Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I IN ID .Y M H S E A AA By Michael Scott am ah a is b a ck in g the 500cc Grand Prix class to the lim it. As political turmoil once again throws doubt over the future direction of GP racing, and with superbikes seen as a threat in some important countries, th e longtime racin g facto ry threw its weight behind the senio rity of the traditional top World Championship class. . "Yam ah a be gan Grand Prix racing ve ry much for produ ct d evelopm ent. Now we are there to generate enthusiasm for motor sp orts. The main reason is to have agood race and to excite the spectators, " exp la ined m ana ging director Satoshi Watanabe. cc "The twa-str oke SOO category is still th e fastest and m ost exciting. That is imp ortant," he said. Engineering an d technology director Katsuh iko Saku r amoto a d d ed th at although high-performance two-str okes were ou t of fashion among mai nst ream motorcyclists, developing countries still had a market for them, as well as for utility twa- strokes. "We do still learn valuable techn ical lessons from raci ng bikes that allow red uced weight and imp roved efficiency," he said. There is also a crossover with high-perform ance marine and snowmobile twa-strokes. And while Yamaha did not envision a retu rn to ra ce-inspired tw o-strokes for road bikes or even cars in the near future, they vigorously supported moves to reinstate the 500cc category in the All-Japan Nati onal Championship, hopeful ly to be followed in other countries. "Twa-s trokes are cheaper than superbikes for competitors: ' they said. The Yamaha board m em ber s w ere addressing racing jou rnalists in a highlevel exclus ive factory visit to Iwata, outside Harnamatsu, two days after Japan ese Grand Prix hero Norifumi Abe's historic victory at Su zuka. It w as Yamaha's first 1996 win in a year when they started off as underdogs. The conference was opened by Yamah a ' s top ex ec u tive, Senior Managin g Dire ct or H it o sh i Na ga ya s u, th e only staffer seen all day not wearing the regulation blue two-piece uniform with a dark blue strip down the sleeve. Spea kin g Japanese, but di spl ayi n g perfect English as he frequently corrected a terrified interpreter, Nagayasu outlined the breadth of the pianos-to-motorbikes empire. As w ell as Formula One -engines and consu lting engineering for the motor industry and ma nufacture of car engines, Yamaha is also involved with boats from p er sona l watercraft to ocea n-going powerboats, makes luxury furniture and fi tti ngs, an d runs resorts . They h a d recentl y expanded into home air conditioning, he said, stressing their twin policy of consu mer and employee satis faction. The latter was very ap parent in the vis it to th eir quiet an d spotless finalassembly factory, one of a comp lex of five that surround the smart but not ostentatious main office block. The Yamaha de legates face d tou gh qu estion in g on th e re levan ce of tw ostroke racing (it's fun, and still technically valuable), on how they p lanned -to resolve the current Team Roberts /Team Raine y dilemm a in the 500cc class (wait and see), and their response to' the current managemen t crisis th at threaten s GP rac ing 's futur e (racing mana gement should be as simple as possible). _ Whil e specif ically n on-committal , th ey gave fervent su ppo rt to racing in general, and the 500cc class in particular. Th ey also criticized the cu rren t ra cing regime for p itching ticket prices too high for fans. . Y They also spoke about their own supply of V-four engi nes to ROC and Harris, whi ch had begun in 1992. "Withou t that, I think there would have been only 10 com pe tito rs, " sai d Watan abe. "The o bjective w a s n ot to m ak e m oney . Engin es are sold -at cost p rice. And we will con tin ue, be cau se w e s till have many requests." Yamaha also welcomed the pros pect of H ond a ' s tw o-cylin d er p ro d uction racer, expected in 1997, as a further boost to affordable 500-class racing, at a lower cost than superbikes. But they contin ue to prefer the "mo re exciting " four -cylinder technology. The da y before, press delegates and factory Yama ha riders Loris Capirossi and Jean-Michel Ba yl e h ad spent the afternoon p leasu re -boating in various Yama ha craft an d h ad overnighted in Yama ha's own marin a hotel complex, where a Yam aha au toma ted gran d piano tinkled out p iano-bar music tirel essly, and guests entered the banquet room throu gh grand double doors wh ich also bore the trip le tuning-fork trademark. After the conference at the Hamamatsu headquarters, press delegates and riders visited the main final assem bly plant for big bikes. Jean-Michel Bayle was p articularly impressed by the quiet and spotless cond itions. "It' s very different from Ap rilia," he sai d (Bayle ro de a factor y Aprilia in 1994 and 1995.) After watching the automated anti-rus t spray system and sealed packaging at the end of the line he commented, "At Aprilia they have one guy with a bucket, and another with a big roll of sticky tape." Delegat es al so vis ited th e Yam aha Football Club Jubilo Iwata and met their n ew s ta r p lay er Sal vato re "To to" Sch illaci. The Yam aha team is currently second in the Japanese League. Then it was out to the 3.25-mile, highspeed figure-eight Fu ku roi test tra ck, where a nearly 1-mile-Iong straight sees a 500cc Grand Prix bike exceed 320 km /h (198 mph). The rest is a series of almost cont inuo us com ers wh ere the barrier is hard by the track - send ing a shiver down the sp ines of Capirossi and Bayle, an d remin ding everyone that it was here that Kenny Roberts sus tained h is worst-ever racing inju ry -_ breakin g his back in p reseason testing. . On display, but sa dly not runnin g, were two seminal Yam ahas : Phil Read 's 1964 RD56, w hich won Yama ha's first cha mpionship title; an d Bill Ivy' s 1967 water-cooled V-four 125cc ra ce r, th e RA3 1. The 250, with a seven-speed gearbox, disc-valve induction, air-cooled cylinders and 55-hp at 12,500-rpm power outp ut looked very old fashioned, and would be pushed hard by a modem road bike. The 125 was a precious jewel. Weighing in at 220 poun ds (more than a modern 250), it bristl ed with tec hnology . Revvin g to 17,000 rpm, requi ring nine gears to exploit its narrow p ow erb and (be tween 15,500 an d 17,000 rpm ), it peaked at 33 hp at 16,000 rp m. The bike took Ivy to the 1967 Worl d Championshi p title and Phil Read to victory in 1968. But when 1990-' 91 125cc cha mpio n Lor is Cap irossi climbe d aboa rd, the -diminu tive Itali an fou nd it too sma ll. "The ha nd leba rs are na rro w, an d it is very low and sho rt, so you sit way back over the seat: ' he said. "It looks hard to ride." IN THE FACTORY The loudest noise in Yamah a's main assembly plant is a sort of compu terized music usually associated with low-grade computer games. It is ma d e by a robot parts tr olley, following a pre-assigned rou te as it delivers components to various points on the production line. Stand in its w a y, an d th e m u s ic ta kes on a more urgent note, and the au tomated donkey stops obedie ntly a safe distance away. The lack of noise is the most striking th in g about th is ex am p le of Jap anese manufactu re at its most slick. There is no crashing of wrenches, and no raised voices from workmen diligen tly getting on with their tasks. An d the flow of Thunder Cats and othe r big Yama ha mod els con tin ues at one every 100 seconds from each of three assembly lines. Certainly the same d egree of h ush cannot be achieved in the adjacent mills an d fou ndri es, whe re pistons and connecting rods are forged and sheet metal stam ped out for tanks and fenders. This is d one at others of the five Iwata factaries. A ll were imp r esse d b y th e rapid progress of prepainted and subassembled compo nents from a box of bits some 50 yards along a manual assembly line to the co m p le tion o f so mebo dy's s hining dream. Different models are built in batches; with each new batch meaning a differing task for the worker, to avoid repetition. There is minimal auto mation; the number of differe nt m odels p ro d uced an d the Jap an ese gif t for skilled m an u al wor k both are factors. Each line has its individu al p ro duction tar get d isplayed along

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