Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

o The Transfomation Of A ,Mto Guzzi By Je rry Greer Moto Guzzi is one Italian motorcycle that undlsputedly is buUt for solid steady highway riding, and not even the most Walter Mitty road racer would ever mentally picture himself tucldng in tight on an Ambassador Moto Guzzi and laying it over to intersect a fast sweeper. Nor would any self-respecting road racer entertain that same IDckering image. After all, a 580 pound motorcycle with bulbous portuberances sticldng out in the wrong places just doesn 't convey the image of a low CG stream lined 160 mph road racer. So, for all the proper reasons Moto Guzzi from Monzd, Italy, with its two cylin der s hanging sideways at 45 degrees was passed by as a choice for the road racing circuits. Almost. Bob Bla1r, the Western U.S. Guzzi distributor and owner of ZDS Motors in Glendale changed that. He found himself being conned by a George Kerker into sponsoring a Guzzi on the road racing circuits. Kerker had previously visited the Monzd pland and had conned a ride on one of Guzzis record-attempt racers capable of sustained 145 mph plus runs. The bike was essentially a street rnachtne with megaphones full fairing, but it had toppled several world speed and combination endurance records for production motorcycles. The thought of 145 mph motorcycle powered by a virtually unmodified touring engine was eventually more than either of them could stand, and the metamorphisis began. A 1969 model salvaged by insurance was attacked by Kerker who Was armed to the teeth with hacksaw blades. The 580 pound r oll ing monster was reduced to 331 pounds rather quickly. Rickman provided the cerant type of front alloy , forks . and triple ,clamps. The Guzzi seat and gas tank were dispensed with and "a glass tank 'and seat from a factory Triumph were substituted. Rickman monopoltzed the front end with ' a partial fairing and fender. Engine modifications were planned next which consisted of straightening out the angled : intake manifolds for better flow, andadd1ng a couple of reverse cal! . s low taPer Ducati megaphones for ':a ,' broadened torque curve. With just those stroke, and multis this year. Pete Jackson known for his car injectors is buUding a simUar pressure fed type for the Guzzi, and it should forever rid the roadracer of plagn1ng flat spots in the throttle response just when he needs to r oll it on gently through , a turn. It'll also give a tuner mor e time to gripe since it requires less time to tweak out the carburetor. , The heads w1ll be flopped onto the flow bench of the only man in the business with so much detaUed knowledge of valve and port flow interrelationships, C.R. Axtell. He will place his attention on the s hape of things rather than the size of the ports and wUl carefully contour the back face of the valves to pr omote a venturi effect, letting shapes do the work of moving flui d masses through the ports. Norris Cams of Van Nuys received the nod for prototype cams and they hav e - already ground one experimental blllet. The 580 pound roiling monster was reduced to 331 pounds rather quickly. two engtne modifications and the bike's whittled weight of 331 pounds, it turned an extrerriely quick 12.60 E. T. and 105 mph trap speed at the drags, with round proflle road race type tires and a street gear set in the rear. They also took it to Orange County Raceway for tests on the raod racing cour s e. Surprise againl It was extremely stable. Girling shocks with progressive springs have been added to cope with the yet higher speeds expected after engine modifications. , It sounded somewhat weird with the long taper megs and the unusual firing impulses dictated by the cylinder layout: so it will sound right at home with the triple four hanger, two MOTORCYCLES NEXT FOR NADER? SUNLAND, CALIF. - Four Club director, B1lI Robinson, announced today that Ralph Nader' had been offered access to substantial evidence that a major motorcycle manufacturer bas dangerous defects in its products and that those defective units have not been recalled. In addition to Nader, the Four Owners Club has not1f1ed Secretary Volpe of the Department of Transportation and other government agencies concerned with safety and the consumer. Robinson further states that one of the major concerns of the Four Owners Club is the vulnerab1l1ty of the twowheeled machine to a mechanical fa1lure compared to a fa1lure on the four wheels , of an auto. ' "If you have trouble at 65 mph on a motorcycle, you , have your hands full compared to an auto." Problems with motorcycles are not ins1gn1ficant when it ts realized that California alone had 395,228 registeree:t motorcycles at the end of 19681 Estimates of California's total motorcycle population at the end of 1968 go as high as one m1ll1on- the d1tference being due to unregistered off-the-road cycles. National estimates are in excess of three milI1on. The Four Owners Club is a prestige, nationwide, motorcycle club devoted to the interests of high performance, road motorcycl1ng. A large percentage of its members are pr ofes sional people arid have exerted considerable "consumer" pressure on Four Club directors. The result bas been a motorcycle consumer orga.n1zation. Most members of the Four Club own the new, big Honda Four and according to the opinion of many members, the hig Honda has its problems. These problems are due to stick1ng throttles, break1ng drive chains and other defects that should be corrected on a $1600 motorcycle. The problems with the.big Honda Four and how the Four Owners Club bas taken 'on consumer group functions was the subject of an article in the March 3rd edition of the LOSANGELES TIMES. The Several 11ft duration parameters will be explored in the search to obtain a balanced power curve most suited to the weight and handling idiosyncrasies 'of this particular bike. And along with that thought is the matter of the non-existent rear sprockets for the Guzzi. Power can be transmission ration and final drive multipl1cation which is provided the Guzzi by shaft drive bevel gears. No extra gears, no different ratios for different tracks, and that alone would make auy one bike non-competitive regardless of power or what have you. Here the factory stepped in and agreed to provide extra gears for both the trans. and the rear bevel set. Horse power and gears are essentially take n care of, and weight is well under control. It's functioual yet It's differ ent, ' a combination not often successfully ma ted and even more seldom seen. But you will see it this season. - story was written by Times StaU writer Alexander Auerbach and includes comments from Robinson concerning the Honda's short comings as well as Honda Service Manager Bob Hansen's assessment of Honda's efforts to correct the problems. _ In the story Robinson cites stick1ng throttles. Hansen says, "We have not issued a recall on the accelerator because we have not determined that it is a problem of any consequence." Hansen did state that the company' 'is work1ng On some modifications" for the throttle. IIIGGS TO fAI' $100,000 by Al Franken Barry Briggs of New Zeall\nd, fourtime world Speedway motorcycle racing champion, ' today signed a contract with Great Bear Enterprtses, Inc. of Los Angeles that w1ll guarantee Briggs more than $100,000 for 1970. ' Briggs, who becomes vice-president of Great Bear, w1ll be involved in a whole 'ser ies of projects, including product endorsement, product development, racing for Great Bear and heading the new Inter-Am Season of Speedway racing. The Inter-Am series is projected for October and November. The series w1llinvolve approximately 12 meetings between a World team, to be organized by Briggs, and the United States. Sites have not yet been set, accord1ng to Briggs. The World team will contain the premier Speedway riders from England, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Poland and possibly Russia, according to Briggs. Briggs also reported than anAmerican team of Speedway riders w1ll go to England this summer to compete against the world's best. He also said that he expects to get one American, the American champion preferably, to be allowed into competition for the World Championship this summer. Mota Guzzi with Its two cylinders hanging sideways at 45 degl80s was passed by as a choice " for the road racing circuits, almost. By Maureen Lee Well, Elsinore is all over but the shouting and by the shouting we mean what happens when the riders see the result sheets. We haven't seen a Grand Prix yet when someone didn't have a gripe and unfortunately, all too often the rtderIs right, there has been a mistake made , and only the checking of the lap Charts thoroughly, one against the other catches the error and that's work, man. We hope the Gripsters video tape system works the way it should because it will certa1nly eliminate the discrepancies. A camera can't record a number incorrectly, that's for sure. Maybe this will be an unpopular suggestion but one worth th1nk1ng about. How about declaring all Grands Prix no-point runs? This would eliminate a lot of work for the stewards who have enough to do with regular racing and issuing numbers. We don't believe it would cut the entries down one bit if no points were paid but it would put the fun back into riding a Grand Prix. Sound like a silly statement? We'll prove our point. scramiDn' aroundr On Saturday, particularly in the tra1l bike class, there was a lot of rider swapping going on. You could stand right there and watch it so consequently some of the machines were being ridden by fresh riders towards the end of the run. Others were handled by youngsters who had gone the whole route by themselves, were just about hanging on in grim determination and pride to f1n1sh, and f1n1sh they did. Now maybe the guys who swapped back and forth don't ' give a darn about the points, they just ' wanted to ride it for the sheer fun of it but maybe the I1ttle Idd who went the whole way by himself does want to lower his number and do it honorably. Chances are he f1n1shed behind the other guys because he was just downright pooped in the last laps. So if all these runs did was pay trophies, (we don't mean "cheapies" either but nicely destgned awards) it would do away with that I1ttle problem and if two guys felt they didn't have enough muscle to make it the whole way and had to share a scooter and the~l trophied in, well, maybe they could share it, one keep it for six months one for the remainder of the year, but it wouldn't mean as much as the trophy given to the riner who went all the way. If you've never had that sense of pride of almost fal11ng off your machine at the f1n1sh you're so tired but being able to say .. I did it" and Imow you did It all by yourself, then you've missed a big turn-on, bel1eve me! Got the new A.M.A. Sportsman rule book the other day . It's delicious reading! Some of it you st1ll have to be a lawyer toflgure out what they REALLY mean. Unfortunately, some wise bird in Worthington caught on to the fact that the old rule book states that a scrambles ts a test of sldll not speed and so the new one specifically rules against those under sixteen riding in scrambles plus the other events of course. The penalty section is stiffer, so don't dear friends, get caught with an over~s1zed bike in the wrong class on a tear-down. It w1ll cost you your I1cense for 30 days plus a $25.00 fine and if it's your own bike it's a year suspension from even entering the pits at a sanctioned race. (Hee, hee, I'd like to see how they'd enforce that last bit around here!) Should you be the type who after being protested says, "You're not going to touch my bike," that's a year off the tracks brother. So let's all be good and keep our machines legal. Another suggestion we've had and it comes rrom Jim Peterson, President of the Dirt Diggers and that is the District create a 650cc motocross class to encourage the real big bores to ride. How anyone could survive riding a big Triumph on a real motocross course kind of boggles your mind but it's something to think about and might get some more of the big boys outto the ' cr os s es. Me, I'll stick with the FIM gradlngs on machinery because we don't stand a prayer against the Europeans unt1l we learn we have to play the game their way. ~ r.; ~ kJ -J ;:: U

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