Cycle World Roundup

CYCLE WORLD ROUNDUP

THE SUPERBIKERS

Television, in particular ABC, likes motorcycle racing. It shows the major races and has gotten good reactions to the shows, witness the scheduling of the motocross U.S.G.P. at Carlsbad for a time when the ratings are being measured.

The TV guys have been in the market for more bike stuff, especially if there was some way to design for the camera, and to get all the major riders into the same arena. Hard though it is for us racing fans to believe, there are people out there who ask. if Kenny Roberts is World Champion, and if the Carlsbad race is for the world championship, why isn't Kenny Roberts in it?

What this leads up to is a major event, a television event, and a chance for all the stars to race at the same time, on the same track.

The idea isn't new. There’s the Motorcycle Olympiad, with road, drag, flat track, enduro, trials and all. a series of events with points for each and an overall title. Good try. but it hasn’t caught the imagination of the public.

Grand Prix Motocross, the promoters of the motocross U.S.G.P.. have come up with a different way to handle the same idea.

They are building a new track, using part of the Carlsbad road circuit and drag strip, leading into a motocross section and linked by graded dirt in the mile and halfmile and TT line.

It will be 2 mi. around. The track will be finely tuned, with equality in mind. If the road section would give too much advantage to a road racing bike, it will be made slower. If the motocross section is too helpful to a motocross bike, it will be smoothed out.

Right. You can ride one bike only. There will be a 500cc limit on two-strokes, and a 750cc limit on four-strokes, which means the riders can begin with open class MXers, or TT-style 500 and 750s, or the miler Harley 750s. or any kind of asphalt scrateher that comes to the tuner’s mind. Dirt-track tires, we'd guess.

The American Motorcyclist Association is sanctioning the race. King Kenny has signed to appear, and because the various factory teams have expressed interest, the promoters expect they'll get the AMA national circus and the top motocross racers and the pavement pounders.

And maybe some surprises. There will be 20 top riders invited. Twenty entries are open, and there will be qualifying heats, so if the unknowns do well, they’ll make the field with the seeded stars.

The promoters say they think the lay public w ill love it. None of this points stuff. The winner will be the man who crosses the finish line first.

We think it’s made for motorcycle fans. One guy here says no way the motocrossers won't win. The staff' road racers don't agree, the Grand National nut has money on the Harley team.

Meanw hile, because television will make the nut (or expenses), all the promoters want is enough people there to make a good crowd on the fences. We don't have ticket info, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

Race day is Dec. 2. the place is Carlsbad, California. Watch the local papers for spectator information, and the TV listings for when the show will hit the tube. >

COUNTERATTACK

First, the attack. The Council on Environmental Quality, an advisory group to the President, appointed by wedon't-know-who. has delivered to the President a report on the use of off-road vehicles on public land.

Author of the report is one David Sheridan, who is listed as an independent consultant, but who is also the author of articles which appeared in Smithsonian and New West magazines. In those articles Sheridan said, among other obviously biased remarks, that “millions of acres of our western public lands may not survive being used and abused by hordes of offroad vehicles.”

One could predict the tone of the CEQ report, and one would be right. Sheridan writes that the vehicle operators are not at fault. It’s their vehicles which are inherently destructive. Further, because most dirt bikes and small trucks are imported, use of such vehicles harms our balance of payments.

So it goes. The good news is that the final draft of the report is a revision of the original, which was circulated last year and then w ithheld because the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forestry Service criticized the report. Misleading, they said, and not properly researched.

Motorcycle people agree with that. Alan Isley. president of the Motorcycle Industry Council, has already filed his objections to the report “due to its emotional nature, its erroneous and outdated information and the unwillingness of its author to investigate facts pertinent to the subject of the report. MIC believes that CEQ must be faulted for selecting a prejudiced author and for failing to require substantiation of an official government report.”

The MIC’s response has been sent to President Carter, members of Congress and the federal land management agencies.

1980 SUZUKIS

Suzuki has a new entry in the Superbike wars: the GSX11Ó0. With around 110 bhp and a top speed of 140 mph, the new hypercvcle is based on the GS1000, but has a new 16-valve head and refined suspension. Suzuki claims the Twin Spin Combustion Chamber (TSCC) shape designed by Italian Vittorio Piatti provides more horsepower. The four-valves-per-cylinder arrangement is operated from the dual overhead cams by rocker arms that use screw' adjusters instead of the shims used on previous Suzuki four-strokes. There are new 34mm constant vacuum carbs, a five-speed transmission and chain drive. Bore and stroke are 72x66mm for a capacity of 1075cc.

Suspension on the 1100 looks like standard motocross equipment: leading axle multi-adjustable forks and a box section aluminum swing arm. There’s a screw adjustment for spring preload on the forks, plus four damping adjustments, plus air boost with both legs of the fork connected together.

Don’t worry about being able to identify the new' Suzuki 1100. From its rectangularquartz headlight to the instrument housing to the stretched tailpiece, it’s an all new' design. A huge 6.3 gal. gas tank on the 1 100 is slightly humped and wider in the front than the rear, again, like standard motocross design. The GSX1100 unveiled in England was a silver with green trim that accentuates the unusual shapes.

Other details of the 1100 include a check panel by the instruments that points out on a diagram where any lights have failed. Gone is Suzuki’s digital gear indicator.

Tires are IRC, 3.50OV-19 front and 4.50OV-17 rear. There are selfcanceling turn indicators. Dry weight is a claimed 563 lb., considerably heavier than the standard GS 1000. Suspension travel is 6.3 in. front and 3.9 in. rear.

In addition to the GSX1100 there’s a new GSX750 with many of the same features. Like the big brother, there’s the TSCC 16-valve head with rocker arm adjustable valves. Bore and stroke are more oversquare at 67 x 53mm.compared to the current GS750at 65x 56.4mm. which with the 16-valve head suggests more power at higher revs. At launch, no claims for the power were made.but expect the GSX 750 to at least equal the Honda CB750F’s.

Styling is similar to the 1 100 with the same rectangular quartz headlight, extended tailpiece, humped gas tank and instrument pod. Only there’s no check panel included with the instruments. Also, the suspension on the 750 is more conventional with a normal steel swing arm, no adjustments on the leading axle forks and shocks with only preload adjustment.

Both bikes have more tucked in alternator covers than previous GS Suzukis, meaning more cornering clearance for the road racers.

Also shown in England was an 8-valve 250 Twin and it’s supposed to be followed by a 425cc or 450cc 8-valve Twin. Whether the U.S. market will get the new small bikes isn’t yet known.

NOT ENOUGH LABELS

A quick look in the Cycle World shop showed that the average 1980 street bike has no less than 10 warning decals applied all over it. The greatest number of warning labels we've seen on a dirt bike has been three, but that mav change.

A year ago two doctors from Washington. Fred Rivera and Lawrence Berger, petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission to do something about a growing number of injuries to minibike riders. Actually, the petition referred to “unlicensed two-wheeled motorized vehicles.” but that’s a category that includes everything from the smallest kid bikes up to the largest motocrossers. The doctors aren’t motorcyclists, they’re pediatricians, so their concern was with injuries to children.

Their petition requested that the CPSC require design changes preventing children under the age of 14 from riding minibikes, limit the maximum speed of the vehicles, require changes in seat design to prohibit more than one person riding a cycle, require registration of the unlicensed cycles, expand reporting of cycle injuries and require warning labels on the bikes.

Not only were the doctors concerned with the safety of children, but with the morals of motorized vehicles too, according to an article by Dr. Berger published in Pediatrics magazine. In the article Dr. Berger questions “What of the values that our motor-hungry children are imbibing? ... If parents bought their kids skis instead of snowmobiles, bicycles instead of trailbikes. the money saved could pay for more life-enhancing motor activities— dance classes or piano lessons, for instance.”

Fortunately, the staff of the CPSC has been more realistic and is recommending that the doctors' suggestions, all except the warning label requirement, be rejected. The staff comment said that “a child’s judgment regarding safe conditions for and appropriate use of UTMVs may not be reliable and ... a child’s interpretation of safety warnings on labels also may not be reliable.” Because of the limited value of the labels, the CPSC staff also recommended development of an information program aimed at children and parents informing them of the safety and environmental hazards of cycles.