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/128308
Letters to the editor should be senllo Voices, CycleNews, PO Box5084, Costo Meso, CA92628-5084; faxed to 714·751-6685 or em ed to editor@cyclenews.com. Published oil "Where's his penalty? Say, could this be part of Bush's new immigrat ion policy?" letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cyde News, Inc. letters shouldnot exceed 200 words, and all ore subject to editing. Anonymous letters will nol be considered for publicotion. All lette rs shouldcontointhe writer's nome, address a nd daytime phone number... E ditor. Kudos From The Man Great new look for the paper. Congrats and alo ha. Bruce Brown via t he Int ern et When you get on ott o boy from Bruce Brown, you run with it. Ever heard of On Any Sunday? How about Endless Summer? .. Editor The Woes Of Windham Dear Mr. Wh itelock: Y ur decision to penalo ize Kevin Windham fo r suppose dly taking ou t David Vuillemin at the Phoe nix SX seems like a des perate attempt to en fo rce a rule t hat doesn't really exist. A rule t hat do esn't have a definitio n isn't really a rule . You , your self, in your Cycle News interview, said you' ll be having a big discussion about the top ic, which goes to show t he rule is iIIde fined as it cu rre ntly stands. Y claim that rider safety is an issue in ou ove rly aggres sive riding, but I can't th ink of any injuries last year t hat were caused by such riding. David Vuillem in was injure d in a so lo crash at Dayton a. Ditt o for Bubba at Vegas, Pastrana at Gle n He len . Sean Hamb lin didn't even get injured racing but in a practice crash . And Ricky Carmichael didn't even crash when he tore his ACL. Also, how can you assess a penalty w hen you haven't seen all of the foo tage from all of the angles? And you're going to rely on Yamaha's foo tage when it was its rider who was involved? It seems you are rushing to "justice" just to make an example of someone . Why didn't you make an example of Tyler Evansand Grant Langston at Anaheim I? Certainly you didn't miss the instant re play on ABC, did you? Plus, w hat postrace interview were you listen ing to?The on ly reason Vuillemin didn't get a 10-point deduction for taking out Wind ham, as Kevi n stated in his interview, is that he had t he sense to back off w hen he knew David was coming up on the inside. You can't blame Kevinfor David not backing off when he knew - o r sho uld have known that Kevi n was com ing. And w hy is it 10 points , anyway? Just because he won? What if Windham had finished in 10t h? Would it still have been a 10-po int pena lty? Why not five? O r 20? The bottom line is, you have made a decis ion just to make a decis ion. Kevin Windham is getti ng screwed because you haven't taken the time to create definite rules on what is and is not overly aggressive riding, nor are you consiste ntly e nforcing whatever sta ndard you are imagining in your head . Get your act together and create some- 4 JAN UARY 28 200& • C YC L E thing te nable before you go taking away points arbitra rily . Randy Olson Yucaipa. CA The Woes Of Windham II If two years ago th e AMA wo uld have been ded ucting points for taking a rider out, Ricky Carmichael would not have bee n crow ned Supe rcross Champion. He wou ld have finished aro und 10th. Michael Palm er Pocola. OK The Woes Of Windham III The re are few things mo re exciting and enterta ining t han sta r-crossed motocross e rs mixing it up on the racetrack. A welldese rved com e-uppance is a universally appealing, if not primitive , spectacle. Who amo ng us can admit to not enjoying Kevin Windham's maneuver during last Satu rday's Phoenix Supercross? To hea r the resulting outcry of Windham supporte rs, however, is to believe he did little more than spit on the sidewalk in th e absence of a sign proh ibiting such. Let's hope t he streets of L.A. do n't er upt in chaos following this profound injustice. Based on various internet polls, I unrepentantly find myse lf in the minority on this issue . Forgive me for both enjoying the spe ctacle and simultaneous ly feeling th e 10point penalty was justified. Did not the rule exist on the books? Were not the ride rs and team managers advised of its inte nded increased enforcement this year? Did not Mr. Windham himse lf provide us a glimpse of his subjective inten t while basking in the pod ium's glow? Anyone who can't add these numb e rs up to " 10" has a great future de fen d ing Scott Pete rso n and Michael Jackso n. No body forces these guys to ride in the AMA-sanctioned Supercross Ser ies. However, if yo u so choose, know what the rules are (Kevin did), and don' t complain when they' re enforced. Better yet, don't reveal your subjective inte nt on the pod ium, but rather cha lk it up to goo d old-fashioned competitive spirits. And if you insist on whining about it , I hear th e WW F is looking to expand into rnotorsports. Paul Layer Damas cus. N Y The Woes Of Windham IV 1 was very surprised that after such a stern warn ing at the Anaheim pit meeting th at Grant langston wo uld go out and do exactly w hat the AMA warned against - taking out Tyler Evans. Watch that footage. He rides with such focus and determi nation like I've NEW ~ never see n. With on ly one purpose - to catch Evans and put him in t he dirt . I expected this "payback" me ntality from Langsto n, having wat ched him through the last few years. But the real surprise came whe n the AMA did not hing about it. Now with the Windham episode , it's impo rtant e nough to make an examp le out of him? Why wer e Langsto n's act ions accep table and Windham's not? You showed the ride rs that a bit of rough play was all right by lett ing langsto n slide. David Vuillemin too k advantage of the AM,A;s le niency on seeke rs of revenge in the seco nd turn of the Phoe nix race . Where's his pe nalty? Say, could this be part of Bush's new immigration policy? Rob Johnson Bakersfield, CA Thestern warnings in the riders' meeting actually come a t the Phoenix round... Editor The Woes Of Windham V So I guess Mike Brown, Eric Sorby, Grant langsto n and Ryan Hughes will not scor e a single point this season . Brian nMoo se" Mussetter via the fnternet The Woes Of Windham VI While I understand the need to keep riders from intentionally taking one another out, it makes me ask the question: What was the AMA watching when Tyler Evans and Grant langsto n did esse ntially the same thing? Was a point pe nalty imposed the n? In langsto n's case, everyone watching in t he stan ds and on TV knew exactly what was going to happen w hen he caught Evans. Talk about premeditated. Let' s be fair. Ken and Steven Krama sz San Jose. CA And What About Rossi's Honda? I enjoyed very much Alan Cathcart 's story on the V-five Honda RC2 1IV MotoG P bike. The 75.5-degree cylinder angle of the RC2 1IV seems a very od d choice - it would be very difficult to machine, and chec king cam timing must be a nightmare. Ho nda obvio usly had a good reason to do it - "balance " being the main reason cited. I have anot her theory - that of piston ine rtia - if you can max imize piston inertia, then you can reduce cranks haft mass to a minimum. Many companies have "co rporate" des ign features that carry across all of their models - sometimes for many years. With Honda this ap plies to the "stroke to conrod CD rat io" - typ ically aro und I: 1.9 for its high-performance bikes. It is quite pro bable that it has carried t his ove r to its RC2 1IV motor. To look at the re ason beh ind the unusual Ve e angle, it makes it eas ier to first con side r the four "outer " cylinders. The re is no doubt that the RC45 V-four heavily influenced t he design of the RC2 1IV. Assuming that eac h outer cylinde r "pair" shares a co mmon crankpin (as with t he RC45), a 90degree Vee angle wou ld have given perfect primary balance for the outer four cylinde rs. Bygivingthe fifth cylinde r crank web a no minal 50 perce nt balance facto r, Honda could have built a 90-degree V-five with very litt le primary Vibration. If we look at maximizing piston inertia, however (for the four out e r cylinders ), a rod/stroke ratio of I: 1.9 wou ld give a Vee angle of 75.3 degrees - 75.5 degrees wo uld be the neare st 0.5 degre e increme nt . While even higher piston inert ia would be achieved with t he tw o outer cra nkpins phased at 180 degrees, bett e r ex haust tun e is achieved whe n the outer crankpins are in phase - i.e: both pisto ns on the fro nt cylinder bank rise and fall together. This means th at the two oute r pistons on the rear bank would be at the ir maximum velocity w hen the tw o front cylinders are (tem porari ly) stationary at TDe. It shou ld be noted t hat a 90-degree Vfou r has pe rfect primary balance and even partia lly can celled secondary Vi brati ons . Phasing the outer cylinder crankpins at 180 degrees or 360 degrees makes no difference to either vibration mode . However, phasing the m in between these two extremes will introd uce a "rocking coup le" into the secon dary Vi bration. While I have considered the RC21 I V mo tor as a V-four, there is obvio usly still the "fifth" cylinder to cons ider. It co uld be phased to maximize one of fo ur crite ria: A pisto n inert ia, B • exhaust tune, C - vibration, and D - ease of manufacture. It is likely that the phasing of the fifth cylinde r is a com promise among all fou r criter ia. I would put my money o n it being a "plane" crank with the outer cylinde r crankpins in line and the "fifth" cylinder crankp in at IBO degrees. We will have to wait until Honda re leases photos of the engine's inte rnals before I know whe ther I have done my sums right or not - but it do es seem a likely ex planation fo r an engine format with an outwardly curiou s cylinder angle. Ian Drysdale Melbou rne, Australia Drysdale is the man behind the V-eight motorcycle that carries his nome... Editor