Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Bobby H ill , winner of 12 AMA Gra nd Na tio na l Cham pionship events - 10 of th em o n Indian motorcycles _ between 1948 and 1954, will attend the August 6-10 Nat ion al In dian Motor cycle Con vention in Sturgis, So uth Dak ota. Racers a utograp hs? No , sir, not at the ope n house promotions that will take place at Yam ah a of San Mateo on June 23 and a t Berkel ey Yam aha on June 30. Instead of racers, the California dea lerships will have Mi s s Pow e r Curves, the ca len d ar/poste r girl, sig ning au tograp hs. Door prizes, like Metzeler tires and SuperTrapp exha us t systems , will be given away at bo th affairs. " It definitel y look s like Freddie S pencer will be an entrant," sai d Spe ncer 's manager Lonnie Hardy on Mond a y, June 4, when asked if Spencer wou ld compete in the AMA National ' Road Race at Miami, Florida, July 2122. Hardy said that the deal hinges on th e ava ilability o f machiner y a nd technical sup port , but declined to com ment furth er. But acco rding to the AMA 's Ron Zimmerm ann , Spencer has been offered h is choice of two H onda RC30 Su perb ikes - the Gabl es H onda-ba ck ed m ach in e th a t we reported on last week, or a mach ine to be leased from T wo Brothers Ra cing's Craig Erion. In case you hav en't noticed , we're ra p idly a pproaching summer, the tim e of yea r wh en youn g men 's hearts tra d i tio na lly turn to th ou ghts of . .. wh at hot new bi kes the manu " factu rers have pl anned for next year l And so far , most of th e ru mors concern street bikes. According to in formed so urces, the 1991 S uzuki GSXR lineu p will be water-coo led: H arle yDavidson's Sportster will have a ru bber -mo unt ed engine with a fivespeed transmissio n and belt drive; and t he en tire D ucati ra ng e will be fue l·injected. T he Duca ti lin e wi ll likely 'o ffer a trick 851 street bike (perhaps '3'street-]egal versio n of th e 888 Spo rts Racer ), a near ly one -liter Paso, a 906p owered Elefan t, and th e 900 Su perspo rt current ly available in Europe to rep lace the 750 Spo rt sent here. In the pla n ni ng stages are a Moto G u zz i Le Mans featuring the four -valve percylinder engine from the soon-to-berel eased Daytona 1000 (a .k.a . Dr. John 's Replica); a new Honda spo rt bike po wered by a 600cc in line-four, and a 750cc version of the Kawasaki Zephyr. What did you do over the firs t weekend o f June? R ace? Kick ba ck ? Party hearty ? Whatever you did , Eric A n d , e r s o n did more th an yo u . T h e t nation al sa les man ager for Int ersport Fash ions West , im porter of H ein Gerick e leather apparel, rode a Kawasaki KLR650 230 miles off-road from Mesq uit e, Nevada , to the North Rim of the Grand Ca nyo n while taking part in the Cycle World T rek , then turned aro u nd and rode 500 mil es of desert p avem ent ba ck to Mi ssi on Viejo, California, to compete in the Oran ge County Performing Arts Cente r Triatha lo n o n Su nday . Anderso n finished th e triathal on in the to p third of the 1700 ent rants with a tim e of 2 hours. 35 minutes. AMA says no to fuel-injected Kawasakis R o n Zimm erm ann , the AMA's vice president, professional raci ng, ha s den ied tun er Rob Mu zzy's request for homologation of the electro n ic fuel inj ection system he has developed for his Kawasaki ZX7-based superbikes. Developed alo ng with Montana-based DynoJet, Mu zzy has tested the EFI system a t a Road Atlanta tire test sessio n and in a Seattle end ura nce race. " We haven 't issued an official bulletin yet, but we're abo ut to ," Zimmermann said on Monday, June 4. Zimm erm ann (a t right) cited four factors in h is decisio n: Fir stly, since the Superbike cla ss is prod uctio n-based, the typ e of ind uctio n system should not be cha nged from stock (i.e. carburetors to EFI, o r vice-versa); secondly, there is a large nu mb er of readily-available, competitive carbure tors: thirdly, a cha nge sho uld no t be mad e mid-s eason; and lastly, there doesn 't curre nt ly appear to be any on e brand of motorcycle with an apparent horsepo wer advanta ge or di sadvantage. Muzzy, who was in Japan testing for the July 29 Suzuka Eight Hour, could not be reached for com men t. LITTLE KNOWN FACT: The rider in Honda 's latest television commercia ls is Nick Ienatsch, Mot orcyclist magazine feature editor, who alo ng with Keith Code is co-hos t of th e WERA F-USA TV series. Spe aking of Motorcyclist, the mag 's senior edito r, Dexter Ford, competed in his first-ever road race at sou ther n California 's Will ow Springs International Ra ceway on May 19. Ford, wh o's just a few years shy of 40, finished sixth in th e 750cc-Open Novice class o n a Harl ey-Davidson 883 Sportster, Team Yam aha mo tocrosser D oug Duba ch was spo rt ing a new hairstyle at the June 2 Foxboro Supercross. Yamaha team manager Keith McCarty said he would shave h is head if Dubach won a moto a t the previous week's Mt. Morris . 125/ 250cc National , but if Dubach didn 't mak e the top five in either mo to he'd have to shave his head . Dubach accep ted the bet, posted 6-8 scores, and now stripes abo u t two in ches above each ear. A recent ly ra tified Oklaho m a la w establishes a special mot o rcycle . endorsement on a driver's license, effective J a nu ary I, 1991. Now all applica nt s for a motorcycle license in Okl ah o ma will be req uired to pass both written and mo tor cycle skills tests. Mel Sta h l, Mo torcycle Sa fety Fo und a tion vice president for government relations, said, " Any posi tive step in motor cycle sa fety is always good . news." T h is leaves Alaba ma a nd Idah o as the o nly sta tes not req uiri ng specia l mo torcycle licenses. EBC Brakes is offering a $1000 bonus to the first enduran ce raci ng team that G in defea t both Du tchman Racing teams, wh o have not lost a race since Ju ne 1989, and wh o have won the last 12of 13 AMA/ CCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challenge eve nts. T he co nte st begins at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wiscon sin , June 30. Speaking of Dutchman Racin g, Ca nadia n J acques Guenette, J r . has signed with the team to ride o ne of their pair of Suzuki GSXR II OOs in the GTO class at th e remain ing rounds of the AMA/CCS EBC Brakes End ura nce Ch all enge Seri es; Guenette will no longer be ridin g a Yam aha FZR600 for GTU effort Team Toomer. In th e wak e of reforms being ins tigated by South African President De Klerk, it is beli eved tha t the FIM is hoping to reinstate full membership rights to th e South African motorcycle fe deration at the au tumn congress meeting. Although still a member of th e FIM , the South African federation hasn 't been able to issue international licenses to its riders since 1986and their prom ot ers haven 't been considered for FIM cha m p io n sh ip events. So u th Africa n riders such as Colli n Dugmor e hav e sought licenses fro m other coun tries, bu t in the pas t have been unabl e to co n test ' GPs in East Blo c a n d Sca ndanavia n co u ntries si nce th e authorities have refused to issue th e Sout h Africa ns visas. H owever Du gmore was recently ad mitted to Sweden for the 250cc MX GP and Greg Albertyn had no problems ente ri ng Czechoslovak ia for the 125cc MX G P. Road racer Kevin R e n t ze ll had hi s tru ck stolen recently in Brid gepo rt , Connecti cut. The truck was recover ed a few da ys la ter by the local po lice, min us its tires , wheels and cont ents. Fo rtunately, Ren tzell 's bikes and gear were not o n board at the ti me. Ride for Life III , held in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, May 13, r ais ed o ver $200,00 0 to benefit the Muscular . Dystrophy Association. The event was sponsored by the Eastern H arley- Davidson Dealers Association and supported in part by th e Amoco Oil Compan y. Road racer Chris Cr e w is headed to Europe where he will compete in the famed Isle of M an TT for the seco nd time. Crew will rid e a Honda RC30 provided by Padgett 's of England in the Senior TT, and is on standby for the Formula I event. The San Francisco, California-based rider is being helped in the endeavo r by Lightning Expres s, Lewis Leath ers, T -Pro, Motorcycles Unlimited, Pegassis, Zeitgiest , Golden Gate Cycles, Barnett, Fox, and th e Montgom ery Street Motor cycle Club. T urbo Blu e Racing Gasol ines, th e excl usive fuel sup plie r for Arizona 's Firebird International Rac e w a y , wi ll be offering both 115 octane lead ed a n d 105 octa ne unl eaded r a cing gasoline atthe June 8-10 WERA road race meet a t Firebird . The Amer ican Motor cycle Heritage Foundation, wh ose mu seum will ope n in August a t the AMA headquarters in Westervill e, Ohi o, is seeking old m otorcycling film, vi deotape a n d still pho t o s which they'll copy and p lace in th e museum archives. Dave Despain, host of TV's Mot orWeek Illustrated and owner of AMA Videos , sa id , " I have taken o n th e task of co llect ing video an d photo arc h ives for th e museum . We think it is ver y im porta nt to prese rve the memor ies of o ur sport's gr eat stars, and the archive we are now assembling provides an o pport un ity to do th at . Those wh o contribute material will hav e their or igina ls returned, along with a VHS ~----------------------~---------------------------------------I I SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM • I I I Name Address I City State Zip I I) .~~re • I I MC/Visa # P lease star t m y su bscrip ti o n to Cycle N ews: 0 Every week for one year (50 issues) for $35.00 (can be billed 3 monthly payments) 0 Every week fo r two years (100 issues) for $65.00 0 Six months seco n d class (25 issu es) for $ 18.00 • I t I I' One year (>0 issues], 2nd class Canada or Mexico an d all other lorrign coun tries $75.00 (U.S. funds). 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