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/128374
"If your idea is that 600cc is the wave of the future, then I guess it is time for me to return to car road racing." letters 10 the editor should be sent to Voices, Cyde News, PO Box 5084, Costa Mesa, CA 92628·5084; faxed to 714·751-6685 or emailed to editar@cyclenews.cam. Published letters do nol necessarily refleci the position of Cyde News, Inc. letters should not exceed 200 words, and all ore subject to editing. Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication. AU letters should contain the writer's nome, address and daytime phone number... Editor. ... ,.-"':l'------------------------ Fire Him More on Daytona After reading the report about Connecticut Trooper Robert Peasley's response to the 91 I call concerning a downed motorcyclist, I have just one thought: This poor excuse for a human being should be fired, not suspended. I don't know if Connecticut has motorcycle cops or not, but I wonder what Peasley's response would have been if it had been one of his "brothers." Pink slip the moron! Ray Merkle Wilmington, OH I am writing concerning the recent Daytona 200. I want to voice my complete displeasure with the changes you made to the race. My biggest complaint is the change to a Hondabased race otherwise known as Formula Xtreme. The race was the most boring 200miler I have ever watched, and I have been attending Virtually every year since 1971. I could accept the track-configuration change, even though the "road race portion" now seems more like a go-kart track. I cannot accept the change where you have two factory riders chasing a third while 67 other club racers play. With the resurgence in World Superbike at 1000cc, it seems incredulous to me that you folks believe the future is in 600cc. If the format remains the same for next year, I will not be attending. I will stick to Mid-Ohio and Elkhart. If your idea is that 600cc is the wave of the future, then Iguess Wantin~ the Show to Go On I address each and every one of you in whatever capacity you might be able to respond, regarding the following announcement: AMA Pro Racing and Troy Lee Designs have announced that the AMA Supermoto Championship event scheduled to be held on May 14 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, has been postponed. In making the announcement, Troy Lee Design's Bob Weber said that his company was just made aware that a special state permit was necessary, but that it would be impossible to secure the permit prior to the date. I am sure that as professionals, everyone involved in the decision to postpone the opening event has done their due diligence, so I wonder what will it take to make the date happen for the opening round of AMA Supermoto at the Orange County Fairgrounds on the weekend of May 14. Is there any chance of getting a permit through any other means than the ones so far explored? The speedway has a race that Saturday evening, and they probably have a permit to race - is there any way to have any other sanctioned events run under that permit? I know that there are always "politics" in any event such as this one or any other sponsored event, but for the sake of the fans and racers, what can we do to make it happen? There is a large constituency of riders who are at your disposal to help in any way we can - just let us know what to do. I hope I'm not out of place byasking, but Costa Mesa Speedway, can you help' Fronk Santiago Costa Mesa, CA Joke Win? I'd like to congratulate Cycle News for not giving the Formula Xtreme race the multipage layout you have historically reserved for the most important race of Bike Week at Daytona. I'd like ask all of the readers to rip out the four-page ad that Honda put in your issue claiming a "Great Win!" Then mail the junk ad to the AMA telling them that this is a joke! And asking the AMA to send it on to Honda. They really should be embarrassed to even run this ad! Let's get the fans to tell the AMA to give us back our sport of road racing that we love so much. John Brantley via the Internet 6 APRIL 20,2005 • it is time for me to return to car road racing. By the way, I ride a 2004 Yamaha RI, am a life member of AMA and a lifelong road race fan. Lowell R. Ulrich Sault Ste. Marie, MI This letter was Racing... Editor sent to AMA Pro Wanting a Bigger Two-Stroke Okay, so they changed the rule to allow 250cc four-strokes into the 12Scc class, and I'm all for promoting new and improved motocross bikes. It's no secret that the 2S0F is much more powerful then the 12Scc two-stroke. So when do I get to see the rule change to allow for the 12Scc twostroke to catch up? I want my stock 13Scc two-stroke. And what's up with the plans to cancel Friday practice in Supercross? Won't that make it harder on the privateers? It ain't what it used to be - that's for sure. Michael Marrin via the Internet Trash My brother and I rode the Taft Grand Prix this year, and we found a parking spot next to a family. When they left, there was trash everywhere. Paper towels, plates, beer cans, plastic soda bottles, dirty diapers, etc. We picked it all up and added it to our bag of trash. Another group pulled in and in the morning had made a mess very much like the first. We see this in a lot of places: Lucerne, Jawbone, Gorman. I guess people have no manners any more. Apparently, their parents were too busy to teach them to clean up after themselves. This really chaps my hide. We are trying hard to overcome a negative image, and it is pretty hard to do when some behave like this. We have less than 2 percent of the desert now. If we want more, we had bet- CYCLE NEWS ter change our behavior. Our group makes messes, too, but we clean them up before we leave and always take more trash than we produce. Have a little class and pride! Do not give our adversaries free ammunition against us. Please stop being slobs in our motorcycling areas. Mark S, Cortum Torrance, CA Yamaha Dirt Tracker I just read the Cycle News article about J.R. Schnabel testing a Yamaha V-twin at Houston. This is the forst time I have been excited about flat track racing in years! The sport definitely needs diversity, and it seems like more factories are coming in. It was cool to see Suzuki's victory in Florida, and I hope to see the trend continue. I would love to see a feature on the Vision-based racer in Cycle News. Mark Roberts via the Internet No Multistrada Fan After Reading Scott Rousseau's article on the press introduction of the Ducati Multistrada 620 in Italy, I can only conclude that he has been seduced and become merely a mouthpiece for the Ducati mediahype machine. Bought and paid for in full! Hey, send me to Italy and I'll say whatever you want. I'm sick of reading ali over the place how successful and well received the butt-ugly Multistrada has been. Five minutes of research and a look at Ducat;'s most recent earnings release will reveal that in 2004, Ducati shipped 2127 fewer Multistadas than in 2003. That's a drop of over 35 percent. That's a success? I've never even seen a Multistrada on the road in my part of the country (New York/New Jersey metro area). It's way too ugly. Maybe I'm too vain, but I have to like the way a bike looks. And since when did anyone ever have to make excuses about the style or look of a Ducati? So now we have a new Multistrada with maybe SO rear wheel horsepower. Mr. Rousseau claims it has plenty of power? This coming from a publication so qUick to point out the relative lack of horsepower in a 13S hp liter class sportbike ' Sure it's not a sportbike, b t SO hp is not plenty of power in an $8000 motorcycle with sporting pretensions. So, while the rest of the industry is booming, Ducati continues to struggle with questionable product decisions, their hype machine hard at work trying to convince us otherwise. While I realize that you do have to play the game, Cycle News still owes their readers more than blatant paraphrasing of transparent hype. For the record, I am a Ducati owner. e via the Intefflet