X-NEWS: cerritos.edu rec.motorcycles: 80122
Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.1B1 12/08/92 VAX/VMS V5.5-2; site cerritos.edu
Path: cerritos.edu!news.service.uci.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sun-barr!
 news2me.EBay.Sun.COM!cronkite.Central.Sun.COM!sixgun.East.Sun.COM!laser!egreen
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Why is Lance Holst such a jerk?
Message-ID: <1krkpv$46q@sixgun.East.Sun.COM>
From: egreen@east.sun.com (Ed Green - Pixel Cruncher)
Date: 4 Feb 1993 17:46:39 GMT
Reply-To: egreen@east.sun.com
References: <1993Feb4.033807.16052@ncar.ucar.edu>
Distribution: world
Organization: Sun Microsystems, RTP, NC
NNTP-Posting-Host: laser.east.sun.com
Lines: 40

In article 16052@ncar.ucar.edu, allison@meeker.ucar.edu (Lynne Allison) writes:
>Can anyone enlighten me on why exactly Mr. Holst is
>such a jerk?  The whole story if anyone knows it would be nice.

Poor upbringing?  Rejection as a child?  Spurned by a lover?  Who can
say what forces conspire to make someone a jerk?

Many people don't like his writing style.  He glorifies the latest
greatest most neon, and pretty much trashes anything else.  He ignores
about 80% of all riding, and only reviews a bike's suspension in the
twisties, or its acceleration in the 1/4 mile.

He is quite vocal and not the least apologetic about his practice of
riding big bucks test bikes, loaned to the magazine for evaluation,
beyond his limits, and crashing them.

More specifically, he was attending a CLASS session at Sears Point a
couple of years ago when about 15 of us were in attendance.  He was
among the most rude and unsafe of the riders on the track, ignoring
safety rules with apparent impunity (he was there to write a review of
the class, so the officials and instructors allowed him a far sight
more "discretion" than the rest of us).  On an instructional videotape
made at the class (a SAFETY school) he flagrantly ignored an
instructor's braking advise, and smugly bragged that "I never use the
rear brakes!"  When his review did appear in the magazine, he spent a
lot of time ridiculing the competence of the riders in attendance, and
just generally making an ass of himself.

Conspicuous in that article, and all his writing (and that of the
magazine as well), is a consistent editoral condemnation of loud
exhaust systems.  Many people find this ludicrously inconsistent with
his accompanying brags about flagrantly ignoring the speed limit on
public roads, and other illegal activities.

---
Ed Green, former Ninjaite |I was drinking last night with a biker,
  Ed.Green@East.Sun.COM   |and I showed him a picture of you.  I said,
DoD #0111  (919)460-8302  |"Go on, get to know her, you'll like her!"
 (The Grateful Dead) -->  |It seemed like the least I could do...