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/126898
divide it into your own. Dilute all victory claims bythis number. The Winds of Change Rule Ifyoucan'tget reliable results information,oreven ifyoucan,take a good lookatwhat has beendone to the bike since last season's campaign. If the changes are small, the manufactureris probablyrefining a successful machine. If the changesare major, he'sprobably re-designinga failure. BigNewFeatures are tempting, but could blowyourseason. Leave New Technology testing tothefactories. You're a Privateer, nota pioneer. N that you know the Rules, here'swhatyou ow should know aboutCan-Am for 1986: ...continued timeracing insteadofwrenching. And your money on something besides engine rebuilds. That's one aspect ofCan-Am that has never changed.And whilewe've fine tuned ourfat power curves over theyears, what we've concentrated You need twothings to besuccessful onwas improving ourhandling. The payoff foryou isthenew atmotorcycle competition. Ability Can-Am bikes for 1986.The same and money. The proportions can vary.And having alotof one does not incredible performance.The same bulletproof reliability.And now, with lead inevitably tothe other. When the first Can-Am bikes exploded onto the scene adozen or soyears ago, they seemed aprayer answered forriders withlots of ability, butlittlemoney. Here was a motorcycle that was blindingly fast. Yet it delivered that performance withabsolute bedrock reliability. You could actually spend your The Can-Am Creed: We never forget whowe build bikes for. The Can-Am Test Bed: The Can-Am Look: Anotherglorious day in the laboratory! There will never beaperfect motorcycle. Butthecloser ours gets, theharder it is to make better. So, after thesuspension designers and theengineers and thepower specialists atRotax have had theirsay, wereally get downto it. In our laboratory. Obviously, the onlyplace to develop a motorcycle iswhere ourcustomers ride it.That's why, every year, our small butdedicated band of testersattacks the National Hare Scrambles circuit. HareScrambles competition is theabsolute worstof both worlds. It combines the speed and handlingrequirementsof motocross with thepunishment and rnanoeuverabilitydemands ofanenduro. And it offers usa tough , compact learning ground to findways of improvingour bikes thisyear. So that youdon't find them next year. Geoff Ballard,John Martin and Can-Am Product Manager JeffSmith spend theirweek-ends ridingtheirbuns offall over thecountry. Then theyspend their weeks examiningand analyzing theresu lts. Our goal is to learn, not to win. But lookwhat's happening! Last year, Ballard picked up the National Hare Scrambles titlewith Martin third,Jeff Smith winningtheSuper Senior crown. This year, at last report,John and Geoff had sewn up twoof thetopthree places.And Jeff had taken Super Senior forthe thirdstraight year. Are they doingsomething wrong?Oreverything right? their Quad LinkII rearsuspension, Grimeca discbrakes and remarkable new Marzocchi M1front forks, it seems likethey gowhereyou want just bythinking them there. While thiskind of progress was taking place atCan-Am, most ofour competition had adifferent task. The] Search forMajor Power.And, in that quest, reliabilityhas all-too-often I been left lying in the dirt. Can-Am development has progres sed from the pointwhere it helped to have factory talent torideour machines. Some ofourcompetitors have proceeded to the pointwhere you almost need factory money to maintain theirs. From the privateer's pointofview, the differenceissignificant: we haven't forgotten whowe buildour bikes for. size) .And hidingbehindJohn's waterproof nylon, lined C an-Am riding jacket isa 100%cotton Can-Am T-shirt. (Thereally excellent whiteleather boots are byGaerne). Can-Am riders are proud tobe Your Can-Am dealer has all this Can-Am riders.You can tell that neat stuff or he'll get it foryou.And, likeriding your Can-Am itself, it's bythe way they go onand on praising their bikes toanyone who not an expensive way tolook good. listens. Orjust bylooking attheir gear. Geoff Ballard wears the new racing jersey and satin Cordura nylon pants. They both have "Can-Am" writtenproudly all over them. JohnMartin isnot wearing thenylon ' mesh vented Can-Am racingpantsbutj he same Cordurapants as ~eoff (ina small~r•. Aperfect way to showyour true colors.