Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

One Time Engine Treatment • ln c r c a srs ho r sep o wur • f mpr ov e s e n qu' u: ue r f o r ru a o r ~. • R ....luc es hf'd t f r ic tr on .mel 1r.lq • R l'd u c p s e llCI'np vve a r • trnpr ov es qa s ml!Pdql' Ask your local dealer for Cycle Slick or send $1 9.95 per un it Cash iers Check. or money order (Cal if. resi dents add sales tax) No C.O.O.'s SLICK PRODUCTS, INC. Brauneck at speed on the Moto Guzzi ; the Georgian won two races in '87 and scored points in every round. 140 6 Birch Avenue Glendele. Ca . 91201 Telephone: (818) 848 -1596 Distributor inq uiries welcome UMITED SUPPLY! 1987 TZR 250 .J98BModeIsIDSoon! a.......... . . ........ e.m.s Call For Prices On 1988DT200T 5IIioPio. M••terCerd, YIu OlCcepted on •• deposits • itM~=t . iRQ).mo.,-o=t) 3303WalkorRoad. W.....r, Daurio I BW 3R9 Info: 519 /966-6035 Ask For Bruce or Rand y 5 mlnutes from Detroit We want to wish all of our U.S.customers a MerryChristmas and a Happy New Year! Thanks for mak;n~ J.987 a great year.! The Guzzi : endurance to sprint Dr. John and crew were forced to abort the 1986 endurance season due to a lack of funds. This gave him some time to develop a sprint engine for what would tum out to be an all-out assault on the 1987 AMA Pro Twins title. " I started developing this engine and it showed the promise of some horsepower," Dr. John said. " We hadn 't really decided about th e 1987 season; Mr. deTomaso (Allessandro ) from Maserati and Moto Guzzi, called, and said, 'please com e to Italy.' What he wanted was som e chassis development. I wanted very much to build a chassis; with th e endurance racing you are trying to obtain a high degree of reliabliliry, so you don't get to explore the limits of what you can do with a certain motorcycle. So this was like a fantastic coincidence. I had been thinking abou t the chassis and off we went." KOLDT KUTTER V-CUT ICE SCREWS The racers #1 Choice Screw Sizes: 3/ , 8" V2". 0/8", 1" INTERSTATE OIL COMPANY (313) 653-0001 Cyc le News readers- the first to know! I II PERFORMANCE IGNITIONS NEW ARRIVALS Ig~itions To Fit Maico & M-Star Internal & External Flywheel Models External Flywheel Models To Fit late Model Can-Ams Recond it ioning Serv ice For All Motoplat Systems Contsct Your DBsler Today Or Call: MotopIetUSA L----(216) 9lI8-4476;------' The deal was set. "Moto Guzzi would supply a reasonable amount of money, somewhere in the order of a privateer's budget, but enough," Dr. John said. "At about the time I had made this arrangement to see deTomaso and remain his consultant - he wanted data on the behavior on certain new suspension designs - he didn 't think we would have much of a chance of success against the new overhead cam Cagivas that were appearing." Wrong. The pushrod-toting Guzzi fooled more than deTomaso. " Doug and I just hit it off," Dr. John said. " It's been a good combination. We started off slowly, laptime wise, and very rapidly gained the ability to go fast with careful and quick development. The whole thing gained momentum and poi nts like a Ireigh t train." So what did the big boss in Italy . say when the championship was won? " DeTomaso didn 't start talking. about it until a week after the seaso n was over," Dr. John said. "He said, 'well John, who won the U.S. Pro Twins title?' I said, 'we did!' H e said, 'what?' He wondered how we di d it with that pushrod motor. But he knew how we did it because he gets all the technical data. . "They have a hard time swallowing what American camshaft and valve sp ri ng tech nology is. To get between 13 and 14 millimeters of lift with a pushr od engi ne at over 10,000 rpms is a good trick here and virtuall y incomprehensible over .there - it just doesn 't happen. There was a time when we were changing valfe springs between practice sessions." Dr. John credits his American heritage with the ability to make the Guzzi produce such overwhelming power. " I borrow heavily from our American hot rod technology, " he said. ''I'm real proud of it. I'm real, real proud of what Americans can do with equipment. The whole industry is just a wealth of available information as close as your fingertips. It 's great. And so, we can combine this with really well-built Italian machinery. Thus, you get a bike that will go fast and doesn 't break." What does the pi lot think of the Guui. " My bike handles better than anything out there, I think," Brau neck said. "We always had high er cornering speed than anybody at any track-a nd, depending on the track, most of the time we had faster practice times than anybody else." Part of the reason for the good handling, according to both Dr. John and Brauneck, is the bike's unique-for-a-racer shaft drive, and cantilever monoshock rear suspension. The Guzzi uses a single Koni shock that is similar to those used on Formula One race cars ; the total frame and swingarm package weighs just 29 pounds. The shaft drive uses a tie -rod acting as a parallelogram to float the hub and eliminate torque reaction's bad effect on suspension response. This basically means the bike's suspension behavior is independent of throttle act ion . " I think shaft drive bikes are going to be in an enviable position," Dr. John said. "They are pretty incredib le. There is not torq ue reaction when you accelerate and decelerate and there's no ill effects wi th power impu t to the rear at all. It can go over bumps and we can ap ply power over bum ps and get the rubber on the roa d better than any other system that exists." "We also have a nice Koni shock that is a direct descendent from a Formula One car," Brauneck adds. "They jus t u se a lit tl e different valvi ng for the weight of our wh eel and swi ngarm system. They told us a wheel is a wheel and they all require the same thing to go over a bump, and boy they were right. The only thing we've ever had to change . were spring preloads and the bottoming stop; we have an assortment of those and we can change them. We can adjust the last inch of travel with the rubber piece." The future! What does the future hold for the duo and their Italian Guzzi? "T he competition will be tough next year," Dr. John admitted. " T hey will all have eight-valve motors (Ducatis). A lo t will ha ve them. There is no telling wha t Jimmy Adamo will be riding, but whatever it is it's going to be fast." Admit defeat. No t this team. It 's not in their vocabulary. "We are going to have m o re horsepower one way or another," Dr. John said. "We' ate going to meet th e challe nge ." Bra uneck is sure about two thi ngs. H e wi ll be back on the Guzzi and he will ride a new John H asty-owned TZ250. His end urance raci ng plans are still up in the air at thi s time, and he doesn' t know if there will be any . O h yeah, it also looks li ke he will be helping Moto Guzzi in the development of new productio n motorcycles in the future. The Italian firm apparently likes the two men that brought them the title, and they are going out of their way to keep them happy. Part of the plan is getting them machinery that makes them the pre-season favori tes instead of the underdogs. " Right now it looks like we' ll show up at Dayto na wi th a new si ngle -overhead cam : four-val ve prototype based on the Le Mans engine," Dr. J oh n said. "And this year we are going to use 17·inch radial rear tires, and that req u ires some adjustment in function of the rear sus pe nsion. We are goi ng to learn about tha t and add it to our store of kn o wledge." "Another gratifying th ing abou t the Moto Guzzi is th at John and I are in a position now that we may have an effect on what's ~oing to be produced," Brauneck said. "T hat 's kind of exciti ng whe n you're righ t there; we may be at the lower ru ngs of the lad der, bu t later on we are going to see bi kes wit h our ideas an d development time buil t in to them. It's reall y neat to see that a factory listens to two guys from the U.S." After a seaso n like 1987, wh o wo ul d n't? •

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