Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE PADDOCK BYMICHAE C TT LS O lav out is not very D o r th re e yea rs a go , peoa me n able to Big ple w ere s ta r tBang firing order, ing 10 talk about the th o u gh th e y d id try ve r y h ard , Y-four 500cc G rand along wi th a m asPri x facto ry bikes as "cl u msy dinosaurs:' s ive ba la nce shaf t. No r did they ever Their time was over, wi th V-tw i ns se t to get thei r exha us t push l he m hard, va lves p ower working righ t. The und e r the c u r re n t b ike rem a in ed a fa vo ra b le weight rules - a nd just wait handfu l throu ghuntil the th ree-cylin o ut it s fi rs t two d er bik es ge t going . years, an d ha d susAft er a co up le o f pect reli ab ility to boot. years of serio us skirmishing, it must be Ap rilla 's Y-twln (19) batt les with Honda's v -tcur (7). Honda's Y-tw in (18) an d Vamat'a's YOnce aga in , sa id that the Vvfou rs l our (5). Despite the co mpetition l rom twin s and trip les , the Y-l our is still king . word is that develo p me n t will cease have put up a pretty on the Elf 500 a lso convincing fi ght, and ano ther private team will be giv en sibility of getting the ax . Hav ing g row n wh ile after just one yea r, the th ree-cylinbit by bit to almos t 480cc lrom the origithe task - if one can be found tha t is prede r op tion - Kenny Roberts' Mod en as has fallen short of expec tations. pared to should er this heavy burden. nal 430cc, an d ha ving deli vered Doriano There is a twi n tha t has put up a worRomboni to the fron t row on four occaThere are very di fferen t rea sons for sions, and" to the rostru m (at Assen) for th e fact tha t Kenny Rob erts 's cu stom th y fight - H o n d a ' s ow n factory the first time in four years of tryi ng, the m ad e three -cy linder Mode nas did not mach ine, ri d de n to a bes t of second pretty ta nd em -tw in (two' cra nkshaft s) place tw u yea rs in a row by Tadayuki com e within sp itting distance of targets "s u per-Zfifl" has su cceeded in every Okada and then Takuma Aoki - and this and aspirations, cri p pled often as not by tech nical a im ex cept one: The damn gives s treng th to the "d inosa u r" faction. it s own technical adventures . The The Honda NSR-Y is th e only non Ything lacks acceleration, so even when design really was relatively radical in Romboni did start from th e front row, three particular regards: fou r to have had development budget and resources in the same league as the he was usua lly last or close to last by the • Th e Y-three engin e adopted a established V-fours. Even then, this is time the rest of th em had rea ched th e strange, lopsided architectu re, wit h two cy lind ers sharing o ne crankcase, and a only a fraction of the lotal amou n t spent first comer. on all the Japanese V-fours. No fina l decision had been made, but sin gleton on the side. • With no room within the vee for The matter is not settled yet - though it seemed likely tha t the Aprilia factory Mil pass the wh ole ca boodle on to a prico nve ntiona l carburetors, and to reduce at the privateer level , onl y o ne was left vate team next yea r, a n d w a sh their size, the team ad opted their own "KR" of the mainstay V-Iour ROC- and Harris-Yarnahas, with everybody else havha nds of an at least partially su ccessful electronic carbureto rs, p ressure-fed by ing switched to the Honda Y-twins, exercise. pump. The ot her European effort wa h the Elf But the revolution is not only about • A small frontal area and good aerop roviding an alternative to V-fours. The d ynam ic penetration carne from the 500, which challenged the Japa nese a t thei r own game; a V-jou r, it did things major thrust is to rival the Japanese faccompact design, with ai r d ucte d to a in rat her different ways from the estabtories themselves, with a direct attack on rear-mounted radiator be neath the seat. lishment. The Elf is powered by the oneFor an all-new design by an all-new wha t Kenny Roberts contemptuously refers to as "sticker bikes - they're delivti m e SwissAuto engine that achieved team - the ca r -ra cing people at Tom success in sideca rs, a nd its technical Walkinshaw Racing - lhe Modenas' first ered, you p ut your stickers on, and go quirk is that each cylinder pair shares a year wa s far from shabby. By compariracing." son, Ho nda's first yea r with the ir Y·four commo n cra nkcase, m a king two instead H ere we find the other side of the of the usual four. The gain comes in dissaw it break w heels and cras h, and to be coin - or maybe that should be "lack 01 pensing wi th main bearings, and red ucso in tractable in m a n y aspects th a t it coin." The end of the I997 season finds was dumped in favor of the old V-three the challengers in se rious d isa rra y. ing fric tio n, And the Elf certainly d id The original alternative, and the firs t have p lenty of horse po wer. The difficulby a desperate Fredd ie Spencer well before the end of the season. Bu t Robe rts V-rw in, the Aprilia, faces a distinct pusty came in trying to ma ke it rid able. The puts his finger on one particula r we ak ness tha t d ogged the p ro je thro ughout: ct It wa s that old enemy of many mo torcycles - vibra tion. "The cra nks haft people told us they co u ld make us th e cra nks th at would run smooth - but they could n' t d eliver." Vibration ca used fuel-frot hing p roblems that made the performance o f the wac ky ca rbs infu r ia ti ng ly e rra tic . Vibratio n con trib uted to coo ling problems, where cavi ta tion and poor pumping circulation mea nt it wa s always ru n ning hot. Vibratio n also ca u sed problems fam ilia r to anyo ne wh o has ridd en a '60s Triumph o r Norton - b reakages from cranks hafts to foo tpegs, cha fed wires, lea ks, electrical problems, and a level of riding discomfo rt that mak es it a hu ge pleasure to swi tch the en gine off. It was almost incidental that. when they put the bik e in a wind tunnel mid season, the aerodynamics that looked good on paper turned out to be deeply flawed . W hat the Modenas ne ed s , .ays Roberts, is an engine redesign. The next V-three would put a m ain cra n ks ha ft bearing in th e co m m o n c ra n kca s e, where th ere now is n one, and would probably als o have a bal ance shaft, to make damn, dam n sur e to kill the vib ration so they can get on with developing the res t 01 the bike. But th is alternati ve is a lso in jeopardy. The Marlboro sponsors hip is considered almos t cer ta in to go, at least partly because it ' s just not enough to provid e for Roberts' plans. "W e need TI more mon e y, more manpower, and more co m m itmen t than in the first year," says Roberts, who is thought to be seeking ba cking from Petronas in Malaysia, home of Mod enas themselves. Modenas' only other modelis a stepthrough scoot er. In th e middle 01 all this , however, the Malaysian economy ran into a major collapse - leaving the Grand Prix Modems out on a limb. "Next yea r, if we can 't do it properly , with a ll the backing we need, the n we won't do it all ," concluded Roberts. O ne must hope it was not a sell-fulfilling prophecy. '" LOOKING BACK... 30 Y AR E SAGO.., OVEMBE 6,1967 R1 N 20 Y EARSA GO... NOVEMBER 9, 1977 illed as the Gi ant Roa d Ri d er Is s u e , CN ~44 also featured typ os , among other things, on its cover . The issue was still called number 43 and was dated Nove m ber 9, 1967. You- k now-w hat happens, but a t least the issue lived up to its cover lines, as there was extensive coverage of the Death Valley To ur an d th e EI To ur Grand e to Ensenad a, Mexico... Dan Haaby (BSA) and Sammy Tanner o " . lIIii iiiiiiii••~ Raceway.S p ri ngs Interna tiona l z Willo w I ,~ 63

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