BACKFIRES

HEY, MA! I WON!

I’m 60 now, but back in 1973 or ’74 I entered a drawing at the Broadway department store while shopping for school clothes with my mom…and I won! The grand prize was a 1973 Husqvarna SC125 and four tickets to the Carlsbad GP that year, and my dad drove me and three of my friends down to Carlsbad to watch the races. Attached is a picture of the note I had written to my mom on a note pad telling her to

call my sister and where I was and that I had won the drawing. The note makes me smile to this day. I had a 1973 XR75 and was beyond stoked to have a brand-new Husky 125. I hadn’t ridden many two strokes at that point; I think when I was 11 or 12 I had ridden a friend’s Hodaka a couple of times. Anyway, I rode that Husky for three or four years, and it was really sweet! It was an SC model, with three close and three wide, and it worked great on long tracks. I wanted to share my story of good fortune with all the fans of the Carlsbad USGP. I went to a few races there when I got my driver’s license, and what a great time of my life that period was! Thanks so much for listening and for letting me share my memory. ANGELLE AND DRAG

When I joined the AMA many years ago, my goal was to support an organization that fought for my rights as a biker, and that’s still my sole motivation for membership. I’m a Harley guy; the metric bikes and off-road racing stuff are of little interest to me. One thing that’s always been a pet peeve of mine is how the AMA seems to ignore drag racing. It’s like the staff is unaware it exists. So imagine my surprise and joy when seeing Angelle Sampey on the July cover! Bravo! I became an instant lifelong fan of hers when I was at Reading, Penn., in ’96 when she won her first national event. Prior to that I had little interest in Pro Stock Bike; it was all Suzukis, not a Harley in sight. Angelle made me take an interest, and I followed her career until she retired the first time. By then, Harleys were well represented, so I continued following the class despite my favorite rider being on the sidelines. I’m glad she’s returned to the sport. She may be the biggest reason there are so many women in the class now, which is a win for everybody. I only wish she was still riding a Harley, but that’s just me! Thank you for a great article. Perhaps we’ll see more coverage of motorcycle drag racing in the future.

Mike Peters Charlton, Mass.

Glad you enjoyed it, Mike. And I would say this about story choice and what we cover in American Motorcyclist. Boiled down, our goal is to feature really good stories and storytelling in our pages…not specifically the type of riding involved, be it motocross, road riding, ice racing, trials, whatever. (They’re all great; they all rank!) We tend to focus not so much on the type of riding but the people doing the riding, the human stories that happen on and around motorcycles. Our hope is that our younger members riding

LETTER OF THE MONTH

A FAMILY AFFAIR I’ m just halfway through the July issue, and it strikes me that the mainstream media never covers stories like the one about the Tsakanikas family. These are the real stories of how motorcycling is a family-’n’-friends thing, and how families can come together and learn about practice, patience, developing skills and learning from each other. All we get in the regular media are gangs on ATVs and dirt bikes terrorizing city streets, or the evening news documenting the grisly death of a motorcyclist on a local highway. Those unfortunate stories do happen, but there are many more stories of families and friends having fun safely, organized rides raising money for charities, and touring riders acting responsibly while spending money in the local economy. So cheers to writer Keaton Maisano and the AMA for the story, and cheers to the Tsakanikas family, and all the other motorcyclists enjoying our sport together.

Ron Santos

W. Warwick, R.I.

Letters to the editor are the opinions of the AMA members who write them. Inclusion here does not imply they reflect the positions of the AMA, its staff or board. Agree? Disagree? Let us know. Send letters to submissions@ama-cycle.org or mail to American Motorcyclist Association, 13515 Yarmouth Drive, Pickerington, OH 43147. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity.

dirt bikes will enjoy the retrospective pieces we do a lot of, and that we grey-haired oldsters will enjoy stories about the new generation growing up with motorcycling as we all did back in the 1960s and ’70s. Thank you for the kind words on Joy Burgess’ Angelle piece.

—Ed

COVER ME

I agree one hundred percent with Mitch Boehm’s strategy in the July issue of covering the front brake lever, especially when riding on the street. It is a technique I used for close to 40 years. But Mitch leaves the impression that beginning rider classes do not teach covering the front lever and actively discourage this practice. I taught classes for 33 years and every one included this technique. It was not introduced until the second half of the class, when discussing strategies for the street. By this point the students had seven hours of studying and applying the basic skills of starting, turning, shifting and braking. In the second half, reducing reaction time by placing fingers on the front brake lever was taught and encouraged in both the classroom and range. Its application was highlighted in several “what if” scenarios discussed in the classroom. In fact, it was even included as a question in the written test. Note: this was not an MSF course, so I can’t speak for their curriculum. The bottom line is, it is a great technique that can give you precious time and space to stay out of trouble.

Dustin Kassman Corvallis, Ore.

Reading Mitch Boehm’s “Cover Me!” piece in the July issue made me want to throw the magazine across the room. In years past, once someone was certified by an MSF RiderCoach Trainer to teach the Basic RiderCourse (BRC), that person was also certified to teach the Experienced RiderCourse by default. However, that hasn’t been the case for a number of years. There is now an additional certification needed to teach anything beyond the BRC. In the BRC it is definitely true that RiderCoaches are going to encourage students to use all four fingers on the brake lever. As Mitch points out, it is often the best way to teach absolute novices when they are first learning. But MSF recognizes that what we teach novice students is not the end-all, be-all of riding; which is why there are so many intermediate and advanced course options available, many of which actually encourage covering the brake lever to reduce reaction time and to enable techniques like trail braking in addition to more advanced riding techniques that are simply beyond the skill level of a novice rider…and would seem to some students to contradict what is taught in a BRC.

Dave Wendell

All this cover-the-brake discussion can only be a good thing, and it is good to hear that rider coaches from all around the country and from many different organizations are thinking about ways they can help riders ride more safely.

—Ed