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/126410
Street • IS Neat Are you a risk taker? If you have a yen (or even a $) for the fre e, fiesty fun of motorcycle riding on the road , read on. Everybody else is welcome to pass alon g to th e d irt sections, wher e tra ffic is all on e-wa y, and nobod y drives cars at you . The closest we roa d bik ers come to tha t kind of heaven is where we tak e the Interstate. But the real fun , to me, is th ose wind-y foothill two and three-laners wh ere yo u only have to watch out for livesto ck, wildlife, pickups and the occasional icy patch of shade. Trying to pull top gea r at 45-55 up the hills and down and around th e ca nyons d iscovers a rh ythm in th e road that the highway eng ineers may d eli bera tely hav e planted, but I like to th ink it was ther e a ll along in the rumples of nature's bed. With th e gas stations closed , I plan a ny weekend trips around the range of one ta nk, which on a Harley 80 is five gallons, which at 40 ·45 mpg equals maximum ra ng e about 200 m iles . That's 100 m iles there and 100 back, over 30,000 square m iles to indu lge my wanderlust. Beaches, mountains , deserts , rivers - 100 places I haven't been. Why be a risk -taker? Investigators want to know why our small minority doesn't just drive the car. Well, you gotta understand, it isn't just the trip, or even the destination . .. I call it a heightened sense of reality, an elevated consciousness , awareness rubbed fine by the rushing elements. I don't need to defy spe ed limits or shatter eardrums to maintain this heightened .srate, In fact .. I find the more I ride , the less obvious I try to be about it. For I feel a real sense of pity about that great majority who can't see me ou t th ere, comfortable in th eir cages, who have to roll down a window or open a door to touch the sky. Having a motorcycle under you that you can trust is a pleasure I have on ly recently discov er ed . For yea rs I rode other people's motorcycles, road testing for the magazine s. All I could afford to own were a couple of ra tbikes . The firs t thing a biker does with his own bik e is to change it to suit him better . All I used to could afford was taking things off - stock covers , badges, gadgets. T hen I'd go' racing. Now I find I am putting things on windshield , badges, gadgets . It's neat! (T o be continued , maybe) • CC Nil Rainbow Stickie 1 Here it is - Cy cle News new Rainb ow St ickie Changes colors before your very eyes! ! Refl ects every col or of the Rainbow ! ! I .s ~ .:;:; - '" -'>- LJ N e:t:" ~ o I'; ~ ... a:: .=.I 2! E '" " en z " u > .D:I j ust fill ou t this order blan k and sen d tu: Cycl e News Products PO Box 4:98 , Lon g Bea ch , CA 9 08 0 1 TII ~ '~ -e .~ -=-tD u -.=I .1; . ~ ~ ~ ~ '0 '0 " '" E c '" . Q; :: e > s en u . :: 10-, l::~ ..,'" " 101 l' . -" 1 ~~ G'i: " .., -S ~ " .., l::.l ~ I -"" "E ~" <::> c ~:-s ! iJ - .s . l.i; 27