VOLUME 59 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 P131
ings. For a start, the thin diameter
front tubes were subject to stress-
es of all the wrong kinds, par-
ticularly under braking, when the
weight transfer placed major strain
on the sliding surfaces and their
ability to continue to slide happily.
However, by the early '80s, the
move was afoot to supplant the
thinking that "teles" were the only
solution. In the racing world, the
French Elf, with its radical front-
end, showed that it was quite
competitive in 500cc GPs in the
hands of British star Ron Haslam,
while Bimota pressed their own
radical creation, the Tesi, into
production, replete with its own
spin on the hub-steer front end
and an astronomical price tag
to suit. None of these efforts,
although commendable, really
made inroads into the world of
volume production, but mean-
while, in Germany and Japan,
other concepts were being stud-
ied closely.
BMW had
never been
shy in coming
forward with
unique thinking.
After all, they
had produced
the first hydrau-
lically damped
telescopic fork
in 1935 and had stuck with the
Earles-design of swingarm front
suspension (aka leading links) for
decades. In 1981, BMW adopted
the Nicol Link system, developed
by Brit Hugh Nicol, which was
marked as the Telelever—the idea
being to isolate steering from
suspension, which is what had
been the aim all along. It also iso-
lated braking from suspension,
thereby eliminating one of the
main drawbacks of the telescopic
system. The system also allowed
the steering geometry to remain
constant, reduced the tendency
for the front-end to dive under
braking, and because the front
wheel was no longer heading
back towards the engine when-
ever the forks were compressed,
designers were free (or freer) to
experiment with weight distribu-
tion and the placement of the
mass of the engine.
Interestingly, at about the
same time as BMW was embrac-
ing the British Nicol concept,
Yamaha was similarly engrossed
in studying a system developed
by an American company called
RADD—Rationally Advanced De-
sign and Development—under the
engineer James Parker.
In 1987, Parker modified a
The GTS1000 looks striking in Yamaha blue.
(Below) By the time the
GTS1000 had made it
to production, designer
James Parker noted the
Japanese had made the
upper arm of the front
suspension too short,
meaning that rake and trail
increased with steering
angle and produced heavy
steering at slow speeds.
