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/128170
30 YEARS AGO.•. SEPTEMBER 12, 1972 Catching Honda is a very distant dream, at this stage. The crucial word is, of course, budget. We'll probably never know exactly how much Honda spent, but as the richest motorcycle company, they have a history of being not only able to spend more than their rivals, but also being more than willing to do so. What's different with this project is that they have clearly avoided a trap they have fallen into several times in the past - of being too clever for their own good (remember the disastrous NR500 fourstroke of the late '70s and early '80s, and the destructively quirky upsidedown first NSR500, with underslung fuel tank and the handling of an overladen truck?). The RCV is rich with free thinking and technical innovation, but all of it is beneficial. So now there will be 10 of the darned things next year. As with the NSR, all the best riders and all the best sponsors want one. The lease price is likely to be $2 million, so clearly not everyone will be able to afford them, even if there were enough to go around for the 24strong grid. Rightly or wrongly, those who can't achieve this goal are starting off on the back foot. Once again, though, you can't blame Honda for getting it right. A feeling of resentment and envy is natural, but it is unworthy. Instead, they (and we) can only hope beyond hope that, over the winter, the other manufacturers can raise their game to match not just what Honda has done this year, but what they will do next year. To spend what it takes, to be as clever as they need to be, and to have the commitment to follow it through. And if Yamaha, Suzuki and Aprilia can't do it? Well, can we really hope that the hitherto ill-favored Proton (nee Modenas) will fill the gap? At least the V-five that Kenny Roberts has already started building for next year has the right number of cylinders. eN Expert motocrosser Mark Anderson does a classic clicker off a jump, sans motorcycle, for the cover of Issue 1135 - for no apparent reason... Yvon DuHamel (Kaw) lapped everyone except his teammate Gary Nixon on his way to winning the Talladega 200. DuHamel's average speed was 110.441 mph over the course of the one-hour, 47-minute race. Kel Carruthers (Yam) took the 250cc combined event... Giacomo Agostini (MV) topped both the 500 and 350cc classes at the Finnish GP. Jarno Saarinen topped the 250cc class, and he clinched the ciass championship as well. Kent Andersson (Yam) won the 125cc class, ahead of Angel Nieto... Bill Payne (Mai) topped the 500cc Expert ciass at the CMC Ascot Motocross. Jim Wilson (Cl) did likewise in the 250cc event, while Chuck Bower (Pen) won the 125cc class. 20 YEARS AGO..• SEPTEMBER 15, 1982 Kawasaki's new KZ J 100 touring bike sat pretty for the cover of Issue 1135. The new model included shaft drive and was "at home on all surfaces.· It retailed for $5240... We interviewed newly crowned 250cc MX World Champion Danny laPorte. laPorte landed a factory Yamaha ride through the comp-any's Swedish importers and ran it all the way to the World Championship in his rookie season overseas. The photo accompanying the article showed laPorte holding up a T-shirt that read, "Lackey £, LaPorte, the Greatest American Heroes," obviously a reference to the TV show of a similar name... Gary Scott (H·D) topped the Hamburg Half Mile, ahead of Ted Boody (H-D) and Jay Springsteen (H-D), who took the points lead from Ricky Graham at the event... The Japanese motorcycle manufacturers met with supercross promoters Pace Management and Mike Goodwin's Stadium Sports Promotions to discuss the possibility of running a series without the AMA's involvement In 1983. It was actually brou9ht up by the manufacturers. 10 YEARS AGO•.. SEPTEMBER 9, 1992 Marlboro Yamaha's Wayne Rainey dragged his knee across the cover of Issue 1135 after his win at the Brazilian GP. Teammate John Kocinski and Suzuki's Doug Chandler completed an all-American podium in the 500cc class at the event. With one round remaining, Rainey trailed Honda's Michael Doohan by two points, even though Doohan had been out with a broken leg for much of the season... Jeff Emig (Yam) swapped moto wins with Mike laRocco (Kaw) to win the 125cc overall of in Binghamton, New York. Emig made up no points on LaRocco because of their identical moto scores. Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw) finally took a hold of the 500cc points lead after a two-mota sweep at the venue... So-Cal MX racer Ty Kady wrote in a letter announcing the donation of a custom-painted JT helmet he had won at the Commotion by the Ocean V to be auctioned off at an upcoming grand prix at Carlsbad Raceway. The proceeds would go to benefit Ryan Hughes' MX mechanic Chad Watts. "It was not our original intention to dominate this class. Our intention was to develop the sport. That is why we agreed with the manufacturers' association for the new fourstroke generation.· Thus spoke Koiji Nakajima, president of the Honda Racing Corporation. Ah so. That explains everything then. So that's why the truly magnificent RC211V V-five MotoGP racer has won every race so far this year except (after a tire failure) last weekend's Czech Republic GP, and come second in most of them as well. And that's why Honda will have 10 of them on the grid next year - three factory bikes, five production models, and two more in Moriwaki chassis. It's because they don't want to dominate. Actually, it's a bit unfair to poke fun, because I believe he really meant what he said. Not because they'd really prefer to be coming second or third. Honda wanted to win, of course, but not quite as easily as they have done. A victory should be hardwon to be worth anything. It's not HRC which should take the blame for what has turned out to be something of a sterile first four-stroke GP season, but their beaten rivals. All of them had the same chances as Honda - to come up with the best possible interpretation of the new rules and build the best possible bike for the job. They failed for different reasons. Yamaha, it seems, was over-confident, and thought they could get away with something resembling their road bikes, rather than biting the bullet with some real fresh thinking. Well, they have claimed one win, last weekend, thanks to Max Biaggi Uust a couple of weeks after dumping him, ironically enough), and time may yet prove them right. The unadventurous M 1 has been improving steadily all year, thanks to plenty of hard work and steady development - five chassis so far, and one major revision to engine architecture, changing the cylinder inclination. But this has been an improvement only when measured against a Honda that has remained virtually the same from the first race onward. If HRC had been making similar improvements, it would be a different story. Suzuki started late, and also bogged themselves down with one cylinder too few and an apparently too-primitive slipper clutch. They too have improved, and are not a million miles away. But the same proviso applies - they have closed up a little on Honda, but are still some way short, while if they have kept pace with Yamaha, this has only prevented the gap from getting wider rather than actually closing it. Aprilia started even later, and with a smaller budget than any of them. Their bike is too powerful for its own good, too heavy, and too unreliable. Coming up in Cycle News • Steel City National MX Finale • German WSBK • Czech MX GP • Springfield AMA Dirt Track Doubleheader cue I e n e _ S • SEPTEMBER 4, 2002 99