Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

, By Chicane HENNY RAY ABRAMS e 30 YEARS AGO••. ' DECEMBER 4, 1973 Two Kawasaki 903 Z I s rode by th e eN camera for th e cov er of Is sue #47 , each adorned with plates one with a license plate and one with numberplates, Both the stock mach ine and the race machine were evaluated inside. We found the stock ma chine t o be both fas t and com fortabl e, wh il e the Yoshimura-mod ified racer was so fast we could hardly ride it... We tested one of the firs t factory Harley- Davids on motocrossers, and the con versation afterward went like this: "That thing really a HarleyDavidson?" "Yep." "Factory effort?" "Yep." "Gonna be available for sale?" "Yep." "How com e you 're pu shin g it ?" "It broke ." ... Mitch Mayes (Hu s) beat J im Fishback (Cl) by 47 seconds to win Bar stow to Vegas in 3 hours, 47 minutes. Top desert racer Larry Pfutzenreuter died in a singlebike accident during the event. 20 YEARS AGO... DECEMBER 7, 1983 Th e st art of one of th e world 's mos t - --_._.- -famous desert races, Barst ow to Vegas, was featured on th e cove r of Issue #47. Husqvarnas Dan Smith won the event overall over Bru ce Ogi lvie (Hon ). Posit ion s 2-5 were all thumpers . Eddie Lawson actually finished the race on a Yamaha TT600 ... Mike Kidd promoted a dirt track at the Dallas Reunion Arena, and his former teammate Terry Poovey won the event over Garth Brow and Ronnie J ones... Ed Lojak ( Hus) won th e Har e Scr ambl es Series Fi nal e at Loretta Lynn ' s Du de Ranch in Hurricane Mills , Tennessee, and with it clinched the championship... A pair of Husqvarnas dom inat ed Cali fornia of froad events. as Dan Ashcraft and Larry Roeseler won the Desert Daisies European Scrambl es and th e 0 -38 Mi ne Sh aft Scrambles, respectively. !:I.1.!:l.!:21 :.J.:: }j L 10 YEARS AGO•.. DECEMBER t 1993 Team Gr een ' s Ty Davis wheeli ed across "the cover of Issue #47 on his way t o win ing the Baja 1000 with teammates Danny Hamel and Larry Roeseler . Dan Smi t h won the Class 3 truck class in a Ford.. . Aft er defending his titl e for three straight years, Scott Summers lost his AMA Grand Nati on al Cross Country Series title in 1993. However, he finished the season on a high not e, topping the Gr eenville , Tenn essee, running of t he event on his XR600. He lost the championship by six points to Fred Andrews... Je rem y McGra t h (Hon ) dominated the Bercy Supercross, winning almost every-, t hi ng. Teamm ate Jeff Stanton finished second overall, and Mike Craig (Yam) finished thir d. Ryan Hughes (Kaw) won the 125cc cl ass, with Mickael Pichon (Hon) and Craig Decker (Hon) rounding out the top three. n th e wake of t he tragi c dea t h of ri sing J apanese star Daijiro Kato , a saf et y committee w as formed by var ious riders and ra c ing offi c ia ls . Th e ev ening before every Grand Prix , th e gr oup, whi ch in clud e s Valenti n o Rossi , Sete Gibernau , Kenny Roberts Jr. and Nobu A oki , along with re pre sentatives from th e vario us govern ing bodies , t ak es to th e rac etra c k fo r a low -speed pass . Circulating in a van , the ri der s p o in t out area s that ne ed improvement and make notes they hop e will tr an s l at e i n to c h a n g e s . Their decisions ar e guided by a number of factors, including a formula for top speed and run - off. The wron g side o f that f ormula m eans ce rt ai n cha nge . Su ch is th e pow er of t he group that t h e ir rec omm en d at i on s fo r th e Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit were so o n e ro u s tha t t he 20 04 Suzuka GP was ca nc e le d whil e c ha n ges ar e m ad e. Ask ed at th e fin al race of th e y ear in Valenci a, Sp ain , wh y it took such a horrifi c o utcome for th e ri ders t o beco me e m powere d, Ros si sai d matte r -o f- factly , " Bec ause we a re a little bit d ickheads . We need always to wait. " Wait in g co st D a ijiro K ato h is life on a ci rcuit w hic h, t ho ug h im proved for 2 0 03, was stil l th ou g ht to be un safe by current sta ndards . At ev ery track t he r iders v i sited foll owing th e formation of t he safety co m m it tee , c ha n ge s h a v e b e e n requeste d . "W e ma ke very good work now ," Ro ssi co nti nued . " Now we w ait th e good wo rk of t he ci rc u it and the orga n izat ion bec au se th e rid er s a re toget he r, and we say, ' T h i s o ne i s okay; this one is not. ' Now we need t o wait for next year." Wh at wou ld happen if a group of AMA r i de r s did the s a me - if the t r a cks we re h el d to GP sta n da r ds? Th e season wo u ld either be very short o r th e r e' d be 18 r ou n d s at M a zd a Racew a y at L agun a S ec a . B ar b er Moto rsport s Pa rk , un t i l given t h e FIM's bl essin g , wo ul dn ' t make th e c ut. And i t ' s n ot l ik e l y to re ce ive h om o l o g ati o n as curre n tly c o n fi g ur ed . Let' s st a r t with th e firs t t rack D a yt on a In t e rn a ti o n a l Sp e ed way . Would th e wo rld sto p spinni ng if the seaso n d idn 't start in Florida? Suzuka provides th e answer. Da yt ona is a di nosa ur t ha t brin g s o u t th e w or st i n m o t o r c y cl e s an d tires, espec ial ly t i res . La st m o nth, Yosh imu ra Suzuki 's rising star B en Spies had h i s rear t ire co me apa rt soon afte r th e Yos h rad ar gu n re gist er ed 186 m ph . T he yo u ng T exan suffer ed seve re s k i n a n d tiss ue loss but no b roke n b on es . H e w a s very lucky . I L are fo rme d on a t ire behind th e area of contact to th e road . Th e rep eat ed de fo r ma tio n ca use d b y th e wave p ro c ess res ul ts in c onsiderab le heat build-up, which redu ces th e strengt h of the t ire and may lead t o its ulti mate destructi on. " T hink of th e t read form in g a lazy ess as it comes off the tarmac . The m o st dan gero us parts of Day ton a a re th e tr an sit i ons f ro m the banking to th e flats , off of NASCAR turns four and tw o , and into turn one, wh er e th e deform ati on is m ost pro nounced . It' s no surp rise th at wh ere Spies' ti re failed was on th e fl at after t he tri -oval. Wh en K urt is Rob erts' tir e faile d i n 2 0 02 , it happen ed g oin g on to th e back strai g ht, o ff o f N ASC A R two . Ml adi n's rear tire blew at Ro ad A t lan ta j us t as he st rai g ht e ne d up h e ading d o wn t he b a ck straig ht. Th e amount of deformat ion is du e t o the am ou nt of load applied and th e inflation pressu re suppo rti ng it ( t he car c ass supp o rts very li tt l e lo a d ) . Load has a large effect. even toug he r at Dayto na because th e bikes ope rate a t close t o 2G i n the ba nki n g , i.e . : co nside rable deformation. In ro und terms . load will in crease the proportiona l amount o f ene rgy to the tires . Simpl y put. a 20 p erc en t in crease in weig h t differe nce will give 20 percent m or e energy input. Will th e A MA co nside r lowering th e we ig ht of Su perb ikes? Not o n yo u r li fe. The AMA h as a o ne b ig famil y approac h to rac ing , ev en at w ha t is m ean t to be t he top level of th e spo rt . Privateers c a n make impressive horsepower numbe rs : Witness what Kevin H un t d id t o Shaw n H i g b ee' s M i ll en nium Tech nologies/Kaufm ann Trailers Suzuki GSX -R 1000 last year. B ut getting weig ht o ff is ex p ensi v e and gets in c reasi ng ly mo re so with exot ic metals. W ith Kawasa k i U .S . un w ill in g t o bear t he burden o f deve lopment costs for it s new ZX - I ORR. th e AMA Superbik e field wil l be e ven small er t h is year th a n l a st and the refo r e more depende nt on privateers. T he truth is t ha t even if Eri c Bost rom sign s wi t h Du cati Austin , as expecte d, M lad in is the stro ngest r ider o n th e strongest team who should w in m or e ofte n t ha n not , re g a rdl es s of the weig ht of h is m achine. If th e we ig ht we re lowered , wo ul d he win by more? Pro bably . But so what? Th e o t he r f ac to ries co ul d m atch t he lower ed weig ht lim its , and t he pr ivateer s wou ld be self-po licing , simply bec au se of budgets . It to ok t he death of K at o to wa k e up the GP wo rld . Let' s not m ak e t hat sa me m istake twi c e. eN The test had c ome ab out because Du n lop tec hni ci ans w eren 't happ y with th e te m pe ra t ures th ey saw during a p r e liminar y D a y ton a tes t in Au gu s t. Th e dat a f ro m that ver y selectiv e test is used to bu ild ti res fo r the all -te am s g athe ri ng in December. N ot lik in g w h at i t s aw, Dunlop bro u ght b a ck i t s e ngi ne e rs fro m B irm ingham , England , along with a new g en er ati on of tires and invited Honda and Suzuk i. Only Sp ies an d teammate Aaron Yates could make it . Mat Ml adin , w ho cou ld' ve given the most v aluabl e input , wa s h ome i n Australia awa it ing th e imminent birth of h is d au gh t er . T h e Honda r id ers were all recovering from post-season surger y . The test was windi ng down late on a Monday af ternoon w he n Spies' tire b l ew o n th e fr ont st r aig h t, sendin g him into a prolo nged slide. The ti ssue on his left buttock was ground awa y , a n d th e r e were inju ri e s to his l ef t sh ould e r a nd el bo w . A sk i n graft c losed th e wo und , bu t o nly after he endured weeks of pain ful therapy an d re hab . But h is sp irit wasn ' t b ro k en , and he' s ready to come back . And he doesn't bla m e Du nl op . N eit h er does anyone on t he Yos h sq uad. " It' s o ne of t he biggest probl em s that we face w ith t he St ate s wi t h th e ridicul ou s weigh t lim it s of t he bi k es," Mladin said rec ently in a ph one c all fr om Austra li a , p rior t o Sp ie s ' ac ci de nt. " W it h m oto rbik es putt in g o u t up wards of 190 horsepow er now and weig hi ng 170 k g [3 74 pounds], that is so m uc h h ar d e r on ti res t han GP b ik es; peo pl e don ' t underst a nd . People think GP bikes make so m uc h power and stu ff , but th e bikes are so lig h t (290 pou n ds fo r MotoGP, 3 5 6 p ounds for Wo rld Su pe rb ik es), they do n't load th e t ires as m uch as wh at o ur Superbikes d o. We 're getting all this safety co nce rns and p eopl e want in g t o slo w do w n th e bi kes bec ause th ey 're g etting too f ast and all th at so rt of ga rbage , bu t you need to lo se 20-25 pounds off the bik e, and it'll be saf er st ra ig h t away ." Case i n po i n t : Ml a din ' s Suz u k i makes over 190 h or se p o w er a nd sho uld be in th e high 19 0 s b y D ay t on a . Th e Ka wasaki ZX - RR M ot oG P m ac h in e m akes co n si de r ab ly m o r e po wer b ut weig h s l ess a n d h ad no significa nt t ire fa il u re th is yea r , despite usin g m an y of th e same t ir es. T he t ires Garry McC oy used showed up in th e AMA paddock within weeks . Fir st a di rect quo te from Mechanics of Pneum atic Tires edito r Samuel K . Cla rk e of U niversity of Mi ch ig an , wri t ten a lon g time ago . Bu t th e m ech an i sm o f fai lu re i s put s o co rre c t l y : " W he n ro lling at high speed, waves In an upcoming Issue of Cycle News AMA Supennoto Finale Belgian World Supennoto Worcester Arenacross c ue ' e n D uv "" • NOVEMBER 26 , 2003 79

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