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/128207
30 YEARS AGO•.. APRIL 10, 1973 After his first-ever race, Stu Hathenbruck looked like a mud monster on the cover of Issue #13, as he fought just to fmish the Hot Springs Rough Scrambles in Hot ------Springs, Utah ... We ~~took a look at the craze of backyard bicycle motocross in Southern California as we attended an "event" in Malibu, California's Sycamore Park. Jed St. Henri won the Expert class... We rode the Kawasaki 750 H2·R Road Racer, and we concluded it was the fastest motorcycle we'd ever ridden... We got to sit down and talk to Cali· fornia Governor Ronald Reagan about the continuing fight against land closures, and his solution involved registration of offroad vehicles... David Ruffel topped the Red Mountain, California, Checkpoints Enduro. Carl Price and Dave Evans round· ed out the top three. -------= 20 YEARS AGO.•. APRIL 13, 1983 We tested the new Kawasaki KZI000R Superbike Replica on the cover of Issue f 13. We found the bike to be "about the meanestlooking productions street bike this side of an AMA road race starting grid."... Ronald Reagan announced that he would uphold International Trade Commission tariffs for foreign.made motorcycles. The tariffs were set to go up from 4.4 percent to 49.4 percent the first year, 39.4 percent the second year, 24.4 percent the third year, 19.4 percent the fourth year, 14.4 percent the fifth year, and then back to 4.4 percent by 1988. HarleyDavidson was happy with the decision... Warren Reid (Yam) topped the Open Pro class at the CMC Golden State MX finale at Saddleback. Scott Burnworth (Suz) won the 250cc Pro class, while Jeff Ward (Kaw) won the I 25cc Pro event. 10 YEARS AGO•.• APRIL T, 1993 Kevin Schwantz graced the cover of Issue #13 on his way to winning the Australian Grand Prix season opener. Joining him on the podium were fellow Yankees Wayne RaIney (Yam) and Doug Chandler (Cag). Tetsuya Harada (Yam) battled the entire distance with John Kocinski (Suz) to win the 250cc class ... Jeremy McGrath (Hon) won his fifth race of the supercross season in Dallas, Texas, extending his points lead in the process. Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw), Michael Craig (Kaw), Jeff Stanton (Hon) and Steve Lamson (Hon) rounded out the top five. Doug Henry (Hon) won the 125cc East/West combined main event, followed by Jimmy Gaddis (Kaw), Damon Huffman (Suz), Ezra Lusk (Suz) and Mike Chamberlain (Kaw) ... Danny Hamel (Kaw) won his third (of three) AMA National Hare (, Hound of the year in Murphy, Idaho. D ucati thrashed Honda at the Catalunya MotoGP test. Clearly, this was not the last word on the subject. And who knows how much Valentino Rossi was keeping up his sleeve? But it was quite a moment, anyway. Not least because of the way Ducati also thrashed Honda in the noise game. This is more important than it sounds. If you take my meaning. At least it is to me. The Barcelona tests, the first with all the bikes present except the Proton V-five, led to a personal realization: For the past 30·odd years I've been striving to recapture the excitement I felt as a youth, when any sort of racing machine would have won the 1966 championship, making Ducatl's exhaust may just produce the best noise In the moto GP. me in raptures. And that the noisy new bikes come as close as anything a noise out of all proportion to its to doing just that. All the 990s sound pretty good, as I taxed Rossi's crewmen with this, know for sure just how hard Honda complaining that their whispering was trying at these tests. Burgess in particular rails against the whole idea I've said before. The Suzuki has a particularly gruff howling cadence; the Aprilia is sweet and loud; the Yamahas are making some noise at last; the Kawasaki is a proper screamer. And the Ducatis have a particularly strident and evocative new voice. size. And it sounded fantastic. RCV didn't seem to be in the same spirit. And found myself in a world of rather unexpected sanctimony. of semicompulsory group tests. The only beneficiary is the public, who Racing had gone green with the gets an extra show. For the dominant unleaded fuel - so why all the new racing team, it's just a chance for the noise pollution, they wondered. And opposition to see what you've got. Why show your hand before you have to? there were health and safety issues, especially related to the mechanics' The V -five Honda sounds pretty good too - an interesting back-beat rasp to a soulful hollow drone. The trouble is, you can hardly hear il. For "Anyway," said boss Jerry Burgess, impossible that Rossi was riding who with a portfolio of eight world under strict orders not to give 100 while Ducati and the rest went unsi· titles might be entitled to sound a percent. lenced or with just vestigial stubs, in line with the new 130 decibel noise limit, Honda stuck with the silenced little smug: "If we beat everyone with This would be in line with his a quiet bike, then they'll all have down-in-the-mouth comments to Ital- less-than 125 decibel pipes from last year. It did have one louder bike there, but I must have missed it myself. For the rest, their voices were just too soft among a bellowing brigade of the barely silenced. The other bikes made the Hondas sound ever so slightly farty. This was never Honda's way in the good old days. It never minded leaving people's ears bleeding. Its six- hearing. Bearing this in mind, it's far from quiet bikes, too, in a year or two." ian pressmen after he'd been beaten My best riposte was to quote my not only for overall honors, but also vixen lady wife's comment, that "Hondas have always been girls' in the dash for the BMW car, firmly won by Loris Capirossi and the Duke. bikes, anyway." But it was a cheap Rossi took the opportunity to criticize shot, and he did have a point. At Alex Barros, who had led every test so far on the Yamaha. least, as long as they really were beating everybody. "When there is a real prize to go That was before it all kicked off. for, you can see the weakness in Bar- Before the Ducatis showed them the ros' mentality," he said (generously). way on top speed and lap time. And Certainly he was seething with resentment about something ... and it passion and noise. cylinder 250 was an aural legend. Burgess left early, so I never did may just be at the distinct chance Maybe the loudest and most exciting motorcycle exhaust noise of all time came from its previous five-cylinder, get the chance to ask if he thought that his easy superiority of the last two seasons may be a thing of the the in-line five RC149. It was only a 125, with tiny 25cc cylinders, each with its own megaphone exhaust. It revved to more than 21,500 rpm and if there is any natural justice, it'll this meant that in a year or two Honda would build a noisy bike. But have to. Then again, maybe this is all a bit premature. Until Suzuka, nobody can In an upcoming issue of Cycle News past. Unless Honda releases some noise. Or (more likely) comes out with a whisper-quiet V·six, that raises the whole game once again. eN Cruiser Special Issue Houston Supercross Phillip Island WSBK Wortd GP Motocross Opener cue I .. n e _ 50 • APRIL 2.2003 99