Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

---- ~ .~ <.0 00 Q) ........ ~ -.::t' ........ ;>~ ~ "Riding a lap at Laredo is like be ing on an infin itely long freeway on ram p . .. you 're traveling 140 or 150 or 155 mph, barely lea ~ed over." front w heel wa s broken o r th e forks bent. They weren 't , a nd Phil McDonald took th e bike back on th e track instantly. The flattened badger, which left a 50-foo t strea k of blood and guts up the banking, was lat er removed from th e tra ck a nd photographed for Spencer 's a lb u m. Wh en I saw Cycle World Publisher J im Hansen at Laredo, th e pai r of us sta n di ng next to T eam Honda 's 18wh eeler as th e motorcycles wh oo shed around a nd around lap after lap, he loo ked at me a nd sa id , " Now I know wh at it feels lik e to be a privat eer a t a road ra ce a nd get sq ua shed by T eam Honda." It 's n ot that Cycle World 's effort was no good. It 's that Honda 's was so good. •••••• When th e Honda record attempt got und~rway on Saturday, April 26, I was still at an endurance race in Rockin gham , North Carolina, spending ~ y time working a pit board, carrying wheels to the Dunlop truck ~o new tires cou ld be mounted, helpIng refuel , running out to the infield and pushing a crash ed bike ba ck and cha nging broken fiberglass and aluminum parts following multiple crashes. Making the last plane out of Charlotte meant leavin g Rockin gham before the race was over, taking with me Dou g Toland, w ho wa s racing in Ca lifornia the next da y. Toland had ridden for Cycle World in their record attempt, and wa s partirularly proud that his name had made the latest edition o f the Guiness Book of Reco rds. Even though I hadn't been to Laredo yet, I had a good idea what was coming. ''I' m gonna kn ock your ass right out o f the book," I told him at the airport. By the time I told him that, Honda had already set the six- hour record. ••••••• It was 2:30 a.m. on the road from San Antonio to Laredo when I rea lized that I couldn 't mak e it without stopping, unless I wanted to risk ashing th e rental car. A ligh t rai n as fallin!;, and the road was wet; I ondered If th e Honda attempt ha d been rained out. Little did I know hat it never rained in Laredo; by the irne I pu lled over o n th e side of the oad , Honda had already set records orsixand 12 hou rs and 100a nd 1000 ilome ters. . The Uniroya l test faci lity is actuIlyabout 10 miles north o f Laredo, in the desert. It 's got.its ow n highwa y xit, and th e area is so deserted th at hen I turned o ff the freewa y I navirated by headin g for a faint gl ow in he sky. The gl ow was th e H onda p it area efined by th e T eam H onda di esel : un ctuated by the cha tte r o f gen eraors from three gia nt m ot orho mes. Even a t 5:00 a.m . th e pits were bu stlin g; th e first peopl e I saw were Met zeler techn icians bent over a tirech an gin g mach ine; they were surrounded by. stac ks a n d stacks of bundled slicks. A bike hi ssed past. showing a gr een runn ing light. An other went by a ~om e~ll lat er. .with a n orange run ning hght. A srg n, made with paper and a felt-tip m arker. was ta ped to th e wall of a sma ll hut beside th e pit ex plai~ i ng th at th e 700 had gree~ r~f1ectlve tape a n d a green running light. as op posed to th e 750's ora nge. A pi ece o f ta pe below the ins tru me nts would remind th e rider which bike h e wa s on; pit signal boards were co lor-coordin a ted to the bikes. . Another sign broke pit personnel Into two groups and assigned their hours of duty. Another sign listed th e riders and th eir weights; next to R ick Mitchell's name was the figure 160 and drawings of a n upside-down rno'to rcycle and three upside -down elephants, wheels a nd feet in the air. The motorcycle was th e deceased 750 wh ich broke with Mitchell aboard: Me tzeler 's company symbol is an elep ha nt; the ele p ha nts on the sign rep resen ted Metzeler tires that h ad ch u nked with Mitchell aboard; Mitche ll a nd the other hea vier ri ders h ad c? ntin u ing problems wi th ch un king ures, O th er riders, especially Chris tine Baur, had no tro uble with tires. The fig ure next to Christine's name read 109. There were no u pside-down elephants next to her name. I had missed practice and had never been io Laredo. So as soon as I had m y leathers on , Honda's Tom Hicks assigned me to the tire- break-in bike. It seems that th e tires were less prone to developing problems if they were broken in gradually; Team Honda 's McDonald coached me o n th e drill: two laps at 110 mph , two laps at 120 mph , one lap at. 130 m ph, one lap Wide-open , then Into the pits. The Laredo tra ck is four lanes wide with broken white lines between lanes; the degree of banking increases towards the outside. Lane three is very rough and lane four is unrideable: lane one is the fastest wa y around beca use th e distance is the shortest, a nd inside la ne one is wh ere th e mi leage is measured for record-breaking purposes. But run ning in lane one req u ires more lea n angle a n d so is ha rder on tires; the to p o f la ne two has more ba nking an d is easiest on tires, but run n in g th ere giv es a way time because it 's farther around eac h lap. Five miles is a big circumferen ce, w h ich translat es into a very wid e co rner ra d ius . Riding a lap at Lar edo is lik e being on a n infinitel y long freewa y o n -ra m p , th e kind wh ere yo u gentl y turn a nd turn and turn , cha nging d irection grad,ua lly in o ne ~ weep- (Above) Team Honda refuels the VFR750F and changes the rear wheel as Udo Gietl (center of photo) directs and cameras roll . The work completed ',(below ), our man jumps on the bike and hits the starter. ing movement. Except tha t instead of trave lling 40 mp h , ba rel y lea n ed over, you're tra vell ing 140 or 150 or 155 mph, barely lea ned over. I see th e smashed badger on my first lap bu t can't identify it. I'd heard that pigs were a problem , but this didn't look lik e a pig. I cou ld see that it was hairy , and flat, not round or cylinderica l; w hat cou ld it be? The trail of blood and juices started in th e seco n d lane and seem ed to indicate that it was h it by a bike, but how could a motorcycle hit som eth in g lik e that, at top speed, and not crash? Yet there were no scrape or skid marks in the lane. While I ride, a jeep appears at the top of the banking, overlooking th e dead animal. The next lap, the carcass is gone. When I pit with the tire-break-in bike, I glance at th e rider list. Next to Mike Spencer's' name is a n upsidedown badger, with crosses for eyes. ••••••• . R id!ng in a circle means that gustmg winds, co mmon a t Laredo wi ll ~i t yo u from every direction a ~ one ume or a n o ther on any given la p . T oland had to ld m e about tuckin g in being critica l, a nd warned tha t correcting for wind gusts by levering o n th e handlebars would scrub off spe ed . H icks said th e sam e thing. " Do n 't co u n tersteer a t a ll, " Hicks sa id . " It rea lly brings the speed down. " Tola nd had told m e to steer by popping m y helmet ~p o u t of th e fairing bubble, o n th e Side o pposi te the direct ion I wa nted to go . H icks a nd Honda 's Dirk ":a nde n berg sugges ted sh ifting my weight. McD onald tell s me to let th e wind drif t the bike up or down a lan e befo re gentl y correct ing. So whe n m y turn co m es to !?o ou t on the 700, I try to to steer withou t using h andl ebar in p u t, The wind blows me wide, and I stic k m y helm et u p . Nothi ng ha p pens, a nd suddenly I' m in the teeth-chattering third lane, headed for the top of th e ban king, which has no wall , just a drop-off into the desert. I yank o n the bars. T he wind hits m e again, a nd I'm diving toward the inside, about to run off th e bottom of lane one. Yank on the bars. Sweat start s pouring off me despite the cool temperatures. How do they do it? I wo nder. " H o w?" I yell inside my helmet as I drift :wide again, dive low a ga in, Io flo w in g an es s-shaped co u rse around the circle. I feel inept, stupid, wonder what ever made me think I could ride a motorcycle. "Hicks had told me that th e 700 should run la p times of 2:05. I see the board, a nd it reads 2:07. I can't do a thi ng wi th this bike. My left sh o u lder starts to ac he from the effo rt of holding on in an unnatural position, left hand on the clutch master cylinder reservoir. My rig ht wrist a nd elbow sta rt to seize, a nd the toes o f both feet a re fall ing asleep, cir culation cu t off by th e sharp ben d requ ired to position th e balls of my feet on th e passenger pegs . I'm up in the th ird lane aga in , slid in g m y weigh t onto th e hi gh side of-th e sea t a nd a bo u t ready to p it a nd give up in disgrace wh en ' II O-poun d Kiyosh i Aiza wa o f H onda Resea rch Am er ica flies by o n th e 750" (Co ntin ued to page 25)' 23

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