Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The NSR suspension uses 43mm Showa forks and a single Showa shock; 12.2-inch discs provide the stopp ing power on the 267-pound racer . World beater (Co n tinued f rom page 29) 72 to avo id in frin ging Yamah a paten ts. According to HRC di rector Yoi chi Oguma, thi s all ows H onda to fatten the lower rpm an d m idrange performan ce, whereas th e AT AC' system wo rks a t the top'end of the rev scale. H en ce last year's ATAC-equipped bike, wh ich with p ipes fitted for op tim um power o utpu t had a sha rp step in the power delivery that on ly Freddie Sp en cer reall y liked; no t su rprisingly, o n th e few occas io ns th e former champion appeared in p ub li c to race the NSR in 1987, he comp lained th at the power ch aracteristics wer e too 's o ft .' That' s because it's th e way Gardner likes it - a nd ri ght now , a t HRC, wha t Wayne wants, he gets: ' 1£ th e Honda stands out fro m ,th e compe titio n by th e way its en gine beh aves, it is totally unique in terms of the riding positi on wh ich is un like any o ther current GP racer. Even more than its 250cc NSR counterpart, th e V-4 500 offers a com fortable, neu tral sta nce wh ich is relaxing and unti rin g to sa mp le '- we ll, as relax ing as riding a 150 bhp-plus bike can ever be! - and con tras ts com p letely with the bum-in-the-air, hands-sh ak ing-th e-front axle posture of the Yamaha, Cagiva and p rob abl y th e Suzuki V-4s, and almost all the' 250cc class bikes apart from th e lo w-slun g Apr i lia whi ch is eq ua lly unique in its ow n way. You sit in th e NSR500, no t on it , and thi s adds further to th e road bike feel, thanks to the sem i-enclosed 'cockp it' style fair in g with its deep wi ngs.i n fron t of th e bars. T he latter a re also much wid er sprea d than o n most o ther GP bikes exce p t Rob McEln ea 's mach ines, agai n perh aps a n indication of Gardner 's production racing heritage. T he result is a bike whi ch feels much more so lid a nd reassuring th an any ot her GP bikes of recent ti mes th at I've had the pri vilege of rid ing, that you feel a pa rt of ra th er th an stuc k on top of. The controls are as light as th ey always seem to be on a works H onda, apart this tim e Irorn th e left foot, one up gear cha nge whi ch is surprisingly n otch y a n d n eed s a fa ir bit of precision to use - maybe like th e sim ilar Cagiva change, it's th is way so as to ens ure com plete engageme n t of th e dogs. Bottom gea r especia lly, whi ch you need atSuzuka twi ce a lap, for th e hairpin a nd ch ica ne, needs quite a deliberat e moveme n t of the foot to overcome the mech anical reesista nce a nd secure, though th e clu tch is very ligh t and helps you drive the bike o ut of a slow corner with con fidence. Wh en you do exit a slow turn, you noti ce with sur prise th at th e H onda seems much less incli ned to pull a whee lie than you might expec t and by x he time I wa s halfw a y through my sessio n , th e rain had held off, the trac k was dry , an d th e tires were warm , so at least I could ride the bike reasonably hard , within my own humb le li mi ts com pared to 'Mr. Ga rdner's. Cracki ng th e thro ttle hard o pe n just had the bike sq ua tting on its Sho wa rear suspension a nd rocketing forward like a mo re or less guided 'm issile, wi t h m e tryi ng frantica lly to ha ng o n a nd steer wh ile groping for the gea r lever with my left foo t. But wh ere a works NSR250 I rode la ter in th e day had its front wheel pawing th e air with half th e h orsepow er , th e NS R5 00 hardly lifted th e front wh eel off th e ground more th an a n in ch or two. H ow so? Well , that forward ro ta tio n of th e cra nk must help, but wh en H onda built their new engine for the '87 seaso n they also designed a comp letely new ch assis, and th e combinati on of a 1375mm wh eelb ase a nd 53/4 7-percent weight distribution, in a bike wh ich for sure has a lower center of gravity tha n its riva ls, seems to have done the tr ick. T hough I can' t say with hand o n hea rt I reall y a ttac ked th e corners climbing th e hill behind th e Suzuka p its, or the fast ri ght sweeper before the start line, as if I was in a race, I certain ly di d so Iast eno ugh to find o ut if th e front end cared to wash o ut in a tum like last year's bike, a nd th e a nswer is no. T he o n ly handl in g quirk I di scovered was right o n that fast rig ht before th e pi ts, where on several la ps a bump I managed to find set th e fro nt wh eel flapping a nd th e bars waving in my hands. Yet after the initial shock the first tim e, I was' ready for it th e next, a nd by keeping it scre wed on, the H onda sor ted itself o ut al mos t as soo n as it happened. T he 43 mm Sho wa fo rk s are un ch an ged from last year, excep t that no wadays H onda too has je ttisoned a n tidive on th e from end, the ir T RAC system repl aced by sophisti. cated two-rat e a nd even on occasion th ree -ra te s pring i ng inst ead. Wh ether as a result of this, or th e steering geornet ry - (head angle is varia ble, but us ua lly 23-degrees), or the 17-inch wh eels, or a combinatio n of a ll, th e NSR500D felt just as stable a nd reassu rin g when pressed to so me w here vagu el y a p p roach ing Wayn e Gardner' s cornering speeds as it did du ring th ose first few la ps spe nt gellin g ' ac q ua i n te d. An increase in th e di am eter of the twinspar a lloy frame's steering hea~ pipe was apparent ly a key improveme nt; accord in g to Oguma . "Un fo rt unately, many NSR 500 machines were cras hed during 1986," he said philosophically, "and thi s taugh t us man y lessons, because each tim e it happened , we exa m ined the wrecka~e very carefully a nd were able to pinpoin t a weakness in the design. Of cou rse, you can not ask a rider to go o ut and cras h a bik e for yo u, but whe n he is unfortunate eno ugh to do so, you can often 'obta in vit al in formati on as a resu lt." Wish he'd ' - to ld me tha t before I ro de the th ing - mi ght hav e been a bit less terr ified abou t scra tch ing it ! Th e si ng le th ing t h a t m o st impresses abo ut Wayne Gardner 's 500cc tit le-winner is its toge therness; you feel part of a bike that was crea ted as a . homogeneous whole, wh ere you feel th e chass is design er a nd th e engine man were at least on nodding ac q uainta nce with eac h . o ther, a nd wor ked to crea te a balanced, complete a nd reass u r i ng motorcycle th at has titl e-winn in g p er form an ce, ye t impeccab l e man ners on th e track. T he incred ible flexibility of th at ultra- powerfu l engine is perh aps the key factor: riding up th e hill behind th e pits a t Suzuka, th rough th e seri es of var iable rad ius corners where it's vital to be able to p lay the th rottle almos t like a musical instru ment hard , soft, soft, hard - I was ' able to do the whole section in th ird gear on th e NSR500D, allowing th e revs to fa ll as lo w as 8000 rpm , the n sq uir ting u p to 13,000 in fourt h down to th e Degner Curve, saving two ti me-wasting gear changes en ro u te. The power band is so wi de, ridi ng the bike becomes in stinctive: you end u p hard ly ever looking at th e tachometer, just changi ng gear when it 's convenient or a ppropria te. H an g on 1 Didn't I write those wo rds once before? Yes, indeed abo ut Joey Dunlop 's World Champi onshi p four-st roke, the Honda RVF7 50 , a n d tha t's what th e NSR500D rem inds me of. Wh o 'd have th ought it possibl e a few years ago: a GP titl e-winning two-stro ke wi th th e same kind of smoothness a nd flexibility as a four-stroke racer legendar y for its mi le-wide po wer band a nd u ltra-flat torq ue cur ve. A bike like th e RS850R Ga rdner rode to win th e British FI titl e undefeated in 1983...Wayne must have as ked H RC to build somethi ng like this, a nd by go lly, th ey did it . Poor Freddi e! , , H onda 'constru cted just 10 examp les of th e 1987 NSR500D (two each for Gardner, Yat su sh iro, Mackenzie a nd Sp en cer, one for Haslam /ELF and a J apan In c. contro l bike), but th ey're already o utda ted. Built to do a job tha t th ey succeede d at to per fecti on, th e '87 V-4s are abo ut to be su pe rcede d by th e '88 model which , according to Oguma, will be based on the tit le-winning bike but will be smaller, lighter and yes, even more powerful. This year's machine scaled o nly a fraction less than the '86 bike, as low as 261 po unds, but on ly with the aid of flim sy carbonfiber/Kevlar bod ywork th at Gardner preferre d not to use becau se he didn't like it wavin g abo u t in th e breeze all th e time. Oguma says the NSR500 proj ect team have th e 253 pound weigh t once obta ined by th e NS500 trip le as th eir targe t, and maybe th ey'll get th ere th is season. But in th e meantim e Ga rd ne r fans Down Under can expect to see quite a bit more of hi s '87 wea pon, because 1988 is Au stralia 's Bicentennial Year , an d a grea t one in whi ch to be th e firs t Auss ie 500cc m oto rc ycl e . Wo rld Champion. Som eh ow I think th e Aus tra lia n public is goi ng to see quite a bi t of th e bike I rod e a t Suzu ka! •

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