Cycle World Staff Blog, 2009

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Mike Traynor's funeral was held Friday, September 18, at the Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta. Spectacular church. I'd say upward of 200 people attending, beautiful piano music playing before the service. Four eulogists spoke. Joe Kelly recalled a lifetime friendship with Mike going back to Traynor's newspaper days before the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. He talked glowing and appropriately about Mike's character. Very well done. Next was Kyle Clack, who spoke of Mike as a mentor and motorcyclist. I wish that I had recorded what he said, because Kyle gave a most incredible vision of what Mike's riding might be like in Heaven, and I was just stunned at his very detailed descriptions—all of which came to him the day before when he was riding down from Asheville in the monsoon-like weather Atlanta had been having at that time.

Next spoke Dr. Darell Bigner, MD, PhD at Duke University, where the PBTF established its first research foundation. Dr. Bigner is a wonderful gentleman, nearly retired at 71, who detailed the difference that Mike and wife Dianne's commitment to finding the cause of and cure for brain tumors in children is making. Finally, Chris Kernion, a fellow board member of the PBTF, spoke about the loss of his child to a brain tumor, and what coming to know Mike meant to him in their efforts to help others with children fighting the disease.

There was more celebration than sadness, and much marvel for this man who had quit a successful career in newspaper publishing to find a cure for a disease that took the life of a child of a friend of his. At the end of the eulogies, the pastor spoke briefly again, followed by the hauntingly beautiful sound of a bagpiper at the back of the church playing 'Amazing Grace.' The bagpiper led the procession of the casket out of the church and into the hearse for the trip to the cemetery.

Internment at the cemetery was brief with a few last comments by the pastor. Everyone said their goodbyes to Mike and we were on our way with a wonderful warmth for the man who had meant so much to so many over the years. While many may choose to quantify his life by the fact that the foundation he started has to date raised more than $50 million dollars for research into a terrible disease, most will remember him for his intense passion to find a cure, and for the special touch he had with the kids.

I was lucky to know him and observe that passion a bit closer thanks to the many years of the Ride for Kids raffle bike that Cycle World has coordinated over the past nine years. When he and Dianne asked me to join their board a few years back, it allowed me to see Mike a bit more closely and to truly gain the measure of the man. I will miss him for the single focus he brought to the mission, but also for his desire to always seek a better way, which we chatted about occasionally. When CW's founding publisher Joe Parkhurst passed away, with Mike's help we created the Joseph C. Parkhurst Education Fund to benefit the foundation's scholarship program for brain-tumor survivors.

I celebrate Mike Traynor's life most because he was a class act, he cared, and in his fundraising efforts through the Ride for Kids program, he presented motorcycling in a very positive light. It is hard to imagine a man who touched as many lives as Mike has in the past 25 years.

—Larry Little

Those wishing to make a donation in Mike Traynor's name can contact the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation at www.pbtfus.org.

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There's no joy quite like that of giving to others. When you give, you get back, and when you give to the California Superbike School by volunteering as a corner worker, you get back one 20-minute riding session per hour. Say, that's the same amount of time as most track days, isn't it? Yes, but the catch is you don't get to sit in the pits with the other kids between sessions. You must man a lonely outpost with nothing but a radio and some flags—Turn 7 at the Streets of Willow Springs, in my case. None but the brave need apply.

Every time I come to the desert, the same song kicks in on an endless loop: "O give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above, don't feeeeence me iinnnnn..." The Mojave can be a harsh environment, but when you hit it on a good day, it is sweet indeed; nothing but distant horizons, scattered clouds and balmy, dry air that cleans your lungs with every breath. Hot and sweaty after your track session? Take off your shirt and hang it on the canopy in the light breeze. It and you will be dry and crisp in about 10 minutes.

What about the psychological trauma of dealing with the constant carnage of crashed bikes and mangled bodies? Listen, kid, I'm a highly trained U.S. Army medic. So it's a good thing nobody came close to falling off while I was on duty. I don't know if a track day would be different, but the people who come to a track school seem to be pretty careful riders. Throw in the fact that the CSS runs stock exhaust systems, and after my PB&J-and-milk lunch, it was tough not to doze off out there. Between sessions, my plastic lawn chair was a veritable sensory-deprivation chamber except for the pain coming from my decrepit knees. Instead of hobnobbing in the pits, I was actually contemplating how to go faster next time. Strange.

In the morning sessions, you need to be careful not to startle the flock of beginners if you're a bit more experienced. After lunch, the pace picks up considerably. And by the end of the day, the instructors are raring to go. After learning how all day, it's good for the students to see how fast more advanced riders can get around the track. Corner workers don't get the benefit of Keith Code's classroom instruction, but if you can latch onto the back of the man himself for a lap or two, well, that's about as hands-on as it gets. I like underemployment more every day.

—John Burns

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Kenny Dreer continues to enjoy his post-Norton "retirement." When U.S. operations of the restart we put on hold in 2007, Dreer rediscovered his drag-racing roots, first on a dealer-sponsored Harley V-Rod Destroyer, then on his own big-block Kawasaki. Now he's got Suzuki power.

And Kenny's golden years, it seems, are faster than ever: "I just turned 62 and signed up for Social Security (before it's entirely empty), and this weekend I did a 7.955 @ 168.8 mph!"

Pretty good for a test session working out baseline parameters for the bike's nitrous-injection system.

"This drag racing stuff is seriously addictive, and I do have that 'addictive' gene," Kenny says. "Going with nitrous is a huge rush! This is a different motor than last year's Kawasaki. I upped the program this season with a Larry Cook Racing 1425cc Suzuki GS-based powerplant. Its roots go back to 1980, but it makes 220 hp—before the 'hair spray'!"

"Drag racing is like any other sport. If you want to go really fast, you need concentration and focus. It's a discipline and trust me when I say it's demanding. If you want those braggin' rights, you're going to work for them. We have a terrific organization up here in the Pacific Northwest, North West Drag Bike. I'd encourage Cycle World readers, if they ever had any fantasy of doin' the quarter-mile, to just get out to a track and do it. I will guarantee that you can't do just one run. You can't get remotely close to the same exhilaration—or acceleration—on the street (nor should you try). Did I mention we have killer Saturday night parties after racing; we make it a full day."

Oh, yeah, Dreer's 7.95 run? Made on the smallest nitrous jets. Seems like sponsorship from AARP is in order, Kenny, or maybe Depends...

—David Edwards

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Serendipity is a wonderful thing—you just can't count on it. When former CW staffer Camron Bussard (now with Cobra USA) mentioned he was thinking of going vintage roadracing, I casually replied that there was a race-prepped Honda CB350 in the Cycle World garage that could be had for a good price.

Like candy to a baby...

The bike was on loan to the magazine from good friend Chuck Davis, who had slyly hoped that we would finish up the last 20 percent of the build and send Cernicky out on it to torment the AHRMA regulars. Never happened and now it was collecting dust, rust and weevils in the garage.

A deal was done, and soon the bike was in the hands of Cobra's master fabricator Denny Berg for its final prep. Last weekend, Camron took the CB to Miller Motorsports Park in Utah (where Cam lives) for its—and his—shakedown run. His report:

"Guys, here's a photo from the first official outing of the CB350. The bike would not pull on top until radical jetting and unkinking some vent tubes. A smaller countershaft sprocket brought it all together just in time for the first race. The fast guys were running 2:00 flat on the 2.2-mile East Course at Miller; my first practice session was about 2:35 but by Saturday's race my times were 2:12. I removed Denny's awesome fork brace for Sunday and the times dropped to 2:08! Not bad for the bike or me.

"I had to wear the orange T-shirt to let others know I was a Novice in my class. Sunday, I finished 10th out of 18 racers, and without a slipping clutch, most likely would have gotten up to eighth. What a fun start!"

Billowy attire notwithstanding, looking good, Camron! Sounds to me like Daytona next March is in the CB's future...

—David Edwards

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It's got to be one of my favorite bikes of all time. The Norton Commando combines the nicest qualities of a traditional English parallel-Twin with a level of practicality, speed, smoothness and reliability that made it a true long-distance superbike in its day. A drop-dead gorgeous engine and lean, muscular lines for tank and sidepanels give just enough visual tension to suggest speed, even at a standstill.

Which is where my borrowed red '74 850 Roadster is at the moment, a standstill. It was a victim of long-term neglect but my friend and British parts magnate Bill Getty bought it a few years ago and has given it new life with a fresh top end (to rectify the rust-seized previous state) and new paint. I am currently throwing some jets at the JRC modern single carburetor conversion (see your local British parts dealer...) to find a good, clean-running setup, then will rehab a pair of Amals for more traditional duty.

Currently, though, I thought a trip into the primary to get some of the goo out was a good thing. Having sold my black '74 Roadster a few years ago (can it really be 2003?!), I'd forgotten what a pleasure Nortons of this era are to work on. It's not that earlier stuff like my '54 Velocette is irrational, but there was definitely a new rationale at work on this bike, even as the English motorbike business staggered its way into the mid-'70s. And way fewer oil leaks. If only the industry had been strong enough to survive the mistakes and evolve a bit more.

Anyway, I am reliving the past and hoping for the freedom of the road soon, but in the meantime I am enjoying my time contemplating the mechanical bits and restoring cleanliness and order.

—Mark Hoyer

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After leader Dani Pedrosa's fall on lap four, Valentino Rossi led the Indianapolis MotoGP until lap eight, when Jorge Lorenzo pulled even with him on the straight and then passed into Turn 1. On the next lap, Rossi went wide into T1, then fell suddenly on the approach to Turn 2, before he had leaned his bike over.

The accepted chain of events is that, off-line because of the T1 error, he hit the same bump in 2 that had unseated Tech3 Yamaha rider James Toseland in the first practice on Friday. This bump, in the braking area for 2, lifted the back wheel, precipitating a crash.

This seems unlikely to me, as a motorcycle that is almost straight up and down is quite stable and cannot fall as quickly as one at full lean. Even so, Pedrosa's earlier crash seemed to take forever, the bike's angle of lean increasing by small degrees until its tires were lifted off the pavement by hard parts. How, then, could an upright bike fall so fast?

A first thought might be a seizure of front or rear wheel—but this seems ruled out by the fact that Rossi picked the fallen bike up and was able to ride three more laps before retiring with what we were told was a damaged throttle.

There are other circumstantial details, seen by observers earlier. First, Rossi approached the starting line for the green light looking down, as if checking something. This is nothing in itself—many riders have small concerns before the start and look to reassure themselves.

Second, his wide entry into Turn 1 on the falling lap was bigger than a small error would seem to indicate. It is Rossi's way to be lucky when others are unlucky, but to be so far off-line is a big difference.

Third, something happened to the back of Rossi's bike an instant before the fall, as though the rear wheel had momentarily been checked. One rational explanation might be that this was the rear tire of the now off-line bike, hitting "Toseland's Bump" and nearly stopping in mid-air as it was tossed upward off the pavement. But why a fall at all, with the machine upright? Why should this provoke any more than a late and poor entry into Turn 2, costing time but not costing 25 hard-earned points by earning a DNF?

Fourth, Rossi is said to have gone straight to his suspension specialist in his garage following his retirement from the race. As a professional, he wanted to understand the incident.

Something happened to a nearly upright motorcycle, unfolding too fast for Rossi to gather up and correct. I don't know what happened, but I won't be surprised if there is more information to come.

—Kevin Cameron

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Video: 2010 YZ450F Rumor Machine >>

We received this funny teaser video about the soon-to-be announced YZ450F and had to share it. Yamaha always likes to have some fun introducing its products, as has been evident over the years at its annual dealer shows, where, for example, former cast members of Saturday Night Live have helped add a lot of humor and entertainment to the proceedings. Yamaha has of late been quick also to incorporate its professional racers into skits, and now there is this video, featuring James Stewart, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Colin Edwards, Ben Spies and more, all commenting about the latest YZ, scheduled to be announced September 8.

—Blake Conner

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