Feature Story
1st Feature :
RABID TRANSIT
2006 Yamaha FZ-1
Story by Tom Van Beveren
Photos courtesy Yamaha Motor Corp.
Big naked sports bikes like Aprilia’s Tuono, Ducati’s big Monsters, Kawasaki’s Z1000 and Suzuki’s Bandit have been all the rage these past few years.  There is an unmistakable appeal in an open-class sport bike with performance but without the sport-bike riding position (and resultant backache from an all-day ride) and expensive fairing bits attached.
An upright seating position with wide, flat bars gives the rider a great view of the road ahead. And wide, flat bars give abundant leverage to easily wend your way through traffic as well as the twisties. A road racer’s stance is great for whipping around a track but do we really need that sort of positioning in today’s every-day stop-and-go traffic patterns or on long Interstate drones? I think not.
 Since its introduction in 2001, Yamaha’s FZ-1 has been a real favorite of anyone who wanted a sport bike without the roadracer riding position required to actually pilot one. For years, the FZ-1 has been the 1,000 cc class industry leader in sales. After all, it was an R-1 without the fairing, right? Wrong!
You see, nearly all naked sports bikes (or Supersports, as some manufacturers are now calling them) are derived from their thoroughbred stable mates in thought, but when you dig deep into the nuts-and-bolts of the bikes, there is actually very little in common between the two. Steel frames have replaced lightweight aluminum, de-tuned engines have replaced high-strung mills, brakes have been down graded, and so on. The concept was a good one, so why didn’t anyone just take the fairing and clip-ons off the repli-racer and call it a naked?…
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2nd Feature :
THE DEEP NORTH
Scenes From Behind The Bamboo Screen
Observations by Nick Voge
“The months and days are eternal travelers, so too the passing years. Those who spend their years upon the briny deep or grow old leading horses across the land are lifelong wanderers. Many were the ancients who died while on the road. I, too, for how long I do not know, have been seduced by the cloud-driving wind to a life of wandering.”
When the poet Matsuo Basho left old Edo and set out upon his pilgrimage in the spring of 1689, he was 46 years old. He was headed north, to Echigo, in search of poetic inspiration. His journal of the trip, ‘The Narrow Road To The Deep North,’ is one of the most magnificent works in classical Japanese literature. He was on the road for 156 days, almost entirely on foot. Even today Basho is revered in Japan for having the courage to forsake the material comforts of the temporal life in favor of the spiritual rewards of a life unfettered by possessions.
I took a YS-11 turboprop. Unlike the big jets, which fly over most of the weather, the YS-11’s props need the viscous air of lower altitudes. Bouncing along between the towering cumulus congestus in the thinning light of late afternoon, I got my first tantalizing glimpses of northern Japan. It is a broken landscape of crumpled mountains interspersed with small farming communities sheltered in deep valleys. Even from an altitude of 20,000 feet it looks lonely.
In minutes we cover the ground that Basho needed months to travel. Also on board are Nakada, my boss from the ad agency, Ikeda, the art director, our photographer Koh (a.k.a. Mr. Cool), and Tanaka, a mid-level executive from Yamaha’s PR division. The bikes (an RZ500, FZ750, FJ900, XT600, and XT350) left three days previously from Kobe by ferry, along with the photo van and Koh’s assistants. We’ll all hook up at the hotel tonight.
We are traveling not only much faster than Basho, but much further north, as well. Hokkaido is the northern-most of Japan’s four main islands. Until recently inhabited only by the Ainu, Japan’s native people, Hokkaido is a frontier land of wide-open spaces, long, cold winters and warm-hearted women. As we break out of the clouds and enter the pattern over Asahikawa, wide rivers reach for the horizon and rolling wheat fields carpet the landscape—Japan’s wild west. …
For more on this story, pick up a current issue of FREE 2 WHEEL at your local dealer, or use the handy order form page found on our web site.
Ask the Sergeant:
In my store I sell aftermarket motorcycle parts. The current trend in custom bikes is to mount the license plate off to the side and down low, and, in some cases, sideways. Year’s ago I was pulled over and told this was not legal but now everyone is doing it. What does the motor vehicle code state?
Kirk KelleySport Specialties, via e-mail
Your question is about the legality of mounting license plates on the side of a motorcycle. This is most commonly seen on custom bikes. I would like to expand my answer to also address a closely related practice that is becoming quite popular—the rage of the mounting of license plates on sport bikes and dual-sport bikes on the back of the airbox forward of the rear wheel, just above the top of the wheel.
I am sure it will not come as a surprise to you that both of these practices are illegal.
Section 5200 of the California Vehicle Code regulates the mounting of license plates and it simply states that the plate most be securely mounted in a position where it is “clearly visible.” When judging “clearly visible,” you cannot limit the range of that visibility by saying, “It is clearly visible if you are directly behind the bike.” The license plate must be clearly visible from every position that the standard mount is.
The best example is the chopper with a plate mounted low on its left side traveling in the left lane. I am in my skunk-colored police car in the right lane, slightly behind the chopper. I could see a plate mounted in the traditional position but I cannot see the plate mounted low and on the left side of the bike. This becomes a problem if I want to check the registration status of the bike or check if it’s stolen, especially if there is a car behind the chopper that prevents me from moving over. Ticket time!…
For more on this story, pick up a current issue of FREE 2 WHEEL at your local dealer, or use the handy order form page found on our web site.
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Scuttle Putt:
Dr. Phil? An avid motorcyclist? It would seem so.
Dr. Phil McGraw of the popular Dr. Phil television show revealed his two-wheeled interests during the show on April 18 as he helped George Goetz, a Marine from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, discover the right way to ride a motorcycle.
Seems our young Marine, fresh back from Iraq, bought a sport bike and dashed off to ride it without any training, motorcycle license or safety gear other than a helmet. His Mom got worried and hid his keys, and Dr. Phil was called in to referee.
Turns out Dr. Phil rode a dirt bike quite frequently in the past and he had pictures of him and his family enjoying ATVs and go-karts to show the audience, so he understood the Mom’s concern and the son’s desire to ride. The deal he brokered? If the young man would take training, get licensed and wear the proper gear, Mom would return the keys to his bike.
Interview:
SOFT FOCUS
THE ECLECTIC COLLECTION OF DANIEL SCHOENEWALD
Interview and photos by Reid Libby
It is a room of contrasts. Your eyes take each shape in turn. Some offer sinuously curving lines of nature, while others jar the senses with aggressive angles and planes. The color gamut runs from rich-yet-subtle tones to hues that border on being garish. The cold glint of chrome is countered by the warm glow of alloy.
 The designs themselves have origins ranging from the present to nearly three-quarters of a century in the past. Geographical borders have no meaning here, either, as these machines hail from all over the globe.
And, as you might expect, their intended use is diverse as well. Although there is a definite bias towards the exotic, thoroughbreds that you would expect to see only on the sunniest of Sundays are side-by-side with capable work-a-day rides that are perfectly content to deal with mundane chores. This is truly an ensemble of extremes.
 Master of this diverse moto-menagerie is Daniel Schoenewald, the soft-spoken, co-owner of a successful servo manufacturing company. Certainly a desirable day-time gig, but off the clock he is a motorcycle enthusiast at an extreme level and, over the years, he has amassed a collection of motorcycles unlike any other.
“The funny thing about all this is that I have never considered myself to be a collector,” claims Schoenewald. “I have always thought of myself as a rider first and I got all these bikes for myself and my friends to ride and enjoy. It wasn’t really a collection but more like a bunch of motorcycles that were available to be taken out and used.”...
Way2go
WELCOME TO NEDERLAND
Story and photos by Paul Garson
There I was in Nederland, Colorado, population 1200, sitting in a restaurant named the “Pink Flamingo” some 8,000 feet above sea level. It seemed a bit surreal.
 I tried to make some connection. Flamingos need water and mud as a habitat, and it’s true that eons ago these rocky pinnacles had served as a sea bed—fossil seashells and spiny Trilobites the nonliving proof. Still a pretty thin thread of a connection for the name choice. Or maybe the owner was a fan of John Waters’ films, specifically his 1972 classic of bad taste run amuck, “Pink Flamingos.” Or the restaurant’s location had once been the site of a trailer park.
All sorts of ruminations float through one’s brain at high altitudes. I was dizzy with possibilities. Maybe just dizzy. Finally, I made up my mind and chose the special of the day, barbecue ribs.
 I was feeling carnivorous and it had nothing to do with Nederland’s upcoming “Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival,” although the souvenir T-shirt was hanging nearby over the well-stocked bar. Seems I had picked the right spot for chow time. The restaurant’s owner, Irene Taras, was previously a “caterer to the stars,” including the Rolling Stones, who would eat nothing but her cooking when performing in Denver. So there I was with great food and a great vantage point, as well...
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