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/128327
Hondas Tossed From World Supersport A fte r the ructio ns of the Sunday night of J""\the World Superbike/World Supe rs po rt weekend at Oschersleben, Germany, on May 3D, the light of Mo nday morning dawned with no resolution of the great Honda wheel axle problem (see our World Superbike coverage on page 30), but some new facts appeared. But even so, all the top Honda riders, from race w inner Karl Muggeridge to 13th-placed De nis Sacchetti, were excluded from the resu lt of the World Supers port race, but not the rest of the Hondas - those tha t were not checked in po strace tech. The problem was the rear-wheel spindle, and according to the Honda teams in the paddock, it's the very wheel spindle that Hon da produces for use on the back of all its road -going C BR600 RRs. The first new fact that came out on Monday is th at if the 20 gra m tolerance that the FIM has sta ted (but not yet finally con firmed) is co rrect, then all the tes ted axles are illegal. Such is the error that the 566 gram axle tested on the Ten Kate Ho nda CBR600 RR is well below th e expected lowe r weigh t limit of S80 gram s, eve n tho ugh it has been con firmed that it and all the other Honda axles are a standard streetbike part. Whether the 20-gram tolerance is the case or not , is still not confirmed by the FIM, but Honda has confirmed that th is axle is the one that is fitted to all its CBR600s worldwide - for street and race use . "The co nfirmatio n fro m Ho nda is that all axles worldwide from 200 3 and 2004 are the same spec as we were and are using,,. said Ten Kate team boss Ronald Ten Kate. "If there is a problem like there is now, if that is the issue, it would mean that all Ho ndas are illegal. Eve rywhe re . The weight of the unit we test was 566 grams, with the wrapper and the label and everything. Th ey are checking in Japan now. The FIM opi nion is that it is 20 grams tolea rance , plus or minus, from 600 grams. It is possible Honda made a mistake in the homologation, but it is 100 percent sure tha t it has nothing to do with a 'special' vers ion of the spindle. Mr. Yoshi from Ho nda R&D is on the case , and it will be updated tomorrow - Tuesday. I have checked my original drawing o n the CD ROM, and eve n if it is blow n it up to 1600 percent, I cannot make out anything for the tolerance figures. If the 20-gram limit is co rrect and it all goes by the book , it wo uld be the case that it wo uld take mo re than 30 days to homologate another axle, meaning we would miss out on Silverstone [june 13) but I don 't th ink it will be the case . Even now Motogiro To USA? With the fourth annual running of the revived Motogiro visiting Sicilyfor the first time this year, where it was scheduled to start on May 25 and finish on May 29, news comes of an exciting initiative to transplant the event to the USA in August, 2ooS . The plan calls for Motogiro America to be held in Northern California during the week following the Pebble Beach Concours at Monterey in mid-August, and the historic race meeting at nearby Laguna Seca , one of the world's premier Historic Car festivals. That's when Ducati intends to hold the world press launch at Laguna of its new Classic Sports trio of desmodue retro models designed by Pierre Terblanche, launched at the Tokyo Show in October last year and now confirmed as entering production in mid-2ooS . The idea is that the Motogiro should depart from Laguna Seca during the launch and head north to San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, into Marin County and the Napa Valley wine area, which has a strong expatriate Italian population . The fove-day route would then head south down the east side of San Francisco Bay, returning to Monterey for the finish of the event and a prize-giving ceremony near Canary Wharf. Although Ducati has until now been the main sponsor of the Italian running of the event, which is organized by its satellite company Dream Engine, it's planned that Motogiro America should involve all the current Italian bike manufacturers, even a company like Aprilia, which is a relative newcomer to the party. But historic extant marques such as MV Agusta, Benelli, Moto Guzzi, Mondial, Laverda (well , sort-of current), Moto Morini (soon will be , again) and Maserati (okay, two wheels, not four) are all well represented alongside Ducati in the Motogiro lineup of bikes up [Mo nday, May 3 I) there have been pro blems in the Dutch Championship. Any private Ho nd a team in any ch am pionship w ith CBR600 RRs can not race anymo re. Some peo ple were smiling when we were excluded at first, but now they have a different loo k on their faces. They now also realize th is would be a very bad thing if Ho nda goes out. It would not really be a championship." If there is an e rror between the hornolo- racing and the Donington Park round of the MotoGP World Championship. saw an invitation made to the top teams in World Supersport to come join in a race during the Donington MotoGP weekend. A release issued by the MCRCB on its website stated : "The race is international sta- tus and will be held to FIM technical rules. However, unlike the World Championship, there is no single tire make... teams and riders from the World and National Championships across Europe are invited to participa te in front of what is likely to be the 10 JUNE 9, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS a preprodu ction bike was done some time earl ier, believed to be January, 2003. Go rdon Ritchie to 17Scc of the type which would have taken part in the original series of races held in the 1950., before the trag ic events of the 1957 Mille Miglia car race put an end to public road racing in Italy. Moreover, the concurrent Taglioni class, which is now run alongside the Motogiro, for bikes up to IOOOcc from the 1970., would embrace even more of the current marques' products, and the Rallyclass for modern bikes could even find a home for Aprilias. "We intend that this should be a festival of Moto ltaliana, not just a Ducati promo, t. says a senior Ducati executive. "We strongly believe it's in all our interests to present a united front in promoting Italian motorcycles to American cus- tomers, in a way which will benefit the entire industry, not just one or two of us." While there are some very extensive collections of Italian motorcycles in California, which contain several potential entries for the "proper" Motogiro class, there aren't enough genuine bikes of the era in North America to make staging the event feasible without shipping over around SO or so 1950. small-capacity entries - and their riders • from Europe. It's intended that those who have supported the Motogiro in Italy since its inception in 200 I would be invited to take part in Motogiro America - but to make this feasible costwise, some financialsupport from the Italian Trade Commission would be necessary. So far, exploratory talks on the subject have not gone well - but for sure it would be a shame for all lovers of Italian bikes in North America if this chance to have one of the world's premier old-bike events delivered to their doorstep didn't take place. Here's hoping enough pressure can be brought on the Italian government agency to change its mind - in which case, expect to relish the sight of a fleet of 19505 MVsand Moto Guzzis carrying the Italian tricorore across the Golden Gate Bridge, in a memorable celebration of La Moto ltaliana! Alan Cathcart Donington Invites World Supersporters To Race A cheeky bit of opportunism by the MCRCB, the organizer of British national gated spind le weight and the real one , it may be due to the rushed nature of the homologation proce ss fo r the prod uction bike , when it was launche d last year. The final versions on ly go t to the teams in March, 200 3, although the ho mo logatio n of biggest tracks ide audience for a Supersport race in 2004 . Prize and travel fund and entry information available upon request." est. forms part of a fulsome Donington race card - including a Boxer C up race. The top teams that were personally invit- This race, seen by the FGSport, the World Superbike/World Supersport Series rights ed included the Team ltalia Yamaha and Ten Kate Honda teams. With a long gap in the World Supersport holder, as an obvious attempt to muscle in on season in July some teams may have been , its own World Supersport Series, which still tempted to go to keep sharp, but the top teams declined the offer. and a release was features a huge degree of manufacturer inter- 40th Anniversary