Photo Credit: Roving Rube. Viewpoint: Rockefeller Center concourse near ice rink; 4/11/02 5:44 PM.

Notes (Roving Rube): Resembling a foreshortened sports car hood, this is actually the front of a Honda Gold Wing, part of the Rockefeller Center Motorcycle Show which runs through April 20th.

Alternate View shows its profile and luxury seating arrangement; the accompanying placard notes that "the public reacted cautiously" to its unusual design when introduced in 1974, but that since then it has become one of Honda's top sellers.

The Rube liked how the motorcycles are on platforms (In Context) so that all the good stuff is up at eye level; held up by guy wires and don't have to be leaning on their kick-stands; and all that some of them, like the Ducati "Monster" in Detail, have mirrored bases so you can see the bottoms too.

A wide variety of awesome machines are featured -- the Rube, not previously too keen on motorcycles, was salivating over the cylinder sizes and arrangements, metal-flake colors, and streamlined styling, and afterwards found himself looking with new interest at the rides of the messengers and bikers passing by on the street.