Cycle World Roundup
CYCLE WORLD ROUNDUP
What you'll buy in '85
While it's been said that in the spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love, by late summer a motorcycle enthusiast's thoughts turn to next year’s motorcycles.
By now, all the 1984 models have been introduced, all the tests read, all the comparisons made. But what about the motorcycles of 1985?
Based on rumors, inside information and educated guesses, here’s a look at what our slightly hazy crystal ball says will be on the showroom floors next year.
—Honda: Despite this year’s revamping of the Gold Wing series, look for more changes in that touring model for 1985. Expect to see radial tires on the big ’Wings, a bigger and vastly redesigned flat-four engine, fuel injection, a single-shock rear suspension, and maybe even the oft-rumored automatic transmission as an option.
Honda’s most popular U.S. motorcycle, the 750/700 Shadow cruiser, will get a bigger brother next year, the 1000 Shadow.
You’ll likely see changes in the Interceptor 750, aimed at keeping the two-year-old design in line with new challenges for best 750 sportbike honors. The 500 Interceptor could grow to 600cc, a displacement jump that will be much-needed, because it looks as though all four of the Japanese manufacturers plan to go for the middleweightclass title with a vengeance.
Now that Honda’s warehouses are almost clear of 400cc econobikes, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the company introduce a new beginner-level bike.
We guess that both the XL dual-purpose and XR offroad lineups will shrink by one bike each next year. Likely candidates are the XL250 and the XR200. One tantalizing rumor that keeps popping up concerns an ultraserious XR in motocross trim.
Turning to the CR motocrossers, the only thing that anybody is saying is that the CR500R will definitely be liquid-cooled.
And finally, just to whet your whistle, there’s the offthe-wall rumor about a dirt track-styled Ascot 750, especially if Honda wins the Grand National Championship this year.
—Yamaha: Big news here is the RZ500 V-Four Roberts Replica. Even with its twostroke engine toned down with U.S.-spec catalytic converters, the RZ500 should be a real screamer, the ultimate RD400.
Though the RZ500 won’t make it to the Superbike starting grid because of rules forbidding two-strokes, look for a race version of a new 750cc four-stroke streetbike. There are two schools of thought about the engine configuration: either a new V-Four or a smaller edition of the FJ1100’s inline-Four.
In the middleweight class, the just-introduced FJ600 may get a facelift. Although nobody at Yamaha is saying anything, liquid-cooling is an obvious addition. Yamaha already has a liquid-cooled 400 Four for sale in Japan.
This year’s only two-stroke streetbike, the RZ350, will be back, perhaps with a larger fairing, and emissions-legal in all 50 states.
On the touring front, the 1200 Venture will get more ammunition for the battle against Honda’s Gold Wing in the form of larger-capacity luggage.
—Suzuki: There’s not much news from the Suzuki camp, which means either the people there are very good at keeping secrets, or new models will be at a minimum next year. Here’s what we’ve heard:
Suzuki will enter the big> bore dual-purpose marketplace with the SP600, which lists electric starting as one of its features.
The GS1150, unchanged from 1984, will carry the company’s flag in the Superbike wars, but will have a companion in the E-model 1150, which will be mechanically the same but with a less radical seating position and no fairing.
Although the 1150 won’t get any updates, don’t expect the same treatment for the GS750. Liquid-cooling should head up the changes to Suzuki’s Interceptor-chaser for’85.
The GS550 has survived with no improvements for two years, and while we’ve heard nothing about it, we wouldn't be surprised to see a pumpedup version with liquid-cooling. Like Yamaha, Suzuki already has a liquid-cooled 400 in Japan that could serve as a guideline.
It looks as though Suzuki will finally put its outmoded inline-Four touring bike out to pasture and make room for an updated design, perhaps powered by the same liquidcooled V-Four just introduced in the Madura line of cruisers.
In the dirt, the RM 125 and 250 motocrossers will continue, but depending on who you listen to, the Open-class MXer will either be dropped or brought back new and improved. The same is being said about the PEI75 enduro bike, which hasn't seen a change, save for paint and decals, in three years. Rumors about a four-stroke line of enduro bikes persist.
Kawasaki: The word for Kawasaki in 1985 is liquidcooling. Expect everything the company sells—enduros, motocrossers, street and dualpurpose bikes—to come equipped with radiators.
Don’t expect the 900 Ninja to be the only bike under the Ninja banner. In all likelihood there’ll be 600cc and 750cc versions, and the GPz designation will be dropped. The 750 Ninja could be Kawasaki’s ticket back to Superbike roadracing.
A 250cc version of the KL600 dual-purpose bike, already sold in Japan and Europe, should make its way to the U.S.
Under the we-hope-it-happens heading is the rumor that the sales success of Yamaha’s RZ350 might convince Kawasaki to bring in a lOOcc-larger version of its roadracy KR250 two-stroke streetbike.
—Harley-Davidson: If the word at Kawasaki is liquidcooling, then Harley’s buzzword for ’85 is belt-drive. All the big Twins will have belt final drive instead of chain, except for the hard-corecruiser Softail model.
The Sportster lineup and XR1000 will be as before, though a five-speed Sportster is in the works—and we keep hearing things about a Jay Springsteen Replica XR1000.
BMW: The K100 flat four will be available in the U.S. finally, after setting sales records in Europe. There’s a three-cylinder K75 floating around the factory, but don’t expect to see it in 1985.
The two largest remaining boxer Twins, the R80 G/S dual-purpose bike and the street-only R80 ST, could get an upgrading, both mechanically and cosmetically.
The Others: As noted in previous Roundup articles, Cagiva and Ducati have teamed up for 1985 and will be selling everything from 350cc café racers to 650cc dual-purpose bikes to perhaps a lOOOcc sportbike. Cagiva also has a liquid-cooled Open motocrosser in the works.
Husqvarnas in 1985 will be liquid-cooled and singleshocked. The company is already racing a liquid-cooled Open bike on the GP circuit. The Husky four-stroke, after a lot of teething problems, will be back. We’ve heard that water-cooling is being tried on that bike as well, but probably won’t make the production line this year.
Four-stroke fans will like the news from Can-Am. A Ron Wood-tuned engine, similar to the ones used on the flat track circuit, will power the 560 Sonic next year, making motorcycling’s most competitive four-stroke MXer even better.
KTM will also join the liquid-cooled Open-class motocrosser ranks, with its 495cc two-stroke model.
Look for a 350cc enduro and cross-country bike as well.
That does it for our crystalball gazing. Remember, these are only rumors, although we're pretty sure about most of them. Keep in mind, too, that there’s almost sure to be a model or two that nobody expected. Like everybody else, we’ll be looking forward to those bikes, and the rest of the 1985 models.
The ultimate three-wheeler?
Although it looks like a jet fighter that’s had its wings clipped, the FF3 threewheeler is technically, if not morally, a motorcycle.
Drawn up by 24-year-old Brian Baker as his final industrial design project at California’s reknowned Art Center design school, the FF3 is actually intended as an Indianapolis 500 racer of the future. Fourteen feet long, four feet wide and weighing 500 pounds, the FF3 would be constructed of Kevlar and use a jet turbine as a powerplant.
The driver (rider? pilot?) would lay prone, supported by a harness similar to the ones hang gliders use.
Harley adds a wheel
The FF3 is only in the mockup stage, but there is a similar three-wheeler already on the road, and HarleyDavidson, of all companies, has it.
Harley recently purchased the California-based company that makes the Trihawk, a three-wheeler that uses a 1 300cc flat-Four Citroën engine and has an $1 1,000-plus price tag.
Harley-Davidson Chairman Vaughn Beals explained the purchase by saying, “We see a definite niche for (the Trihawk) between current motorcycle and sports car offerings. We believe it will reach out to the recreational vehicle enthusiast who might not be interested in motorcycles.”
Current production of the Trihawk is four cars a week. Harley hopes to double that figure, a company spokesman said. As of now, there are no plans to sell the Trihawk at Harley dealerships, or to use Harley’s V-Twin engine in the three-wheeler.
Two-strokes beware
There's a gas station out there someplace laying in wait for two-stroke motorcycles. Not all two-strokes, just those that use pre-mix for lubrica tion rather than oil injection. The pumps at this station are labeled “gasoline,” but they don’t dispense simple gas. Instead, they pump a gasoline/ alcohol blend that could cause an engine seizure in a two-stroke running on premix.
Bob Wehman of Spectro Oil has brought this problem to the public’s attention. And it was brought to his attention by a few of his customers whose bikes had experienced engine seizures that looked like they had been caused by complete lubrication failures. Not only was the piston seized in each of these instances, but the crank bearings were damaged as well. This type of failure normally occurs when a two-stroke is run without any oil at all, but in each case, oil had been added to the gasoline at the proper ratio. According to Wehman, the other common factor in these seizures was that the fuel being used was actually a gasoline/alcohol blend.
Wehman says that the alcohol is at the heart of the problem. Alcohol is strongly hydrophilic, that is, it attracts moisture so strongly that it can pull water right out of the air. Alcohol and gasoline mix, but the combination of gasoline, alcohol and water doesn't, and Wehman believes that the motorcycles that seized had enough water in their fuel to keep the gas and alcohol from mixing. Any two-stroke oil added mixes with the gasoline, but that mixture floats above the heavier water/alcohol blend. And so the seized engines were probably running on the alcohol/water mixture without the benefit of any oil whatsoever.
Seizures of this sort may have been occurring with gasohol over the past few years without their cause being recognized. The problem is complicated by the recent sale of unlabeled gasoline/ methanol blends by some oil companies. While not strictly legal in most states, these blends offer oil companies an inexpensive way to boost fuel octane while using less imported oil. The conservation benefit has led the government to look benignly on this practice, at least until recently. The outcry from automobile companies about the possible damage to fuel-system components (because of corrosion or incompatibility with rubber seal compounds) has focused attention on methanol use. But this attention isn’t likely to stop the use of methanol as a fuel additive; rather it could lead to regulations concerning the amount of methanol that can be used in fuels, and to labeling requirements.
The labeling will be useful when and if it occurs, but there are steps that twostroke riders can take in the meanwhile. Most importantly, if you know that a certain fuel has been blended with alcohol don’t use it as a pre-mix ingredient for a twostroke. There might be oils designed to work with alcohol and that will protect the engine adequately, but you’ll be doing your own research with your engine at risk. To establish if there’s any reason at all to worry, talk to mechanics or to the service manager at a dealership involved with dirt bikes. Ask if they have heard of a rash of recent seizures, perhaps seizures that could be associated with a particular brand of gasoline. If they say they have, certainly don’t use that brand of gas.
You may want to go further and actually test the gasoline you run in your motorcycle. Pour a little gas in a test tube or narrow glass bottle, then add a few drops of water. If, after a minute or two, a clear fluid has formed in a distinct layer below, the fluid is likely water/alcohol, and your gasoline is actually a blend. Try again with gasoline from another station until the results are negative.
The idea of checking gasoline for alcohol-content might seem to be ridiculous overkill, and many cases, it might be. It’s not clear how extensively gasoline/methanol blends are being distributed, nor how likely they are to separate in use.
Still, checking gasoline is far easier than rebuilding engines.
One lap, two wheels
Cross-country endurance runs were a popular test of men, bikes and cars when Cannonball Baker rode motorcycles. In the early Twenties, a motorcycle was the fastest way to cross the country because it could maneuver over the roughest roads speedily and with a relatively high degree of reliability.
All that’s changed now. There’s not much challenge anymore to driving from sea to shining sea; virtually anything available at your local car or motorcycle dealership will putt across the country with little more than a check of the engine oil every now and then.
Still, there are some pockets of resistance out there. In years past there was the Cannonball Baker Run, named in honor of the great motorcycle endurance champ. Celebrated in a seemingly endless stream of motion pictures, the Cannonballers started in New York City and drove relentlessly to California, their middle fingers aimed resolutely at the 55mph speed limit.
This year, Brock Yates, the man behind all this craziness, decided to cool things down a bit. The coast-to-coast dash was out and One Lap of America, an 8700-mile circuit around the outskirts of the country, was in. The contestants—there were 74 vehicles entered, including one motorcycle—were supposed to average 52.9 mph during the 168-hour trek, with the team coming closest to the predetermined, and secret, around-the-country mileage total being declared the winner.
The motorcycle, a HarleyDavidson FXRT, was entered by a team of four Harley employees who alternated between riding the bike, resting and driving a chase van. The Harley finished within seconds of the 1 68-hour official time, but lost out in the mileage department. A lowly Chevy station wagon rent-acar was just six-tenths of a mile off the official mileage, giving its team the win.
All was not lost for the Harley team, however. The other One Lap contestants were so impressed with the H-D team’s effort that the motorcyclists were named drivers’ choice as the most popular entrants. E5)
