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Cycle News 2002 08 14

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/128167

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By 20 YEARS AGO... AUGUST 25, 1982 "Bad" Brad Lackey (SUl) graced the cover of Issue 1132 in honor of his (and America's) first World Motocross Championship, in the 500cc class. Hakan Carlqvist (Yam) actually won both motos of the final round in Luxembourg, but Lackey's 2-3 finishes were enough to garner him the title after an ll-year struggle... At the final round of the AMA 125j250cc National Motocross Championships at Carlsbad Raceway, Mark Barnett (SUl) went 2-1 for the overall win, and the class championship - his third in a row. The 500cc crown fell to Darrell Schultz (Hon) after his II-DNF motos. He still won by 10 points over teammate Chuck Sun... Rounds 18 and 19 of the AMA Grand National Championship Dirt Track Series ran at the Santa Fe short track and the Peoria TT, respectively. Alex Jorgensen (C-A) topped the short track, while Randy Goss (H-D) did the same at the TT. 10 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 19, 1992 The 1993 Suzuki lineup was featured on CYCLE NEWS the cover of Issue 1132 more specifically, the RM250 and GSX-R750. The GSX-Rs were water-cooled for the first time in the 1993 :--., model year, and the l ~ _. 4 RMs were all-new. The GSX-R750 cost $8199, _::c.;,:.;::. while the RM 125 and RM250 were $3699 and $4299, respectively... Wayne Gardner (Hon) won the Donington Park Road Race GP, ahead of Wayne Rainey (Yam), Juan Garriga (Yam) and Eddie Lawson (Cag). Pier-Francesco Chili (Apr) won the 250cc class... Kurt Nicoll (KTM) went 1-3-1 over three motos to win the Belgian 500cc MX GP, keeping him within striking distance of Georges Jobe (Hon) for the title... Glen Schnabel Jr, and Scott Schnabel were the top riders at the Peoria TT Amateur Dirt Track. Glen Schnabel Jr. won the 250cc Modified and 250cc DTX classes, while Scott Schnabel topped the 200 and 400cc Modified classes ... Gene Naumec (Kaw) took a victory at the L.A. Coliseum U1tracross. ~ ~ .. .... , r- 30 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 22, 1972 Two DKW 125cc machines sat side by side on the cover of Issue 1132 - the Hornet and the Motocross. The main difference between the two two-strokes was the Motocross' "springer" front forks. They both featured Magura grips and levers and a 27mm Bing carburetor... Dick Mann (BSA) topped the Peoria TT, his second Grand National Dirt Track win in as many weeks. Sonny Burres (Tri) and Mert Lawwill (H-D) rounded out the podium ... John DeSoto and Brad Lackey finished first and second in the Open Pro motocross race in Valencia, California, both on Kawasakis·. Dave Rodgers (Bul) won the overall in the 125cc Pro class, while Tom Rapp (Bul) won the 250cc Pro even!. .. Bob Grossi (Hus) topped the 250cc Pro class during motocross racing at Spillway Park, while Jerry Johnson (SUl) and Bill Grossi (Hus) rounded out the podium. HOWL DENNIS NOYES A round 1997, two great racing championships decided to change their regulations, The World Championship Grand Prix Series, ruled by two-stroke 500 Vfours, began to prepare for a four-stroke future. Meanwhile, the AMA Grand National Dirt Track Championship, ruled by classic XR750 Harley-Davidsons, was also looking to evolve. The AMA conceived Project 2000, intended to allow 1000cc, production-based, twin-cylinder engines to compete with the XRs. This concept emerged as a clumsy SuperTracker class, and this year it was merged into the Grand Nationals, but so far the only SuperTracker not to get loaded back into the truck before the main was J,R, Schnabel's H-D/ Buell at Uma. In both championships, things worked out for the best. I'm as pleased by the demise of the GP two-stroke as by the incombustible resiliency of the old Grand National war horse, the XR750, The new Honda RC211 V and the old H-D XR750 don't have much in common except that they win races and both sound really good. About 25 years ago, the GP world was excited about new two-stroke technology. Me, I hated the sound and smell of the things. Now everyone in the GP paddock says the new MotoGP four-strokes sound wonderful. Of course they do, Four-stroke racing motorcycles always have sounded sweet, whether as Aermacchi singles, Ducati Superbikes, bellowing Russian Vostoks, modern fours howling through a four-into-one, or the six-pipe organ music of Hailwood's 1967 Honda 350. GP four-strokes weren't retired for acoustical reasons, but because the two-strokes, with their black-magic expansion chambers, were better racing machines. Today's MotoGP four-strokes don't sound half as good as Agostini's red 500 MV or the other un-muffled classics, but they do sound good. Usten up. The loudest and nastiest noise comes out the back of the cobby and overweight Aprilia RS3 triple that uses three cylinders from a Cosworth Fl engine, complete with pneumatic valves. The Aprilia is proof of what King Kenny Roberts says: "Fl technology won't work on motorcycles. Not yet. Now it's overkill, but in a few years we may need it and know how to tame it." The 16-valve, V-4, GSV-R Suzuki sound is great, rorty, with just a hint of the old Benelli warble as it starts to really get on the cam. Trailing in clutch technology, riders Kenny Roberts Jr. and Sete Gibernau have to blip the throttle on downshifts. Having to manually slip the clutch while wringing the chicken's neck and braking at the same time sent Kenny home for midseason surgery to prevent arm pump and has made Sete crazy. The Superbike-sounding Yamaha Ml is a carbureted, five-valve-per-cylinder, transversal four. Its tell-tale misfire on hard acceleration in the lower gears indicates a traction-control system that causes the engine to drop shots when the computer detects more than the current settings consider tolerable wheel spin. Sometimes it backfires and makes a hell of a racket on closed throttle. Other times, depending upon settings perhaps related to its electronically operated slipper clutch, it just rumbles on the overrun. It would probably sound better if it were winning. (Above) MotoGP road racing brings us 200-mph speeds, traction control, twolap qualifying tires, engine-management systems, slipper clutches (some electronically activated), and engines like the 220-horsepower, 17,000-rpm RC211V Honda V-five. Italy's golden boy, Valentino Rossi, and his superstar rivals are each backed up by a bunker full of rocket scientists. Lease price for a Y-fi"e in 2003 will be around 51.5 million. Rossi's Honda V-five is the quietest of the bunch. The four-valve V-five is made of a couple of 396cc V -twins sitting at opposite ends of a 180-degree crank with a 197cc single in the middle, although Honda may have a 120-degree "screamer" version too. The throaty bigbang sound is round and full, powerful but discreet. It wouldn't sound so good if it were losing. So we have come full circle. When I showed up in England in the late '60s, the crowd I ran with hated those twostrokes. The British Federation was so outraged at upstarts on Ted Broad 351cc Yamahas that they terminated the British 500cc championship to protect the Norton, For that reason, the last true British 500cc Champion of the '60s was Percy May on a Manx. You can look it up. But four-strokes are not winning today on a level playing field and will probably never beat two-strokes fair and square, as Honda expensively demonstrated from 1979 to 1981 with the NR500 - that oval-pistoned, eight-valveper-cylinder, eight-rod hand grenade. Two-strokes, whether primitive pistonported contraptions that will actually run backward if you aren't careful, vicious rotary-valvers like the RG-500 Suzuki, or the reed-valve V-fours that ruled 500cc GP racing from 1984 until yesterday, will always beat atmospherically aspirated four-stokes of the same displacement. cue I e n (Above) Jay Springteen's XR750 offers 90-plus horsepower and no solutions that would have surprised anyone when Eisenhower was president, but the Grand Nationals link us with a past tradition that continues today on peagravel half miles and the big, booming 135-mph horse tracks. It takes a wizard tD make an XR run, and a mad man to ride It. You won't get much change from $50,000 if you build a winner. Grand Prix racing simply had to change because the factories could no longer justify developing an engine that was no longer relevant. The 990cc to 500cc handicap is obviously unfair, but Dorna didn't want parity. They wanted, in the words of that old Polish four-stroke rider Joseph Conrad, to "exterminate the beasts." As soon as Dorna and the FIM proposed the· rule changes, six major manufacturers plus Proton committed to run two-rider works teams. But when the AMA proposed Project 2000, there was not even the sound of one hand clapping. Other than Suzuki delivering a few engines to a few top teams, no importer stepped up to run a factory team. There still are a few Suzuki and even Aprilia twins being campaigned, but they are struggling to make the semis. Unless the rules are seriously changed, the Grand Nationals will remain as Harley as GP is Honda. The die was cast many years ago when the AMA rule makers ran Honda out of dirt-track town and banned multis and two-strokes, The past cannot be undone. The Pro Singles class, invented by Formula USA, and the AMA's 505cc class have opened the side door to new manufacturers if they really want to flat track, but the finicky XR750s, with their cold-war technology, just may last another 10 years at center stage. Grand Prix racing, because it is Grand Prix racing, had to change. Dirt track racing, because it is dirt track racing, can't change - at least not much. eN e _ os • AUGUST 14, 2002 95

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