And unfortunately, according to rumor, the latest motorcycle dealership to close its doors was Concord Kawasaki.

In other news, we cautiously announce that our website, the long dormant CB site, long the home for moths, bats, ancient bike reviews and paint-drying experiments is now up and running: check it out at www.citybike.com.

“We have been forced to enter the electronic void known as the Internet and have reluctantly joined the World Wide Net” announced Publisher Halton, “and it is even worse than I thought. Kind of like some enormous cafeteria food fight.”

For years Halton has been most leery of the Internet and recently fell upon others who share his view that it is indeed a sinister device.

The old guy now cites a San Francisco Chronicle article he read just before heading south for Guatemala last spring. It concerned online slander and opened with this one-line zinger penned by Chronicle staffer Deborah Gage: “As a result of online slander, the Web 2.0 movement, which ushered in an interactive Internet, sought to put power in the hands of the people by tapping the so-called wisdom of the crowds to change the world—and to keep such a digital democracy in check. A decade later, as defamation lawsuits have begun to mount, some are questioning the wisdom of the crowds, and wondering if it hasn’t turned into mob rule.”

“I don’t know why this has taken this long,” said Andrew Keen, author of the controversial book, The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is Killing our Culture, “The Internet is a culture of rights rather than responsibilities. We have no coherent theory of digital responsibility. The issue has broken through, broken out of Silicon Valley-now it affects real people with real reputations to defend.”

The article went on to inform that the “number of people getting sued over on-line speech, although small, is rising sharply, according to statistics from the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Civil lawsuits nearly doubled in 2006 and rose again in 2007 by another 68 percent.”

Watch for a review of this new book in a future issue. Sounds like this guy Keen and Halton are on the same page. Yelp, yelp, and yelp some more.

ASPHALT IN A SLING

The world’s oldest newspaper boy photographed this humorous cautionary on a billboard in Utah, words scripted by the Department of Transportation. Kind of has a distinct Harley bias, we would say.  Halton was regularly and consistently ignored by every Harley rider he encountered as he rolled north out of Mejico on his old German twin. Riding through New Mexico (no helmet law), Colorado (no helmet law) and Nevada, prompted the old guy to reflect, “What could this two-wheeled elitism possibly be based on?”

LORENZO SHOW

Grand Prix star Jorge Lorenzo will be making a guest appearance to meet fans and sign autographs at the Dainese store on June 30th from 4 until 6 p.m. The D store is located at 131 South Van Ness and can be reached at 415/626-5478. The D store will also be hosting a Laguna Seca party on July 5th, with snacks and a live screening of the race, for those unable to attend.

Lorenzo beat his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi for the first time recently.

DON’T MAKE US TERMINATE OUR BIKES!

Tim Buche of the Motorcycle Industry Council recently sent a letter to California Governor Ahhh-nold. Apparently the governor recently suggested that Californians might consider selling their motorcycles to help make financial ends meet during the current Chicken Little days.

Buche’s letter stated: “Dear Governor: While discussing California’s budget woes, you recently suggested that people would have to sell off their motorcycles, among other purchases, to help make ends meet. We respectfully suggest that motorcycles and scooters area a great way to save a lot of green while being environmentally green at the same time.”

Scooter sales have also increased, topping 222,000 sales for last year. Buche then went on to point out the things so many of us already know. That bikes work. They are good on gas and easy to park and since we can share lanes are much more efficient than automobiles, in every sense. He also went on to point to our fair city as a “showcase” for two-wheeled transportation. Got that right.

SCOOTER FRENZY

Speaking of scooters and San Francisco, you have to admit that today’s scooter riders can be a worrisome bunch. Not only do they regularly use the bike lanes at ferocious speeds, but they often ride with no gloves and street shoes or sneakers, and of course the obligatory open-face (or sweet Jesus, a bicycle) helmet. They have discovered lane splitting too, and can be counted on to whisk giddily into each and every intersection the moment the light changes to green. And although we would like to preach to them about these, how shall we say, questionable riding techniques, we cannot because they don’t read City Bike either.

Not only have many of them embraced the cute little machines’ myriad efficiencies, they have even learned to multi-task while riding. Did you know that you can ride a scooter with only one hand on the machine?  Yep. And what to do with that other hand, hmmph?
Why, make a phone call (or send a text message), of course.

BIKES FOR KIDS

Donate your old bike and help generate income to purchase dirt bikes for kids of the bay area.  Enthusiast Dave Duffin has been helping youngsters learn to dirt ride with his Oasis for Kids organization. Dave tells us the project began in 1971. It’s a win/win for everyone and each year Dave and his fellow enthusiasts take a bunch of city kids to Carnergie, Hollister and often on overnighters to the Nevada desert. For more information about this great group visit www.oasisforkids.org or phone Dave at 415/999-5322

SMOG CHECK CHECKMATED

We were all gloom-n-doom last month reporting about AB 435, a State Assembly bill that will require motorcycles 2000 model year and newer to be subjected to the tyranny that is the smog check. Well, you can breathe a little easier (at least figuratively): the bill’s been watered down to skip the smog-check requirement. But don’t relax too much: the bill has gone on to the state Assembly, where it could be amended once again. For more info on how to fight The Man, go to www.amadirectlink.com or www.abate.org.

STATE SPEED TRAPS SET TO MULTIPLY

But the man ain’t done with us. The John Birchers among us may joke about Kalifornia being some kind of National Socialist dictatorship, but when it comes to motorists’ rights, we actually enjoy a lot of freedom compared to more humorless states. Municipalities and counties can’t set up speed traps, can’t set arbitrarily low speed limits and have to justify the use of radar. But that was BCL: now cash-strapped governments want more power.  Cue State Assembly bill AB 564, introduced by Anthony Portantino (D, Pasadena). The National Motorists Association says “this bill will gut the CA speed trap law, by allowing cities and towns to ignore the historic requirements for setting speed limits...Should this bill pass and become law, the cities and towns across California will be able to justify greatly reduced and unsafe speed limits (thus generating more fines-ed.). Please contact the members of the Senate Transportation Committee and your representative, and urge a NO vote on Assembly Bill 564.”

DO YOU REMEMBER THE CABO 1000?

Speaking of speeding, there may be some of you out there who participated in (or even just wanted to participate in) the madcap, unofficial and possibly not-so-legal Cabo 1000, a balls-to-the-walls sportbike rally that was held from 1988 to 1997. Some of you may even have enough functioning brain cells to remember it. If so, Ray Roy – one of the unofficial organizers of the event – wants to hear from you. You can call him at 415/699-9029, or if you haven’t traded your laptop for an XR600 yet, email him: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

BIG MAC ATTACK

As we get older, some of us don’t crave speed so much as a charismatic riding experience. Let the kids with their rock n’ roll and marijuana cigarettes get all crazy on the literbikes; we’ll have more fun tootling along at lower speeds. Brits Ellias Pitt, Mark Wells and Ian Wride (that’s really his name) wanted a lightweight, 500cc thumper in a retro-styled and sweet-handling chassis, so they designed a four-bike lineup they call Mac. They use a big tube-steel backbone frame and modern suspension and brakes, combined with retro-modern bodywork. The motor was picked mostly for the aesthetics of an air-cooled, carbureted, pushrod motor but also for the tuning potential: a 515cc kit and other tricks can get 42 hp. There are four models, described here on the website:

“Spud” for dossing about on, “Ruby,” the motorcycle equivalent of “the girl-next-door,” “Pea Shooter,” for squirting to your favourite pub and gassing with your mates and the “Roarer,” a modern-day dinosaur-chaser!”

Mac says the bikes will be built in small batches and be available world-wide, priced between $13,000 and $16,000. This has infuriated those in the Internet peanut gallery who think bikes that look like they’re from the ‘50s should have 1950s pricing. Go to www.mac-motorcycles.com for more info and lots of cool pictures.

A LOCAL AT THE ISLE

There’s a long tradition of Bay Area guys racing the Isle of Man TT, and this year is no exception. Bearer of the Purple Wade Boyd couldn’t make it (and is too broken up about it to even talk about it), but racer-about-town Tom Montano was flying the flag for us. Running a Honda CBR600RR for Marks Bloom Racing and Taj Mahal Racing, he completed three races and took a bronze replica for a 115.123 mph lap in the first Supersport (or “Junior”) TT. But more historic was his performance in the much-ballyhooed TTXGP zero-emissions event, a one-lap battle of electric motorcycles. There he missed the podium by just 31 seconds to Mark Buckley on the Brammo, posting an impressive 74.091 mph lap. Brit Rob Barber won that class on an Agni-motored GSX-R, shattering the 50cc record set in 1971 with an 87.434 mph lap. Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

NICHOLS MOTORSPORTS MOVIE NIGHT
Not to give too much space to famed parts pimp Morris Friedlander (if you recall last month’s News, Clues we ran a photo of his mug on the front of his FZR600’s fairing), but he would love to see you swing by Nichols Motorsports in Fremont for movie nights every other Tuesday at 7pm. Pizza and soft drinks are on Mo, and the shop will be open for business during the show. On June 9th he showed the moto-mentary Long Way Down, and for June 23 the classic McQueen flick “Le Mans,” and everything in the store is 10% off from 6 until 9 pm. You can also request a special hour-long rant from Morris on a variety of topics (his personal favorite: “Why is Everybody Out to Get Me?”).
JAYBUILT TRIPLE
For some of us, the ultimate motorcycle would combine the hard-hitting excitement of a multi-cylinder, 500cc two-stroke from a ’76 Kawasaki K500 with a modern sportbike chassis. Can’t buy one such a thing, so if you’re Jay Abington, you build your own.
Sounds hard, but if you’re Jay – who is an expert fabricator who has worked for race teams, including San Jose BMW/CC Products – it’s no problem. He started with a ‘70s 500cc Kawasaki air-cooled triple, and set it what seemed like a good distance in between ZX-9R front forks and swingarm. He then fabbed up a nice frame from 1.25-inch chrome-moly tubing, and added a belly-mounted fuel tank, hand-made expansion chambers (with those slick Gatling-gun style mufflers) and aluminum bodywork. It weighs in at 310 pounds and handles well (according to Jay), plus, as Jay says, it “hauls more ass than Hugh Heffner’s limo.” Just wait ‘till he puts in the 750cc mill…
See more pictures at www.bayarearidersforum.com (search for “Jaybuilt”).