Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:INTHEPADDOCK. . ..ByMichael SCott it Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha or Cagiva is th e motorcycle of choice. Th is is certainly the view of the men who have ridd en a ll types of racing bikes fa ster th an a ny body else. Th e great trio of modern racing - Kev in Schwantz, Michael Doohan and Wayne Rainey (a bse n t in fac t, but there in sp irit via lap records that still survive) - all came up through superb ik es, whe re each towered a bove the ir national rivals before being plucked from their ranks for Grand Prix sta rdom. Bet ween th em they wen t on to crea te a go lde n age - a sim u ltaneous ex plosion of rid ing talent that is the greatest reason that so many of the 500 class lap record s of 1991 and 1992 still stand. Schwantz says now tha t he found superb ikes huge l y enjo yab l e, and wo uld n' t be a verse to having another go on them. But he agrees with the others that they are a lesser form of racing motorcycle, requiring lower level s of skill for max imum performance to be exploited. There is no doubt that any of this three - or indeed several other r iders in the 500 class - could leap s tr aig h t back onto a Super and win straight away, sim ply by virtue of the greater refinement of riding technique learned by rid ing 500s. Approachin g the problem from th e other side, of a s u perbike rider stepping onto a 500, the cleares t illustration came from that studious rid er Rain ey. Winning the AMA U.S. Superbike title had taug ht him everything about ho w to sli d e th e fr ont w hee l (he already knew about the rear from h is d irt track years); but the lighter weight, be tt er br akes and sus pe nsion and the livelier and greater horsep ower of the GP bike meant th a t he had to think carefully and consciously seek ou t the same limits after he 'd mad e the move upwards. He fo u n d them, b u t it was a taxing journey tha t on ly a few o thers ha ve managed . This is surely the essence of why GP s the dust settles after the close to a tense World Superbi ke season, the question is bound to ari se once mo re: Should superbikes take over as the top class in racing? Grand Prix racin g, in the eyes of the pessimists, is on the ropes . Isola ted, eli ti s t and expensive, the two-stroke pinnacle of eve ry blue-blooded racer's ambition is in danger of disappearing upon its own fundament. The Su pe rs, on the other ha nd, are poised for a step u pwards. This week mo re than any othe r, in th e wake of the vi ct ory o f Foga rt y an d his Du ca ti a t Phillip Island, there will be a qu orum and mo r e proposing the v i ew that s u p e rb ikes are now po ised to take over. They ha ve a lot of good argumen ts. Firs t, there is the qua lity of the racing. Superbikes generally provide close battling, though this year ha s not been a vintage in this respect. There is the spectator in terest, w ith riders on machines similar - at leas t in appearance and basic design - to the bikes they can rid e home. More compelling (and ominous) is the leve l of facto ry su p port. For next sea son Yamaha will be joining Honda, Kawasaki and Ducati; Cagiva want in for their Ferrari-po wered new 750 four; w hile Aprilia ha ve ind ica ted in terest (they h av e a big-bore Ducati-rival Vtwin in the offing). Rumors have also put th e names of BMW, Harley-Davidso n and Triumph forward as possible future participan ts, leaving only Suzuki as the last factory to d ed ica te itself entirely to GPs . But are an y of th e above enough to allow su pe rbikes to assume som e sort of seniority? Not in the op inion of the curre n t crop of top riders. They ha ve no infl uence whatsoever over the rules an d policy d ec isi ons o f r aci n g, and very little over mach ine d esign . They must simply choose what to ride from what is available. And ther e is no question that a 500cc V-four works bike - be A bikes are the senior class. But perhaps the curren t V-four 500s are too hard to ride. What is th e point, some ask, of havin g machines that are so demanding that on ly a handful of people are capable of using them to the full? The sa me reasoning also leads one to th e conclusion that Mount Everest should be bulldozed a b it lower to make it easier to climb. At th e same time, perhaps a little cu tback would benefit th e sp ectacle, for harder-to-ride inevitably makes the racing m ore sprea d out; w hile th e Su pers a re more often to be found in fairing-bashing groups. Th is could be ach ieved b y some slight tickling of the rules, which are after a ll en tire ly responsible for the rather samey d esi gn of the cu r re n t ·500s. They've evolved within longs ta n di n g rules so that for the la st decade th e s ta te of the art has also been the universal status quo. Four is the m a ximum number of cylinders all owed, so they have four. Likewise six gears, a certain wheelbase, a certain shape of bodywork, etc., etc ; while the V-four is the most compact arrangemen t devised so far. Aberrations ha ve been d ealt short sh r ift. Honda's V-fo u r N R was an attempt at a four-stroke challenge tha t cost a fortune and got nowhere, their three-cylinder NS won a title in 1983, but wa s ul timately left behind. Aprilia's 1994 effort, the 400cc V-twin, hardly posed a threat even when it didn' t bre ak down. With all the participants technically so close together, they could easily all be slowed down equally - by a further downgrading of allowab le fu e l, fo r ins ta nce; or co n tr o ls over ti r es; or intake size. But for pity's sa ke, what kind of talk is this? Why would anyone want to go racing, or eve n to watch it, if it were to be contin ually res trai ned? It is the very opposite of what it is all abou t - at least to any purist w ho holds both sporting and technical ide als more d ear than the no tio n of racing as a cheap s pec tacl e for t he ma sses. Racing is all ab out goi ng faster , and it is on the issue of speed that the challenge of the superbikes founders . They sound good and produce close racing. But the y're just no t fast enough. Even this weeke nd at Phillip Islan d, where th e lap record was broken by two seconds, Fogarty's time was still a full seco n d short of the 500cc class record, which was set way back in 1990, the las t time th ey had a GP ther e. At leas t the new supe rbike time was ins ide the 250 record also set in 1990, though it is certain that the latest 250 riders would have gone significantly faster. This instantly kills an y notion th at you could simply substitute superbikes for 500s at GPs . After all, the classic series already has 125s an d 250s to be easier-to-ride and to produce close racing, and the 250s are reliably faster than the superbikes at comparable tracks . One could hardly have a su pposedly senior class that was slower than the junior! Yet the superbikes have already ousted the 500s at the national level in all sorts of countries since the U.S. sw itched - most recently and significantly in Japan, the heartland of works GP bikes , wh ere the 500 class was summarily axed at the end of the 1993 season. In an idea l world, there would be room for bo th classes - th e Superbikes fulfilling the same knockabou t rol e in racing as d o the Eu ropean Touring Cars, pulling good crowds and giving lots of people lots of fun ; the GP bikes clearly the elite group. Meanwhile, here in th e real world , there m ight be a ba ttl e in the offing, and sa d ly the GP ci rcus is not in a stro ng position to figh t it. The th rea t of th e s u perbikes looms larger year b y year, and the d ays not only of the Vfour 500s, but als o of thei r ass ocia ted smaller two-stroke br ethren , might be nu mbered. c:x . ~OOKING BACKou :' \ 25 Y ARSA E GO.;. November 18, 1969 " H ~~ ope t o wn ~. .' '69" head - ·11 li issue 25 Cycle Newsned the . _.,. .~;.•~: : ~. ,c..- : 'l'~ . 11'::fii~1 . . yea rs ago. A pho to .. of the sta rt of one of the motos was on the cover, and f---==---= ~' ~''': the race, he ld in .: ~! Simi Valley, Cali- --====-'-_.J fornia, was billed as the " .. .b ig ges t race held in the U nite d States." A lt ho ugh a total rider count was not give n in the race report, it did say that some classes alone occu pie d over 70 riders . Pre ston Petty won the 250cc Expert class, and Brad Lac key won the 500cc Amateur class ... Swe de Bengt Abe rg won the 500cc in ternational class at the In ter -Am mo tocross in Salem, Oregon. England's Vic Allen placed second, while Torsten Hallman finis hed third . The top-finishing American was lo ca l rid e r Bob Leach ... In Kansas, ano ther In ter -A m mo tocross race wa s held, which was won by Belgian Joe l Robert. '; j . . unhu rt in t he incident (tho ug h th e non edged o ut Drew Smith for the same couldn 't be said about the bike), overall w in a t th e Big Boo t Nationa l Enduro in Eureka, Californi a .. . Bern ie but it was then-associa te-editor Paul Schreiber wo n the V.O .T.E. Trick or Carruthers laughi ng the loudest - tha t orld Observed Trials Champion Treat Trial in Littlerock, California. Marwas until he realized that the bike Brian Bernie Schreiber wheelying his l and Wh al ey fin ished second ... Part was rid ing was his own... Gu y Cooper Bultaco Shertwo of the Trans-USA bi kes included and Ch ris Coleman stole the spotlight at the 13th Annual Kaw asaki Race of pa T off a dirt ledge ~~G:;;;;;;;;:~ -L Kent Howerton's RN450, Mike Bell's was fea tu red on the Yamaha OW -41 , a n d Chu ck Sun's Cha mp ions at Raceway Park in Engcover 15 years ago. Hu sqv arna 390 CR... The Corona High lishtown, New Jersey . Cooper won the The Californ ian was School MX team, including captain Kit 12Sec Pro class, while Coleman took the Palmer, was featu red in a p hoto in the featured in an inter250c c d iv is ion ... Ed Lojak won th e view; he is the only Locals section. Lead Belt Nat ional Hare Scra mbles at A merica n to w in th e Fla t River GP in Missouri; Sco tt the World title and Summers w as th e run ner -u p ... Dan 5YEARS AGO... d id so at just 20 Smith wra pped up his fou rth conse cuNovember 8, 1989 years of age ... The tive Nationa l Hare & Hound title after Bureau of Land r.;i7'trf.:r~ ;;;s~c~ oring the overall win at the Managemen t ea tu red on the cover was a 'I 100 's M.e. National announced plans ~-;:::::::~~!!5!:E! 1 ~ pho to of the en ti re Cycle H&H at Lucerne Valley, to close two major ridi ng areas News staff during our firs t C a I i fo r n i a. Dan n y along famous Barstow-ta-Vagas Hare & "annual" d ual sport adventure Ham e I, who a Iso Hound course to go in effec t over the story, entitled "Getti ng Away." wrapped up his fo u rth upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, the Most of the ride took pl ace in the H&H title at the same same weekend that the race was tradimountains near Pa lm Sp ring s, , event just last week, won tio nally held before being originally Ca lifornia, and perhaps the the 250cc Expert class on a halted in 1974. The clos ure prevented most memorable moment of the Suzuki.. . Cycle News test r id ers from ri ding th e course and two-day rid e was whe n Brian the 1990 ATK 406... Johnp rotesting the shutting d ow n of the Catte rson slammed the ny Martin wo n the Illinois popular B-ta-V race ... After adding up Kawasaki KLR650 he was rid- :::;---I-::'::::~-J Cross Co unt ry Champiall of the tie-breaker po ints, Mike Haning in to a large pine tre e. He was onship in Morrison. 1:'11 15 Y SA O EAR G ... November 14, 1979 W I' F __

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