Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. I' 11II III: ~ E • N\lE~d\NG t.O r- ER\~ x.lE foRks O'l --< c-r ~ :-. Q) ,.D E Q) 6'1 , JIlTl GianatsiS ;;0 - Z It seems every tim e I go thro ugh L orain, Ohio, o n my way t o anywhere else but there, I end up spend ing a co up le o f days visit ing the f olks at Penton Impo rts, They'll alw ays have a neat new bike o r something t ha t I'll try to talk them into letting me tear - Forks are easily d isassembled by unscrewing hex head screw located on bottom of magnesium sliders. You'll need some type of homemade tool w ith a screwdriver blade end to insert in the fork tubes to keep the hampening rod from turning. - Straigh t wound spri ng w o rks surp risi ngly well, Dampening rod assembly includes a spr ing load ed valve , fork top-out sp ring, and a nylon sea ling ring on the dampening p iston, around on fo r a few h ours under the pr etense th at I'm doing a tes t for Cycle News or some such nonsense. T he truth being, like all good motojournalist s I'd rather have fun destro yi ng someone else 's dirt b ike than m y own and not h a ve to worr y about fi xi ng it aft erw ards. T he last time I was up at Penton's , Dane Leimbach was crating up the two 400cc Penton/KTM race bikes of Willy Bauer an d Jaak Van Velthoven for shipmen t ba ck to Europe after th e Canadian Grand Prix. T he bikes were comp letely stock excep t fo r some personal mo difications to footpegs and seats, a little Carl Cranke porting, and the latest design Cerian i magnesium leading ax le forks. "Gee," I thought, "wouldn't it be neat t o do a real first ever test of an honest GP bike for Cycle News!" I was all p u mp ed up until I presented the idea to Pen ton's gene ral manager Larry Maiers who promptly shot it down. "Greek," he said, "there ain 't no way in hell we're going to let you on one of those bikes!" They must hav e gotten wise to my tricks I figured. "But I'll tell yo u wh at I will do . . ." co n t in ued Larry, " , . .we've got some of those sam e Ceri ani leading axle forks wh ich we'r e selling through Hi-Po int Accesso ries, You can borrow a set of them to te st o n yo ur o wn bike for Cycle News." "OK," I sa id , figuring I cou ld tell all my fri ends a t Country Motocross down h om e in Biloxi th at Willy Bauer personally had given m e th e Ceriani forks off his own works bike to ge t my valued o p inio n of how they p erform ed . The st ory might have worked except a few da ys later Frank Stacy wa s up at Penton Imp or ts and pulled the ultimate co n j ob on Larry by talkin g him o ut of Bauer's en tire bike, forks and all, to race th e remain ing 5 0 0cc Nationals with. Act ually, I was n't too ho t o n the idea of using m y bike as a test bed - for p laying wi th forks. I had bough t my 25 0cc l'enton jKTl\I Moi sseev Replica be cau se I w anted a b ike: 1 wouldn 't have to do any mor e main tenan ce to _ the r o 32 than clean ing the air filt er. Besid es. I alrea dv had the be st for ks availa ble in th e s ta n da rd magn esium Mar zo cch i lead in g axle un it s that came o n th e bi ke, T he Ceri ani fo rks lay in th e back of m y van fo r a co up le of weeks until af te r a particularl y tough pro motocr os s. and weeks of having never ch ang ed the o il in th e Marzocchi forks, I blew the se als o ut of th em. S inc e ch anging fo r k assem blies isn' t an y harder th an cha ngi ng seals I p ut th e Cerian i units on my bi ke, I felt as spo nso red as R oger DeCo st er getting a new set o f fo rks be cau se my oid o ne s needed new seals . Even though Willy Bau er and J aa k Van Velthoven are us ing these leading axle Cer iani fork s in the 500cc GPs , yo u rn a y have noticed in pictures that Gu enn a'd y Mois se ev and Vl adimir Kavinov are using the old st yl e in -line axle Ceriani aluminum fork s on their 250cc fac to ry _ bikes. T he y claim th e lon ger tr avel leading axle fo r ks have to o mu ch flex, but I'm sure the wa y those R ussians ride they co u ld make any thing flex, including the G olden Gate Br idge . The Cerianis bo lted up to my 250 without any problem o th er th an th e hassl e of havin g to remove the be aring races off the o ld forks to put th em on the Ceri anis. It would be a lot easier, and probably better , to hav e a new set of be aring - races to go along with -the forks if yo u order them, T he Ceriani lower triple clamps are designed to take a very wide fender and the best one for th is purpose is the new flexible Falk mud fender which is the very lat est in Grand Prix fashi on an d also availa b le from Hi-Po int Accesso ries. It took me a co up le o f races to sort th e Ceriani forks out by pl ay ing with various volumes and weights o f o il. I fin ally se t tle d o n 265cc of oil per leg , using Bel -Ra y 5 0 h y draulic o il wh ich is eq u ivalen t to a SAE 15 weig h t fork o r motor o il. Dampen ing w ise , th e Ceriani seem to p erform on p ar with the Mar zo cchi and th e lat est Husky in -line forks. These have to be th e ultimate product ion forks for th e b est d ampen ing action and in all honesty I just don't have the perception to judge these Ceriani forks b e yond the dampening charac te rist ics of the Husky and Marzocchi for ks. Wh er e I co uld j udge th e performance difference was how m y bike handled with the new Cerianis. The fr ont end o f th e bike h an d led much quicker and proved 10 be ligh t enough to p ick up at will with just a slight twist o f throttle. Comp aring the Ceri an i forks to the Mar zo cchis I had j us t t ak en o ff I fo und that the handleb ar m ounts o n th e Ceri an is were lo cat ed abo u t 1/2 inc h cl o ser to the stee ring stern whi ch acco u n t e d f or th e qu i ck er a n d somewh at hai ry high speed handl ing. Actual steering geo me t ry between the two forks is th e same. The fr ont end of my bike proved to be ligh ter with the Ceri ani fork s be c ause the y use magnesium triple clamps, while the l\Iarzocchi forks use alum in um , and the differen ce in wei ght can readily be felt in the handling. Actual fork assem bly weight is 20 lbs. for th e Ceri an is and 21 lbs , for the Marzo cchi s. One o th er th in g I noticed is that while both th e Mar zo cch i and Ceriani leading ax le forks h ave the larger 35 mm diameter fork tu bes now common with longer forks and both ha d app ro ximat ely 225mm (8 3/4 inches) of travel, the Ceriani forks didn 't have the tendency to bind in the lower slider tubes and flex somewhat as the Mar zocchi forks seem ed to do if you just sat on th e bike with the fo rk s fully extende d. T hi s could mean that th e Ceriani forks would b e more respo nsive to b ump s at hig h speeds when yo u have yo ur weig h t o n the back of the bike and the forks are fu lly ex tended . OK , so what's this article all abo ut? Well, I guess IIi -Point would want me to tell y o u to b uy a set of the magnesium Ceri ani or Mar zocchi leading axle forks from them because they ar e the best front suspension you can buy. For people who own bikes like the RM Suzukis I certa inly wouldn't recommend them be cause there are too many good fork kits in the 5 25 -5 0 price range that would make their stock forks perform perhaps just as well. For other Japanese b ikes, though , or European bikes like Husky I definitely would recommend them . For the serio us rider the ad va n tage o f in cr eased travel and quicker st eering response is definitely wor th th e $ 300 plus price tag these forks are go ing to cost y o u. A Husky rider in particul ar might want to get a set to updat e h is bike to 1977 specs before th e new product ion CRs make the scene. Because of their fast handling characteristics I 'd definitely re commend the Ceriani forks to Experts only , but that doesn 't preclude Experts fro m u sing th e Mar zocchis along with every o ne else. Matter of fact so me pretty fast riders are presently using th e l\Iar zo cc hi lead ing ax le fo rks. Among them is J im Po mer oy who uses th em on his works Bultaco s despite t he fact that the p ro duct ion Bul taco IBetor leading ax le fo rks are very good. Another is Hond a' s Steve Wise who uses the !\I ar z o c chi s on h is FMF modified Elsin o re . If yo u 're interest ed in putting some m or e " h a n d les " into yo ur bike. c h eck out yo ur nearest Penton or Hi-Point A cce ssories dealer. •

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