Spotter's Guide To The First Quarter 2018 Issue Of Cycle World Magazine

For years, Cycle World shared an office with Road&Track on the West Coast; they also shared the crowd-pleasing privilege of publishing Peter Egan's musings. Today, both magazines continue to release work by the individual oft-acclaimed as the "new Peter Egan", an obscure former BMW mechanic and not-quite-six-foot-tall manlet who writes under the deliberately generic nom de plume of "Sam Smith", chosen in tribute to the English pop singer whose music is rivaled only by the soulful work of Darius Rucker for center stage in Sam's heart.

Unfortunately for the readers, "Sam Smith" commands a remarkably stout freelance fee due to the immense number of exotic cars and motorcycles that pass through his grasping fingers at a torrential rate. Therefore, to save money on their newest issue, Cycle World called on yours truly, the Lowest Cost Choice Of The Low Priced Three.

On Page 26 of the magazine you can read a retrospective I've written concerning the Yamaha FZ-1, ycelpt Fazer 1000 in overseas markets. It's a subject that has been near and dear to my heart for a long time, even if my own FZ-1 is in the process of a long, slow, rectification of deferred maintenance. I'm hoping to ride it a bit in 2018.

If you enjoy the piece, please feel free to let CW know. It's a true privilege to be on the pages with "Sam", Zach Bowman, and the rest of their gang. I can still remember sitting in my high-school library thirty-three years ago reading the magazine cover to cover. It never occurred to me that one day my name would be on the contributors' list.