For All Practical Reasons
CYCLE WORLD ROUNDUP
FOR ALL PRACTICAL REASONS
On the surface, a meeting called by Transportation Secretary Brock Adams so automobile industry leaders could discuss the design of the "car of the future," should have little to do with motorcycles. But there's a connection.
A number of reasonable people met at the two-day session to “re-invent the car,” in Adams' words. However the suggestions talked about vehicles, not cars.
Most disturbing among the panelists was Dr. William Haddon. Jr., president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “I believe we should be responsible, sensible. and humane enough to place a conservative speed limit on vehicles as designed and manufactured, and not merely on their operation,” he said. “We would then be able for the first time to decide realistically that our national policy is to come as close as possible to having practical vehicles that protect their occupants from serious injury in crashes occurring throughout their operating speed range— an objective which, as a matter of physics and biology, cannot be achieved without a reasonable, built-in limit.”
What would the limit be? “I believe that it is imperative that we as a nation decide that the built-in top speeds of the vehicles about to be planned for the 1985-2000 period be lowered to a speed close to the present national speed limit,” Haddon said.
It’s easy enough to dismiss Haddon’s comments as unrealistic and absurd, until he is placed in perspective. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is highly influential with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many members of the “professional safety community” have worked at both the IIHS and NHTSA. and the suggestions from the IIHS are often adopted by NHTSA. Mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists, big bumpers on automobiles, and the coming regulations on multi-piece wheels for trucks all were promoted by the IIHS before the NHTSA began rule making. Haddon's got clout.
Already the NHTSA has begun a study of buses with speed-limiting devices installed. Trailways bus company is equipping all its 2100 buses with speed governors that will limit bus speed to 57 mph.
From a strictly practical standpoint, the insurance industry has a lot on its side. Vehicle manufacturers would be relieved of some of their potential legal liability. Highway departments wouldn't have to improve the safety of highways for high speed vehicles. Traffic enforcement on the nation’s highways could be cut to a fraction of what it is now, allowing more police for crime control. Domestic automobile manufacturers might even benefit from a regulation that took away the performance advantage of the imported autos and motorcycles. The practical reasons are there. The equipment is there. >
Several surveys have shown that people support the 55 mph speed limit, even if they don’t obey it. The opposition to the current 55 mph speed limit is small, unorganized. and unsuccessful. In short, there are a large number of influential people who want a limit on vehicle speed. Don’t think motorcycles will be automatically excluded.
Arguing the rational reasons for riding a
motorcycle isn’t going to get us anyw here. Safety experts can statistically prove that motorcycles are a more dangerous mode of travel than cars. As Joan Claybrook has pointed out. there is no rational reason for needing 100 bhp motorcycles. Going around corners fast has no redeeming social value; it appeals to our sporting instincts. It's fun.
It's tough to find rational reasons for
having fun. Especially when it consumes gas and involves some risk. That's w hy as long as we use rational excuses for our fun, we'll get out-argued.
The only honest argument we’ve got against speed governors, motorcycle noise laws, or restrictions on motorcycle use is that we’ve got the right.
We don't need excuses. We are entitled.
CZ125 MOTOCROSSER
Despite primeval styling, the CZ125 motocrosser has undergone many changes in the past year. Most noteworthy is the addition of American-made Works Performance gas-charged non-reservoir shocks. New leading-axle forks with combination air/coil springing are used up front. Between is the same 123.5cc twostroke Single used on the CZ last year. It
pumps out a claimed 24 bhp at 9250 rpm with the 34mm Jikov carb filling the 55 x 52mm cylinder. Motoplat CDI ignition, six-speed transmission, and chrome-moly frame complete the package. List price is $1290. If you can’t find a Jawa-CZ dealer, contact American Jawa, 185 Express St., Plain view, L.I.. N.Y. 1 1803.
OUR EXOTIC WEST
No matter where you live, it's normal.
The interesting places are by definition someplace else. For Yankees, places to tour are South America, Mexico, Europe. New things to see are castles on the Rhine, the changing of the guard. In the western U.S. we tend to think of scenery as the Blue Ridge Parkway or Vermont when the leaves show their colors.
Came as a surprise, then, to have a visit from the English press. When the English importers for BMW wanted to give their 1979 models a glamorous setting, they picked Arizona and flew' the Limey reporters in for a few days in the Old West.
They had the time of their lives. They cruised across the sunbaked desert, saw Indians at home, went to a rodeo, a barbecue. listened to bluegrass music in its natural setting. They went home all-aglow, after giving us western yanks a new look at home base.
This is mentioned here because a motor-
cycle touring firm has been created to bring eastern and European riders to the West, as exciting to them as the Alps or the Everglades would be to Californians.
Western Adventures, Inc.. P.O. Box 2889, Tucson, Ariz. 85702 is the creation of Volker Beer, former North American representative for BMW. He's put together complete packages of one, two or three week tours, motorcycle included. The tours are open to all experienced riders, but perhaps because the U.S. is an exciting foreign country to riders from other countries. Beer expects a good share of his business to come from overseas. Gives an American a feeling of pride to look at a brochure, in German, extolling the appeal of the Apache Trail. Grand Canyon and Bryce National Park.
It's also a good chance for easterners to ride across the West without having to cover all that Interstate before and after. We hope the tours are a success.
AMERICAN HONDAS
Honda will begin producing the CBX and CR250R at an American production facility in Columbus, Ohio this month. Honda of America Manufacturing. Inc. will begin turning out pre-production models in July and follow up with the first production 1980 models in August.
Honda’s production facility is not a part of American Honda, w hich sells Hondas in this country, but is a separate company. Within a vear the 200-person work force is scheduled to expand to 500 and production should be 2500-3000 per month. Most of those bikes, about 65 percent, w ill remain in the U.S., the rest going to Canada or perhaps Europe where the CBX is selling very well.
Unlike Kawasaki's manufacturing plant in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Honda facility in Columbus is considered an “assembly plant.” The difference is that Honda sends nearly all of the parts for the motorcycles into the plant where they are assembled, while at Kawasaki many of the parts, including the frame and body pieces, are manufactured at the plant.
Like Kawasaki, Honda sees the U.S. plant as a way to meet the demands of the U.S. market. There is a possibility of model line expansion and more updated models because of the speed with which the local plant can change assembly pieces.
HONDA’S GP RACER
Honda’s Grand Prix racer, the RC500, will be a complete departure from the four cylinder, two-stroke configuration of the dominant Suzukis and Yamahas when it is unveiled next year. Details of the unusual engine were announced in the Dutch magazine Moto 73 which showed a picture of the six-valves-per-cylinder head and a diagram of the three-cam square Four.
Last time Honda was in Grand Prix
racing the factory developed inline Sixes much like the CBX. To be competitive in Grand Prix racing now, the inline Six would be far too wide and have much too great a frontal area. The square Four is the most compact configuration for the minimum number of cylinders necessary for the power to be achieved. Claimed power is 150 bhp at an astonishing 18,500 rpm.
Allowing such high horsepower and engine speeds are 24 valves. The valves are set inline in the trench-shaped combustion chambers, three exhaust valves on one side and three intake valves on the other side. Between the six valves there are two spark plugs for every cylinder.
The square Four layout allows three camshafts to open the four rows of valves. The exhaust valves, lined up at the outside edges of the engine, are opened by two cams, one at each side of the engine. The intake valves, also aligned in two rows, are canted together so one camshaft operates both rows of valves. Looking at a diagram of the valve train from the end of the engine, the valves form a W.
Details of the RC500 frame are still unavailable, but the claimed weight of the bike dry is 242 lb. And because the liquidcooled square Four is so compact, the engine is no wider than Honda’s own 125cc production Twin.
REAL VINTAGE RACING
clubs invited the crocks for a semi-race parade (details next month) but there will be honest racing for vintage machines on both coasts.
In the East, the American Association of Motorcycle Road Racers has accepted a sub-class, organized by a group of vintage owners. The older bikes will run at most AAMRR meets, at Loudon, Bridgehampton. New Hampshire and New York. There’s one class, to be known as Classic/ Special Interest, open to pre-1965 GP or Clubmen models, four-stroke, 500cc limit; such semi-production bikes as the BMW Rennsport. Honda CR or Bultaco TSS, and any motorcycles meeting the spirit of the rules. Anybody wanting details can write to Robert Iannucci. 146 Willow Street. Brooklyn. N.Y. 11201.
In the west, Manning Racing will have a vintage class open to pre-war GP, post-war GP and club models. They’ll run at Riverside August 12 and Willow Springs October 14. Information from Jim Haberlin, c/o Manning Racing, 3407 W. Olive, # 102, Burbank, Calif. 91502.
FOR THE RECORD
Three items published recently in this magazine need clarification, or correction.
The buyer’s guide in the March issue listed the CMB Twist-Assist, a useful device to overcome heavy throttle return springs.
After we were told that the firm couldn’t be reached, we telephoned. The telephone company said the number was no longer a working number. Letters have not been answered. We don’t know what happened, but we do apologize for any trouble this caused.
In the April CW, we mentioned Blue Diamond chain lube. It’s good stuff, as we said, but somehow we got the price wrong. List retail price is $4.95 for a 13-oz. spray can.
In the May issue, we quoted Pops Yoshimura as saying that he was the first
person to put a four-into-one exhaust system on a motorcycle. In fact, Russ Collins of R.C. Engineering installed a four-intoone pipe on his Honda 750 drag bike in December, 1969, and subsequently used such a system to set the first drag record established with a Honda 750, at Irwindale Raceway in March 1970. Yoshimura began experimenting with four-into-ones on a Honda 750 in the summer of 1971, and first used one in competition at Ontario in the fall of 1971. Although Collins was actually the first to install a four-into-one, it should be noted that Yoshimura was correct in saying that he was the first to use a four-into-one on a road racer. Living in Japan and not paying any attention to drag racing, Yoshimura had no reason to doubt what he told us in good faith.
SLOWING US DOWN
Bench racing will never be the same.
How will motorcyclists be able to talk about the time they were doing twice the speed of sound when motorcycles join automobiles in having speedometers limited to 85 mph? That’s right, motorcycles manufactured after September 1, 1979 will be prohibited by federal regulations from having speedometers indicating more than 85 mph or 140 km/h. The metric almostequivalent (it’s actually 87 mph) is also required by federal regulation.
Not only will the maximum speed be limited, but there will be a subliminal recommended speed. “Each speedometer shall include the numeral ‘55’ in the mph scale. Each speedometer, other than a digital speedometer, shall highlight the number ‘55’ or otherwise highlight the point at which the vehicle speed is equaling 55 mph,” says the regulation. Other sections of the law prohibit odometers from operating in reverse, require odometers to read at least to 99,999 miles or kilometers and indicate when the odometer has rolled past the 99,999 mark. Speedometer error is prohibited from exceeding 4 mph either greater or less than actual speed.
Of course there is an exclusion for police cars, but there’s also a catch. The law limiting maximum speed “does not apply to a speedometer designed for use in or installed in a passenger car sold to a law enforcement agency for law enforcement purposes.” Note that the exclusion doesn’t mention police motorcycles.
OFF-ROAD KAWASAKIS HEADED FOR LINCOLN
Within two years, all Kawasaki offroad motorcycles sold in this country will be manufactured at the Lincoln, Nebraska factory, according to Seiji Yamada, President of Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A.
“We are newcomers to the off-road market,” Yamada told us recently, “so we must do something better than our competitors. I believe that off-road bikes have to do with feeling, not mind. So it’s very important to have good communication between riders and the people who build the bikes, the engineers. To do that I have to eliminate the Pacific Ocean.”
Inspired by Team Green’s recent successes in spite of the Pacific Ocean (the KX125 and KX250), we can hardly wait for the serious dirt products of Lincoln.Kä
