Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HISTORY '' · 1 - -_ L 16 - - ' -- - - - - ' ' - -.·1 option. Unfortunately, thi s Turbo Zl-R didn't have a wa rra nty, but it did hel p establish Jay "Pee Wee" Gleason as the new king of the w heelying, smokingburnout magazine guest road testers. Kawasaki's wo rld wide, with-wa rra nty, official turbo attempt was the '82 750, feat u ri ng fuel-injection on a d etuned GPz motor. Yamaha had carbs on their bud g et 650 Turbo, pressuri z ing the e n ti re airbox of th e ir s im p le Secad erived m od e l. Prob ab ly th e pre tti es t T u r b o was the 1983' Suzuk i XN85 " O rb it," featu ri ng low weigh t an d im proved Ka ta na sty ling . But ab ru p t power d eliver y and two-wheeled cornering d idn 't go well toget her for mass consump tion, an d the turbo trend died. In the early '80s, H onda's four-stroke R&D depa rtm ent was also busy experimenting w ith oval-p isto ne d four-cylind er bi kes that thou gh t tha t they w er e eigh ts , as w ell a s V-fo u rs , Wh ile th e oval-p iston concept didn't have a major im pa ct, yield ing a failed 500cc GP' bike, a seldom-seen end ura nce racer and the early-'90s collectors ' item R750, the Vfour se t a H onda trend th at continues tod ay. Hon d a's first street V-four effort was the 1983 750 Interceptor, a truly groundbreaking bik e. Clean, fas t an d cor.i plicated, the VF750 had a chassis an d suspension tha t were ah ead of man y of the race bikes of the era. Formed in squaresection steel, the VF's frame held a set of huge forks, complet e with a suddenl y trendy 16-inch front wheel. Although the liquid-cooled VF 's cams were cha in-driven, jus t like their in-line- four com pe tition, HRC soon produced a racing kit that sw itche d the Inte rceptor's powerplant to gea r drive. Su perbike pri vateers face d a h u g e increase in maintenance to service the Vco nfiguration engine, bu t the power improvem ent justified the trouble. Iron ically, in the legendary 1983 A...\.1A Superbike racing se ason , Wa y n e Ra in e y aboa rd all old- tech, air-cooled Kawasaki fou r be at a h o rd e of fact ory H ond a "killer vees" for the Na tio na l Ch ampionship. 1983 was also th e yea r of Yamaha's RZ350, the final ma ss-market version of the lon g- running, twi n cylinder , twostroke spo rts te r. Th e RZ350 had a single-shock rear sus pens ion with linkage, s tee l round -tu be d p e ri m eter fra me (pai nted re d !) and a p ower-v a lv eeq uipped en gin e. Tho usands of roa d ra ce rs worldwide, inc ludi ng Mick Doohan, got their start aboard the RZ. In the Ll.S; the RZ arrived with huge and ugly cat al y tic converters, but the aftermarket soon provided noisy solutions . Unf ortunatelv, while the RZ continued to evolve fo~ other countries an d spa wned a huge range of two-strok e, race-replica mod el lines that run to this day, th e 1984 Rob erts Rep lica ve rsion marked the end of the eas ilv available two -stroke sportbike in the U:S. Kawasaki's 1984 Nin ja 900 conti nued a theme tha t is s till p opular - namely, less is mor e. Too big in displacement to be a superbike, the Ninja 900 promised 1100 per form an ce in a 750-siz ed p ack- _ age, and succeeded largely due to low wei ght. The 900's mot or hung from the m inim a l steel ch ass is, a sin gle s ho ck hand led th e rear suspension, and th e motor was one of the first to mount the cam-drive chain on the side ra ther tha n in th e m id dl e of th e e ng ine, s a v ing space. Th e al ternative bigger /faster sch oo l go t a bright n ew pup il in '8 4, w hen Yamah a' s s till-active FJ1100 d ebuted. Alth ou gh the mot or was old-tech since i t w a s air-cooled, th e Bim ot a -styl e perim eter fram e and w ide wheels made Ahistorical persepective of the modern sportbike enjoy, but defi ni tely e nv ie d back in 1984, was the 50Dec GP repli ca war . First available two-stroke terror w as 1984's Yamaha RZSOO, ava ilable in large numbers in many countries, inclu d ing Cana da . This V-fou r h ad both p iston-port and case- reed induction, producing lots of po wer in a heavy package . Hand ling ' wasn' t helped by a 16-in ch front wheel, or the fact that the shoc k ran under, and was b o lt e d to, th e rub be r-mo unted engine. The 1985 Suzuki RG500 was probabl y th e best over all two- stroke ra cer replica, with a d isc-va lve, squ are- fou r motor just like the race bike. A boredout Jap anese 400-c1ass mod el, the lightweight RG was a track hi t, even if th e frame and wh eels we re meant for sligh tly less p ow er . H ond a al so joi ned th e fray with th ei r '8 3 GP-tit lis t-inspi red NS400, but this fine- ha nd ling, sma llerdisplacemen t triple was more of a jewe l than a weapon. Al thou gh th e RG at tracte d lots of atten tion in its 1985 debut, the 500 was ove rshado wed by the most talked abo ut bike of the decade, the Suzuki GSXR750. (Above) Suzuki countered with Its flyweight and bullet-fast GSXR750s and 1100s (shown). The mach ines set performance and styling standards that are ad hered to even today. Ironically, Suzuki lost s ight of Its own ideals as successive GSXRs ga ined weight and lost ground. (Right) Yamaha Introduced a new twist on In-line fours with the Genes is-powered FZ750. The radically canted cylinder and a 2o-valve head kept the FZ family on the cutting edge of sportblke technology. The design cont inues to evolve In the '90s. (Below) Originally dubbed the "Hurricane" in 1987, Honda's CBR600F upped the performance ante considerab ly In the ever-Intensifying middleweight sportbike wars. Doug Polen proved Its effectiveness by riding one to the first AMA 600cc Supersport title In 1987. th e FJ a stro ng performer. In th e FJ' s early da ys, it was even a su ccessful ope n production racer. ' BMW broke w ith tradition in 1984, producing their first all-new bike in several ge ne rations . Th e K100 wa s called "the br ick" due to the boxy nature of its eng in e, but sports / touring go t a huge sho t in the arm when BMW fina lly built thi s all-new, water-cooled, fuel-injected, "sideways" fou r-cylinder. The straightforward , steel lat t ice tu be chassis fea - tur ed a single-sided rear swi ngarm w ith one large shock-abso rber unit. Modular in nature, the 1000cc BMW was also avai lable as a 750cc trip le, the sporty K75S earn ing a reputation as the mo st fun to ride of the whole K ran ge. In typical BMW fashio n, the KIOO even tu ally had a radically styled sports rela tiv e, th e K1, and ga ine d d isplacemen t and four valve heads to become the '90s' K1100. A trend that the U.S. di d n' t officially Small in size, wi th a race-type full fairing, the GSXR didn' t jus t look mor e trick than m ost all-ou t racers of the era - it was. Pow ered by an oil-cooled, stra igh tforw ard and com pa ct en gine fitted to an aluminium twin-loop frame constructed of castings a nd ext rusions, the GSXR was a performance breakthrough. While the GSXR h a d goo d power, its low weight and stiff chassis also played a major role in contributing to overall perfor mance . The GSXR w as also easy to modify. Suzu ki didn't just offer a trick street bike that could be a good racer, however, th ey agg ressively e ncouraged it. Wh ile the GSXR di d n't ma ke it to the u.s. until 1986, Suz uki soo n launched a b ig-bu ck GSX R Cu p se r ies, givi ng American road racing a huge sho t in the arm . Lots of top ri ders go t th eir first na ti on al ex posu re th rou gh Su zuki ' s GSXR Cup, an d the progr am continues to this d ay. On e o f the ben efactor s of Su zu ki' s U.S. d ela y in releasing the GSXR was Yamaha, since th ey h ad a year in th e s u n w it h th e 1985 FZ750 . Whil e th e Suzuki will be remember ed for its tigh t overa ll packa ge, the Yamaha provided th e second p iece of the mod ern sportbike package: the tilted engine. The FZ's barrel was slanted forward in the frame rather than pl aced vertically, allowi ng for straigh ter, cleaner inlet p aths and placing the carbs above the en gi ne , rather than beh ind . Thi s a lso allow ed for a more compact fram e lay-

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