Intake

Intake

CHARACTERS RUSSIAN BEARS COMMANDO VS. STREET

HÊEHSTHHT THE EOfíVEHSHTÈOn

I’ve owned my “hairy, off-kilter friend” (a used ’98 Ural Patrol) for a year now, and we are in fact best friends! The beast and I had a blast with all the snow Mother Nature threw at us in Jersey this winter, and after installing a Ducati ignition, the drunken bear remains a one-kick wonder. Only problem is the battery keeps going dead on my Road King!

VAL H. LOSA TOMS RIVER, NJ

NOT THAT BEAR

Nice timing on the Ural Patrol character article (June). “Don’t be afraid of the bear. He’s harmless and fun...” That Vladimir Putin, what a character!

RUSS SKEA BOLTON LANDING, NY

NOT THAT ELECTRIFIED

You had a nice feature going with your character-bike theme but then just had to go all politically correct, greenie-weenie on us and include the Zero FX ZF5.7— perhaps hoping the Sierra Club will send over a banquet invite. Why on earth is the motorcycling press slobbering all over these expensive toys? For $i2K; you get a machine that has a one-way 20-mile range and takes eight hours to refuel but, hoooeeee!, is it ever fun to ride down your driveway. It even does wheelies! Wake up and have the guts to acknowledge that the electric bike craze has no clothes.

DAVID NUNLEY CHICO, CA

We can only go to the banquet if it’s a 40-mile round trip.

NOW, THAT’S ZEN?

I just read Kevin Cameron’s “Character in Engineering” (June) and have one question: Is he related to Robert M. Pirsig?

PAUL DORNAK KERRVILLE, TX

CAMERON’S CHARACTER CONTINUED

Kevin Cameron’s “Character in Engineering” leaves out the final product stage: degeneration. Production is taken over by corporations seeking only profit. Product no longer serves its primary function well but is designed to maximize sales through manipulation of buyers’ psychology. Innovation is limited to minor changes of no merit. Manufacturers produce copies of their competitors’ bikes, and all are inefficient and impractical. The modern motorcycle has character. Sadly, it is the character of a dysfunctional and uncaring huckster.

CALVIN HULBURT ARROYO HONDO, NM

Calvin, take a ride on a Yamaha FZ-og. It will cheer you up a bunch.

I was interested in Kevin’s recent comment that British bikes have too many fasteners. Got one on the bench right now and they have too many parts, period. Spend a lot of time wondering what in hell were they thinking.

BILL GLASS AFTON, Ml

YEAH! INTERCEPTOR

Comments in the June Intake section asked if the new Honda VFR800 would have enough power for the “open road.” After some 175,000 miles on two 750 VFRs, I know for a fact that these bikes are not lacking in any way on the open road or in the twisties. Current US motorcycle culture leads one to believe that big is better and huge is best. Sure, I like power (my other bike is a ’Busa), but for comfort and all-day rideability, the VFR is a hard machine to beat.

IERRY GILES BRANSON, MO

WORD ON THE STREET

Harley’s new overhead-cam, four-valve twin (Ignition, June) makes 58 hp, runs a 13.78-second quarter, and weighs 500 pounds. That’s the same power as my 40-year-old pushrod Commando twin; it’s a second slower through the quarter, weighs 100 pounds more, it doesn’t stop as well, and I suspect it doesn’t handle as well. That’s 40 years of progress?

DAVID WEBSTER HAIKU, HI

Float stuck Amals Shimmering gas drips On 40 years of progress Never on Street

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