Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

way to make it stop wobbling - even if it took three lap s. Something that impressed me: Yvon indicated that the wobble seemed to be originating in the swing arm, but the people in cha rge of th e bike apparen tly decided that this was impossible even though th ey had neither ridden nor examined th e machin e. T he 24 hour record wa s the big o ne . It was the one that Kawasaki had co me after. T hat they had th e press there meant that they wer e laying it o n the line. Fai lure would be d ocumented as we ll as su ccess. T he y were co n fid en t , if n ot terribl y well-organized. Th at their o rganization was a little less than exac t can be demonstrated b y the fact that th ey didn 't have a duplicate set of jet s for the bikes. On e o f the two 24 hour ma chines had to run to o rich and , the refore , mak e m o re stops. Th e o nly stead y ing hand o f organizati on seemed to co m e fro m Bob Hansen, Kawaski's road racing team m anager, wh o developed sched ule s for riders and quietly provided assistance wh en it wa s ne eded. Th ere were two bikes attempting th e record and th ey were iden tic al excep t for jets. They h ad co gin es that had been ca refully assem ble d and had heads flowed by J erry Bran ch . T he tires , b ar s and shocks were ch an ged and a bun ch o f fo am wa s attache d to th e tan k as p ad di ng. One b ike was rid den b y Kawasaki road ra cer s Cli ff Carr , Hu rley Wilvert an d Masahiro .Wad a wh o teamed with Cook Neil so n (pro un o unc ed "Nelson ") he k ep t te lling me), ed ito r of "Cy cle" m agazin e. Th e other mach in e was m an ned by go- faster s G ary Nixon and Art Bau man n wh o co m h ine d w ith J o hn Weed . ed itor of " Mot or Cycle Wee kly " and Bryon Farnsworth . th e man at Kawasa ki who is resp on sib le fo r the Am er ican en d o f developi ng the 90 3. T he 24 h our a tte m pt was composed mos tly o f bo redo m . broken by m o ments of dr ama whe n so mething b ro ke . The num ber two b ike got away at 9:3 0 A .M: and 29 seco nd s la te r was followed by th e number three b ike. T he rest of t he day was spen t run ning abou t 60 mi les, st o pping fo r gas , go ing o u t fo r anot her 60 m iles, then changing riders . T hose n ot rid in g sa t in the pits wa iting fo r a stop and trying to kee p co o l in th e Florida heat an d humid ity . M y recollections and no te s from the 24 h o urs m o s tly concern what went o n in the p it s, sin ce th e bi kes m os tl y jus t kept rolling. T hey each used u p a tire (su p plied by Good year) and a chai n o r tw o . T he only atten tio n tha t eac h engi ne required was two qu art s o f o il. T hey fini sh ed on th e same spark p lu gs that the y s tarted with . T he Champion spark p lug men did li tt le mo re th an answer qu est ions abou t problem s that V re imagine d bu t n ever o ccurred. I/e It was borin g. As Dick Mann reflect ed while doing th e same thing for BSA in 19 6 9 . it is abou t th e dullest th ing yo u can d o and s till be doing somethi ng d an gerous . T he riders' o n ly com men t was th at th eir neck s hu rt fro m th e riding p osi tion . Co o k reflec ted h ow much m o re d iffi cult it must have been for Merl e Sh ank (w ho did it so lo a t Po con o last yea r) o n " that dreary Honda" . After running around a t ab out 125 l\1PH in th e tr ash le ft fr om speed wee k, Hurley was the first o ne in o n the number tw o hike. " It 's really dull. Un co m fo rtab le , to o ," said Hurley, and wen t off to work o n his H 2-R road race r wh ich he maintains himself. Cook then took the bike o u t. Cliff Carr co mes out to ta ke over for a while . " Wha t is the shift p attern," as ks Cli ff. He h as t o ask this ever y tim e he clim bs o n the bike . When he co me s in, Cook says th at it is m ore fun to fo llow because then yo u have "something to look at ". But you hav e to be carefu l because slipst rea min g is illegal and FI M observers are o n hand. Back in th e gar ages, th e Yosh imura crew is tearing apart the fa st engine for inspection by Don Woods. Dale Alexander o f Yoshimura R acing marvels at th e chassis : ' 'I'll b et t he re aren't three ra cing chassis in th e world that will go that fast ( 17 0 MPH ), and th at o ne is stock. " Jo hn Bethe a, who Kawaskai has hire d to ph otograph, go es out and sei zes a pit bike. Baum ann is fe eding h is d og fried chic ken. Eve rybod y lived on fri ed chic ken for two days. It is two P.M . An hour later I find th e entire Yoshimura wrench cre w working on a Honda 500 from a lo cal de aler that has someh ow go tten into th e speedway. I am amazed. Daytona Ra ceway was more tightly sealed than a bottle o f Coke . Some of the top WE KNOW HOW To Deal On CI's We're #1 in Sales (Check ou r prices) .\\i11·'~1111"1 ....., 1550 B.tbo. BI' d. 1.~~ Va Nu Ca 91406 • n ys, l. n3 -18 ~ S13 6 High PerformCllce Cycle Center • ..L.. n 1 !j bEAd. 0N d ivisi on of Presents ,J ';;;'f HON dA '":t , ~.';y MOOI F IE O MIKUNI CAR BURETO R A mu st for quick acceleration and out stand ing per formance power range . througho ut 5 105 A ttantlc A ve. Long Beac h. Ca. 9 0 8 05 (213) 4 23 -14 33 t he $37 .50 '" .,..: N :;; :;; ~ w Z W ..J U >U A my stery : how did th is H onda 500 get int o th e speedway wh en some of t he biggest horsepower dud es in the motorcycl ing publish ing business couldn't ? Al so .w hy are these mechan ics work ing on it and not on a 903? . h on ch os fr om "Cy cle World" an d oth er publications have b een beggin g to ge t in and are still o utside . T hat' s wh y I'm pu zzled. I asked Fujio Yoshimura if i t will go 170 . "If I rid e it ," he replies . I walk back out to the pits. "W ho's winning?" I ask Baumann. "Dalgarno ," says A rt. lI e goe s o u t and docs wheelies through th e pits . T h e number two bike is going 62 miles before it needs th e reserve tank. The number three bike is go ing 70 . The diffe rence is d ue to j e t size. By 3 :3 0 P.l\!. t rack temperature is down to 109 degrees from 118. Tires were last ing ab ou t six h o urs. Jeff Heininger swears over the walkie-talkie, and Do n Woods comments th at the AMA wa s fined $1000 last yea r for that . Now y o u know why AMA membership went up to $1 2 . A t four P.M. somebody thi nks to look up the reco rds within t he 24 h our attempt. Th ey find that they have beaten the o ld six hour record by one MPH ; not en o ugh . FIM rules require that y o u break the re cord by one percent. They pi ck it up five seconds a lap to get th e 12 hour re cord. T he original inten tion had been to get the six and twelve hour re cord s with th e Yoshim ura bike , now they realize th at th ey arc in con tentio n with th e "pr oduction" machines. Th e ce n trifuga l forces on the banks are causing the cen terst an ds to be pulled GfJ ELMET HOUSE • DEALERS SE ND FOR CATALOG . 20 37 PONT IUS AVE . L O S ANGE LES . CALIF. 9002S PHONE ( 2 13) 47 9- 4383

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