[DeTomaso] Absolutely zero DT content

[Scott Couchman]

Charlie, you're just having way too much fun! You amaze me......enjoy!

> On Jul 29, 2016, at 12:45 AM, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>   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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