouraging to hear experienced riders (and new-bike testers) say they’ve learned a lot. And son Ryan’s sidebar? LMAO! If CW doesn’t hire him as a guest writer and send him more places, he may be competing with his father in print when another cycle mag gets hold of him. Great job, kid! William Wasik Fort Drum, New York
Great to see some press on this blazing-cool school. I just completed the program last month, and it’s all that and more! I flew in from North Carolina hoping to shake off 1 or 2 seconds from my trackday lap times. Two days of great instruction, one great bike, one smooth line and I was feeling like one fast woman.. .and I was! Three seconds faster! What a blast! Go Yamaha Champion Riders School! Allie Warfel Asheville, North Carolina
I really enjoyed John Burns’ article about his experience at the Yamaha Champions Riding School. I went to the Champions three-day school in June, and it was the best money I ever spent. By the third day, I was going 9 seconds a lap faster than my previous best lap time, and I just finished my third racing season with zero crashes. I’ve since tried to convince my riding friends of the value of the school, but it usually falls on deaf ears-or they say they cannot afford it or don’t need it.
Most of the guys I see at the racetrack spend all their money on making their motorcycles faster. But I get nervous riding behind them on trackdays. They can twist the throttle, but they are consistently erratic, offline, missing apexes, cannot get the bike slowed and turned, and end up crashing several times a year and hurting themselves or wrecking their bikes.
For all my buddies who say they cannot afford to go to the Yamaha Champions School, I try to tell them that it’s way more expensive if they don’t go. Spending two or three days with Nick Ienatsch once a year is a lot cheaper than spending one day at the hospital or repairing a crashed motorcycle. But most people don’t get it. Phil Horwitz
Boulder, Colorado
King Kenny rides again
Just got back from the Indy Mile and had to rant about the greatest motorcycling event I ever experienced. Great racing, but the highlight of the evening was Kenny Roberts riding his old Yamaha TZ750 flat-tracker. It was amazing seeing the parade of big names who just wanted to get a look at the bike (just like me!). Kel Carruthers, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Cook Nielson, Scott Russell, MotoGP mechanics and enlightened race fans alike were in awe of the legendary bike. I know Valentino Rossi, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz were there, as well.
Flearing the bike fire up and watching KR’s hot laps made me grin from ear to ear! I didn’t get to see it live in ’75 but this had to be the next best thing.
Mark Roberts Lexington, Illinois
KTM corner
Congratulations, Blake Conner, for your excellent test on the KTM 990 Adventure (CW, September), and to Jeff Allen for the astounding pictures. I am big trailie lover myself, owner of a 1997 Triumph Tiger, and a photographer, too, far away from you guys in the south of Brazil-Florianopolis, on Santa Catarina in the Atlantic Ocean, land of the most beautiful women in the world...sorry. Rui Bittencourt
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Would you like to trade your KTM Super Duke long-term testbike for my 2000 Bimoto DB4? Kirk Dequila
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Throw in airfare to Florianopolis and it s a deal...
OP/ED
READER ESSAY
One of your competitors just jumped on the global-warming bandwagon and ran an issue devoted primarily to electric motorcycles, including electric bikes in racing. While electric motors are the “current” rage, few are addressing the weight, expense, toxicity and short life of today’s battery technology and the utter impracticality of an electric vehicle.
As for electric racing, I can’t think of a quicker way to kill the sport. Motorsports competition is about the skill, the strategy, the speed, the shriek of the engines and the smell of spent racing fuel! Go to Laguna Seca or the Indy Motor Speedway to hear the whirr and whizz of DC motors and catch the scent of ozone in the air? Definitely not. As of yet, there is no practical substitute for the internal-combustion engine, especially in motorsports.
I propose you guys take a different tack on the current Green rage and do a story or two on alternative fuel use in current production motorcycles. Swift Enterprises (www.swiftenterprises.net), a company in Indiana run by a Purdue professor, has developed a fuel that can replace 100octane leaded aviation fuel and is presently being tested in piston-engine aircraft.
It is a 104-octane brewed from sorghum and could be produced from switchgrass, garbage or any number of other materials that are not normally cultivated for human consumption. Unlike ethanol, it doesn’t consume food staples like corn or sugar cane, and it has no ill effects on fuel systems.
You could run the numbers for a highperformance bike on standard racing fuel and then switch to the Swift fuel. Maybe a long-term test, as well, with two bikes, one running conventional gasoline, the other on Swift fuel, with a teardown after 50,000 miles or so?
C.W. Whitby Prescott, Arizona
