Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,'..:]Nc 'IE A ..D..:;C . .'·. JH :P..D.. Q..K::: · 'B''Mi' 'SCott .., ..' ..' ..... .". Y hae " - ' ' . ., : " ~ ', ' '. . . . :. Is. Dunlop tire chief Jeremy Ferguson found. it very ve xing how the track would change so much in response to only a slight change in humidity or temperature. "It seems unusually sensitive, and it's very unpredictable. Sometimes it doesn't just change from day to day, but from morning to afternoon," he said. . While neither he nor anybody else directly involved wo uld b e tactless en ough to say th a t their pre-season te sts were actuall y w asted b y this quirky adhesion, problems afflict ing Doohan's Honda, and more especially the Suzukis, rather suggest this to be the case. Doohan and his fellow Honda riders ran in to suspensio n p ro blems that should certainly ha ve b een solved before the season began... if they had been discovered. Instead, the Creek Effect gave rider and team a false sense of security that lasted right until race day, when Doohan found himself at a loss to catch not only Kocinski's Cagiva but also to fend offCadalora's Yamaha . By the time he got to Malaysia, he was chasing his tail, and was obliged to change his riding style to find a winni ng edge - o f which more foll ow s . below . Doohan finger ed the track directly. "On a different day there, you're on a different bike. I don't think Honda will do much testing there in the future. In fact the team wanted to stay on after the GP, but I said : 'Let's get the hell out, because we're never going to learn anything.' " Suzuki spen t more time at the Creek than anyone, and believed that the ir '94 prototype was a good bike . Th ings got complicated after Kevin Sch wantz ju m p ed off his mountain b ike and broke h is arm with three wee ks to go , b ecau se it mean t the World champion missed the final two tests at th e Creek - their own shaked own, follow ed b y th e open-to-a ll IRTA tests a week before the race. But they didn' t wo rry too much, for the p roduction bi ke should have been a direct follow-on from th e successful prototype. It seems now th at somethi n g got lost in the translation, but it took the team two disappointing races to dis'cover this. One reaso n was an oblique operation of the Creek Effect. "When the bike proved tricky to set up for the first race," said team manager Garry Taylor. "We thought it was because Eastern Creek was a quirky circuit. When w e got to Shah Alarn, and things were still quirky, we realized it was the bike not the track." Suzuki's response was to withdraw to the factory's private track at Ryuo, Schwantz in attendance, for emergency tes ts w here they would certainly be bringing the '94 prototypes out of the ba ck o f th e workshop, and possibly also the title-winning '93 machine. Kevin promptly won at Suzuka, most probably on the '93 bike. It seems there had been "manufacturing differences" (ie: mistakes) in translating the prototype to production form. The Creek Effect proved costly to man y teams. But there is no immediately obvious alternative, with tracks in short su pp ly -In the Southern Hemisphere. . "Phillip Island is good for engine testing, but the weather is bad. Eastern Creek should be a good .chassis track, and proved good for us last year . But the latest results seem to make it far from suitable," continued Taylor. So where can people go ? Shah Alam's a "chassis" circuit, with slow corn er combinations requiring quick steering and a very fast kink taken under braking which tests high-speed stability. But the Malaysian conditions are unique, the blazing heat introducing tire problems and sapping engine power, and the humidity affecting the performance of brakes, engine and rid- , ers alike. "Michelin would like us to go back to Goiania, but there is a big question about th e condition," added Taylor. The track was last used for the Brazilian GP in 1989. The only other circuit that springs to m in d as being fast enough, sa fe . enough, and enjoying a southern summer at the appropriate time, is Kyalami outside Johannesburg. But 6,000-foot alt itude is another factor, and th ere in ay be a civ il war to get ou t of the way, first. Me anwh ile, the racing season is under way, and the residual bike problems are far from academic. 25 YEARS AGO... May 20, 1969 crowned Queen of th e 3rd International Bikini Pageant. He r prize ? A 50cc Lady Yamaha. "When not modelin g or riding, th e beautifu l youn g queen occupies he r time with karate lessons," sa id th e photo ca p tio n. That's odd, Queen Kristina 's low-cut bikini is 25-years -o ld, ye t much skimpier than man y of those seen today... A classified ad read : I have a '64 Volkswagen 1500. Will trade for dirt bike, any size ... loafers ... Hakan Carlqvist stormed to the win at the Dutch 250cc MX GP, ed g ing ou t Gennady Moiseev and Kee s van der Ven... Graham Noyce led Brad Lackey and Gerritt Wolsink home at the Austrian 500cc MX GP ... Freddie Spencer trounced the Junior class at Ascot Park. Steve Morehead topped Eddie Lawson lii7irf'::lI",,~.~..i''',';';:~.: i~ . t~e Expert : :. ~ diVISIOn .. . Rex -;...::- " I Staten won the . P.rfy't' .tI.:t'd"7~:~/· 250 and SOOcc Pro ~ ....... , classes at Carls. bad MX... A young . Malcolm Smith was featured in a Motorcycle Industry Council ad, and had a full head of curly brown hair... A li gh tw eigh t aluminum silencer for Yamaha and Honda MX machines made by Paul Turner cost $35.95... n othing sacred any more? I mean, really, what a way to start the year - with good old Cagiva leaving the Japanese factories in a stew and frantically scheduling extra tests, while John Kocinski saiIs on in his enigmatic way to lead the World Championship into the third race in Japan. John's current "I don't know nuthin' about nuthin'" behavior seems deliberately tailored to reinforce his "enigma" status - or is he just uptight and churlish? I th in k w e must let the season develop before we will see. the full gamut of his emotions. Meanwhile, a quirk in pre-s eason test programs has unearthed a different . kind of enigma, and reintroduced an old concept into race-winning techniques...the return of the old-time wheelspin riding in trod uced back in 1983, when King Kenny and Fast Fredd ie's fierce rivalry coincided with a time when engine power had far outdistanced chassis, suspension and tire development. . The sto ry h as two parts, an d th e first concerns th e belated and cos tly d iscovery of a flaw in ev erybody's fav orite winter test circu it - Eastern . Creek in Australia. . In the absence of other scapegoats, th e h ighl y artificial "Mickey Mouse" cir cuit ou tsi de Sydney is taking the blame for the malaise that has hit Honda and Yamaha, and to an even grea ter extent, Suzuki. The Creek Effect has been observed by all the teams as an unpredictability of surface, with traction that changes as a cloud passes across the sun. This led to h ighly erratic test results that confused progress fo r Honda and Suzuki teamsters, and sen t Yamaha running bac k to the predictable 1991 chassis design. The effect is more noticeable th is year than previously, largely because circumstan ces h a ve seen teams p u t more emphasis on the Creek than other circuits. All four w orks teams w en t there, while all three Japanese teams also visited the preferred Phillip Island near Melbourne, only to be greeted by bad weather ranging from high winds to lots of rain. cartoon rend ition of an irate sheepherder posting a "No Motercyclez" s ign was featured on the cover, inspired . b y the closing of Bean Cany~~ on, a popu lar off-road riding area near Lancaster, California... Bart Markel topped Mert Lawill at the Terre Haute Half Mile National... Sammy Tanner won yet another Ascot Half Mile main.event. Don Dudek finished third in the Amateur fin al, and Don Emde aced the Novice race... John Penton won the 175 Mile Burr Oak Enduro... 17y e a r -o ld Kristina Nelson was A 15 YEARS AGO... May 16, 1979 teve Eklund scored his first-ever San Jose Mile w in, edging second-year Expert Ricky Graham and Gary Scott. Rookie Scott Parker finished 14th. Miss Winston looked especially stylish on the pod ium, sporting satin shorts and knee-high, striped tube socks and brown S For Doohan, the solution was another enigma in itself, and makes for part two of our tale. In Malaysia, at the slowest track of the year, he dropped his gearing in some comers to increase engine revs...and this, quite paradoxically, reduced his wheeIspin. This is the opposite of what you 'd expect, but is easily explained by his crew .chief Jerry Burgess. "Lowering second and third gears reduced mid comer speed and shortened the comer for Mick. Then he could pick it upright earlier and get on the power. It had less wheeIspin even though the engine was higher up the power band .because he was on the fatter part of the tire." Creative riding, to a style that has become unfashionable - and here is the even greater paradox. In the past year or two, mild-mannered close-firingorder engin es h ave combined w ith ever-improving tires to bring a return of the "250-style" riders like Cadalora, Kocinski and Barros - and, surprise of the year so far, Alberto Puig. Even the established stars, schooled on loose surfaces to a man, had to change their style to keep up, sweeping into the corners faster and leaning the ir bikes farther over for longer. Yet Doohan's defeat of the new kids by timely application of the Old Time Religion illustrates a point made to me by Wayne Rainey among others - that while the ZSo-style riders may be able to turn fast lap times when conditions are right; when the going gets tough, the old dirt-track graduates will always ha ve the advantage of bein g able to adapt to changing conditi ons. In Malaysia, the upset was the heat, which threw recent tire ad vances into reverse, and brought back cond itions similar to those that faced Kenny and Freddie in '83, when there was always more power than the tires could han dle. The y introd uced the technique of pick-up-and-slide out of dire need. It was the only w ay they cou ld keep fighting each other un til the checkered flag. Doohan, although he prefers high midcorner speed and sweeping corner lines, was ready to change when circumstances dictated. And that it the mark of a potential champion. C\' 5YEARS AGO... May 10, 1989 a n d y Hawkins aced the Little Muddy National Enduro.. . Jeff Stanton edged out Jeff ~'''''''''''''''_ Ward and Doug Dubach in the ZSOcc class at the Lake Sugartree Natioal MX. A young and enthused Damon Bradshaw scored his first-ever National win in the 125cc class.. . Chris Carr won the 600cc Manzanita Half Mile, but trailed runner-up Steve Aseltine in the 600cc National Championship Series point standings... Scott Russell and David Sadowski cleaned up at the AMA/CCS Sprint Races at Road Atlanta. Both were mounted aboard Yoshimura Suzukis... C\' R

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