Cycle News

background noise. This is most clearly exemplified in Moto2, in many ways more like wife-swapping than World Championship racing. They haven't quite reached the stage of throwing their keys into the hat to select their ride, but it's like that with engines, which all sound the same and (in the- ory) all go the same. All supplied out of a hat by Dorna. In MotoGP, the spirit of motorsport has so far survived, in spite of the attack of CRTs. At least up to a point. There is still variation in the search for the ideal. Yamaha espouse an in-line four versus Honda's V-four. Each type has its plus- ses and minuses. The in-line is more compact and (thanks to major efforts) only a little wider; but its internal convolutions require a balance shaft, adding internal friction. On the other hand, it has only two camshafts and associated drives. A V-four is more compact in dimensions that matter (its biggest stretch is the splayed cylinder heads, where a motorcycle chassis of- fers ample space). It needs no balance shaft. There has been some unexpected conver- gence. Ducati's V-four, in line with the compa- ny's DNA, has always been set at 90 degrees. It was commonly felt that the wide angle made the engine too long; compromising chassis design and the root cause of the Italian bike's ever-worsening results. Until it was discovered that Honda's new big V-four was also set at 90 degrees, rather than the narrower 75 degrees of the previous 800cc V-four. So the technical search for the most imita- tion-worthy design continues. Yamaha's in-line fidelity has one imitator in Suzuki, themselves fiddle-faddling around with their proposed 2015 return. A more worthwhile justification would be that Jorge Lorenzo wins the title this year. Enjoy it while you can. This year's control ECU is the first major move towards a keys-in- the-hat future for the premier class. If you look at what has happened in Formula 1, with engine design identical by regulation, can MotoGP be far behind? CN VOL. 51 ISSUE 9 MARCH 4, 2014 P109 LOOKING BACK 40 Years Ago March 12, 1974 To accompany our riding impression of the Harley-Davidson 1000cc Sportster, we featured it getting a little sporty on the cover 40 years ago… Gene Romero and Yamaha set a new one-hour speed record at Day- tona. He averaged 150 mph on a TZ750, shattering the previous 10-year record of 144 mph set by Mike Hailwood… Yamaha, headed by Giacomo Agostini, was favored to win the upcoming Daytona 200. 30 Years Ago March 13, 1984 We were hyping the possibility of another Freddie Spencer/Kenny Roberts show- down at the upcoming Daytona 200 in our Daytona special preview issue… Jeff Ward, Bob Hannah and David Bailey took top honors at the outdoor National MX opener at Gainesville… We announced the birth of Joshua Hansen, the son of former National MX and Supercross Champion Donnie Hansen and his wife, Lisa. 20 Years Ago March 9, 1994 Jeremy McGrath was featured on the cover 20 years ago for winning the Atlanta Supercross, as did Ezra Lusk in the 125cc division. We also slipped Kevin Hines onto the front page for winning the Quicksilver National Enduro in California… Noleen Ya- maha's Larry Ward was featured in an in- terview… Kevin Windham and John Dowd cleaned up the final round of the Florida Winter MX Series at Ga- torback… We named desert racer Danny Hamel as the Cycle News Rider of the Month. 10 Years Ago March 10, 2004 The all-new Suzuki GSX-R750 dominated the cover of Cycle News 10 years ago. We traveled to Japan to give it a spin for the first time. We also featured World Superbike win- ners Noriyuki Haga and James Toesland on the front page… Chad Reed extended his points lead with a big win at the Atlanta Supercross, and James Stewart broke the record for the most 125cc-class wins… We covered Bobby Bonds' very first WORCS win in Texas… Darcy Lange clinched his first Arenacross title. Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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