W H A T Y O U A R E S A Y I N G
"Electric motors are the future and ICE noise
doesn't make a rider successful."
Different Noise
I was quite amused by Mr. Kirch-
ner's statement in last week's
Voices column. Electric bikes and
cars are far from silent—they just
make a different noise.
And as for Pros wanting to hear
the internal combustion engines
(ICE) sound to help them gauge
jumps, Ty Tremaine and Darryn
Durham have no problems jump-
ing their electric bikes, nor do qui-
eter non-ICE downhill mountain
bike racers, half-pipe skateboard-
ers, BMXers, downhill and mogul
skiers to name just a few.
Electric motors are the future
and ICE noise doesn't make a
rider successful—talent does.
Tim Snyder
Archives: Bob Hansen
Thanks for the article on Bob.
I met him when Mitch Boehm of
Motorcyclist Magazine called me
and asked if I could supply a pair of
shocks for the Dick Mann Replica
bike that was going to be raced
at the AHRMA race in Daytona
Beach. (I was working as the media
guy for Progressive Suspension at
the time.). You bet! I flew to Dayto-
na and met Bob and the M3 Crew,
headed up by Mark McGrew. I
ended up sponsoring the bike,
which won the race and further got
Progressive involved with AHRMA
and ended up sponsoring many of
the riders as well as the series.
Bob was a great guy and we
became good friends. What a
gentleman and a key guy in our
motorcycle history.
Larry Langley
I had the pleasure of meeting Bob
in the early '90's while working
at a restoration shop. He would
come in to BS with my boss
Denny Berg (also legendary). Bob
was one of the nicest guys you
could ever meet. The stories were
endless and amazing. Utmost
respect for this man.
Jeff Wells
That article glosses over the
fact that both Hansen and Mann
were out of a job when they left
Daytona.
In the closing stages of the
race, Team Honda manager
Nakamura was afraid that Mann
would be caught from behind and
instructed Hansen to tell Mann to
speed up. Hansen, working with
three stopwatches, told Nakamu-
ra to get behind the pit wall, they
had a race to win there. I suspect
the message may have been
delivered with a little more spice
than that. The loss of face was
too much for Honda. Hansen had
arrived at Daytona as the Honda
national service manager with 75
people under him. By the time he
got home, he did not even appear
in Honda's organization chart.
Their loss was Kawasaki's gain.
Mann of course won Daytona the
next year on the BSA.
Glenn Ducey
Freddie Spencer Named
MotoGP Stewards
Chairman
Fast Freddy gets to be MotoGP
police. I'm not sure I would rel-
ish this position, but he has the
experience.
Good luck with that.
Wayne Nagata
Letters to the editor can be sent to voices@cyclenews.com. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Letters
should not exceed 150 words and are subject to editing. Anonymous letters won't be considered for publication and each letter should
contain the writer's name, address and daytime phone number… Editor
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III VOICES
