Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.·~ &yKit Palmer ' .' DAY· -5IX:· too, can buy and race the same bike that McGrath wins on ." Well, you and I know that underneath that "righ t-offthe-assembly-line-look" is a very different motorcycle, jus t like all the other works bikes out there. I hope the a u to m ob il e in d us t ry doesn't get the same idea. I'd ha te to see NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Dale Ernhardt competing on the super speed ways in a Chev y Lu mina th a t looks identical to that of my neighbor. In my opinion, if factory team bikes a re d ifferent on the inside, then they might as well look different on the outside - a lot different. Before the production rule went into effect in 1986, one of the best things about attending a Na tional Motocross or Supercross - at least for me - wa s the cha nce to catc h a glimpse of th e most exotic motocross bikes in the world, ridden by the best riders in the world. The actual racing ac tion wa s almost secondary. Sure, I had my favorite rid ers, but it was rea lly the bikes tha t I came to see. I really didn't care if the race was a blow-out or a runaway, I' d still get a thrill every time Johnny O'Mara raced past on his RC Honda, Ron Lechien on his OW Yamaha, Mark Barnett on his RN Suzuk i, or Jeff Ward on his SR Kawasaki. In the pits at the supercross rounds this year, Honda has been d isplaying a mid -'80s works RC250 with an experimental linkage fron t suspensi on, and it looks much tr icke r than any of toda y's "works" bikes . Before the production r ule, ever y race was different. From week end to weekend, you never knew what kind of tricks the factory tearns would hav e up their sleeves. What were those secre t canis ters u nder the airbox, and that strange box on the cylinder, and those peculiar hoses disappearing underneath the low-slung aluminum gas tank? You don't see stu ff like that very m uch anymore. Basically, from a mechanical point of view , motocross has gotten...boring. Now adays, w e ge t excited w hen Kaw asak i m ounts a plastic reservoir bottle from a KDX on the inside of a side pa nel - to be used as an auxiliary fuel round of the CMC MX Series a t Saddleback Park. Rapp beat th e Pen tons of Gary Baile y and Lars Larsson. Larsson came back to win both the 250 and 500cc classes...Yvon Du Hamel rode a BSA Rocket 3 to a new one-hour speed record of 127 .621 mph at Daytona International Speed way... "Works bikes." 'm not exactly sure what that term means anymore. Those two words are still in our motocross vocabulary, but I wonder why as I stroll down the pits at a Camel Supercross or a National motocross. Hmmm. I always thought that works bi kes were distinctive, exotic , one-of-a-kind, . high-dollar race jobs that onl y the bes t riders in the coun try got to ra ce machines that bore little resemblance to my prod uction motocrosser sittin g back home in my garage. Nowadays, a socalled "works" bike, like tho se ridden by factory-backed riders Jeremy McGrath, Mike Kiedrowski, Jeff Emig and Brian Swink, are mirror images of those rolling off showroom floors. In fact, McGrath 's works Honda looks less "works-ish" than most of the bikes on the starting line at my local motocross track. McGrath's bike looks d ownright...well, boring. If it wasn't for th e yellow number "1"s on the blue number-plates (at lea st on his supercross bike), a Dunlop sticker here and 1-800COLLECT sticker there, you'd be hardpressed to tell the difference between a stocker and McGrath's championshipde fending Honda, especially when eyeballing it from 50 feet away in the grandstands. Visually, if you were to take McGrath's works bike and line it up side-by-side wi th, say, the Honda CR250 of my fellow associate editor, Donn "Mr. Style King" Maeda, with its flashy and colo rful aftermarket graphics, two- tone sea t cover and strategically placed decals, yo u'd think Maeda's CR was the $30,00 0 wo rks bike - not McGrath's. Take a stroll d own the pits of a N ational Mo to cr oss n ow , a n d you'll notice that most of the privateer bikes at least look tricker than mo st of the wo rks bikes. It 's quite obvious that the fac tory teams now wan t their race bikes to look as similar to the ir p roduction bikes as possible - ir s a marketing thing. "You, I tank for sandy tracks; or when Ho nda shows up at the races with extended side panels on Jeff Stanton's bike - so he won't snag the tops of his boots on the panels' comers. But the production rule does serve a use ful p urp ose, I suppose. It giv es the privateer a chance - albeit a slim chance of keeping step with the factory-backed teams/wo rks riders on the track. Since the prod uction ru le went into effect, a handful of privateers have managed to win National Motocross or Supercross events. Personally, I'd like to see th e engi neering a n d m ech an ic al side of motocross brough t back to the spo rt to help make it more e xciting aga in . I think it co u ld be don e, p erhap s by replacing the SOOcc National class - now that irs gone, anyway - by a no-holdsbarred, all -out, unlimited four-stroke class. Hey, why not? The wa y things are going - en vir on m en ta ll y s p ea ki ng two-strokes may be a thing of the past, anyway. Wouldn' t it be a wesome to see th e likes of Jeff Stanton, Mike Kiedrows ki and Mike La Rocco mixin g it u p a top four-strokes - and atop real works bikes to boot? I think it would, and I'm sur e tha t Stanton, Kiedrowski and LaRocco would like it, too. At leas t they'd hav e the satisfaction of racing bikes that look like no other - jus t lik e th ey used to . Hey, these gu ys are special - they're the best motocross racers the w orld has to offer. Would n't it be nice if the y were rewarded by getting the chance to race truly exotic motorcycles - the best that techn ology has to offer? It seems to me that having a National -status class for fou r-strokes would also open the racing d oors in the U.S. for many manufacturers, like H usaberg, Husqvarna, KTM, ATK, Am erican Dir t Bike, Vertemati, etc.. And you can bet your shorts th a t H ond a, Ka w asa ki, Yamaha a n d Su zuk i wo u ld ge t invo lved , especially if things took off. So they m ight not be as co mpetitive as some of the European-ma de thumpers at first, but it wo uldn't take them long to change. Plus, there are many after rnar- decisio n to sus pend the claiming rule - a week after Marty Tripes ' H onda wa s claimed...Cycle News ran an interview w ith Kenny Ro berts, w ho discussed, a mo ng o the r th in g s, h is injuries, superbikes an d the future o f road raci n g i n A merica . On th e pro sp ects of s u pe rbi ke ra ci ng being the ma in class, Roberts said: "It would be u nfeasible at this point because you have to cheat fair - well, tha t brings the cost wa y up. If yo u do make it the main class, you 're going to have American riders going to Europe faste r than you can shake yo u r head"... ket outfits ou t there that specialize in hoppi ng up a variety of fou r-stroke . motorcycles, who would love to show off their thumper know-how. What better way to do this than on the National circuit? Remember, four-strokes aren't what they used to be. Many of them are now considerably lighter, more powerful and just plain tricker than ever. This is very evident in Europe, where four-strokes ha ve revi ved the SOOcc class on the GP circuit. Last year, Belgian Jacky Marten won the World Championship SOOcc MX Series on a four-stroke Husqvarna, and Joel Sm e ts was only two places behind o n a no ther fo u r-s t roke - a Vertemati-mod ifi ed H us abe rg . This goes to show that four-stroke technology has caught up to and perhaps passed two-stroke technology, at least in the big-bore class. Many of the parts on Martens champions hip-winning Husky we re handmade, and mrmy parts were supplied by aftermarket companies. Martens' Husky also used exotic metals, such as titanium footpegs, brake discs, shock springs and connecting rod s. Martens even experimented w ith a three-speed gearbox, fuel-injection and a handlebar-mounted suspension co n tro l on his thumper. Smets' Husaber g us ed a one-off aluminum gas tank, and other tailor-made parts. H is '94 mach ine will be almost. entirely hand-built b y the small Vertemati factor y. Now th is is all cool stuff, but unfortunately you don't see it here in the Ll.S, anymore, at least not on the National MX circui t. I just think that there sho uld at least be one National-status class in m otocross th at isn 't choked by a production rule, and this could be accompl ished with a four-s troke class. Heck, it wouldn't even have to be called a "fourstrok e " cl ass, p e rhaps ju st Open or Unlimite d. By crea ting an AMA -sanc tioned National class for four-strokes, it would kill two birds with one stone - it would bring back the "SOOcc" Nationals, as we ll as honest-to-goodness "w orks" bikes. ~ What do you think ? I: LObkING·B.ACKm··1 . 25 Y EARSAGO April 1S, 1969... he big winn ers in the fir s t halfm ile dirt tr ack of the 1969 season at Asco t Pa rk in Gardena, California, were Dan Haaby and Mert Lawwill. Haab y beat Lawwill in the I S-lap main .. .,.. event with Lawwill coming back to beat Sh ort y Seabourn e and Haaby in the three-lap trophy dash. The Amateur main event was won by Dave Al dan a over Don Castro with Fra n k Gillespie finishing third. The Novice main event was won by Don Erode...Tom Rapp and his Bultaco won the 12Sec race during the first T :;',." ~. J ·~;:~~~I 1S Y A SAGO ER April 11, 1979... ro c Glove r and Bob Han. n ah won t he second round of the AMA 125/250cc MX Series at Saddlebac k Park in Sou t he rn Cali fo rnia, but the big news that came fro m the event was the AMA ' s B SYEARS AGO AprilS, 1989... eff Ward ca p tu red his first win of the 1989 Cam el Supercro ss Seri es after holding off a charging Johnny O'Mara to wi n in Ta mp a Stadium. Ron Lechien finished third . The 125cc main event w in w en t to Mike Ki e d ro w s k i over Damon Bradshaw and Mike Jones...The second round of the AMA National Championship Enduro Series went to Terry Cunningham. Cunningham beat Jeff Russell and Ku rt Hough...Team Suzuki's Mike Smith and Pau l Bray combi ned to win the six-hour endu rance ro ad r ace at Roebling Road in ~ Faulkville, Georgia... J

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