(Last) Weekly Roundup: DeathTruck Edition

Vintage motorcycling: it's for everyone! My son's competent on his TT-R90, but in the past few months it's become plain to me that putting a 49-pound child on a 147-pound motorcycle is a recipe for him being a bit tentative while riding it. So I decided to get him a 50cc bike. After having two Honda CRF50s snatched out from under me because I couldn't travel to rural areas on short notice. I found this Yamaha PW50 a mile from my house. Except it's not a PW50; it's a 1982 Y-Zinger 50. It's been thoroughly rebuilt so it starts and runs great.

John really loves it; he'll pin the throttle to the stop across the eighth-mile grassy field behind the house, then he'll hit bumps deliberately so the bike jumps up in the air a bit. This weekend he told me that he wanted to name his motorcycles. "Crusher," he said, pointing to the TT-R90. "Snail," referring to his Avigo electric bike. Then, dramatically, his finger extended towards the Y-Zinger that was still popping and hissing from being run flat-out for half an hour, "DeathTruck."

I don't know where John gets his sense of literary drama. But I do know what his Uncle Bark and I were up to last week, and here it is!

Bark started his week answering questions like usual, but then the horizon was suddenly dimmed by the approach of a new Bark-Mobile. First, the foreplay. Then, the dismissal of suitors. Finally, the consummation devoutly to be wished Ford. But as Bark drove off into the Nitrous Blue sunset, he couldn't resist poking an autocrosser.

At TTAC, I rang the comment register pretty hard by talking about female autowriters, then I discussed Honda's penchant for borrowing styling themes.

For R&T, I reviewed the revised BRZ on-track then shared some memories of Brock Yates.

In a separate post tomorrow, I'll give you the Spotter's Guide for this month's print magazine --- there's a lot of my writing in there, and even the long-awaited guest appearance from Mr. DeathTruck himself!