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/126774
The prototype AP/Lockheed carbon-fiber front disc bolts to the rim and uses a dual-piston caliper. The honeycomb aluminum chassil plates are glued together, not welded. The structure is very rigid. Heron Suzuki (U.K.) is keeping abreast of current Formula One car technology with this new aluminum honeycomb chassis. RGSOO Bike racing takes a step closer to the world of Formula One' cars with the unveiling of a new 500cc Suzuki GP chassis' in England. The monocoque-Iookalike frame is made from aluminum honeycomb, a substance developed by the giant Ciba-Geigy firm and widely used in car racing and the aerospace industry. This is the first time it has been used on a mOLOrcycIe. The chassis wa&developed by Heron (U.K.) Suzuki R&D man Nigel Leaper, in conjunc- Lion with engineers from Ciba-Geigy. Work on the frame has been going on for some time and it was an unexpected bonus among the tits 'n' ass at a funcLion held last week in me Raymond Revue Bar in London, to mark Lhe Suzuki race team's sponsorship by the British skin magazine Men Only. The composite chassis is a boxlike duro near Crescent City, California. Three riders tied at five points lost, but tiebreaker scores gave northern California star Dave Bertram his first National win. Terry Cunningham finished second with Larry Roesaler third. The first two were on Husky 500 AEs; Roesaler rode a 250 WR. Defending National Enduro Champ Mike Melton was fourth with a six-point score, and Kevin Hines rounded out the top five with saven points. The event was hosted by the Redwood Scramblers M.C. Last week a Metzeler ad said Kevin Schwantz was first in the WERA D Superbike class in Atlanta; Schwantz actually finished fourth. (Continued to page 8) Dale Quarterley won the California Superbike School-organized Kawasaki and SuperTrapp-sponsored Rom Lovil Memorial Challenge Series. The three race series, pilling 16 Formula One and Superbike riders against each other on idemically prepared, weight handicapped Kawasaki GPz550s, saw Quarterley win at Road America, ta'ke a second in the Riverside round, and finish third at Laconia last weekend. Quarterley earned $1,000 for his efforts and an engraved silver bowl. Lovil was the direcLOr of Kawasaki's public relations departmem until his umimely death last year. By David Aldana The June 16-17 IDBA Sunshine Nationals at Cincinnati, Ohio's Edgewater Park saw Brian Johnson (Kaw) take the Top Fuel win with Terry Vance (Kaw) winning Pro Stock. Terry Kizer was the Funny Bike winner. DAVID! on EVEl'Ylhins Steering head angle of the aluminum honeycomb chassis can be altered by changing bearing conel. SLTUClUre, with the honeycomb faced with an aluminum skin. There's not a single weld on the chassis - a pecial Araldite glue is used LO bond it LOgether. Advamages of me material, according to Suzuki, lie not in light weight - it's not significantly lighter than the aluminum frames used in Suzuki's 1983 grand prix bikes - but its eXLTeme rigidity. They say mis frame will not flex at all. According LO Suzuki's Leaper, the weight of a racing bike frame is not as importam as its strength, and he says I first want to say "thanks" for the letters in response to my column. It's appreciated to know people are interested. This week I would like to give you my opinion on the difference between endurance road racing and Grand Prix road racing. In my own professional racin~, I always try to find the limitof each bIke. That is, finding a corner on the race LTack I feel I'm fastest in; in this turn I've got a little eXLTa confidence. Here I see just how sideways I can get the bike and still have conLTol; I try LO go in a little deeper each time, lean it over and over until someiliing touches orslipsaway. In other words, finding my limits, a speed that I can race with. A Grand Prix race is relatively short. So you go at mose limits you've found, from start to finish. And in some cases going even faster, because of the competition. In endurance racin'g the tires are harder LO go, the distance, and tire grip is limited, which shows up more on the stopwatch. Your bike is set up for quick pit SLOpS, and there are many SLOps in a 24-hour race. The bike h.as many added parts you wouldn't find on a Grand Prix bike; quick-change wheels, charging ystern for battery and lights, rear brake pedal lights, brake pads and handle bars. In other words, the bike is set up o the team can change almost anything quickly. Thus in a 24-hour race, the machine that is in the its "very significant" improvements were made in the stiffness-to-weight ratio. The "Project 500" frame is still in the prototype stage and track testing just began wim retired ew Zealand road racer Stu Avant in me saddle. Rob McElnea will use the frame once testing has been completed. Another advamage of me chassis is that the steering head angle can be easily altered by imerchangeable hearing housing units. Engine removal will besimple - it unbolts and drops . out of the frame. Also seen on the proLOtype was a rim-moumed carbon-fiber front disc, developed by AP Racing and sLiIl in the experimemal stage. It saves 6.6 pounds in weight over a conventional twin-disc arrangement. A carbon fiber disc is already being u'sed on the rear wheel of McElnea's 500. Michelin's new low profile radial slicks will be used on the bike, and a Dutch White Power shock absorber is used with a standard box-section, aluminum swingarm which has redesigned linkages. least, does very, very good. The engine, the heart of the bike, must also be revved less than Grand Prix bikes. In qualifying you can get away with revving the endurance motor another 1,000 rpm but to go the distance you must have a lot of will power not to over-race the mOLOr; you must make it live. The one thing mat both types of racing have in common is that no maller what happens during the race, before you can finish first, first you must finish! And when you finish your race you've got plenty to bench-race about with your fellow competitors. • • • I went to a motocross recently to race a bike a guy asked me to ride, and when I got there it was a piece of junk. I told him, and he said ''I'm doing you a favor; we rescued this bike from the junk heap so you could ride it." He wasn't doing me a favor. He was risking his company's reputation by bringing a junker to the racetrack. And he was asking me to risk my reputation as a rider by riding a pile of junk. The point is that you can't win with the bike fighting you - it has to work with you, You can't go fast when the bike doesn't work. All you can do is make yourself look bad or else get beat or hurt in the process. Bike prep is everything. If you want to do well, you":>" ve LO prep your . bike. If you. Qspected , want .