Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

he used in the middle of th e year. The 'black' b rak es' lack of co nstant resp onse, du e to variation in operating tem per atures - they have a co mp letely different feel , depending on how long the last strai gh t was and how much th ey've coo led o ff since you used th em last time p ersuaded him to revert to th e massive Nissin ro tors, especially as th ese have now been cu red of th eir . p ro pensity to warp , which was a problem in '88. Michelin 's in trod uction of the 16-in ch front radial ca me after H onda had designed the '89 cha ss is, but th e g eo me try wa s ad apted to su it a nd 'La wson- o p ted to us e it for most of the season in a largely successful effort to cure a problem he encou n tered a t th e start o f the year with the fron t wh eel slid in g under power , making it im possible to ' steer with th e rea r wheel. But he a nd his H onda colleagues rem ained bedevilled by two o the r handling problem s a ll season long: tra ction a nd steering, p roblem s grap hically hi ghlighted by the co ntr asting behaviour of Schwantz's nimble Suzuki with its agi le steering and better drive ou t of turns. To be honest, I d idn' t th ink th ese su p port problems would show up at th e somewhat mor e restrained speed s I would be rid ing th e bike com pared to Awesome Lawson. I was wrong. First flying lap past the pits a t . Suzu ka, wi th th e tires ni cely warm , I hit o ne o f the rip p les ca used by th e Racer test: Eddie Lawson's Honda NSRSOO ero A wesome L on- what ah aws By Alan Cathcart Photos by Takashi Akamatsu Ot many people would now dispute that Eddie Lawson is th~ most compl~te rider of the modern (l.e. post-Hallwood) generation. A two-wheeled gunfighter N who in th e midst of GP racing's politicking and com me rcia lism remains entirely his own man, Law son 's talents for wrongfooti ng his opposi tion off the track are o uts ho ne on ly by his ability · to defeat the m o n it - even whe n th e d ice a re loaded agai nst h im , as they surely were in 1989. Fo ur 500cc World Ch ampionship titl es in six years says , it a ll: Stea dy Eddie has become Aweso me Lawson. But now a fter riding th e Honda NSR500 o n which he cli nc hed the most recent o f th ose four cro wns in 1989, I kn ow that Edd ie Lawson isn ' t j us t m y hero: he's A H ero . To have wres tled th e mightil y pow erful bu t unrul y-handl in g Honda into su bmission is a fea t in itself bu t to do so often eno ugh a nd dependably eno ugh (especia lly o n tight tracks like Le Man s wh ere he had no righ t to finish on th e rostrum, let alone win th e thing ) to end up defeating Wayne Rain ey for th e titl e, clinch es Eddie's clai m to be the o u tsta nding rider of his era . Yes, sir - a 100% certified gold-plated hero! Sitting in th e pale November su ns hine at Suzu ka befor e I climbed a board , th e La wson H onda just ex uded power and men ace. Wh ereas Kevin Schwantz's Pepsi Suzu ki that I'd ridden exactly a month befor e is a lmost graceful a nd feminin e in ' it s a p peara nce, the H onda looks bu tch a nd pow er-p acked, like an a thlete on stero ids. Ap pea ran ces can some times be decept ive, but not' th is tim e: wha t you see is wh at it is - ask Edd ie! Don 't h a ve h is pr iva te p ho ne number? Oka y I'll have to do , th en. At least, having ridden th e works H onda NSR500 V1 in eac h o f its various gu ises for th e past four years in succession, I ha ve some fram e o f reference, not to mention my rides not long befor eh an d o n th e agile, smoothly po werfu l Suzuki a nd Latin lovely Cagiva, To say that H onda 's 1988 season in th e 500cc class was d isa p po inting wo uld be economical with the truth: it was traumat ic. Engi ne develo pment ha d p ushed the out p u t of the si ngle-cra n k, cran kcase reed- va lve I 12-degr ee V1 engine to around the 160 bhp mark - but su p posed ly th rou gh m isunder st an ding h ead rid er Wayne Gardner 's desires, the chassis was red esigned arou nd a wh ol e set of false parameters. The result had severe traction, stability a nd steering problem s, on ly pa rt ia lly rectified before th e end o f a season in whi ch Honda lost th eir coveted World Champi onship cro wn to Yamah a - a nd the shock arriva l o f new sig ning and reign in g Wo rld Ch ampi on .Edd ie Law son. Edd ie rod e Gardner 's 1988 NSR as soo n as he joined th e team officia lly, and sai d he cou ld n't beli eve an y bike cou ld handl e th at bad. H onda had a lot of work to do , befor e th ey cou ld hope . to regain the titl e. Typica lly , bein g Honda, th ey did it. " We built a 100% new chassis for 1989," says HRC's ch ief engineer, Kazuhiko Tsu no da, boss of th e GP race effort. " But even this new design was not ideal , so we made constan t experime n ts during th e season, a nd . p roduced revised chassis for Edd ie in Spa in and Ge rma n y, after advice fro m Erv Kan em ot o abo u t stiffen ing th e frame. We kept his basic design u nti l the end o f the season, but changed the rear sus pe ns io n linkage for a n a ltered curve, as well as exper imen ti ng with various geome try sett ings , th ough we did no t move the engi ne in the fram e, as some 'peo p le reported." H on d a m ad e a total o f fou r updat ed fra mes in a ll, two eac h for Edd ie and Wayne Gar dn er: chassis n um ber NSR 500F-9 801 which sa l. awa iting my pl easure at Suzuka was the refo re o ne o f th ese, with a thi ck strengthen ing tube across the to p o f th e engine betw een th e twin ex truded a lloy span th emselves bearing a hefty b u ilt-up ex tra sec ti o n of m et al welded to the m , a ll in th e in teres ts of ex tra rigid ity, a t the cost of a 1.1 lb. inc rease in weight co m pa red to the un str engthen ed fram e whi ch Mick Doohan a nd the other H onda 500 riders had to p u t up with a ll season. T he same bik e Eddie used in the last race o f th e seaso n in Brazil to clinch th e title, com p lete with Goi ania scru tineerin g sticker, it not on ly had th e upside-down Sh owa forks introduced th is season as well as the a lmos t obscenel y bloated fabri cated all oy ' h u nc h bac k ' sw ingarm, but also the 16-inch front wheel and ' massi ve 332mm N iss in steel b rake whi ch Ed die rever ted to by the end of th e season, ra ther th an the AP carbo n brak es likes of Pro st a nd Sen na gouging lum ps o ue of the tarm ac with th e undersid e of th eir slot-race rs, while sti ll cra n ked over through th e fast right sweeper, hard on in third gea r - or was it fourth? All hell broke loose; th e bars shoo k from side to side with me desperately try ing to force them into sub missio n, th e front wh eel fl app ed like a fl am en co dancer's fan, a nd th e H onda went into a full-bl ooded tank-slapper , a ll in full view of th e ni ce HRC folk in th e pit s. Wow - talk abo u t a hinge in the middle! H alf- cer tain some thi ng must have brok en , I pottered round the rest o f the la p , back to th e pits. T hey were' ready for me: " So sorry, Alan-san we forg ot to tight en steeri ng damper. " Yes, but hang on - it 's o n po sit ion number 15 o u t o f a possible 21 sett ings: surely th at's hard enough? " May be tig h test po siti on is best," said the voice. of ex per ience, firmly. Wh at you mean ' do it up tight? - Now th e steering's locked solid. H ow 'rn I ever going to get th ro ugh the ch ica ne like this? Answer: with di fficulty - a lot of difficulty! Yet th at's how Edd ie rode th e bike a ll season, once he'd realized he was never go ing to make it handle as well as th e Yamahas he was used to a nd had better mak e th e best o f things while capi ta lizing on th e H onda's undoubted power and spee d advan tage - as always, H RC's strong suit. I didn't actually tip it on its ea r a t the dreadfully slow Suzuka chica ne , or at th e hairpin, but the Honda felt it was going to fall o n its side th er e every la p. And here was I thinking it'd be the fast co rners I'd have trouble with ! But tha t' s not th e wh ol e of it: getti ng th e NSR500 to track p roperl y ro u nd medium spee d corners like th e' succession of turn s

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