Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'" " i6' 0. ,.. .,.. N "'r--,; o Z I ~ w by Jack Mangus W ...J Who is Noguchi? Those inside the American racing scene have heard the name Noguchi throughout the past racing season. Through the efforts of Dirty Distributing Gompany of Atlanta both road racers and motocrossers have been able to obtain either complete bikes or highly developed parts that bear the stamp of Taneharu oguchi. To say he is Yamaha's answer to Honda's Yoshimura is not sufficient. oguchi began what has developed into a lengthy connection with Yamaha in 1955 when he became a member of their factory road racing team. He successfully campaigned the "better machine" brand in Japan and throughout Europe for several years. In 1961 he was appointed team manager and started doing research and development work, concerning himself mainly with Yamaha's various road racers. While he is still under contract to Yamaha, Noguchi has his own place of business and is now turning out, besides bikes and parts, complete conversion kits that enable one to build their own Noguchi-Yamaha hike. Noguchi visited America for the first time in September to observe the racing scene in red, white and blue land and to further establish his relationship both with Dirty Distributing and with Yamaha International, the American representative of Yamaha. He, along with his export manager and interpreter Bob Narikawa and David Townsley, the oWner of Dirty Distributing, found time in what was a very hectic schedule to give us a few hours to find an answer to: Who is Noguchi? _ . Z U ~ U CN: When did you first become involved with the sport of motorcycling? Noguchi: That was at the age of 16 when I began to race. At that time we were running and working on CZ's, Velocettes and Vincents. Four years later when I was 20, Yamaha began producing bikes. So in 1955 I was called to road race for them. 1 ran their YD's against Honda's four cylinder on Japan's courses. The courses were mostly a combination of an oval and a road race Course and the surface was made out of volcanic ash. On circuits like Fuji I competed against racers like Ito and Takahashi and bikes like Honda, Suzuki and Monark. CN: When did you stop racing and become involved in R&D work for Yamaha? Noguchi: My last races were at the Isle of Man and m Holland in 1961. At that time all of my fellow racers were going to four wheels and my family was putting pressure on me to quit racing. Yamaha wanted me to continue to compete but offered me the alternative of using my knowledge in bringing up their young racers. So between racing and working in more of a managing or mechanical sense there was no gap. CN: Do you recall Gary Nixon competing at the Fuji circuit in 1966? Noguchi: Yes, 1 am the chairman of the Sports Riders Club in Japan and Nixon joined our club to obtain a license to race. (ED·-Nixon won the Amateur race run in conjunction with the Japanese GP.) CN: Are you still connected with Yamaha or is your operation strictly private? Noguchi: The Noguchi setup is a private business but I myself am still under contract to Yamaha. It is a different setup than a Yoshimura-Honda because while Yoshimura is strictly a private operation 1 do receive support from the factory. Yamaha does most of the research and development on bikes and parts and once they are satisfied with them they tum them over to me. Occasionally I'll be contacted and requested to iron out problems that other factories ;ue having with their racers; I've done this for Honda and Rockford. Suzuki has also consulted with me about certain problems. CN: Then Noguchi products are actually the result of Yamaha development, right? Noguchi: That is partially correct. The parts, bikes, etc., are mostly Yamaha's ideas and work but they come up with, let's say, ideas that they can't totally put to use and still make money so certain things are turned over to me for further development and production. Dirty Distributing has been selling parts, kits, bikes, etc., that are mostly things that Yamaha developed. We had no intention of building or perfecting these parts, etc., for America until David Townsley, the owner of Dirty, came up with the idea of importing them. We are now planning on expanding this setup. Townsley: Let me add to that. Noguchi has a retail Yamaha sh0l' in Y oko~ama that is a virtual mecca for racers. Less than 10 per cent of his sales are out of the box Yamahas. The majority are bikes that he has prepared. He has three buildings: One for the store and normal service, one for fabrication where he builds pipes and frames and does his modifications and another building for storage. CN: With your operation being subsidized by Yamaha, who owns the part or idea if, say, you develop a superior cylinder, piston or what have you? Noguchi: We certainly don't want to get into a conflicting position with Yamaha so if we produce something that they can make use of it is certainly theirs. We are under contract to them so anything they like they can have. CN: Since that is the setup, why aren't the production Yamaha motocross and road race bikes built with Noguchi innards? Noguchi: Yamaha's own people will do the same thing to their racers that we do to ours. But you must remember that a large pe.rcentage of the production racers are bought by Amateurs. The factory riders, experienced privateers, etc., will do modifications similar to ours but the average Amateur needs no more than what he can purchase. CN: You at te nded the Charlotte, N.C., race weekend. What was your impres.sion of the half mile, motocross and road race? Noguchi: I haven't seen enough American racing to really comment but it would appear to me that oval road racing seems to be lacking in interest spectatorwise and that dirt oval racing appears to be the popular thing, probably because of the smaller amount of money involved in dirt racing as opposed to road racing. I was not particularly impressed with the calibre of the motocross riders. Motocross is becoming a very big thing in Japan. CN: What did you think about the Harley-Davidson that Mark Brelsford rode to victory at Charlotte? Noguchi: It's very impressive. There's nothing sophisticated as far as the engine goes and how it can be .handled like that is really impressive. A Japanese rider wouldn't even dream of handling a big bike like that on a tight course. CN: Kawasaki attempted, not t60 successfully, to give the Yamaha 250's a battle in the lightweight road _ races this year with their single cylinder 350. They now have a production three cylinder 250. Do you feel that this machine could become a threat to the class that Yamaha has dominated for years? Noguchi: It's all a matter in how Kawasaki prepares it. I think they will compete with it if they feel they can run it without losing face. If it's just a matter of speed, yes, it would be faster but it has a wide engine so it will probably be a question of whether or not it will handle and, of course, whether it will last. CN: What can you tell us about the probability of Americans seeing either the watercooled Yamahas or the four cylinder 750 competing in the near future? Noguchi: We don't want to be the ones to make firm comment on that. The watercooled bikes will happen. It's just a matter of time. CN: We personally became familiar with the name Noguchi when John Long started his winning season at Daytona aboard the Noguchi-Dirty Yamaha and when Bobby Winters took third in the Combined race on a Dirty Yamaha. What were your personal feelings when Long accepted a ride for Kawasaki? Noguchi: Perhaps David should answer that. Townsley: John's not finishing at Laguna Seca, as you know, was due to one of thoselnickel and dime things failing. We certainly didn't want to stand in his way of Kawasaki's offering of substantial money. I personally feel that lack of time on Hansen's part was perhaps the main reason that John's Kawasaki di.dn't take him to another win. A team must devote the majority of their time to the Experts' bikes. John had the choice of either riding the Kawasaki or the Noguchi-Yamaha. CN: Will Long ride for Dirty at Ontario? Townsley: Noguchi has been working this week building a set of cylinders and a crankshaft for Gary Fisher to use in California. Once again it will be a matter of choice. Fisher can either ride his own Yamaha or ours. Long has the same choice he had before--the Kawasaki or the Yamaha. (ED--Fisher rode the Noguchi-Dirty Yamaha and finished seventh overall and was the first Yamaha to finish. Long chose to ride the Yamaha and, according to Noguchi and Townsley, accepted advice from a friend that changed the setup Noguchi had worked up, and as a result lost top end speed and finished third in the Ontario Novice race.) CN: Do you foresee Yamaha continuing their extensive racing effort? Noguchi: We have it direct that they will continue to race. They have no intentions of quitting racing. CN: What do you see for Noguchi in the future? Noguchi: The work I have always done has been and will continue to be a hobby. Yes, there's money in it but if it's going to have the name Noguchi on ito-it's going to be the best. After the Ontario race Noguchi informed us that he intends to return to this country for Daytona '73 with a large team comprised of both American and Japanese riders which will compete in all classes. Further plans involve the building of short track and half mile bikes utilizing the Yamaha 250 twins and the 360 single.

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