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/125797
WANT TO BUY ONE OF THOSE BIG KAWASAKI MX-ER'S? By Art Friedma n Kawasa ki is probabl y going to sell a few Df' their big-bore piston port motocro ssers. That 500 class machin e is not a 490. In fact, the actual displace ment of the beast is one of the best kept secrets since Juan Ponce de Leon died withou t revealin g the location of the Fountai n of Youth. It is possible that there are several differen t displace ment being experim ented with utilizing similar cases. Current tracksid e specul ation seems to favor a displace ment of 390 to 400cc. The chance for someon e other than Brad Lackey and John DeSoto to show up with one at the starting line may come next year. Althoug h the AMA does not now require motocro ssers to be product ion items, there is some thought that they may amend the rules at the Compe tition Congres s this year. The amendm ent would be somthin g similar to the Class C rule that there must be 200 copies of the machin e importe d or manufa ctured here. With that in mind, the Kawasa ki R and D people are going ahead and produci ng 200 of them. This will mean that they are very limited product ion items like the Kawasa ki H l-R or Yamaha road racers. The engine and wheel hubs will be manufa ctured in Japn, but the rest of the machin e will be KAWASAKI IN EUROPE • By Art Friedma n Septem her 17 is going tobeabi g day for the compet ition wing of Kawasa ki Motor Corpora tion. On that day, riders from both of their Americ an teams will compet e in major Europe an events. The road racers, Team-H ansen, will enter th.e Race of the Year at Mallory Park in England , and Brad Lackey will represen t the motocro ss conting ent at the Trophe e des Nations in Holland . The Race of tlte Year is shaping up to be just that: the race of the year. With the cancella tion of the AMA Nationa l schedul ed for that day, some our top riders will be there banging fairings with Europe 's top riders. Kawasa ki will send Yvon DuHam el and Gary Nixon over with their machin es and tuners aDd Paul Smart will meet Hurl~y Wtlvert with his Seeley- framed machin e there. Paul is trying to convinc e Gary to try the Seeley and his having another one made up. It might decide someth ing about whethe r English riders are just Angl<>-freaks in their preferen ce for frame design or whethe r the English frames are really that much better than what other builders can muster. Along with the !(awasa ki wreckin g crew we can also expect to see the road racing mightie s from Harley- Davidso n: Cal Raybor n and Mark Brelsfor d. BSA-Tr iumph will have some of its Yankee heavies on hand also, and the likeliest ones are Dick Mann and Gene Romero . The Americ ans (an Paul Smart, a ·Briton riding for an Americ an Team) will face Europe 's best. The ace English scratche rs will all attend. JamoSa arinen, who just won the 250cc World Ghampi onship, will be on hand. The questio n seems to be: What is Agostin i going to do? The 350and 50Occ World Champ ion's hoss, Count Agusta, decided that he didn't want the 500 ro race against the 750's. Ago solved that hy persuad ing the County to lSuild the 750 for these meeting s. Then the Italian FIM affiliate threw a Vespa in the works by schedul ing a nationa l race, cancelle d earlier in the year, for Septem ber 17. Now, the I talian associat ion issues Giacom o Agostin i's license and supplies him with lots of money races, and they will take away his license if he enters another race on the same day that they are holding one of theirs. Ago is working on the problem now. Lord, with some luck Mike Hailwo od migh t even be persuad ed to try on his leathers again. But that's stretchi ng it. MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE CHAN NEl•.. The Americ ans going after Europe an gold and prestige in the Trophe e des Nations motocro ss in Europe will be up agains t much stiffer compet ition, relative ly than the road racers. Brad Lackey is happy about the idea of team compet ition which he feels wiU work to the advanta ge of the Americ ans. His teamma tes will probabl y be Gary Jones, Jim Weinert , andJim P"omeroy. They will face the motocro ss might of Europe, and will simulta neously provide an indicati on of the growth of. mo tocross in this country and measure Americ a's best against World Champi ons. ~ w Z W ...J U > U ~. . DeSoto will sell you his old one. If you aren't intereste d in buying one new, perhaps John ' made here. The present frame is sixth generat ion and is the most satisfa ctory combin ation of geomet ry, weight, and strength yet created . The TX-6 (the "6" indicate s that the frame is the sixth design) uses Koni shocks and Japanes e front forks. The most noticab le thing about the machin e is the giant air box that occupie s the central portion of the frame. This is said to keep mud and water out of the air cleaner altogeth er. The "produ ction" version will have frames that are hand made by the Americ an R and D people. It will be necessa ry to add a fittle weight to the present version since it weighs under 200 pounds and the AM rules require a minimu m weight of 209 pound s. The for-sale item will, therefor e, have extra gussetin g for added strength and steel rather than titanium bars. The heavies t thing on the bike will probabl y be the price tag. By all reports, it is one of the most reliable , easy-to- use machin es around, and Brad Lackey and John DeSoto like the big (251? 305? 351? 397? 450? 490?) Kawasa ki a lot. Who knows what power lurks in the Copper l-learts of NGKts? Thousands of bike and car enthus iasts know. Buggy, boat and snowm obile people, too. Plus do-it-yourselfers. with chain saws, lawn mowers. But how (s air that power. packaged? Open up an NGK. You see high alumin a ceramics. The ribs, gaskets and nickel alloy tip -all sorts of strange things. What you notice most- our "Heart of Copper." This coppe r core dissip ates heat faster than ordina ry iron cores. So there's less proble m with plug-damaging hot spots on the electrode. Less chance for piston- poppin g preignition. And a long-nosed insulat or holds just the right amoun t of heat to reduce tip fouling. The result -wide r heat range plugs. They have the therma l flexibil ity to perform in hot or cold engines. Under easy or hard use, in two and four cycle engines. ' Bike riders who only' have one or two plugs love 'em. They fire on time, every time. Sports car and small car drivers know they can take the high revs. And they're happy in high compr ession -high octane, or low compr ession low octane V-8's. So NGK's have the guts to go the limit longer . Plug in a set. See how techn ical advances payof f in power. In lower fuel and mainte nance costs. NGK's- cost no more. They just do more. NGK, the long life, hi-perf orman ce plug. • Rlbsellmlnet es flash over. High Alumina Cerami csgives bener heat dissipat ion and electrie al insulatio n. More Internal Gasket llInsure a bener seal. Copper Coregives wider heat range. More Spaceprevent s louling and ";isfiring . Nickel Alloy Tipgives longer lile. Angels., CsUIQrnia 90066 NGK SPAR" PLUGS (U.S.A.). INC., 12511 Bsstrlcs St., Los