Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

M-Xpression ~ C\I Carabela arquesa X125 .... <:J ..c E II) :> o Z By Lane Campbell It's been almost a year SInce we saw a seeming " Elsinore Replic a " in the Carabela b ooth at a trade show and asked , "What is it?" What it was , was the Mexi can finn's answer to the latest generation of European and J apanese 125cc moto crossers, and their first attempt to produce a European-calibre chassis/handling package. After "what ?" comes "when? " and on that subject the distri b u to r reps became inscrutable enough to pass for Orientals. Finally PJ 's of Manhattan Beach, California began re ceiving early production models of the new "Marquesa, " and we snapped up a chance to go out with shop rider Dave Soboda for a couple of admittedly quick test impressions. One session wa s on a wet, tacky (a nd very tractive) Saddleback circuit, the other was on more typical southwest dry hardpan. Firs t visual im p ressio n is th at of a very neat, well-detailed production article whose outward ap p.earance creates a constan t ternptauon to co mpare it with an Elsinore. Carabelas are just one p ro d uct of Acer-Mex, a vertically-integrated industrial co m bine in Mexico City, which now does all its own castings , moldings, tube roll in g and formi ng , the whole ta co. Man y detail pans have a design lineage co m ing down from Italian hardware wh ich th e firm produced under license for many years, bu t consciously updated and detailed-o ut with the American customer in mind - like the clear plastic sediment traps under ea ch fuel tap , the carefully booted and T y-wrapped cables, rubber-mounted 30mm Mikuni , full-floating rear brake and the neat , cleanly molded fibreglass and ABS plastic bodywork. The basic 12 5cc radial-he ad Carabela motocross engi ne sits some three to four inches lower th an last year in a new-from-scratch frame w ith d ouble down tubes and a single toptube that fo rks just under th e front of th e seat. The rear engine m o u n t floats on the swingarm pivo t bolt. The sh ocks are made-in-Mexi co Gabriels with five-position preload adj ust m en t a nd compound-rate sp ringi ng. (Gabriel is a familiar n am e in the replacement car parts market ; this is their first serious try at a di rt bike shock. ) Dave Soboda, an Interm ediate racer with ex p erience on 125 Elsin ores, Suzukis, and earlier-mode l Carabelas, rode t he Marqu esa at Saddleback. Here are a few of his impressions after abou t 20 minu t es on th e co urse: CN: Let's start with the engine. Where does most of the power co me on? Dave : Power's all or most at the top. (Peak is estimated near 9500 RPM. ) CN : Low end? Dave: Ah h - not so good. It's there, but not much . CN: How does it get to the gro und? Dave : Gr eat. Doesn 't spin off like I tho ught it would. It wants to lift t he front off the line , after that it j ust wants to d ig in . . . . Really fun on downhills, the tail doesn't wa nt to wag at all. CN: And the steering? Dave : Better in ro ugh than in smooth Anyth ing you can dead lift is ligh t e no ugh (ab o ut 195 pounds wet) t o be co mpeit ive - right Dave ? Dave : Quick , take the p icture be fore I rupture myse lf . 12 co rners . For tight co rners , it feels a bit long, at first . Squares o ff ne at . The fro nt wheel never washes - at leas t no t wi th t his traction (it was beautiful . . . Ed.) .. . I tried to get it to wash out , almost had th a bars touching the ground. . .. It doesn't really want to slide unless you clutch it and gas it to ma ke it slide. Mostly , the rear just wan ts to follow th e front . CN: How abo u t th e suspen sio n ? Dave: It's go t go o d travel. I go t full travel o ut of th e shoc ks, never used up all the forks . .. th e tr ack was really rough . I h ad so me trouble with the shocks he ati n g up. CN: You coul d feel th e d amping go ing away? Dave : Oh, d efinitely . CN : !low about th e gearb o x? Did you catch any neutrals? Dave: Only once. It t akes gettin g used to . going from a n Elsinore. The shift leve r is fa rth er forw ar d. It shifts smooth . . . gear spacing keeps it on th e power - I don 't have to worry about it dropping off. CN : Any thing else? Dave : As for the front en d co ming up , I think it's be cause the pegs are fa rther ba c k than the Honda 's, I got used to it. For th e record, Dave w eighs ab ou t 160 pounds. When our 200 pound test turkey got on it, th ings were a bit diff erent. Measured travel on th e Marquesa is six and one-half inches front and ab out five and a quarter rear. There's a tw o-in ch, simp le-w ou nd spring and a nin e-inch, progressive-wo und spri ng on each shock. Th e Gabriels don't app ear to b e rebuildable. The Saddleback test was cu t short when a shaft key sheared at the center clutch hub. A carryo ver fro m earlier Carabelas, th e ke yed sh aft is viewed by the. distributor as bo th a potential weak link and as a safety factor that prevents shock d a m age elsewhere in the drive train. Pj's reco mmends replacing the lo ck washer on the clutch hub, because with the stock one the n ut wo rks loo se. allowi ng the hub to slop on the shaft, in turn causing the key to go away. With the needed spares back at the shop , it was decided to m eet aga in another time, another p lace to finis h up. This ti me, conditio n s were very So CaI-ish and the as-fitted Yokohama ru bb er was insta n t wheelsp in on th e po wder-s urfaced hardpan . Changed trac tio n and weigh t di st rib u ti on allowed for , our aforesaid tu rkey fo und the Marq uesa much as Dave had described it. It's u nde rstandably p ipey, but the powe r surge as it co m es o n th e pi pe is " soft" rather t han "hard," T his gentle transition combines with a reasonab ly wide po werband (fo r a 125 , at leas t ) in an engine that is very easy for the semi-skilled rider to use to good effect. The gear spacing is just right . Clutch p ull is fairly soft, front brake pull fairl y hard for desired effect. Bo th brakes require co nsid era ble conscious effort to lo ck up, even in spotty traction. Throttle throw was smooth and short. The grips, the pegs, the bar/seat/foo tpeg relationsh ip all felt fine for a long-waisted six-fo oter. Our st affer 's ex t ra weigh t call ed fo r tw o stops more sh oc k preload and made the fore-aft wei ght distribution much more neutral . With jus t a little weight shi ft , th e front end stayed right d own, and ju m ps wer e low and flat. Neither the fron t no r th e rear wants to kick high o n reb o und; in fact the bike see m ed t o flo a t ov er th e fast co b by spo ts. (We sus pect that the "flo at" was literal at the re ar, wi th air under th e wheel more o fte n th an not. The Gabriels ar en 't a ny worse than J ap anese shoc ks, but th e rear su sp ension will d efinitely need fiddling t o sui t th e individual rider. ) The Marquesa is exquisitely neutral-steering under just about any co nd it io ns, any speed, throttle off or throttle o n . A slid e does have to be deliberately provoked, even in the marbles. If it's going to go away , it's going" to slide out in a " neu tr al " mode, correctable with throttle and weight shift. Berms - front brake, pivot, and gas it" - just like Russ Darnell says, and the Carabela makes it feel eas y . It appears th at Acer-Mex has do ne a well-executed "technical leapfrog " act , after studying the best feat ures of

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