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/126752
Phillipe Vassard's Baja experience came in handy in Africa. He placed his 600cc Honda in third, first non-BMW. Hubert Auriol, aboard the second-place BMW 980, scorches through a village. like many riders, Auriol wore full leathers. (Inset) Winner Gaston Rahier celebrates the end of a hard day's ride. (Above) Frustration means having 25 tire punctures in one day. By Patrick Behar PARIS, FRANCE/DAKAR, SENEGAL. JAN. 1-21 Though it seems that Japanese manufacturers dominate all forms of motorcycle racing, it seems that they have difficulties reaching their goals in desert races. Baja and most other American desert races are very often won by Husqvarna, which has just about given up on most other kinds of racing; and 14 in the Paris-lo-Dakar Rally, a 7000' mile desert race in Africa that lasts 20 days'. Neither Honda nor Yamaha can manage to beat the BMW team. Just like Husky here, over there BMW concentrates on the ParisDakar. They came to the last Baja 1000 and will do the 500 and 1000 this year, but mainly they do the Paris-toDakar, which has a tremendous value in Europe and helps the German manufacturer with its image and hel p them sell street bikes based on the Typical Paris-Dakar equipment includes monster gas tank, large headlight, and extra packs for both bike and rider. reliability factor. Both Honda and Yamaha had their 600cc XR and TT singles, specially prepared for this year's edition of the Paris-Dakar. Honda had a five-man team while Yamaha went with three riders. All of them were either experts in desert racing or new motocross stars like Jackie Vimond, a young Frenchman who is campaigning the 125cc World Championship for Yamaha France. The head of the French Yamaha distributor, Jean Claude Olivier, was also on the team along with erge Bacou, a.Jong-time enduro and desert racer. The Yamaha TT600s were beautifully prepared and equipped with compasses and tach to watch and preserve the engine. Honda bad three-time winner Cyril Neveu (who also raced the Baja 1000) along with two-time Baja runner Philippe Vassard, plus Patrick Brobecq, Marc Joineau and Michel Mere!. The Hondas were well-prepared but nothing. fancy - they were made to finish the race and hopefully win it. But what both Honda and Yamaha were missing were some 400cc of engine capacity that a 60-year-old engine design has ... the BMW flat twin is not only a bigger engine and therefore more powerful, it also has a unique engine configuration that allows the big bike a sensational balance with a very low center of gravity. So if the days of the flat twin are numbered on street bikes. as far as the African desert if concerned, it is now the winning engine.. It is rather ironic for a 60-year-old design to be so up to date in that particular field. That's why BMW will come back to the Baja and try to do as well in Mexico as they did in Africa. The German manufacturer looked like a winner even before the race started on Jan uary I at the Place de la Concorde in the heart of Paris in front of some 50,000 fans who braved a cold ew Year's Day to watch 110 bikes leave the winter for the warm deserts, BMW had two-time winner Hubert Auriol and French Highway Patrolman Raymond Loizeaux, but they also had a lillie guy from Belgium who happened to be a three-