Report From Japan
REPORT FROM JAPAN
W. B. SWIM
THIS HAS BEEN "American Dealer Month" for Japan's motorcycle makers. First on the scene were 70 Suzuki dealers, with the highlight of their expense-paid company tour being the Tokyo Motor Show and a visit to Suzuki's Hamamatsu factory. Yamaha was next, bringing in an 80person group for a ten-day trip centered around several of the company's factories, including a tour through the firm's piano works. The CYCLE WORLD Editor and Publisher and his wife were along on this tour, as were a few other publication executives. Before the Yamaha group left, Honda greeted 25 of its outstanding retailers for a ten-day "Holiday in Japan" tour, which included the research and development institute and Suzuka Circuit as well as the company's factories. Honda started this particular ball rolling several years ago when a group of American dealers were awarded an all-expense-paid tour after a sales contest. In recent years other companies have taken up the idea, and Honda now includes an annual tour for European dealers as well.
Lilac has reportedly completed a 1966 model of its opposed twin 500cc machine and sent samples to the Marusho Corporation for testing in the United States. From 50 to 100 of these motorcycles were exported from late 1964 through March of 1965, when exports were suspended because of some engine troubles being experienced by some machines in America. The company has been working on a new, trouble-free model since then.
The Honda 4-barrel, 4-carb, twin-cam 650cc pumping out more than 60 horses reported in last month's issue won't be on your local dealer's floor tomorrow or the next day — or perhaps ever. The fellow who decides to hold off buying a new machine to wait for this one may have a long, long wait. An educated guess would be late 1966 or even more probably early 1967 before it hits the road. Honda (in case you haven't guessed) is a huge, forward-looking outfit with a lot of money and a minimum of fear of spending it. They have put the CB-450 Super Sports on sale in the U.S. with the belief that this machine and possibly a later scrambler version will give them their accustomed more-than-50-percent share of the over300cc market, including everything from 350cc outfits right on up through a well known l,200cc model.
As I say, they think they have it made with the 450cc, but just to keep themselves covered in case this one will not do the job they are already at work on developing something better that will. One of these projects is the four-cylinder 650cc reported last month. Even if a decision is made to produce a Honda larger than the 450cc, there is no guarantee that it will be the 650cc Four. By then Honda may come up with something completely different. The firm will probably wait until late this year and review 450cc sales during the new machine's first riding season before making a decision on whether to produce a larger motorcycle.
Suzuki President Shunzo Suzuki was recently honored with an award by the Japanese government "for developing high performance two-stroke engines." The award, along with several others in various industrial fields, received wide publicity, which was heart-warming. It is nice to see motorcycles put on the same level with other major industries.
Japanese manufacturers continue churning out models designed primarily for export even though about 80-percent of their market is in Japan. The motorcycle business is so competitive now that polished-up local models are no longer capable of grabbing sales in some classes of overseas markets. So special export models become necessary, as first reported in this column a year or more ago, and more and more are being turned out. Some are also put on sale in Japan but only in limited numbers and a few are not sold in the home market at all. To give a brief review of machines you see running around the streets in the U.S. that we don't in Japan we can start with the outfit that started the whole trend. Hodaka and its Hodoka 90 Ace. This one is not sold in Japan at all. Taking the biggest next, Honda export models are the 450cc Super Sports, 160cc Super Sports, 305cc Scrambler and 90cc Trail. A very few of the 450cc machines have been sold in Japan, but none of the other three can be obtained here. Yamaha makes five export models, a 97cc model YL-1 version of the newly announced AT-90 twin which has only 90ccs in Japan, the 250cc YDS-3C Big Bear Scrambler, 250cc Ascot Scrambler, model YG1-TK Trailmaster 80 and model MG-1T Omaha Trailmaster. Suzuki's for-sale-abroad models are the sixspeed 250cc model X-6 Hustler, 150cc model S32-2 ("the one with iron sleeves in aluminum alloy cylinders) and the model K-15 trail machine. A few of the new 250cc machines may be sold in Japan. Bridgestone's Dual Twin 175cc export machine is considerably different from the local version. The company's 90cc Trail and 90cc Mountaineer models are not sold in Japan. Kawasaki has two trail machines designed for the foreign market, the 85cc model Jl-TR and the new 175cc model 175-TR. Lilac sells its 500cc opposed twin onlv in the United States.
Suzuki, who lost their top Japanese rider Isao Morishita to Bridgestone last year, may lose their next most experienced Grand Prix rider, Mitsuo Ito, to Kawasaki. It is rumored that a lucrative offer has been made. Both Bridgestone and Kawasaki developed racers for the 1965 Japan G.P. and are thinking about contesting the road racing world championships within a couple or three years.
Some 290 entries participated in the 12th Tokyo Moto-Cross, one of the last big races of the season, and an American rider took home one cup. Frank Coombs nabbed 10th in the novice 250cc race on a Honda. Japan's hottest novice rider, Hideo Atomura, not only won two races on his Suzukis but took a 2nd and a 3rd in senior races and placed in a third novice event, for a total of five cups to show for his day's work. He won the novice 125cc and novice 50cc, placed 2nd in the senior 50cc and 3rd in the senior 90cc and also squeezed into 9th in the novice 90cc. Junior class rider Yasutomo Sugaya won the senior 50cc and also got three other cups, 2nd in the Open, 2nd in the senior 90cc and 3rd in the senior 125cc. He also rides for Suzuki. Kinjiro Yajima, another Suzuki rider, won the senior 125cc race and placed 2nd in the senior 250cc, pretty well making it a Suzuki day, with seven first places out of the nine-race program. Japan's best junior rider, Tadao Suzuki, who rides Yamahas, won the senior 250cc and the Open went to Kawasaki's Yoshio Okabe. The other two novice race winners were Masataka (Suzuki) in the 250cc and Haruo Tsuchiya (Suzuki) in the 90cc.
The remaining end-of-season big race was the 13th Kanagawa Moto-Cross, and this time four trophies went to American servicemen riders. Honda riders Royce Johnson and James Christopherson took 4th and 5th in the novice 250cc race, with Johnson nabbing a 7th in the Open as well. Del Carroll got 10th in the Open on a Yamaha. (To keep the record correct, he also won a 10th place in the 6th Speed Scrambles reported in the December issue, where he wasn't credited for it.) Most makes saw the winner's circle this day, Yamaha 4 times, both Bridgestone and Honda twice and Suzuki once. Only Kawasaki, who didn't have their top club entered, didn't win one. Tadao Suzuki won three for Yamaha, the Open, senior 250cc and senior 125cc. Bridgestone took the senior 90cc with rider Masataka Sasada and Honda's Hidenao Ogawa won the senior 50cc. Honda rider Eiichi Niitsu won the novice 250cc, followed by a Suzuki and a Yamaha. The novice 125cc checkered flag was waved at three Yamahas in a row, with Katsuta Fukuda first. Toshihiko Saito won the novice 90cc on a Bridgestone, with another Bridgestone and a Suzuki being next across the line. Suzuki's Kazuyuki Suzuki won the novice 50cc, but wonder of wonders, two Tohatsus took 2nd and 3rd although the company quit making motorcycles over a year and a half ago.
There were two double winners at the 1st Asagiri Plain Speed Moto-Cross. Expert Kazuyuki Miyoshi won the Open and the senior 125cc races, and took 2nd in the senior 250cc on Yamahas, Hidenao won the senior 90cc on a Bridgestone and the senior 50cc on a Honda. Yoshio Okabe won the senior 250cc on a 150cc Kawasaki, and used a model of the same machine with 25cc less displacement to take 2nd in the senior 125cc. The three larger novice races were won by Kawasaki riders as well, with the tiddler class going to Bridgestone.
The 3rd 24-Hour Trial included six observed sections in a rocky, sandy, muddy riverbed and rain from dawn to dusk. Even these rugged conditions did not deter the winner, Keiki Tachibana, who rode brilliantly to drop only 18 marks all day. He is a fine trials rider still on the best side of 20 who has built the finest trials machine in Japan. He works at the Bridgestone factory, and has fitted one of that firm's 90cc engines into a 50cc Tohatsu Sports frame, mounted a small gasoline tank, 21-inch front wheel and 4.00-18 knobby tire on the rear. ■
