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/1545446
JULY 5,2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 12 Edwards To Lead Yamaha In 8 Hours Yamaha has finalized its plans for the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan on July 30, and those plans include a team led by former World Superbike Champion and current Camel Yamaha MotoGP star Colin Edwards. A three-team entry will be headed by the Yamaha Blue Racing team, which will feature Edwards and Noriyuki Haga riding a specially prepared YZF-R1 SP. The event will mark a reunion of the rider pairing that won the event in 1996, when they rode a Yamaha YZF750SP. Edwards has won the Suzuka 8 Hours three times and the Superbike World Championship in 2000 and 2002. Haga is currently second in the World S u p e r b i k e C h a m p - ionship, in which he competes on a Yamaha YZF-R1 for the Yamaha Motor Italia squad. It will be Haga's first entry in the 8 Hours since 2001. The other two factory-supported entries are the YSP Racing Team sponsored by Presto Corporation and Team Challenger. The YSP Racing Team will feature Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who is competing this season in the JSB1000 class of the All-Japan Championships, and Shinichi Nakatomi, who rides for Yamaha Motor France in the Superbike World Championship. Team Challenger will enter Norihiko Fujiwara, who has ridden in the 8 Hours almost every year since 1992, and Nobuyuki Osaki, a Japanese Supersport Championship competitor. Many of the Endurance World Championship regulars will also make the trip to Japan, including Yamaha Austria Racing Team and Yamaha Phase One Endurance, which are cur- rently second and fifth in the championship, respectively. A fter introducing the first aluminum-frame YZFs last year, it wasn't too surprising that Yamaha would follow that up with all-new, aluminum-frame WRs for 2007. Like last year's YZFs, the WR250 and 450Fs (pictured) have been completely reworked from the ground up. They're closely based on their motocross cousins but have been finely tweaked for enduro- type riding, such as going to softer suspension settings and tun- ing the motor for a smoother power delivery while maintaining YZ-like overall power. The WR has many unique, off-road-friendly features of its own, such as a quick-access, toolless-entry airbox; a thicker seat; a full-coverage, wrap-around, injection-molded plastic skid plate; and an enduro onboard race computer (like it did last year). The WRs also get wider footpegs, wave brake rotors, a restyled headlight, an LED taillight, and reinforced radiators, and both the WR250F and WR450F are green-sticker-approved for California. The WR450F will retail for $7199 and will be available in late November; the WR250F will sell for $6399 and will be out in mid-October. Kit Palmer More details are becoming available about the new-generation Bullet engine being developed for India's Royal Enfield company, the future viability of whose Chennai factory's annual 25,000-unit production of the range of air-cooled pushrod OHV single-cylinder Bullet retrobikes had been called into question by the tough new Euro 3 noise and emission regulations due to come into force for the European Union in 2007. As reported earlier this year, this has threatened continued sales of a prod- uct directly derived from the first Bullet produced at the company's factory, then based at Redditch in the British Midlands, back in 1933. But now it's confirmed that the Eicher transport conglomerate that now owns Royal Enfield has taken steps to protect the growing market for its prod- ucts in the EU, including its number-one export market in the UK, where 600 bikes were sold in 2005, by commissioning British development company Ricardo to produce a new unit-construction OHV engine available in 350cc, 500cc and 600cc capacities. This air/oil-cooled engine still features pushrod operation of the two valves per cylinder but is otherwise very modern, with roller hydraulic lifters, crossover gearbox, a georotor oil pump, and the facility for fuel injection, even though it's believed that all four running prototypes presently undergoing test- ing are fitted with carburetors. Enfield executives are understood to be eager to retain an old-world "feel" to the new engine, both visually and in terms of performance, but they've also chosen to develop a long-stroke 600cc Euro 3-compliant version of the new pushrod motor, in case its extra capacity is viewed as necessary to counter the loss of midrange torque entailed in meeting the new environmental standards with single- or twin-cylinder engines of this type. That was already so with the Euro 3-compliant Moto Guzzi 1100cc pushrod OHV motor in the Italian com- pany's Breva 1100 and Griso 1100 models, where the loss of Guzzi's fabled V- twin midrange grunt necessitates active use of the six-speed gearbox. Royal Enfield is also understood to be considering introduction of a range of V-twin models essentially similar in concept to the Australian-built Carberry motor developed three years ago, but based on the new single-cylinder engine whose cylinder-head design would be appropriate for V-twin use. Enfield is also believed to be studying the development of a large capacity parallel-twin motor for export markets. At the same time, Eicher - which recently sold its Indian-based tractor divi- sion to U.S. giant Massey Ferguson, leaving it free to focus on its remaining truck and Royal Enfield motorcycle operations - has commissioned R&D British specialists Vepro, a Coalville-based design consultancy owned by former lead- ing Triumph engineers Rick Cronk and Neil Payne, to develop an all-new chas- sis platform for the Bullet range. This range will be complete with more mod- ern but still thoroughly retro-inspired styling that will still position the products of the Indian company as the most authentic of the several retro-models avail- able in the marketplace aimed at recreating all our biking yesterdays. Alan Cathcart E U R O F I L E The Bullet Yamaha Unveils Aluminum-Frame WRs