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/126010
• • • II It doesn't take magic, just attention to details By John Ulrich Of all the rituals associated w ith motorcycle road racing the technical inspection is prob ably the least understood by the neophy te rider. Of ten a rider shows up.at a track for the first time with li ttle idea of what must be done or how to do it: Observers once no ted wi th amusement that an apprentice instructor in t he AF M's new ri der schoo l had simp ly lo oped a single strand of wi re through a hole in his Honda's drain plu g, wou nd it once around th e f rame, and tw isted the ends. The AFM li kes to advert ise "W hen it come to road racing safety, one organizat ion stands out - AFM ." The club is very proud of it s tech inspection and associated sa fety measures, but a discussion wit h tech i n sp ec t o r D i c k Pear ce r eveal ed that even a large, safety-conscious organizatio n can have a heart . " They can put all the rules together they want," said Pearce at a recent race, as he checked one of the hundreds of bikes that would be pushed through his line that day, "but if you p lay it all by the ru les you'll be as much of a bureaucracy as the AMA. "The main thing we're looki ng fo r is a little pride in the machinery. Usually the fellow who takes pride has bothered to take care of all the little details that have to be ironed out. If the bike's clean, the guy's usually interested in having everything right . " This philosophy works 99 % of the time . The guy who brings me an immaculate machine usually has everything wired, everything tight. The personality of the rider can also reflect the condit ion of his machinery. If he has his act togethe r, his bike is usually ri ght. But occasionally we do fi nd that even the best rider will goof up - we're all human. "We f ind a lo t of too-t ight chains afte r a guy has been worki ng on his gearing. And we see a lot of fr ont axle caps wi t h loose nuts. The main thing we fin d is rear axle adju ster lock nuts loose, and th e axle itsel f out of li ne. With the kind of hor sepower these bik es are put ting out now , that can make a big difference in th e handling . " If we do fi nd something, we make them fi x it first, t hen give them the st icker, because I've had t oo many guys pro mise to fi x somet hing and th en not do it. But we let them come to the head of the line afte r we 've sent them away to fix a specif ic problem, so they don't have to wait a second time. You can irritate anyb ody by sending him t o the end of th e li ne for just a small t hi ng. "My main inte rest is the safety of the rider and not the enfo rcement of the letter of t he law . If we did enforce t he letter of the law, we could probably hang a lot o f peopl e. But the object is to give the rider the opportu nity t o race without hur t ing hi mself or someone else because of his machinery." Handy-dandy tech tip : Don't try to pull a fast one on the Tech Inspector just because he sounds reasonable . Once caught try ing t o get away with something uncalled for, a rider can expect no mercy. But for the rider sincerely trying to prepare a safe motorcycle, passing tech inspection really isn' t hard. rech ebeck Ust ALL M ACHIN ES A couple of pictures worth a thousand words. What the inspector is looking fo r on a drain plug or any oil fit ting (like the oil filte r ho lddown bolt, upper photo) is double-strand safety wire, twisted, strung in a direction that wo uld tend-to tighten the bolt and secu red to some fixed. pgrt of.: the bike. o Rear tire (valve cap?) o Rear wheel alignment o Rear spokes o Rear brake hardware o Side number plates: o legible? o Securely mounted? o Jlear shock nuts, bolts, retainers Insp ector Dick Pearce (upper pho to) giv ing a "Pro d uce PRODUCTION ON LY Exhaust baffles wired? o l icense bracket removed (if not part of taillight o 'I RIDER ONLY o Helmet o leathers 32 o o Boots Gloves H bike the once- over (upper p ho to). What yo u get on yo ur fo rks if yo u're ne w (lo we r p hoto). Th e ide a of tec h is n ot to k eep you off the track, but to k eep you fr o m being a hazard to y our· self and others.