Peyote Dreams
By
Art Bone
"Poor Mexico; so far from God, so close to the United States." Porfirio Diaz
“Everything that is old is new again.” I don’t know who said that but it is just as apt today as when it was first written.
It's really interesting to see all the new bikes coming out with parallel twin motors. V twins seem to be falling from favor. It wasn't that long ago when the first BMW 800 was introduced I saw a letter to the editor of one of the leading magazines wondering why anyone would want a parallel twin "like the old, leaky, Brit bikes of years ago?" Now it seems every major manufacturer has at least one of this design.
Of course the new ones are about as much like our beloved Nortons as a Jupiter C is to a Roman candle. Even the Triumph Bonneville, arguably the most like our Nortons, are fuel-injected (with injector bodies that look like Amals; a nice touch I think,) liquid cooled, with overhead cams, balance shafts, ABS brakes, traction control and all the technology that makes life great when it works and frustrating when it doesn’t. The good news is that it usually works and works well.
Last month I bought my second new bike ever. My first new bike was also the first motorcycle I ever bought, a 1964 Royal Enfield 750 TT Interceptor. Looking back over fifty-three years of motorcycle evaluation is astonishing. The RE had a weak head light, tiny tail and brake light, with the famous Lucas three-position switch; Off, Dim, and Flicker. It also had no turn signals, carbs you had to tickle until gas gushed out all over your gloves and the magneto which was cunningly located underneath the carbs, kick start, drum brakes that were not really for stopping. They were for “adjusting your speed downward.” No ABS. It had a four speed transmission with the oft misunderstood “neutral finder” lever, a feature I’ve never seen on any other bike. Pushrod operated overhead valves, air cooled, twin petcocks to manually turn off the gas when you stopped the engine. It was very representative of bikes of that era.
My new bike has all the modern stuff but it’s still a parallel twin. One of the features of my new bike is a dual clutch transmission or DCT. Want to start an argument with a group of bikers? Mention that you have a DCT and love it and see what response you get. Most of objections I hear are of the “I don’t need that crap. I can change gears better than any automatic” variety.
Just keep believing that. I feel I’m a better rider for having the DCT. I love always being in the right gear or if not, just a button push away from the right one. The magic electrons match engine speed to bike speed better than I can and they do it faster and, when I say faster, I mean ten times faster.
I did read one objection I thought was valid. The writer said, “Going down a rocky, gravel slope, then doing a U-turn at the bottom, I want to be able to slip the clutch and get the rear tire spinning to get up the next hill.” Now that’s valid. . . for him. I just hope I never find myself riding down a rocky slope on a 500 lbs motorcycle, for fear I might be found underneath said 500 lbs motorcycle at the bottom of said rocky slope.
While looking for a bike to rent for the rally in Virginia I noticed a rental company in Townsend TN had a Can Am Spyder with DCT for rent. I rode one of these in Daytona years ago when they first came out but that was in city traffic and I had always wanted to have a longer ride so I rented it.
I also was interested in visiting Townsend again. I and some of the early members of the Greater Atlanta chapter attended our first national rally there in 1980. I met Pete Kogut and Linda Snow and other INOA leaders of the time; I stood transfigured, watching T. C. blast off down a narrow country road on the HogSlayer, the same HogSlayer now enshrined in the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, England. It was a life changing experience that has shaped my planning for the month of July ever since.
The group ride for that rally was to North Carolina route 129, also known as Deal’s Gap. It’s now known as the Tail of the Dragon.
I’m happy to report Townsend hasn’t changed very much in the intervening thirty-seven years but they did have one attraction that I would have had a hard time imagining in 1980. GSM MotoRent was a concept I never considered back then. The idea of a place that rented motorcycles was far off in the future to me.
But rent them they do and they have a very nice fleet, heavy on BMWs of course but with some cruisers, dual-sports, sports bikes, and of course, one Can Am Spyder with DCT, my choice for this trip.
When I told CJ I was going to rent the Spyder she suddenly became interested in the rally. She spent a few days looking at places to stay and attractions she thought we would enjoy in the area. One of the things she found was the “Back of the Dragon,” a website devoted to promoting some of the really nice roads in that part of Virginia. The so-called “Back of the Dragon” is a very nice thirty-two mile stretch of road from Tazewell VA to Marion VA. Google maps says it takes over an hour to drive, just to give you an idea.
The idea of the state putting up a website and having an office with a real person to wait on you, in an effort to entice motorcyclist to ride their curvy roads, is also something I could not have imagined in 1980. Their brochure says, “32 Miles of Knee Draggin’ fun!”
Times have certainly changed. I remember being refused service by the old guy at the service station in Suches GA because I was on a motorcycle. I guess the bean counters figured out people on twenty and thirty thousand dollar motorcycles have money to spend.
Riding the Spyder is . . . Interesting. According to what I’ve read about them, you can’t really tip them over because you have all this electronic wizardry that acts like ABS and keeps all three wheels on the ground, no matter what stupid moves the rider makes. That’s all well and good but I wasn’t about to test any of that magic stuff, especially with CJ on the back, but I did ride it in what I consider a “sporty” fashion on the Back of the Dragon and it’s fun to see what you can do with it. The first thing I learned was that you have to anticipate the corners and get your body in position, leaning into the corner, well before you actually turn the handlebars. If you don’t you’ll be thrown in the opposite direction and not be able to smoothly negotiate the turn.
Another thing I learned is that these things aren’t short on power. They have a three cylinder 1200CC engine that puts out real horsepower. When it’s not scaring you to death in the corners it’s scaring you to death with acceleration. Like I said, “Interesting” and fun.
On the list of new things coming out are electric vehicles. Of course, there were many different electric cars back in the early days of automobiles then for years we read stories proclaiming they were the next cool thing. Lately I’ve seen many predictions about the demise of petroleum engines and the rise of hybrid and pure electric cars and it seems to really be happening this time. As the car industry goes, so goes motorcycles so it shouldn’t be long before we see the same thing on two wheels.
One of the surprises of the rally was the presentation by Brian Richardson of Bluegrass VA of the Norton electric bike he built in his small shop behind his home. Brian was set up in the hotel in Bluegrass and had a very nice video of the bikes racing career and answered all our questions afterwards. He built the bike himself, starting with a ’66 Atlas Featherbed frame and vintage John Player bodywork. They finished well in several races and set a cross-country speed record for electric vehicles. It had some very good results, especially considering the small budget the team was working with. Just shows what grit, determination, and thinking outside the box can creat.
So don’t worry about the future or fear all the “new” things coming down the pike. Most of them aren’t new at all. They’re old ideas that someone took out of the chest, dusted off, hooked a couple of micro processors to and, lo and behold, “New Idea of the Year.”
Maybe it’s time to rethink Isolastic Suspension or magneto ignition? Or maybe not.