Rider Magazine, August 2020

Letter of the Month 
I enjoyed Tuttle’s July column, One Track Mind, ?Tool Addiction.? I had a rather heavy bunch of tools in a bag strapped to my Kawasaki KLR650 when I was doing that kind of riding, and I never got stranded because of it. Being a student of English, I?m sure Mark would like to know that the word ?bailing? refers to keeping a leaky boat afloat, leaving a party early, or spending your hard earned money to get an unsavory relative out of jail prior to trial. A bail is also a half loop of metal used to support a Conestoga canvas top, or used as a bucket handle on smaller form. Baling wire is used to keep hay bales and motorcycles together. Although…it could be misspelled in store packaging. I?ve seen duct tape in packaging that says ?Duck Tape,? but that could be an attempt at clever or funny marketing.
Ken Hanawalt, via email 

Thanks for bailing us out on that typo, Ken, the EIC is duly chastened. As our Letter of the Month winner and in return for your astute eye and pro bono proofreading contribution, Motonation is going to send you a pair of Trilobite Teff riding jeans. Congratulations! 

The Tracer Lives
Good review (?Capable and Quick,? June 2020), but I would point out the fact that the base Yamaha Tracer 900 is also still an option that probably compares more closely to the BMW F 900 XR. I was recently in the market for a bike in this class and rode both the XR and the Tracer 900. I ended up buying ...