Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO.•. DECEMBER 1, 19 70 Adorning the co ver of Iss ue 1/ 4 6 wa s a comical illust ration of mo to rc ycles and motorcyc lis ts ... Tom Poteet raced to the victory at Fou r Corners, California. on his 350cc Bultaco. Whitey Martino finis he d second overall and first 500cc on his Harley-Dav idson ... Search ligh t, Nevada, played host to the Nevada State Hare Scrambles Cha mpionship, and the four laps of the 25-mile loop took quite a toll on the competitors. Of the 101 entries , only 42 finished; chief among them was Max Switzer, who took the overall on his 400 cc Husqvarn a ... Joel Robert kept his win streak alive with his victory at Carlsbad Raceway Trans·AMA Motocross. The top American was Gary Bailey, who rode his Greeves to ninth place... The Castrol Grand Prix Road Race was run at Orange County Raceway in Sou thern California and Hurley Wilvert rode his Kawasaki to the victory in the premier 251-1 OOOcc International GP. Second place was Reg Pridmore, on a Norton. Pridmore also won the Sidecar event with monkey Ernie Caesar , also racing a Norton. 20 YEARS AGO••• NOVEMBER 26, 1980 The cov er of Issu e 1/46 asked th e qu es tion, Are you really a racer? Or do you only think so? Inside was a 20-qu estion multiple c hoice test th a t clai me d to det ermine wheth er or not you are a true racer, or if you're just a guy who rides for fun ... Rex S t at en (Yam) won the sixth annual Four-Stroke Nationals at Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, California, with 2-2 · moto fini shes. Ron Turner (Hon) went 1-5 for seco nd, while Bill Grossi (Yam) went 3-3 for third overall... Husqvama-mounted Terry Cunningham dropp ed a total of 10 points on his way to winning the 125-mile final round of the AMA National Enduro S e rie s in Mo und s , Oklahoma . Dic k Burl eson (Hus) finis he d s ixth ove rall despite running out of gas twice and getting a rear fiaL A helicopter followed him around with a ca mera man on boa rd , as they we re filming a mo vie ab ou t th e enduro master. 10 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 21, 1990 The cover of Issue 1/ 4 6 was ded icated to dual -sport bikes . Ins id e , we wrote o f dual -spo rt even ts in Baja and Colorado, as well as all the new dual -sport bik es th at would be available in 199 1. Of thes e bikes, t he most hype was placed upon Suzuki's new DR250S and DR350S, which boasted over II inches of wheel travel and claimed dry weights of abo ut 260 pounds , for $3066-3399 ... Team Suzuki Endurance won the fina l round of the WERA National Endurance Road Race Series in Braselton, Georgia. It was their 13th win of the 15-race se ries using team riders Mike Smith and Kurt Hall. Smith also clinched the WERA FUSA Road Race Series Championship that same weekend ... We introduced Kawasa ki's 1991 motorcycle lineup. Tops among them was their new ZX7R, which came race-ready with a solo seat, high-performance engine and lighter weight. Only a limited number would be made available, which is why the MSRP was so high, at eN $8499. o is e has a lwa ys been on e of th e b iggest reasons people don 't like dirt b ike s . And I am not talking about just environmental groups that don't like OHV recreation on g ene ra l pr inci p les and phi losophy either. We c a n deal wit h a lmost every issu e th e y ra ise . We ca n de a l with wa ter qual ity, a ir q u a lit y , eros io n , wildlife is s u e , bo tan ica l is s u e s, archa eol ogi cal issues , and user-conflict issues. Ofte n a ll of these a re just s urrogate is s ue s for the rea l underlying rea son nobody like s noisy d irt bikes. I don 't th in k we will eve r be a ble to sa tisfy e nviro n me nta l ext re mi sts, b u t we ne ed to quit m a king the genera l p ub lic mad at us over no is e . Sus ie soccer mom do esn 't lik e no is y di rt b ik es . Joe six p a c k do esn 't lik e nois y di rt b ike s . Virtua lly every s ingl e elected officia l, a ppo inted regulator or public la nd m a na ger, doe s n't like nois y dirt bikes. I don 't like noisy dirt bikes . No is e h as a lwa y s be en a major issue but , until a c ouple of years ago , the t rend was towa rd m uc h quieter dirt b ik e s . Water cooling , t ighter engi ne to lerances , be tt e r ind u c tio n systems , and better muffl ers had brought the sound level of most new dirt b ikes down into the m id to low 90 db range by the early '90 s . S o wh at h appened? New four s trokes are what h appened , espe ciall y t h e super popul ar Yamaha 400 / 4 2 6 seri es . While right o n th e m a rg in of legality , it is still too no isy righ t out of the cra te. But the prob le m really g et s bad when a n a fte rmarket exha us t s ystem is ins tall ed , which it seems about 9 0 pe rc e nt of th e s e bik e s have t o d a y . Th e Ju ly issu e o f Dirt Rid er d id tes ti ng for pow er a nd sound levels o n a ll of the p o pu lar ex haust sy s te ms a vail ab le for t he Yam ah a 4 00/426 ser ies , a s well as t h e new Suzuk i DR -Z400. According to their testi ng , the Yama ha m easured 100db st o ck , b are ly within the 99db, plus or minus 2db, ma ndated b y Ca liforn ia la w . But no ne of the a ftermarket p ipe s te ste d c a me in b e lo w 10 2 d b , a n d m o st we re between 104 and 106d b . Th is m e an s th a t none o f th e a fterma rket pipe s fo r the 400/4 26 are legal to us e a ny wh e re on pub lic la nds in Californ ia , n o t even fo r r aCin g . " Bu t th o s e are ra cin g sy st e rn s " is the respo ns e fro m th e afterm a rket com panies. Ba loney. AMA rules ha ve a m aximum noise lev e l of 99db. None of th em a re le gal for AMA am ate ur racing . And wha t about other pri va te tra cks that a re n't AMA ? We ll , man y of th o s e t ra ck s have been s hut down. Why? Beca use peop le h ate no isy d irt b ik e s! And I N ask ed m ost o f these co m p a nie s if they had e ve r tr ied to get a perm it for a new track , as I have several t imes. I bet you can name the s ingle biggest re a s o n wh y man y track s are ne ver gra n te d p erm its . If y o u gu ess ed noi s e , yo u are starting to get the dr ift on the noise is s ue . But even that thin thread of c r e d ibi lit y a bo u t the YZ400/426F being a race bike, and the p ipes are de s igned for closedcourse racing , went out th e window wh en yo u read the similar test on all of the p ipes for the Suzu ki DR-Z4 0 0 . Unlike th e Ya ma ha , th e Suzuk i doesn't pretend to be a race bike. It is a recreation a l tra il b ik e t hat wo uld cost more to m ake tru ly race worthy tha n a couple of Ya m aha s. It makes ve ry good us e able po we r, but jus t a little le s s th an the Yam aha . But what has rea lly im pre ssed everybody who has heard o ne is jus t how q uiet it is yet it s till h as outstan di n g p erfo r mance. Dirt Rider tested it at 90db w ith the stock pipe , which is very quiet , and it s t ill pu t s out over 40 horsepower. Fo r comparison, the la t est 426 Yama ha has about 45 horsepower and the Honda XR400 puts out jus t a littl e over 3 0 horsepower. We ll, the noise was jus t about as b ad as the Yamaha , o nc e th e stock pipe wa s replaced. Not a single one is AMA le g a l, acco rd ing to the Dir t Rider data . On ly one is barely Ca lifornia leg a l, the Stroker spark a rrestor model at 100db, an d a ll the rest are between 10 2 and 104. But , wha t abo ut all tha t extra power th at comes with the noise, isn 't tha t re a s on e nough? We ll, in the ca se of t h e Yama ha , none of th e p ipes eve n m a t ch ed th e s toc k p ip e m idra nge , where m ost rid ing is done . None of them m ade more th an 1 hp m or e than the stoc k pipe anywhe re , exce pt a couple ha d less than 2 hp more, one at extremely low rpm , and o ne a t n early 1 1 ,000 rpm. In fac t , s ome of them were lowe r in power at a lm ost every rpm . An d a 1 hp gain at the en ds of th e powe rb and, while losing severa l ho rs e po wer in th e m ost us ed m idrange is not a pe rform a nc e inc rease at all . Well what about that ch ok ed -d own Su zuki? It must have mad e m a jor horsepo we r le a ps with a n aftermarket system , rig ht? So rr y , Charl ie , o n ly m od e st ga ins to be mad e here - a ho rsepower o r two . Ba re ly not ic eable. But every bo dy notice s the d iffe ren c e in sound leve ls . Whe re do we go from he re? Well , t h e OH V Di vis ion ju st conve ne d a committ ee to address th e no ise issu e , wh ich I a m a member of. Th ey hav e be e n c ha rge d with de veloping a re c - In next week's Cy News cle ~ o m m e nd a tion for a new s ound -limit law . The MIC h as a lrea d y recom m ended that le v e l b e lowere d to 96db , with no plus or minus va riation, as a level the industry can com ply with . Th is is like ly to be the highest the new la w will be. But so what, you m ight sa y. Nobody is e nforci ng sou nd lim its a ny w ay. Well , things are changing in th is field as we ll. Noise e nfo rcement will be a priority ne xt ye a r. The O HV Divis io n will be pr o vid ing all of the test equipment ne eded to every agency that req ue sts it, a nd th e MIC has update d their te c hnic a l test data ma nua l, so that all m odels c an be p roperly a nd leg ally testwit h la w ed. Ad d it ionally , e n fo rc e ment g ran t s ex plod in g this year, and th e ne w state emphasis on no ise enfor c ement , yo u c an exp e c t rigo rous fiel d enforcement th is yea r all ov er the state . If you have been considering bu ying an a fte rm a rke t ex haust fo r yo ur four- stroke, you might want to re conside r, esp eci a lly if yo u can't get reliable d ata that it meets cu rrent law s . But if you want to use it lo ng term , yo u want to look for p ipes at or be low 96db, since it is almost a c e rt ai nty that the noise limi t will be lowered. The debate will be just how much it will be lowered . If you a lready have an aftermark e t system that is over th e le gal o r AMA lim it , I would urge you to demand a refund , since it is not even legal fo r AMA -s an ct ion ed a m ateu r closed -course racing. But m o re impo rta nt t h a n b e ing tech nica lly leg a l, if we really lov e to ride an d wan t to prot e ct our s po rt, we n e ed to d o eve ryt h in g we c a n t o reduce noise we ll be low the legal lim it s . We n e e d t o make fr ie n d s , n ot enemies, and all we re all y ge t from noise is mo re enem ies. Well , except for a few companie s m a king sig nifica nt money selli ng soc ially irre s po nsi b le products fo r b ig buc ks - can anybody g ive m e a belie vable re a son wh y a four-stroke e xhaust sy stem , with a s imple head pipe and a s imple ca n muffler , costs twice a s much , or m or e , t han a two-s troke sy s t e m? Let's brin g b a c k the p rog rams t h a t br ough t the noise le ve ls down before. We a lso need to reward co m p a nie s t ha t make qu ie t, mo re po we rful , and lig hter pipe s. We need to ma ke qu iet cool, instead of ne rdy like the under to ne in the e nthusiast press is to da y. We need to harass o u r fe llow riders wit h o b noxio us p ip es un t il the y do someth ing abo ut it. Becau se if we don 't , all we are doing is digging our own grave . Less sound e qua ls mor e gr ound. eN Baja 2000 • Elsinore G P • Project Bike Potpourri cue I e n e _ S • NOVEMBER 22 , 2000 83

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