Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In The Tapes emember the ge nu ine d isappoin tmen t you felt when you lea rned that there is no such thin g as Santa Claus, th e Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy ? Well, here's ano ther one for you . It ap pears that Ho nda , yes, Hond a, has d iscon tinued the production of OE parts for several of its mod el s less th an 20 years old . Perh aps this may not sound as crazy to yo u as it does to me. I've always been a believer - not to the point of complete gu llibili ty, mind you. That said, it was hard to let go of my fait h in St. Nick and h is fri end s beca use th ey ha d a lways treated me so well. Ever y Christmas I cou ld cou nt on getti ng that one speci al toy that I had pined for as the resu lt of a consta nt and irrepressible bo mbardment of commericals tha t always see m to filter onto the boob tub e after Tha nksg ivin g . Co me April, th er e w as a lw ays a generous su pply of good ies to be foun d alon gsid e th e eggs in m y basket. And thou gh I felt tha t losin g teeth was paying a prett y high price for growing u p, th e assu ra nce of th e To oth Fa iry' s und er-the-pillow cas h-back bo nu s plan and a new se t of cho m pers pu t my 5year-old fear s to rest. Like I said, these legends took care of me. I could always count on them. It was this similar fait h that I shared w it h co-wo rkers a nd cu sto mers a li ke when I wo rked a t a Hon da d ealershi p du ri ng th e old coll ege da y s o n ly 10 yea rs ago. o t a da y w ent by w he n so me d o w n -i n - t he -m o u t h cu st o m er would wand er into the shop , see k ou t the parts co u nter and then proceed to tell us the same story: " Hey, I' ve got th is 25-yea r -o ld Hond a [your model goes here] . and I kno w tha t they haven't mad e them for 25 years, but I was w ondering if yo u guys could loca te this flognart that goes on the end of the doomafli tchie for me. I und ersta nd if the part has been dis..." That was where we usu ally cut them off. "Th ere is no suc h th in g as the D wor d here , sir," we wo uld re ply. " If yo u ow n a Honda , yo u' re covered. We can sp ecial order tha t part for you and have it her e in seve n to 10 w or kin g d ays. It ma y n ot loo k ex ac tly lik e th a t p a r t, because Honda often supercedes its pa rt number s to cove r a few d iffer en t models, bu t it will wor k exactly the sam e." The cus tome r reactions ranged from shock, to happiness, to relief, to whatever, bu t we never hesitated in dri ving the point hom e: It makes sense to ride Hond as because they ' re eng ineered better, la st lo nger, and w he n they finally do brea k, you can order any part that yo u need righ t fro m your local dealer. Heck, we even orde re d a b ra nd- new al u mi num gas tan k for a guy who h ad R The trouble with recycling m ang led t he originial unit on hi s '74 CR250 Els inore " tra il bik e." Yes, th e moron paid the king' s ran s om fo r it, but h e wa s able to get it just the same. I had hea rd of ot h er Ja p ane se m anufa cturers d is c ont inuin g their pa rts. No t Honda, though. Bu t he y , w e ge t old e r . Th e ro man ticism of our youth gives wav to the realities of ad u lt life . Dea th ... taxes... you name it, eventua lly we all learn the facts beh ind th e my ths of ou r ch ild hood. Unfor tu ntately, that last bubble, the one a bou t Big Red a lways being th ere to help the helpless in sea rch of old Honda parts, was burst like a balloon for me little more than a wee k ag o when I learned tha t I cou ld not buy, beg, stea l or borrow OE pla sti c for m y 1980 Ho nda CR250R Elsinore. As you ma y recall from a previou s colu mn, I had been bitten by what I call the "o ld mot ocross " bu g, a nd I ha ve since gone on this buying frenzy, seeking out old motocross bikes that appealed to me in my youth. These we re the makes on w hic h I saw m y local heroes racing a ro und in th e ca nyons, o r produc tion ve rsio ns of th e wo rks mod els that the fac to ry d emi god s u sed to ra il arou nd berms a nd fly ove r jum ps at fa r away d ream lands named Saddleback, Ca rlsbad or Una d illa, as d ocu ment ed in the pages of my Mot ocro ss Ac tio n magazines . The collecting has begun . I have two H uskys : a ' 79 390 C R an d a '74 Mag 250CR (Thank you, Karel Kramer). I have also purchased a 79 Suzuki RM400. But the cu rrent pride and joy in my new fleet of old stu ff is my '80 Honda. It represen ts one half of th e legen d ary Hann ah vs. Tripes, Hurricane vs. Typhoon, battles that used to ca p tu re m y atten tion w hen I shou ld have been do ing my homework, and it is in pret ty darn good mechanical shape. 1 paid a me re 5300 fo r it from some guy in Irwi ndale who , "jus t wanted to ge t it out of the folks' backyard." TI,e top end had recen tly been freshened up by a local Hond a dealer, and the engine sou nded great. I raced the bike at the recently held Vintage Iron World Championships and had a blast with it. There were over 400 entries, and not a modern bike in sight. I did no tice, however, that the majority of these bik es were ha u led to the races in fancy pickup tru cks, boxvans or tra ilers. Hmm. Anyway, after the event was over, I decided tha t all the Elsinore really need ed was to be dissassembled and checked over, h ave th e fr am e repain ted a nd a n e w s e t o f fend er s a nd si de p a nels thrown on, an d it wo uld almost look as good as new. Bu t using my connection s at Honda, I was horrified to learn that the last set of OE s ide p a ne ls w a s so ld in 1997 and th at th e parts had been...discontin ued! Now , 1 " i ll dis pense with the wha iling and gnas hi ng of tee th long eno ugh to explain to you a couple of reasons why I am so surprised tha t this could ha ppen: First , I jus t recentl y purchased a se t of side panels and a "one yea r" sq ua re rea r fen der for the 7 9 RM400. It took a couple of weeks, and 1 paid almos t $200 for the se t, but I go t it. Maybe that was a lu cky one, becau se [ kn ow th at fellow ed itor Kit Palm er cou ld onlv order the left-side pan el for his recently rest ored '82 RM250; the right has been discontinued . Maybe that's part of wha t bothers me, using the words restored and '82 in the sa me sen tence. Secon d, I h av e bee n tol d by more than one perso n in the ind ustry that the actua l source of my blind faith in Hond a stems fro m an inter vie w that wa s conducted of the late Sochiro Honda himself, w ho, w he n as ke d h ow lo n g h is co mpa ny wo u ld conti n ued to mak e re placemen t parts for its mot orcycl es, rep lied : "Forever." Now, I'm n ot ju s t blam in g Hond a her e. 1 can' t even imagi ne how di fficult it mu st be for the guy wi th that precious '79 Kawasa ki KX250 o r ' 77 Ya ma ha YZ400 to ge t replace men t parts. Ste ppi ng back an d loo king at it on the surface, it seems as though the Big Four, whose heritage was pra cti call y buil t u p on the manu fa ctu re of m illions of g reat, ground breaking di rt and street motorcycles in an era of ra pid ly esca lating technology between 1975 and 1985, have mad e what seems to me be no prov isio ns for keeping those mo to rcycles ru nni ng for yea rs to co me . I refuse to believe that the Japanese did not th ink that th e ir prod u c ts w ould be good enough to surv ive the test of time. After all, we have all witnessed motorcyclists o n th e s treets , crui sing b y o n th ei r CB750s or KZ900s. Techno logy has certainly pushed tho se bikes from the limelig h t, bu t clearly they a re s till u sefu l vehicles. Wer en 't the d ir t bikes of the time bu ilt at least as well? How iro nic tha t the Hu sqv arna or Maico or Bultaco fan can still find par ts for their bikes. I believe that this Evolution MX thing is going to be one of the fastest-growing forms of amateur mo torcycle racing competiti on in the new ce n tury, a nd who know s w ha t w ill fo llow? After a ll , AHRMA is jus t beginning to recognize Evolu tion MX as a p otenti all y vi ab le national series. What's next, road racing? Ca ll it a seco nd wave of nostal gia or whatever, but a lot of people like me are eit her dus tin g off their old mounts or looking for exam ples of the ones that they thou g h t were so coo l but co u ld no t affo rd . Those machin es can be found in the sheds, barns , ga rages and backyard s of America for incredib ly low p rices . Unli ke their vi ntage predecessors, they make awesom e power, have good suspension , and they handle mu ch better than the pre-74 stu ff. Also un like their vintage predecesso rs - with the few aforementio ned exceptio ns and maybe a handful more - they are all Japanese bikes. It wou ld see m that for those enthusiasts, who wo uld glad ly pay the inflated fai r-va lue su m that an OE fend er, gas tank, pan el, piston, rod kit, br ake shoe, etc., wou ld cos t, ther e will be no help fro m the manu factu rers when the time comes to source the part s requi red to get these machines mov ing again. To me, it w ou ld make se nse from both the economical and his tor ical perspectives for the Big Four to br eak ou t a littl e bit of tha t tooli n g, pull s o m e o f th o se o ld mold s off th e wa reh ou se she lve s a nd give the peop le what they want. Wh y? Because they can. We don' t need tons of the stuff, and it doesn' t need to be cheap. It jus t nee d s to be a va ila b le. Isn 't i t already paid for anyway? So, w hat d o ya say, Japan? Give us enthus iasts a little help . And remember, grea tness is so me times more a resul t of pass ion than of practicali ty. That is how we w ou nd up wit h so man y of these wo n de r fu l mo torcycles in th e fi rs t eN place. 30 Y EARSAGO.., OVEMBE R25, 1969 N ..: :;; .<:l E cu > o z 68 10 YE SAGO AR ... N OVEMBE R15, 1989 A ~ 20 YEARS AGO .., NOV EMBER 21,1979 arry Roes e le r (H us) w a s ca p tu r ed lea vi n g the sta rti ng lin e to begi n a 925- mi le journey fro m Ensenad a to La Paz, Mexico, tha t would net him a nd pa rt ner Jack Joh nson the ove ra ll victory in the SCORE Baja 1000. Fellow Hu sk y rid er s Scot Harde n and Brent Wallings fo rd finished second overa ll... Factory rider Mi k e Hannon edged out Rick Munyon by one point to wi n th e Bu ck ho rn Nationa l Enduro in Oak Run , Ca li fo rn ia ... We featured a thump-o ff bet ween the Kawasaki KLX250 and the Ho nda XR250. Th e batt le en ded in a d raw , o u r test ers co ncl u d ing th a t both b ikes we re mo re th an ca pa ble of mak in g four-strok e freaks hap py. t was time for the Da yton a Race of Champions road race a t the ha llowed Daytona Int ernat ional Speed way. The race d rew over 500 entries, but su ffered due to extremely horrid wea ther cond itions that included mon soon-like rain and wind . The best solo race of the week end cam e in the Un lim ited Gra nd Pr ix Expert race, wher e Dale Q uarterly (Due) ou tgu nned Reu b en McM urter (Hon) for the win. The Du tchma n II (Suz) race team of Don ald Jacks and Tom Kipp survived the wi nd and rain to win the final round of the AMA /CCS End ura nce Cha llenge Road Race Series, finishing second in the series fina l stan dings... We tested the all-new 1990 Kawasaki KX125, pronou ncing it as an excellen t machin e with great motor characteristics. CN rather stra nge cover announced the arrival of eN Eas t ad gu y Paul Cosn er, w ho joi ned ou r West Coast staff an d took up the posit ion of Western Ad Manager. Cosner was appa ren tly some sor t of a ladi es man in Ohio ... Rick Woods (Jaw) wa s the top dog at the Sammy Tanner-promoted speed way extravaganza that took pl ace on the Asc ot Half Mil e. Accord ing to th e story, the nig ht wa s "Movie Stars , Wh eeli e Con tes ts, Speedway Racing, Movie Shoo ting crews, Sidecar Races, Min ibikes an d even Sp rint Car s." Sou nd s like a good time to us... The team s of Ruben Benites and Bill Hol comb, and also Tom Rapp and Bill Pfu tzenr euter were winners at the CMC team motocross at Carlsbad Raceway in Carl sbad , Californ ia. L I

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