Milers of the Year
Milers of the Year
The Latest Flat Trackers From Harley, Honda and Yamaha
Racing may or may not improve the breed, a debate that has enlivened bench racing since benches were invented, but there’s no question that competition is invention’s harsh stepmother.
Early in 1981 Honda and Yamaha tackled the AMA’s Winston Pro dirt track races, specifically the miles and half-miles that are so classically American. They are also fiercely contested, popular, fast and specialized. The limits are spelled out. The bikes can have no more than two cylinders, are limited to 750cc displacement, must be loosely based on production machines and must use semi-knob tires. Within that framework, whatever works, wins.
, Honda and Yamaha would like to win. Both have production road bikes that can be adapted—not easily in the case of Honda—to the Winston Pro format. So they built bikes, hired riders, raced and didn’t do well, in fact neither brand got into the winner’s circle during the year.
This year probably will be different. The Sacramento Mile was the first mile race of the year and Honda and Yamaha both arrived with reworked entries. There was progress, and rational thought, and maybe even some philosophy.
But first, the old firm. Harley-Davidson, as a factory team and supplier for privateers, has been the dominant force since the demise of Triumph and BSA.
Harley is in an odd position. It’s equally true to say they’ve had 10 years to develop the XR750, and that they’re working with a 10-year-old engine. Harley has the smallest racing budget. . . and spends it all in Winston Pro while Honda and Yamaha have motocross, road racing, enduro, etc.
As a result the 1982 XR750s look nearly identical to the 1981s. A cooling shield here, an electronic ignition there, maybe a set of Patrick exhaust pipes instead of the race shop’s own pipes, and that’s it. Nor will the next stage appear until the rivals get closer than they have to date.
Honda, now, is going all out. The NS750 must set some record for what can be done with a production engine and still be classified as production. The NS is the CX500, turned one quarter of a turn so the cylinders are fore and aft. It’s bored and stroked. The carbs are where the exhausts used to be and vice versa. The shaft drive is replaced with a chain.
The newest version, as ridden by national champ Mike Kidd, had a flat track adaptation of Honda’s Pro-Link. The ’81 used two shocks, outboard of the extrawide drive-line required by the chain conversion, and the ’81 was a hippy motorbike. The ’82 is much neater, or perhaps we’re getting used to it.
A few days before the race Honda hired Scott Pearson, a top-ranker pro. Team Honda fielded Kidd, Pearson, TT specialist Mickey Fay and promising first-year expert Billy Hearndon. The four riders had five bikes, and no two were alike. Two had Pro-Link, the rest had dual shocks. There were four different front ends, as in Cerianis, Marzocchis, etc. According to team mechanics all five bikes were tuned to run as Twingles, with both barrels firing on the same revolution but 80 apart, while the other racers and all road V-Twins fire on alternate revolutions. The theory is the stagger gives more traction, but the only obvious difference is an exhaust note that sounds like a Big Single at low revs. Unofficially and unconfirmed, the NS750 produces about 90 bhp and weighs about 300 lb. Even less confirmed, the newer Hondas can now stay with the teams' baseline Harley in a drag race, while last year the XR750 walked away every time.
Yamaha has a different approach. Last year’s effort was a private team, Roberts/ Lawwill, hired to develop the racing version of the Virago. But the team finished the year running Mert Lawwill’s Harley
and winning the national title for Kidd. There was disappointment with the arrangement on both sides, so this year there is no Roberts/Lawwill team.
Instead it’s Team Yamaha and a development program with no other aims. Bike and uniforms, etc. are yellow and black, but other than that the profile is low. Sole rider is Jim Filice, 1982 rookie of the year. Former Harley team rider Corky Keener got tired of sitting around polishing trophies, so he’s team guru.
The bike is a lab on wheels. Last year there was a series of frames, suspensions, engines, with nothing really settled except that the engine was competitive.
This year the Yamaha has a straddle frame, like that on the road-going Vision and presumably developed with factory help. The frame is conventional, except that the wheelbase ean be stretehed or shortened several inches, the rear (dual shock) suspension has a choice of locations, the swing arm pivot can be adjusted up or down and there’s a spacer plate between the front of the frame and the steering head.
Milers are more specialized than they look. Every dimension has an effect. Yamaha’s strategy is to study each change and each effect separately, to measure, say, steering response with different wheelbases, then response with different steering head angles. Or traction and wheelbase, then traction and pivot point. Yamaha’s racing director Ken Clark says the team doesn’t expect to win the title this year. Instead, step by step, they will learn what works and will be able to win and pass along the parts and techniques to the private teams Clark expects to buy Yamaha power.
The three rivals share a feeling of guarded optimism. Honda and Yamaha know matching Harley won’t be easy, while Harley knows one of these days one or both of the newcomers will find a winning combination.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento winner’s1 circle—see Race Watch for details—was all H-D. More important, Springsteen and Graham both finished in record time.
Reworking the old saw, competition improves racing. B3
