Round Up

Round up

OUR OWN OLYMPICS

For as long as there have been different forms of motorcycle competition, the racers and fans of each type have argued and debated over which requires more skill, which is the best test of natural talent and which make or model is the best all round machine.

For the first time we'll have either some answers or some fuel for further debate. Two savvy chaps are organizing a twowheel decathlon-style Race of Champions.

Vic Wilson and Bob Maynard, race promoters among other things, are putting together an interesting program.

Choose the best riders from the various forms of competition. Allow a total of 30 riders. Let each man pick one machine, no engine limit, to be used in all the events with only minor adjustments for each.

Then spend two days competing at motocross, observed trials, drag races, hillclimbing, road racing, speedway and TT scrambles. Each rider gets points from each event. The man with the highest point total is the overall winner and he gets $10,000, which should be sufficient incentive to attract the best.

Interesting, eh? We’ve seen small portions of this already. The AMA racers are versatile. They have to be. And there are contrasts. At least one motocross pro rides trials for fun and does well. Another has tried trials and done poorly. And it would be keen to see how Malcolm Smith, surely the best-known allrounder biker, would do on a road course.

Only flaw immediately visible is that the entrants will be chosen by ballot, through the good office of Cycle News. We’d prefer invitations to the top finishers in AMA and the other top sanctioning bodies.

Never mind. It’s a good idea and it’s scheduled to take place at Saddleback Park in February. No actual date yet but we’ll get the word out in time. Sounds like it will be worth watching.

NEW MODELS MAYBE

Rumors are fun, provided one remembers that most rumors are either loose talk or just plain leaks to the press.

So. Best rumor this month is that Honda has put a hold on the release and production of its most sporting CB750 for the 1977 model year. It was due for introduction, they had the invitations out when the Suzuki GS750 appeared and proved to be fast enough to embarrass at least one other factory.

Honda is keen on regaining the percentage of the market they used to have and they plan to do it with performance. They have taken the sporting 750 back to the drawing board for the addition of more suds. It’ll be out early this year.

Mention is made later this issue about peering over the shoulder of a draftsman working on a swinging arm with shaft drive hub. Now we read in the overseas papers that Honda plans to build a 500cc V-Twin with shaft drive. Why? Don’t know, especially when the two small Fours already seem fine for the mid-range sporting market. Honda researchers do say, though, that shaft drive may come as a way to reduce noise level.

The Honda people in turn say they hear Yamaha will bring out a smaller version of the XT and TT500; a thumper with a 250cc or 350cc four-stroke Single. If it is lighter and more agile than the Honda versions, Yamaha may take over that market. Oh, and Honda says they’re dropping the XL250 for ’77, because there is so little difference between it and the XL350.

On a sad note, NVT has suspended work on the 900cc Triumph Trident. Too expensive to develop. But they also say the Bonneville and its one-carb cousin the 750 Tiger, are the best selling 750’s in England at present.

LEVELS OF SKILL

An observation generated by a trip with the motorcycle press: There are a large number of sports and enthusiams. Motorcycling is one such and like our field of interest, the others have their publications.

Beginning with the absurd, the people who write about football and baseball don’t play in the same league, in both senses, as do their subjects. Ditto golf, tennis, all the mass sports.

Aviation writers usually are licensed pilots and some have tickets for multiple engines and instruments flying but again, few are air racers or professional stunt flyers or retired fighter aces. The sailing writers know and love sailing but one seldom hears of them crewing the America’s Cup.

In motorsports, the best publications usually send at least one staff member to professional instructors, so the writer has a good idea of what one does at speed, but few if any of the car chaps go racing on their own time with their own money.

Bikes? Just the opposite. Not only Cycle World but the other top three motorcycle magazines as well each have at least two staffers who are good enough to race professionally. or actually do race professionally. (No names here because they’d be embarrassed.) Each magazine has men who win motocross and hold low-number plates in the desert or do well in ISDT qualifiers or clean up the production class at the road races.

This isn’t to knock the other fields. There are obvious reasons for not owning an America’s Cup boat or your very own P-38 or Grand Prix Ferrari.

What this observation does mean is that first, we biking writers are deeply and emotionally involved in our field, to the point where our field is also what we do for fun. Second, when you read about how this model or that does at its maximum, you can be sure the bike has in fact been pushed to the limit.

Thought you might like to know.