Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125792
i ·ild·Mallered~HOldas on ... N ..... '" t4 > :; ..., ~ w Z w .... U > U Fujio's street bike. It looks stock but read below. RIDING THE YOSHIMURA , 78 rocket ship. You have to remember that it weighs 500 pounds, I kept thinking. Only it didn't feel that way. It flew. Fifth came along before you expected it. The speedo showed 150 (kilometers) when I got my first chance to glance at it. The machine didn't ntind it at all if the tach smacked the red zone. The brakes responded with the same immediacy that the engine does. Lord. The double disc is really the hot set-up, if you are getting the bot set-up. I took it down a curvaceous road near the distributor's. The only fault in the machine became apparent in the high speed, full throttle turns; the frame is somewhat overwhelmed by all that power flowing through it, and it begins to wag its tail a little bi~. It was never threatening in the use that I gave it. 1 kept it down to around 180 kilometers (keys?) per (metric?) hours, but I am told that it will do about 150 American with the appropriate gearing and bars. This is a tractable street machine, remember. HORSE Since we had just finished' testing ?stock Honda 750 the chance to ride the Yoshimura 750. came along at just the right time. The machine that we rode was an early model with the early (read "loud") exhaust system. Except for the dual disc set-up and a Japanese license plate it looked like any other CB-750. When Fujio Yoshimura started it, it settled into an idle right away. The first clue I was given that this machine had a past was when I blipped the throttle. It didn't respond like our test machine. The R's climbed very rapidly. Still, low speed response was almost the same as the stocker. A lack of camminess is a Yoshimura trademark. You could letjt drop down to 3000 rpm and it would respond to the throttle just like the stocker. Away from the st.oP sign it was a COUPON co IIJ&.K CO"..,." " ... ow AN• SALE • a,,,~ TO T •• ,vc.~ COUPON SALE ........ T.a.", COUPON $ALE COUPON SALE MAVRICK S~ICS MICRO- TIMER Resident genius is Fujio Yoshimura, son 01 the famous 'Pops' Yoshimura. Here he prepares to tweak the engine (and mind) of an unsuspecting CB 500 owner. • experienced to be appreciated. The only possible drawback is that an inexperienced fist could lock the fron t wheel at a very inconvenient time. Checkered Flag encountered a problem when they decided to produce a dual disc arrangement for the CB 500. There isn't adequate mounting points for a second disc. So they made new fork legs out of magnesium 'alloy. In addition to being lighter the CFC .legs offer the additional advantage of having a much greater amoun t of bearing area with the fork tubes. This reduces fork flexing and binding handling under all conditions. There is some very thoughtful engineering in there. THERE IS ALWAYS THE DIRT Although it isn't very far along in development yet, Yoshimura is also playing wit!> the XL 250. Dyno tests were run on the Webco Dyno recently. A stock XL 250 was put on the dyno and fooled with until Lt would put out its maximum power. I t produced a maximum of 16.84 horsepower at the rear wheel. A Yoshimura version with the stock exhaust system was dropped on the dyno and it put out 22.87 horsepower. With a loud pipe not quite two bhp were gained. Even with the quiet pipe the XL 250 puts out the power to be competi tive with the two strokes and has a better powerband in the bargain. It will cost you $218.60 less the pipe and shipping. Yoshim ura is presen tly working on his own quiet pipe for the XL 250 which will add a little more icing to the four-stroke lover's cake. They also make goodies for the 125 and 100 singles. Alexander says that the 125 can be made into a competitive road racer for $1100. Somewhere in there is a fast dirt machine. Checkered Flag Customs and Yoshimura Racing is located at 2109 Shasta Way, Sinti Valley, California 93065. That is way the heJlangone up Simi Valley. If you wan t to phone them try (805) 527-3589. There just aren't too many places that you can buy a machine capable of gunning down the leaders at Daytona. -ANY SIZE· ~~:~t. COUPON .sALE MAIL ORDERS ACcePTED. SEND 1-------....:....---..:.---1 50"1. D£POS IT. 8AUNa C.O.D. ~ ,,"'\ IA~ 2a UUq .lit!, I STANDARD TYPE ONLY ~. LIMIT ~ PlllCES EFF,C:TM ONLY WITH COM- PlETE-O COUPON. MiME fit. (O) CENTS :~::•• -"rC!) EACH 'NH ........ _ STATe .. ce" :s pra CU.I-rOP'\(R w " u ~ ~ o u 11DI A E. BALL ROAD, ANAHEIM, CAUF'ORNIA 11805 (7'4) 7"· tZSo