Lending History A Helping Hand
Lending history a helping hand
ROUNDUP
CAMRON E. BUSSARD
WHEN JEANA YEAGER AND DICK RUTAN CIRCUMNAVIgated the world non-stop this past December in their specially built Voyager airplane, CYCLE WORLD had already made a contribution. In August of 1986, the craft’s designer, Burt Rutan, had only theoretical projections that the fully loaded Voyager could lumber away from the ground; all previous flights of the fragile airplane had taken place with only partial fuel loads. To test Rutan’s projections, we and colleagues from our sister magazine, ROAD -AMP;AMP; TRACK, lent our expertise in measuring vehicle performance, and helped confirm that the Voyager, burdened with more than 7000 pounds of fuel, could indeed take off.
The testing procedure was simple: load the Voyager to within 1000 pounds of a full fuel load (any more was considered too risky; the highly-stressed Voyager was designed to lift its full fuel load only once, and never to land with it), then measure its acceleration down the Mojave Airport runway until it reached take-off speed. If the measured acceleration matched Rutan’s projections, the long runway at Edwards Air Force Base would provide sufficient room for the Voyager to become airborne.
At first, the Voyager was paced by a Corvette mounted
with ROAD -AMP;AMP; TRACK’S computerized fifth-wheel time/ distance measuring equipment, manned by R-AMP;AMP;T Assistant Engineering Editor Kim Reynolds. Then, for greater accuracy, later runs were made using CYCLE WORLD’S third-wheel system—which is light and compact enough to be mounted directly to the Voyager-tended by cw Technical Editor Steve Anderson.
Burt Rutan was impressed with our third-wheel test gear, and we’re quite proud of it ourselves. Unique among the testing hardware currently in use at other car and bike magazines, our equipment is largely an in-house effort, the culmination of nine years of CYCLE WORLD experience with computerized motorcycle instrumentation. We were the world’s first motorcycle magazine to use third-wheel-based measuring equipment, starting in 1978 with a Lamar Instruments automotive system modified for motorcycle use. This is the same basic equipment that ROAD -AMP;AMP; TRACK and CAR -AMP;AMP; DRIVER still use to obtain car performance numbers.
But while the Lamar system works adequately for cars, it was never happy in a high-vibration motorcycle environment, nor were we ever pleased with its size and bulk. Later, we replaced it with a considerably lighter and more compact package, designed by racecar-instrumentation ace Paul Van Valkenburg. Its size was an improvement, but it still left us with some concerns about reliability and accuracy. That led to the building of our own special data-buffer black box, and special dataanalysis programs written by MIT engineering-graduate Anderson to crunch the raw data it would store. The result is a system that requires only a third wheel, and a black box about the size of a fat paperback novel, to be mounted to a test bike; that’s sufficient hardware to measure any aspect of motorcycle acceleration and braking. And we believe that our system provides more accurate acceleration measurement than any other onvehicle system; extensive testing has shown it to consistently measure quarter-mile elapsed times to within 0.05 seconds of standard Chrondex timing equipment at
dragstrips.
This CYCLE WORLD test gear, fully capable of capturing the performance of hot-rodded 1 lOOcc motorcycles, had no problem recording the capabilities of a fuel-economyspecial aircraft: The Voyager traversed a standing-start quarter-mile in 27.3 seconds, traveling 61 mph after that distance. It took 26.7 seconds to reach 60 mph (any superbike would beat it to 60 by more than 23 seconds), and 38 seconds to reach 75 mph. While these figures confirmed that the Voyager was no speed demon (even the Trac DH 100 tested in this issue would humiliate it in a drag race), they also demonstrated that, even loaded with more than 1200 gallons of gasoline, the Voyager would fly.
And it did.
Ducati eight-valvers on sale?
11 looks as if French GP star Raymond Roche will debut a 902cc version of the liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, eightvalve Ducati V-Twin factory prototype in Daytona's Battle of the Twins. The engine has appeared once before, but in a smaller, 750cc form at last September’s Bol d’Or 24-hour endurance race. To homolgate the bike for the new Superbike World Championship scheduled for 1988, the Ducati factory plans to build 25 street versions later this year. Ducati will make those bikes available for sale to selected purchasers, with preference given to those who plan to compete in Superbike events with them. No price has yet been fixed for what is bound to be a very expensive motorcycle, albeit one that is certain to have Ducati aficionados around the world fighting just to stand in line for one.
Harley stays involved
W hen you buy a Harley-Davidson, you don't get just a motorcycle; you become a part of a company that does more than merely sell bikes. One of the latest proofs of this is a campaign headed by Harley to select America’s 10 best motorcycle touring roads. People vote on their favorite road, from a 50-best list located at Harley dealers around the country. Everyone who votes gets a free directory of the 50 best roads, and will qualify to win Harley-Davidson touring gear and accessories.
And to make sure that people ride those roads on a
Harley, the company has also instituted the Ride Free program, which amounts to a guaranteed resale price on 883 Sportsters. Harley is guaranteeing, in writing, that anyone who currently owns an 883 Sportster will be given $3995 worth of trade-in value if the bike is traded for a new FX or FL Big Twin before April 30. 1 987 (given, of course, that the 883 is in good condition). If someone buys an 883 Sportster between now and July 31,1987, the $3995 trade-in price will be guaranteed for two years.
That’s an offer that is hard to refuse.
Our man in England
Wc ’ve always felt that Alan Cathcart, our correspondent in England, has been a cut above most motojournalists in Europe. Now we have verifiable proof. Cathcart has just been presented w ith the prestigious Rootes Gold Trophy, presented each year by the Guild of Motoring Writers for outstanding achievement. Cathcart was cited for his involvement in historic motorcycle racing around the world in 1986; he even won several of the races. He is also the first motorcycle journalist to win the award since its inception in 1960. Unfortunately, Cathcart doesn't get to take the solid-gold trophy home. Because it’s valued at roughly $20.000, it remains locked up in the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, England.
