Report From Japan
REPORT FROM JAPAN
W. B. SWIM
JAPAN'S MOTORCYCLE manufacturers have decided that the 175 to 200cc class is going to he the next one to catch on and become a best seller, and all of the big five makers have announced entries in this size. Biggest selling point is that these bikes are large enough and have sufficient power and speed to give a "big bike feel." yet are light enough for easy riding, as well as being more economical than a full 250cc. Bridgestone started this particular ball rolling some time ago with its 177cc dual rotary valve twin, to be followed after a few months by Kawasaki's 169cc single. The big three soon followed suit, first Yamaha with its 180cc twin, then Honda, scrapping its 154cc and 161 cc models to make way for three 174cc twins. Suzuki took a different tack, turning out another version of its X-6 250cc scaled down to 196cc.
Honda has added two 175cc models since the last report, which included the CD-175 street version. Newest are the super sports (CB-175) and scrambler (CL175). Both claim 20 horsepower at 10,000 rpm from the twin-cylinder ohc fourstroke engine with compression ratio at 9:1. Speed of the CB-175 is listed at 87 mph. with the CL-175 six mph slower. Both have five-speed gearboxes, dual carburetors, pipe frames and electric starters.
Honda also unveiled two 125cc models, again a super sports and a scrambler. These two. plus the two 175cc bikes mentioned earlier, plus the 175cc and 125cc street machines reported last month, all have the same basic engine. Many of the chassis parts are interchangeable. All six bikes have a stroke of 1.61 inches with the 1.73-inch bore of the 124cc models increased to 2.08 inches in the I74cc power plants. Both street versions have pressed frames and single carburetors, where the four sports models have pipe frames and dual carburetors. The CB-125 super sports claims 15 hp @ 11.000 rpm while power of the CL-125 scrambler is listed at 14 hp @ 10,000 rpm. The CB speed of 81 mph is six mph more than the CL machine. Both have four-speed transmissions and are kick-started.
Yamaha has just announced its 180cc
YCS-1F. in Japan, several months after it was first advertised in the U. S. Speeds of "85 to 90" mph and 21 horsepower at 8,000 rpm are claimed for this electricstart twin. It is also tube-framed, has dual carburetors and a five-speed box.
Revealed locally at the same time were the 350cc YR-I, new 305cc YM-2 and electric-start 250cc YDS-5E, all "old hat" to American riders.
Next new machine to look for is a street scrambler version of the Suzuki 200cc, to be dubbed the TC-200, probably, although this five-gear model may end up sharing the X-5 designation along with the sports machine from which it is derived. It should be ready for the American market before long.
Kawasaki has come up with a very neat 1 15cc street scrambler designed primarily for the U. S. rider. The C2SS is a pipeframed, two-stroke, rotary valve single. The four-speed bike claims 11.5 hp @ 7,000 rpm and a top speed of 68 mph.
Honda has added a 50cc street scrambler to its line. The CL-50 has the S-50 four-speed engine in the SS-50 "T-bone' frame, plus all the goodies to put it in the Honda scrambler image. This gives Honda a scrambler version of every engine size in the line with the exception of the 65cc and 450cc, and you can expect the latter at any time, providing the 450cc is kept in production.
Kawasaki claims the world's first twostroke with crossover exhaust pipes in its street scrambler version of the 250cc dual rotary valve Samurai. The model A1SS top speed is listed at 100 to 105 mph with power of 31 horsepower at 8.000 rpm claimed. It shares the five-speed gearbox and pipe frame with the Samurai.
Kawasaki's 350cc version of this hot machine is also completed. It looks very like the 250cc, but horsepower is upped to
40.5 at 7,500 rpm and top speed through the five-gear box is claimed to be in the 105 to 115 mph range. This two-stroke dual rotary valve twin has a bore and stroke of 2.44 and 2.21 inches, giving a displacement of 338cc. Expect a production road racer version soon.
Suzuki will shortly have yet another production road racer on sale, this time a I25cc to round out their line to three sizes for the hard stuff men, 50cc, 125cc and 250cc. Like the other two, no performance data on the new road racer is available at this time.
Latest hot rumor around Japan is that Honda will soon be going into the 350cc class. Production of the 305cc series is supposed to have been stopped to allow a switchover to an overbored version, with some sources indicating it will be closer to 325cc than 350cc. Still no word yet on the new 250cc, although production of the old 72 model has been stopped for some time.
Over to the competition side, Suzuki is thought to be intending to enter international 250cc motocross racing in Europe again this season. Tries in a couple of races each year with Japan's best scrambles riders proved pretty dismal failures the past two years, and this year the word is that the firm wants to employ European riders. When ex-world champion road racer Hugh Anderson was in Japan recently (he has retired from GP racing) Suzuki was intending to give him a ride on their two-stroke 250cc single scrambler with hopes of persuading him to head their motocross team.
The FIM-affiliated MFJ sent two winning riders from its latest national road race on a sight-seeing tour of Europe. Bridgestone's Yasuho Shigeno and Yamaha's Shigeyoshi Mimuro saw the Isle of Man TT course and spectated at a couple of smaller races during their tour.
The MCFAJ announced a new list of scrambles riders just promoted to the junior class, including three more American servicemen stationed in Japan. Dale Sturdevant, David Styles and Larry Pratte join five other Americans already in the junior ranks. The MCFAJ now lists eight experts, 30 seniors and 152 juniors, plus some 300 active novices.
The MFJ has finally announced its racing calendar for the year, with a total of 77 events. Included are scrambles, motocross, road races, dirt track, rallies and one endurance race. Significantly, the site where the Japan Grand Prix is to be held was left blank in the published race schedule, indicating the federation has not yet ironed out its difficulties here.
Japan's first cash paying scrambles has been held. Bridgestone's Masaru Akamatsu was the lucky man, going home with $28 more in his pocket than he started out with at the 12th Speed Scrambles. Second place man, and $8 richer, was another Bridgestone rider. The event drew 231 entries, practically all in the novice and junior classes, who raced for trophies only, as usual. Only the experts and seniors (who are all factory team men) race for cash. The eight novice and junior races saw a good spread of winners - Yamaha, Bridgestone and Honda riders winning two each and Suzuki and Greeves taking the remainder. The only Greeves in Japan, owned and ridden by Hidenao Ogawa, won the junior 250cc event. Winners of the other junior races were: 125cc, Hiroyuki Harashima (Yamaha), 90cc, Takinori Kaneko (Bridgestone) and 50cc, J. Saito (Suzuki).
Novice races went to riders of Honda 250cc, Yamaha 125cc, Honda 90cc and Bridgestone 50cc. The only Americans winning trophies were George Spellman (4th, novice 250cc) and David Styles'(5th, same race) in his last race as a novice. ■
