Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2002 07 10

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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By 30 YEARS AGO..• JULY 18, 1972 Sixteen-year-old Marty Tripes (Yam) graced the cover of Issue #27 after trouncIng some of the best motocross racers in the world in what would become known as the very first supercross event of all time, the Super Bowl of Motocross at the L.A. ColJseum. In front of 35,000 fans, Tripes beat the intemational contingent, including second-placed Tor· lief Hansen (Hus) and third-placed Arne Kring (Hus). The next American was Gary Jones (Yam) in fifth... Mark Brelsford (H·D) won his third National Dirt Track of the year at the Salem Half Mile, extending his points lead. Jim Rice (BSA) and Gary Scott (Tri) rounded out the podium... Angel Nieto (Der) won both the 50 and 125cc Grand Prix classes at the Dutch IT, while Rod Gould (Yam) topped the 250cc class and Giacomo Agostini (MV) won both the 350 and SOOcc classes. 20 YEARS AGO... JULY 21, 1982 Kenny Roberts wheelied his Yamaha across the cover of Issue iJ27 after winning the Formula One AMA Grand National Road Race at Laguna Seca. Roberts went 2-1 in the two legs of racing for the win, while Hondamounted Freddie Spencer won the first leg but broke in the second and DNFed... We interviewed Mike Goodwin, 10 years after he brought MX indoors at the 1972 Super Bowl of Motocross at the L.A. Coliseum. The Interview, titled "What does the future hold?: stated that the 1982 Super Bowl of MX at the Coliseum would be the "last ever" because of the upcoming 1984 Olympics, but he said the future looked rosy anyway, as he had many things going... Danny Storbeck (Yam) won three Mini classes at the Lake Whitney GNC MX, while Jeff Emlg (Yam) won the Mini Junior class... American Freddie Spencer (Han) won the Belgium Road Race GP on July 4, 1982. He fittingly defeated Briton Barry Sheene (Yam), who finished second. 10 YEARS AGO•.• JULY 15, 1992 A beautiful photo of Copper Canyon was placed on the glossy cover of Issue iJ27. which is where we went on our "ultimate dualsport ride.' Copper Canyon is located about 300 miles south of EJ Paso and reportedly blows the Grand Canyon away in terms of view and the fact that they welcome motorcycles... Both classes at the Red Bud 125/250cc National Motocross were won with 2-1 scores over the 1-2 scores of the runner-up. In the 125cc class, it was Jeff Emig (Yam) getting the win over Mike laRocco (Kaw), and in the 250cc class, it was Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) scoring the overall over Jeff Stanton (Han). Jeff Ward (Kaw) finished third overall, his best finish in his last seaSon of professional motocross. Both the runners-up still led the points after the event, however... Alex Crlville (Han) topped John Kocinski (Yam) to win the crashfest Dutch IT, round eight of the 500cc World Championship Road Race Series. Points leader Michael Doohan (Han) broke his leg during qualifying. Pier· Francesco Chill (Apr) won the 250cc GP. T KENNY ROBERTS he Catalunya Grand Prix has just come and gone, and the longer races like this and Mugello are a lot tougher on us than Assen or Donington should be. Mugello and Catalunya were really hot, with a lot of full throttle during each lap - so if you're going to have a crankshaft problem, like we have recently, then you're going to have it at those places. Part of this situation is due to the fact that we are no longer in development of, or very concerned about, two-strokes - since we started our four· stroke project. The riders are actually riding the existing bikes harder than ever before, there are more cranks to look after this year, and we've had a little dip in quality control. To design and build a new motorcycle and keep the old one run· ning was probably a mistake for us when we have two good riders like Jeremy [McWilliams) and Nobuatsu IAoki]. The new wide-line chassis that we used for the first time at Cata)unya will be the base for our new MotoGP bike. It has eliminated the pumping problem we had with the bike in recent races, as Jeremy confirmed after the Catalunya race. People ask me why we bothered to make a new chassis now and it was simply because I wasn't happy with the old one. The riders were, but) wasn't. The obvious problem that the old bike had was the amount of pres· sure the rider had to put on the bars to turn. We have been fighting that for a while. So I said to the guys, "I'm designing a chassis this time. n Then I gave my people in Banbury some numbers. I wanted the bike to achieve something different in engineering terms. I wanted to see what it was like, so I had a test on it before Mugello. To bring our new chassis to the racetrack, for Jeremy to fall in love with it and want to race it right away and remember that it's being raced two meetings early - isn't bad. It was designed to take a wider motor, which is the next step for us with the four-stroke. Our new engine is going to be a Vfive, an upright Vee. It will not look like a Honda but it will be fairly close: three-cylinders pointing forward and two facing the rear. I think we have five designers working on the various components for the motor, in-house. Most of the KING KENNY'S CORNER new people who have come into our engine side of things are from the car world. We're not re-inventing the wheel, and we're not Cosworth, or I1more. We're a small engineering group of very capable people. John Magee, who designed the triple we're running now, is the chief engine designer. We should have our first complete bike in November. By the time we get the castings and start machining them, we'll probably be on the dyno before November - or on the racetrack, for that matter. At this point, I think it's much easier for us to sit down and talk with people in England about four-stroke motors. In the two-stroke arena, there was nobody - just us. We were the I think the whole three-cylinder project, however, if you take away the engineering, was not "successful" in a lot of ways. In the motorcycle business, you have to win to be successful, and nobody will really recognize a bike until it wins. Even if the four-stroke is a little more difficult to make, or costs more to make, you still have to win with it. I think it's much easier for us to make the four-stroke because we're in the four-stroke arena. So we are enjoying it a little bit now, because we have not enjoyed the last two or three years - actually, six years, to be honest. You have to have 200 horsepower to play the MotoGP game now. People who talk about 250 horsepower are dreaming. I think the Honda is putting out somewhere between 220 and 225 hp. Anybody who thinks that they're going to come and topple Honda with a half-assed effort is a fool. To beat Honda, we need to have fewer people, but smarter people. Not more budget. You aren't going to beat Honda with more budget because they don't have a budget. You need a smarter group of people around the motorcycle and a very good, determined rider. It's going to take a very good combination to top the one that they have now. Having said that, if we don't achieve that, should we go home? No. So we're all going to play the game and hope that we are successful. If you want to pick something that you can be a sure bet to win, you need to pick a different class than MotoGP. We're racing against the Honda Motor Company, with no rules, and that's a situation that not too many people would get into if they didn't want to get beaten occasionally. We don't have to win, but we do have to be competitive. Our goal is to make the finest piece of equipment we can and compare it to the rest of the field. I've just seen pictures of [Carl) Fogarty's completed bike. I haven't seen it around the racetrack or anything. It looks very nice. I'm not surprised that they managed to make the bike in time because I know what it takes to design and make a motorcycle - that doesn't run. It's not the problem to make one - the problem is to make four of them that beat the Honda, the Ducatis and the rest of the stuff. eN only ones who knew anything about two-strokes, and it really wasn't good enough. Although in saying that, with the amount of budget we have at our disposal to run the MotoGP team this year, and to have it going as well as it's going - the rest of the people should just go home. Especially as we are doing development with Bridgestone tires, in their first season of MotoGP racing. We have two good riders who are not intimidated by being passed down the straight. For example, Jeremy, at Catalunya, riding a new chassis that had only been tested for one day, beat the Aprilia. I know how much money Aprilia is spending on that project, and it's quite extensive, so we're not totally disappointed in our efforts. • Red Bud NatIonal MX • Springfield AMA Dirt Track • Swedish MX GP • Mammoth MX cue' • n • _ S • JULY 10,2002 127

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