It’s like getting on a brand new motorcycle from 1939. ![]() It’s the same kind of focus you need to ride fast on a racetrack. They’re so counterintuitive, you have to do everything the opposite of what you do in a motorcycle. Right-hand and left-hand turns can be extremely dangerous on a sidecar because it’s a totally unstable vehicle, but going straight can be pretty exciting. There’s a sticker on the gas tank that says, “Warning: Right and left-hand turns can be dangerous,” and it’s got little skull and crossbones on it, which is true. It’s just as hard to ride a Ural sidecar at 55 miles an hour down the highway as it is to ride a high-performance sport bike on a racetrack at 150 miles an hour. I also really love the Urals with the sidecars, the Russian bikes. I’ve got no real complaints about either one of those. I guess the two bikes that I’ve had that I unequivocally liked the most were a Victory Vegas and a Victory Hammer. The last bike that I was just absolutely crazy about was probably a Yamaha I bought as a carryover in 1985. As far as I know, they still have the same issues now. I’ve had some Yamaha sport bikes that I’ve liked, but there were a lot of transmission issues with Yamaha motorcycles. I had a Triumph Sprint, a sport-trim bike that I liked a lot, but it never quite got the fuel injection right. #GSX GROUND SERVICES FOR FSX LUGGAGE CARRIER TURNS INTO SELF MOVIE#It’s like asking a movie critic about their favorite film. Writing for magazines and stuff like that, you’re always looking for the flaws. Collectors Weekly: What about some of the other bikes you’ve owned? I’m still recuperating from a bad racing crash I had six years ago as well, so right now all I’ve got is an Italian bike that shall remain nameless, but I haven’t licensed it yet. It was a minor crash last year that should’ve been nothing, but I landed on my knee and pretty much destroyed it. Right now I’m in the process of a year-long recovery from an accident. I used to do a lot of marathon-type riding, time-distance rallies, that type of stuff, and if your engine’s not balanced, the bike’s going to shake. The non-counterbalanced bikes Harley makes are fine if you don’t put a lot of miles on them. That counterbalanced engine in the Softail is critical to me because I’m a long-distance rider. As it is right now, you can get a bike like that, but Victory makes it, not Harley. If I could get that engine in a touring bike with a stiffer frame, I’d have a Harley. ![]() One of my favorite bikes is the counterbalanced Softails. There’s just no denying that they’re the most attractive motorcycles available anywhere. They’ve made a lot of brilliant moves since the buyout from American Machinery and Foundry (AMF), and the most important product that they’ve had since then, the Evolution, was actually commissioned by AMF. They’re the other American company.įrom an intellectual standpoint, I’m impressed with the brilliance of the Harley-Davidson company’s marketing and product positioning. I’ve had nothing but good luck with them. They’re not quite as expensive as Harleys, though they’re still not cheap, and they seem extremely well built and very durable. They have become very nice motorcycles once they quit being so butt-ugly. Obviously, if you’re interested in the motorcycle industry and the motorcycle culture of America, Harley-Davidson plays a pretty prominent role, but I’m interested in all sorts of different bikes. I’ve written a bunch of other books since then on cars and motorcycles. While I was working for them, I wrote a book called The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycles, which is sort of a motorcycle life manual. I started riding a motorcycle when I was 11, and I started writing for Motorcyclist magazine after I got out of school in the early ’90s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |