Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

"The whole point of my book is don't let anyone you love ride a motorcycle! That o must really gripe the 00 ~ industry! Secretly, they must be festering! CN ~ ~ ::l Um~.hmm . I though that this was ~ terrible; where,do we have the freedom to speak out? I felt that my rights were bein~ taken away . . . 1 got very heppedup (SIC) and at the time I was told that I should go into a book, that I had grown professionally . .. And one thing led to another . .. Aside from the glamorization of motorcycling, what notions did you have on the subject before you began your book? I ho~estly d.id not. have any pre · conceived notions against the machine or motorcyclists - and I still don't. They're just as fine a breed of people as anyone else . OK? I just felt that it was growing too fast until it was in almost every home and I just felt that the dangers of motorcycling had not been shown. What kind of research did you do? Look at the bibliography (in the book ~hich contains 16 titles and authors): I ve read practically everything you want to find on motorcycles in the last five years, if not before. From govern ment pamphlets to anything that rno torcycle companies would send me . . . I just really delved into it. 1 even took a course; I felt that I must know how to ride a motorcycle . . . Frankly, I think the book would have been great if it had been written by a rider. Have you received any response from the motorcycle industry or from motorcyclists to your book? The greatest response I have had is when I have been on the TV and radio shows. the phone -ins, What do people say? People. call in and agre e with me . And they Will also not . They will say that I was out in left field , this or that motorcyclists. And I would have to answer them . I will say that almost every host that had me on came to my defense. They really d id . Since your book has been out, there has been a tremendous reaction to it by the motorcycle press - none of it 26 good. I didn't expect it to be - ever. Primary criticism has been leveled aga~nst your book's quality of journalism, style and content of information it contains. I don't think that anybody had denied the fact that motorcycles aren't 100% safe. In fact, toda y there is no singular aspect of life 'th a t is totally free from some type of hazard. (Silence.) But you're telling me that no motorcycle company, person or organization has contacted you to talk about your book, refute its evidence? No one from the industry has contacted me. If they have contacted the publisher, he has not let me know. Why is that? (Silence.) Are they (the motorcycle industry) • afraid? I th ink they - the fact that they haven't contacted me makes me wonder. Wonder what? I wish they would ; let's put it that wa y. What would you say to them (if they did)? J have said it all in th e book! If they want to argu e with it, why don't they come tome? Maybe the truth hurts. Do you think that's it? I ~eel that they feel they're going to bnng too much attention to it and cause more sales of the book, which may mean less sales for themselves. The convene could be true. I really feel this is why I haven't heard from the industry .. . But I have gotten letters from nurses, people like that , who have said, "T h a nk God , somebody has finally done a book like thatl" What do you think of me! . . . Do you think I'm a person who hates motorcyclists or something? That's mainly irrelevant; I'm just here for a story. I like people! Most people I met without .e xception, the young fellows I interviewed - one boy I interviewed was paraplegic and was so sold on motorcycles , even at that point. . 1 don't know what to tell you, but I Wish somebody would write an article against it (Murdercycles) , I wish I had seen some of the articles against it . All I have seen are the positive aspects . What does this say about the American people and their feelings about motorcycles? I don't think that there was that old hatred that there used to be because it's too much of an accepted thing now. ~ne gets the basic feeling from read109 your book that it is still a bit less than respectable to ride a motorcycle. You name a number of celebrities and other notables wlso ride bikes, But they're respected people. You project this implicit image that it's bad for people that far up the social ladder to ride motorcycles, because that makes them acceptable. No , I don't feel that, way. That's just the typ e of people that th ey a re who are interested in it. . I hav e nothing against a person rid Ing a motorcycle . If th ey want to if they're well aware of the dangers, then go ahead and ridel But the tone of your book almost openly advocates the eradication of the motorcycle, if not from the United States, then at least from the face of the earth. Well, if anybody wants to take up that cha llenge. they ca n - and I'm not out to ban the motorcycle from the face of the earth, If there is any negativeness towards th e people that ride motorcycles , I'm sorry. I did drag in a littl e bit of th e old Hell 's Angels, this and that. But in any branch there is (sic) undesirables , no matter what you a re . There are ~r. ~octors . crooked lawyers , crooked politicians, So with motorcyclists, I said t ha t you have to try to live with on e a no the r . . . The whole purpose of m y book is don 't let anyone you love ride a motorcycle! That must gripe the ind ustry! .Secretly they must be festeringll In you~ book you say, for example, that WIVes should threaten to leave their husbands. (giggling) Somebody told me that People take this stuff as God's word. "I think my book is entirely truthful. . . People will look at this (the book) and think ofit as the truth and] hope they do!" I was making a joke there . It's tough, then, to determine in your book just what is facetious and what's not. I would say that I meant everything that I said in it. There are very few facetious remarks in it That adds further fuel to the fire that people could come away from reading this book, imagining that the average mo~rcyclist is a stupid, macho male animal - which many arc not. There are all kinds of motorcyclists, in fact. I thought I tried to bring that out. I mentioned senior citizens But still it's almost a condescending tone that you tag onto describing them, whoever they are. Well , I always meant it to be against the machine, not the people. If that comes across as being against the people themselves, I'm sorry, because, to quote an old phrase: "Some of my best friends are motorcyclists." A friend told me that you have gone around once to book fain wearing a dented motorcycle helmet. At book fairs? Advertising the book? (laughs} He must mean the American Bookselle;.; Association (Fair , held last year In L.A.) That's all right - I even did it on one TV show l I told the media that I would come on. stra!ght , but if they needed something VIsual I have my mother-in-law's "I have nothing against a person riding a motorcycle. If they're well a'l:l!are ofthe dangers, then go ahead and ride!" motorcycle - she's dead - and it has Murdercycles on it! And I've got a helmet You mean to say that a talent coordinator on a TV talk show said for you to come on in a helmet with your "murdercycle," and that'll make a big splash with the audience? No . Frankly , no . . . That was the last thing in the world that I wanted to do. I wanted to 'come on "straight" and talk , but . . .johnny'Carson had on a woman. who rode a motorcycle across the United States. She came on with a helmet ; is there anything against that? She came on and spoke about how goo d motorcycles arel Freddie de Cordova (Tonight Show's exec u tive producer) loved m y book , but I d idn't get on the show . . . Please don't put that in , because, you know , OK? I don't know. Why? I def in it ely think that it was a network decision (not to have Zonker as a To night guest) . I think the CHiPs accident had something to do with it (the star of the series had suffered from a motorcycle ~cci?en~ while filming) - and ~BC: ts third In the ratings. They just ~hdn t want somebody on there knockmg, you know, CHiPs, for instance, and all that sort of stuff . .. Will you not repeat that part of it? Cr~ my heart and hope to crash. All nght. I don't think it's too important. What I'm trying to say is that . . .some person said to do something like that at the ABA , but I didn't do it. So you did do it on TV. No. You never did it at all, then? No . I just offered (to do it). On one show , I said, "If you want , I'll wear a helmet , sit in a wheelchair, then dis card them . . ." Isn 't that stooping? U~ . .. I don't think so . no . to get m y POIOt-acrOSS. - . • _ •• You know, talk shows can be real dull and they need a few gimmicks if they can. That was for their benefit not mine . .. (but) it was around the time of the ABA (Fair) in L,A. , and I was told To bring out the helmet and motorcycle. An? they sat it (out at the exhibit), but I. dtd?·t . We wheeled it into my publisher s booth - and I think I went acr~ the floor once in it just straight to there - and that was it . Earlier I had cited the tone you used in the book, some of the facts and figuresI was told in a critique of my book: "W ha t's the matter with this book? Yo~ can d~ bet~,erl I have read your ~cuon st.ones . . . I have won prizes international prizes - for my short story fiction that could have even ap' pe~red in Atlantic Monthly. But I can write sexy stuff and anything else that you w~nt. But he said: " It's not right; It won t go l You're not telling a.s like it is! You're saying that a person was killed! Statistics - dull! How was that person killed!? Describe it! Sock it to 'emf" I really ~e1ieve what that person told me. He said that you 're going to have a dull, dull book that is not going to sell, that's going to just die. ~ a~ example of an accident descripnon 18 your book, you mention the death of T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia, summing up his life in two. sentences, ending that he died havI?g taki?g "one too many rides on htl machine and made a final exit from this world." Were you aware of the actual details of his death? Yes, I read it ; it was not suicide He had seen a boy on the road That may .have been a very fine thing that he tried , to avoid hitting somebody Considering his legend and character, ~awrence's death was a fitting passmg. He sacrificed his life so that others may live. Well, why don't you write a book! The way in which you cite his accident makes Lawrence appear to be a very shallow person, when the truth was exactly the opposite. I didn't go into the details about his life , but I felt that here was a courageous man who had fought battle after battle - and a motorcycle did him inl "I really could have written a diet book and made afortune, but] do believe in it (Murdercycles). ] havefaith in what] did. " But he died a courageous death I I suppose you could probably say the Kennedys d ied a courageous death but that doesn't make guns good, eh? It doesn't. But you also cite an incident where a boy, after his parents had denied him a minibike hanged himself. Is that a significan; enough fact to deserve coverage in your book? ~her said that was the reason why he did It . There might have been other things wrong. We're talking about somebody at a y~ung age who was quite possibly disturbed. That's possible , but that's why they quoted it in the newspaper. That was to show how brainwashed they (child~en) a.re , from th e time they're liule, with. tri cycles .rhat look like; miniature

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