Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~ •.lllaP:&!J.!r hie 30 YEARS AGO.•. SEPTEMBER 11, 1973 ayTo Go Why would anyone expect A Can-Am engine ,It'; '" I,:J'." :~ "1 ~ ~= ~.o.£) a new V-s ix to be any differ- cutaway wi t h rotary valve and tuned induction sat on the cover of Issue 1135, an d t h e Bombardier motorcycle ent in these respects? Be c au se , as the other teams c h u nt er around way beh ind the Hondas a nd the was introduce d inside the issue. The craziest th in g about the Can Am is that it feat ured an ad justable fork angle... Roger DeCo ste r (Suz) became only the second rider to take three 500cc World Motocross Champ ionships in a row by clinching his third at the Dutch MX GP in St. Anthonis , Holland, with his third overall finish... The Belgian MX Team won the Motocros s des Nation s in Bohlen, Switzerl and, with team members Roger DeCoster (Suz) , Sylva in Geboers (Suz), Jaak Von Velthoven (Yam) and Raymond Heeren (Mai), The Swedish and Russian teams finishe d second and thi rd, respectively, while the U.S. team of Jo hn DeSot o ( Cl), J im Pomeroy ( B ul) an d Mike Hartwig (Hus) finished fourth overall. 20 YEARS AGO••. SEPTEMBER 14, 19B3 Rec entl y cro wned 500cc World Motocross Champion Hakan Carlqvist cornered h is Yl490 around a comer on his way to clinching that title. Carlqvist went 6-4 at the series finale to beat Andre Malherbe by seven points ... Mike Baldwin (Hon) took his second AMA Formula One championship at BIR, winning the race by over a minute , and the title by 22 points (92 -70 ). Wayne Rainey (Kaw) won the Superbike event.; Ted Boody (H-D ) won the Hamburg Half Mi le over Jim Filice (H -D ) and Bubba Shobert (H-D ) ... The two Dans , Dan Ashcraft and Dan Smith, teamed up on a Husqvarna to win the Las Veqes-to -Reno Frontier 500 over the team of Larry Roeseler and Scot Harden. 10 YEARS AGO..• SEPTEMBER B, 1993 Du kes , they ha ve to clutch at straw s, that's why. Hi st ory offers some su p - -::-~~l.;::::::;~1 port. Honda has in the past eng in eer ed a coup le of blun derbu sse s, th e ova l-p isto n NR500 o f th e lat e '70s being a pr im e e xa m p l e. This V four was m eant to cha ll enge ~I..iIE:;';~~l the reign ing two -strok es. Instead , it was a m aj or -::::-:::-"':'~:-":;-,,,,,,,~~~__~:::=;--=-'::'~~~~ embarrassment. Then the re was the fi rs t V - four two-stro ke NSR500 , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a c ur ious co n fe ctio n t h a t was w a y too c le ver fo r its rumors have e merged that H o n d a own good. The fuel tank was under- a 990cc Grand Prix engine? has built a V-six , which is currently neath t h e eng ine , w ith the exhausts Clearly there are several d ifferent undergoing tests in Japan, ridd en by cooking t he rider's chest over the top. answers to th is question , depend ing ex-GP rider Sh in ic h i Itoh, and th at will The whole thing proved such a hand - which engineer or com pany you ask. come out fighting next year. ful that even such a good rider as W hat is the ideal configuration for S om e favor l ight we ight, othe rs Fre ddie Spencer was o bliged t o Th is i s a tu rn up for the books. huge power. The grid h as two V-fives Having come to one c oncl usion, how switch back to his trusty old tripl e (H onda and Proton) , tw o in -line fours can it b e t hat t he sam e eng ineers h alfway t hrou g h the season. Dogged ( Ya ma h a a n d K awa sak i ) , t wo very have now come to a different conclu - t o th e en d, HRC fi n a ll y turned t ha t sion? The Honda 's c u rrent power ou t- bike into th e d e fi n i t ive 500 c c tw o - different V -fours ( D uc ati and Suzuki) and a triple ( Apr ilia). No wonder t he p ut, believed to be around 235 horse- st ro ke. But it too k a lm o st 10 years co llective so un d is so great , po we r, d oesn' t exactly leave th e a n d a great number o f c ha n ge s to rid ers short, and most people re c k on ach ieve that status, But t he real an swer must lie in th e results . Honda' s V-five m ay be under so me threat fr om Ducati 's gO-d eg ree V -four , bu t it st ill holds th e upp er hand, and m os t p eop le b el iev e t ha t th er e is enough in reserve for it j ust to tum a screw to unleash a bit more. It might m a k e th e b est -m a nn er e d Mot oGP b i k e a li ttle h ard er t o r ide , but t h e li k es of Va lentino Ro ssi , Sete K evi n S chw ant z and Wayn e Ra in ey stood p r oud o n t h e cover of Issue 1135, and on top of the world, in V-five , in spite of a lot of enthusiasm announcem ent of their at the team 's B a n b u r y base for a series' retum to Laguna Sec a Racewa y i n Northe rn Californi a. Those two riders were ba tt ling it out for t he 500cc World Road Racing Championship 10 years ago coming into their hom e GP... Mike laRocco (Kaw) won round three of the four-round AMA 500cc Natio nal MX Champ ionship in Bingh amton, New York. He led the series by nine points over Jeff St ant on going into the fina l roun d, not only of that year's series, but ever. Doug Henry (Hon) swept the 125cc class, while defendin g cha mp and erstwh ile point s leader Jeff Emig (Yam) was hounded with crashes. Henry left Bin ghamton with an 1 J -po int lead go ing into the round 12 finale... Wayne Rainey (Yam) toppe d the Czech GP, wh i l e hi s titl e riv al Kevin Schwantz (Suz) strug gled to place fifth. Gib ernau et al. ca n cope w ith th at. Ke nny Ro b ert s ' co ncl usion when h e drew up the Proton was certainly the limit to power is more wh at th e Then there was the RC45 , which t ires can take than what the eng ine s be came pretty g ood later on , but in c an deliver, so y ou have to wond er it s earlier da ys w asn't good enough what is going on. for Carl Fogarty t o win the World Superb ike title on , when h e was far I've sai d before that it o ften see ms and away the d ominant rider. all th e others c a n hop e f or i s t ha t This is all h ist ory, but fresh eno ug h Honda will make o ne o f its p eriod ic t ha t r i vals can c ling t o t he h ope b lund er s, Will t his be it? tha t another fo ll y fro m Hon d a is way It 's a b it t o o soo n t o say s o , overdue . f or seve r al reaso n s. F i rs t b e c aus e I ca n ' t he lp t hinki ng it is a sle nder nobody ou tsi de HRC act ually k nows whether it really does ha ve a V -six . ho p e. Hon d a is mo re grown up n ow . And , second, b e c aus e t h e level of It hasn 't p u t nice, light triple. The in fant GP Proton thought and ca re that went into the a long time, because it has learned KR5 may be very different from the design of the V - f i v e r e s u l t e d i n a that b e i n g overambitious i s ofte n a foot w rong fo r supe r bly harmon ious motorc y cle . costly in racing terms. T h e curren t T h i s i s a funct ion o f the regula- The RCV is so well ba l a n c e d that V- five is the opposite o f that, a real tions, of course , as i s always the when a rider like Alex Barro s gets on feet-on-the-ground m otorc ycle. case . Because this is a number of it , he wins two races st raight out, and But you still have to wonder, when cylinders that offers a route to plenti- a rookie like Nicky Hay den , in at the it will cost Honda 22 pou nds in m in i - ful power w it h out having to employ d eep end at tra cks he has nev er seen mum weight and presum ably b e m ore excess ive t echnology, and without be f o re, takes on ly h a l f a seaso n p o werfu l tha n th e V-five, j ust ho w t he getting too bad ly burned b y the m ini - before he starts to emerge as so me - chassis and t ires will cope .. . and m um weight limit. thing of a serious p ro sp ect for the whether H onda i s about to do i t very nea r future. again . Honda in deta il, but it is still a V-five, A g ai n st this background , stron g In an upcoming Issue of Cycle News CN Steel City AMA MX National Czech MotocrossGP Virginia AMA SBK cue . e n e _ so • S EPTEM BER 3 , 200 3 91

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