Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

THE FASTEST 50s THIS SIDE OF EUROPE: WHEN YOU'VE GOT 30 MPH ON YOUR COMPETITION, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR AN ENCORE? cran kca se opens t he chec k valve and o il runs in t o the cra n kshaft be ar in gs. The syst e m is simple, ligh t , and has resu lted in a cran ksh af t th at is with in t oleran ces aft er a ye ar o f 14 .500 rp m racing. A Fiat coil p rovides the spark fo r t he total-loss battery ign it ion. of the bikes, Development acco rd ing to Garavoglia 's est im ates, co st him 3 ,0 0 0. That $3 ,000 bo ugh t h im th e fas t est 50 cc m ac h ine racing in California d u ring 19 75. Nolan m issed win n ing the A Fl\1 50 cc Ch ampionship wit h it b y a fe w points - o n ly be caus e he did not atte nd all th e points races. As fast as the Su zuki was in 197 5 , Garavo glia wanted more speed. He returned fro m a trip to Italy late last year with tw o fa ct or y GP 50s built for World Championship racing. His wall e t was $4 ,500 lighter. What he brought h ome were two .- s-. c, ~ the radi at or. A Mo t oplat ign it io n fi re s the Vill a. The engi ne turns 15 .500 rp m, alt ho ug h the cylinde r is not ported very rad icall y . Garavoglia is ce rtain tha t m ore horsepowe r can be p ull ed from the bike. which alrea dy top s 100 m p h. [Mo st lt al J e ts are lu ck y to to p 70 m p h .) The Villa fr ame is paint ed a sickly ora nge hue . Every fr a me gusset an d brace is drilled fo r lightness, and file m a rk s sho w where frame modi fication s have been m ade. "They jus t go fas t in Euro pe , " says Nol an. " T hey don ' t ca re abo u t the lo oks. " T he Rimghin i is fast er than the Suzuki , but not as fast as the Villa. A new paint jo b ha s improv ed it s lo o k ' - it ca me from lt al y with a th in blue co at ing of p aint as sic kly as th e Vill a's o ra nge . It is also waterco oled a nd rotar y va lved . The factory claim s it will turn 16.000 The Garavaglia stable. Suzuki foreground, Villa on bench. By John Ulrich Franco Garavoglia owns three 50cc road racers worth a total of over $7.500. With Bob Nolan riding the three little m ach ines , Garavoglia Engineering has become an . in stit ution in 50cc ro ad racing in California. That isn 't muc h o f a su rprise . Mo st of the co mpetition rides 50cc It al Jets. The going p rice for an Ital Jet is a bo ut $350 . " T he general opinio n is t ha t th e 50cc clas s is for little kids," sa ys Garavo glia as he wo rks in h is garage at home in Lakewood, California. "But i f they knew the work it t akes ju st to make a 5 0 fast .. . " He gestu res at the mach in es ass em bled around him, one co m p le te e xc ept for fairing, the o t he r two with disassembled engine and fr ame co mpo nen ts. ' "Tm never in the house. 1 never sleep. " The obvious question is, wh y spend th e mo ney on 50 cc m ach in es instead of larger and fas ter b ike s? tilt 's not as ex pe nsive, just be ca use of the displacement, " explains. "The G ar avoglia enjoyment, as fa r as working on the bikes , is the same." Rider Bob Nolan feels t ha t racing a 5 0cc machine su ccessfull v requir es m ore skill than riding ~ larger machine. "They 're very exactin g. On a larger bi ke you can make m ist akes and m ake up fo r them with the power. On a 50, an y sma ll m ist ake wh ich ca uses a lo ss o f mornen tum becomes a serio us mistake." T hese men have establishe d plenty o f m omentum. On Februa ry 15 , Nolan us ed the latest ad dition to th e fl eet, a watercool ed , rotary-valve Mo t o Vill a , to pl ace second ove rall (with in sigh t o f J ohn Chermak' s winning 200 Yam ah a) in t he com b i ne d 1 2 5 -200 Pro ductio n /5 0- I 00 GP class in a n AFM race held at Ontari o Motor Sp eedway. Usu ally, ' th e fa ster 200cc an d 125cc Pr oduction bikes lap all the 50s . T he o t her m achines owned b y Garavo glia are a waterco oled, ... • 36 rotary-valve Rimgh in i, and a home-built, air-cooled Su zuki rotary valve. Garavoglia built th e first of t he three m ach in es from a 50c c Suzu ki Gau ch o tr ail bike. It do esn't loo k any thin g like a trail bi ke now. The ex te n t a nd cost (53 ,000) o f the m odificati ons are indicative of the tec h no logy Garavoglia has used. (Gar avo glia , lik e Nolan, is an emissions co ntrol engineer for Fiat. ) T ake a look at th e Suz uki. Th e dry clu tch ju m ps o ut at you . Behind th e clutch lives an exotic transmi ssion, a 5·s peed with the tallest first gear ever see n or felt by an ex-Gauch o , Garavoglia b uilt th e gea r him self. m ach ining, welding, and he at treatin g parts fro m another m achine to fit th e Su zuki transmission. During one o f the Su zuki 's first races , vibration broke th e ex haust pipe at the mo unting flange . Now, th e pipe is spring m ounted a t the head, and rubber m ounted a t the fra me . The pipe it self, one of several Garavoglia built , ad d ed 1,000 rpm to the top end. The engine n ow turns 14, 500 rpm. The fork was shortened , and a h a n d-b u i lt , l o n g e r-than -st o ck swi ngar m added. S&W shocks are m ounted upside down because Gar avo glia believes tha t th ey provide instan taneous dampi ng that way. The rear se ts are po sit io ned farth er back than the rear sets used o n co mpetitor's bikes, a nd they wo r k . Ga uch o s, wh en th ey wer e ava ila ble , were eq uip ped wit h oil injec tio n. Garavoglia runs p re-mix in the fu el tank n ow . But to m a ke sure th at the cran ks haf t is well lubrica ted, he also has in st alled a simpl e an d effec tive o il me ter in g sy st em to replace the o riginal CC I inject ion system p ump . Using the same oil c han nels as the st o ck sy st em, o il fr om a sma ll pl ast ic tan k m ounted b eh in g th e battery is m etered t o the cran ksh af t by a sm all c hec k valve. Every t ime t he piston rises, suct ion in the Itsy bitsy teeney weeney freshly painted blue Rimghini. Note rear-faeing exhaust, huge waterjacket. Swingarm·mounted rearsets are a Garavaglia trademark. one-offs, a 1971 Rim ghini , and a Moto Villa of similar vintage . Both are. ugly, cobby, rough prototypes , th e an tithesis of what American s think of as "works" ma chines. But beneath th at cobby appe a rance , under the hideous paint th at co uldn't hide rough welds and file marks , beyond the rubber bands holdin g on th e Vill a 's rad iator, lived pure funct io n . The m achines were built to be bullets, and th e y are. "The advan tag e o f these bikes," says Garavo glia, " is th at they a re bu ilt for racing. As far as gea r rat io s go , they 'r e right o n the money . And, of co u rse , wit h a dry clu tc h , you can stick a ver y lon g fir st gea r on t hem . " Both th e It ali an m a chi nes h a ve si x -sp e e d transmissio ns. The 1\Ioto Vill a's ra dia tor, besi des bei ng sus pend ed 'o n the fra me with handfuls o f ru bb er ba nds , is also pl ugged in t h re e pl ace s with wood sto ppers . T he fi ttings no w blocked with wo od show that the Vill a factory experime n te d with di ff er ent routings o f water from engine to radi a to r. ' With the fittin g no w in use, the water is routed from the cran kca se behind th e cy lind er to rpm. So far, Nol an has been able to make it ru n 14,500 rpm. Garavo glia hopes t o get more horsepower out o f th e Ri mghini. He also plan s to water-cool the Su zuki. "It's a shame this class hasn 't gotten going lik e it has in Europe ," says Nolan, well aware that at G ar av o gli a's cu rr en t -rat e of development, his mounts wi ll remain o u t of reach o f the co mpe tition . Garavagli a wishes there was some se mbl ance o f co mpe t it io n, too . In fact, he hopes to be able to build so me more Su zukis t o se ll to se ri ous 50cc racer s. He thin ks that with the resear ch and d evel opment al ready d one on h is first m ach ine s, th e nex t one will be easie r a nd less expensive. Garava glia es ti mates that he will be ab le to m a ke a Gau ch o into a road racer fo r a bo u t $8 0 0 , not in cluding to p -secr et e ngi n e modifications. In the me antime , No lan will most likel y keep o n winning. With th e three fas tes t 5 0cc m ach in es in California - th e fa stest m ore th an 3 0 mph fast er th an m ost of the other e n tr an ts in the cla ss - what else ca n yo u do ?

• Cover