Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DNf ' , he first legal m oto rize d form of transport I ever owned for ridi ng on ou r highways was a motorcycle. t was a loud and fearso me beast, and a umb and immature cho ice to learn the recarious ropes of riding on the street ith. In other wor ds, it was the perfect ike; at least fro m a 16-year-old's perpective - a 1979 Yamaha RD400 Dayona Special. I was young, earning more han m in im um wage and living with y paren ts. As far as 16-year-olds went, w as u pward ly m ob ile. That's how I bou gh t th e bike, and u ltim ately how I destroyed it. You see, a neighbor up the street ha d a m ostly stock (low bars, no mirrors) '79 RD in h is garage. Its only flaw was a sma ll dent in the fuel tank, the res ult of a crash on a dirt road (?!). This neighbor was the garde ning type (maybe how he got on the d irt road?), so the garage was ofte n open, leavin g the dusty ma ch ine in somewha t clear view, on ly partiall y obscure d b y b a g s of m a nu re a nd a wheelbarrow . I spent a lot of time looking a t th a t th in g and dreaming, and finally couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, Ray, you don' t ride that too much, do you?" No, he didn't. In fact, he 'd never ridden the Yama ha - it was his son's. The sa me son w ho'd m o ve d o ut several years before. Things were lookin g good. I mean, the guy's been go ne a couple of years and he hasn't been back to pick up the bike. That baby was mine. I m a d e my intentions clear to the father of the owner and just days afterward got the call. About $900 later my trou bl es be g an. The transaction took place between me and the guy's father. The old man had been nic e enough to wash the bike for me, and was eve n so kind as to Arm or all the grips and seat! It sure felt fast. Heck, it felt like he'd done the tires too . Talk about greasy. Thankfully, the slick seatin g and gri pp ing sur- faces soon returned to normal, and I was at least bright enough to put fresh ru bbe r on at the earliest convenience. Problem was, with all the parts providing traction that are supposed to, the RD d idn' t feel that fast anymore. Even th ou gh most of my riding up to that time had been spent on a clapped-out XR75 and RMloo, the 400 somehow lost its edge. Checkbook.in hand, I went to work. No self-respecting wanna-be cafe racer can stomach stock pipes on a twostroke of this caliber. And I'm not even talkin g abou t boosting power yet. I'm talking no ise, and plenty of it. It's a kind of loud music, making it a must for anyone u nder 18. The options were broad, but ra ther than going with someone who had an established repu tation for bu ildi ng quality pipes that would sound good and actually increase power outp u t at th e same tim e, I decided to go with a guy no bo dy h ad h ea rd of who worked out of a fil thy and rundown industrial bui ld ing flanked on one side by a scrap metal yard and on the other bv a motorcycle salvage yard. Perhaps I shou ld have been just a bit more alarmed when I mentioned the name of the man making the pipes to the guy next door at the motorcycle wrecking yard. "Who? Oh yeah, I've seen him arou nd. That guy makes pipes?" He seemed amazed. I rushed back over, but my bike was already apart. No turning back now. It too k two days for the work to be finished . "The kickstand kind of gets in the way of the pipes, so I loosened the nu t that holds it on," he said matter-offactly. It was like the kickstan d was violatin g some sacred sp ace. "These chambers are full race, ma n." The exp ansion chambers didn't show the gr ea test qu ality of workmanship I' d ev er seen, but th e cobby, ha nd-m ade look did give the bike a "full race" kind of aura. So did the sou nd. The ea r-splitting wail couldn't have been more satisfying. In contrast to the hacked-looking expansion chambers, the re were bea utifully crafted aluminum "silencers" (performing only titular duties) which were stuffed with some kind of material that shot out in flaming masses when the engine wa s revved really high. Full race and fully cool. A few ticket-free weeks passed - ticket-free despite my never having stopped blipping the throttle. When the novelty of frightening old women and interrupting golf games everywhere wore off, 1 noticed the RD wo uldn't idl e too well unless I blipped the throttle. While the bike was still plenty loud, it was starting to feel slow again, even s lower tha n with the stock pi pes. This was, in fact, probably the case. Jetting was a baffling m ystery, and neith er I nor the.craf tsma n at the industria l u nit h a d seen fit to delve into th e bla ck art of carb uretor tuning. Full race sho uld mean full race. Now a little more wary of two-bit hacks armed with oxy-acetylene torches, I decided I might try to find a more traveled path - the local Yamaha shop. A scruffy guy with the beard hurried over to me. He listened to my bike run and said some really expensive-sounding things, cul mi nating with "full teardown." "Piston slap," I sai d innocently. "And that's not good...T" It sure wasn't good. Top end, pisto ns, rin g s, re ed s, blah, blah, blah. The list was long. He said he was new and tha t he might be able to cu t me a deal - "Ju st leave my manager out of it." I jus t told him I wa nted a lot of po wer - " It has to feel fast, and w ith no Armorall." "1 used to race these things," he sa id. "Figured ou t all the secrets. This bab y's gonnafly·" In th e e!1d, th is guy modified ju st By M Hoyer ark abo ut part of the engine. That' s what he told me, anyway.. It id led w hen I finally go t it back - at no lower th an 1800 rpm. "That's how it's su pposed to be," he yelled. "Du de, it kicks ass!" I took him at his wo rd when I wrote the check, but reserv ed final judgmen t for the ride. With the idle such as it was, first gear engaged with the sound of a ball-peen ha m mer hitting sheet stee l. I let the clutch out but the mo tor would bog at even th e smallest of openings. "W here's all the po wer?" I th ough t. I kept letti ng the engi ne rev h igher an d highe r befor e eac h shift, and finally it came on the p ipe . The front whee l shot skyward . I ban ged a quick shift and it sho t up aga in. An d again. This was cool. The th in g was, th e power ban d w as abou t as w id e as den ta l floss, an d it occu rre d in an area a few ticks past the area fo rmerly know n as re d lin e. Th is was not Illal coo l. After trying to beco me accustome d to the new personality of my once-friendly RD, I went back to the shop to find the guy that had done the porting. The manager said some English engineers had come to speak with him. He mu ttered something about the Channel tunnel an d walked away shaking his head . With the work having been done on the side, the re was no recourse. I had to live wi th it - never mi nd tha t I was getting abo ut 80 miles on a tank of gas. In fact, no ne of its now-man v flaws were to m atter. As I en tered the ti!;ht left-hander, havin g the best ride of my sho rt career, the loose kickstand touched 'down, ever so briefly liftin g the rear wheel off the ground. Just as this happened, the motor came o n the pip e an d the re ar end stepped out. As I left the road and headed for the orange grove, that RD never felt faster. And I wasn't eve n on it. 0 I · ~OOKING B.ACK~u 25 YEARS AGO... MAY 4, 1971 E v e r y th in g ca me up r os e s in Flowery Bran ch, Georgia, for Kel Ca r r uth e rs a t Ro ad Atlan ta. First the Aussie narrowly took th e AMA Junior-Expert :;:;c .;;-'-"'"'fi. 50-miler from ~ ~ ~ Cal Ra yborn. - -At the next day's 125 -Mile National he became the first foreigner to win a national chamionship road race in the United States. Rayborn (shown leading on the cover) again provided some close competition until the Californian was sidelined by mechanical difficulties on lap 27 ... Eighteen-year-old Bill y Clements continued his winning ways, ta ki ng th e top 250 a nd 500cc Exp ert class h on o rs a t the AMXT Benefit Mot ocross in Valencia, California. Gary Jones and Ma rk Blackw ell occup p ied the respective podium slots... 15 YEARS AGO.., APRIL 29, 1981 ail the conquering heroes: Desert r a ce r s Scot Harden a n d Brent Wallingsford took th eir secon d consecutive win at the Las Vegas 400, H e n c o u n te ri n g h ighl Y v aria bl e r;;7;nr.lI"!'~","", wea t he r-occ a sio nal, rain, high winds an d a bit of the icy stuff. Ken t and Scott Pfeiffer took top 250cc hon- I ors and second overall... Goat Breker outmaneuvered the competition in the Open Pro class at the CRC/DG $5000 Motocross at Southern California's Saddleback Park. Pete Snorteland gave him a run for his money and took second overall, while Rex Staten took third-place honors... Bo O'Brochta topped the Top Fuel class at the fifth annual !DBA Spring Nationals in Gulfport, Mississippi. Mike Keyt e scored the win in the Pro Stock class . __ 1 of th e AMA Camel Supercross Series w a shed a way front -runners D a mo n Bradshaw and Guy Cooper' s chances of w inn ing as they sli d out, h andin g th e lead to .Jean-Michel Bayle. Bayle went on to his seven th 'w in in th e se ries ... Team Suzuki End urance won the sixth annual 24- Hour West at California's Willow Spri ngs Raceway, setting a new American 24-ho ur race m ileage record of 2215 miles. Kurt Hall, Michael Mar- tin, Don ald J aurk in gton , T cks, Britt D o n Ca ne t , D a v i d Devea u a n d Wes Cooley were part of the winning effort. I r;~fr,~r~~ w;~ I===:!~~ ~~~ (~ 5YEARS AGO... APRIL MAY 1, 1991 s announced on the cove r of Cycle News, defending 500cc W or ld Cham pion Wayne Rainey finished first at the U.S. Grand Prix in Lag una Seca, California. for th e third yea r in a row. Rainey took th e lead in the th ird turn and led for th e rest of the 35-lap race... A torrential downpour in Charlotte, North Ca ro lina, d u ring ro und 12 A ..... l-< 0.. Different strokes fo r different folks. Sidecars vs. solos at Riverside Raceway In 1967. Photo fr om Cycle News Archives. -< 63

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