Close-up
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Trickest MIers in the u.s.
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Kent Howerton's RH2&O Ctoplls lighter than Iaat year's bike. Sources estimate the weight to be around 200 Ibs. The bike is also narrower, due to a new single
side airbox, KYB suspension provides between 12 and 13" of travel front and rear, standard figures for works bikes now. Donnie Hansen's RC250A1D
(left) features Showa forks. Ohllns shocks, dual impeller pumps. &Ik Kehoe's OW43 (above right! doesn't have a link·type mono - yet.
By Mark Kariya - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _
Racing has served two purposes
for some time. The most imme·
diate and visible result is, of
course, producing winners, seeing
22
who is better than the rest and what he
uses which helps generate sales of
equipment and accesaories.
Secondly, the pan that is often overlooked is that winning races tends to
prove cenain ideas and conce~ts of
how to make something faster, lighter
or better handling. Yamaha's current
ad slogan "We don't build great
motorcycles to win races; we win races
to build great motorcycles," appears
to embody the unwritten coporate
philC!SOPhy of most companies. Motocross seems to have some heavy
influence on what gets sold to the
public and the trick, successful ideas
from factory motocross bikes find their
way onto those available to Joe
Average Motocrosser (and Playrider)
quicker than in any other form of the
spon.
It was not always this way and the
Big Four from Japan were at one time
apecially quality of Ie11ing motoclIJllen
that were hideously pathetic replicas
of works bikes; imposten, really.
That has changed. In 1980, for
example. the "factories were allowed to
run water-cooled bikes for the first
time and each of the Big Four
responded by introducing watercooled 125s. Honda even had a watercooled 250cc factory bike. Walk into
your dealer's showroom today and
what do you see but water-cooled 125s
(and
Honda's
CR250R
waterpumper)? A couple years ago, the only
water-cooled bikes available were a
couple street machines and Yamaha's
TZ road racers.
Witness, also, Suzuki's Full-Floater
single shock rear suspension which
made its first U.S. race debut last
summer. Are the '81 RMs on your
Suzuk dealer's floor twin shocked?
If you haven't had the opponunity
to walk through the pits at a 125/25Occ
National this year, yet, the next best
thing is seeing pictures of what the
factories are campaigning. Who
knows, what you see may be on that
1982 ultra-MXer you've been planning
to spring for at the end of the year.
(Continued to page 24)
