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/142444
Craig ,V~tter National High-Mileage Contest .Exciter staged right ra~ime, that was the kicker. In num- By T.J. Rafferty Photos by Larry Coolidge and Rafferty SAN LUIS OBISPO/CARMEL, CA, JULY 10 . 1 This may have been the 1ast nme. Theast 11 d 1 f L tittle . h Ch apter In t e co ecte vo urnes 0 . G UYS Wh 0 B eat th e Fact ones. It happened last year, when Cycle World staffer Steve Kimball won with 198mpg on a Honda Passport. And it happened this year, as Charlie Perethian's modified Yamaha 185 22 e , ... . Exciter chuffed out 282 miles to the gallon. Real miles, mind you. Not level, closed-course, ideal-conditions miles; but 135 miles of maybe the best, and most challenging, stretch of motorcycle pavement in the country. Highway One hugs the coast from sea level at Morro Bay to the high mountain cliffs of Big Sur; alternately tight, sweeping, gnarly and wind-blown. The - - -road; is ;.:.:.:.:. those collab--"'--..coast .: : .. one of .. ':..~ ~ 282 mpg orations between Ma Nature and human engineering that we call spectacular. Craig Vetter figured it would make ' the perfect course for his second annual national economy run. With -su p po r t from the Central Coast Motorcycle Association at the ,start, and the Salinas Ramblers·at the finish , the AMA-sanctioned event coincided with the Laguna Seca race weekend. So the object was twofold. : to use the least fuel while maintaining legal speeds, and to reach the track in time to see Eddie Lawson smoke• '*the .: folks in :...:.. .. :., the Superbike : .:. • -: • ~ ~ erous pre-runs, under varied weather and traffic conditions, Vetter determined that it was feasib le to post a 45 mph average from point to point. A 15-minutemargin was added to absorb possible delays , and the framework was set. Entrants go t maps noting checkpoints along the route, each marked 'wi th an elapsed time. The tanks were topped and sealed at the Madonna Inn, to be opened and refilled in Carmel. Sounds simple enough. It were not. The standard hazards were manageable; sand, sedans carrying indecisive families, platoons of bikers blastingby, including the occasional squid looking over his shoulder and driving off the road. And even the ubiquitous rolling cubes of the Winnebago tribe could be dispatched, given a motorcycle with sufficient grunt and stability. But not the wind. When you clear the trees above Big Sur and make for Point Lobos through the .foothills, the wind will have its way with"'you. iii" As it did with two of the potentially highest mileage makers in the event. Dan Hanebrink's tiny, teardropshelled bicycle chassis, powered by a 90cc four-stroke was tilting fiercely into the onshore puffs when they suddenly quit. The pod flopped over and skidded to a stop without injuring the pilot. Motorcycle stuntwoman Debbie Evans had similar woes when the American Honda streamliner toppled, trashing the plexiglass canopy and scraping her elbow. Both of the fully-enclosed machines were , running late when they crashed, and would have been hard pressed to erase the deficits even in calm air. Perethian and partner Don Zacher, owners of the newly formed Rifle Fairing Company, put three months of trial-and-error development into their entry. With a 185Exciter donated ' by Yamaha, they began cutting and lowering the frame, lowering the gear ratio and tinkering with engine. " Basically our efforts were to lower the bike, " said Perethian, "and to make it a smaller target through the wind." • 1., . ,. I' ~ , Q 1 I 01 I . ,.~ , ..