Feature Story
WATER MUSIC
2008 Buell 1125R tested at Virginia International Raceway
Story by Neale Bayly
Photos by Fonzi
It wasn’t until the drive home from a day in the saddle of the new Buell 1125R at Virginia International Raceway, that the best feature of the new liquid-cooled sport bike became clear.
Cruising along in my ancient Honda listening to a little Barry Manilow on the cassette player, while wondering if it’s the smell of stale Burger King or the blue velour seats that puts the girls off,  I realized my legs weren’t even stiff. Normally, at my advanced aged, a full day of thrashing the pants of a sport bike on a race track comes with a certain amount of muscle fatigue and soreness. Wriggling around on the decade-old coffee stains and chewing gum patches, while singing along to a chorus of Mandy, I also realized my neck wasn’t even slightly stiff. As I had spent the majority of the day doing everything in my power to chase down Schwantz School instructor Harry Vanderlinden on an identical machine, I know I hadn’t been taking it easy.
So I have to take my hat off to the 1125R’s ergonomics for my physical condition and retract some early thoughts I had about Buell’s newest sport bike.
Diving down into the small roller coaster of turns on the VIR north course, hustling the 1125R during my first session felt like dancing with a lady of overly ample proportions. Sure she knew the moves, but there just seemed like a lot of her to get around. Tipping the scales at a claimed dry weight of 375 pounds though, this sense of size is really more of an illusion caused by the wide aluminum frame and fairing panels that stick out in front. Add in a generous, by sport bike standards, upper fairing, a roomy footpeg-to-handlebar ratio, and the Buell actually feels more toward the sport-touring end of the spectrum. Get comfortable with the beast, though, and it’ll blast round a racetrack as fast as you want. And, checking times with my onboard video, I was turning laps three-to-four seconds slower than my last visit here riding a near Formula Extreme-level Yamaha R6 on race tires.
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.
Interview:
HONDA DREAMS DO COME TRUE
Story and photos by Paul Garson
How many of us still own our first bike? Butt out all of you who have only owned one bike. No offense, but we’re talking veteran riders and not newbies, here.
Shannon Sweeney, who makes his home in Venice, California, still has his first bike. And, speaking from his  homespun garage/shop, SS Classics, Sweeney puts the blame fair and square on the bike itself.
“My first bike was (and still is) a 1970 Honda CL 350 Scrambler. It still runs perfectly and, at 37, it’s showing no signs of wear. It just won’t stop running,” said Sweeney, with a grin.
Neither will Sweeney, it seems, whose passion for motorcycles is focused on classic Hondas circa 1960 to 1977.
“1978 is the last year of the kickstart bikes from Honda. For me you gotta kick it, so that’s where I draw the line,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney’s philosophy for choosing this time span of Honda goes back to the 1960s, when Honda was first entering the U.S. market and really  engineering its bikes. Not that the company doesn’t do that now, but back then was the beginning of it all.
The motorcycles were made very well and were also made relatively simply, with the idea that the owner could work on them. By 1978, Honda’s dealer network had grown and was well established, and dealers were probably complaining they weren’t getting enough service work. Basically the bikes were too good and too trouble free. So Honda fixed all that by deleting the kickstart and providing only an electric-start button. Call it progress but, with no kickstart, a battery problem would require a visit to a dealer. Gone were the days when a Honda equipped with a kickstart would get you past a dead battery because the bike would still start and run. No kickstart meant more service work for the dealers, thus Shannon’s loyalty to pre-78 Hondas of the “still have a kickstart” variety.
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:
There’s a whole lot of excitement these days at Southern California Ducati. After months of renovation, construction is finally over and the stunningly redone dealership has opened its fresh, new doors--doors that lead to a store that now holds the honor of being the largest, and most dynamic Ducati-exclusive showroom in North America.
“It looks like a Ferrari dealership,” said Tom Hicks, owner of Southern California Ducati, plus neighboring dealerships Southern California Triumph and Southern California Victory. “It is the largest, best-looking Ducati dealership in the entire U.S. and that’s quoting Ducati, not me. You should come out and see it for yourself.”
A list of industry celebrities did just that on August 29, in a special, invitation-only sneak preview of the newly remodeled store that came complete with refreshments, a Pikes Peak Hypermotard accompanied by Spider Grips Ducati Performance Rider Alexander Malcolm Smith, and runway models strutting their stuff in the new Monster line of apparel by Puma—clothing that was inspired by the Ducati Monster 696.
For your up-close look at a destination Ducati dealership, get on over to Southern California Ducati at 515 West Lambert Road in Brea. You can call the dealership at (714) 256-6700, or go to its website at www.socalducati.com.
Project Motorcycle 1:
GETTING WIRED
Story and photos by Reid Libby
Motorcycles, perhaps more than any other vehicle, are a complex melding of lines and forms.
Be it the arc of an exhaust, the subtle flaring of a fender, or the sweep of a ga s tank, the motorcycle is a veritable feast of exciting shapes and swirls that reach out, grab the eye, and hold your interest. In most cases, however, the lowly spoked wheel, one of the most important aspects of two-wheeled travel, is hardly ever given a second thought.
Certainly, after more than 100 years of faithful service, the wire-wheel concept might be at something of a stylistic impasse. It has, for the most part, stayed the same and there is a lot to be said for the coming of the  cast wheel, an item that certainly has some advantages over the old standby. A cast wheel contains far fewer parts and is less labor intensive to assemble than its wire-laced counterpart, a trait that keeps company accountants smiling. Then too, the cast units are the wheel of choice when it comes to getting the prodigious amounts of horsepower that many modern engines are capable of producing down to the road. No, I can’t imagine a Hayabusa launching hard down the strip on a wire wheel, either.
Project Motorcycle 2:
THE REICH STUFF
Story and photos by Paul Garson
It was not a dark and stormy night, but rather a bright, sunny So. Cal. Saturday and we were standing with acknowledged vintage-BMW guru Rick Monahan in the ivy-lined alley behind Black Kat Motorwerks, his business in Venice, California. Stretched out before us was a gleaming line-up of Bavarian wundermachines… an impressive selection of 1950’s, 1960’s and even a few “new” 1970’s BMW airheads.  But standing out in the tuxedo black-and-white pinstriped crowd of elite cruisers was a granddaddy Beemer, a 70-year-old, 1937 R-35. It was built in the first year of that model and it was an early 1937, at that.
“I’ve had a ’42 BMW R75 side-car bike, one of Rommel’s WWII bikes, but this is the oldest bike that’s been in this shop,” Monahan explained. “The story goes that it was bought in Belgium by Richard Williams, a collector who brought it to the U.S. a couple of years ago, but the owner never heard it run until recently after we sorted out a myriad of electrical problems.”
After Rick resolved the electron gremlin infestation and got the single-cylinder bike running, further complications manifested themselves.
 “Second gear needed replacement, the clutch was shot and the steering head bearings are history, which makes the front-end handling pretty scary,” said Monahan. “The bike also came in here with really old, square tires that would barely corner. Solve those glitches and you’ll have a bike that will go real well down the road.”
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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