Roundup
ROUNDUP
A GOOD INTENTION GONE WRONG
Recalls sound like a good idea. If a manufacturer discovers an unsafe feature on a motorcycle, the recall procedure enables the manufacturer to contact the owner and have the bike returned for repairs. Unfortunately, recalls got mixed up with the Department of Transportation and the whole Pandora’s Box has run into something called Product Liability (which the attorneys call an “emerging area of law” meaning they don’t understand it either).
To illustrate how things don’t work, look at disc brakes. In designing disc brakes, the engineers made many trade-offs and came up with brakes that were superior to the brakes that preceded them, but weren’t perfect. For one thing, most of the early motorcycle disc brakes didn’t work very well when they were wet. Honda, being the biggest motorcycle manufacturer, is the biggest target. So Honda was forced by the Department of Transportation to recall all its Gold Wings and change rear brake pads to a type that worked better in the wet. Recalls aren’t cheap. Honda had to buy registration lists of Gold Wing owners so it could notify them about the recall. Then there’s the cost of the parts and the labor to install them.
Because of the recall, all the big motorcycle manufacturers are now selling bikes with disc brakes that work better in the wet. Different brake pads are the solution and because brake pads come from outside suppliers like spark plugs do, all the brake pads being sold in Japan are vastly improved.
What would seem like a very good thing has gone astray. Because no company wants to pay for a DOT-type recall, no company dares tell its customers that the new model has been improved. Saying the product has been improved means, to the DOT, that the earlier product wasn’t safe. And if the DOT thinks pre-improved products may not be safe, the lawyers on the sidelines of the product liability game will be waiting to jump into the fray.
The real loser is the motorcyclist who can’t find out what’s been fixed or what’s wrong because the people who know don’t dare say for fear of lawsuits or forced recalls.
There's no relief in sight, but if you ride in the rain and ride a pre-1979 Japanese motorcycle, maybe the new brake pads will fit. At least we don’t have recalls. >
LOOKING FOR THE 80s
Street motorcycles have been having a good year. There have been exciting new models and there has been increased demand, which combined to move complete stocks of many models out of the factories’ warehouses. This has meant that several of the big makers will be bringing in 1980 models, mostly revised versions of 1979s, before 1980 models would normally arrive.
That’s fact, and details will arrive next month.
Next, rumors. This is partially guesswork and partially borrowing from other places, in this case the Australian magazine Revs.
In which we read that 1980 will see at least six new models from Yamaha; an 1 lOOcc V-4, a 500cc Triple, a 650 transverse Four and a 1250 version of the XS1100.
Honda is reported to be introducing a CX650, a street-only version of the XL500S. and a V-6 1200, we assume as a replacement for the Gold Wing. The V-6 is rumored to be in the CX configuration, that is, stressed engine, longitudinal crank, water cooling.
The reports say Suzuki’s plans are more modest, to wit, a 500 version on the SP/ DR370, an introbike 250 Twin based on the GS425 and 250 and 125 four-stroke play bike Singles.
No mention of Kawasaki. Odd, because the timing of new bikes calls for them to have new road bikes for 1980. The KZ1300 was the only completely new Streeter for 1979, while there were the KLX the KDX and the new rocket KX motocrossers for the current model year.
We’ll see. Meanwhile, all the above is presented as reports of rumors of speculation; we can’t vouch for any of it, but it sure is fun to guess.
COMING NEXT MONTH CYCLE WORLD'S ANNUAL TO BEST BIKES AWARDS.
SPORTING WOMEN
Only a small percentage of motorcycle enthusiasts are women, which is probably why, when we bike nuts get good publicity, the fair sex does most of the good work.
In recent months there have been two riders on the Johnny Carson show, one of the best watched shows on TV.
First, it was Carter Alsop. the road racer. Then came Hazel Kolb, a touring grandmother who’s currently riding around the perimeter of the U.S.
Okay, the ladies were on the show' because they’re news. They’re different. There are men who go as fast as Carter and as far as Hazel. What matters to us. though, is that both are attractive, intelligent people. They made good appearances and let the non-riding public know that bike nuts are not all crazy, and we thank them for it.
CORRECTION NEW IDEAS In the August New Ideas department, we listed the price of the Gypsy Scout Motorcycle Radar Detector at $109.25. This was a typographical error. The actual price is $169.25.
BLM AND THE DUCK BOTH LOSE
The U.S. District Court hearing involving the Phantom Duck of the Desert and the Bureau of Land Management was halted by Judge Warren J. Ferguson, who ordered both sides to talk the matter out and come to an agreement.
Judge Ferguson said the Duck and friends had good intentions when they began their campaign to revive the Barstow-to-Vegas race, but that “maybe a monster has been created.”
The judge said the BLM had been “absolutely mistaken” in their refusal to listen to the appeals and requests from desert riders. If the riders had been considered, the judge said, the whole confrontation would have been avoided.
As the clincher. Judge Ferguson said he will not allow last year’s B-to-V ride, w ith threats of injunctions, mass meetings and the hint of defiance, to be repeated in 1979.
Both sides were ordered to discuss the matter and report back to him. The judge expects the matter to be settled after that, presumably in ways which will partially satisfy both sides.
KING KENNY MOVIE
Along with the best in racing tires, Goodyear sent a film crew to Europe for Kenny Roberts’ Grand Prix campaign last year.
Roberts, of course, won the 500cc title, and now Goodyear has released the movie. 29 min. of full color, 16mm. If your club would like to see it, write to the Public Relations Film Library. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.. Akron. Ohio 44316.
ECONOMY ADVERTISING
The Michigan Motorcycle Dealers' Association has come up with bumper stickers (for cars, which dampens the effect some) reminding the public that motorcycles are an efficient way to travel, and that bikes are out in public.
The stickers say “Watch For Motorcycles Saving Gas.”
A good campaign idea. Clubs, associations, shops, etc., can buy the stickers. $20 for 100, from the MMDA, 2423 Newport Drive, Lansing. Mich. 48906.
GUESSING GAME ENDS
Honda has finally unveiled its long awaited and much rumored 500cc Grand Prix machine, but the first presentation of the unusual bike has answered only some of the questions about it.
A report on the machine came from Shigeharu Hashimoto, editor of the Japanese “Motorcyclist” magazine. The RC500 turns out to be a V-Four, apparently spaced at 90°. It’s also a four-stroke, but a four-stroke like no other with oval, not round, pistons and a red line of 20.000 rpm marked on its tachometer. To give as much valve port area as possible the RC500 uses six valves per cylinder, as reported in earlier accounts of the machine. But unlike earlier reports, there aren’t three cams, there are four cams, two on each head. Two spark plugs fire each cylinder with what appears to be a battery/coil ignition because of the battery box housed in the tailpiece. Arranged like an automotive V-Eight, the intake system is in the middle of the engine, with the exhaust system at the lower side of the front (horizontal) bank of cylinders and the rear of the upright cylinders. The exhaust for the lower cylinders exits the bike at the lower righthand side, while the top cylinders’ exhaust runs out the upperlefthand side.
The unusual looking fairing isn't just for aerodynamics; the lower part of the fairing is also the frame, making the RC500 a real monocoque. Beginning at the steering head, the body spreads out to become the fairing and to hold the engine and rear suspension components. In the rear is a monoshock suspension different from those seen on Yamaha and Kawasaki racers. The Honda’s shock is pushed by a bell crank that pivots near the swing arm pivot. And the swing arm pivot is outboard of the countershaft sprocket so chain tension never varies. The front suspension is still a telescopic fork, but the springs are mounted in front of the sliders and the axle is mounted behind the sliders and the whole combination is claimed to provide anti-dive properties. There are deflector shields in front of the forks and the disc brake calipers ride in front of the forks as well.
Wheels look like Honda’s patented Corn-Star design with wide, flat spokes riveted to a rim. The rims are 16 in. both front and rear, using Dunlop racing slicks in sizes 3.50-450-16 in front and 3.75-60016 in back.
At the sides of the fairing are twin coolant radiators. No oil radiator was visible during the showing and Honda, R&D or technical people were conspicuously absent at the unveiling.
Initial reports were that the new Honda could be raced at the Dutch TT late in June, but problems encountered in testing delayed the bike’s debut. Apparently the carbon-fiber monocoque-framed machine—which has no front downtubes— wobbles severely. Early tests at Honda’s Suzuka circuit had Englishman Mick Grant and Japanese Takazumi Katayama lapping the course a full 20 seconds off the 500cc record—in other words, the bike was about as fast on the track as the 125cc lap record.
Then, a few days before the Dutch TT, Katayama crashed the bike at Suzuka. At press time, no reports of damage to man or machine were available. 13
