motorcycle news: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Is a Gold Wing Like a Sport Bike?

The Honda Gold Wing has had a unique place in the motorcycling world ever since its introduction. It has only been briefly challenged once as the most sophisticated long distance touring bike, but I would say that today it is solidly at the top of the heap.

When it was introduced in 1976, it had an opposed four cylinder motor of 1000 cc. Honda only sold it "naked" as we say today. That means it did not come equipped in the showroom with fairing and luggage. But aftermarket suppliers saw to it that almost every GoldWing was soon set up for comfort and hauling extra crap, for a bit of extra money.

Over the years, the Gold Wing has grown, and features have been added. The weight has gone up and so has the price, and the power, and the number of extra options.

I admire the Gold Wing as a touring machine, but I have never owned one because it is not my style. Mainly I am cheap. But also I do not like balancing so much weight at a stop, or pushing it around the garage. I'm sure Mary Ann would like the comfort of sitting in the passenger perch, in the lap of luxury, but now she has her own bike and likes that even more.

I am not trying to put down the Gold Wing at all. Because of its weight and length, it is slightly restricted in its nimbleness, its maneuverability in corners and on curving roads. But when I road tested a Gold Wing once, it seemed to be just as fast in the corners as any other bike, at least at the speeds I was able to go. A few years later, I was riding my BMW K1100LT in front of a newer 1800cc Gold Wing, and the Wing was easily keeping up to BMW through some fast corners. At the end of the road I checked over the Honda and noticed the footpegs were ground off right up to the top rubber. That Gold Wing rider was obviously used to riding it fast. A Gold Wing makes the rider feel like it can keep up with lighter and more nimble bikes. The BMW weighed about 200 pounds less. But common sense says no way can a longer, heavier bike keep up when pushing the envelope. I think if you were suddenly faced with a really sharp turn, the Gold Wing might not make it while a lighter bike may get through. But I don't have any proof of it.

Another problem I have with the Gold Wing is the sheer number of fiddly things on it to play with. The stereo, intercom, cruise control, GPS, and I'm sure there's more. I know you can add all this stuff to any other bike, but the point is, it is distracting. One of the safety features of a motorcycle is that you are forced to pay more attention than in a car. But a Gold Wing, with its sheer size, number of built in goodies, tends to isolate you from the road, and distract you at the same time.

Now if Gold Wings were feared as dangerous bikes that crashed a lot, maybe that would help their riders concentrate on the road. But no, they apparently are safe bikes that rarely crash. I suggest that is mainly due to many of the Gold Wingers being kind of slow riders. But on a twisty road, a Gold Wing does not force you to slow down the way most big, heavy, bikes do. My Vulcan 900, a much smaller bike, is far more scary going around a corner than a Gold Wing, and grounds its floorboards threateningly at much lower speeds.

What if you have a really good rider on a Gold Wing, riding with a group of other fast riders? Might that result at some point in the Gold Wing rider hitting a corner a little too fast because they were listening to the stereo, and not being able to wrestle the big bike around the corner? I remember only three horrific accidents with motorcycle journalists in the last ten years. One was at Cycle Canada in 2003, and one was at Baggersmag.com last year. I'm sure that three accidents don't prove anything, but two were on Gold Wings that missed a curve. The other was safety expert Larry Grodsky who hit a deer.

Maybe its just another chance to remind riders that there is no such thing as a perfectly safe motorcycle. And that your attention and care are always demanded. And another: Goldwings probably should not be driven as if they were sport bikes. On the other hand SUV's should not be driven like sports cars.

Here is a video of a Gold Wing being driven faster than most people could ride a sport bike. But I'm guessing familiar road, familiar bike. Without both you would have a very ugly situation. Heck even with both, a bit of bad luck, a few leaves on the road, or a truck coming the other way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nrMQ3QwyPo

Yamaha YG-1 Rotary Jet 80

The original Yamaha 80 holds a very special place in my heart. It was my first real motorcycle, after a '57 Allstate Cruisaire. My Rotary Jet was a very early 1963 model, before the invention of oil injection. You can read a brief introduction to that bike at the beginning of Tiddlerosis. The machine pictured here is a 1964 model. You can see an old B&W photo of my machine on the other post. My bike was exactly the same color as this one, fire engine red and silver. There were many issues that were new to the Yamaha 80, and one of them was a selection of many colors, either in solids or with silver trim. One of the first-year brochures displayed a rich, deep purple with silver, and I have seen blue with silver, solid red, and I believe I vaguely remember seeing a white with silver and a yellow with silver. As you see from the other photo, I added red and white vinyl saddlebags to my bike, and for reasons of which I am unsure at this time, mine had turn signals, but this one does not. I have seen versions of the 80 both with and without.

There were few competing 80-100cc Japanese tiddlers when the Rotary Jet was introduced in early '63, but several would appear over the next couple of years. The two biggest sellers, the plain putt-putt Honda 90 was launched six months after the Rotary Jet, and the Super 90, a legendary equal to the Rotary Jet, blasted onto the tarmac a year later. The Suzuki Trojan 80 was the only sporty street model in this class challenging the Rotary Jet until the Super 90. Yamaha really set a precedent with the introduction of the 80, quickly adding a trail model that would dominate the class in off-road racing for several years.

The Rotary Jet was a quick little sucker. Although the claimed top speed was 60 mph, the most a little shrimp like me could ever coax out of it was 53 mph, but it would get there in a hurry! Its big claim to fame was the new rotary valve engine. Look at the photo: the carburetor is hidden away down in the crankcase; that canister above it is the air filter. You could remove the baffle in the exhaust pipe to try to intimidate the competition a bit, but you would not go any faster.

Yamaha did a hell of a job upstaging the big volume seller of the day, the Honda 50 Sport, at a price of only about $50 more. Let's run through the specs. As mentioned earlier, the color choices were more advanced and the metallic silver fenders and headlamp nacelle were metal instead of plastic. Both machines had four-speed footshifts, but the Yamaha was a rocker type. The Yamaha had real telescopic forks instead of the dinky leading link type on the Honda. The seat was of a softer foam and the handgrips were larger. The whole motorcycle had more of a big bike feel to it. As I said, mine had turn signals, but none of the Hondas did at that time. Both machines were kickstart and included rear footpegs, but the ones on the Yamaha folded up. The Yamaha's exhaust pipe was a clean, rounded, megaphone type, without an ugly seam like that on the Honda. The key was one of those strange little thingies with a fat plastic head that fit into the left side panel. The pressed steel frame was a smooth Y-shaped monocoque design. The enclosed chainguard, fender flaps, and chrome-paneled gas tank were similar features found on both models.

Although the Honda Super 90 eventually outsold the Rotary Jet, this is clearly the model that really launched Yamaha from American showrooms. The company's earlier models were certainly racy enough, easily blowing key Honda competitors in the weeds, but these never really sold in large numbers in the U. S. Any pre-'63 Yamaha has always been a pretty rare beastie in this country, unlike the very common Dreams and Honda 50's. It did not hurt Yamaha's fortunes a bit to become the company that invented oil injection only about two years later, either!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Peter Lenz, Teen Motorcycle Racer, Dies at Indy

Peter Lenz, 13, was killed yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after his motorcycle crashed and he was hit by another racer. Here's an excerpt by Jonathan Welsh of the Wall Street Journal:

Peter Lenz, Teen Motorcycle Racer, Dies at Indy

Peter Lenz, 13, was killed yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after his motorcycle crashed and he was hit by another racer. Here's an excerpt by Jonathan Welsh of the Wall Street Journal:

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Sport Bike

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Panel

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Picture

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Side View

2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Action

2009 KTM RC8R

2009 KTM RC8R Test Ride

2009 KTM RC8R Picture

2009 Victory Hammer S

2009 Victory Hammer S Wallpaper

2009 Victory Hammer S Black Edition

2009 Victory Hammer S Side View

2009 Victory Hammer S Picture

2009 Victory Hammer S Image

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS Repsol

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS Wallpaper

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS Motorcycle

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS Black

2009 Honda CBR1000RR ABS Picture

2009 Aprilia RS 50

2009 Aprilia RS 50 Picture

2009 Aprilia RS 50 Motorcycles

2009 Aprilia RS 50 Wallpaper

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Baby Killer Toyotas?

I wish I had bookmarked this comment, but I didn't and I can't find it. However, I have decided it is an important enough issue, just on principle, for another Public Service Announcement"

The comment was made in response to the Toyota Sudden Unintended Acceleration problem. The issue is turning off the engine, where on a keyless ignition, at highway speed, you need to hold down the button for three seconds before the engine shuts off.

One commenter had something like this to say. My baby is sleeping in a room right in front of where I park my Toyota, and is protected only by a flimsy wall. The truck could easily reach and kill the baby before I can say "one-Mississippi two-Mississippi three-Mississippi" and shut the engine off.

This particular comment does not appear so extraordinary at first, but it popped back into my head later. Did this person convert his garage into a nursery for the baby? That would explain the flimsy structure, as the garage door might be flimsily boarded over to look like a wall. Anyway, lets look at all the problems with this scenario.

You should not put your babies in front of vehicles unless you have a reasonable barrier to protect the baby. This would go for all human beings, by the way. The most common way for an accident to happen here, is the driver gets in the car or truck, starts the engine, accidentally puts it in drive, instead of reverse, while forgetting to hold the brake. The truck lurches forward, and the driver is too shocked to respond, or worse yet, responds by mashing the accelerator in haste instead of the brake, compounding the problem. This is not a Toyota problem at all, and it is not entirely a stupid driver problem. It is a situational problem. You should not set up a situation where the vehicle could easily kill somebody if you make a simple mistake. Mistakes happen, so try to avoid setting up traps like this.

Now about the three second delay. This delay is only when the car is at highway speeds. When stopped or parked, the shutoff is instantaneous, just the way it works every other time the driver turns off the engine.

If you hold your foot on the brake, the car or truck will not move, even if you give it full gas. I have tried this with a sixties-era car, and brakes were not as good then, but the engines were pretty powerful before anyone started worrying about fuel shortages. And when the car is not actually moving, the brakes will hold the car as long as you can press your foot down, they will never burn up. On the highway, it is possible to burn out the brakes if you don't stop the car.

Another thought, is the truck parked uphill from the baby's flimsy chamber? Because in that case you may cause a lot of damage just by forgetting to put it in park or not applying the parking brake.

There are certainly two aspects to this story. I have had kids myself, and I know how hard it is to prevent them from getting run over by a car. They manage to escape in an instant, and head right for the nearest busy road to cross. It has happened to me. Drivers often speed through our quiet dead end street neighbourhood, until speed bumps were installed, and then they started taking short cuts over the lawns to avoid the speed bumps until a neighbour placed a rock ornament in the middle of the lawn. Now its a lot safer for kids. That's what it takes to protect kids. You baby would be taken away by a child protective service if you ever put your baby to sleep in a cardboard box in front of the wheels of a parked vehicle. The reason you do not have your baby taken away is only because your structure is stronger than a cardboard box. But how much stronger?

It's too bad that emotional situations like get dragged out just to add fuel to the Toyota hysteria. Many people get crazy when they just think of babies being hurt.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Coast-to-Coast on a 95-Year-Old Harley

This story caught my eye. It tells of a coast-to-coast antique motorcycle race, the Motorcycle Cannonball Run, to start September 10, 2010 from Kitty Hawk, NC and end in Santa Monica, CA. One rider plans to ride a 1911 Harley-Davidson Silent Grey Fellow all the way. Here's an excerpt from an article appearing in the Simi Valley Acorn written by Angela Randazzo"

Read the complete article.

Coast-to-Coast on a 95-Year-Old Harley

Read the complete article.

Are You Being Discriminated Against?

Have you had the police single you out for a traffic stop? Are you a tiny minority as a motorcycle rider in your city? See what happened to one lady rider in New York City. Here's an excerpt from an article by Honey Berk in AOL Autos:

Read the complete article to see what's going on across the country.

Are You Being Discriminated Against?

Read the complete article to see what's going on across the country.

Motorcycle Pictures of the Week - Ken

Here are my Pictures of the Week as displayed on the Motorcycle Views Website. These are taken from the Moto Pic Gallery. See Ken with his 2009 Triumph Speedmaster. We need more pictures of men and women with their motorcycles. Get your picture in. For details, see Motorcycle Pictures of the Week.

If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.

Motorcycle Pictures of the Week - Ken

A Motorcycle Sound is Not Just Noise

When you listen to the sound of a motorcycle engine at highway speeds, does it say anything to you? Sure, there is the actual noise of the exhaust, and possibly some whine and clatter from the moving parts. But to me there is always something more. I am listening for the sound of impending doom, like Captain Kirk in Start Trek listening to the Chief Engineer Scotty in the engine room "She canna take it captain, she's breakin' up".

There have been a number of different sounds in my own motorcycling history. Most of the time I did not hear any negative protests from the engine compartment. On my first bike, the Honda CD175, I often cruised at 60-70 mph, blissfully unaware of any panic down below. It helped that there was no tachometer, it was months before I read through a shop manual and calculated, to my surprise, that the engine was running at a steady 7,000 -8,000 rpm. Also, the mufflers were very quiet, and the wind was very loud. So I never heard any noise from the engine. And then, being 21 years old, I didn't know that much about what could go wrong with an engine anyway. If I had known about all the moving parts inside there, I might have slowed down.

My next bike was a two stroke, and the exhaust sound is quite distinctive from a typical modern motorcycle engine. While accelerating, the two stroke exhaust is sharp, and on deceleration, it has a distinctly erratic high pitched popping noise. But if the engine is not running right, for example the plugs are getting fouled, you can hear a difference in the exhaust note. That may be because the exhaust comes directly from the power stroke, or it may be because a fouled plug clogs up the muffler with oil. But you can hear the difference between a good or bad running engine much easier on a two stroke than a four stroke.

My next bike was a Honda GL500, and like all my bikes after that, it was a four stroke. But surprisingly, for a V-twin, it had a very flat and droning exhaust note. Although it was very subdued, I kind of expected a more melodious "bike bike" sound when I bought it. I did ride that bike pretty hard, as it was the first bike where I did not worry about keeping up with freeway traffic. It was twice the size of my previous bike, and plus it was liquid cooled, like a car. My first bike never saw a freeway, and the second stayed in the slow lane for fear of seizing the motor. The GL500 felt secure to me. But as it got older, I started hearing funny noises coming from the engine, and then I began to lose a little confidence in it.

Then I got a bike that put all worries aside, tossed them in the dungeon and threw away the key. If Scotty had been down there, he would have been whining "Can't you find a place to go to warp speed, captain? The thrusters are getting rusty from lack of use." This bike had six cylinders and 1000 cc. Each one of the six cylinders was the size of the entire engine on my first bike. It also had a fairly loud racing exhaust. On the freeway, if I gave it full throttle, the sound was enough to make surrounding motorists duck as though they had been buzzed by a low flying F-16. Heck, even I ducked a few times until I realized that it was me.

After that I got a four cylinder BMW, liquid cooled and with a standard muffler. For some reason that bike always sounded more like a transport truck than a Formula 1 racing car. But no matter. Either way the undertone of the engine sound was always a positive message "Hey, open it up, us cylinders need some exercise". And of course, I got a few speeding tickets to prove it.

Now I have this 900 cc V-twin Kawasaki Vulcan. For the first time, I have a bike that delivers a traditional motorcycle sound. The sound you hear in movies like "Easy Rider", and "The Wild Angels". The sound I used to hear rumbling past the house at night when I was a kid. But when I get the Vulcan out on the freeway for a long drone, I hear another undertone to the sound again. As I get up to 125 kph, the engine begins to vibrate a little, despite the rubber mounting and the counterbalancer, and I start to hear a faint "She canna take it captain."

It's all BS of course, because I'm sure there is no problem travelling at much higher speeds. But unlike many of my other bikes, the Vulcan is designed to feel better at lower speeds. It vibrates less, sounds more mellow, and even seems to produce more power. My other bikes seem fussy at low speeds, and smoothed out at ridiculous speeds, and the power seemed to build the faster I drove them.

So yesterday, for old time's sake I drove my restored 1970 CD175 down to Port Dover, 100 km away. On the way down, something was holding me back. Even on the busier roads I was afraid to go over 80 kph (which is the speed limit anyway, but try telling that to a line of cars forming to the rear). But on the way home, the voices in the engine fell silent, and all I heard was this smooth purring at 110 kph, and sometimes I went even faster. Yes, I still had some cars behind. It was Friday, and lots of people have places they are desperate to get to. But it was kind of fun flying along at those speeds on such a tiny bike.

Now maybe I should start listening to the sounds from the skinny 3 inch wide tires of unknown origin. "She really canna take it Captain." True, they are the same size tires from forty years ago, but I have also added about forty pounds to the payload.

Picture: My Honda CD175 on the way back from Port Dover, almost tempted to get on the freeway, but no.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm

Today I saw this.

My mind typically goes straight to the gutter when ever allowed to do so.

So I says to myself, "Self, That logo looks more like an E.D. with a little boner than a D.E. doesn't it? And doesn't ED stand for erectile dysfunction anyway? Why yes. Yes it does."

I wonder if they created this logo before Viagra and all of their commercials gained popularity and the term E.D. became a common house hold word.

Things that make you go "HMMMMM".

That's a mouthful!

What Lessons Did We Learn From the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

While reading about World War 2, one of the puzzling things from a Canadian perspective, is the Nazi attack on Russia, while they had England and France down. Then, another puzzling development, the war against Russia, where the initial German advance was turned back after its defeat at Stalingrad. In the final analysis, it seems it was the USSR that beat Germany, judging from the number of German soldiers they killed. Although statistics vary, the Soviet Union probably accounted for more than 70% of German casualties.

As I was reading about this struggle between Germany and the USSR in WW2, I kept coming across references to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. If I ever heard about this treaty before, I promptly forgot about it. It only took effect for about a year, and was torn up when Germany lost WW1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was the peace treaty signed between Germany, and the Soviet Union. Basically, it was a complete surrender by the Communist Soviet Union, which at the time had just been formed after a civil war where the Czar was deposed.

In the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Germans (and their allies, including Turkey and Austria) demanded a huge amount of territory from Russia, including the Ukraine. The Soviet Union lost a quarter of its territory and people, and 90% of its coal mines.

The Russian delegation at the peace talks, in the face of such outrageous demands, broke off negotiations on February 10, 1918. The Germans renewed their military offensive, and in two weeks took most of Belarus, the Ukraine, and the Baltic countries. By March 3, 1918 a new treaty was signed, officially giving these territories their independence, but Germany began appointing aristocrats to new thrones in the newly independent countries, and began sending in troops to occupy these areas.

The quick victory of the Germans was a big disappointment to the Communists. At the time, they were quite idealistic. They believed that they represented a fresh new world-wide movement of freedom and equality for the common man. They had hoped that the workers of Germany would support them in their quest for peace and economic justice. However, the German workers did not rise up to disrupt the Kaiser's war machine. After this humiliating defeat, the Communist movement was taken over by far more cynical leaders, who had lost all their belief in the power of noble ideas, and from that time on the Communists in Russia were pretty much a power hungry dictatorship with a sugar coating of egalitarian idealism, reinforced with brainwashing and propaganda. If that failed, the Communist program continued with mass imprisonment or executions.

Following this lightning victory of the eastern front, and the final Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Germany moved to reinforce the western front against France, England, and now the USA, and had some initial success in this attempt. Their hope was now to go all out to win the war, but it was only a few months later, they ran out of steam and surrendered in November, ending the war, and at the same time ending the Treaty of Brest Litovsk.

At this point, much of the Russian Empire was either adrift or nominally independent. In this power vacuum, the Communists then began a war to regain their lost territory over the next few years, and they succeeded in annexing the Ukraine, which I guess would have been the biggest prize in the struggle. They also waged a bitter war against Poland.

How did the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk set up the Second World War? For one thing, the USSR had a lot of Russian Jews in its hierarchy, and so the idea that German Jews had betrayed their country took hold. Hitler believed this, and eventually Nazi propaganda convinced most of Germany. The second point is that Germany had, through a quick military victory, actually taken the Ukraine and most of Eastern Europe, so it was easy for the Germans to imagine that this territory could be retaken just as easily, and probably even belonged to them. For Germany and the Nazis, WW2 was all about punishing the Jews for WW1, and retaking the lost territory of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

On the west, the Germans never really had any illusions about permanently occupying England or France. If Britain and France had not interfered, the second world war would have been between Germany and the USSR alone.

Picture: From left: From Communist delegation Lipski, Trotsky, unknown person, Joffe from this web page.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

-Dying man- His last wish is to ride his Electric trail bike

Environment Friendly Online store received an order for a ZEV5100 Trail and long range Utility electricbike. It is the world's first street legal electric trail and dirt road motor scooter! It can take to the pavement and serve as a commuter bike. The lead time on production is normally 90 days.

Shortly after the order was placed the man wrote an email politely asking if they could speed up the production since he was diagnosed with a fatal liver disease and he may not even have 90 days to live! His only wish is to be able to ride and enjoy the E-trail/utility bike as much as he can before he dies!

Here is the text from the email...the part with him dying was added only as a P.S!

"As to what color I would like. The Camo is what I choose. Ps I would would like it if your team could put together one for myself sooner than 90 days as I have been diagnosed with I rare type of Liver cancer called hamagioendothemaloma. Say that three times fast Ha! So I may have (months) to enjoy it. Thank you for what ever you can do for me. Best regards, P" (real name kept private to respect his privacy).

It turns out that this hamagioendothemaloma cancer, is the eighth most common cause of cancer deaths in men.

Two seconds after the staff got the email, the factory wrote back and said they would pull parts of their own personal E-bikes and have the other parts flown in by airfreight ASAP so the man can get it as soon as possible.

Everyone is working fast and furious to make this last wish come true for him. Will keep you posted as this develops.

Dying man- His last wish is to ride his Electric trail bike motorcycles

Here is the text from the email...the part with him dying was added only as a P.S!

It turns out that this hamagioendothemaloma cancer, is the eighth most common cause of cancer deaths in men.

Two seconds after the staff got the email, the factory wrote back and said they would pull parts of their own personal E-bikes and have the other parts flown in by airfreight ASAP so the man can get it as soon as possible.

Everyone is working fast and furious to make this last wish come true for him. Will keep you posted as this develops.

What Did You Do in The War?

Apparently lots of people whose fathers were in the war want to know what he was doing. That's because a lot of soldiers who came back from World War 2 were reluctant to talk about it. My father died in 2004, so I am not able to ask him about it any further. So I decided to investigate with Google, starting with a few details that I do know. In my case, I knew he was in "The Royal Canadian Engineers", he was in England, France, and Holland. He spoke French, very little English, and was posted with other French Canadians. I knew at one point he was driving a Dodge Power Wagon army truck, judging from the owners manual he brought back. He did say a few things about clearing mines, so I'm guessing he did a lot of that. If I recall correctly, he said they used to find the mines using a point like a bayonet or knife, which seems to me to be exceptionally dangerous. But then he always used a knife to extract toast from a toaster, a no-no, according to the fire department. He sometimes made remarks about Bailey Bridges, which were military bridges built to move tanks and artillery when the permanent bridges had been blown up by the departing German Engineers.

The engineer's job was quite diverse, and different from regular soldiers. For one thing, the lowest rank in the engineers is called a "Sapper" not a "Private" like in the army. I guess it's the same rank, just a different word. Here is a blurb on their job in Normandy.

Some of what they did in Normandy and Holland was providing battle maps; repairing and building roads, airfields, and bridges; clearing mines, road-blocks, and other obstacles; filling-in craters and anti-tank ditches; and constructing facilities such as headquarters, barracks, and hospitals. Before D-Day, in Britain, they "built defences like beach obstacles, pill-boxes, anti-tank ditches, and minefields. They also improved British road-ways to facilitate the movement of military traffic, constructed military and air bases, and even built the Canadian wing of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in East Grinstead."

My father volunteered early, instead of waiting for conscription. Apparently this was unusual in Quebec where the majority were anti-war. Also unusual was the choice of the Royal Canadian Engineers, but maybe that was not a matter of choice. Most recruits joined with the idea they would be to fighting the Germans, not doing construction work. A sapper might even be more at risk than an infantryman, because the Germans always took special interest in firing artillery shells at them as they built bridges for Allied tanks.

Before D-Day, Canadian engineers were involved in the Dieppe raid, but my father was not one of them. After the failure of that raid, a member of the RCE designed an assault vehicle for the engineers to use, which helped reduce the casualty rate. It was called an AVRE (Assault Vehicle, Royal Engineers), made by modifying a Churchill tank. It fired a mortar instead of a cannon, and was able to mount a bulldozer blade or a crane, or several other options.

The Royal Canadian Engineers took on a lot of unglamorous tasks, including building war monuments and graveyards. However, when the Canadian Army bogged down fighting the Germans in Holland, many RCE sappers were transferred to the infantry, and got to join in with the fighting. That must have been quite a welcome change for them, given that they were getting killed anyway while digging ditches and clearing mines.

Not all men who returned from the war refused to talk about it. To get some idea of what my father was doing, I thought that some of the personal accounts on the internet might be helpful. Here is one personal story, by a sapper from the RCE, D. Charles MacDougall of Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

Picture 1 is a Royal Canadian Engineer digging up a mine in WW2
Picture 2 is Caen Aug 4, 1944, Engineers I guess are clearing debris.

Honda Cb 900 F Hornet

Honda Cb 1000 R Gallery

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Honda Cb 300

Honda Cb 300 Image

Honda Tiger E-Go Best Motorcycle

Honda Tiger E-Go

How Intelligent is God, Anyway?

How intelligent is God? Well, that question may depend on the answer of a more basic question: Can intelligence exist without a physical presence. A physical presence could be an organic brain, or something like computer chips.

When humans first began to speculate on the intelligence of God, they did not know that human intelligence is the result of a process that takes place in our brains, and that the brain has the equivalent of electrical circuits that transmit energy signals. Today we have a much better understanding of the physical process we call "intelligence", as we now can build semi-intelligent computers out of electrical circuits.

The early humans thought that intelligence was something like a miracle, or magic, without any physical process taking place. Therefore, it was easy for them to believe that God, who came before the universe existed, could be intelligent, and think, and make plans. And since they did not know intelligence as a physical process,they assumed that God's intelligence could exist before the creation of the universe. Based on that assumption, Man's own intelligence was simply a gift from God. But just a very small amount of what God Himself had.

As our understanding of intelligence, and the brain has increased, it might be time to reassess our assumptions about God's intelligence. Either God's intelligence has a physical presence or not. Its not possible for me to tell whether or not God has a huge brain tucked away in some other dimension of time and space, so I will go on assuming God's brain exists in some way, and begin estimating God's intelligence.

In theory God is so intelligent that he never has faulty logic, he has unlimited memory, and so can remember perfectly everything that happened since the beginning of time. He can also figure things out in virtually no time, no matter how complicated they are, so he also has infinite speed both in processing logic, and in recall.

But God could not have infinite intelligence if his brain was made up of chemical synapses and neurons and brain cells, like ours. Because it simply could never work fast enough. So that should really put an end to any speculation that man is made in God's image.

By comparison to God's brain power, Man has very slow processing speed, flawed logic, limited memory both in size and in duration. Man suffers from mental dysfunction such as megalomania, delusions, superiority complexes, xenophobia, and dubious motivation. God does not.

Can the difference in intelligence between man and God can be thought of as similar to the difference between an Amoeba and a human? If not an Amoeba, (because it has no detectable intelligence), maybe a better comparison is an ant colony. Ants build cities, ants have slaves, cattle (other insects), grow fungus for food, and make war. So pretty much like humans, then. Maybe too much.

If you gave God a normal human I.Q. test, and if he actually took the trouble to complete it, and hand it in, you would find that He had completed the test in less than a nanosecond, and the only answers he had wrong were ones where the test question was ambiguous, or the official answer scheme was in error. In either event, His score would place Him in the top percentile of the test, way more than He needs to become a member of Mensa (top 2% of scores).

God does not need to get His information from Fox News, or any other TV channel or any newspaper, because He knows everything already. He also knows everything that has ever appeared in print or on TV and can recall it exactly. Along with every radio broadcast and phone call ever made. God has also memorized every page ever written, and every web page on the Internet, and every rough draft prior to publishing that page. He has even memorized all the art work that Kindergarten kids have made, and all the essays written by school kids. God even knows the every movement of every ant that has ever existed.

God does not get faked out by optical illusions, God is not distracted by bright flashes and loud noises. That means his eyes are not made like human eyes. Very likely does not have eyes as we know them.

Human thoughts and opinions can be messed up by peer pressure. God would never have problems with peer pressure (He has no peers.) God would not have double standards. It would be impossible for God to be prejudiced, or biased in any decisions. God does not have a problem with intelligent people asking questions or looking for answers. Also, God would never believe that He was created by God. And God can fact-check Fox News easily in real time, so he would never believe any misstatements He heard on that channel (or any other, for that matter).

So that leaves us with this eternal question:
If Man is so stupid as to not be able to figure stuff out, or even remember what he has managed to figure out, why does God actually care what man thinks about him? Do you care what an ant thinks about you?

In all of Human history, there is only one message that could conceivably have been given to us by God. It is the message of love one another. And what do we respond to that? We ignore it and instead we worry about whether Muslims are building a mosque too close to ground zero.

Further Reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Intelligence

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Second-Premise-God-is-Intelligent (Says failure of socialism proves God is real, while also acknowledging the early Christian church was socialist)

http://godisimaginary.com/video10.htm (How about a third answer: God is real but does not get involved)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence (connection between education, intelligence and belief in God)

Also, my blog on what kind of motorcycle God would ride.
http://lostmotorcycles.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-kind-of-motorcycle-does-god-ride.html

Picture: From http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/i/intelligence.asp

Honda Benly Touring 150 / CA-160

The Benly Touring 150 was introduced to American Honda dealers in September 1959, only one month after Honda had entered our market with the legendary Honda 50. The Benly Touring was a high-volume, low-priced refrigerator of a motorcycle. If ever a motorcycle deserved to be called an appliance, the Benly is a shining example. This is one boring classic motorcycle. It is also deserving of a very special place in tiddler history as the machine that brought modern motorcycling to an eager herd of buyers ready for back to school excitement. Has there ever been a better reason to be excited about going back to high school or college in the fall than on a brand new Honda?

Of course the Honda 50 changed everything on two wheels in America. Without it there may never have been a sandcast 750 or a naked Gold Wing, much less the highly evolved two-wheeled cars that most motorcyclists ride today. You may have forgotten this, but the 80-100cc single-cylinder tiddlers that would become so ubiquitous everywhere from every brand were still a few years away at the beginning of The Sixties. Due basically to its OHC twin-cylinder, four-stroke engine, the Benly Touring became an instant success with the step up to a real motorcycle crowd in the early Sixties. The 150 was the lowest level machine that might not scare you on a road more traveled than a country lane. This trait, combined with its modern styling, refrigerator reliability, and its low price of about $500-550 depending on the dealer, put the Benly 150 in the motorcycle history books.

The 150 had a claimed 16.5 horsepower for a top speed of 84 mph with a tiny Japanese rider going down a very steep hill! The specs may have been fudged a bit, but the Benly was light years ahead of the American and European competition at the time of its introduction. The 165-175cc, ten-horsepower H-D Super Ten, Pacer, and Scat had classic motorcycle styling along with classic piston-port two-stroke singles that drank manually mixed fuel and sputtered their unpleasant drivel out the exhaust. Harley-Davidson had not yet even discovered real suspension systems for their tiddlers, and anything interesting such as nice paint colors, a decent amount of chrome, and buckhorn handlebars were optional at extra cost! They could do an honest 60 mph. So? Most Benlys could easily top 70-75 mph. The Triumph Road Sports Tiger Cub certainly had styling and charisma out its unreliable English wazoo, but its price was lofty and its dealers and servicing were few and far between. Did I mention how often it needed that servicing? What about the BSA tiddlers? They were about as exciting as a ratty old Ford Pinto. What else was available? Allstates, Cushman Eagles, Mustangs, and Vespas were the most common. The only thing resembling a real motorcycle among this bunch was the Allstate 250 Twingle, and its styling and performance was as inviting as a vacation to Austria in the winter. Of course Yamaha and Suzuki would very soon be challenging Honda's market share with zippy, sporty two-strokes in the 125-250cc size class, but the Benly Touring was the machine with the big head start in the race off the sales floor.

Out of the thousands of CA-95 150 and CA-160 models built, there were very few variations. All models were available in the ubiquitous red, black, white, and blue, and as with most of the early Hondas, the production numbers probably followed these four colors in descending order. The Benly Touring introduced Honda's modern, pressed-steel frame styling with square-shaped fenders and lines to the youth of America. The enclosed chain guard, twin seat with passenger strap, folding rear footpegs, squarely styled tank, sixteen-inch wheels, and low angelwing handlebars were a new look to American eyes. Everybody loved the quiet, but pleasant exhaust sound, electric starter, battery lighting, and decently comfortable suspension. Even a SOHC engine with a four-speed transmission was considered exotic at that time., and with its horizontally split engine cases, it didn't even leak!

The model pictured is a 1967 CA-160. That model was produced from '66 through '69. I used this one simply because it is the best photo I have from this series. The original CA-95 was built with blackwall tires, slightly smaller knee pads on the tank, a 154cc engine, a smaller taillight, and a few other, very minor identifying elements. The mufflers were crudely welded with a seam left showing down the center of the top edge, and their sides were somewhat flat. In 1963 Honda changed the standard tires to wide whitewalls, altered the shapes of the tank pads slightly, enlarged the taillight for better visibility, and changed the mufflers to a more pleasantly rounded shape. The 161cc, twin-carb CB-160 had already been introduced in late '64, so the Benly engine was changed to this displacement in 1966. The most distinguishing trait in 1966 became the narrower whitewall tires, the new model was renamed CA-160 and the Benly name was lost in the ozone forever.

See also: The Honda Dream Chart