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/126643
PRODUCT EVALUATION Because of th e " Diggers" su perio r wear qualities, we would consi der the m for o u r o wn bikes. T he front kn ifes into sand too easily for co m fort, but we co uld li ve wit h the ot her traits and were very im pressed with their hardpack prowess. We don 't kn ow wh eth er the cause was a ll pilot error, but it happen ed enoug h to warrant mention. We never completed a da y in th e desert o n either of the test bikes wi tho ut a fla t tire , Nearl y a ll were fronts, but we al so su ffered a rear fla t. The bottom line is that the Y908 a nd 909 can be mentioned in th e same breath with Merzeler a nd Dunlo p while spea king o f performan ce, a nd seem to be th e best in terms of lo ngevity. If you want to try some, contact SUDCO Internat ional Co rpo ra tio n , 1824 E. 22nd Street, Los An geles, CA 90058. The Y908 fro nt retail s for $53.20 and th e Y909 rear reta ils for $71.25, both with some added excise tax for Uncle Sam. Don 't get us wrong, th e Fury 500 is not a n uncomfortable helmet. There are mor e com forta ble helm ets o n the ma rket, bu t non e come a nywhere near th e Fu ry 500 wh en price tags a rc compared - the ones wi th th e p lus h li nin gs cost, in man y cases, twice and even th ree ti mes what th e Fury 500 does. So , to wrap it up, the Fu ry 500 is stylis h , has th e present da y's " trick" face shield, weighs in at !I pounds, 10.2 o u nces (no t th e heaviest we've ever weig hed , but not th e ligh test by far ), and most importa ntly, carries that eye-o peni ng $76.95 price tag. Well don e. American Sports. Jack Mangus Karel Kramer , , ATK Fork Brace Want a real eye-opener? March out to the garage, pop you r street bike up on its centerstand, then walk around to th e Yokohama Y908 and Y909 Super Digger Yokohama has been a relatively prolific producer of dirt tires in th e past years, many of which bore the name "Super Digger." They have had a fairly good reputation in the past for producing a tire that lasted, but the early " Diggers" had only a decent amount of soft ground acceleration traction and less in th e corners. In the late '70s the firs t push, a t least the first push noticed by m yseI£ as a dirt rider, towards a serious tire was the Y90!l, an excellent tire at th e time. That tire was designed in collaboration with Roger DeCoster and enjoyed popularity on loamy tracks in the central and eastern Un ited States. For the first time, with the Y908 and Y909(fron t and rear. respectivel y), Yokohama has a competitive pair of tires. The rears have been in the ballpark, but not the fronts. Like other japanese-manufactured tires of late, the Yokohamas use an un-square knob pattern and a lowprofile type of carcass. The knobs are short and rather closel y spaced. The tires mounted with less ha ssle than some European tires, with th e front being easier to mount than th e rear. They sat on the rim readily a nd ran true. There were arrows on the sidewalls of the tires that we assumed indicated the direction of traction as th ey do on street tir es. We rode the test bik e with th e tires that way, and while th e rear tire was excell ent, th e front wo uld let go with frightening suddeness in mud and sand. A ca ll to im port er SUDCO International solved the problem . We received a new set of tires and mounted both on a different bike with both arrows in th e direction of tra vel. With th e tire s mounted correctly, they wer e much better as a set th an before. The front worked well on a ll hardpa ck su rfaces , while the rea r wo rked excelle ntly. The rear was adequate in sand and mud, bu t we wo u ld not run the fro nt tire if we rode p redominantly soft surfaces. T he tires di d , how ever, d ispl ay a phenomena lly lo ng life . T he first outing wi th the tires was in the desert on sa nd and hard ground. We roosted th e high-hor sepowered 250 th ey were mounted on up a number o f rocky, shale hill s. We a lso rode th e ma ch in e in mud a nd on the su n-ba ked concrete thav passes for dirt in southern California, ~.,¥~\I.AS .an e~duro . . . Fury 500 Helmet Quick, guess how much the Snell-approved full face helmet in the photo costs! Wrong! $76.95. That's right, the Fury 500 is a full face, Snell '80 approved helmet that carries a suggested reta il price of $76.95. When everything else in thi s inflationary world keeps going up and up in price, the folks at American Sports Company in Compton, California, have produced what must be one of , if not the, bargains of the year. What 's th e catch? There aren 't any catches , just some shrewd investigation on behaI£ of American Sports as to what is needed to produce a fibergl ass helmet that is capa ble of passing th e most intensive test ing this co u ntry offers, is stylish. comfortable, offers a mult i-position , ra tchet co ntrolled face shield, and yet carries a p rice tag of considera bly less than $ 100. Chuck Palmgren , a name familiar to dirt tra ck racing fans , is now with American Sports. We asked him how th e com pa ny co u ld produce such a helmet a t such a low price. H e a nswered, " We're not abou t to let o ut a ll of our secrets . but I will tell you we looked a t ma n y o ther helmets and gave considera ble th ought to j us t wha t was needed to produce a helm et that was both highl y protective a nd ine xpe ns ive by today's sta ndards. We've bi-section ed some o f o ur compe ti tor's helm ets a nd com pared th em wit h th e Fury 500. Their 's m ight carry a higher pr ice, bu t they don ' t offer more p rotecti on . I' m talkin g about helm ets tha t fa ll in the $150 ran ge. We feel o urs is equal to those helm ets, if no t beu er." Our only suggesti on to Palmgren was that the helmet co uld perhaps hav e co me with addi tio na l paddin g insi de. " Re me mber we too k steps to keep the p rice down . The pro tect ive ma teria ls in the hel met bring it u p to Sn ell standards . We co uld have gone th e fancy velour interior route, bu t that would ha ve boosted th e pr ice." front of th e bike. Facin g th e head light, grasp the front tir e between yo u r knees, grab the handlebar gr ips a nd turn th e bars sligh tly in either direction, keeping your kn ees clamped against th e tir e. Look down a t the front fender and you 'll more than likel y see that th e fend er and tir e are not moving in unison. You have just experienced front end defl ection. Fine yo u say, but I don 't do much riding seated on the front fender with m y kn ees rubbing against the tire . True. But if yo u' ve spent some time pushing your road straigh tener down a twisty canyon road, you 've probably experienced front end defl ection. In hard braking or heeled-over-tothe-limit cornering, front end deflection makes itself known in an imprecis e - vague, if you will - feel ing at the handlebars, Some motorcycles are affected quite noticeably, others are not. One way to control the deflection is to mount a fork brace. Next time you 're thumbing through Cycle News' coverage of a Superbike road race. take a closer look at the photographs. All the bikes are running fork bra ces - some are massive truss-like structures - in an effort to keep steering impressionto a minimum. Getting back to th e real world, all th e j apanese manufacturers are now mounting fork braces on their sport bik es. If yo u' re worried about deflection, but aren 't fortunate eno ugh to own one of th e new fork-brace-eq uipped peg scra pers, don 't fret. There are plenty o faftermarket manufacturers tha t will gladl y sell yo u somethin g to stiffen yo ur front end. Enter H orst Leimer. Leimer, proba bly best known for his A-T rak system , de signed to a llevia te ch ain induced torque on a motor cycle's rear suspe ns io n, is now selli ng a fork brace that is, predi ctabl y, different from most o f the units cu rre ntly on th e market. In stead of weldi ng up a one -piece brace o u t o f tubular steel, Lietner's ATK Fo rk Brace is mad e up of al umin um alloy and cons ists of five ma in co mponents. The adva ntage of th e ATK's construction lies no t in it s strength advantage over mor e-conventional fork bra ces - it 's pr obab ly no mor e ri gid th an a p roperly desig ned tubula r brace - but in its ease o f insta lla tio n. Leimer cla ims a three-minute insta lla tio n time a nd he's nQt Iar.wtong. No disassembl y, -save ' popping- 'u'p -the - rU ' C nDer o'r'k wiper s is required . Fork binding which ca n be a p robl em with tu bular fork braces, is elimi na ted wi th the AT K brace as the center " X" brace is tighten ed up after th e two circu lar clam ps are ins ta lled o n th e fork legs. After everyt hi ng is secu red, th e fork wipers are slid back dow n on to p of th e cla m ps for a very tid y in stallation. T h in metal bands are incl uded with th e kit to space o u t the cla m ps if needed a nd a n a llen wren ch is su p plied with the bra ce. Leimer clai ms that his un it wi ll fit about 80%of the bikes o n the market today. We installed th e ATK on an edi tor's Seca 650, a bik e not ed for no t being too sha bby in the handl in g department. We were su rp rised a t wh at an affect th e fork brace had . j ust pushing the bik e aro u nd th e garage, th e fro nt end seemed more rigid. We took a freewa y to one o f o ur favorite backroad sectio ns and noticed that th e bi ke felt mor e secu re in rain grooves and a fter hitting raised la ne dividers during lan e-ch ange maneu vers , Once we hit th e back roads, th e brace's ben efit s didn't really com e into play until we hit some rough patch es o f as p ha lt or tried some late braking going int o corners. There th e front end 's added stiffness was readily ap pa rent. We can' t sta te th at th e AT K Fork Brace will help th e handling of every bike , th ere are si m ply too many variables involved. Wha t we do know is that th e brace is well mad e, easy to in stall , great to look a t, reasonably priced a t $69.95 and improved th e handling of the bike we tested it on. Draw you r own conclusions. ATK Fork Braces ar e available at yo ur local deal er or Leitn er Corp., Dept. CN . 2650-C Walnut Ave.• Tustin , CA 92680. For more information, call 7I4/ 7!l1-5ll 4 or outside California, call toll free 800/854-4023. David Edw ards NextWeek: . r Road America CPS Road Race National New York WSS National MX