Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128129
o o\.XI o IE G'GXl:) cD Continued from page 3 o be working out of a new, larger truck. according to Burns. and will again receive backing from O·Neal. DGY and a collection of record labels. with the Yamaha-mounted Moto XXX team. where he'll ride alongside Larry Ward, Kyle LewiS and perhaps Michael Young. According to Jordan Bums. one of the Moto XXX team owners (as well as a member of the band Strung Out>, Wey will ride a VZ250 two-stroke in the 250cc class in EA Sports Supercross. Ward will also ride a two-stroke 250 in selected rounds. while LewiS will likely campaign a YZ426F thumper in the quarter-liter division. Young would race a YZ 125 in the 125cc Western Regional Series. and the team may sign a rider for the 125cc Eastern Region as well. When the circuit heads outdoors. expect to C , r -o '-' I' '::: '--' ~ ,... ~ , .-l I Team Suzuki recently confirmed that they reached an agreement for a joint cooperation with Belgian trailer constructor Renders. The agreement is for an initial duration of three years, and it means that Frans Renders. owner of the JB Team. will stop the racing activities of his own team and that the currently contracted rider Sven Breugelmans will join Team Suzuki as a second rider to Mick· ael Pichon on the '02 RM250, replacing Josh Coppins. The agreement also includes running a Suzuki RM 125 in the 125cc World Championship GP Series with rider Eric Sorby. Furthermore. capitaliZing on a change in FIM rules. Pichon will be taking part in a selected number of races on an RM125. Team principal Sylvain Geboers believes that. with the support of Renders. it is now possible to o -) see Ward back on a YZ250F four-stroke in the 125cc division, where he'll likely be joined by LewiS (who rode a 426 in the 250cc class thiS year). It is not yet known which class Wey will ride on the National MX circuit. Moto XXX (whose Moto 3X moniker is not a replacement name. but merely an additional logo) will D O O o 8 o g c [ • • Sachs To Become Motorious Another Teutonic manufacturer working on its own design of 60degree V·twin engine is Germany's Sachs, whose minimalist Beast showbike created for them by Target Design was launched one year ago at Intermo!, powered by a Folan V-twin engine which essentially comprised a good part of the chassis of such a rrunimalist motorcycle. But with the Folan motor not endowed with the vibration-sapping balance shaft necessary to make such an installation work without the bike Shaking itself to pieces, and the Swedish-built enduro/road raCing-derived engine package in any case unsuitable for volume production, the management of the small. old·establlshed German company which acquired it in February this year via a $2.2 million MBO from the previous owners, Dutch bicycle conglomerate Winning Wheels. has decided to fast-forward development of its own family of powerplants. Plans call for fuel-injected eight-valve fourcamshaft 60-degree V-twin engines, featuring a six-speed gearbox and gear-driven counterbalancer, and ranging in capacity from 750 to 1200cc for a variety of applications - as well as for possible sale to other small manufacturers 'around the world. "We had such a massive positive response to the Beast that we knew we had to put it into production," says Sachs General Manager Hartmut Huhn, one of the trio of key executives who liked the company they worked for 50 much they bought it, and a qualified engineer in charge of product development as well as himself a former road racer who competed for many seasons in German BaTT events on - a Ducatil "Though we have a good relationship with Suzuki to '-' r'\ U C CJ To l:iIst your vote, lag an to http://www.cyclenews.cam. CJ 8 o o c o 84 NOVEMBER 7,2001 • cue I • n e _ in the championship and winning his first National along the way. Retired three-time World Motocross Champion and former AMA 250cc National Champion Greg Albertyn will compete at the GFI Elsinore Grand Prix. November 10-11. in Lake Elsinore, California. Albertyn will join Suzuki teammates Rodney Smith. Steve Hatch and Mike Kiedrowski in the Hamel 100 event, the premier and final race of the weekend. Albertyn, along with Smith. Hatch and Kiedrowski. will be aboard a factory Yoshimura DR-Z400 and will be pitted under the Yoshimura tent. Former motorcycle-land-speed record holder Don Vesco captured the absolute wheel-driven FIA Land Speed Record recently at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. smashing the record by more than 55 mph as he did a flying mile at 458.440 mph. Vesco's top speed in the "Turbinator Streamliner' was 461 mph. giving the Californian three consecutive national records in excess of 400 mph. Vesco and his team, led by brother Rick Vesco. will attempt to break the 500 mph barrier in 2002. He will also try to recapture the motorcycleland-speed record next year, currently held by Dave Campos at 322 mph. According to sources close to the team. Ben Spies will race 600 and 750cc Supersport next season in the Attack Suzuki squad. joining Jason Pridmore on the two-rider team. Spies rode a Valvoline EMGO Suzuki in thiS year's AMA 750cc Supersport Series. finishing third buy engines for our other existing models, the gO·degree V.twin architecture of the TLl 000 engine they were ready to sen us is not suited to the tight, compact design of the Beest ' and in any case the Cagiva Raptor, for whk:h the Beast will surely be a strong competi· tor, already has this engine. So. starting from that point. we decided to make the necessary investment in developing our own engines. with the help of many specialists in Germany already working in the automotive industry." Doubtless a further factor for Sachs in biting the expensive R&D bullet of making their own motors was a reluctance to become total, ly dependent on Suzuki for supplies of engines, as the company's production ramps up beyond the 2500 motorcycles it plans to build in its Nuremberg factory in 2002. alongside the range of electricpowered bicycles it also markets under the Sachs name - and the Malaguti scooters for which the company is German importers. Beside its small-capacity 125cc range, current Sachs models presently consist of the VX800-engined Roadster and DR600·powered street single, after plans to also develop a TL 1OOO-based sportbike were dropped when problems with installing the engine in the Fritz Egli-designed backbone frame became insuperable. Now plans for such a model are on hold until the company's own 60·degree y. twin engine powers the Beast into production in 2004 - but expect a wider range of la,ge,capacity Sachs models powered by their owl') Vtwin engines to come on line in coming years. styled by Target Design. MeanWhile. a sportier version of the firm's more conservative VX800 Suwki-powered Roadster was launched at Milan as an inter· im model, just eight days after the terrorist outrage in New York, As a result, it will bear a dirterent name from the one that was intended. "We decided that after the events of the past week, we could not display a bike that was called the Bomb: said Hartmut Huhn. Quite so. Instead, the new Sachs model will be called the 0805 when it enters production in June next year, using the same mechanical and chassis packages as the existing Roadster 800. n u o prove the competitiveness of Suzuki machinery in both classes. os Former factory Yamaha and Suzuki rider Jimmy Button will be conducting an MX school for mini riders at Competition Park. in San Jacinto. California, on November 10. and another school open for 125cc, 250cc and Open-class riders on November 11 at the same location. The one-day class costs $250.00 and includes instruction on starts. what to look for in practice. braking. pre-race warm-up. whoops. getting ready for the race. cornering, how to read the track, jumping. bike set-up. clutch work. and tips on training and dieting. For more information. contact: Jimmy Button MX School, 7389 East Softwind Drive. Scottsdale. AZ 85255. or call 480/5855339. According to his father, Colin Sr.. Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards recently underwent surgery from Dr. Arthur Ting in Northern California. Ting removed a plate from the 2000 World Superbike Champion's shoulder - the result of a crash at Monza, Italy in 1997. With the cancellation of a planned trip to Asia for Honda. the opportunity arose for Edwards to take the time to get the surgery done. Edwards Sr. said. And Edwards wili now have some four weeks to recover before starting his off-season testing program. Edwards will also be kept busy this winter as workers will begin construction of his dream home on Lake Conroe in Texas. eN