Cycle World Roundup
CYCLE WORLD ROUNDUP
No news is bad news
The Daytona 200 is America's premier motorcycle race. It says so right along the bottom of the $12 T-shirts that
were sold during Cycle Week.
There are other reasons the race is important, of course.
Some of the best riders in the world, including both of America’s 500cc road racing world champions, were at Daytona this year. More than $100,000 in prize money was up for grabs, making the 200 the world’s richest motorcycle race. The winner got $15,000.
Fans from all over the world showed up in Florida for Cycle Week. An estimated 65,000 people were in the stands to watch the 200.
Journalists from Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Japan and England filed stories about the race, making the Daytona 200 the most widely reported motorcycle race in the world.
Except the United States.
Sure, all the magazines were there, but thanks to the logistics of the publishing business, it takes two months for the reports to hit the newsstands.
Cycle News readers got the results quicker, from three days to a week, depending on location. But for the anxious fan who scanned the pages of his daily newspaper’s sports section on Monday morning looking for news of Sunday’s
race, the pickings were slim indeed.
In a highly unscientific survey of the newspapers available at the Eos Angeles Public Library, Cycle World found that if the race was covered at all it received about as much play as the local fishing report or high school basketball.
The Washington Post's treatment was typical. An agate-type listing in their “For the Record’’ section that had Kenny Roberts “driving” a Yamaha to victory. The listing, incidently, came after a report of someone named Akeem Abdul Olajuwon scoring 20 points in a college
basketball game.
The story was the same in New York, Detroit, Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Chicago Tribune chose to ignore the race completely, concentrating instead on horseracing, a poorly attended USFL football game and high school sports.
Closer to Robert’s hometown of Modesto, California, the coverage picked up a bit. The Sacramento Bee only published three paragraphs on the race but they also ran a photograph. The San Jose Mercury-News included a three-sentence report on the race; the sports editor there saying that it only received that much coverage because Roberts lived close by. The Modesto Bee pulled out all the stops, however. The lead story of the sports section with a photo of “our Kenny,” as the paper’s librarian put it. From what Cycle World saw, the Modesto paper, along with the two Daytona Beach dailies (which did a good job of reporting all the Cycle Week activities), were the only papers to give the Daytona 200 extensive coverage.
Even USA Today, which bills itself as the nation’s newspaper, didn’t carry a re-
port of the race in its first edition. Later editions did have a photo and brief report.
America’s so-called newspaper of record, The New York Times, couldn’t find space for even an agate listing of the race in their first edition, either, although the later editions and Tuesday’s first edition did carry the listing.
“It’s a matter of space,” said Sandy Padway, deputy sports editor for the Times. “To be frank, motorcycling is not a high-priority sport. I’d love to see more motorsports stuff in the paper, but we can’t get everything in.” The Times did find room for a story about a second-string catcher being cut from the Texas Rangers baseball team in its first edition, however.
That the race didn’t get more complete coverage in the national press didn’t surprise Mike Harris. Harris is the motorsports editor for the Associated Press, one of the two major news-gathering services that newspapers subscribe to. Harris wrote the AP story on the Daytona 200. Not a brief listing or a few sentences, but a complete story. Harris didn’t expect very many papers to run the story. >
“Motorcycle racing is an exciting sport with very interesting people,” Harris said, “but it's not thought of as a major-league American sport. Old-line newpaper editors are still primarily concerned with bat-and-ball sports. I've found that unless a younger guy with an in-
terest in motorcycling is on the paper, the story will usually be ignored.
“We (AP) do a story on almost every professional race in the country. If a race like Daytona doesn't get any coverage, what chance does a regular Camel Pro race have?” Harris asked. Harris added that in his four and a half years as motorsports editor he couldn't remember a single time when a paper called up and requested a motorcycle race report, although the phone rings off the hook if a basketball score is late.
Does Harris see things changing in the future? Not really. “I don't know' what the answer is,” he said. “I don't think it will change unless motorcycling gets some major personality who captures the imagination of the American public, the way Arnold Palmer did for golf in the early '60s.”
Until then, look for next year's Daytona 200 report on the back pages of the sports section, in small type, somewhere below' the girl's volleyball results.
Get 'em while they're cold
Kenny Roberts and Freddie Spencer may have been blitzing around the banked oval at almost 180 mph, but the fastest moving thing off the track at Daytona this year was Harley-Davidson beer.
The beer, brewed by Pabst for Harley-Davidson, was intended to be a limited-edition collectors item to be sold at Cycle Week only. The beer proved so popular, however, that the original shipment of 10,000 cases had to be supplemented by an additional 25,000 cases. Before the additional beer got to town there were instances of price gougers getting as much as $8 for a six-pack, more than double the retail price.
Even after the extra beer arrived, convenience stores were selling six-packs for S6. And by the end of Cycle Week the beer was so scarce that empties were being sold for a dollar a can.
The Harley Beer, which had been in the planning stages for two years, proved so popular that HarleyDavidson and Pabst are thinking about selling the beer at other motorcycle events or perhaps distributing the beer nationwide.
Come on and take a free ride
Beer cans weren't the only things bearing the HarleyDavidson logo that were in demand during Cycle Week. More than 25.000 people lined up to test ride new Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Harley set up a big tent on the speedway grounds and had 38 new bikes available to anyone with a valid motorcycle operator's license. The most popular bikes, Harley says, were the Softail and XR1000. The XR was in such demand that riders had to wait up to 2.5 hours for a ride on the 8.5-mi. test route.
The test rides are part of what Harley-Davidson is calling its SuperRide program. Backed up by radio and newspaper ads plus a very tonguein-cheek TV commençai that pokes fun at Honda’s “Jake” commençai, SuperRide is intended to get riders into their local Harley dealerships and test ride the bikes. Almost 80 percent of the Harley-Davidson dealerships have signed up for the 17-dav program, and Harley oficiáis are hoping that 150-200,000 people will take test rides this spring.
Motorcycling hall of fame
The American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation, sponsored and parially supported by the AMA, wants to preserve America's motorcycling history with a museum, archives. library and hall of fame.
Plans for the facility plus the naming of former AMA executive director Lin Kuchler as director of resources for the foundation were announced in Daytona Beach during Cycle Week.
Kuchler said the foundation needs to raise $1 million by 1987, with ground-breaking ceremonies planned for June of that year. Donations are being solicited from both the public and corporate sectors. Private categories of contribution start at $25, while the corporate level ranges from $500 to $5000. Then there's the sponsorship of 20 “pillars” of the museum, each pillar going for $25,000. The names of all individuals or corporations w ho have donated $1000 by January 1986 w ill be displayed in the Pounders Loyer.
The site for the 50,000-sq.ft. facility hasn't been chosen yet. and Kuchler said that donations of land for the site w ill be considered also. Until building has begun, the foundation won't be accepting donations of vehicles and memorabilia.
Lor more information about the foundation, write AM 111. PO. Box 141, Westerville, Ohio 4308 1. Inquiries about pillar sponsorship and land donations should be sent to Director of Resources, Lin Kuchler. 103 Leeward Point, Hendersonville, Tenn. 37075.
Catalytic converters out for now
Motorcyclists in California can breathe a little easier now that the clean air people in state government have rethought the state emission standards for bikes.
At last the people w ho set the legal requirements for cars and motorcycles have decided that catalytic converters are not necessarily the best piece of equipment to hang on a motorcycle. For several years now', the California Air Resources Board has been granting short delays in emission standards that could only be met with converter-equipped bikes. The board members liked the idea of catalytic converters, while the motorcycle manufacturers have had trouble adapting the devices to bikes.
Before the recent CARB hearings, technical representatives from the manufacturers met with the board staff’to explain what the bike companies could do and would like to do. The staff agreed with the manufacturers’ suggestions and the board members unanimously approved a new timetable for a different standard.
As it now' stands, on Marei 1, 1985 a 1.4-gram-per-milta> corporate average hydrocarbon standard goes into effect. The original standard was 1 gram per mile. The 1.4-gram limit is very close to current corporate averages and shouldn't require anything more than continuation of existing emission controls. Of course the bike companies know that to meet the 1.4 standard, they w ill be designing their bikes to run cleaner than the rules allow, so the amount of hydrocarbon emitted w ill be very close to what w ould be produced if every bike were right on the 1-gr m limit.
The air resources board w ill set a standard for 1988 and subsequent years at the next board meeting. Until then, the 1.4-gram standar w ill be in effect.
Small manufacturers, which includes Harley-Davu son, BMW and the Italian companies, have been grantea higher 2.5-gram-per-mile limit through 1987.
One production motorcycl currently is equipped with catalytic converters, and that’s the Yamaha RZ350, not available in California. Little was said about it during the board hearing, thougl how it survives in daily use may become important evidence in setting future standards.
Blazing throttles
In case you haven’t noticed it, there’s a numbers war going on among the Big Four.
The numbers are quartermile times.
The war is being fought on the advertising pages of motorcycle magazines.
A month ago, Kawasaki hawked their new 900ec
Ninja as “the fastest production motorcycle in the world. . .clocking 10.55 sec. in the quarter mile.” But in the same month a Suzuki magazine ad made the same claim for the GSI 150ES, beaming a 10.47-sec. figure at readers.
Elsewhere, a four-page spread advertised Honda’s V65 Sabre as capable of doing the quarter mile in the mid-10s. (Honda didn’t give the exact figure, a company spokesman says, because,
“We decided to get out of the quarter-mile war.”)
Now comes the news that Yamaha has recorded a time of 10.43 sec. with an FJ1 100. Watch for advertisements proclaiming the FJ the new king of superbikes, the news release says.
All this peddling of quarter-mile figures is not new, of course. Back in 1965 Suzuki claimed that their rider had notched a 14.82-sec. run on a 250 Hustler. “Proof positive!” the ad exulted, “Suzuki a’ go g°”
And in 1976 Kawasaki introduced its 650 Four, with proclamations about how it was faster than any 750. Those ads hit the newsstand a few days before Suzuki unveiled its new 750 Four, which of course was faster than both the other 750s and the new Kawasaki.
Now, as in 1965 and 1976, the times being bandied about for superbikes need to be taken with a grain of salt and perhaps a wink of the eye.
Some background information. The advertiser’s tests were not conducted in the same way magazines do their quarter-mile runs. Most of the manufacturers had more than one example of their bike on hand to get the best of production line variations. The best time of day in regards to humidity, temperature, etc. was chosen for optimal times. At some of the strips a traction compound was laid down so the tires w'ould stick better. If necessary, the bikes could be run down the track all day, trying to knock olT that last hundredth of a second.
Finally, each of the bike makers employed Pee Wee Gleason, probably the world’s most experienced street bike dragstrip artist, to man the controls for their quarter-mile testing. The presence of Gleason is about the only constant in all of this, as the advertisers' tests were made at three different tracks on different days, making comparisons difficult.
(We recently ran the Ninja, 1000 Interceptor,
FJ 1 100 and GS 1 1 50 on the same dragstrip and day. The times: Suzuki 10.84 sec., Yamaha 10.87, Honda 10.90, and an ill Ninja did 1 1.07.)
Then there’s the matter of the times themselves. We are not talking about a lot of difference here, we're talking hundredths of a second. If you stood at the side of the drag strip as each of the bikes were run by in succession, you wouldn't be able to say, “Ahaa! That’s the one, it’s the quickest.” For the average rider, discerning the difference from behind the handlebars would be equally difficult.
Does any of this negate times? No. In the capable and well-practiced hands of Mr. Gleason, there isn't any doubt that the bikes will perform as advertised. Just don't expect to walk into your local dealership, plunk down your money for their version of the “world’s quickest” and knock off 10-sec. quarter miles.
To paraphrase car makers’ mileage claims, use these figures for comparison, your times may vary.
Buy a bike, get a check
Because of the continuing strength shown by the American dollar vs. the Italian lire, Faverda is offering a $300
rebate on all its U.S. models except the high-performance Corsa model, which is still priced at $6300.
After the rebate, the largefairinged, travel-caseequipped Executive goes for $5950, the more sporting RGS retails for $5550 and the RGA and Jota versions of the long-running Italian Triple can be had for $5200.
More details about the rebate at your Faverda dealer.
More bikes shipped in '83
The Motorcycle Industry Council has compiled a 372page report stating that the number of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles shipped from the five leading manufacturers (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Harley-Davidson) to their U.S. dealers increased by an average of 22 percent in 1 983 compared with 1982.
Almost 1,1 75,000 units were shipped in 1983, the highest total since the neverto-arrive oil-crisis boom of 1973.
The market segment showing the most dramatic jump in shipments was the off-road segment, which increased by 34 percent. That increase is largely attributed to a 50 percent increase in the 1 25 to 349cc category, which is the largest off-road category and includes a majority of the increasingly popular ATVs. Overall, off-road motorcycles and three-wheelers accounted for half of all shipments, making 1983 the first year that off-road vehicles have made up the majority of shipments.
Street bikes, including scooters and 50cc nopeds,
constituted 45 percent of the total shipments, a three percent drop from 1982. Still, total street bike shipments increased in number by nine percent, with the middisplacement 450-to-749cc segment rocketing up 95 percent and accounting for more than one-third of all street bike shipments.
Thirty-two percent more dual-purpose bikes were shipped to dealers in 1 983 than in 1982, perhaps indicating a growing popularity for on/otf-road machines after a long decline. Dual-purpose bikes made up five percent of all 1983 shipments, a far cry from the type's 1972 heyday, when 41 percent of all motorcycle shipped were dual-purpose bikes.
What these statistics don’t tell, of course, is how many of the bikes shipped to dealers actually made it off the showroom floor and into the hands of consumers. The MIC is compiling those figures, but a spokesperson for the council said that preliminary figures indicate that U.S. retail sales were up about 10 percent in 1983. How much of that increase came from bikes already in stock and from the sales strength of the ATV market remains to be seen. More when the report comes out. E3
