Report From Japan
REPORT FROM JAPAN
W. B. SWIM
MORE JAPANESE motorcycles were exported to war-torn Viet Nam in August than to the United States, Japan’s best customer. The cause was a big sale of 22,000 Honda 50cc machines to the Viet Nam government. They were handed over to Premier Nguyen Cao Ky at a ceremony only one month after the order was given. He, in turn, distributed the machines to the armed forces for use as personal transportation for non-military trips.
Suzuki has taken their hot six-speed 250cc X-6, made a scrambler version, and dubbed the model TC-250. It is designed primarily as an off-the-road machine for the American rider, and has all the goodies you expect such as upswept mufflers, engine skid pan, universal tires, etc. Exports are slated to begin shortly.
Honda research and development men have had the four-cylinder, four-carb dohc 600cc out for long and strenuous daily testing in recent weeks. This could be a tip-off that the company is getting it ready for production for the 1967 season. If it is put on sale, it will be an indication that Honda is not satisfied that the CB-450 is capturing the share of the big bike market the firm wants. The engine is based on the Honda S-600 sports car engine. No specifications or performance figures are forthcoming, but it ought to make the big boys sit up and stare.
Next to look for from Suzuki is a lOOcc two-stroke single. The company figures it’s enough larger than their 80cc models not to cut into sales there. Suzuki doesn’t put out a 90cc, and the next thing bigger is 118cc. Development work is about complete, and all that remains is the decision to put it into production.
Following right on the heels of a Honda announcement in a cut-back in exports to the U.S. because the Viet Nam war is hurting sales, comes the word that American Honda sold $106,029,000 worth of motorcycles during the 12 months ending June 30, up 37 per cent over the $77,270,000 marketed the year before. Sales for the first six months of this year were reported nearly 170,000 of the one year total of 267,640. The maker claims 70 per cent of the American market, and estimates there are now 720,000 Hondas
running on U.S. streets and highways.
Suzuki has announced the model T-21 version of its six-speed 250cc in Japan, but a close look shows it’s just about identical with the T-20 (X-6 Hustler) sold in the U.S. The T-21 claims 30.5 hp @ 8,000 rpm, where the Japan version of the T-20 had only 26 horses. Other changes include chromed, uncovered springs front and rear and a ratio change for second gear from 1.68 to 1.74. Also newly included is a wide mouth gasoline tank cap and a plastic tube at the front of the tank so you can eyeball the fuel level. It’s being called the Suzuki Super 250 in Japan.
Honda has put the new “nifty fifty” frame with its huge lights out with a 90cc OHC engine in it, at the same time dropping the old CM-90 step-through model. The new family style machine is known as model C-90.
Kawasaki has bored out its 85cc model J-l to bring it up to 90cc and is placing it on sale in Japan. Export plans have not been announced yet, however, and it is quite possible that the firm will stay with the 85cc version in the U.S. to keep away from spare parts stockpiling problems.
Suzuki has decided to export its rotary disc valve 70cc single, reported on in detail in the August issue. Model designation will be changed, probably to some letter with a “70” behind it.
Honda has made it official that they will not participate in the Japan Grand Prix road races this year. The company informed the sponsoring Motorcycling Federation of Japan (MFJ) they were declining because “the circuit is dangerous.” They could hardly have picked a more stupid reason to use in their official notice, as the Fuji Speedway is time and time again safer than the majority of the circuits used for the FIM world championship races. A quick check with Japanese and American riders who have raced at both Fuji Speedway and Suzuka Circuit, found the riders unanimous in the opinion that Fuji is much safer than Suzuka. Just about everyone agrees that Fuji has two dangerous spots, but opinion is divided on Suzuka. It has from 10 to 13 dangerous places, depending on which rider is being interviewed. The real reason Honda doesn’t want to play at Fuji, of course, is that they control Suzuka Circuit. The reason the other makers insisted this year’s GP be held at Fuji is that their practice times were leaked to Honda at Suzuka, plus the high rental charges for private practice.
Japan’s makers are already looking toward next year’s GP series, with all sorts of rumors flying about concerning who will be riding what for who. Yamaha has reportedly offered a ride to top-ranking Tarquinio Provini, but no contract has been signed yet. Kawasaki is supposed to have approached several Continental riders. including England’s Dave Simmonds.
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After the MFJ managed to quash the plans of the sportsmen's group, the Motorcycle Club Federation of All Japan (MCFAJ), to send four top Japanese scramblers to participate in AMA events this fall, the New England group who had planned to send a scrambles team to Japan in October decided it would be better if they, too, postponed the trip until next year.
The “test-of-strength day” in the scrambles fight between the MCFAJ and the MFJ ended with the MCFAJ the clear victor. Score: 170 to 30. That was the number of entries each drew to its motocross races that day. The fight was kicked off when the MFJ scheduled a motocross on the Fuji Speedway scrambles course built by the MCFAJ on the same day the MCFAJ had a sanctioned race only 50 miles away. As more riders like the volcanic ash Fuji course than the rocky riverbed course used by the MCFAJ that day, this organization feared its rival would draw the bulk of the riders. Plenty of pressure on both sides built up before the fateful Sunday, but a check by your CYCLE WORLD correspondent, who counted heads at both places, showed the MCFAJ drew 170 riders to the MFJ's 30.
To take the larger race first, the winners at the MCFAJ’s 8th Abekawa Motocross were split between Honda, Bridgestone and Yamaha. The lijima brothers had a good day, with the younger, Tatekuni, winning both the Open and the novice 250cc on his Honda. Elder brother Masao took the novice 125cc on a Yamaha. Other novice winners were both Bridgestone-mounted, Mikio Mamiya in the 90cc and Hiroshi Omura in the 50cc.
At the MFJ’s 1st East Japan Motocross on the same day, Yamaha won three, Suzuki, two and Honda and Kawasaki, one each. The double winner here was Tadao Suzuki, who pushed his factory Yamaha to victories in the junior 250cc and junior 125cc. The Open event (with eight entries) went to Yamaha’s Kiyomaro Kato, after Suzuki retired with a broken frame. Haruo Tsuchiya won the junior 90cc with a Suzuki. Amateur winners were Tadahiro Tsuchiya (Honda) in the 250cc, Masukazu Tojo (Kawasaki) in the 125cc and Minoru Suzuki (Suzuki) in the 90cc. Neither of the two entries in the amateur 50cc made it to the checkered flag.
The big race this month was the MCFAJ’s 8th All-Japan Clubman road race national, which drew 142 entries to the Fuji Speedway. James Christopherson of the Kanagawa Motorcycle Club, rode your correspondent's Honda CB-450 (after it had been fitted for road racing by Johnny Honda's Japan Racing Motors) to win the novice 500cc race. It was his first try at road racing, and also the first time
a Honda 450 had been raced in Japan. Second in the 500cc was Wendell Hans of the same club, riding a Matchless G80S.
It was a good day for Hondas, winning 7 out of 1 1 races, with two going to Yamaha and one each to Suzuki and Bridgestone. Winners and their fastest lap averages were: senior 350cc, Akira Muromachi (Honda), 91.28 mph; senior 250cc, Akira Kobayashi (Honda), 87.61; senior 125cc, Toshiaki Ishikawa (Honda), 78.48; senior 90cc, Masao Watanabe (Yamaha), 83.64; senior 50cc, Otokichi Hori (Honda), 71.21; novice 500cc, James Christopherson ( JRM Honda), 79.41; novice 350cc, Yuichi Yoshino (Honda), 88.30; novice 250cc, Kazuhisa Ezaki (Honda), time unknown; novice 125cc, Hitoshi Suwa (Yamaha), 79.91; novice 90cc, Akira Tani (Bridgestone), 78.92; novice 50cc, Jun Sugaya (Suzuki), 70.27. The sidecar race was won by BMW 600cc rider Mamoru Kobayashi with bucketman Mitsue Ishiguro at 72.58 mph. Unique feature of the Clubman road races, the Japanese equivalent of the AMA Daytona, is an antique race in which all machines must be at least 15 years old. Points are given for age and nearness to original condition, and then for places in the race and the winner is determined by his combination of points. Winner, riding a 1934 HarleyDavidson 74, was Takeshi Hayata, who averaged 54.56 mph for two laps. Second was the oldest machine, and the most beautifully preserved one, in the race, a 1914 Triumph 500cc single, which averaged 23.92 mph for the single lap it made.
The TMA district of U.S. servicemen’s clubs of the MCFAJ drew 159 entries to the 18th Atsugi Scrambles. Yamaha won three; Honda and Bridgestone, two each; Suzuki, one, and the only Greeves in Japan took the Open event. Hidenao Ogawa is the Greeves 250 Challenger rider. Senior race winners were: 250cc, Kiyomaro Kato (Yamaha); 125cc, Hideji Miyoshi (Yamaha); 90cc, Kinshiro Sato (Bridgestone); and 50cc, Toshihiko Saito (Honda). Novice races went to: 250cc, Ryusuke Nakahira (Honda); 125cc Tsuneo Miyashiro (Yamaha); 90cc, Toyoaki Hiruta (Bridgestone); and 50cc, Jotaro Saito (Suzuki).
Americans, with 47 entries, took home 13 trophies from this U.S. Naval air station race. Top American riders were Thomas Palko (Honda, AJMC) with a good second in the novice 250cc race, Cecil Robison (Honda, TAS) with a fifth in the senior 250cc and tenth in the Open, and Dale Sturdevant (Yamaha, AJMC) with a sixth in the senior 250cc and an eighth in the Open. This race was the first scrambles for a wife of an American sailor. Mrs. Ester Parmer, the mother of two tots, rode a 50cc Tohatsu but didn’t finish in the money. This is the second American wife to try a TMA scramble recently, and if just one more sends in an entry, the TMA district has promised to run the three females together in a “ladies only” race.
