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/126759
20,000 rpm isn'teasay to bump start on long gearing. Katayama finally got 0((, leaving the smell of a toasted clutch, but poor old Grant nearly clouted the guardrail and killed the motor. He had a second push and off he went. I looked up at the press box TV to see Roberts and Sheene and the pack snaking onto the Hanger Straight when suddenly everyone in the press box stood and shouted. Fire and smoke! A rider is down in [Urn one! I knew who it was. Mick Grant and the NR had hit a patch of oil. And a lap later, Katayama, after bauling for last place for a few miles, retired with the rear slick in oil. Later at Paul Ricard in France, the Hondas didn't qualify, but they tried to barge out onto the grid anyway and were ordered 0(( the track by the French .officials. And from then in it was open seas.on on the NR. The same journalists who had predicted a great debut, now Oed the Honda pit and either ignored the NR or made fun of it. But Honda kept running [or two more years, and it became easier to talk to Honda about the bike. They told us it had a 36mm stroke in 1979, but in 1980 I saw the figure 40mm written in white paint on the NR cases when the bike showed up [or noise control. F1M regs require that the stroke o[ GP bikes be inscribed on the engine s.o that scrutineers can calculate the revs necessary to take a [our-stroke to II meters per second lineal piston speed and a two-stroke to 13 m/s. To [a1si[y in[ormation at tech inspection would expose Honda to sanctions and Honda would never take such a chance, especially with a growing sector of the press then regarding the NR as cornic relief. I covered about six GP races in 1980 and another six in 1981 and saw the Honda's greatest GP moment when Freddie Spencer was holding a good fifth place during the early going o[ the British GP of 1981, ul')til s.omething went wrong and the NR retired. And that was about the end o[ it. Honda had decided that the NR had become a laughing stock in certain sectors and that the only course open. was to get out there and win races with a Honda two-stroke 500. And thus the NS500 V-3 which was being developed in relative secrecy was given priority and after 1982 nobody was laughing at Honda. Freddie won two GP races and Katayama one and in 1983 Spencer - exchanged his World number three [or the big Number One that Franco Uncini had been using on his Suzuki and which Kenny Roberts rather [ancied [or his Yamaha. And with Honda the odds-on favorite to retain the ti tie with either the three or new four-cylinder two-stroke, we had all but forgouen about the NR. Only Honda could make us remember and the best way was to leak a real piston. I am 99% certain that Honda let this piston out just to get the press talking about the NR again, but I have to play the game and respect s.ources who do not want to be named. A Solo Moto staf[man inspected, [ondled and meas, ured an NR piston which appeared to be aluminum and which gave no clue as to how it's rings sealed. He then photographed it. The pies confirm that a long wrist pin with center supports is to accommodate two rods. A few o[ these rods have gOllen out o[ the factory as girts to Honda executives in America and Europe, and many o[ us have seen them, tiny little things, but until somebody gets hold o[ an NR crankshaft we won't know the stroke. Our sta((man was clever enough to photograph the piston using a Solo Moto fron t page as background so that the unlikely measurements could be confirmed and that is how we came to the conclusion that this was not a pis-' ton [rom a 500cc NR with 36mm or SBIIEIIO S '84 ANAHEIM STADIUM SELL-OUT LAUNCHES THE WORLD PREMIERE OF :~ "SpeedWorld" SAT. MARCH 24th* With Hosts Bruce Jenner and Johnny Rutherford. Also featuring: WORlD UNUMITED HYDROPlANE RACING • ·Check your local listings for station. 3-4:30 EASlERN e2-3:30 CENTRALe 1.2:30 MOVNTAINeNOON-I:30 PAQAC The 1984 .SUPERCROSS KICKOFF was made" possible by these sponsors: MiUer High Ufe. Wrangler Jeans, Honda, Coca-coaa. Toyota Trucks, 7-E1even, Chief Auto Parts, Sinisalo, KMET 94.7, KHJ-lV and Dirt Bike Magazine. . More Supercross will air this Spring. Watch your local listings. 0 . - . co. 1lB1V. t/I s-. t P.M. • B " •• 'fIt.\\\ foe e-o. CA. KCEY. 31M S& • ~. WY, KTWO. S/U S& • a.-.. MI. WFSl. t/29 So-. S P.M. D & D PERFORMANCE EXHAUST :HONDA V-65 Magna 2419 Weaver Street Ft. Worth, TX 76117 800/327-1109 USA 800/432-7762 FLA 817/834-8961 TEX 750 Interceptor Exhaust Now In Stock! 500 & 1000 Interceptor Exhaust Available Soon! Retail $295. Retail $225. With Removable Street Baffles America's First Honda V-4 Exhaust Systems with Aluminum Silencers _.~