Police Indians
Several weeks ago I was admiring a neighbor’s Indian motorcycle. I told him my father rode an Indian motorcycle in the 1930s and 1940s when he was a member of the Pennsylvania State Patrol, which became the Pennsylvania State Police.
My neighbor recently gave me a copy of your July/August 2022 magazine, and on Page 31 you write that Pennsylvania purchased 450 Indian Scouts for various duties. I thought your readers may be interested in the enclosed photo taken at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I cannot date the picture, but it is when they were still Pennsylvania Highway Patrol. My father, Cpl. Thomas Betsko is in the forefront, second from the left.
I believe one of the motorcycles is on display in the museum at the academy in Hershey.
Robert Betsko/Sun Lakes, Arizona
Love for the Mystery Ship
Kudos for an outstanding cover and story about Craig Vetter and the Mystery Ships! As an architect and industrial designer, I have always been fascinated by Craig’s innovative solutions.
I also enjoyed Robert Smith’s very thorough background on the Ariel side hack rig (Something on the Side). I had a similar unit when I was living in Denver in the 1980s. I was the campaign manager for the election of Federico Peña for Mayor (he won). I frequently drove him to various civic events in the rig which always got lots of smiles and thumbs up. I think it was a 600 single. I wish I knew where to look for some of those old photos. Yes, as Robert points out, it was dark burgundy!
I was also delighted to read Clement Salvadori’s piece about the early Honda Scrambler. Clement was the first moto journalist I ever took on one of our Lotus Tours, which was to Rajasthan, India, in 1997.
Burt Richmond/Chicago, Illinois
Remembering the CBX
I enjoyed the July/August issue of Motorcycle Classics and the article on the [Honda] CBX. Like many people, having owned a CBX I have some experience with it. I thought the article was very fair. Not really a great motorcycle, but it had its features and good points. I enjoyed the time I had with one as the owner. In May 1978 I had just bought a Suzuki GS1000EC. Later that summer I saw the Honda CBX. WOW. I could have had that if I just waited a little. Yes, 1978. The first model year CBX was 1979, but it was available in dealers mid to late summer 1978. There was a story at the time (it may or may not be true) that the release was delayed due to head gasket problems and two additional M6 screws were added. That moved the release from early 1978, so it got a model year of 1979 with early release for a 1979 model. Anyway, the 1979 model was available for about a year and a half until the improved 1980 model was released more or less on time.
I kept the 1978 GS1000 and put 130,000 miles on it over the next 20 years. Probably a good choice versus jumping ship to the CBX. The CBX I owned was an insurance sale bought in the 1990s. So I finally had the CBX I lusted over. It needed some work and was an interesting restoration project. I rode it some but when it became more valuable than I could afford to keep, I sold it. I got about half of what they are currently going for. Thanks for the article.
Ralph Noble/Poulsbo, Washington
Originally published as “Readers and Riders” in the September/October 2023 issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine.
