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/126055
Big bore factory artillery lines up : the 1976 ANA for 500cc c Nation a l NX Series , By Charles Morey Husqvarna Bra d Lackey's GP bi ke had Kent How erton feelin g a little jealo us .. Ken t rides a factory bike , but it's no t up-t o-th e-m in u te like Bad Brad's Husqvarna 's attitude toward ino to -journalists is not exactly at a high point righ t now, understandable p erhap s sin ce ·th ey 've h ad a recent bad exper ien ce which, they feel, h urt them. Checking o ut Lackey 's bike was mostl y a figure-it-out-for-yourself trip . The motor , we understand, d isp laces 3 9 0cc. It 's fe d thro ugh what the Husky folks jokingly refer to as a "McBing" car b ure to r , actually a Mikuni rather th an th e Bin g that co mes on th e stockers . A shortene d reed valve housing directs the ch arge in to the "almost 400cc" m o tor. , T he front forks are the trick leading axle items like Kent has been using all year. They'll p rob ab ly show up on the '77 p rod uct io n models . That 's one thing "about Husq vama . You'll be able to b uy Brad 's b ike long be fore you'll see Pierre's Honda or Tony. D's Suz u ki o n yo ur showroom floor . Bo th Lackey an d H ower ton used those h eavy d u ty looking Fox Shox o n back. Lackey 's swingarm had b e en r ein forced with a support welded to the und ersid e. Compar ed to th e othe r works b ikes, however, th e Husky is remarka bly close to stock. Kaw asaki Li ke Buchka , Jimmy We inert's t uner S teve Johnson seemed hap p y to p o int o ut his machine's fea tures. The biggest impro vem en t in th e Kaws se em ed to be a lower o verall wei gh t , d own to 2 14 fro m last year's 22 8 pounds. The chassis is th e sam e thing they 've run throughout th e 250cc Nation al series, and The Jammer has r ep e a t edl y ra ve d a b o ut the g o o d handling ch ar acterist ics. Lik e Su zuk i, Kaw asaki is using a co mbi na tion of lightwe igh t internal sprin gs and air pressure in th e forks. T he Kay ab a shocks have rem o te accumulato rs, smalle r th an ei ther Suzuki's or th o se on Pierre 's Kon is, and they're t uc ke d o u t o f th e w ay insi de the frame tubes beh ind th e m o tor.. .a very san o system . The 40 1cc Kawasaki motor, according to Steve, is basic ally t he same as las t year's Trans-MIA b ike. It has, as he put it: " definitely enough p ower !" Brace yourself The b icen tennial year looks like it'll be one of the hottest yet in American Motorcyclist Association 50 0cc National MX co mp etition. A t th e firs ! meet in Mexico , New Y ork , none of th e new super scoo te rs h ad been around lo ng en ough to get the bugs worked o u t, Man y o f them h ad been received o nly a few day s befo re the race. Th e result ? Suzuki, fo r e xam ple, ch an ged b ack to proven p arts af te r practice. H onda w en t through tw o of their three motors be fo re the firs t Na tio n al moto . There are , n o doub t, o ther example s "th at we d idn 't notice . The winner, Kent Howerton , rode his tried and proven Eric Crippa tuned Husky to an o verall 2-1 win while Bob Hannah took o ne of super-wrench Bill Buchka's Winter-AMA proven OW26 Yamahas to a 1-2 se cond placing. Kent's win had been coming. You could See it in the weeks that preceded the Mexico ra ce. Hannah , likewise, h as ju st recently made his first . stron g showings in the larger th an 125cc classes sin ce th e Winter-AM A win. He's hot , too. But what about Tony D , who's been w inning a bit of everything lately ? An d Jammin' Jimmy ; once he re covers from h is knee injury ? And Brad and Pierre , j ust b ack fr om the GPs? And how about Gary Sem ics wh o's h otter th an w e've . seen him in a lo ng wh ile? The 5 00cc series won ' t be a ru naway. On ce th ey pol ish th e ne wness off those new bi g bore factory jobs, th e rid ers will be o ut to make up for the ir slo w start at , ' . .. . . 37