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/126072
freely, it does really satisfying things without trying to flip me off its back . I like it! And comfortable? Whoa, I'd never experienced what works-calibre' long travel suspension had to offer. I quit vorryin g about my dumb arm (it rebroke last year from simple riding shock) and began to enjoy dirt riding again for the first time in a long time. It was going where I wanted to, soaking up all the bumps like a Detroit sedan (I wasn't riding anything really rough, mind you), allowing me to stay loose and relax. Its braking behavior was simply beautiful. Some of the hotdoggers were getting the rear brake to lock and kick the suspension a bit, but I was finding myself able to set up so smoothly for turns with just a little slide and then on the throttle, feel it ettle, straighten up and squirt gravel. It was really neat. ~ l-< V .c E V :> o Z I know they didn't design these things to be fire -roaded by a flabby middle-aged broken-down bench racer; that's what made the RC250 so impressive. As I said earlier, I chose the right o ne. The b ig 'un, Pierre's bike h ad enough mu scle to seriously set you on your head ; and the RCl25 was so gamey it was genuinely an Expert's bike, WFO between nine and I I grand or no th ing. Tasting the future - is it real? Sooner or later, 1 have to ask; was there a purpose to this. or was it just good PR , letting a bunch of wild-eyed" mo te-editors act out the popular wish·fu lfillment for possible reprint? Our hosts would tell us nothing concrete. Mr . Kume, speaking his mind as Project Director for Honda R& D, gave us but a hint . ' The CB 750s are the all -too-obvious pre sent, commercially successful " products with all their attendant compromises. What of the racers, and what of the future? Why did Honda re-enter road racing via the Coupe d'Endurance, little known or publicized in the U.S.? Why not return to the GP circuit? Why not enter the Camel Pro Series? Here's the way I read it. Honda's short-term strategy is to re-study their cu rrent line, alter it where needed to fit the market and hang on. Their race strategy is geared to what they know t hey can se ll in years to co me. Loo k in g d own the ro ad to emission and no ise co ntrols, they see no reason t o road race two strokes. or enter a n a rena domin ated by two strokes. They're ~uite seriou s about u sin g racin g as a liv ing la borat ory, a nd th ey wan t it to tech no logy t h at is give the m t ra nsfera bl e to thei r street lin e. Hence the RC B 10 0 0. The engine is ap paren tly all-new har d ware , b ut not that far fro m what is being p rod uced. Nor !.sJ~ in fina l form . They had a 995cc version belting out 110 hp at 9500 RPM at Asaka (the RCB .is a Honda R& D p roject all the way). They could conceivably build e nough o f the m to qualify , fo r AMA's Superb ike Production . In fact, it wo u ld take darned few compromises to build them ' in fully legal street trim, in n umb ers purely dictated by price and demand. At this point, it's a matter of commercial, not technical feasibility. In a sense, this same reasoning applies to the .wo rks 'crossers, No, we may never see pure replicas of these in production; that's not Honda 's style. But we may see pieces of them, like the Maico-style external spring leading-axle forks or those long-legged 18" external reservoir gas shocks. If Honda gets their money's w orth o ut of t hese bikes, this . suspension won't just appear on MXers alone; b ut also on really good ISDT -calibre enduro/trail machinery as well. The 250's powerband/torque characteristics aren't that far o ut o f line now. Nor is th e re any law limiting t hese co mponents to p ure-competition two strokes. "It 's impo ssibl e to pin down, but you can exp ect in t he near future to see an entire uX R u lin e of fo ur stroke singles built arou nd this ca libre of suspension. The X R75 exists; we're told that there's an XRI25 and XRl75 also. Which natura lly led us to ask, to a man, "W he re is t he XR500?" A big thu mper with legs like the RC250? Even I'd wait for that. (To be concluded next week I rilEnRST.t1QTo: 13RGAK ONE NINE'" BIG ~A AT Yoo!: Me/( ~,., PE/?4t.. 10 n-IE MGr4L ,,, COAIAJ6 rll/?Oo6l-!·,· 77iN-Ft)Of(... J"'NXXX, . .::::- '- ._ ---=- _ . _~ - ONE OFTHE WORl-DS LARGEST DIRT BIKE Ace DISTRIBUTORS 10 10 w. c"..pmln Orin,.. CA 9U•• 7a-&3300CK4 Time to motor Malcolm Smith Motorcycl e S~e S ~e Yamaha Husqvarna Se rvice Parts S~e Hodaka KTM Accessories Sales 7563 Indiana Ave. , Riversid e , CA 9 2504 714-687-1300 JAMES BROWN . INC. 12S1·B BEACH BLVD, I.AHARRA , CA9Ob3 1 (7 1411179-6940 1213llJ47.2lJ09 II Don't lose itf ~ Cheng Shin 350 x21 4 ply $9.95 + FET J im & J im's 75 Olive o-, Davis, CA 95616 9 16-758-2 76 0 31