Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

are-Betor: the fuel tanks are bought out from various suppliers; while the air box, footpegs , exhaust system, handlebars, brake pedal and splashguards are all fabricated from stock in the plant. Things like cables, rear shocks, wiring an d co n trois are all off-shelf items, mostly from Japan, In c. Wheels are hand-laced from bought-out parts. It all comes together on 50 feet of non-powered roller conveyor where the frame is set on a flat-bottomed centerstand and rolled past a single parts rack from which pre-killed parts are picked and bolted up to the mo to rcy cle. Again, it's not that far removed from what occurs in a large motorcycle shop o r in any racer's garage. It's just done in a systematic, repetitive mann er. At present the dirt singles are roIling out at a rate of 20 to 3 0 per day (about 500 0/yr.) tho ugh the plant's capacity is up to 200 per day. T hey were m akin g that many minicycles before they decided to go into full-scal e motorcy cle prod uct ion. At this rate, the plan t 's head co un t is never more than 30 peo ple, and only a thi rd o f t he available floo rsp ace is bein g used. It all looks and sounds b oth crude and inefficient. Yet th e Bergers main tain that if th e current production level can be m ain t ained, the co mpany will turn th e profit comer so met ime in 1976. Though much of t he p ast six months has been sp en t d evelo pin g t he new 125, PD V is pinning its hopes fo r future gro wt h on the 5 00cc four stroke street bike, first of a projec ted family of DOHC twins using common lo wer cases and ranging in displacement from 250 to 75 0cc. Following the p recedent set with the singles, tooling is developed in J apan. then will be released to Powerdyne who will tum it over to the vendors selected to produce the components. The engine is b.esically a Honda 450 with detail changes, for which the top end components will be scaled up or down for various displacements. The crankwheels can also be bored at different strokes. This logic has its advantages and disadvantages, as the Bergers admit. It allows the company to develop a fully marketable street bike line within the coming year using as much common tooling as possible, and will keep the overall costs competitive. The disadvantage is that between the 250 and 750, there will not be that much cost or weight difference in the power unit itself. The differences will have to be made up in the motorcycle chassis, which mayor may not wo rk out. The prototype 100 ks like a Ho nda because it was has tily assembled from off-shelf p ar ts. American so urces will be contracted for the tank (which will be styled British), the pipes (which wiII be and styled after u p s wep t Norton/Dunstall units) and seat (which will be considerably lo we r). They're still playing with the frame design. Irv Berger justifies this process of copy, refine and detail change this way : "W hat most people don 't realize is that when ' if ' cOm'eS" to motor cy Cles, the United States is an underdeveloped nation an d the Japanese are the experts. Building bikes here is like trying to industrialize a banana republic - first you import the tooling and the te chnology, then step by step, yo u i'.!cre ase the percentage of domestic-originated pieces until you're doing as much of it as possible in your own country. Right now, we're doing more fabrication than we'd like in our own plant simply because we can't get the price breaks or volume discounts on as Iowa level of production as we're doing." While the demand for PDV dirt bikes is saturated at 5000 units/year, Berger feels that the potential m ark et for street c No matter what kind of gift you 're looking for. if it has anything to do with motorcycling. we 've got it. And we 've got it in sto c k. Everyth ing from hel met s to gloves to ca rbureto r co nve rsion kits . Not to ment io n one of t he cou ntry 's mos t complete select ions of competit ion leathers. If yo u'r e not quite sur e what you want, stop by anywa y and one of our " friendly, sm il ing elves," will be gla d to hel p yo u out. And remember . there 's never a pr oblem if you have to exc hange so mething afterward . Engines are bench-assembled in this well-lit loft. They 're Japan, Inc. from the cylinder base gasket down and A American from there up . Cranks and rods are also American-made on Japan-developed tool ing. Valer ian 's Two-cycle City Ltd . Your one-stop Christmas shop. Open Monday through Friday 10 am to 8 pm . Saturdays 9 am to 5 pm . machinery is on the order of 50,000 per year. Asked if meeting that figure would mean moving into a new facility, he answered, "That would be: my greatest pleasure. ,. Dee. 15th until Dec. 24th ~(lW Rid ing the PDVs 'a'!b t The 500 twin is a rather cobby, kick-start one-off (electric starter will be an option), but a surprisingly satisfying motorcycle to ride. It definitely does not ride like a Honda. The Powerdyne frame has a 29-degree steering head (com p are d to 27.5 degrees as st andard Honda practice) and Berger is toying with cranking in an additional degree. The Red Wing suspension is quite firm, the objective being to impart British-like handling. It is at least a qualified success, as the bike tracked nicely around the winding New England tarmac; and the fas te r you wen t, the better it felt. If any th ing, the PDV has a bit too much stability, but lowering the seat (and therefore the rider's weight) sho uld hel p speed up its responses. At 430 pounds we t, the prototype weighs about the same as an equivalent Ho nda, but the overall riding feel was that of a tauter, snappier motorcycle, even though the carburetion was not spot on. (The prototype uses two 32mm (Continued on page 45) ~p~~~!a~ _~!!!~ Ltd. Los Ang eles. Cal if orn ia 90064 - Telephon e : (213) 475·454 1 sales - Service - Accessori es - Parts - leathers HUSQVARNA . CZ . SUZUKI . PENTON . MIKUNI CARBUR E TOR K IT S , I975 Yamaha Clearance Sale 1010 W. Chap man , Orange, CA 714-633 -0064 DT DT RD XS This is how a small outfit does it. If you could just come up with t he right pieces, at the right price, you could bu ild motorcycles in a barn. Regular Sale 250B ..$1249 .. .$899 400 B .$1396 . .$1059 350 B ....$1225 . . .$928 650 B . .. .$1929 ..$1439 Stop by and see the new IT 500 C, XT 500 C & RD 400 B Moto Bikes . .. were 5145.00 ... Now S11 0.00 Lay Away for Christmas All accessories reduced fro m 10% to 30% sale ends Jan. 3rd '76 .J .J UJ III 0. ::; III CYCLE CENTER ~ 1300 East Ed inge r Ave. Santa Ana, CA 92705 7 14-835-7821 t- o J: 0. 15

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