A Few Words About Styling

A FEW WORDS ABOUT STYLING

ROUNDUP

Styling has been with us since Eve first blushed and no doubt wouldn’t wear what was on the racks. It’s simply part of the scheme of things. Motorcyclists aren’t immune from it but it causes no harm until it affects our motorcycles. And of course it always does.

Motorcycle styling over the years has consisted mostly of trying to enclose the mechanicals with rounded covers, no example of which has ever been successful. Today styling, as it pertains to street bikes, is a matter of Specials and Customs and L models and LTDs. Because the Specials have been the leaders, we’ll refer to them as that.

Right off, the staff at Cycle World doesn’t like Specials as well as standard models. It’s the handlebars and seats that do it. Big, wide, stretched bucko bars are impractical for sporting riding and that’s what people around here do, generally. Seats that perch a passenger way up high and keep a rider from moving around, while being hard and poorly shaped don’t win many friends and that describes most of the Special seats.

Some of the like and dislike in the motorcycling world may come from who you like or dislike. If you want to be like Kenny Roberts, you ride a bike like Kenny ’■Roberts. If you want to be like Bob Bitchin you ride a bike like Bob’s, if you want to be like Roger Hull you ride a touring bike.

Part of it’s function. A motorcycle should have nothing on it that doesn’t make it go. Sissy bars and fat tires and tiny tanks don’t qualify. Though the bucko bars ►aren’t bad behind a fairing or windshield.

On the plus side of the matter, most of .the Specials are good looking motorcycles. They have clean tanks that are shaped gracefully. There are round dials and short mufflers and smaller sidepanels and there aren’t huge tailpieces. On top of that, some ►of the standard models have been less than elegant. Suzuki’s latest GS models come to mind here. The original GS Suzukis were clean and functional and everything was in the right place. Now there are heavy looking molded instrument clusters and gaudy chrome covers over the camshaft ends and ^angular tanks that don’t hold much fuel and sidecovers that blend in with tailpieces but hide a motorcycle at the same time. In short, there isn’t a person, around here at least, who thinks the new GS models are as attractive as the former GS models.

We’re not alone in appreciating the looks of the Specials. Turns out one company’s Specials outsell the standard models six to one. Another company says the figure is three to one. And a third motorcycle company says the Specials have really become the standard models because they are the most popular.

Here comes the problem. As long as a buyer could get what he wants, fine. But because the Specials have been such excellent sellers, the motorcycle manufacturers are reducing the number of standard models. Honda has dropped the standard CX500 and only sells the Deluxe and Custom now. When Kawasaki introduces the super sporting KZ550, there will be few standard models available and lots of the LTDs. Honda’s 900, a wonderful motorcycle that could be useful for all kinds of riders, is only available as a Custom.

And the only photo we’ve seen of the upcoming street-only 400cc Single from Suzuki showed it as an L model. As the selection thins out, it will be tougher for buyers to find sporting or other models and that will skew the sales figures further towards the Specials.

The customer should be able to buy what he wants. That’s why we don’t mind all the Specials being available, even though we’d rather not have one. But when the success of one style limits the availability of other styles, something’s gone wrong.

Suzuki is doing a nice thing here. This year there are three models of some Suzukis. There’s the standard 450, L model and Sports model. Suzuki’s thousand is available as a standard 1000, L model. Sport model and a shaft-drive touring model. Suzuki’s styling boss says there should be sports models of all bikes available.

Honda has the sporting CB750F, standard CB750K and the fancy CB750 Custom. There are sporting and Custom Hawks and the sporting CBX. Now where’s the CB900F and CX500F?

And where’s the normal Yamaha 650/ Four? Right now it’s only available as the Maxim I, like Yamaha’s Exciter I and Exciter IE

Style, according to Webster, is “to cause to conform to a customary style. To design and make in accord with the prevailing mode.”

Today’s style won’t be tomorrow’s style. Specials won’t last forever. Isn’t it time for tomorrow’s style to begin today?

FUEL INJECTION ARRIVES

Rumor confirmed: Kawasaki has a fuel injected KZ1000. Now for the details. Not one in a hundred would realize the KZ1000-EFI-LTD is a new motorcycle. What it looks like—and what it is—is a slight revision of the semi-chopper customized look seen on other Kawasaki LTDs, but without carburetors. In place of four carbs, there are four intake ducts with throttles in them, and each has a nozzle that feeds fuel into the duct based on things like temperature and pressure and what the rider’s doing with the right handgrip. The fuel’s metered out at a low pressure maintained by a small pump. There are electronic sensors telling a master control box how much fuel the engine needs and the box tells the regulators which meter the fuel into the intake ducts. That’s the how.

The why isn’t so clear. Electronic fuel injection has been around for several years on cars. Only reason the car guys use it is that it helps control emissions by giving precise fuel metering. It doesn’t, in most applications, give more power than a good carburetor, or four good carburetors. It gives control. From the emissions standpoint, Kawasaki didn’t need fuel injection. Motorcycle emission standards aren’t as tough to meet as car standards. And Kawasaki has an excellent emission system with the air suction system. What the electronic fuel injection does is give Kas wasaki a feature that can be sold.

After years of leading the horsepower* race, Kawasaki is now trailing the leaders.

If you can’t sell them power, sell them (pick one) a) turbocharging b) fuel injection c) style. Kawasaki chose b and c.

Besides the fuel injection, the LTD offers style. Besides the big handlebars and stepped seat and fat rear tire, there’s a gas^ tank that if we weren’t so tactful we’d call a flattery, as in imitation, of a BSA tank. Rather than have a chrome tank with paint on it, there’s a painted tank with a chrome 1 plate plastered to each side. ^

There are still conventional Kawasaki 1000s, that is the KZ1000 and the KZ1000 Shaft and the Zl-R. All good solid motorcycles and according to the only figures we’ve seen, good selling motorcycles.

A RATION OF WOE

It’s been a while since the Department of Energy first came up with a gas rationing plan that was prejudiced against motorcycles. A final plan still hasn’t been approved, but the AMA, in the person of Legislative Analyst Gary Winn, has been arguing our merit.

Originally the DOE proposed that motorcycles would only get one-tenth as much fuel allotted to them as would go to cars, because bikes use less fuel and besides, bikes are fun and nobody should be encouraged to have fun at a time like this. Besides the limit on fuel, the ration coupons would allow the purchase of gas in 5 gal. units. Most motorcycles not having â, gal. tanks, that’s going to be a problem.

When various states implemented oddeven gas rationing, seven of the states excluded motorcycles from the plan be-4 cause motorcycles save gas and their use should be encouraged. Winn argued before the DOE that this precedent worked and was reasonable and should be used if there’s a federal gas rationing plan. f

At this time there’s been no final decision announced by the DOE. Any plan' must be approved by Congress, so a letter to your congressman wouldn’t hurt.

HONDA’S GP PROGRESS

Counter-intelligence results from the article about Honda’s NR500, the radical four-stroke GP bike with monocoque and oval pistons.

A reader with connections sent us some details. He used to race in Europe, he knows the men now in charge and one of those men has access to the shop in Europe where the NR500 has been worked on, taken apart and modified. (His name is secret, because we’d hate to lose a source like this.)

Anyway, the semi-works word now is that the NR500’s stroke is 34mm, rather than the 36 we reported back in the December issue. The dimensions of the oval/ rectangular piston crowns are 45mm x 90mm, which works out to a displacement for the V-Four of 493cc, just under the 500cc limit.

The engine really is a tandem V-Eight, as each piston has two connecting rods, side by side. Each rod has its own crankshaft throw, and they overlap. Amazing. The inboard rod for the front left cylinder is closer to the centerline than the outboard rod for the rear left cylinder. By doing that, they can make the engine almost as narrow as a fore-and-aft V-Twin would be.

Remember the guesses on the crank? They were correct. It’s a 90°, with the paired throws at right angles to each other.

Still a mystery on the firing order. At the British GP the engine sounded like an inline Four, with a power pulse every half turn. But our source says when he saw the engine it was timed so the cylinders fired in pairs; left rear with right front, then a full turn later left front with right rear. Like a big, lazy Twin, witnesses report. Not like it appeared in public, but we don’t know if the cross-timing was done before the debut or after.

And why fire the cylinders in pairs? Nobody will say.

What even the factory has announced is that they’re now testing the NR500 with 18-in. wheels, instead of the 16-in. special jobs seen earlier. No reason given. Either^ the tires were too small, as the critics said or they want to work on suspension and can do that best by isolating that from the behavior of the tires, which can be done by using the racing tires everybody else has.

The trouble with the engine turns out to have been difficulty with the piston rings.* They are made in several pieces and they will not, or perhaps would not, take a seal.

But when they did seal, the NR500 cranked out as much cylinder pressure as did the old Honda GP Sixes. That means 150 bhp, as good as the two-stroke Yamaha 500s. Equal power and less weight would, put the NR500 into the winner’s circle.

If they can get the rings to seat.

Next season will be an interesting one.

FIRST MODERN BELT DRIVE

W ho was really first will be a matter of debate, no doubt, because both Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki have introduced belt drive motorcycles this year. Both have been rumored for some time, while Kawasaki first told us about their belt drive model, the KZ440 Ltd. We give the award to Harley-Davidson because we ‘‘saw a belt drive Harley before we saw a belt drive Kawasaki. (What a difference a day makes.)

Harley’s belt drive model is called the Sturgis, named after the location of the Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. It’s a descendent of the Super Glide, ,meaning it has the 80 cu. in. V-Twin from Harley’s biggest bike, but doesn’t have all the weight or accessories of the Electra Glide. The Super Glide series has grown to include the Low Rider, Fat Bob, Wide Glide and now the Sturgis.

To get an idea of what the Sturgis is, imagine the Low Rider, with its low sculptured seat and big gas tanks and drag-style handlebars with even more black paint and the curious absence of a drive chain. That’s right, no drive chain. Not a primary chain or a secondary chain.

Instead, there are belts. Belts for the Harley primary drive have been a popular accessory on customized bikes for several years now. Popular enough that it was Harley-Davidson’s parts and accessory division that first asked for a belt primary as a possible accessory.

Only Harley’s belt isn’t like all those pther belts.

Toothed belts have become common for industrial and even automotive application, most commonly seen driving the camshafts of little overhead cam engines. The Harley’s belt is like those belts in that - it’s got teeth and is wide and flat and wants curl up in a circle, but it’s not like those other belts because the cord on which the belt is built isn’t fiberglass or steel, but Kevlar, a wonder material Dupont makes that’s also used for bullet-proof vests and car tires. So that means the Sturgis has a tough belt.

The Harley system was developed in cooperation with Gates Rubber Co., makers of belts for industrial use. After the parts department raised the subject, Gates did a prototype, H-D engineering tried and modified, back to Gates, etc. Took three years from question to production and yes, the accessory people do get their just reward; there will be a retrofit kit for chain drive Super Glide models. It may take some time, as Sturgis production for 1980 will only be 1200, but the kit will be offered for sale.

Going to the belt primary eliminates the chain tensioner, though the compensator sprocket remains, slightly changed. There’s no lubricant needed for the belts, so the dry clutch stays drier. The final belt is what looks strange. It’s out there wrapped around a huge rear sprocket where a chain’s supposed to be.

Russ Miller from H-D’s engineering department says the belt is good for 20,000 miles on the final drive, about three times as long as he figures a chain will last. It has a lubricating coating so it doesn’t need any other lubrication and after break-in it shouldn’t even need adjustment, though the adjusters remain on the swing arm. If it does break, Harley’s building a spare belt, a lightweight replacement good enough to get a bike into town, but not be awkward to carry.

Advantages of the belt (claimed) are longer life, smoother operation and less noise. At a brief press ride, a couple of the claims appear valid. Can’t say about the belt life because the ride was too short, but the belts are smooth and quiet and when you subtract a couple of decibels of chain noise you can add a couple of decibels of engine sound, so the Sturgis sounds more like a Harley than any other Harley we’ve heard lately. It also shifts smoothly and quietly, though when going around corners it made a little whoosha-whooshawhoosha sound, but certainly not as loud as a chain.

Price of the Sturgis is a suggested $5687, which puts it a couple of hundred more than the standard Low Rider and on a par with the Wide Glide

OUR NEW MAN_

ne of our more valued contributors for the past few years has been Peter Egan. He’s the man who didn’t take that cross-country trip on his old English bike, the man whose step-through Honda out.^conomied a pedal bike, whose winter ride ended with rescue by thumb. Peter is a genuine motorcycle nut, and a good writer.

How lucky for us, then, that when John Nutting returned to England, we asked Egan about his background.

It was perfect. He was working as a pervice writer, has worked as a mechanic, done some club racing and his school record includes things like engine rebuilding and welding. All the things a technical editor needs, in short, so we hired him.

ABOUT THOSE PRICES

Moreso than usual, the major motorcycle manufacturers have been late in producing the 1980 models. Ordinarily there are new models available to the press by late fall, just in time for December and January issues. Then the flood is on. This year many of the new models won’t be seen for the first time until February. While there have been a few test bikes out, the motorcycle companies haven’t set prices early enough for us to list suggested retail prices on many models and on one model the price has changed substantially from the original figure we were given.

To set the record straight, the Kawasaki KDX 175 Uni-Trak shown in the February issue now has a suggested price of $1339, up quite a bit from the $1195 price Kawasaki originally planned. That makes it comparable in price to the $1379 Suzuki PE175 and the Yamaha IT 175 at $1399, but not quite such a bargain. The Honda CBX shown in the same issue now has an official list price of $4198. In January the Yamaha YZ250 test didn’t list a price; it’s $1898. The YZ465, by the way, is $1998. List prices of competing motocrossers froríi the Japanese factories are generally quite close, also.

Back in December the 1980 Yamaha XS1100 Special was unpriced. The Special tested goes for $3879, while the standard .XS1100 is priced at $3699 and the Midnight Special is $4249.