Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

strength and size a re no t prerequ isites to successful mot or cycling . She even gives a brief lesson on how and why two-stroke and four -stroke engines work. Bu t while it may answer some of the questions, it'll cause a lot more that will go unanswered, assuming Yeager has piqued the novice's curiosity. Because here is where this primer becomes very super· ficial. You get the feeling her own knowledge is limited. Or maybe it's ok for a beginner's manual to be a little thin in places. At any rate, th e amount of information she im pa rts about mechanical things is limited. And I have one serious bone to pick with Yeager. She devotes some space to the precautions and planning necessa ry to ride alone, both on a nd off- road . At the very least. the nov ices for whom she h as something to say have no business trail riding alone. I'm not sure anyone, whatever their level of skill , has any business riding alone far away from help sho uld it be needed . Nevertheless, th is book has its place in introducing the beginner to many of the aspects of motorcyclin g . however lim it ed . Never m ind .the title . Look beyo nd the med iocre p hotographic reproduction and around the flowery superlatives about the ecstasy of the motorcycling experience. Easil y read and seasoned with anecdotes fro m Yeager's own two -wheeled background. it's a good place to start. The 177· page pa perback is priced at $5.95 and should be generally available. For further in fo contact Contemporary Boo ks. Inc.. 180 North Michigan Ave. , Chicago, III. 60601 . Ilftf'tI, 111~'TI ~ tr Ilcn\'to 11c~ s.~x,' " -ith 111I~s I..' '4KU' rlf~c~th A motorcycling manual lor women How to Be Sexy With Bugs In Your Teeth BV Trisha Yeager published by Contemporary Books. Inc. Is someone you kn ow just getting interested in motorcycles? Nagging you _wit h q uestions about the b a sic s of m otor- 30 ,. ~ '. ~. ll ... 1 - ... I • } • , . Jack Mangus Jack Mangus ' - -- -j P.om.- The GOLD ST4R I _ By C.E. Allen Published by Bruce MainSmith While lumping two d ifferent, albeit simi lar, books in to one review might no t seem fair , consider this review praise for both and at th e same time 'praise for The Gold Star Book Published by Bruce MainSmith " I' ve never quite figured it out, but we sel1 mo re and more copies of Th e Gold Star Book each month," said Lee Cowie, th e proprietor of Motorsport , the irn porter/distribut or of Bruce Ma in Smith' s line of m otorc ycling publications. The soft -bound. 138 -page book is a , must for a ll Go ld Star Owners, but that doesn't explain th e continuing sa les success of a book which was first published in 1974 and which concerns itself about the mo st famo us model of a marque that went out of business at nearly the same time. W hat partially does explain its success is the wea lth of materia l conta ined in the well put together volume. That material ranges from tests of various BSA Gold Star models, reprin ted court esy of England 's Motor Cycle a full workshop manual on all non ,unit Gold Star models · ZB , BB, CB . .1 • •_ - The Fourth & Fifth Vintage Road Test Journals Book ~ I CYCUNG . -r Carol Neill cycli ng? Well , here's a book you could suggest that will answer some of those first q uestions . The ones that are like asking for an explanation of how a person walks. This is a primer, a n entry· level manual for the interested begi nner . " And a lthough it is a d d ressed to women. mo st of wha t it has to say is p lai n' com mon sense for biking.. an approach th at has no sexua l bias. W h ich brings us to the title:How to Be Sexy... and so on. The idea for th a t m ust have come st raight from the chapter in the advertising textbook on teaser headlines for ads that force you to read the copy to find out what is meant. Not a bad ide a in itself, but rest assured this is not a book on beauty, Gla mour ·style . Yeager does m ention that Chapstick and moisturizer are good motorcycle accessories , and she notes that there's not much in the wa y of riding apparel d isign ed specifically for women . but the meaning of the title is som ething quite different. Early in the book she explains tha t a riding com p anion had on ce ob served that she looked very happy a fter they had been riding and he thought it made her appealing--sexy. (May be it should have been ca lled Th e J oy of Motorcycling. ) Then Yeager equates sexy with sen suo us . that is. being aware of the input from her senses and what the world is communicating to her sens es. That strains the sex equ ation badly, but then sex is what sells books these da ys. But back to the context. As a primer on motorcycling, it offers a good begi n ning , givi ng a little in troduction into types of motorcycle com petition , describing road rid ing and touring, listing tips for shopping for a bik e , discussing safety- -both rul es of the road and apparel --even gi vin g a short history of the vehicle. . There is lots more here , too , a nd some of it indeed is specifically geared , to women ; The author points out that moto rcycles ." In essence , the soft bound books let you ride, via All en's a nd publisher Main-Smith's excellent and beautifu lly reproduced p hotograp hs. motorcycles which you would probably only have. at best, the opportunity to loo k a t if you were fortunate enought to come across one at an a nt ique meet or one of the few museums tha t fea ture same. The Journals each contain fourteen tests with the emphasis on British machines. Bra nds test ed inclu de ABC , AjS. Alcyon, Ariel, Brough Su p e r ior , BSA . Cedos/Bradsh a w, C lyno , Co nna ught , Cyc lotrac teur , Dart , Dreadnought, Henderson . J a mes , Kingsbury. Marrinsyde , McEvoy. Morgan, Norton, Premier. Scott . Sunbeam, V auxh all . a n d Williamson. T he Vintage R oad Test j ournals a re available from Motorsport , 6115 . St . Lou is, Mo. 63116 for $7.50 ea ch p lus 50' pe r volu me for postage a nd ha n d ling. DB , DBD 350 a nd 500 cc models of all post-wa r years. an a ppe ndix on iron B31 a nd B33 u nits , a lso covering allall oy B32 AND B34 types. com plete illu stra ted spare ' p arts lists on lat etype Go ld Sta rs. engine and frame num bers , with mac hine t yp es . historical articles. restoration guide, selections from BSA official catalogs . numerous photos and drawings. an interview with BSA designer Bert Hop wood , development history. and much more. , The Gold Star Book is available from Motorsports, 6115 G ra vois Ave .. St . Louis, Mo . 63116 for $11.95 plus 50' for postage and handling. ' .W I .'1, ' 1 I Kaleidoscope Cycling , ~ f ' J ~ (. 'I I -t ' .1 f I I , ~ .' " Motor By Dennis Howard Published by Old Motor Magazine the volu mes which preceeded it and for those th a t are promise d to follow. Aut ho r C .E.Allen , via these Bruce Main -Smi t h pu blished Journa ls, is contributing unparal led documents that can only be considered as priceless. Allen writes his road tests of Vintage era (pre-1931) motorcycles with an eye on the past and an eye on the present. The following example of Allen's style is taken from a test of a 1915 998cc Ind ia n : " My apprenticeship was too short for me to master the full drill . All I learned was that there is no fool like an old fool. I never should have tried to rid e it in public. You need a course in Pelmanism (a vintage method of training the memory) before you can cope with a left -hand twist throttle and a right-hand twist exhaust -valve release plus spark control. Add a foot operated clutch of the in -or-out -arid -no-messing variety . Garnish with my peculiar problem of only being able to touch the grou nd by tip' toe whe n astride anything that does not have a .very low saddi e.. .There's nothing q uite like, the nat rasp of these engines wit h th eir small ex haust pipes, a sma ll expansion chamber, and hardly an y tai l pipe; pl us a n ex ha ust cu to ut which cu ts out t he ba rnes for out -of tow n road buring . T he rasp is a lways pu nc tuated by the traditional Indian odd ba ck fire a nd spark display . Wo nderfullyeffec· rive at night. It's a sound reminiscent of Olde Tyme pisron -engined planes . with .sru b exhausts. And of machine guns. A Bonn ie and C lyde scene with I ' of <>.] "Shou ld it be a Crime to look back on motorcycling li fe through rose tinted goggles, then let me (oh please , pleasel) plead gui lty on every possible count." says Bob Currie. co-a uthor of The Story of Triumph Moto rcycles, in his foreword to this excellent photo book. From the cover photo of Noel Pope warming up his supercharged Brou g h Superior JAP prior to a 1935 record run of 120 .59 mph at Brookla nds in England through each and every one of the 182 black and white photos which are attractively displayed throughout the 96.page hardbound book . the emphasis is on the machinery and the men (and women · they have their own chapter) who forged ahead during the "Golden Age" of motorcycling. A tip of the hat to Engla nd's Old Motor magazine for the idea of their " Kaleid oscope" series of which this volume is the first (future editions, regretably, will concentra te on fourwheel vehicles) and a fu rth er tip of the ha t to Den nis H oward, who selec ted the photos and wrote th e informa tive captions . T he boo k is available th rough you r loca l book sto re or directly from th e U. S. dist ribu to r . Motorbooks Int ernational. P.O . Box 2, 72~ Prospect Ave .. Osceola , Wise. 54020 for $12.50 plus a $1 , ha nd ling/ postage ftc. It's worth every penny of that figure . Jack Mangus I I t.! I , , t I 6 rt 1 II \ I • I

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