Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126041
Do you suffer from "Slowpidity"? Opinion ~ FRE·E WHEELING - .r.. Twilight in the Human Zoo. ~ '. Nightfall in Smogville. But this night the city is belying its nickname; the street lights cast clear, untinted pools of brightness on the pavement and the~near foothills are visible, alive with sparkles. Slipping quietly through the surface traffic with my throt- 'Prescription: A Subscription , Dr. DiStefano Endo Specialist ,-----I I I DEPT. SUB. P.O. BOX 498 ' LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA 90801 CYCL E NEWS WEST (1 yr.) • • . . •. . $12.50 CYCLE NEWS WEST (2 yrs.) . . . • •. • 22.00 CYC L E NEWS WEST (3 YB.) • . . . . . .• 30.00 Via 1st class mail f or one year Vi a air mail for one year This is a Renewal 44.50 56.50 ;. . . . . .. . . Please bill me I enclose check or money order . . • •...•.. . Nilme IPleaw prin1legiblVl , - - -- - Address Cily 30 < - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 I I I I Slal e Zip tle hand under tight : discipline. the machine burbles to itself in muted contentment. . • It should be content, of COUTse , - it has everything. Camrned, kitted, blueprinted engine. Alloy rims. Humongous brakes. Super tires. Fast, but not so outrageous that it can't be ridden in traffic. Below 3500 RPM, it blubbers respectably into its open four-in to-one system ·li ke a slightly stuffy gentleman trying to clear his throat just before a concert . I won't • say what it sounds like above six grand; it's a song that is felt as mueh as heard. Hence the throttle discipline. The boulevard I'm on runs into one of those two-way on/off ramp situations past .one final traffic Iigh t, Clearing the intersection just ahead of the yellow, going blinka-blinka and easing over toward the northbound ramp, my extra eye nails the cop corning down the opposing off-ramp, most likely to do a standard off. and on maneuver. Sure enough, he 's hanging a "U" around the divider. •So much for the burst of exhileration I'd been promising myself for the last ten blocks; Discipline, boy. It only takes a crack of throttle and one snick-snick shortshift after another to match speed with the traffic, sensed but not seen to my left as the wide-set pair of headligh ts becomes targeted in . the rearview once more. Blinka-blinka again and I'm fading toward the faster lanes, prickly with' mul ti-sensory awareness of the sparse traffic all around, the lurking menace just behind, my own speed and condition. Condition ' - well merged, flowing like one corpuscle in a mighty artery. Speed - . weII over 55. Damn! Red light - wait a minute, there 's an extra pair of headlights between me and him.. They. both fade quickly together. Not me. Free, lor awhile. While the lion is feeding, the antelope herd runs freely, they tell us on lV. Snick. isnick, down two. And now the bike is awake, a defian t shriek trailing back toward predator and prey, as the bike and I slip our leash, aiming at the dark hole lan e ahead free of winking taillights. . Free fo-r awhile, up shi ft ing, our pro ud song a ripping shrie k, the wind an elemental force. Taillights dance toward us at a dizzying rate - too fast, too fast. Hard on both ' brakes, silky smooth in transition and then a powerful weight on my forearms and wrists. It '5 Clone, up"!. Reality and discipline return. We 're a corpuscle once more. Soon we11 be in another cop's territory. Triste, tigre . . • the cage is closed once more. Desmond Morris was righ r, The city is not so much a jungle as a human zoo, where the bars are not seen but felt. I'll be home from work and park the bike, . another day, another dollar. God, how I want out of here! If I didn't love my work; if I could do my work in any other place . ... At least I'm not alone. Judging from the weekend exodus, we 're all escaping to somewhere - this one to the desert, that one to the racer roads, another to the forests and high meadows, each to ride and feel free for a time. Then we all come back, again. What a waste. And if what we're told _abou t energy resources is true , it will someday be impossible ; this weekly trek, this ersatz escape. We may love our work, but hate where we work, tolerate where we live, and go farther away to be truly happy. And grind, grind away precious .energy and priceless time going back and forth. What's wrong? It's not our need to be fulfilled through our work; that's basic. It's not our desire to escape the filthy, overcrowded zoo. That's even more basic. It 's the wasteful bouncing back and forth between ideals that's wrong. It doesn't have to be. ' It's not impossible for people to work where they live and be sufficiently at peace with their surroundings that the y're not compelled to leave every week. There are such places, for th e rich farmers of Iowa's ' eastern watershed, for the stubborn hillmen of Appalachia, for the Amish in their- enclaves, for the cottage-craft workers in scattered work communes, for solitary herdsman in the high grazing lands. They are content. Why not tor bikers? Aren't there places with open lands, timber-lined trails, and winding lonely roads punctuated with small tight communities wnere we can earn a.Iiving in peace? For our fu ture sanity, there have to be such places. Maybe there already are. Maybe there are some who found such a place, and are even now putting down roots there. Do you really think they'd advertise the fact? Can you imagine the swarm of escape-seekers that would bring? No-way would they be ready to handle that. Not yet. For now, they'd want to be selective as to the urban refugees they take in. Maybe someday they'll take. me . At least the hope of it keeps me going. Lane Campbell WRITIN' AROUND The standup CO.IDle Good evening folks, and welcome to the wide, wide world of money! Did you hear about the speedway series one American promoter is putting on in Israel? They call it the Hebrew Nationals. If you think that's baloney, look at the Team Speedway races in California. Golda Maier would like to be Trophy Queen. Her team is the Israel Bonds. Sp<;aking