IN THE PITS
Factory MX bikes
T
he opening round of the
A ll Ja p an MX Series
m ight m e a n littl e to
man y of us here in the u.s.- as
far as race results, that is - but
th e b ikes ridd en in th e series
defini tely cap tu re our attention.
Wh y? Because man y of the factory bikes th at comp ete in the
series give us a good idea of
wh at to expect fr om th e Big
Fo u r m a n u fa ctu re rs wh e n it
comes to next year's production
race bikes.
At the series-opener in Japan,
the bik e s t hat eve ry one w a s
talking abo u t w er e th e facto ry
RC Hondas ridden by Japanese
riders Takam a s a T ak a gi a n d
Ryuichiro Takah am a . These
bike s made th eir racin g d ebut
with the al umi nu m, twin-spar
fr ame s th at H onda h a s been
te s ti n g for qui te som e tim e .
Accord ing to tester Rich Taylor
who atten ded the event but did
not rid e, "We have been testing
aluminum fra mes since about a
year ago. Last spri ng we rod e it
at Tochigi in Jap an, and in Jun e
a n d Ju ly , w e did te s t in g a t
H ond a' s R&D track in Mojave
(Californ ia)."
Here's a look at some of the
factory bikes from the Big Four
th a t co mpeted at the opening
round o f the All Japan MX
Series.
.~
Photos by Shogo Nakao
(Above and right) The two RC Hondas at the race featured this
mas sive aluminum, twin-spar frame, more commonly seen on road
racing bikes, and , according to our sources In Japan, the rumors
are that the 1997 production CR250 Hondas will be very similar to
these bikes - aluminum frame and all. The fuel tank is mounted
between the upper frame halves . The #19 bike was equ ipped with
Kayaba suspension components , the other used Showa
components.
(Below) White sand-cast carburetors se en on the RC Hondas
featu red a power jet, and wires coming out of the upper-right
portion of the body, as well as from the float chamber. Just
below the drive shaft was another bilndle of electrical wires
coming out of the case.
A
&3
~
(Left) There are two push buttons near the left grip on the
RCs. One Is, obvious ly, the kill switch and the other Is a socalled "secret" switch. Specul ation has It that the secret
button could operate either a traction-control device or a
semiautomatic sh ifter, or be jus t a power-on sw itch to a
battery that ope rates a digital program. The bikes do have a
throttle se nso r and a gear-position sensor. Test riders Rich
Taylor and J eff Pes tana , as well as former Team Honda
manager Dave Arnold, were invited to Ja pan to witness the
RC's debut race. "We' re here for R&D," sa id Arnold.
