Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

CCM C26 ES/DS Specifications (Left)The horn came in handy when I decided to have fun by breaking the s ilence and tension just seconds before the ban ner dropped on the dead-engine starting line. (Below) The venerable 600cc Rotax s ingle powers the CCM C26. The frame is unique in that the oil is actually carried and coo led through out the entire frame, as is evidenced by the oil line by the kickstarter. Since rearsu spension linkage is not used, the sh ock is laid down to create the desi red rising rate. th at' s th e gu ise. in whi ch we got th e Briti sh -d es ign ed and m anu fa ctured rage r fro m CCM USA' s Bob Swa nson. La t e ly , wit h a ll of the n e w motocrossers an d subseq uent shootou ts tha t follow, off-road tes ts have become few and far between. Swanson needed to ge t his bike back for California emis sio ns testing, so we need ed to rid e it ASAP. A quic k check of the Cycle News Calendar section informed me that the fifth round of the AMA National Hare & Hound Series was taking pla ce in nearby Lucerne Valley, and the decision was mad e . A 95-mile National Hare & Houn d co urse wou ld be t h e testi n g grounds. Many of you m ig ht know by now that I like bikes that are weird, different and no t run-of-the-mill, and I really like them if they perfo rm well, to boot. The CCM C26 definitely fits this bill because: (a) It was made in England 'by Clews Competition Machi nes ; (b ) it uses a linkageless rear-shock design (sort of like an ATK or '98 KTM) where the shock is tilted drastically forward at the top to create th e desired ris ing ra te; and (c) the fr ame ho ld s o il as with most fou r strokes - b u t w ith a ca tch . The oil is held, circu lated and cooled thro u ghou t the entire fram e an d not just under the fuel tank in the backbone area - different, ind eed . Th e motor ne stled in s id e o f this unique fra m e is the ven erab le Rotax 600ec four-stroke . The rest of the bike is com p rised of other top-quality components, such as Marzocchi 50mm conventional forks, a WP adjustabl e s ho ck, Renthal handlebars and sprockets, a Regina chain, Brembo brakes, a Domino clutch lever and perch, and Acerbis YZ plastics (except the tank, which is made by CCM in Engla nd) . Perfect weather g reeted u s on th e morning of the Nation al Hare & Ho und, but perfect wea ther usually means plenty of dust, and that was exactly the case. But hey, what's a d es ert rac e without dust? I love riding 70 mph co mp letely blind over terrain infested with rocks and riders (either riding or cras hed). Anyway, the day started well until I re ali zed I hadn't s hot a ny s t ill photogra p hs of the bike yet, and I only had a half-hour to do so and pra cti ce th e extra- long, 4-mile bomb run (mos t are a mile or two shorter) befor e the banner dropped for the Expert line. Whil e ph otographer Matt Freeman took pict ures of the bike, I got dressed and started my im p a tie n t w a iting proces s while hi s came ra went haywire in the midst of the desert. Freeman finally go t the shots and returned the b ik e with on ly a bo u t 10 minutes left. After whining a littl e, I slap ped my pie -plate number on the bike and got to practi ce the bomb run once. Good starting spots were few and far between by List Price . .$8290 6oocc Displacement Engine type . .Sinqle-cyhnder four-stroke Bore" stroke 97 x 81mm Compression ratio . . . . . . . . . .9.0:1 Ca rburetion 39mm Dell'O rtc Ignition Electronic CDI Transmission Five-speed Starting system Kick/Electric 2.4/3.7/5.4 9al. Fuel capacity Wheelbase 60.0 in. Rake/trail 28°/ N/A Seat height 37.0 in. Front tire ,80/ 100·21 PireUi MT21 Rear tire 120/100-18 PireUi MT21 Front suspens io n .. .50mm Marzocchi adjustable conventional fork with 11 .8 inches of wheel travel Rear s us p e nsion WP adjustable shock with 13.8 inches of wheel travel Front bra ke .' .Disc Rear brake .Disc Fina l drive Chain Cla imed dry we ight : .266 CCM USA 915 Commercial St. #3 San Jose . CA951 12 408/453-8473 800/309·9463 the time I got there, so I picked a spo t with a large bush d irectly in front of it and just hoped I could get a good jump, swoop around the bush int o a good line, and flog the mighty fou r-stro ke to the first trail -marker ribbons and beyond. . I actually had severe delusions that I cou ld ge t a great start on the CCM (due to the electric start) and be in the top 10 at the end of the bom b - which was on e of the r ea s o n s I wa s riding Expert. (Ano ther reason was the hope of getting home at a rea sonable hour.) I couldn't h elp it, because Swanson h ad m en tioned how Cole Marsh all was actua lly startin g the bike in gear without the use of the clutch and snagging d ead -engin esta rt holeshots left and right. Th e evidence was Marshall ' s h oleshot a t th e firs t Nat ional Ha re Scramble of '97 in Hollister, smoking Team Suzuki's Rodney Smith, Steve Ha tch, Paul Edm ondson and a host of other top AA rid ers in the process . He eventually finis hed fifth overall - not too shabby. This s ta rting process had worked grea t in my driveway before th e race, fu rt her encouraging m y delusi ons of grea tnes s, but it a ll ba ckfired when it really mattered . You see, I·had to sta rt in a sandy spot w hich all owed the tir e to spin and bog the bike down as the starter propelled the bik e fo rwa rd, a nd I was forced to pull in the clutch slightly to get it to fire. By the time I go t on the gas and started upshifting, so had the rest of the pack, and I had to launch th rough my friendly neighborh ood bush. Afte r riding nearl y three miles completely blind in a blank et o f du st, I eme rged well to the right at the end of th e bomb a nd had to care fu lly swoop over to the left and d rop down into the first single-file canyon . For th e en tire bomb run, I w as forced to sta n d in a . tense "read y" p osition as I smacke d rocks and more bush es. I figured I wa s in the last third of th e en tire lin e, but who really knows? A s I bla sted down the first s a n d wash , I realized two things. Firstl y, the bike was fast enough and geared tall enough (we had gone up one tooth on th e countershaft sprocket) to pa ss an yone in front of you if you had th e spa ce available - and the hueoos, if you know what I mean . T he broad , smooth powerband was ve ry ea sy to rid e and would prove very valuable as the ra cecourse b e cam e tig h te r and tigh ter on the second 45-mile loop. Shifting wa s excellent and the clu tch worked well, altho ug h it did fad e a little as the race wo re on. Th e second thi ng I noticed is tha t I had made a grave error when it came to tire cho ice. The CCM had PireIli MT21 DOT- approved tir es mounted up and, while th e rear tire was working well enoug h, th e front tire - with its huge lu gs - w as a w ig gling wonder in the sa n d a n d s ilt. Th ey h e ld up well , though, bu t I wish I could have run the Dun lop K752 fron t and K695 rear tires that I had brought along but hadn' t had tim e to insta ll. Was I whining again? An ywa y, the first loop was mostly fast san d wash es, crossg rai n a n d an occasio nal pile of ' rocks to slow thin gs down. It wa s exhilarat ing to fly acros s the desert three and four riders ab reas t, all on alternate trails, battling for position befo re thenext tight section. The Marzocchi a nd WP suspension co mponen ts wor ked ve ry well pIonking over a nd th rough th e roc ks, offe ri ng a plus h a nd s u pp le rid e lik e m ost b ig four- s tro kes d o . In the fast s tuff, th e sus p ensio n wo rked w ell a t gobbling up whoops and road cross ings - eve n if I did pull a few "Fly ing Ws" over road crossings for w hic h I didn't slow down eno ug h. The bike still could have been suspend ed a little more stiffly fo r m y taste, bu t I'm bigg er th an th e avera ge 16Q-po u nd rid er for whom the bike wa s set up. Th e CCM has a con servative 28- d egree head ang le and a whopping 60inch wheelbase, so it should have bee n sta ble, but th e front ti re was making sure the stability was sketchy at best. It's too bad I didn't have a steering stabilizer bolted into the p refabri cated mounts that come standard on the bike - ma ybe next tim e, when we get to ride a CCM (in the nea r future) that us es a Folan, liquid -cooled, single-cylinder 440cc mo tor, or a V-twin 1000cc tha t puts out 100 horsepower. (We're waiting for our test bikes, Mr. Swanson'> Some 45 miles later, I pulled into the pits to the surp rise of my pit crew - my . wife and Freeman. (Free ma n said I was abo ut 15 minutes behind the lead ers.) I say "surprise" becau se they were hanging around m y va n, ha ving lunch or something, and they looked at me w"id eeyed like I was leading Ty Davi s for the overall . A scramble for fuel and goggles had me leaving pit lane after about a 30secon d pit stop. . The seco nd loop was tigh t, tigh ter and even tight er, and was mostly virg in trails that had bee n cut in to th e roc ky rid ges and hillsid es . Deep-whooped sand washes and gnarly crossgrain connected the never -ending, 4-inch wid e, silt-laden trail th rou gh the sharp rocks . The loop wa s ex tre m ely tiring , b oth m entall y and ph ysi cally , si n ce it d emanded so mu ch concen tra tio n on the skinny trails, and the weight of the bike wa s b eginning to add to it. At about 280 pounds, the CCM isn't light, but it's on par with any of the o the r heavyweight four-strokes out there, and it's got electric sta rt. Wit h th e finish in s ig h t, I blas te d across the las t flat 2-mil e section, making sure no t to give away any more .finishing positions. I'm not exactl y proud of finis h ing eighth in th e Fo ur-Stroke Expert class and 73rd overall, bu t it had nothing to do wi th any sho rtco mings of the bike. (It had to do wi th fear - and the need to earn a paycheck.) I had a great d ay on a solidly performing bike, and I pulled in to my driveway by 3:30 p.m. I d idn't eve n ge t to cartwheel or d rop the bike in th e ro cks (thank God), but if ( had , 1 kn ow the magic start bu tton was read y and will ing. So w ha t did I rea lly th in k of thi s bike? I like it. I had a g rea t race on a bike that was versa tile eno ugh to race a Na tiona l Hare & Hou nd on Sunday and take me to work on some of the busiest freeways in the wo rld co me Mo nday morning . I've found that the horn wo rks jus t as well fendi ng off errant traffic as it does br eaking th e s ilence a nd tension right before a dead -engine start. n 35

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