Round·up

ROUND·UP

FOUR-STROKES FOR MORE FOLKS

AS A FOUR-STROKE freak I point with pride to the fact that Yamaha can’t fill the demand for the TT500 and XT500. Baja and the California desert are full of them. I'm about to build a street bike out of mine. Do it all black with gold striping and fancy script lettering. Can’t shake some traditions. We can soon see Kenny Roberts in AMA track racing, on a TT500 tuned by the factory.

KENNY ROBERTS ON FRAMES

PEAKING OF Kenny Roberts, elsewhere in this issue we look at one of his pet projects involving the TT500 with a custom frame. As sort of a side note to that, Roberts has given a lot of thought both to the frames bearing his name and to special frames in general.

First off, Roberts feels there should be two types of frame, one for the average rider and another for the expert or pro racer. The only good reason for a new and different frame is to improve or change the bike's handling. How a bike handles depends on speed, which naturally is higher with an expert on the handle.

What seems to happen, Roberts says, is that the ordinary guy sees a top name using a special frame. Gotta be the trick item, the man decides, so he buys one. He expects the frame to cure all his riding faults. When he isn't faster and the bike has handling problems he looks at everything except the frame, which is the true culprit.

Just as important, in Roberts' view, is price. The special frame designed for the normal rider has to be something he can afford. And thanks to at least semi-mass production, the non-expert frame can be built in large enough numbers to keep the price within reason.

IT’S NEW BIKE RUMOR TIME AGAIN

N|EW MODEL TIME, one of the things we look forward to each year and one of the times we're glad we're in the motorcycle publishing business, is upon us again, better than ever.

And better than other fields. Remember new model time for cars? A few years ago the car people made a big fuss over models which weren't really all that new. Cars never seem to change much technically. Mostly they're big V-8s with automatic transmissions or economy Fours with stick shift, with only an occasional engineering feature like the rotary, overhead cams, Honda CVCC combustion systems and the like. For the past few years there hasn’t been much change.

By comparison, the wonders of motorcycles increase in quantum leaps. Every year we get developments like Monoshocks, LTR suspension, reed-valve induction systems, three and four-cylinder Multis, two and fourcycle variations, hydraulic and disc brakes, automatics for street and dirt, our own rotaries, sexy alloy wheels, exotic metals, super sticky tires, etc. (Think how wonderful cars would be today if they'd enjoyed the technical renaissance bikes have gone through during the last decade.)

As one example of dazzling models in our future, CW Editor Bob Atkinson has just left on a trip around the world, literally, as a guest of Kawasaki. He's getting a firsthand look at their newest, a 650 Four. I got a sneak ride on it and I can tell you, it’s a bullet. We'll have all the details next month. The 650 Four isn't all, either. Don't be surprised to see a Z1000 fairly soon, as such a change would be a natural step from the 900cc ZI and KZ900.

At Suzuki, meanwhile, there's a pair of new four-stroke road bikes getting prepped for introduction. One is a six-speed, 400cc Twin, the other a 750cc DOHC Four with chain primary drive. In another logical step, Suzuki is bringing out an enduro model. The bike will be called the PE250, with PE standing for Professional Enduro; it is basically an RM with lights. Should sell like crazy (and, as a hint of our own, we have a spectacular introduction planned.)

By the time you read this we'll be working on something new from BMW as well. Rumor from other countries says BMW will have a really new bike, with a water-cooled V-Twin. We ain't saying, mostly because we honestly don’t know. We do know they've invited us to come look at something new next month.

We can’t overlook mighty Honda. They aren’t going to flatten us this season with yet another mind-blowing big road bike, but they will extend their motocross dominance into the big-bore class with a CR400. Whether anyone except the top professionals will be able to handle it remains to be seen. Previous experience with such monsters as the 400cc Maicos and Huskys, both of which had enough power to peel the skin from your back, showed that the big bombs are almost unridable by the average racer. We’ll see.

Harley-Davidson, you remember it, will show its 1977 line at a super extravaganza staged during the Superbowl of Motocross. We expect cosmetic changes only on all except the Sportster, which may emerge with a trick cafe racer version. Should be fabulous.

(Continued on page 26)

Continued from page 4

We don't mean to neglect Yamaha but they've already dazzled us so thoroughly this year that 1 can't imagine they have much new stuff coming soon. A glance at CYCLE WORLD'S Ten Best Bikes best demonstrates what I mean by that.

Little things: my C&J XL350 Honda is now a 400cc Powroll Honda and sports a new and longer swinging arm from C&J and a pair of the very latest long-travel, freon-oil shocks from S&W. Now I'm trying to slow the steering down to match my ability. Gary and Jeff at C&J, by the way, are waiting for someone to order a Monoshock frame for the Yamaha TT500 engine. They've built several such frames for the Honda XL engine, but none yet for the big Yamaha thumper. We're using my Honda for a product evaluation on the Powroll engine conversion, incidentally, and we'll have that in a month or two.

For four-stroke fans, and judging by the mail I get there are a lot of us around, don't forget Sept. 19, date for the next Four-Stroke Motocross Nationals at Carlsbad.

OFF-ROAD NOISE ENFORCEMENT

THE CALIFORNIA Highway Patrol recently increased enforcement of offroad noise levels. As of May, the level was changed to 86 dbA. The CHP has the authority to withhold off-road registration and prohibit sales. So far, of all motorcycles receiving enforcement action, 78 percent were due to modified exhaust systems, 12 percent were due to defective exhaust systems and 10 percent were due to inadequate systems. If you want to know whether or not your motorcycle or muffler complies with the new regulations, contact Ross Little, CHP. Sacramento, Calif. The phone number is (916) 445-1865.

MOTORCYCLE SALES

AS MENTIONED HERE before, the motorcycle boom is over. For the good news, sales are improving. The industry w'as in a strong grow'th pattern for years, with 1974 looking good as ever until the bottom fell out, for reasons more involved with the economy than with motorcycles or our interest in them. Anyway, 1975 was a rotten year for bike sales and warehouses are still stuffed with unsold 1975 models of certain types. For the numbers fans, the most recent figures from the Motorcycle Industry Council show registrations up 30.7 percent in 1976 compared with 1975, but down 64.7 percent from 1974, last year of the boom. Well, we must have known deep down that the market couldn't grow leap upon leap forever.

(Continued on page 28)

Continued from page 26

Perhaps the best news from all this is that the bikes which are selling are for the most part genuine enthusiast machines. Best sellers at Honda are the CB750 and CB550. Kawasaki is delivering KZ900s at a fast pace and the KZ400 isn't far behind. Bikes in the 350cc to 449cc class, two and four stroke, have almost doubled sales from 1975. Top class dirt bikes are also doing well, although at the expense of dual-purpose bikes from all makers. There is some justice after all; the dual-purpose bikes which aren't selling are, by and large, those that are dual-purpose in name only. A more sophisticated public has rejected the typical two-stroke Single that isn't much more than a road bike with knobby tires and external springs on the shocks.

Big-bore road bikes are doing well, thank you. With all four major Japanese firms offering large displacement road bikes these days, the buyer's choice is getting more difficult. Sadly, we report that trials bikes aren't doing what they were expected to do and are taking more than their share of space in warehouses. We never expected trials to become a national motorcycle sport, but we did expect them to catch on better than they have. I'm, of course, referring primarily to the Japanese trialers. Montesa and Bultaco are still doing well, although, because their sales have always been limited, no one set their sights high to begin with. A curious turn of events in the trials market has been that where they do sell, it isn't to trials riders but to non-competitors. Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha thoughtfully offer lighting kits for their trials models and people are buying them for camper commuters and playbikes. Maybe soon we'll see a trials bike with a real seat, different gearing and the same plodding engine. It should sell like hotcakes to the non-trials crowd.

It isn't that died-in-the-wool trials riders aren't buying the Japanese bikes, by the way. They are. It's more that new riders aren't getting involved with trials.

A TIDDLER FROM NVT

AS A STRAINED punchline to the news about Norton Villiers Triumph last month, look at this. Sarcasm fails me. NVT is now producing a moped. What's it called? The Easy Rider. NVT executives in the U.S. explain that the name was picked in England, not over here, so the pickers may not know what the original Easy Rider did for motorcycling’s image. The, ugh, Easy Rider is a two-speeder and available at select dealerships in the U.S. What did we do to deserve this? 151