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/126401
Though no longer on the fast Yoshimura So will the Cooley/Emde/Pierc81Y0shimu The 1977 Ughtweigl'!t dice wa. between Ron Pierce and Gregg Hansford, This year Balllngtonand Baldwin join Hansford on Team Green. Pierce will be beck and Skip Aksiand has a top-secret new Yamaha. 30 ply "more than 100 bhp." I quite like the latter; understatement appeals to me. When the Goodyear tire test was held at Da ytona just now , Kawasaki showed up with a three-year-old Yoshimura Zl as a practice hack to use in fuel consumption tests. Mike Bald• win forced this u ne xceptiona l ma chine f our seconds under the Superbike lap record, faster tha n most privateers ever run on their 750 machines! Why? Beca use this was the first time tha t a tru e worl d -class professional rider had ever pilot ed a four -cylinder Super b ike at Da ytona . Rernber tha t not one forme r Daytona 200 winner has ever bee n nea r a Su perbi ke; th e class has just no t attracted this class of rider. Our present crop of Superbike riders are quite good , surely, but there will never be more than two or three people at a time as good as Baldwin or Roberts . Honda's CBX and the Du cati NC R have not been approved for th e Super bike class. It was decided tha t there was no reason to pe rm it the excess complexity and expe nse of the Honda 6 in this production class, and Ducat i was una ble to de monstrate to the AMA's satisfac tio n tha t the speci a l NCR ra cer was ac tu a lly in prod u ction . Hond a.has other machines that 'ma y mak e excellent Superbike m aterial , mach ines na rrower , lighter, an d han - dier than the six could ever be . They will make their mark presently. The conclusion? Michael Baldwin will win the Superbike race provided . tha t his engine continues to fire , Four seconds is a long time to wait , and Mich ael won't. The Speedw ay itself Everyone knows th is is a tough race, It is lon g a nd the spee d is very high . Ti res deteriorate , ha ndling becomes trou blesome. and only the m ost ex perienced me n can co pe with the many ch anges . En gines wor k on fu ll thrott le her e longer th an at a ny ot her U.S. tr ac k. T im e a nd str ess eat at everything . Aside from these obvious physical considerations, the track is very subtle, Inexperienced club riders like _to I distain Daytona as a simple speedway, but it is much , much more than that. The difference between a good and mediocre performance is still completely up to the /rider. The exact way h igh -speed bowls are ridden , the placement of the shift points, the engine management all add up to potential seconds saved. At such high speed , performance is fragile in th e extreme. An y small source of drag means m iles per hour. the difference between walking past the opposition and having them walk you . A 750cc engine is making som e 200 total pounds of driving thrust at l80mph and any loss is noticeable. The attitude of the machine on the bowl will determine whether there is hands-off stability. Ii the rider has to exert control torque on the bars , it may produce power· robbing tire scrub , and the rider can feel the engine pull down. The exit from the infield onto the first bowl , turn five . has a pavement break that can destroy stability easily at the limit. Many a good ride has ended in a crash here. Yet if the gearing is chosen just right, the shift from first to second can be made j ust as the back tire passes over the bump. This allows the wheel to cope with the shock without the disturbance of engine torque, and the corner can safely be taken faster. Past start-finish at perhaps 180mph, the has to chose a brake point for turn one. This is perhaps the longest single episode of sustained braking he will ever encounter, and it has to be right. Get in too hot and there is nowhere to go th a t you 'd like . Brake early and you waste time going slow while others bu zz under full throttle a few more milliseconds. Concentration , knowledge, and expe rie nce will do it righ t. T u rn two is a 180 0 rig ht on buffed . slippier infield pavemen t. Angle of lean doesn't loo k nea rly as ha iry as at som e other N ationals where the p ave· ment has better gri p, but th e riders are trying jus t as ha rd . From two there is the lower gear d rag ra ce int o the dog leg tu rn three, a fas t left tha t shows off