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/126001
PERSONALIZED HELAtETS Be ide ntifie d with your name " Built in" right a t the facto ry Regu lar $44.95 Full Face $69.95 SATISFACTION GUARANTEED New mark of disti ncti o n l Your nam e, d ub nam e. or girl's nam e built into th e original design in bold letters one inch htgh . tden tity you qu iettly, helps to preven t lou Of thef t of a QlJality helme t . " Custom Helme ts" are f iberglau lam ina ted helme ts. D.O.T. app roved, in your ch oice of four art istic co lors. II you are n ot deli~ted with you r helm et , return it and the full price w ill be refund ed immediat ely . CUSTOM HELMETS P. O. BO ll 5132 Klamath Falls, Oregon 97 601 Send fr ee f ull -co lor broc hure I 1 Please send o ne helmet: Full Face S69.95 I I s;,,, xs I Regular $44 .95 I 1 I SM I I M I I LG I I XLG I ED Color: Blue I I Red ( I Gold I I Green I 1 Im pr in t (M alli mum 17 lett ers) I I I I ! I I I I I I I I I I Enclose Cashier', Check ( I Money Order I Ship Via Parcel Post f I U.P.S. I I -==== ===== ==== Address Citv_ _-'Name Street _ Zip Futher adventures of Jerry Clots &his Foo-Foo XL 125 By Larry Langley Not long ago, Cycle News ran an article on Jerry Counts' XL-125 which he had set up for enduros. The next phase in the bike's development was the engine. The XL-125 is not exactly noted fo r its overwhelming horsepower. While the little tractor would go up anything, it had to do it at a crawl in low gear. It wo uld make it, min d you, but ra ther slowly, Jerry was fr ustrated as the bigger bikes would blow by him. More horsepower was imperative, but Jerry h ad one importan t goal in mind, and that was to try and retain the Honda reliability.A tough job if an appreciable amount of horsepower was to be extracted from the en gine . First , Jerry consulted with Gary Fishburn at Hi-Per-Kine tic s* , a spe ed s ho p in Paramount, Calif. which spe cializes in four-stroke Hondas. Gary runs a very impressive shop. Ab sol u te cle anliness is th e rul e an d everyo ne wor ks in white robes. A co mple te m achine shop on the premises insures any job will get done. Alternatives for producing the desired horsepower were disc ussed, incl uding a big bore kit, but it was decided to let Gary t urn his grinder to work in the ports and co mb ustion ch am ber as Jerry wanted to re main in the 125 class . There is no guesswork in porting at Hi-Per -Kinetics, A very expensive flow bench and many , many lo ng hours working and experimenting proved ou t everything Gary does now on a production basis. Gary has built many fast four-strokes from SL-I OO 's to the fastest four-stroke in th e des ert, Duane Carter 's XL· 500 housed in a very trick mono-shock fram e. First the XL·12 5 was dyno 'd and a horsepower curve plotted to see h ow mu ch (or little ) power th e bike was putting out. Hi-Per-Kinetics uses a rear-wheel-drive Hartzell dynamometer, which gives digital horsepower readi ngs Butch Fishb urn. " Heh, heh thi s bike is NEAT ' " Wlwre's my Cycle News?! =- Husqvama Sales : Service· Pam • Facto ry trained me chanics Machine shop facilities • 'Full service en gine work "If we don't have it, we '/l get it f or y ou " T~O 10 YAMAW.l 24020 Narbonne Ave., Lomita. CA 90717 (213) 534-23 11 at any RPM. The little XL put out a ra the r anemic 9. 1 HP at ten grand. Jerry then tore th e engine down and turned the head ove r to Gar y, who wen t to wor k grinding. portin g, an d polishing until h e was sati sfied. Things aren 't rushed through th is shop. Time is taken to in sure the job is done right the first time . a re fr eshing ch an ge in t his da y and age of cran k 'em out "porting." spe cialists. Jerry reassembled the engine and bolted it back into the frame and put it back o n the dyno for the cru cial "test. Another curve was p lotted and 10 and behold, a two horsepower increase at ten grand! Now two little ho rsepo wer doesn 't seem much if you are riding a big bike but that's a very nice 21% i nc r ea s e for the XL. And the horsepower curve flattened o ut in mid-ran ge, wh ich was very de sire able for enduro riding. At II grand ano ther one horsepower increase was re corded, but sin ce Gary only wen t to ten grand in the pre-run, no figures were available for co mpariso n. Now, dyno figure s don't always tell the truth o f how an engine actually will perform, so the o nly sure way is to try it out in it s element, in this case an enduro. What would be a good test? Why not the Annual 500 Mile Greenhorn Enduro ? Why not indeed? Two very tough da ys and many , many long miles later, th e XL·1 2 5 was still running like a top. Desp ite a broken