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/128229
"These two men have no idea how much I appreciated their help." Ex-Pastrana Fan Dirt Track Cover! Did anyone notice something missing from the first-page Suzuki ad in Cycle News Issue #32? I did! Branden Jesseman, Sebastien Tortelli, Roger DeCoster and Rick Johnson are all there. But where is Travis Pastrana? I don't know, but I am glad he's not I love the cover on the current issue. Great job. Dirt track is still alive! Thanks for covering all the major races. It's getting tougher to find much on this still-great facet of motorcycling. there. I was a Pastrana fan for a long time, but I've had enough. It's one thing to get hurt in a race - people crash. However, it seems to me that he has a death wish. Mental health is as important as physical health. Pastrana appears to lack both. There are so many amazing factory support and privateer riders out there who could easily replace him. Though they may not have quite the name recognition or raw talent that Pastrana has, they are determined and dependable. They may never win a mai"n event. But then again, will Pastrana? Don't you have to race to win? If I was Suzuki, I'd rather have a consistent top-10 finisher than a noshow. Maren Leopold Belle Chasse, LA Suzuka No More I guess that Suzuka just can't manage to run a professional race any longer. In the first MotoGP of the year, the corner workers were horribly negli· gent in their attending to Daijiro Kato, choosing to move him instead of stopping the race. He could still be with us today if they had acted according to accepted procedures with regard to handling injured riders. Now I see that in the 8· Hour race corner workers didn't do enough to inform the leading riders that there was a lot of oil in turn one, and the result is that on the second lap of the race, places four through eight were taken out of the race by crashing in e oil. The race marshals made a very bad decision not to red flag the race. hen you have four top teams taken out of a race due to an unsafe condiion on the track, a red flag is the ppropriate action. Additionally, they isqualified the fallen riders by loadng their bikes into a truck to return hem to the pits because they 'received assistance." It appears to me that Suzuka just oesn't have the management capailities to run world-class events. It ecomes clearer why a lot of top ridrs refuse to run this race, feeling that t's just too dangerous. Kent Sheldon via the Internet MIke Seyman Warren,. OH Motorcycles And TV I just read Alex Rossbourough's letter about the Speed Channel, and I could not agree more. What a shame that all Two-Wheel Tuesdays seem to be now is NASCAR past champions and Hooters Cup races. Maybe with a little luck I will get to see Kyle Petty's run across America on cookie-cutter Harley next week. Lord knows that has to be more exiting than that boring last-race showdown between Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards in World Superbike last year. Oh, well, renew my subscription - it appears to be the only coverage left. DarytMazza Akron,. NY We Care - Less Let me get right to the point. In his "Battle of the Titans" article (Issue #30, July 30), Blake Conner wrote: "The R1 's seat isn't quite as soft, and the seating position is either a love or hate affair depending on your height and girth. I could care less to be honest - either of them works for me and Tom liked the Rl." Mr. Associate Editor, it sounds to me as though you are trying to say that you just don't care. So when you say you could care less, it implies that you have some degree of care. I think the proper phrase would be that you couldn't care less. Kerry Talbot Potter Valley, CA Kerry, you are correct. Blake couldn't care less about the RI 's seat, and his mistake was somewhat careless ... Editor Know It All I just thought I would point out a pretty major blunder by Cycle News in the story about Legends on Display (Issue #33, August 20). First off, there is a picture of the Peter Fonda bike from Easy Rider. The only problem is ... it's a copy. I talked to Mr. Fonda at the Del Mar mile. And he said that none of the four bikes used in that film are around anymore. You can check with him on that. The second one, and this one blows me away, is the caption on page 55 that describes one of the bikes as "the factory XR750 of three- time AMA Grand National Champion Joe Leonard." That would be pretty tough since Joe never, ever raced an XR750. A little research would show that Joe raced a KR - not an XR. I know all about that bike. It was also not a factory Harley. That bike was built by Monte Miller of Fresno, California. I know because when Joe retired at the end of 1961, I bought that bike - along with three others that Joe rode. I owned that bike from the end of 1961 until I retired at the end of 1964 (I have a copy of the bill of sale here at my house - along with pictures of the bike as it looked when the present owner first got it). I think that it's cool that you mentioned Joe, as he is the only person who ever won the AMA title (three times) and the USAC title (two times). The only other man who has done anything like that was John Surtees, who won World Championships on both two and four wheels. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me spout off. To say that the AMA riders only ride at Laguna Seca once during the year is inaccurate. The majority of the AMA Superbike riders test there at least once during the off-season. Also, the World Superbike riders that Byrne beat at Brands Hatch were the same "junior varsity" and "also-rans" that the AMA wild cards raced against at Laguna ... Editor DIgger Helrn Bakersffeld. CA Good On Ya Gorman Woes, Gorman Help I just finished reading Gordon Ritchie's account of the World Superbike race at Brands Hatch, and I must say to Shakey Byrne: "Good on Ya." However, Mr. Ritchie's over-effluent suggestion that the British sweep of the podium at Brands implies the Brits and their local series is somehow superior to our AMA Superbike series ("And not forgetting that none of the starboyz in the AMA series gave the best SBK riders a run for their money in a real race situation at Laguna") ignores several important points: First, World Superbike has become "junior varsity" and its present "stars" were also-rans a year ago. Eliminate the 20 best riders in any competition, and number #21 is suddenly a winner! There aren't any first-echelon Americans left in World Superbike! The next issue is that Laguna is not a track to favor the "locals" since no one gets to run there during the year except for the World Superbike weekend. There is no such thing as insider knowledge of the track since the "world" riders are there as often as the locals (unless Yates, E-Boz, Mladin and the boys take a Reg Pridmore school there in the off-season, which is not likely, Gordon). Throw Shakey Burne into the mix at Moto GP (where the American talent has migrated) and let's see how far behind the American "starboyz" Shakey ends up. Besides, those guys talk funny. R. Laprevotte via the Internet eye I e On July 12, I went trail riding at Gorman (California) and got into serious trouble on Tejon trail. My two buddies and I were thinking we were almost to E. Frazier Trail and thinking it was an easier ride back to our trucks, but man were we wrong. I hadn't been riding for five months, so the fault was my own. I became so exhausted and dehydrated with all my water gone, I couldn't ride any longer. One of my buddies had a flat, and the other one was nearly out of gas. We decided I would stay on the trail and they would go after help. Using my bike, they set out hoping to find·a ranger on a quad to haul me out. While they were gone, two guys showed up with whole lot of good will and experience. One man on a KTM rode me out to where my buddies were waiting for directions back to camp. I decided to try to ride out on the fire roads, with the help of the two gentlemen who found me on the trail. Some two and a half hours and a trip down East Frazier Trail later, we were back at camp. These two men have no idea how much I appreciated their help. It's people like this who make me believe in my fellow man. I will never forget these two men. I hope I see them again at a District 37 event or any where else· just to say thank you again. Russ Farvour via the Internet n e vv s