[DeTomaso] Absolutely zero DT content

Charles McCall charlesmccall at gmail.com
Fri Jul 29 03:45:11 EDT 2016


Motorcycle ramblings with a question at the end....

The weather has been absolutely fantastic here for the past few weeks, so I
have been using my motorcycle for my daily commute to and from work. It's
recently back on the road after more or less being in storage for 18 years.
It is true that long term storage isn't good for vehicles - either cars or
motorcycles. I filled the tank up with gas and it all ran right on the
floor... hoses that had disintegrated with time. Got that repaired.

The gas on the floor was mixing with a massive oil leak caused by a gasket
on the cam tensioner that dried out and cracked. Got that fixed.

I'm glad my motorcycle is air-cooled or I know what would be leaking now!
We didn't get off to a good start this year!

The motorcycle is a 1982 Suzuki GS650, nothing particularly special but
with a lot of sentimental value. I bought it when I was 19 and a college
sophomore. I'd never been on a motorcycle in my life - neither as a
passenger nor a driver. I walked into the local Suzuki dealer and said "I
like that one, I'll buy it!" and paid for it with my visa card, at 19.6%
interest. And I wonder why it took me so long to pay off my college loans?
;-)

We went to the parking lot and the salesman told me "This is the clutch,
here's how you change gears, this is the front brake....have fun!" And I
learned how to drive on the way home. Ah, youth!

The motorcycle has been all over the place. I went to Cornell University,
in upstate NY, and my girlfriend at the time went to Michigan, so it made
the trip many times. It's attended Sturgis (despite being a Japanese bike,
but I drove it there unlike many of the Harleys!) prowled the streets of
Chicago, etc. But it got put into storage when I moved to Europe and took a
long time to catch up to me. It recently was made road-worthy and is still
wearing US plates, although I'll have to fix that over the next year. It is
very difficult and very expensive to insure a vehicle in Europe with US
plates. But for those from the US or Canada attending Le Mans Classic - -IT
CAN BE DONE!

Anyway, my question. The tendency in race cars and sports cars is moving
away from a manual transmission to an automatic. I know that isn't quite
true but don't really care if there is still technically a clutch or not -
if there isn't a clutch pedal inside, then it's an automatic! Why hasn't
the same thing happened with motorcycles? Because the shift time on a
motorcycle is already so short? Do racers even use the clutch on a race
bike? The weight associated with the mechanism is a larger percentage of a
light bike as opposed to a car?

Just wondering this morning, as it was a nice morning for a ride and as
there's no radio my mind went wandering...
-------------- next part --------------
   Motorcycle ramblings with a question at the end....
   The weather has been absolutely fantastic here for the past few weeks,
   so I have been using my motorcycle for my daily commute to and from
   work. It's recently back on the road after more or less being in
   storage for 18 years. It is true that long term storage isn't good for
   vehicles - either cars or motorcycles. I filled the tank up with gas
   and it all ran right on the floor... hoses that had disintegrated with
   time. Got that repaired.A
   The gas on the floor was mixing with a massive oil leak caused by a
   gasket on the cam tensioner that dried out and cracked. Got that
   fixed.A
   I'm glad my motorcycle is air-cooled or I know what would be leaking
   now! We didn't get off to a good start this year!
   The motorcycle is a 1982 Suzuki GS650, nothing particularly special but
   with a lot of sentimental value. I bought it when I was 19 and a
   college sophomore. I'd never been on a motorcycle in my life - neither
   as a passenger nor a driver. I walked into the local Suzuki dealer and
   said "I like that one, I'll buy it!" and paid for it with my visa card,
   at 19.6% interest. And I wonder why it took me so long to pay off my
   college loans? ;-)
   We went to the parking lot and the salesman told me "This is the
   clutch, here's how you change gears, this is the front brake....have
   fun!" And I learned how to drive on the way home. Ah, youth!
   The motorcycle has been all over the place. I went to Cornell
   University, in upstate NY, and my girlfriend at the time went to
   Michigan, so it made the trip many times. It's attended Sturgis
   (despite being a Japanese bike, but I drove it there unlike many of the
   Harleys!) prowled the streets of Chicago, etc. But it got put into
   storage when I moved to Europe and took a long time to catch up to me.
   It recently was made road-worthy and is still wearing US plates,
   although I'll have to fix that over the next year. It is very difficult
   and very expensive to insure a vehicle in Europe with US plates. But
   for those from the US or Canada attending Le Mans Classic - -IT CAN BE
   DONE!
   Anyway, my question. The tendency in race cars and sports cars is
   moving away from a manual transmission to an automatic. I know that
   isn't quite true but don't really care if there is still technically a
   clutch or not - if there isn't a clutch pedal inside, then it's an
   automatic! Why hasn't the same thing happened with motorcycles? Because
   the shift time on a motorcycle is already so short? Do racers even use
   the clutch on a race bike? The weight associated with the mechanism is
   a larger percentage of a light bike as opposed to a car? A
   Just wondering this morning, as it was a nice morning for a ride and as
   there's no radio my mind went wandering...


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