Roundup
ROUNDUP
DAYTONA DELIVERS
Cycle Week in Daytona Beach in 1980 was not a success. There was the usual good racing, but downtown the attention paid to bikers by the various law enforcement groups, plus the rumors and alarms in the local newspapers, amounted to harassment. Some of us felt unwelcome and said so. There was talk—backed up later with action—of a boycott.
But because Daytona is our sport’s premier motorcycle event, along with an excuse to get out of the cold in most parts of the country, and because a lot of other people from all the forms of motorcycling did some useful work, Cycle Week 1981 was an improvement as well as a success.
As described in the Daytona section beginning on page 64, the racing in 1981 was fast and furious and there was a lot of it.
There was more than space permits us to tell. Along with the professional road races in various classes, and the supercross, the AMA put on a complete program of amateur events, both pavement and motocross. There was the traditional Alligator Enduro, which begins near the speedway and runs through every swamp and mud bog in the county.
Off to one side on the speedway infield there was something known as stadium trials. The feet-up set put on a show, riding across ditches via small logs, over giant steel balls, that sort of thing. Not trials as we know them, but at least a chance for people who hadn’t seen real trials to get an idea of the skill required.
There was a concours d’elegance with 40 restored or just preserved bikes, which drew a large and enthusiastic crowd. There were some in the crowd in fact, for example the MV600 and the Bultaco TSS, that should have been in the show, but that will happen next year.
Away from the speedway the helping hand came from Harley-Davidson. For reasons not germane to this account professional road racing and motocross are dominated by what is sometimes known as the Gang of Four. Harley, Triumph and Ossa are more often seen on the dirt, so Harley sponsors a dirt track series in and near Daytona Beach during Cycle Week. Most of the Winston Pro crowd was there, along with scores of amateurs and hopefuis. There was short track or TT every night. Harley hosted a poker run, a hot dog roast and the annual Sunday morning parade. There was the Harley show, this year done in a first-ever theme, as in first V-Twin, first overhead valve, first Sportster, etc., and a kick-start contest.
Tie that in with the speedway schedule, the consumer show, custom show, AMA awards program and advanced rider school and the post-race race track school and the radio shows, club get-togethers, sand drag races and so forth and there was a choice of several things to do every day and all night.
The real progress was downtown, on the infamous Main Street. Police were everywhere.
But they were polite. No tickets were given for drops of oil or to out-of-state riders who’d forgotten to turn on their headlights during the day.
Equally, there were fewer burn-outs, sidewalk excursions, straight pipes and craziness from the bikers. The stores had “Welcome Motorcyclists” signs in their windows and the riders behaved like guests. There was improvement and courtesy from both sides. The hassles last year created a problem, and the problem appears to be solved. What’s good for bike nuts, it turns out, is good for Daytona Beach.
MORE MORINIS
Moto Morini is not one of the more common motorcycles on U.S. highways, but there are an increasing number of Morini models available. The latest are a 125cc Single and a 250cc Twin, based on the existing 350 and 500cc V-Twin models.
Many parts on the new models are shared with the larger bikes, though the 250 uses smaller bore and stroke than the 350, at 59 x 43.8mm. The 125 uses the same top end with a shorter 45mm stroke. To keep weight down the smaller bikes use kick starting, rather than the unusual electric starter fitted to the larger V-Twin Morinis.
Both bikes come with six-speed transmissions, disc front brake, electronic ignition and low weight. Morini claims dry weights of 282 lb. for the 250 and 235 lb. for the 125. Claimed horsepower is 13.75 for the 125 and 25 for the 250, both figures at 9000 rpm.
Retain list prices are $2495 for the 250 and $1974 for the 125 from Herndan Corp., Route 61, Fort Clinton, Penn. 19549. (215) 562-3155.
MIKE HAILWOOD KILLED
^^Fou think the racing business inures W you to this, but familiarity does nothing but get you more rapidly through the numb disbelief to the pain. Mike the Bike. He’s dead.
He died March 23 in a stupid, wasteful, tragic way. Mike was on his way home from work. His daughter and son were along for the ride. He called home and told his wife not to worry about dinner, they’d stop for fish and chips.
It was night, dark and raining hard. Mike’s car collided with a truck. The daughter was killed, the son will survive. Mike was taken to a hospital where he died the next morning.
I can’t think of him now without being glad of the way I saw him for the last time. He was half sitting up in the saddle of a racing bike, slanting away in his easy, graceful way around the corner they call Brandywell, on his way down the Mountain to his 14th TT victory. The power came on; he whipped out of sight; the heavy howl of the motor chased after him into the Island air. When it had faded, there was left a good, bellypit feeling of happiness for him. Mike Hailwood. Fourteen TTs.
To my mind, that’s the point of his racing career. He won other races. He won World Championships. He even crossed over into cars, successfully enough to carry off the European Formula Two title. But, at the end, he came out of retirement and went back to the Isle of Man and won a Tourist Trophy. And went back and won again.
“They” don’t approve of the Isle o£ Man. “They” think it’s out of the modern mainstream. It’s too long, too difficult, too dangerous. “They” say the same things about the Nurburgring, the Targa Florio, Spa-Francorchamps, in Mike’s “other” world. Makes me wonder, a little, what “they” see in racing at all. Of course these places are difficult and dangerous. That’s what the word racing means, isn’t it?
YAMAHA TURBO
First carne the rumors. Then there were hints, and finally pictures. Yamaha was working on a turbo. The first photos, shown in the March, 1981 Cycle World, indicated that Yamaha had been experimenting with a turbocharged XS1100 motor, equipped with electronic injection and a small IHI turbo.
Now there are more details. All that Yamaha will admit to is that “This system will be featured in one of our 1981 models but produced only in extremely limited quantities.” So there will be a turbo XS1100.
Yamaha’s turbo is noteworthy for several features. It is the first real factory turbo motorcycle announced. It makes use of several design techniques not normally seen on turbocharged engines.
Electronic fuel injection is used to solve one of the perennial problems with turbos, that is, whether to mount the turbocharger between the carburetors and engine and increase fuel puddling in the turbo, or mount the carburetors between the turbo and the engine and then have to pressurize the carburetors. With the fuel injection it’s easy to pressurize the injectors, so the turbo is upstream from the injection unit.
That’s only part of the intake system. Besides the normal routing from the turbo to the fuel injectors, there’s a second intake tract bypassing the turbo. This intake tract supplies air at small throttle openings when the turbo isn’t pressurizing the intake. A reed valve in this bypass intake functions as a one-way valve so intake pressure isn’t lost through the bypass. This alternate intake works with the reed and EFI to minimize throttle lag in the turbo.
Add to these features the sub-intake ports Yamaha calls its Induction Control System (YICS). The interconnected subports improve mixture turbulence at low engine speeds, helping to boost fuel economy.
Naturally there’s a waste gate to limit boost pressure, though Yamaha hasn’t said what the limit will be. We’d guess boost is limited to no more than 10 psi in the interests of longevity and, after all, how much more power does the XS1100 need?
Other unanswered questions at this time are whether the cams have been changed or compression ratio reduced, both normal changes for factory turbo systems. And there’s been no indication of price.
So for now there are still lots of questions, but at least the Yamaha offers some new solutions to typical turbo problems and there will be a true production turbo motorcycle.
I don’t mean to speak for Mike Hailwood. His racing did that for him (and that’s another meaning of the word). I’m only entitled to say what he meant to me, him and his winning TTs at the Isle of Man.
What he meant to me, I think, was that he proved that somebody could do this thing. I don’t have the courage or the skill or, I know now, the need but that doesn’t mean I doh’t wish I did have and it doesn’t mean I cannot worship, baldly, nakedly, unashamedly, someone who does.
The last time I saw him in a social setting, face-to-face, was at Ascot (another out-of-the-mainstream place) at a night-
time sprint car race. He was in town and just idly curious to see this funny old Yank sort of motor racing. He was standing up on top of the jump at the center of a bunch of his mates. I knew most of them and we all said Hi, but—and this happens with certain racers—Hailwood stood out. He just simply and easily dominated that group of people; your attention just naturally focused on him; they were with him. He was relaxed and jovial, interested, open, “off duty,” not being treated as a public figure in any way, but he owned that little gathering as Alexander the Great must have owned his battle encampments.
He was so fabulous. He was so loved. He had so much fun. He showed us what it was all about. He did me such a lot of good. Thanks, Mike. —Pete Lyons
HELP FOR STOLEN MOTORCYCLES
Motorcycle Trader, a twice-a-month classified ad publication for motorcycles will list information on missing motorcycles free of charge. Send information, including serial number and other identification marks to Ed Howell, Motorcycle Trader, P.O. Box 73, Folly Beach, S.C. 29439. Howell will send a sample copy to anyone sending him two stamps with a request. Motorcycle Trader lists motorcycles, parts and literature for sale or wanted.
