The Vegas Cr

THE VEGAS CR

PROJECT

Two riders and one bike versus Nevada

THERE ARE TWO GOOD THINGS ABOUT TEAM RACES: One, you’ve got someone else you can blame everything on; and two, you've got someone who will listen to all your lies, someone who has to care about your part of the race. There’s a flip side, too, of course. That same someone is going to blame you if anything goes wrong; and you also have to pretend to be interested when he tells his stories.

Still, overall, team racing is right near Jr^ Ç5 the top of the list of Neat Things To Do. f At least, that’s how I explained it to Greg 1 Blackwell, Cycle World's Western Ad^ vertising Manager, when I talked him into competing with me in the 1988 Vegas 300. a 240-mile desert race ^ %

that winds through some of the JÊÿÆ

rockiest, twistiest terrain in Nevada. It's one of the toughest

races in the West, and finishing it takes two riders and one very-well-prepared bike.

I should know. Last year I rode the 300 with a different partner. Or, I should say, I tried to ride the 300; much to my teammate’s dismay, the bike blew up three miles from the start with me on it. He never even got a chance to ride. Needless to say, I had to find a new partner for this year’s race, and Greg was ripe for the picking.

But my experience with the Vegas 300 last year did serve one good purpose: It reminded me of the

first lesson in the book on How Not To Do Long Races. After that debacle, I remembered that the real contest

starts long before the banner drops, back when you’re setting up the bike for the

event. -

Which is why

Greg and I

RON LAWSON

chose a 1988 Honda CR250R for the race. Honda CRs have a reputation for being among the most reliable dirt bikes on earth, so that seemed like a great place to start. But they don't have a reputation for having the best suspension on earth—at least the ’88 models don’t. For help there, we turned to Scott’s Performance Products in Southern California ([818] 248-2453). Scott’s goes through the fork and shock, making sure everything is right to start with. Then both ends are revalved and filled with fresh oil.

To get the horsepower that would enable our 250 to run against Open bikes, we sent the engine to PSI ([414] 7872430) in Wild Rose, Wisconsin. Through porting, head modification, Boyesen reeds and a new pipe, plus boring the stock Keihin carburetor 1mm oversize, the CR was transformed into one very healthy racebike.

But as most ’88 CR owners already know, these bikes have a tendency to foul plugs; and the PSI modifications worsened that problem and made carburetor jetting extremely critical. Jetting for the Vegas 300 was a tough enough job already, since the course had both very slow and very fast sections. Finally, we settled on a No. 55 pilot jet, a No. 175 main jet and a CEL needle on the center position-all settings that are leaner than stock. By the way, if your Honda dealer just scratches his head when you ask for that needle, it’s because “CEL” is a Keihin part number; the needle is available through Sudco ([213] 7475173). We also used a Champion N7YC extended-electrode sparkplug at the recommendation of Honda’s racing department.

Come raceday, the bike was nearly spot-on. We still fouled a plug during warmup, but the bike ran flawlessly during the race. Greg weighs about 20 pounds more than I do, so the suspension was a compromise: He thought the fork was too soft, I thought it was too stiff. Scott’s sets up the fork and shock with less low-speed compression damping, so that little bumps are easily absorbed, and more high-speed damping for the big stuff. Overall, both ends were excellent.

Greg and I both agreed that our CR was probably the fastest 250 in the race. It didn’t really feel that powerful on first impression, but as Greg pointed out, seat-of-thepants feelings were deceptive; we were able to pull on just about every other bike in the fast stuff. And what’s better, it continued to be about the fastest 250 on the course all the way to the finish, never missing a beat.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we were the fastest riders on the course. We didn’t quite win . . . well, we might have, but that’s a different story. If you’ve got some extra time and maybe a six-pack, drop by sometime and Greg and I will tell you all about it. Our stories probably won’t match, but that’s what team racing is all about. E3