a rerun on the man/machine interface
.
(even if joel
WHY TORSTEN CAN'T RIDE JOEL'S BIKE
by Lane campbell
~
w
Z
W
...J
U
>
U
I noted with interest a letter in Cycle
News cr1tlc:1zlDg some of the ideas and
conclusions in my first article. I just
had to answer since the letter gave me
food for thought and an excuse to peddle
Ken Dunlap another chapter.
Flrst--dld I say you can't be a superrider If you're DOt built llke Joel Robert?
When I wrote that part, I was really
pointing out two things:
a) How Critical it Is to place the
footrests and controls on a machine
to suit ~ individual rider, then tune the
suspension to match;
b) How bloody dlff1cult it would be for
some greenhorn engineer to learn with a
computer what Joel Robert knows instinctively, through the seat of his pants,
so to SPeak.
Therefore, a man of Robert's ca1lbre
can tell the engineer how to set up his
personal motorcycle taster and cheaper
than the engineer can design It alone.
What happens next depends on how the
manufacturer chooses to build Its
"customer" bikes, after the superrlder
has shown them how to set up his tactory ride. Many wUl simply produce a
direct copy, modifled slightly to accept
production line tolerances.
Others
(usually the mass market flrms) will do
a little more detailed followup engineertng and will produce a motorcycle
which fits a standard cross section of
the adult male population.
Past experiences suggest that CZ and
Husqvarna (possibly also Maico) market
a close replica of their star riders'
works bikes, or at least they have done
so in the past. My own and certain
other writers' experiences tend to bear
this out. Think about a couple of wellknown European motocrossers, whose
names have been synonymous with the
development of their factory ride to
championship status. Joel Robe rt Is
medium height, compact and muscular.
Torsten Hailman is quite tall and long
bodied. I also happen t9 be fairly tall
and long bodied (though the resemblance
stops there). Two years ago, a couple
of frlends in the South Florida motocross
circus bought new <:pen class rides; ooe
a 36
