Feature Story
1st Feature
TWICE BLEST
Kawasaki KLR 650
Story by Neale Bayly
Photos by Kevin Wing
Laura wasn’t too young and she wasn’t too pretty, but she possessed stoic levels of reliability and bucket loads of personality.
As my constant companion from the Arctic Circle, across the moody Baltic Sea, to the minarets of Istanbul and the warm smell of Africa on the beaches of southern Spain, it was always Laura and me. Sure she lacked some modern sophistication and after five months on the road together she was showing her age, but man, I was in love with that bike.
Found in my hometown classifieds in southern England during the spring of ’96, she had barely 12,000 miles on the clock. At nine years of age she was no spring chicken, but for the princely sum of fifteen hundred pounds (about $2,500 at the time), she was mine. I disappeared into my Mother’s garage as I waited for summer, and Laura rolled out with new tires, a heavy-duty O-ring chain and sprocket set, new brake pads, and a full service a few weeks later. Basically the same KLR650 that was introduced in 1987 and saw service until this year, I put nearly 20,000 miles on the clock as we rode through 23 countries that sum-mer. And, upon my return, another few days in the garage with some cans of paint and bottles of cleaners saw Laura finding a new owner for barely two hundred pounds less than I had paid for her.
2nd Feature
BEWARE OF THE SWARM
Different (Two) Strokes For Different Folks
Story and Photos by Paul Garson
There was a ringing in my ears and, for a change, it wasn’t the neighbor’s leaf blower at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. It was more of an echo-chamberish “ringy-dingy,” a description often used in jest or derision when speaking of those non-four stroke street bikes of semi-yore.
But where there’s smoke, there's often fire-breathing bikes, and that was the case recently at the 10th Annual Two-Stroke Extravaganza held at Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley. There was, you could say, a symphony (some would say cacophony) of bikes with letters for names—RD, RG, RZV, TZ. Singles, twins, triples, the full smorgasbord of hi-revving two-strokers including several “non-filtered” racers, home-grown hybrids and to-tally stock 1960-1990 show bikes, many meticulously restored.
Why was I there? Sentiment. Nostalgia. Sheer fear.
 Some moons before Neil Armstrong reached the lunar surface, I had performed my very first wheelie as a novice rider aboard my two-stroke Yamaha RD350. At a near 90-degree angle I split lanes between a dozen cars. When I pulled over, my friends rushed up to me to congratulate me on the feat. I nodded nonchalantly with-out mentioning I had not planned on the event and, in fact, had thought I was going to end up as SUV splatter. But true courage is going with the flow even when overcome by panic, right? So I took the kudos but passed on the Kawi H-2 750 cc Triple I later tried on for size. I heard this little voice in my head. The one that said, “This bike will kill you.” I listen to voices in my head. So what?
Preview
SURVEY SAYS…
2008 STAR RAIDER
Story by Tom Van Beveren
Photos Courtesy of Yamaha Motor Corporation
When it comes to cruiser bikes, standard just doesn’t enter into the equation.
A quick look around any bike hangout will show you what I’m talking about—customized bikes abound, and the few bone-stocker's on hand usually still bear their paper dealer’s plate. To own a cruiser bike these days means personalization, and plenty of it. And it also means staying up with the latest trends and chrome doo-dads that are available for your ride. It’s time consuming and expensive; kind of makes you just want to go out and ride.
Yamaha, the parent company of Star Motorcycles, is all over the latest trends and doo-dads craze, and its response to recent changes is the unveiling of its new 2008 Raider, a custom cruiser that was designed to match the results of its marketing surveys. The Raider is, pure and simple, a bike that puts on the road exactly what you, the customer, said you wanted.
A few years ago, the classic cruiser look was all the rage. That was the time of fat front wheels, heavy metal fenders and a robust appearance. But with the bike-building craze reaching fever pitch on the boob tube these days, up-to-date market research shows that  customers now want a cruiser with an airier, more aggressive look about it. Today’s cutting edgers want a larger, thinner front tire, air showing through the frame and engine, and a riding stance that has the rider’s arms stretched out flat and level, instead of down and out. If you wanted something like that a few months back, you were most certainly taking the long road to Milwaukee, or heading for the custom bike builders’ realm where you’d have to listen to family members bicker back and forth ad infinitum. Until the Raider.
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:
Heads up if you were planning to attend the Bud Ekins Memorial Service on Sunday, December 2. Due to the extremely high cost of hosting the memorial at the Petersen Automotive Museum, which was advertised as the venue for the event, the memorial has been moved to the Warner Bros. movie studio in Burbank. Entry is through Gate 4, which is on Hollywood Way. The proceedings, which will begin at 1 p.m. and run until 4 p.m., will include a tribute film screened at the theater on the movie set lot, guest speakers and refreshments.
Due to security on the studio lot, everyone who wants to attend the event must register in advance by calling (818) 954-5916. There is no charge; you simply call and leave your name, and it will be checked at the gate when you arrive. Make sure you bring picture ID that matches the name under which you RSVP’d. Free parking will be provided.
PARADIGM SHIFT
Story and Photos by Reid Libby
As a group, motorcyclists seem to have a pretty firm grasp on what they think is the ultimate definition of performance.
Searching for maximum velocity by pitting punishing horsepower against an unyielding atmosphere is one way. Trying to fake Father  Time out of his sandals with a mad rush through the quarter mile is another.
Certainly, these pursuits are the poster kids of the performance equation, producing all the smoke, sound, fury and timing slips that motor heads and crowds of interested onlookers seem to crave. But these displays are at the extremes and don’t really mirror the reality of everyday life on the street. Just take a look at the price of gas at the pumps and you might find your definition of performance taking a completely different turn.
It has always struck me as odd that motorcycles don’t use a gallon of gas more effectively than they do. Back when the four-wheelers were getting below 20 miles per gallon, motorcycles were a real petro-bargain. But take your average car, apply a government mandate or two, stir in some advanced automotive  technology, and check the results. Suddenly bikes that are turning figures in the high thirties and low forties don’t compare quite so well, especially when you consider that the two-wheeler is limited in both passenger-and cargo-carrying capability.
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:
We all know that speed limit signs are white rectangles with black lettering, but can you tell us about the yellow and black signs that are typically posted along curvy roads or in hazardous areas? Are those, in fact, actual “speed limit” signs, or are they merely “advisory” notices?
Paul Snyder
Lawndale, California
That is a great question, Paul. I have often been asked the same question, even by co-workers who want to know if they can enforce the yellow signs on a few of the curvy sections of asphalt that we have in town. It can be kind of confusing what each of the types of signs means and how each is capable of being enforced.
In the field of Traffic Engineering in the United States, all cities, counties and states are held to the standard of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices” or MUTCD for short. You know that something is an official government program if it has an acronym and MUTCD sure is a great-sounding one for traffic control, although my high school English teacher would throw a fit if she ever saw me use a word like that with only one vowel.
The MUTCD provides descriptions and even photos of how all the types of signs, both regulatory and warning, must be constructed. California Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 21461(a) then makes it California Law that a driver must obey a regulatory sign that is in compliance with the MUTCD or an amendment to the manual as approved by the State of California Department of Transportation.
In its description of regulatory sign construction the MUTCD spells out that, generally, they will be white with black lettering. There are obvious exclusions to this, like “Stop,” “Yield” and “Do Not Enter” signs that are red and white, and signs that can have black backgrounds with white lettering, like nighttime speed limits. “No Parking,” “No Stopping” and other “Limited Time Parking” signs can be a variety of colors, like red, green, blue, and black.
Warning signs, on the other hand, pretty much exclusively have a yellow background with black lettering. This category encompasses all kinds of signs, including things like hills, intersections ahead, school crossings, animal crossings and, the motorcyclist’s favorite, a sign warning of twisty road ahead for several miles. You know what I’m talking about; the one that looks like a snake.
To answer your question in simple terms, the black-and-white signs are the regulatory signs and they represent what is enforceable either by statute or survey. Yellow and black signs, on the other hand, are warning signs only.
Now, before everyone goes out and starts racing like stink around the next blind corner posted with a warning sign of 35 miles per hour because The Sergeant said it couldn’t be enforced since the statutory speed is 55 miles per hour, we need to remember our prior discussion about CVC Section 22350 or the Prima Facia Speed Limit. It states: “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”
What that means is that no matter what sign is posted to “regulate” the speed of traffic, if you are hauling butt and cause a crash because you can’t stop to avoid it, can’t stay in your lane, or make some other action that could even just potentially happen because of the speed, you can be cited or found at fault for an accident.
On nearly all occasions, we place the fault of an accident in a “rear-end” collision on the party in the back, and we list CVC 22350 as the “Primary Collision Factor.” The speed at the time of the collision is usually well below the posted speed limit and, on the few occasions where a warning sign for a reduced speed is present, we have found that the speed would also be well below that recommendation. You have to carefully read the wording in CVC 22350, because it includes the statement “reasonable and prudent.” That is a Police Officer’s opportunity to shine if he feels a particular area needed enforcement but was not otherwise supported by a regulatory sign.
In past articles, we have discussed how a speed limit is obtained for a given roadway. Typically on unincorporated highways, you will find 55 to 65 miles per hour as the standard depending on the construction, location, and house count of the highway. Most other roads are supported by a “Traffic Survey” that generates a speed limit based on what 85 percent of the traveling population feels is an okay speed for that street.
But a survey or a statute doesn’t cover the kinks or rises and falls that run in the middle of an otherwise perfectly acceptable 55 miles-per-hour roadway, and this is where the warning sign will come into play. The engineer will break out his slide rule and calculate, based on time/distance calculations with available sight lines, topography and even run-off room, what the advised limit for that area should be. A warning sign is then posted.
If you go flying into a corner with a recommended speed of 35 at 58 miles per hour and Grandma is just exiting the corner at the stately speed of 10 miles per hour in her 1967 Ford Squire Wagon with wood-grain paneling, and you slam into the rear of her car because at your speed you could not see ALL the way around the corner, then you have just violated CVC Section 22350. Reasonable and prudent also mean never go faster than you can see, perceive and react to an obstacle.
In order for you to realistically get a citation for failing to comply with a recommended speed sign and be found guilty in court, the officer would most likely have to have been an ice salesman in Alaska before he became a cop. It would take a lot of convincing on the officer’s part to convince the judge that your driving, which was still at or below the regular posted limit, was dangerous. It does not, however, preclude you from being at fault in a collision nor does it free you from your own personal responsibility to do what is “reasonable and prudent.”
Ride safe, keep smiling, and take care of yourselves and each other out there.
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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