CN
III VOICES
W H A T Y O U A R E S A Y I N G
"Seriously: Keep it simple, stupid!"
Archives:
Carl Cranke
Thank you so much for the look
back at Carl Cranke.
I remember reading about
him in Cycle magazine back
in the '70s (Cycle News was
impossible to get in the small
town I grew up in near Ontario,
Canada) and one of the articles
I remember most described
how the writer went out rid-
ing with Carl, who, of course,
was quickly out of sight. The
writer was riding along and
noticed these bizarre swoop-
ing tracks carved way up high
on the embankment beside
the fire road, looking like St.
Louis arcs. Turns out they were
Carl, having fun ripping his bike
up on the throttle. To me that
epitomized all there is about
riding a dirt bike: having fun
and messing about!
Thanks for the memories.
Matt Warburton
Michael Lock Interview
Great article about the new
Flat Track. I liked the old Class
C rules. Ascot was filled every
Friday. The fans and the rac-
ers were great. Check out the
novices, amateurs and experts
from the '60s. Many became
world famous.
S. A. McAtee
How does Lock explain the
poor racer entries at Sturgis,
Calistoga, Peoria, Texas and
Perris? Some of these events
didn't have heat races because
of the low number of entered
racers.
Lack of entries will lead to
lack of fans and everything will
go backward. AFT lost Hager-
stown after 30 years and now
Charlotte after three years, and
Indianapolis with history going
back the 1950s. Lock can't
claim success while losing
tracks and racer entries.
Herman Wallace
Roeseler/Smith
Great photo of Larry Roeseler
and Malcolm Smith in your
Captured section. Having two
legends like that in one photo is
pure gold. Keep them coming.
I anxiously look forward to
every issue every week.
Thank you, Cycle News.
John Brunner
Honda XR650L
Thanks for reminding
me what an incred-
ible bike the Honda
XR650XL is. I rode one
on a round trip from
Atlanta to the Arctic
Ocean in NW Territo-
ries Canada back in
1996 with a six-gallon
IMS tank on it. But
never forget the equally
capable old-school
DR650 Suzuki, which
needs some love.
I took an old two-
valve-head 1982 DR400 from
London to Australia back in
1983—put 70K+ miles on it
before handing it off (back in
the UK) to a buddy who used it
for years as his daily commuter;
20-liter aluminum tank on that
one.
Point being, stick a big old
tank and some big-arsed bags
on a bike that you can handle
well enough and you can go
just about anywhere!
I've included pictures from a
trip I did earlier this year from
Atlanta to Colorado where my
2015 DR650 with a five-gallon
Acerbis tank "outperformed" all
my 800/1190/1200-mounted
colleagues.
Seriously: Keep it simple,
stupid!
Michael Tucker
Letters to the editor can be sent to voices@cyclenews.com. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Letters
should not exceed 150 words and are subject to editing. Anonymous letters won't be considered for publication and each letter should
contain the writer's name, address and daytime phone number… Editor
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