Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE PADDOCK BY MICHAEL SCOTT hen it was first announced in 1995, the Honda SR500-V was hai led as the new Manx Norton - an ove r- the-counter GP racer that : wou ld give p rivateers a cos t-effective chance to ge t into GP racing, and eve n make so me imp ress ion. Since the factory proto type, previewed in 1996 by Tady Okada, had a pole po sition and a ros trum finis h in its first vea r, this was a promise to be taken". ,ii, sly, Here, it seemed, " , .n affordable , usable and sound f ep on the ladde r for prospective GP sta rs of the future, and a welcom e alternative to los·ing suc h future talen t to superbikes . But •riders of this vear's Honda V-twin - now in only its se'cond sea so n - hav e fou nd i themselves in a very differen t situation: ' Instead of find ing it a career step lead ' ing to better thin gs, private users of the ~ V- twi n Ho nda NSR-V have found that it ' ~ has done more harm than 'good to their .racing prospects. Cus tomer bikes ca me o n-s tream in 1997, wi th a nu mber of buyers. The bes t .res u lt ca me fo r Alex Bar ros, p lacing th ird in Britain , tho ugh he adm itted ly had so me factory support for his bike. Mor e sign ifica n tly, th e V-twi ns were often in the p icture at certain tra cks, with Iurge n va n d en Goo rbergh qua lifying on the front row at Asse n, and class rookie Regis Laconi ge tting fifth in Australia. So for 1998 there were even more customers - includ ing the high er-pro file She ll Advance-bac ked two-rid er tea m, and a clu tch of more new comers. But things have been very d ifferent for the ·muleteers this year. The best finish (with one rou nd left) is only eig h th - by Van den Goorbergh ridin g Barros' old bike - w hile the rest have rea lly been left in a secondary rac e, no longer an ywher e near even the slower V-fours. So what went wron g wi th the dream ? The answer is pret ty sim ple: the fuel. Switching to unleaded gas was a boo n to V-fou r rid ers , since it blu nted the power just enough to make them easier to rid e to the lim it. But for the twin s, it was an almost crip pling blow . No t only did they lose cru cial mid range acce lera tio n, the eng ine- tu ning also becam e hypersensi- Jurgen van den Goorbe rgh (17) - behind a bevy of Vfours - is one of the many NSR500V riders who have struggled to make the twin work well after the switch to unleaded fuel. tive. At the same time, some appa ren tly sloppy eng inee ring fro m Honda added the ala rming prospect of possible gea rbox seizure almost throughou t the seaso n. With the unh appy pistons also seizing up from time to time, this rem oved th e la s t ves tig e of p lea sure fro m th e experience of rid ing a V-tw-in. The fuel led to problem s eve n for van d en Goorbergh , w hose Dee Cee tea m was the biggest and best-funded of the pri vat eer teams . "It became ve ry sensitive to set up for ca rbu re tion ," van den Goorbergh sa id . "Jus t the smallest cha nge in the weathe r cou ld upset it again. And it was ve ry prone to seizing." It wou ld also lose power when it go t even mar gin ally hot, and, the Du tch m an adds, "it ea ts spare parts." For Briton Paul Smart, at the opposite en d of the scale j n the bare-bo nes Team Milla r, it was a constant nightmar e. "Getting the ca rbure tors right w ithout telemetry was really im portan t, and really hard," Sma rt sai d . "With lead ed fuel. yo u can feel the rig ht carb need le s tra ig h t a way . Th e motor wou ld get really crisp. Wi th unleaded , the mot or was so flat anyway that it never di d ge t crisp. Th e power was se ns itive to jus t one cha nge in n eedl e s ize, bu t yo u co u ld n' t fee l m uch di fference. And if y ou tr ied to do a plu g ch op , th at would n' t help - the o nly color yo u ' d ever get was a sort of.brown gru nge." The thr eat of piston seizu re is eno ug h to spoil your day. "The first 10 minutes of eve ry practice session," Sma rt noted , "you' d rid e with vour hand on the clu tch." Fa~ worse wa s the spec ter of gearbox seiz u re - in which case you can declutch all yo u like, but yo ur back wheel stays locked and yo u crash very soon af terward . To be fair, this d id n' t act ua lly happ en that often . N onetheless, the rat e of gea rb o x failure was eno ug h to m ak e it always possible. More us ua lly, the gea rs jus t wouldn 't engage p roperly, or it would jump ou t of gear. Smart reckon ed that on average, a gea r clu ster wou ld do a practice an d a half, w hile in the race yo u'd a lways ha ve to be prepa red to lose one or two of the mid dl e gears and find a way arou nd the problem. Van d e n Goo rberg h bl am e s H RC d irectly for a bad ba tch of gea rs. "They must hav e had a crate full of them to get rid of," he sa id. . His team. found a way a ro und the problem by rem ach ini ng the gea rs and res hi rnmi ng th e gearboxes. Sma rt's lot just continued to put in new cogs. The new fuel had o ne final trick to p lay: It put a d ent in th e power cu rve jus t where it w a s least a p p ro p ria te damaging low - an d mid range torqu e. This was previou sly the bike's stro ng est point, accordi ng to Smart, of more significance than the su pposed hig her corner spee d com pared with the V-fours. "W he n the torqu e w en t, th en you re a lly d id have to find hi g her co rn er speed ... a n d th e produ ct ion chassis w as n ' t u p to it - it und ersteered too much," he says, addi ng tha t factory Vtwin rid er Sete Giberna u had the lu xury of four new chassis du ring the seaso n. Riding hard an d ge ll ing now here, Sma rt watched , di smayed, as his compat riot Jay Vincen t ma de a very go od im press ion in the 2S0cc class. Last year, he'd d efea ted Vin cent for the Briti sh tit le . No w , Sma rt's bes t h ope wou ld ' see m to be a su perbike rider, while Vincent is head ed for a works 2SOcc Honda next year. Van den Goo rberg h is he ad ed to ano ther bra nch of 500cc racing, where so far there has been more hope than concrete good results. He joi ns th e Mu Z team next year, and he will get a bet ter chassis mad e for the powerful but tricky' SwissA u to V-four. Ot hers - such as Grand Prix first-timer Mall Wait - find themselves also less well off than at the start of the year, after failing to shine whil e pursuing the unequ al »: s trugg le. Ga rry McCoy tr ied hard .bu t on ly go t hurt; Shell Advance teammate Jua n Borja had his worst-ever season. Yet Smart, for one, wo uld do it aga in - given certain qu alificati ons. "Looking back, I'd have d one bett er to stick ou t for a good 2SOcc rid e," Smart said . "Bu t the twin is bas icall y a good b ike. If you co u ld h a ve t h e fa c to ry eng ine, that's worth 10 or 12 kp h, wit h a be tter chassis - so methin g like the one Technical Sports d o for the p rod uc tion 2S0cc - yo u' d have some cha nce of makl~ ing an impression on it." 30 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 21, 1968 20 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 8, 1978 10 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 2, 1988 o rl d Speedway Champion Ivan M a u ge r came to Whiteman Stadiu m in Sou the rn Ca lifornia an d pu t on a speedway-r iding clinic, as he dominated the best that the West Coast had to offer. John Ha te le y cam e the closest to beating Mauger. .. Chu ck "Feets" Mine rt (BSA) a nd Lars Larsson (Hus) staged a titanic battle in the 500cc Expe rt class a t the Sad dlba ck motocr oss, w ith Min er t takin g th e overall wi n ... T ri u mph p laced a huge ad, touting Al Baker' s District 37 Hare & Hound win aboa rd one of 'its British-built twin s ... We ra n a s m all fea tu re o n repea t AMA Grand Na tio na l title w inner Ga ry Nixon , giving yo u the round-by-rou nd br eakd ow n of Nix on 's pa th to th e cha m p ions hi p ... Husqvarna was rea ll y sta rti ng to com e o n as a bi g n ame in A me rica n motocro ss. The marqu e ad vertised its win in an Internationa l MX in New Philadelphia, Ohio. The wi n ni ng rid er was a fellow named Ben gt Aberg. o n S a n fo r d (Hon) was on the cover as he sp las hed h is factory -built XR th um pe r across a stream en rou te to victory at the Cowbell National Enduro... Mike Bald w in (Yam) cru ised to the Formula One wi n at the WERA Grand National Finals in College Station, Texas. Bald w-in was chased to the finish by di rt trackers /road racers Freddie Spencer (Yam), Dave Aldana (Yam) a nd St eve M or ehea d (Yam)... A third overall by Bob Hanna h (Yam) cli nc hed th e T ra ns-AMA title at Lak e Whitney, Texas. Rex Staten (Yam) took the d ay' s w in via 1-3 mo to p erf orm a nce s... Bruc e Penh all (Wes) ca me home from Eu ro pe a nd sco red th e wi n in the Nati on al Lon g Track Speed w ay Cha m p ionshi p a t Ascot Par k... We fe a tu re d an in te rview with fi ve-li me Worl d 500cc Motocross Cha m pion Roger DeCoster, an d we also featured a riding im pression of Danny Tu rn er' s Moto-X Fox Yamaha YZ250F, which was bei ng campaigned by Turner in the Trans-Alvta Series . he big news on the cover had to be the departu re of th reetime World Road Racing Cham p ion Ed di e Law s o n from Yamaha to sign with Honda. Details of the ch ange were available in our "In the Wind " section ... The team of M ike Harth a nd Je ff Atwe ll (Suz) r o d e their Team Suzuki End urance bike to the win in the WERA National End urance race at Su m mit Point Raceway in West Virgi nia... Du an e Conner (Yam) bagged the firs t major off-road title of his caree r when he won the Hookstown 100, which was a com bined ro un d of the AMA N ationa l Cha m p ions hip H are Scrambles Series a nd th e Wise co /Suzuk i Grand Nat ion al Cross Co un try Series... Dirt and wild tales of yore flew at the Fifth annual Di ck Mann Vintage Dirt Bike Rally at San d hill Ran ch ... We interviewed new ly crowned ,A MA Nationa l H are Scramb les Ch amp ion Ton y Hendon... We also tested the 1989 Suzuki RM 125, noting that it was still a ste p away from being the class l~ lead er thanks to a lack of top-end power. W D T 00 0\ 0\ ...... -.:i l-< Q) .c E Q) > o z 75

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