Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Bow many miles 10 Ihe gallon =. .... does a TZ 750 gel? t fn II • aa l!') r-- By Elizabeth Lander O"l Buying a b ike 's not easy if Yamaha TZ 750As and KTM 1\10peds don' t bring to mind pros and con s like Vo lksw agens versus Cadillacs. Really , motorcycles scare me, but rid icu lous gas pri ces and babying my 10 miles per gallon Cutlass are gett ing old fast. l !') C\J ~ u ~ :;; Walking aro un d a mo torcycle kicking its ti res didn 't seem th e best app roac h . I decided to learn a foreign language cycle talk. Th ere are a lo t of cycle publications . So me of th em are : AMA News, Cycle, Cycle Guide, Cycle News . (Central, East, and Wes t), Cycle Rider, Cy cle Sport , Cycle Worl d , Dirt Cycle , Dirt Rid er , and Min icycle . Dirt Rider jumped right to m y attention, as I pi ctured myself t hrown in so m e d itch. So , I began thumbing thro ugh it. The tab le of conten ts read li ke m yoId Latin I b ook wo uld if I picked it u p today . What is a Moto XR, any way ? Turns o ut, it 's the le tt ers dep art ment. Undaunted, I tr ied "Tes t: Su zu ki TS 125. " I did fine un til "enduro " and " mo toc ross" brough t me screechi ng t o a h alt. Webster's didn 't help . Dirt Cycl e 's tab le of c on te n ts had a whole se c tion on "Dirt Te st s," so I trie d th e o ne on Bultacos 25 0 Alp in a, billed as "the ultim ate tr ailbi ke. " "En d u ro " was in the first sentence . Challenged no w . I read . on. " If you 're a 'Valter Mitty type motocrosser , th e Alpina is p rob ably not yo ur cup o f t ea" convinced me. Flipping throu gh the rest o f t he ma gazin e. I co un t ed eigh t pic t ures o f riders falling from their b ikes. En co uraging. Picking u p Cycle World , ' I was immediately drawn t o th e art icle , "J us t Fuelin g Around," wh ich conc erned motorcy cles versus au t o m obiles, Right up m y alley . The Kawasaki Z-I 9 00, to my inex perienced ey e , ap peare d t o have the best resu lt s (48 . 19 mpg at 65 m ph an d 56.84 mp g a t 50 m ph ). Conclusion Nu mber One, ' cy cle m agazines genera lly have fo ur areas of emphasis: features, ro ad tests/technica l, com pe t it ion , and de part ments . To this motorcy.cle n o vic e o nly the features m ad e any sense, an d th en n o t alway s. I ch ose Min icycle next, thinking a min ibik e m igh t be closer to m y ability . There were two ro ad tests and 10 features, in clu ding a short story, list ed in t he table o f con ten ts. Minicycle caugh t me by surprise wi th the short . story an d an ar t icle by a psy ch iatri st o n his views of minicy cles. Ho wever, I still had no id eas about which m o torcycle best met my requi remen t of ec on o my. In st ead of lookin g t hrough ano t her cycle magazine, I tri ed t he Yellow Pages of th e phone bo ok. There we re ni neteen moto rcy cle deal ershi p s listed. Nex t, I ca lled th e Better Busin ess Bureau. Not all o f th e dealersh ips were listed. The BBB classified th e de alers hips in this way : Five weren ' t listed (26 .31 %) : t wo were list e d (10.5 3%) since J an uary 1974 , an d February 197 4 (the BBB only gives reports a fter fo ur m o nth s); an d 12 (6 3. 16%) had " h ad any co m plain ts adju st ed to t he custo me r's satisfaction. " I immediately elim ina ted those which weren't list ed. whi ch also elim inated so me m otorcy cle bran ds. The next step was t o call a few dealerships with good BBB ratings. I tol d th e firs t de aler who answered his p ho n e th at I knew n o t h in g about motorcycles, excep t that I didn ' t thin k th e Alp ina was fo r a Walt er Mitty type like m yself. I in sisted on econo my b oth in the pri ce of the bike and in m iles per gallo n . He reco mmended the Suzuki 50 Gaucho (50 mpg) for $456 . Suzukis we re all he ca rrie d. Th e next de aler su ggested the KTM Moped (150 mpg) for $35 0. I'd h ave to pedal it to get it start ed. Well, I probably wouldn't kill myself wit h it . Ano ther dealer reco mmended an In d ian 90cc (5 0-6 0 m pg ) for $64 9, definitely price range. The o ut of my Har ley -Davidson dealer sugges ted a Harley -Davidson 90cc (6 0.75 mpg) for $445 an d t he last d ea ler suggested a Yam ah a 10 0cc (54 m p g) for $6 03 . I di d learn a few things. "Dua l purpo se " operated Engi ne means th e b ike ca n be on both streets and trails. size is m eas ured in wasn 't m entio ned un til the th ird to last paragrap h . I was im p ressed wit h Cycle Ri der's com parison t ests wh ich in clu de d every th ing fro m bo re an d stroke t o f uel tank capacity . Although the bikes wh ich were te sted were beyond m y price ran ge, t he tab ular rundowns would be very help ful t o so m eo n e fo r whom p rice was n o obje c t . Cy cle m agaz ine fo llowed the ge ne ra l Rattern of ro a d tests/technical, co m pe titi o n , features, and departmen ts. T wo of the bikes which we re test ed cub ic were shown o n the c over, a tenden cy ce n ti me te rs or ccs , Smaller d ispl ace ment engi ne s are wh at I needed. Ge nerally, bikes are of th ree ty pes: t rai l, st re et, an d racing. Bike sizes ra nge fr om 5 0 cc t o 750 plus cc . Walt er Mitty s need 9 0s o r 10 0s. Also, so me bikes have very low t op speeds ; t he KTM Mo p ed 's is 35 mph with a cruising speed of 3 0 m ph . Now, I felt mo re co nfi de n t in t u rn ing bac k to t he cy cle p ub lic ations , wh ich unfortunat ely assume t h e reader al ready is a motorc ycle exp ert. AMA Ne ws' tab le of contents inclu de d t wo sp eci al features , six co m pet it io n art icles, depart me nts, and tw o features o n legislation. Sin ce th e legis lati ve twis t was a new one, I tried th at. Th e art icle was really a report of a sem inar, lik e m inutes of a m eet in g. I kept loo king. Cycle Sp ort 's ed it orial indic ate d that c o m pe titive ride rs ca n be m o tocrossers, scramblers , hillclim bers , dirttrackers , an d tri alst ers. To th is novice those classificat ions see me d silly, but I wh ich o the r cy cle p u blications share. Cy cle Guid e's issue incl u ded a special suppleme nt, "The New Comm ute r." I fel t right at home. "Com m uting on a str ee t m ot orcycle stre tc h es a gallo n of gaso line as far as it ca n be stre tc hed , cu ts down y o ur tra vel time if t he tr affic is heavy, relaxes you r mind and ex ercises you r body a li ttle ~ an d it 's fun." Finally, an article that I co uld u nderstand an d that attacked questions I wanted answers fo r! Bik e si ze, gas mil eage , bike we igh t, main tenance, -- em p has is on racing which is underst an dable, but hard for so meone spare kits, lu ggage racks, cloth ing , and weathe r protection we re d iscussed. A very en ligh tening article. Gui de also provided C ycle co m pariso n tests bet ween a Ho nda CB 36 0 an d a Honda Civic (car) . 'The CB 360 got 4 5 m pg, while the Civic got 3 0 ; an d the ret ail prices we re $9 70 and $ 23 70. Conclu sio n , road tests wi t h tabular result s are probably th e m ost he lp fu l t o the motorcy cle n ovice wh o 's thinking of buying a bike, assu mi ng he knows a little abou t bikes. Cycl e pu blica ti on s ain ' t fo r so meone trying t o learn abo ut bikes. The bes t be t would be to find a patien t bik e ent h usias t and shoot t he breeze ove r a w ho's never b een o n a m otor cy cl e to ge t beer, o r two. into . T he pu b lica tio ns , generally, m ake th e novice feel like an outsider . Editorials abou t rising gas pri ces or othe r "energy crisis" ar ti cles m ight make the n ovice fee l at h o m e, o r th e featu res might. If he was buying a bike, he migh t st ruggle th rough the ro ad tests. Co mpetition articles would probably be shrugge d off, like a football fa n mi ght shru g off suppose sim ilar classifica tions in trac k (high jump, lon g jump , e tc .] seem silly to o utside rs. Again , there was grea t Another concl usion , the re is ge neral em phasis o n person ality . TIle regu lar co m petitors are give n treatment wh ich is sim ilar t o the photo-ro man ce-daytime TV-magazines ' e mp h asis on se rial regul ars . Fo r example , Cycle Ride r's le ad feat ure was en title d "Dave Mungenast's ISDT T riump h. " The pe rso nality , of co u rse , was th e m achine, a Tr iumph TR5 Trophy Trail; Dave bowling o r vice ve rsa. Howeve r, if you know so m et h ing ab o u t bikes, even elem en ta ry th in gs, th e publications are in te resting, cy cle en ligh t eni ng, and funny . Cycle News, particul arly , makes an effort t o be humorous. The time had co me fo r m e to go to th e dealerships an d lo o k over the bikes I had be en reading abo ut. I walked in to th e firs t de alershi p , t rying no t to be con sp icuous, and lo o ked for the bi ke numbers, the 90s, o r 100s. I h ad an impul se t o kick some t ires, but fought it ~'successfully . Before I knew exactly w hat was happening, I was th rowing m y leg over a bi ke (I mo un t ed from the left , lik e y ou wo u ld a horse) and I was sit ti ng astride a Suzuki 50 Gau ch o. It wa s like th e first time I got on a Shetland p on y wh en I was six or so - I fe lt silly . The salesm an kept on seIling, and I wondered how I could get o ff witho ut kicking h im . Th e n ext bi ke I looked at was a Kawasaki 90cc. It o nl y cam e in a yucky lime co lor, but looked m or e im pressive than th e Suzu ki 5 0. They 'd throw in a lu ggage rack if I bought th e bik e. Nex t , I lo o ked at a Honda 70cc. It was ugly . It had funn y shields where y o ur legs went an d loo ked like a th irteen-yea r-o ld's dream . Anothe r bike I co nside red was a used Hon da 10 0cc - stree t or trail - for " a bar gain. " Th e man assu red me th at if I didn't ta ke it , it'd be gone th e same day . In fact , every dealer I talked with said th e t im e to buy a bike wa s now ; all th ey had was in th e lo bby, and at o ne dealersh ip that amounted to three bikes. . Th e las t bi ke I lo oked at was the KTM Moped, a glori fie d 10-speed bicycle . No helmet, no kick st art. It lo o ks like a girl 's bicy cle an d starts by pedaling. (Why n ot?) Th e Moped stops if y o u push a b utton, th at looks like a d o or be ll, call ed the " kill" button. Its top spee d is righ t around 3 0 mph, and it ge ts from 120· 16 0 mpg. The total price, in cluding tax an d license, wa s under $400. Sold. No w all I had to do was keep buyi ng cycle publications and wait for a road test o f my bi ke . I felt co m fo rtable kn o wing th a t the diffe re nce betwe en a Yamaha TZ 750 and a KT M Moped is th e difference between Kenny Roberts an d m yself. • 35 ~

• Cover