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--America's
motorcycle newspaper
Volume XXV
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Fran ItIl Il WI·Y. e r,.,/il
A letter to Honda
Ha vin g grown up riding British
tw in s a nd singles and presentl y
own ing two H onda thumper d in
tra ckers, I ca n 't tell yo u how exci ted
I was whe n I took my first loo k at
you r new G B500 stree t bike in the
Septem ber 28 issue of Cycle N ews .
My first th ough t was at last yo u
bu ilt a street bike just for me. T hen
I took a good second look a t the
p ict u re a nd read the article. Yo u said,
"A to uch of the past with the best
of tod a y's technol ogy." Come o n
now, I may be o ld, 57, bu t I a m no t
stup id.
You haven 't bui lt a 500 single for
four years . And twin rear sho cks is that tod a v's.tech o logy?
T he n the fina l bl ow: the p rice of
$4 198 is the sa me pr ice as your Ha wk
GT, a 650 V-twi n with a lum inum
fram e, single shoc k, etc. Your NX650
is toda y's thumper tech ol ogy a nd
over $300 chea per th an the G B500.
It is too bad that you d idn ' t start wit h
th e NX650 as a baseline a nd restyle
it wi th the loo k o f the past.
T he GB- cou ld sta nd [or G rea t
Britain or ma ybe G reat Bike, but for
me it mea ns Great Bucks for yesterda y's eq uip ment. I guess I best stay
o ff the street a nd stick 10 th e din.
Circulat ion
JIM KIDMAN
Granite City, IL
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Natio nal Headquarters
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Eas te rn Offic e
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he "('III UpOIl Irq llc·,,!. SC'I ' S .K D.S .
'WBPA
AUDITED
CIRCULATION
Copy righ t @) Cy cl e News . In c . 1988 .
Tra de·mark Cycle News reg ist e red U.S .
Pa te nt Off ic e . All rig ht s re served,
4
.
On Octob er 2 I com peted in th e
Na tio na l H ar e Scrambles at th e j ohn
Zink Ran ch in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Soo n a fter th e stan I hi t a rock which
bent m y rear sprocket. Luckil y, I was
a ble to get back to the pi ts. After
in spectin g th e da mag e to my
sp rocket I though t the day was over.
. Whi le wa lking back 10 my van , I
no ticed Ed Loj ak sitt ing in his va n
wit h a hurt kn ee. After telling hi m
what had happen ed to my. bike, he
to ld me to use his rea r wheel. I was
ab le to cha rge back to seco nd p lace
in the O pe n class . Ed wat ched as th e
Na tio na l ti tle slip ped awa y from
h im. I just wa nt hi m to kn ow th a t
he is number o ne in m y book !
T ha n ks for the hel p , Ed.
STEPH EN VANZAN T
Lowell. AR
Trying harder
H at soff to j im Wood s and the staff
a t Cagi va North Am erica. I purchased a red 1987 Duca ti Paso , wh ich
was o ne of the first bat ch p roduced ,
a nd it was painted a da rker red than
th e cu rre nt producti on co lo r. The
cl ear coa t o n the fa ir ing low er s
wrin kled a fter a bout six months. T o
be br ief, I spe nt mont hs a nd num er o us pho ne ca lls tryin g to ge t the
problem reso lved th ro ugh the dea ler
a nd the " o ld" regime a t Cagiva. All
a ttem p ts were fu tile.
In july, o ne of m y p hon e ca lls p u t
me in to uch wit h j im Woods (formerl y th e proprietor of Wood s Mo tor
Sho p) and sho n ly a fter exp la ining
my p robl em a nd the a mo u nt of tim e
that had been wasted , a la rge box
arrived with most o f the pans tha t
were needed.
As soon as the m yth ical " boa t from
Ital y" arrived th e last pa rts were
fon hcom ing a nd m y p robl em has
been solved . T hese guys are reall y
tr yi ng harder ! Thanks, jim a nd
everyo ne at Cagiva for your efforts.
CHU CK SMIT H
j ackson H ol e Power Prod ucts
j a ckson, WY
Weighty matter
I was chagri ned to learn of Bubba
Shobert 's " loss " a t th e Syra cuse Mil e
because hi s H onda was so me 1.5 Ibs,
too light.
T his is not the first tim e th a t th e
H ar ley fac tory has manipu la ted
AMA ru les in or der th a t H arl ey may
win races over mach in es that are
technol ogica ll y bett er tha n Harl ey's.
In 1946, at th e first Sp ringfield ,
Ill ino is, race after World War II , the
H arley factory was racin g their 750cc
fla th ea d s aga ins t 500cc o verhead
valve mach in es. The race was wo n
by a No rto n single. T he H arl ey
Iactory went a little berserk a nd
introd uced a ru le tha t lim ited comp ression rat ios to 7.5: I.
.
The flath ead Harl eys were u nable
to use a com pressio n ra tio tha thigh
in a ny case, but a rider raci ng a
Tri u mph cou ld easily have run a
ra tio o f 9.5 or 10: I, a nd thus were
badl y h u n by thi s crea tive doctor ing
o f the rules.
The H arley factory sho uld buy a
H onda engine a nd study it exha ustively, a nd then perhaps th ey cou ld
bu ild an eng ine th at is co m petitive
and they wou ld not hav e to pu t a
20 lb . ha n di cap o n fo u r -valv e
engines.
Surel y, if Ha rley-Davidson wi ns
the Grand Na tional Cha m pions hip
this year their victory wi ll be ta inted
and they will additio na lly be doing
a diss ervice to a grea t rider, Sco tt
Pa rker.
BILL H UGABOOM
Oa kla wn, l L
Vote!
With the 1988 Nat ional electio ns
on ly th ree and a half weeks away ,
I hope everyone con nec ted with th e
motorcycle industry wi ll real ize the
impona nce of voti ng in thi s election.
I am rem inded of Da ve Hol ema n' s
very tim ely ed ito ria l in Cycle N ews
a fter th e last Ca lifornia Senatoria l
electio n in wh ich Ed Zsh au was
defea ted by a ver y na rro w margin;
it was H o lem an 's op inio n (a nd one
th a t I co ncu r with ) tha t Alan Cran sto n would p rob ab ly not now be in
o ffice as o ur Sta te ena to r had the
m o to r cycl e indu stry a nd medi a
go tte n mo re a ctively behind th e
cam pa ign to defeat h im .
Thi s el ectio n o u r ind ust ry i s
facing a n even grea ter pe ril on two
fron ts, and vet ma nv o f us are not
taking th e thr ea t as 'serio usly as· \ve
sho uld. Th is th reat is represented b y
Democra tic Presidential ca nd ida te
Mi ke Dukakis, and Leo McCanh y,
th e Ca liforn ia Dem ocrat ic Party's
ca nd ida te for Sta te Senator who is
ru n n ing aga inst incu mb ent Pete
Wilson , wh o p la yed such a p ivotal
ro le in the defeat of S7 th is year.
Bo th Dukaki s a nd McCanh y have
stro ngly· suppo rted S7, the Sie rra
Club land grab hoax. Bo th su p port
mandatory hel met la ws. Mike Dukakis ha s sto le n o ver $ 180, 000 o f
motorcycl e registra tion fees ea r-
mark ed for rid er ed uca tio n in Massach usetts and tran sfered it to th e
_sta te's Gen eral fund to hel p offset th e
mas sive budget deficit he crea ted
with hi s wi ld socia l spe nding and
fiscal irrcspons iblity .
In short , th ese two po liticia ns arc
not fri en d ly to moto rcycli sts (in
addi tio n to th ei r o ther shortcomings,
wh ich are co nsiderable). We must ge t
th e vo te o u t aga i ns t th ese tw o
cand idates, a nd a ny ot he rs who ha ve
opposed th e mo to rcycle movem en t.
Don ' t just sit back a nd say, " O h ,
well , I'm too busy, eno ug h o ther
people will vot e - I do n't have to."
Wrong. It 's th at " Ca n ' t get involved"
attitude th at has kept Alan Cranston
in o ffice. Get to the polls a nd vot e;
a nd if you ca n' t fit it into your work
schedule, call your co u n ty Registrar
of Vot ers for a n absentee ba llot,
wh ich you can fill a lii a ny ti me before
the election a nd mail. A vot e by a ny
means, whe ther in person or by
a bsentee ba llot , is a vo te against th e
politica l repression that these two
a nti-mo to rcy clis t ca nd ida tes will
surely impose upon us. Vote!
HA ~ SANG UI NETTI
Na tio na l Sal es Manager
Whi te Bros
Garden G rove, CA
Meet the Tustin Honda team
Since Amer ican H onda saw fit to
excl ud e us (T us tin H onda ) from
th eir H onda Su p po rt ad (Cycle
News, Octob er 19 issue ), I would like
to a n nou nce ou r Tusti n Honda
Su p port Team: Sco tt Bristol , 125 a nd
250cc Intermediate; Ti m Whitlock,
250 a nd 500cc Pro ; j erry jirko vsky,
500cc and Vet Pro ; Dann Vivier , CR
T echnician.
J ERRY j l RKOVSKY
Race Coordinator
Tustin H onda
Tustin, CA
Godspeed, Eddie
Former AMA (dirt tra ck ) racer
Eddi e San R o m a n pas sed awa y
Octob er I I from injuries su ffered in
a car acciden t.
Eddie was wor king in Mi ch iga n
with Doug Shearso n and Niel Mickelwright as a crew mem ber on the
Do mino P izza Indy car team. Eddie' s
dr eam was to be on an Indy car team ,
which was fulfill ed by Curb Racing
and Agajania n Enterprises.
T he famil y would like to thank
all th e people wh o hav e shown all
th eir love and respe ct. God bless a ll
of you,
We kn ow Eddie ' is happ y and
resting well in God's hands. He is
in the grea test winner's circle of a ll
- H eaven .
J O H N SAN RO MAN
O range, CA
Published letters do
not necessarily reflect
the position of Cycle
News, Inc. Letters are
subject to condensation due to space
limitations. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Send
letters to'Voices, P.O.
Box 498, Long Beach,
CA 90801-0498.
